I see your point but I know the Lord told me if I asked for a piece of bread, He would not give me a stone. What is Faith? Just plain ole TRUST. I don't remember dreams unless they are prophetic, so basically in 50 yrs. I have had 4 dreams that I can still give you exact detail about, they are burned into my brain, and I can't find my glasses 1/2 the time, so that says how sharp I can be. I don't believe a single one to be from the enemy. I don't look for signs, I don't care about them. I feel blessed and somewhat afraid when the Lord shares something coming with me. Does He always? NO!!! 4 dreams in 50 yrs. is not a weekly proclamation of "Thus sayeth the Lord." Only one brought complete and total destruction of a church, with the forewarned Pastors wife dieing in a freak..freak accident. He should have listened, but then who am I and dreams are just dreams aren't they? That dream was not only for that time but for what is coming upon the church businesses set up in this country.
Usually...He just tells me. My second open-heart, I needed a valve replacement. A brand new mechanical one was the choice of all the cardiologists and family and friends. Would last me 400 yrs. It was very pretty. I said no...I will take the porcine valve. Everyone was furious, HOW could I be so stupid. Those only last 2-10 yrs. I said...God told me to take the porcine valve and that is the one I want, end of discussion!!! I didn't care what kind of facts they were giving me. Nor did I question God's telling me what I should do. Surgery was done, pig valve put in place and 2 yrs. later there was a recall on the mechanical one, it was popping the center piece and people were dropping over dead. My pig valve went for 15 yrs. and I now have a human valve, which I knew the Lord would give me one day. I was just kind of hopeing for the sky to open and great rays of light to come down on my head and that pig valve to be transformed....rofl. Didn't get it that way. Do I still consider it a miracle? Yes. He has always kept man's knowledge just ahead of me and He has still kept me. God also told me not to abort each one of my 3 children, I was told I would never bear children, the Drs. tried to take each one. I have all 3 and did great, no problems.
Why with my lifes experiences, why would ANYONE.. think I would care two hoots and a hollar about what their opinions are about God. Talk to me after you have beat all the odds given you and laid your life on the line a few times KNOWING and having faith in what He has told you. Otherwise take a hike...you vainly imagine to know of what you know nothing about.
I’ll share with you something I rarely share with anyone. I became a Christian because I had a vision of an angel telling me to visit a Christian elder who asked if I would come back to church one more time. Nothing in the sermon changed my life but since I was like Naaman who was willing to wash in the Jordan, God saved me and gave me a new heart from that point on.
Do I believe this vision was of God? Of course I do since from that moment I became a new creature in the Christ. But my wife thinks I’m crazy and I could just imagine the reaction I would get from my fellow Southern Baptist church members if I were to give my full testimony. And personally I don’t look on it as a sign of honor. On the contrary I look on it like God had to go the “extra” mile with me, far more than with other Christians to redeem me.
There have been other visions and dreams that I have had over the years in which I have seen God’s hand which I will not discuss. They do not help in sharing the gospel with others and distract from God’s glory by creating divisions and strife. I just recently posted something similar to this thread out on the Religion Forum and I’m sorry that I did. Others start wondering why they don’t have similar experiences leading to doubting themselves or animosity towards you. And I’m not sure if this post isn’t a spin off from that post which is creating further dissent. May God be merciful to me if it is.
If you don’t care what others feel, then you need to ask yourself if you’re willing to possibly cause a brother to stumble over a miracle that God overtly performs in your life. God works overtly and covertly in people’s lives and we all need to be thankful and focus on those things we do NOT see God doing in our lives.