DREAMS AND VISIONS, WHAT THEY MEAN?

A dream is a series of thoughts, images or emotions occurring during sleep, and a method employed by humans to keep the mind from going insane. Dreams allow us to see things as they really are, not as they appear to be.
Visions are basically the same as dreams, except that dreams happen while a person is in a state of sleep and visions will happen while the person is fully awake.
God had a dream of what He wanted the heavens and the earth to look like. He then proceeded to create them according to that dream. They are over 125 references to dreams and dreamers in the Bible.
Dream in Hebrew means "to bind strongly or firmly." Dreams bound up in the heart and mind.
As we read the Scriptures we find that God was communicating something to the People in the environment of where the dreams were taking place.
In Genesis 20:3, the dreamer Abimelech received this message from God: "Indeed you are a dead man, the woman you have taken is another man's wife." God was letting Abimelech know that Sara was not available when Abraham lied to him about her being his sister. God sought  to protect Abimelech. In Genesis 28:10-13, the dreamer Jacob received this message from God: "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac." God was seeking to encourage Jacob about the future. In Genesis 31:24, the dreamer Laban received this message from God:"Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad."God was warning Laban that he was to treat Jacob with respect. In Genesis 37:5, Scripture does not specify that Joseph's dream were from God, but the evidence of what happened clearly vindicates God as the source of the dreams. In Genesis 41:1-13, God spoke to Pharaoh in dreams to tell of the 7 years of plenty and the 7 years of famine that were to come. In 1Kings 3:5, God was asking Solomon what it was that he wanted. God was testing Solomon's heart. In Matthew1:20, the dreamer Joseph received this message from God:"Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel."God was protecting Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Dreams will bypass our experiences. The Book of Job 33:14-18 tells us:"For God may speak in one way or in another. Yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. In order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He keeps back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword."God speaks to keep a man from being destroyed by his own pride and sin.
The Greek philosopher Plato was the first person outside the Bible to indicate that valid ways of obtaining knowledge was through the 5 senses, through reasoning of the mind and from the spirit realm. However some 50 years later Aristotle came along correcting this notion, stating that the only way to acquire knowledge was through the 5 senses. He ruled out that we might obtain knowledge through spiritual or supernatural means. This teaching has been carried down through the centuries, especially into the Western Cultures.
Our destinies are tied up in our dreams. As we look at the Biblical figures who Dreamed, they were all destined for something. Their Dreams revealed their destinies and, as they kept true to God and their Dreams, their Dreams and destinies were fulfilled in their own symbolic lives.