Seeing the Voice of God: What God Is Telling You through Dreams and Visions (11 page)

Hebrew Word #1:

chazown
:
vision, vision in ecstatic state, vision in the night, oracle, prophecy (in divine communication), vision as title of book of prophecy—see from visions list Isaiah 1; Ezekiel 7; Daniel 8; Daniel 9:21; Obadiah 1; Nahum 1.

chizzayown
:
vision, vision in ecstatic state, valley of vision, vision in the night, oracle, prophecy (in divine communication)—see from visions list 2 Samuel 7.

chazuwth
:
vision, conspicuousness, oracle of a prophet, agreement, conspicuousness in appearance—see from visions list Isaiah 21:2; Isaiah 29:11.

machazeh
:
vision in ecstatic state—see from visions list Genesis 15:1; Numbers 24:1–25; Ezekiel 13:7.

Root—
Chazah
:
to see, perceive, look, behold, prophesy, provide, to see as a seer in the ecstatic state, perceive with the intelligence, to see (by experience).

Hebrew Word #2:

ro’
eh
:
seer, prophet, prophetic vision—see 1 Chronicles 26:28; 2 Chronicles 16:7; Isaiah 28:7 (not on visions list).

mar’eh
:
sight, appearance, vision, phenomenon, spectacle, appearance, what is seen, a vision that is supernatural, sight, vision as in the power of seeing—see from visions list Ezekiel 8; Daniel 10.

mar’ah
:
vision, mode of revelation, mirror—see from visions list Genesis 46:2; 1 Samuel 3; Ezekiel 1; Ezekiel 8; Ezekiel 40; Ezekiel 43; Daniel 8; Daniel 10.

Root—
Ra’
ah
:
to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider, have vision, regard, look after, see after, learn about, observe, watch, look upon, look out, find out, give attention to, discern, distinguish, gaze at, to appear, present oneself, to be seen, to be visible, to cause to see, show, to cause to look intently at, behold, cause to gaze at, to be caused to see, be shown, to be exhibited to, to look at each other, face—see from visions list Zechariah 1:8.

Greek Word #1:

horama
:
that which is seen, spectacle, a sight divinely granted in an ecstasy or in a sleep, a vision—see from visions list Matthew 17; Acts 9:12; Acts 10; Acts 16:9–10; Acts 18:9.

horasis
:
the act of seeing, the sense of sight, the eyes, appearance, visible form, a vision, an appearance divinely granted in an ecstasy or dream—see from visions list Revelation 9.

Root—
Horao
:
to see with the eyes, to see with the mind, to perceive, know, to see as in become acquainted with by experience, to experience, to see, to look to, to take heed, beware, to care for, pay heed to, or as in “I was seen,” “showed myself,” “appeared.”

Greek Word #2:

optasia
:
the act of exhibiting oneself to view, a sight, a vision, an appearance presented to one whether asleep or awake—see from visions list Luke 1:22.

Root—
Optanomai
:
to look at, behold, to allow oneself to be seen, to appear.

Aramaic Word:

chezev
:
vision, appearance—see from visions list Daniel 2:19–45.

As you read the aforementioned visions in Scripture, note each seer’s description of which type of visionary experience it was—vision of the night, open vision and the like. Of course, it is the message itself that the seer would want us to focus on, but I do want us to explore their modes of revelation so that we can know what to expect for ourselves today.

Waking Visions

Like waking dreams, waking visions are hard to shake. Knowing what we now know about sleep stages, I would say that these visions happen just as you have left stage 1 (N1) sleep, in the seconds just before waking up. You most likely have not yet opened your eyes for the morning or have not even had a cognizant thought about where you are or what the day holds, yet you are not asleep, either. I used to describe this fleeting stage with the word
twilighting
until the vampires got hold
of it (in the popular
Twilight
Saga
movies), but now I just say waking visions.

But here is the thing—because it is your first real thought for the day, you may have a hard time distinguishing between the two realms, asleep and awake. The two waking visions I am about to describe fall into that category. One involves seeing writing on the bedroom wall in front of me. Because the wall I saw with my spiritual eyes was the actual wall in my line of vision as I opened my human eyes, it
felt
as though I had seen this literally, as if my eyes had already been opened for the morning. The veil is so thin during these seconds of the morning that to this day, I do not quite know how to tell the story. So for this type of vision, I say, “One morning, I awoke and saw . . .” because whether your human eyes are open or closed, you are awake regardless, so it is a waking vision.

“Hebrews 12:10”
said the writing on my wall. I had never seen such a thing, and I excitedly jumped out of bed and grabbed a Bible to see what encouraging message God had for me. But my excitement was short-lived. It was a word about discipline:

For they [our earthly fathers] indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:10–11

It was 1994, and I had dived headlong into the world of a Spirit-filled walk with God. Although I had been sealed with the Holy Spirit on the day of my salvation almost twenty years earlier and had become a Bible teacher, church leader and even a Christian author, I awoke one morning to the realization that the Holy Spirit had been the most neglected member of the Trinity in my life. So I immersed myself in studying His spiritual gifts to me and all the trimmings. I said yes to all of them: prophecy,
faith, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, praying for healings and miracles. . . . But on this morning, the Lord was reminding me that the Holy Spirit’s main job was to make me holy. More like God. Less like the world. He was saying I was about to enter a season of discipline so that I might partake in His holiness. Sounds all fluffy, but boy was it rough.

