I think there is a wealth of as yet undiscovered understanding and maturity to be gained from within the realm of dreams from God. To my mind each and every person can have a slightly different, or hugely different, private vocabulary with God. This means that while there are some basics and fundamentals to understanding dreams that carry across all languages, cultures and dare I say denominations, once you have moved past the fundamentals into interpreting metaphors, similes and puns within dreams, the finer essence of a dream is often a code between the dreamer and God.

This is why dreams can’t be interpreted as well using a dream dictionary. Each and every symbol can have dozens of meanings, based on a person’s individual relationship with the environment around them and with God.

So what are we to do as people who aspire to help find answers through looking at the dreams God gives us? First I think we can only give the answers that we have. The worst thing an interpreter can do is try to build an interpretation on the basic understanding they have without revelation from God. The second thing, and equally important, is not to assume. So often we see a parent, car, or some other common element show up in a dream and assume that we have an understanding of what that element means based on past or present experience. While we do become more experienced, each dream we face is a blank slate, a fresh start, a chance to learn something new rather than churn out what we already know.

Dream interpretation is not a science. The danger is when we try to see the gift turned into something that we simply ‘get’. We may have interpreted thousands of dreams and so we feel we have it figured out. The truth is, in my experience, that the number of dreams and often increasing complexity of dreams interpreted can be viewed as a milestone not as a result of volume or accuracy in the interpretation. Rather I find I am increasing learning the questions to ask and hold my own ‘wisdom’ more and more loosely. As an interpreter, my role is to act as a conduit for God, not a display model for practice makes perfect.

As we investigate we learn something that every fan of Bones, CSI or Sherlock Holmes already knows. Let the evidence speak for itself. Don’t assume, and the more experience you have the more you know things can, and will surprise you. When we maintain humility God uses us powerfully. If we stay humble he doesn’t have to remind us who is really doing the heavy lifting.