Preaching a Dream

It hasn’t happened very often, but it happened again recently.  I don’t always dream, and when I do, I often don’t remember parts of it the next day, but this particularly Saturday night I had a very clear dream.  In my dream, I remembered a few events from my early years. Then the dream shifted to a Bible verse.  In the dream it was like I was preparing a sermon, complete with outline and illustrations.  I woke up, went to my I-Pad, and started typing the sermon, as I remembered it from the dream. After a little additional work on it, I preached the sermon a few weeks later.  You who are non-preacher types, may not understand this, but we who preach, often know whether a sermon is directly from God or from our own sermon preparation study (which may also be from God, but not so direct).  I would love to hear from some of my preaching friends, as to the frequency of this happening to them, or even if it is very rare – I’m referring to the sermon that comes directly from God, like in a dream vs. the sermon that comes from God as a part of ongoing study and preparation. And I would love to hear from my non-preaching friends, especially those who listen to sermons on a regular basis, can you tell the difference in the two types of sermons described above?  Now, before you think I’ve gone wacky, remember the Old Testament says, “old men shall dream dreams” (Joel 2:28).