Not so seriously that we become pathetic fanatics.

Some of them you must take them serious coz it might be god warning you of soemthing as he sometimes speaks through dreams. in most cases if is a terrible dream he must be telling you to pray in order to prevent such situation to happen to you or your friend.

TRUSERVE:

Some of them you must take them serious because it might be god warning you of soemthing as he sometimes speaks through dreams. in most cases if is a terrible dream he must be telling you to pray in order to prevent such situation to happen to you or your friend.
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I agree with you. It depends on the dreamer and sometimes the dream itself. In my case, I've learn't to be taking my dreams serious after  experienceing some calamities I could have averted if I'd   taken heed of my dreams that forewarned me. Needless to say  I now have a writing pad and pen by my bedside where I daily record my dreams - good or bad, even nightmares. I pray over them, claiming the good ones and canceling the bad ones. And my dreams are usually clear and easy to  interprete.

Most times, dreams    come as warning of events to come. Fortunately or unfortunately some people just sleep and wake, they do not dream, no qualms. For those who do, we don't have to be obsessed/worried  by our dreams but it's always good to commit them to God.

Now let me  mention two of my dreams that (almost)came   to pass:

1) Some years ago, I dreamt that a friend I'd known way back in sec. school ran mad. She was completely insane. I woke up and ignored the dream. To me it couldn't ever come to pass. However, I shared it with another friend, prayer partner kind of. We didn't make it a serious point of prayer but we prayed it off all the same. Approximately 3yrs later this lady started misbehaving and this lasted for 2solid years before she recovered. I bit my fingers in regret and wept. I wished I had gone extra miles in prayer. As a compensation I made sure I was instrumental to her healing process, that was the least I could do.

2) I dreamt my mother died  and was being buried. In the middle of the night I woke up and prayed hard. The week that followed that,  my father died!!! Wished I'd prayed for both of them!

I have a long list to prove that dreams should be taken seriously oh.

my question then becomes: how do you decide which ones to take seriously.

Your inner spirit/soul will tell you. they are dreams that when you dream them thety fells real or sometimes comes repeatedly those you must take serious and immidiately you must work up and pray especially if you are being attacked mostly when you wake up you'll find that it's midnight, so never take it light, remember that the word of god says that we'll dream dreams and see visions. but some of the dreams when you wake up you even forget what you dreamt about or you dreamt due to the activities that you've been doing during the day, those you musn't take serious.

I take no notice of my dreams.

why not ?

I wake suddenly from some dreams and they appear so real to me, I 're-play' them, pray over and record them in my notebook.

I wake up normally from sleep and in the course of my morning duties I remember I dreamt.I might have been done with the morning prayer, yet I go over it, put the pieces together and still pray in my heart. Wherenever I find time during the day I record it.

Some dreams come in mumbo-jumbo, no head no tail. Some of them are quite ridiculous. I give such no thought. Not all dreams are instructive.

Like Truserve wrote, some dream will come repeatedly, the dreamer needs not to be told that that kind needs serious attention.

The type to take serious will leave an impression. You may or may not remember immediately. When you remember you'll begin to wonder whether it was a dream or it happended in real life, it usually impresses on your mind. What can you do? As for me I don't believe in seeking interpretation to my dreams from others. I just pray, using my lilttle faith. I've missed it many times though. By and large, anytime you dream and it follows a sequence, whether it's good or bad, just pray over it and if it's instructive, follow it.

@Poster
Why not? If you dreant one where demons with their horns are pursuing you, or you are being stabbed with hot daggar/knife in your chest, or such that a big python swallows you or when some cruel guys looking like nigerdelta boys (MEND) open fire at you with their sub machine gun. Better take such serious! , and look for the next available deliverance Pastor

Hell Yeah! you should take them seriously.

They arent just dreams,they are your future.

Your dreams may tell you your future and may also change your opinion about something.

The ones you think are serious ,take them seriously

and the ones that just seem screwed up,leave them behind.


By the way,is there anything like a dream dictionary?

I think there's a dream dictionary. But I notice that there is a Nigerian interpretation of dreams and a western interpretation of dreams. Therefore in some way making it useless, at least to me.

I know Dr. Olukoya has a dream book or something of that sort.

I blv dreams shd be taken seriously cos I so much Blv that God do talk to people via their dream.

Some dreams are just unrealistic, such dreams are to be discarded like a piece of trash.

However some appear to have message laced in it, such dreams could easily be deciphered if you ask me. So one would just be advised to pray about such, but for those other meaningless ones, just laugh over 'em and get on with your day!

How do you decide which ones are real and which ones are meaningless ?

The bible says that "dreams come as a result of the multitude of business of the soul"; which means that some dreams come as a result of what you have meditated on for so long which has now gone into your sub-conscious and later appear in your dreams. However, some dreams are direct messages from GOD.
The way to know dreams which are from GOD is simple; immediately you wake out of any GOD given dream, there is always a kind of conviction in your heart that you have just received a revelation from GOD.

@poster
Now to be real!
I wish to say there is no real dream and neither is there any meaningless dream.
For as a man thinks in himself, so is it (Pro. 23;7). If you give a lot of devotion to any dream (either good or bad), it will surely come to pass. Well, that never makes you a super, gifted prophet. You are simply following a spiritual law that will work for anybody. Your mind has the ability to reproduce whatever its believes or think on (Mark 9:23). What you believe now becomes what you imagine and what you imagine will surely become your stronghold/reality. That is why you have the power to reject a bad dream by payers and refusing to think on it.

2 Cor 10:5
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

Most bad dreams are letters of invitation from the devil. It is now left for you either to recieve it or to uproot it. The enemy will always come to sow bad seeds when men slept. (Matt. 13:25). On the other hand, if you have any good dream, then that is the will of God. Why? God's will towards you is always good, hence you can indirectly say it comes from God, even though it comes out of the multitude of thoughts you had for yourself. (Eccl. 5:3)

In this dispensation of new covenant, I believe dreams are for old and sleepy people (Act 2:17, Joel 2:28 "your old men shall dream dreams"). Dreams can be very deceptive if care is not taken. In most cases it comes as abstracts whereby you are allowed to give personal conclusion according to your knowlegde disposition. Even when men gives you the supposed interpretations, it does'nt come to pass because it is God's will for your life, it will simply come to pass when you believe and think on no matter what meaning is given to it.

Personally I believe more in dreaming while awake than dreaming when asleep. The first demostrate spiritual bravery, while the other shows spiritual laziness or tell me any tangible work involved in a man sleeping and dreaming something? Moreover, my God is not an author of confusion. Why will He speak or instruct me concerning matter so important to my life in the method I cannot full understand.
For the lively and those with "youthfully" vibrant spirit, God speak and instructs them from the face of the sciptures (Act 2:17, Joel 2:28). Peace!
(Please note that this opinion is according to my personl understanding of the subject)