Many of us have heard testimonies of people who experienced visions of Jesus Christ appearing to them and revealing profound truths to them. Now I have no problem with this. In fact, there are prophecies in the Bible that clearly predicted that when the Holy Spirit falls on all flesh that this will be the case. And this is exactly what we experienced in the church since the day of Pentecost when ordinary people were baptized in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. We can also see in the Bible that the other gifts of the Holy Spirit also began to manifest in these people’s lives after they received this anointing from God. The apostle Peter testified in the book of Acts that what the people saw on the day of Pentecost is exactly what the prophet Joel predicted.
Acts 2:14-18
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy
Even today we are still experiencing the same anointing on ordinary people. People are daily receiving divine messages from God in dreams and in visions. God is alive and He wants to communicate with his children. Among some other methods, He also uses dreams and visions to speak to us.
The problem that I, however, experience with testimonies of people who have had such a divine visitation from God, is the fact that some of these dreams and visions do not conform to the Scriptures. I do believe that, although the devil can appear to people in a vision pretending to be Jesus Christ, that by far most of these visions are in fact authentic.
As children of God, we as Christians always have the responsibility to check if the statements made by such people do conform to Scripture. Too many times I have noticed that people ignorantly believe anything and everything that these people say, just because they testified that Jesus appeared to them in a vision or in a dream. We should always bear it in mind that these people may have erred interpreting what Jesus really said. He may have said one thing but, considering their own doctrinal beliefs, people may have heard another thing. Some people also, digesting what Jesus meant by what He said in the vision, start adding things to what He really said.
People who are involved in law, like investigating officers, public prosecutors, attorneys, magistrates, and advocates exactly know the argument that I am trying to put across here. What a person states to be the words that Jesus Christ communicated to him are often not what He really said. These people do not deliberately present a lie to their fellow Christians. No, these people really do wish to testify exactly what happened to them and they really do want to communicate exactly what Jesus told them in the dream or in the vision. The truth is that people do not stick to the exact words that were said in a dream or a vision. They do add on and they do make their own interpretations. People also do bring their own doctrinal beliefs into the equation.
The reason that God lead me to write this short post is to appeal to the children of God to be careful when they listen to such testimonies. Firstly, make sure that the statements made by such a person are in fact according to the word of God. Secondly, never be caught off-guard by the following words: “Jesus told me in a vision…” Immediately remember that every word that the person says after these introductory words may not be exactly what Jesus told the person.
I do not think that we should be skeptical about testimonies like these. It can be a great blessing and truly be wonderful revelations from God that could change people’s lives. All I ask is for you to be careful not to believe everything these people say unless it does conform to the word of God. Secondly, when you yourself experience such a divine visitation from God, immediately write down the exact words that God said. Exactly word for word, including punctuation as if you are copying a verse from the Bible. Thirdly, only tell people what God said (the words that you recorded) and not what you “think” He said. Always leave the interpretation of the exact words that God said up to each individual to interpret themselves. I am sure that this is what God expects from us if we really want the purpose of these messages from God to be what God intends it to be, a blessing and not false doctrine.
Assessment: Lesson 7
Test yourself on the following:
- Explain what caution should be taken by dreams and visions symbols interpreters when people say that they saw a vision of Christ or an angel and why.