Disciples have to be disciplined, though, so I tried hard to obey every little prompting after seeing this on my wall. Pray. Read. Forgive. Apologize. Speak out. Shut up. Be grateful sooner. Surrender a desire. I felt as if God had me on a very short leash. He had given me fair and very visible warning, so I had no wiggle room. Sometimes I still look up at that wall and envision the words there as a reminder that my holiness is a big deal to the Holy Spirit. He cannot dwell with sin or compromise. I must decrease so He can increase. (See John 3:30.)

Another waking vision took place in 1993, on a day when I was very discouraged. I do not “do discouraged” anymore because it is a ginormous waste of time, but even that was part of disciplining my flesh during this season. As Chris was leaving for work that morning (with me still in bed), he heard the Lord say in the driveway, “A spirit of discouragement is coming after Laura. Pray for her.” To this day I find it puzzling why God would not just fight off that spirit for me, but it makes sense that He would want to include my husband in the process. Besides, what happened next changed my life forever, so I would not have had it any other way (and I am crying now even retelling the story).

I awoke and saw a cloud beside my bed, out of which extended a hand reaching out to me. The arm and hand (palm up) were actual size, and the cloud was swirling actively. And then it was gone. No message.

First of all, it got my mind off myself, and then, after lying there and coming up with no interpretation on my own, I jumped up to grab a Bible, which turned my discouraged mind toward God. The teacher in me turned to every verse on “hands” I could think of: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6) and many others. But nothing clicked. It is important to weigh every vision with Scripture, and of course, no Scripture is ever ill-timed when you read it. But at that moment, none seemed to fit the vision. So I left it to simmer and got up to dress, passing by a daily perpetual prayer calendar I kept by my bed. I flipped over the day’s page, and there it was: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands” (Isaiah 49:15–16).

If you had told me that morning that exactly twenty years later, I would be sitting in that same spot on the bed, writing a book on my laptop about the experience (and that the unanswered prayer I was discouraged about at the time would still have a bit to go in being fully answered), I might have crawled back under the covers. But Laura Harris Smith became Laura Harris Smith during these last twenty years. And God has not forgotten me! Plus, He has made sure a lot of other people have not, either. There has been steady headway as proof, and I know the best is yet to come.

You do not forget being awakened with the hand of God in your face. This vision has twenty years of mileage under its belt, yet still summons the same tears, emotions, weight and courage as it did the day it came.
That
is the power and importance of visions. Tell the Holy Spirit you welcome them into your life.

Next, I am going to explain what seem to be the more abstract visionary events. But whatever you do, do not label them as the Ph.D. of all optic experiences, or you will think they will never happen to you. God does not play favorites. You can have just as much of Him as the next guy, even if the guy is a prophet.

Open Visions

I described in my previous video editing analogy how a vision feels for me. But even though I said my eyes were open during these types of visions, I do not consider them open visions. If I saw visions of actual people coming into the exact room that my human eyes were already viewing, I would consider that an open vision, where the two worlds interact. But in my typical short snapshot, moving visions, I am totally unaware of the real images that my human eyes are supposed to be seeing at that moment. I am “gone” for a second. So with that definition in mind, I will now describe some open visions I
have
experienced.

When I was quite young in things of this nature, in an instance where Chris and I were in prayer with a couple, I saw a scarlet letter “A” hovering over the husband’s head. It was a private prayer time, so I blurted out what I saw. The man looked mortified. I had totally forgotten about reading
The Scarlet
Letter
in high school, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book about a Puritan woman found guilty of adultery who suffered the shame of the conviction by wearing a scarlet-colored “A” on her dress. The man broke and admitted his affair to his wife, and she forgave him. To this day they are still together, but it was important that it come out that night and God made sure it did (using me, His clueless vessel).

Also, I often have open visions of angels standing next to people. Or I will see them over people’s heads, hovering. In those instances, the two realms are definitely overlapping, and I am totally aware of the room I am in as the angel is added to it. Each seer sees them differently depending on how God chooses to have them manifest.

Night Visions

What is the difference between a night vision and a dream? It depends on whom you ask. Some would say that a night vision
is merely a regular vision that happens after the sun goes down. I have had plenty of night visions, and I know that they are different for me than dreams. I have had night visions while in bed, while praying in my closet or while at an event or a friend’s house for supper, times when I was not expecting a vision at all. If you are trying to turn to Scripture to secure a solid definition for a night vision, you might need night vision goggles to do it. In fact, you could even ask two different Old Testament prophets and get two different answers. Let’s try it.

In 2 Samuel 7, the prophet Nathan recounts this extremely long word God gave him for King David. At the end he tacks on the phrase, “In accordance with all these words and all this
vision
, so Nathan spoke to David” (verse 17
NASB
, emphasis added). But it begins with “In the same night the
word
of the L
ORD
came to Nathan” (verse 4
NASB
, emphasis added). This leads you to couple those together and classify it as a night vision since the Hebrew word used is
chizzayown
, which can mean “vision in the night.” It was not a dream because nowhere does it mention anything about him being asleep. But only the King James Version, New American Standard Version and New Living Translation of the Bible use the word
vision
, whereas the others chose an alternate English definition such as “oracle, prophecy (in divine communication).” Nathan’s choice of words is fuzzy. It is doubtful that Samuel actually wrote 2 Samuel because he dies in 1 Samuel 25, so many think either Nathan wrote it or a scribe with access to his notes did. But the bottom line is, the prophecy still proves true ’til this day.

We see the phrase “night vision” used again in Daniel 2:19–45 (depending on your translation; some say “vision of the night”),
and yet the word used is an Aramaic one that has no connection whatsoever with night visions. It is
chezev
, which means “vision, appearance.” So we may never know concretely what a night vision is or is not, or if it is merely a dream.

Let’s not forget our Job passage from chapter 1:

“For God may speak in one way, or in another,

Yet man does not perceive it.