The Ancient Order of the Spirit: Prophecy, Visions and Dreams
And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.
Joel 2:28 (NKJV)
Prophecy, visions and dreams are platforms for encountering the Divine. God has always employed the supernatural manifestations of His Spirit to carry out His divine purposes. Everything God does is supernatural, because He is a supernatural Being, and it is important to understand that our relationship with God rests on spiritual, supernatural principles. We do not deal with Him from a carnal vantage point. He is a Spirit, and we must rise to that platform to have any meaningful relationship with Him. This is the primary reason God gave us His Spirit: so that we may commune with Him along acceptable lines. The Spirit of God is the medium through which man communes and transacts with God, and without His ministry we could never understand God.
The prophetic promise was that God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, and that the consequence would be the supernatural activation of the prophetic, visionary and dreaming dimensions of man. This means that these three dimensions would be the Spirit's primary means of transmitting anything and everything from the divine realm into the world of men. Prophecy, visions and dreams are the Spirit's way of working with mankind; all the plans, purposes and objectives of God are revealed to us through them. All nine gifts listed in 1 Corinthians operate through these spiritual media, and all the anointings and graces of the fivefold ministry are birthed in this way. It is the order of the Spirit.
The encounters of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Moses with God all took place on the platform of prophecy, visions and dreams. God changed the destinies of nations, and made men great, through this platform. Jesus Christ was born along the same lines: His birth was prophesied generations before, and confirmed through a dream, and the angel helped Joseph by giving warnings and directions in dreams. A vision changed the life of Saul, who became God's great instrument for New Testament revelation. Solomon became wise and wealthy through a dream. A vision enlarged the ministry of Peter. A vision through a donkey saved the life of a prophet. John's visions and prophecies on Patmos revealed the conditions and events of the end times. There is much that could be said of these operations of the Spirit; the whole Bible is filled with them.
If you desire change in your life, if there are things you want improved, or if you want to strengthen your relationship with the Lord, the answer is with the Spirit of God. Prophecy, visions and dreams are the language of His operation, and anything is possible in these dimensions. Your whole world can literally be transformed. All you need is to believe, and to learn to understand how to cooperate with God in this realm. This is the school that matters for life and living. Nothing could be more important than being in step with the Spirit of Almighty God.