From: dht@cs.mu.oz.au (Joyous Dave baby)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Visions and Dreams and Gifts
Date: 8 Oct 92 04:56:05 GMT
Organization: University Of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Hi,

We have a mailing list organized, called "Visions and Spiritual Gifts".

We talk about God communicating to His people through Visions and
Dreams, and we also talk about Spiritual Gifts, as they are described
in the Bible, like Tongues, Prophesies, Healings, etc.  Or anything
that's related to the above issues.

If you are those people who God communicates to through Dreams and
Visions, would you care to join us, and share your experiences with
us?  We need some more inputs.

Or if you are not, would you like to join us and just listen to other
people sharing their experiences, and comment when you feel appropriate?

I'm going to append an article taken out of a book called "Dreams and
Spiritual Growth" as an introduction.  Thanks to my friend Paul who gave
it to me as my birthday present.  :)

Mail me if you are interested in the group.

Sometimes our discussions are dominated by a particular issues, and
sometimes, people might not like the issues that's dominating; but
the list is supposed to be free, and you can start any relevant
discussion if you want.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please e-mail
me also.

In Christ,
dave

=== from Dreams and Spiritual Growth by Savary, Berne, and Williams ===

God Makes Contact Through Dreams and Visions
--------------------------------------------

A number of Old Testament attitudes toward dreams and relating to God
are evident from Jacob's dream.  First, through his dream Jacob was
convinced that God had made direct contact with him.  We have here,
then, the belief that God speaks through dreams and, as seen elsewhere
in the Old Testament, through visions also.

In the Old Testament, both dreams and visions seem to posses equal
spiritual authority.  In fact, in Hebrew and Greek, the words for
dream and vision are related to the same prophetic root experience.
Further, dreams and visions were often spoken of in the same breath,
for example, "If anyone among you is a prophet, I will make myself known
to him in a vision, I will speak to him in a dream" (Num 12:6).  Or,
speaking through Joel, one of hte later prophets, God says,

"I will pour out my spirit on all mankind.  Your sons and daughters
shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men
shall see visions.  Even on the slaves, men and women, will I pour
out my spirit in those days."  (Jl 2:28-29).

On the day of Pentecost, the first words of Peter's speech to the
assembled crowds were those very words from Joel (Acts 2:17-18).

Thus, a basic principle of biblical dream theory is that God makes
direct contact with people through dreams and visions.  God is
interested in establishing relationsihp, and does it through such
inner experiences.  This basic principle is taken up by Christians
in the first centuries, and remains the foundation stone of the
contemporary theory of dreams and dreamwork presented in this book.

Both dreams and visions seem to come from the same source in the
inner world.  The difference is that dreams appear to us during
sleep, while visions are experiences of intense imagery, sound
and feeling occurring during the waking state.

-- 
1)-----------------------Rev 6:8 "... They were given authority over a quarter
of the Earth, to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague, and wild beasts."