"As Far as You Can See" | Unlock Vivid Dreams & Visions with 3 Simple Habits

“Look as far as you can see in every direction. I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants.." (Gen 13:14)

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“Do you dream?” I asked my friend. Four months ago, she had come to visit me for a few weeks. At the time, she believed she had never really experienced dreams. In some ways she was right: you don’t have what you don’t know you have, and although the reality of a thing is not altered by ignorance, the implication of it certainly is. I told her definitively that everyone dreams — it’s only a matter of whether they remember them or not. Dreams are one of the ways we can hear from God, and they can bring insight, comfort, clarity and advantage.

Although the reality of a thing is not altered by ignorance, the implication of it certainly is.

“You will have a dream before you leave.” I am still not sure why I told her that, and I didn’t necessarily believe that it would happen. We both laughed. I shared with her how I only remembered two dreams between my childhood and my spiritual awakening in 2020. The dreams weren’t necessarily clear either. In one of them I could never quite figure out if I was awake or asleep, just that the little man frying something on the light fixture in my bedroom probably wasn’t really there. Right?

Behind the Veil

"I don't really remember the details of my dream last night, but I know I felt safe..."

Those words began my first ever entry in my dream journal, in May 2021. I felt led to start writing down my dreams even when their details were not that clear. I don't know how I knew that the way I felt in a dream mattered, but I knew it before I learned it. In living a spiritual life, you tend to know many things before you learn them. My dreams became clearer when I (mostly unknowingly) engaged what I now understand to be principles that unlock and strengthen spiritual sight. I think the best spiritual principles are learned that way — unknowingly. There’s something about stumbling onto something powerful that you weren’t quite searching for but desperately needed, that confirms being led by God.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Rom. 8:14)

I cannot overemphasize the importance of sensitivity in walking with God. The more we respond to leadings and promptings, the more consistent our growth — and the more powerful our outcomes. In a certain season in my life when I noticed my dreams were inconsistent and unclear, I was drawn to reading chapters upon chapters of the Bible daily. That was how I learned that my dreams were intensified by much interaction with the Word of God.

The Bible is no ordinary book, and there is so much power packed within its text. Enough to reengineer the human soul, which is no small feat. Perhaps engaging God's Word sharpens the dream life by shifting our focus from the busyness of earthly existence to the Source and the essence of all things, and somewhere in that realignment is fertile ground for depths of revelation.

Suffice to say, my friend woke up excited one morning towards the end of her trip. “I had a dream!” In fact, she had and remembered two dreams that night. I was shocked not because I didn’t believe it could happen — after all, it had happened to me — but the beauty in the consistency of God’s ways still has that effect on me. We did a happy dance, and stewarded the revelations. In trying to understand what she experienced, my friend said she would often hear me praying at night while she slept and there was something about the atmosphere in my home that brought her clarity even as she went about her day. Perhaps from that reduction in the noise of the soul, her spiritual eyes were opened to rightly see behind the veil of the most important elements in her life.

The Dreams that Built the World

Mankind has always operated at the intersection of the physical and spiritual. I do not envy the ignorance of those who insist on the totality of human existence resting in what we can physically see. Dreams and visions are a powerful confirmation of the reality of spiritual things, and how the spiritual gives us advantage in the natural realm.

I especially love the instances of famous scientists, mathematicians and inventors who credit experiences in dreamlike states — visualizations/thought dreams (closely connected to open visions as Christians understand them), trances and dreams — for unlocking the mysteries in their findings and inventions.

Here are some of my favorites:

Albert Einstein – The Theory of Relativity

Einstein frequently spoke of visual dreams or thought experiments that led to deep insights. As a teenager, he imagined riding alongside a beam of light, which planted the seed for special relativity. He described this experience as a “dreamlike” visualization that troubled and inspired him for years.

He also often worked through concepts during periods of daydreaming or deep rest which he considered very valuable.

Dmitri Mendeleev – The Periodic Table

Mendeleev, the father of the periodic table, reportedly saw the full layout in a dream: “I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper.”

His dream helped organize the known elements in a systematic way, predicting missing elements before they were discovered.

Otto Loewi – Neurotransmission

Loewi, a Nobel Prize-winning pharmacologist, had a dream in 1921 that revealed how nerves transmit signals chemically.

He dreamt of an experiment that would prove his hypothesis about chemical transmission in nerves. He woke up, scribbled the idea, but couldn’t read it in the morning. The next night, he had the same dream, ran to the lab, and performed the experiment — confirming the existence of acetylcholine, a key neurotransmitter.

He said: "It was the simplest kind of experiment. I must have known it all the time, only I couldn’t think of it."

Elias Howe – The Sewing Machine Needle

Elias Howe was an inventor whose dream helped him design the modern sewing machine. He was struggling with how to thread the needle when in a dream, he saw warriors chasing him with spears that had holes in their tips.

