The spiritual or religious interpretation of dreams has been a staple of New Age spirituality, but now “dream readings” are being used by charismatics as a way to bring Christianity to the alternative spirituality community.
Charisma magazine (April) reports that the phenomenon was seen during the recent Winter Olympics, where teams of dream interpreters held “readings” around Salt Lake City, including at two secular bookstores.
Although receiving spiritual messages in dreams is as accepted as other forms of direct revelation and spiritual gifts in Pentecostalism (such as speaking in tongues), the new approach to reading dreams is more low key and removed from the context of churches and preaching to make them non-directive and suggestive, (although the readings are often still run by churches). “We say, ‘This is what we believe the dream means,'” explains John Paul Jackson, whose Stream Ministries International has trained around 2,000 people in dream interpretation. The readings tend to stress God’s love and concern for the individual and have been received favorably by inquirers, according to Jackson.
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