Dreams From God Do Not Die

Harvest of Asher

Akko, Israel

Joseph begins his journey as the beloved son, a young man carrying dreams too great for those around him to contain or comprehend. Instead of embracing him, his brothers are threatened and their jealousy drives them to throw him into a pit as described in Genesis 37. 

Yet what seems to human eyes like an ending is, in God’s hands, a beginning. A dream planted by God cannot be extinguished by human action. It sinks deeper into the dreamer’s heart and continues to take shape even through the difficulties that appear to oppose it.

When Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream in Genesis 41, it is evident that the grace working in him has not faded despite all he endured. When Joseph stands before his frightened brothers, he reveals the insight that matured within him along the way: “God sent me before you to preserve life… So now it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:5–8). The pit, betrayal, slavery and exile did not stop the dream but were the very path through which God’s will unfolded.

The prophecy given in Joel 3:1; “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” expands on what began with Joseph. Joel describes a future where dreams and visions from God belong to many. 

In Babylon, Daniel is called upon not only to interpret the king’s dream, but to reveal the dream itself though nothing about the dream has not been described to him. He turns to God in faith, and all is revealed (Daniel 2:18).

When we reach the book of Acts and the festival of Shavuot, everything spoken by Joseph, Moses, Joel, and Daniel takes on new form. The Holy Spirit descends upon the believers and empowers them with prophetic utterance. Peter cites Joel 3:1, affirming that the promised outpouring has come to pass. As Acts 2:17–18 declares that God, “will pour out [His] Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.” The gift of prophecy, as Paul teaches, is given to build, encourage, and comfort. It becomes a gift to the entire community, not just to select individuals.

Yeshua Himself promised this Spirit to His disciples. In John 15:26 Yeshua says, “When the Comforter is come, the Spirit of Truth, He will teach them and show them the way.” The Holy Spirit led Peter and Philip and Paul, and continues to work in every believer today. 

Viewed from this perspective, Joseph’s story becomes part of a larger redemptive pattern. The dream does not die in the pit. The calling does not disappear when a person is rejected. Hardship does not cancel the calling but shapes it. Just as Joseph passed through darkness to arrive at the purpose prepared for him, so Yeshua passed through death and rose again to bring life to many. And just as at the end of Joseph’s journey he sees that God’s hand was at work in every step, so too the believer discovers that the Holy Spirit accompanies him and directs him at every stage.

From this emerges a clear message. When God gives a dream, He also gives the path and the Spirit who will guide us along it. The pit does not cancel the dream, it deepens it. Opposition does not extinguish the calling. Uncertainty is not an end but an invitation to faith. The Holy Spirit given on Shavuot continues to work in believers today, granting each one the knowledge of God’s will and the courage to follow it until the vision planted in their heart comes to fulfillment.