Dreams, Visions And Experiencing God

Sometimes God uses visions to instruct us. There are times where we have wrong mindsets and wrong ways of thinking and God wants to break those off of us. Sometimes He uses visions to do that.

In fact, God used a vision to break Peter out of a wrong mindset regarding gentiles, so that God could send Peter to minister to Cornelius. This vision is recorded for us in Acts 10. We will look at the vision in a moment. But first, let's look at Peter's background to understand why he needed this instruction.

Peter had been raised as a "good Jewish boy." He understood what was kosher and what was unclean. He had gone to synagogue school as a boy and was trained in Scripture and in the present-day rabbinical interpretations of Scripture -- all Jewish boys received this training. And they were taught that associating with gentiles could make them unclean. Even entering an unbeliever's home could make them unclean. In fact, when the Jews brought Jesus to the Roman authorities, they refused to go inside so they would not become unclean and unable to partake of the Passover. John 18:28 tells us, "Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover."

In fact, Peter tells Cornelius what he had been taught in Acts 10:28, "It is against our law for a Jew to associate with a gentile or visit him."

Peter considered himself a dedicated servant to God and he desired to serve Him with all of his heart. And in Peter's way of thinking, it would be dishonoring God to associate with gentiles or share the gospel with them. Peter had been trained to think that way as a boy. In addition to his training, he had seen things during his time with Jesus that would tend to reinforce that mindset.

Peter probably remembered Jesus' instructions in Matthew 10 when He sent the disciples out to go before Him to the cities He was about to visit, to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick and to cast out demons. Jesus Himself had said, verses 5 and 6, "Do not go among the gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." And Peter probably remembered the time when the Samaritan woman came to Jesus and asked Him to heal her daughter. Jesus responded, in John 15:24, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

When you look at all of this, it is pretty easy to understand why Peter had a mindset against ministering to the gentiles. And God wanted to break Him out of that way of thinking. God wanted to reach the gentiles, and He even sent an angel to tell a spiritually hungry gentile to send for Peter to share the gospel with Him. (Acts 10:1-6.)

The problem is that Peter would have done what any good Jewish boy would do -- he would have refused the invitation and sent the messengers away. He had been trained for years and years that to associate with Gentiles was to dishonor God. Peter had no idea that, from God's perspective, this was a wrong mindset, an improper way of thinking. So God had to do something to educate Peter on this.

God chose to use a vision to do it. And God played on his circumstances to make the vision more powerful. God waited until lunchtime, when Peter was really hungry -- then He caused lunch to be delayed or served late. Acts 10:9-16 tells us, "About noon the following day as they (Cornelius' messengers) were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four- footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.' 'Surely not, Lord!' Peter replied. 'I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.' The voice spoke to him a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven."

That was a pretty powerful vision. Do you know what Peter's reaction to the vision was? It was basically "huh?" So God used both circumstances and direct communication to further instruct him. Verses 17 to 20 tell us, "While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."

At this point, Peter had a partial understanding of the lesson that God was trying to teach him. We see this in Acts 10:28-30, where Peter goes to Cornelius' home and tells him, "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?" At this point, Peter still has no idea that God wants to save the gentiles. Wrong mindsets are powerful things and it takes a lot to break us free of them. God was still in the process of breaking Peter free of his wrong mindset about the gentiles and that is why it never occurred to him to witness to them.

Now, God's vision to teach Peter was a two part vision. Part one had been given to Peter directly on the rooftop. Part two was given to Peter through Cornelius. Remember that in Acts 10:1-6 Cornelius had been given a vision, which is why he sent for Peter. In order to answer Peter's question, Cornelius shares his vision with Peter -- which is "part two" of Peter's instruction to break him out of that wrong mindset. Cornelius said, in verses 30 to 33, "Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.' So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us."

At this point, Peter finally "got it" and realized that He was supposed to share the gospel with these gentiles. So he began to tell about Jesus. "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God" (Acts 10:44-45).

Peter had been trained in a wrong mindset, and God had to "work hard" to break him out of it. And as much as it pains us to admit it, many of us have some wrong mindsets or improper ways of thinking that God wants to break us out of. And sometimes God uses instructional visions to reeducate us and change the way we think about certain things.

I would like to share an example from my own experience. I have been deeply involved in the prophetic for some years now. When I was first starting out I saw a lot of abuses in the prophetic, particularly in the area of false "judgment" words, of giving prophecies that rebuke and condemn when God is not rebuking or condemning. It was very hurtful to the people who received them and I considered this "abusive." I found that many people were much more willing/eager to speak judgment and condemnation than to speak words of encouragement and words of life. A lot of people had their own issues and woundedness that would make them think God was speaking judgment and condemnation when He was not. As a result of all of the abuses and misuses I saw, I came to the conclusion that judgment words are "bad" and to be avoided at all costs.

Now that is probably not the best mindset for a prophetic person, since that puts a limit on God of the type of message He can speak through me. God wanted to break me out of that wrong mindset. He did it by giving me a series of visions where He sent me back to times when His judgment was being executed by an angel -- such as the Passover where the firstborn sons were killed if the family did not have the Passover blood on their doorposts. In the vision, I actually had to accompany the angel as he went around killing these children. I found it sad and repulsive and asked the angel "Doesn't it bother you to do this?" The angel looked at me in shock and said something along the lines of, "I am obeying God's commandment. How can any of God's commandments be bad or wrong? How can it bother me to obey Him?" That was the first of the three visions that God used to address my wrong thinking. I am not going to share most of the details of those three visions here. (If you want to read about those three visions in detail, you can take my fee-based PS202 class, which shares them in a lot of detail when it teaches on judgment prophecies.)

The net result of that series of three teaching visions was that I came to realize that I had somehow acquired a wrong mindset that God's judgments were bad. And God was able to break me out of that. I still hold strongly that it is wrong to misspeak a "judgment prophecy" that is not really from God, and that God will hold the person accountable for giving a false and hurtful word. But true judgments that come from God are good and right, as His prophets should not hesitate to deliver a judgment word that is really a God-word. And God used a series of visions to teach me that lesson.

Not all "teaching" visions are designed to break wrong mindsets. Sometimes God just wants to teach us something we will need to know as we serve Him. He can and does use visions to teach us.