Have you ever wanted a sneak peek inside the members-only forum of our Hearing God Through Your Dreams module? We have lots of amazing dreamers and budding interpreters in our group and I’ve asked permission from one of them to share her exceptional dream work with you.
Marisol Martinez recently joined our forum and she needed a lot of help making sense of the first dream she posted. The second dream she shared revealed an understanding of most of the dream message herself, and fellow students and I all contributed ideas and suggestions to help her receive the full meaning from Heaven. By her third dream, Marisol had it all figured out and was off and running!
The dream below is from her second week in the e-course and is her fourth post to the forum. The reason I share it is two-fold. First, it illustrates how to safely navigate a common pitfall of interpretation. One big reason people get stuck in their dream work is because they start with, and focus too much on, the symbols. This mistake happens all too often and leads to unnecessary confusion and misunderstanding.
Marisol used our daisy-chain DAESI Dream Work Method© where instead we start by focusing on the main emotion and action in the dream. By doing this first, she was able to match up these key aspects from the dream with her waking world and knew specifically which area of her life God was speaking to. Once she had that initial foundational understanding, then it was easy for her to decode the symbols and their meaning fell into place.
The second reason I share this dream is because the message is one for us all. Driving too fast or out of control is a common theme in many people’s dreams at night, and Marisol’s interpretation sheds light on Heaven’s warning and direction through it. David said "I will bless the Lord who counsels me, even at night my heart instructs me" (Ps. 16:7). Read on to see how you, too, can easily translate the picture language God is speaking at night and receive His counsel and instruction while you sleep.
Marisol’s Dream
DREAM: I'm driving down the street headed to an unknown location. My sister Mona is in the car with me and so is my nephew Jaylon. It was snowing a little outside. There was snow on the road - not too much, maybe a couple inches. Enough to make the road slick and slippery. It felt like I was driving a little fast for the road conditions. For whatever reason, I didn't slow down for the conditions.
As we're driving, we get to an area that has a little more snow. I'm still going a little too fast for the road conditions. I'm fully aware of this but unsure why I'm not slowing down for the conditions. As I approach this area of the road with more snow, my car spins out. I see all of this snow shoot from under my car and up and over my car while it's spinning out. I manage to gain control of my car and recover.
The thought came to me, "What am I doing? I need to slow down and be more cautious. My sister and nephew are in the car." I felt a sense of responsibility for those close to me. I continue to drive and get to our destination safely. Once we arrived at our destination, the rest of our immediate family was there. I was able to share with them what happened.
ACTION: Driving too fast for road conditions
EMOTION: Careless, sense of responsibility for those close to me
SETTING: In waking like I had gotten into a bad argument with my teenage son earlier that day. He has been acting very rebellious and not wanting to follow my rules. I told him if he wasn't going to follow my rules that he needed to start looking for his own apartment. I also prayed that night for the Lord to show me if this was a sign for me to start going to school full time instead of part time. If I do go to school full time I would be moving out but this would affect my 2 sons living situation. I have 2 sons who live with me, my oldest son and youngest son. They are both adults so I was wondering if this was the time to let them live on their own.
INTERPRETATION: I need to slow down and not make hasty decisions when storms/situations (snow) present themselves. If I don't slow down, I could be making a decision that affects my loved ones (spinning out). I feel that my sons are symbolized by my sister and nephew. Although I may be able to recover from making a hasty decision, it could potentially jeopardize my relationship with my sons. I'm responsible for their safety and well-being regardless of how old they are. Don't make hasty decisions when life storms present themselves.
Also, I felt that only a couple inches of snow (storm) was not enough reason to make hasty decisions. I'm from upstate NY and we're used to driving in heavy snow! It was as if the Lord was saying to me, “I know you might think this is a big storm but I don't see it that way. It's not as big as you’re perceiving it to be.”
I’m so interested in getting your input and insights!
My Feedback
Awesome dream work, Marisol! I love the way you interpreted God's message to you. Well done!
I was especially impressed that you were able to match up your sister and nephew with your two sons, as I’m confident that is who they represent. Dream symbols are flexible, and this was exactly how I interpreted my own dream in the book about Leo’s weight. In the dream my dad represented my husband in waking life. I explain that my dad is a guy, who I love, who I’m related to. My husband Leo is a guy, who I love, who I’m related to. For dream work, this is a perfect match. So too, your sister and nephew are two members of your family who you care about and are close to you, just like your two sons.
You safely navigated what can be a confusing detour of dream work because you didn’t focus on the symbols first or too much. That is, we always want to start by looking at the emotion and action. Once you identified that, you just ask – Where in my waking life do I have a sense of responsibility for those closest to me that I’m perhaps being careless about? That immediately pinpoints your sons and the intense discussion you had earlier that same day, so you know precisely the area of your life the dream is speaking to.
I do agree that the Lord is cautioning you to not make any hasty or rash decisions out of frustration – that is, go too fast for the conditions. Love that He used snow, as I can relate with you – that is definitely part of our waking world in upstate NY!
Also, the “conditions” – in addition to being the arguments or frustrating conversations with your family – it could also be speaking even to the whole Covid-19 thing. Like snow, the uncertainty surrounding that is something in our environment with so many variables and even subtler stress just contributing to the atmosphere. And we never want to make big decisions from a place of stress. So again, just the message of slowing down, as you said, and not being hasty or quick about any major changes right away.
This is a perfect example of a gentle warning dream from God letting you know that if you continue down the path you’re on, it won’t end well. So awesome that you’re heeding His counsel and wisdom to you in the night and avoiding all that. You’re allowing the Lord to protect you and your family and not jeopardize anyone or any relationship. Congratulations on successfully hearing God through your dreams!
The Takeaway
Again, the takeaway for us is two-fold. When someone shows up in our dream, we realize we don't want to immediately assume the dream is for or even about that person. Instead, we view them symbolically. And we decode those symbols as the last piece in our dream work puzzle.
The encouraging lesson for us all is that next time we have a similar dream - where we are driving too fast or losing control of our car - we now know what to do. Upon awakening, we simply want to prayerfully consider “In what area of my waking life am I going too fast? In what way am I rushing or feeling out of control?” We match up that action and emotion from the dream with the same action and emotion in our waking world. Now we know what area of our lives God is warning us to not act so hurried or hasty in, an area in which He may be calling us to slow down.
A dream like this is such a valuable gift! It is an invitation from our loving heavenly Father to be still...cease striving...let go...relax...and know that He is God (Ps. 46:10).
Guideposts Interview & Prophetic Coach Podcast
I'm excited to let you know that Guideposts magazine published another interview with me. Previously we have discussed dream work together, and this time it was about angels. There are a lot of questions and confusion about this topic and it's wonderful to have the opportunity to share biblical truth to shed some light on the misunderstandings. If you haven’t seen the article yet, you can check it out on their website here.
My husband Leo and I were also recently interviewed by the Prophetic Coach podcast, and the key question we explored together is how to steward a prophetic word. That is, how do we get from the point of receiving a prophetic word, to actually seeing it realized in our lives.
The night before the interview Leo had a dream that speaks to this important question specifically, as well as revealing vital principles for us all in our faith walks with Jesus. The dream was super fun and featured none other than gospel singer Kirk Franklin and basketball legend LeBron James! Watch our full interview including the dream and interpretation conversation on Facebook or YouTube.
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