Have you ever wanted a sneak peek into the members-only forum of our Hearing God Through Your Dreams module? We have lots of amazing dreamers and budding interpreters in our group, and I’ve asked permission from one of them to share her exceptional dream work with you.
Marisol Martinez recently joined our forum, and she needed a lot of help making sense of the first dream she posted. The second dream she shared revealed her partial understanding of the dream message, and fellow students and I contributed ideas and suggestions to help her get the full meaning from heaven. By her third dream, Marisol had it figured out and was off and running!
The dream below is from her second week in the e-course and is her fourth post to the forum. I have a two-fold reason for sharing it. First, it illustrates how to safely navigate a common pitfall of interpretation. One big reason people get stuck in their dream work is because they start with, and focus too much on, the symbols. This mistake happens all too often and leads to unnecessary confusion and misunderstanding.
Marisol used our daisy-chain DAESI Dream Work Method© where we start by focusing on the main emotion and action in the dream. By doing this first, she was able to match up these key aspects from the dream with her waking world and knew specifically which area of her life God was speaking to. Once she had that initial foundational understanding, it was easy for her to decode the symbols, and their meaning fell into place.
The second reason I share this dream is because the message is one for all of us. Driving too fast or out of control is a common theme in many people’s dreams at night, and Marisol’s interpretation sheds light on heaven’s warning and direction through it. David said, “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;even at night my heart instructs me” (Ps. 16:7, NIV). Read on to see how you, too, can easily translate the picture language God is speaking at night and receive His counsel and instruction while you sleep.
Marisol’s Dream
Dream: I’m driving down the street headed to an unknown location. My sister Mona is in the car with me and so is my nephew, Jaylon. It was snowing a little outside. There was snow on the road—not too much, maybe a couple inches. Enough to make the road slick and slippery. It felt like I was driving a little too fast for the road conditions. For whatever reason, I didn’t slow down for the conditions.
As we’re driving, we get to an area that has a little more snow. I’m still going a little too fast for the road conditions. I’m fully aware of this but unsure why I’m not slowing down for the conditions. As I approach this area of the road with more snow, my car spins out. I see all of this snow shoot from under my car and up and over it while we’re spinning out. I manage to gain control of my car and recover.
The thought came to me, “What am I doing? I need to slow down and be more cautious. My sister and nephew are in the car.” I felt a sense of responsibility for those close to me. I continued to drive and get to our destination safely. The rest of our immediate family was at our destination when we arrived there. I was able to share with them what happened.
Action: Driving too fast for road conditions.
Emotion: Careless, sense of responsibility for those close to me.
Setting: In waking life, I had gotten into a bad argument with my teenage son earlier that day. He had been acting very rebellious and did not want to follow my rules. I told him if he wasn’t going to follow my rules, he needed to start looking for his own apartment. I prayed that night for the Lord to show me if this was a sign for me to start going to school full time instead of part time. If I do go to school full time, I would be moving out, but this would affect my youngest and oldest sons’ living situations, as they still live with me. They are both adults, so I was wondering if this was the time to let them live on their own.
Interpretation: I need to slow down and not make hasty decisions when storms/situations (snow) present themselves. If I don’t slow down, I could be making a decision that affects my loved ones (spinning out). I feel that my sons are symbolized by my sister and nephew. Although I may be able to recover from making a hasty decision, it could potentially jeopardize my relationship with my sons. I’m responsible for their safety and well-being regardless of how old they are. I learned not to make hasty decisions when life storms present themselves.
My Feedback
Awesome dream work, Marisol. I love the way you interpreted God’s message to you. Well done!
I was especially impressed that you were able to match up your sister and nephew with your two sons, as I’m confident that is who they represent. Dream symbols are flexible, and this was exactly how I interpreted my own dream in the book about Leo’s weight. In the dream, my dad represented my husband in waking life. I explain that my dad is a guy, whom I love, to whom I’m related. My husband, Leo, is a guy, whom I love, to whom I’m related. For dream work, this is a perfect match. Your sister and nephew are two members of your family whom you care about and are close to you, just like your two sons.
You safely navigated what can be a confusing detour of dream work because you didn’t focus on the symbols first or too much. We always want to start by looking at the emotion and action. Once you identified that, you just ask—where in my waking life do I have a sense of responsibility for those closest to me that I’m, perhaps, being careless about? That immediately pinpoints your sons and the intense discussion you had earlier that same day, so you know the precise area of your life the dream is speaking to.
I do agree that the Lord is cautioning you to not make any hasty or rash decisions out of frustration—that is, go too fast for the conditions. I love that He used snow, as I can relate to you—that is definitely part of our waking world in upstate New York!
Also, the conditions—in addition to being the arguments or frustrating conversations with your family—it could also be speaking even to the whole COVID-19 situation. Like snow, the uncertainty is surrounding us, something in our environment with so many variables and even subtler stress contributing to the atmosphere. And we never want to make big decisions from a place of stress. So again, just the message of slowing down, as you said, and not being hasty or quick about any major changes right away.
This is a perfect example of a gentle warning dream from God letting you know that if you continue down the path you’re on, it won’t end well. So awesome that you’re heeding His counsel and wisdom to you in the night and avoiding all that. You’re allowing the Lord to protect you and your family and not jeopardize anyone or relationship. Congratulations on successfully hearing God through your dreams!
The Takeaway
Again, the takeaway for us is twofold. When someone shows up in our dream, we realize we don’t want to immediately assume the dream is for or even about that person. Instead, we view them symbolically. And we decode those symbols as the last piece in our dream work puzzle.
The encouraging lesson for us all is that the next time we have a similar dream—where we are driving too fast or losing control of our car—we now know what to do. Upon awakening, we simply want to prayerfully consider: In what area of my waking life am I going too fast? In what way am I rushing or feeling out of control? We match up that action and emotion from the dream with the same action and emotion in our waking world. Now we know in what area of our lives God is warning us not to act so hurriedly or hastily, an area in which He may be calling us to slow down.
A dream like this is such a valuable gift! It is an invitation from our loving, heavenly Father to be still. Cease striving. Let go. Relax and know that He is God (Ps. 46:10). {eoa}
Charity Virkler Kayembe has a doctorate in biblical studies, is passionate about the sacred supernatural and writes about the unfolding adventure that is walking by the Spirit on her blog at GloryWaves.org. She has been featured on Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural!, Cornerstone TV, Charisma magazine and The Elijah List. Charity is the co-author of four books, including Hearing God Through Your Dreams, Unleashing Healing Power Through Spirit-Born Emotions and Everyday Angels.
