The Idol Hiding in My Prayer List — Dreams Are Not a 2nd Class Encounter
The Idol Hiding in My Prayer List — Dreams Are Not a 2nd Class Encounter
A third of your life is spent asleep. If that's true, why would we assume God goes quiet for all that time?
Dreams get treated like a second class encounter with God — something less credible than a prophetic word or a still small voice in prayer. But if He designed you to need rest, it makes sense He'd use that space to speak. The question isn't whether God speaks in dreams. It's whether you've learned to listen.
Build Your Own Dream Language
One of the biggest shifts in how I process dreams was realising I needed my own dream language — my own code book — rather than borrowing someone else's dictionary of symbols. There are excellent resources out there. James Goll has written some great material on the topic, and it's a solid starting point. But it's a starting point, not a substitute for your own walk with God around this.
You see this in Genesis. Jacob's family had a shared dream language. When Joseph tells them about the sun, moon and stars bowing down to him, Jacob doesn't need it explained. He reads it instantly — your mother, your brothers and I are going to bow to you, are we? That's what a developed dream language looks like. It comes from relationship, not a reference book.
A Daily Practice Worth Building
Process your dreams first thing in the morning, before the day takes over. Ask Holy Spirit directly — what does this mean, what does this look like. Bring trusted people into the process too. The more consistently you do this, the clearer and more proficient you'll become.
The Dream About the Diesel Tankers
Last week I was consumed by the Middle East conflict — not just as a bystander, but because of what it was doing to our business. We run construction projects, and diesel cost escalation is a real line item for us. So when fuel prices spike, our bottom line takes the hit.
That's a legitimate concern. But somewhere along the way it became more than that. I was checking the news four or five times a day. I even set up an AI assistant just to keep me updated. At 3am one morning, scrolling again, I caught myself and knew something was off.
I prayed, settled my spirit, and asked God to speak to me about it in a dream. That night, I dreamed of two diesel tankers pulling onto our site, unloading their full load into our storage tanks, and driving away. I woke up knowing it was God — it had that weight and clarity that sits outside your own thinking.
When I processed it with Holy Spirit, the message was simple: that's all you need to cover. Pre-purchase two and a half tankers, lock in the price, done. When I ran the numbers, it wasn't a large amount at all. I'd been losing sleep over something God brought down to a manageable size in one image.
Naming the Idol
What I recognised in that moment was that I'd made an idol out of it. Not dramatically — I wasn't bowing to anything — but my attention and affection had been hijacked. And breaking it didn't take a deliverance session. It took God gently asking, is that really all you're that worked up about? The grip lifted immediately. I still pray for peace over the Middle East, but I'm no longer white-knuckled about it.
Your Move
Whatever you're blinkered on in your business right now — whatever you don't have peace about — take it to God and ask for His perspective. If He shows you it's become an idol, surrender it. Let Him shed light into whatever you haven't yet handed over. His perspective will almost always bring a freedom and a size to the problem your own thinking never could.
