People can discern the reality of God at such times; as Daniel and Joseph both illustrate.
Nebuchadnezzar said, “Belteshazzar [Daniel], chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you. Here is my dream; interpret it for me." (1)
Without that ability - which gets him lumped with the psychics of his day -Daniel's radical promotions would not have come; each is linked to a use of an interpretive gift. Its a similar story with Joseph, who also interprets God given dreams for his pagan ruler.
Character matters and is a key factor in those stories. But its not only about that. The gift, the capacity to bring interpretation - which everyone acknowledges is from God - is a key in the change or reversal of fortunes in both cases.
Such gifts or abilities were evidently somewhat known among the pagans, to the point that Daniel's gift is classified along the 'magicians', but in him it is also recognized as being clearer and stronger; indeed of a different source. Nebuchadnezzar recognised it as being of the Holy Spirit who was in Daniel - or as close as the pagan king can come to saying that. 'spirit of the holy gods is in you' is not a bad recognition. (Similarly Pharoah said of Joseph: "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” (2))
Just as the magicians in Pharoah's court could go some distance down the track of trading weird signs with Moses, but ran out of steam (3), the fact that these things can exist in various other counterfeit forms does not invalidate the real version. As as is often said, a counterfeit 10 dollar note does not mean there is no real version; indeed it is only the real currency that can be counterfeited (there are no counterfeit nine dollar notes); the existence of counterfeits should get us looking for the real. (Similarly if i write the word 'prophecy' into gmail, the keyword trips all sorts of sidebar ads about psychics and so on. The counterfeits should alert us to the need for the real. The same applies when a new age festival offers multiple stalls of false gifts.) The fact that this space can be inhabited by occult or new age counterfeits is surely not a reason to vacate it; but to demonstrate the real version.
I don't see myself as Daniel or Joseph - but these gifts are distributed among the body of Christ ("you can all prophesy in turn" (4), was Paul's view of the church) and as a people we - or some from among us - should be better at interpreting the dreams of our non Christian rulers, friends, employers, than the new age prophets who will otherwise fill the gap.
Some from our midst should be better and clearer and cleaner at interpreting dreams etc, than the psychics who are on late night TV - and on sale in every book shop; mainstream as well as 'new age' stores stock all this now of course. As a people we should raise the question in their minds of whether we have the goods; whether we can do so excellently for the employer or friend troubled with a vivid dream that they are also grateful to be brought into touch with someone with the real source.
Chesterton said people will gobble poison if the real food is not on offer - and indeed its surprising who you find dabbling in the false versions. So as well as warning against the counterfeit - 'stay away from' - we should have the real deal, a banquet of such gifts, among us. The response is still good - and the operation of such gifts still leaves people in awe of a God who knows them, as Paul said it would (5) (his context being the use of prophecy in the church, but its not so far from one to the other).
Dreams are both disturbing and commonly dismissed.
I don't imagine most need interpreting - but perhaps we can do more than leave people in ignorance of the disturbing ones that God is behind. Some think this is one of the most common ways that God is speaking -and many will know the sense of a puzzling, vivid dream, feel in receipt of an message but not know how to decipher it - and perhaps not ever understand the meaning.
The Word of course remains the primary mode and rule of revelation. All this is also somehow inside the Christian heritage - certainly in the biblical heritage - so church is possibly a good place to start in cultivating this? I've certainly appreciated some training in all this in the past, known it to be real.
1. Dan 4:9
2. Gen 41:38
3. Ex 7:8-12
4. 1 Cor 14:13
5. 1 Cor 13:25