Upon waking, he realized the eye of the needle should be at the point, not the base — a revolutionary idea in the creation of the sewing machine.

The interesting thing about it is that spirits have been teaching mankind for ages, for better or worse. Non-canonical writings imply that the fallen angels in the time of Noah came with knowledge capable of great violence that had been hidden from mankind. Indeed as advanced as we think ourselves to be as a species, to the spiritual realm we are about as advanced as two rocks and a stick used to make a fire. But I digress.

Reading about these experiences in combination with scriptural narration of the dreams of important figures like Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, King of Persia, raises an important theme in the workings of dreams.

For the most part, these figures — biblical and secular — did not seek out inspired dreams, but were well positioned to receive them with the resources such as will, governing power and curiosity, to act on them. Proper positioning triggers inspiration. Revelation is a powerful resource that is not to be wasted. So dreams and visions are delivered to vessels that are more likely to act on them. Therefore, how we honor and steward divine revelation by what we do with it, affects how much of it we receive.

What we do with divine revelation affects how much of it we receive.

3 Habits that unlock vivid God-inspired dreams and visions:

Create the right atmosphere in your space and your soul

My friend — who now has a consistent dream life — accurately described experiencing a sense of peace and clarity before her sight was unlocked. It was always there, like a locked door behind which lay files and folders of insight and instruction waiting to give her the position of advantage in the course of her life.

The constant tussle between chaos and rest in the earth realm creates a noise that can suffocate the capacity of the soul, and the more sensitive you are to spiritual things, the more vulnerable your soul is to absorbing this noise. The noise is the source of many soul defects like anxiety, depression and fear. It is best countered by intentionally engaging the Divine nature: meditating on the Word of God, time in prayer and intimate fellowship and, by all means, practice stillness.

Actively engage your Thought Life

It is clear that some people have a better understanding of the power of our thoughts than others. The ones who do, wield that power to a greater degree and have a better grasp of the benefits of spiritual realities.

"..And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." (Gen 11:6)

Einstein described these “thought dreams” he would have that sometimes puzzled him, but often held the key to the scientific breakthroughs he sought. Our thoughts are much more than fantasies of things that don’t exist. They make up an important component of the human soul that allows for spiritual partnership.

The practice of intentionally engaging your thought life through visualization will at minimum reveal negative thought patterns and associated tendencies that exist within us. Increased focus and the right influence on our thoughts can strengthen spiritual sight and unlock depths of creativity.

The most powerful engagement of Thought Life happens in prayer and meditation on scripture. It is one thing to read scripture and another to enter into it, and visualization is a powerful tool in superimposing the reality of God’s Word into our lives. It is the effectual, heartfelt type of prayer that makes power available (James 5:16), and whatever will touch the heart must first be on the mind. That connection between thought and words is what makes prayer truly meaningful.

Steward what you receive

Divine revelation is a very powerful resource, not to be cheapened or taken for granted even when we do not yet understand it.

For whoever has, to him more will be given.. but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. (Matt 13:12)

This saying of Jesus appears in Matthew and Luke, and would fly right over my head until quite recently. The context in Matthew is more relevant to our topic today because Jesus explains why his disciples received more insight than the crowds on the topics he taught.

Whereas the disciples engaged Jesus’ teachings behind the scenes with much curiosity to understand, the crowds likely cared less as long as they got what they needed from Him. That desire for more implies that there is already a discernment of the value in whatever teaching or revelation Jesus shared.

To properly steward revelation is to:

• Write it down - the sooner the better, and I especially enjoy writing my dreams under that same sleep state because I often use words or terms that I don’t recognize which help give me more insight into the meaning of the dream.

• Seek God's Wisdom - search the scriptures to become familiar with God's Voice and the language of spiritual things. Seek Godly wisdom and understanding beyond the ordinary, and instruction on what you need to do based on the dream.

• Reflect on it - It is possible for a dream to become relevant long after it was received. Returning to dreams or revelations shows an understanding of the value they are capable of delivering.

Recently, I had a wave of insight that shifted both my perspective and the course of my life. Looking back, I realized I had received related thoughts in prayer and two dreams months earlier — but without understanding, I missed the instructions they carried.

Through the engagement of my thoughts in prayer and dreams, I had already received keys to a major shift — but without understanding, I couldn’t step into what was being revealed. Until I found stillness, I was hearing but not hearing, and seeing but not seeing. All these principles of stillness and meditation on God's Word, intentional thought engagement, and proper stewardship play a role in opening our sight and deepening our understanding.

There is so much more to dreams than I could possibly capture in any one piece, but I hope this perspective triggers a unique experience for you from now on.

“Do you dream?” From today I hope your answer is that you see beyond the physical. And in whatever state, I pray that the eyes of your understanding are always enlightened by Truth.

Happy dreaming!

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xo, Grace-Grace.