In the past 20+ years, I have been part of the charismatic movement and beyond, I have learned a decent bit about dream interpretation, and have practiced it enough on my dreams and those of others that I consider myself to be decent at dream interpretation. I have friends who I definitely would consider experts, but most of the time I think there is value in trying to work out a dream on your own with the Holy Spirit. If nothing else, as we work out and practice interpretation of our own dreams, I believe it can help give us clearer insight into some of the ways that God communicates with us on a day-to-day basis outside of the dream realm. However, I want to take some time explaining how I manage dreams and dream interpretation to look at something a bit more expansive—how we specialize in skills and abilities in the Kingdom of God.
As I said above, I’m decent at dream interpretation. However, when I have a dream that truly stumps me, I will reach out to one of my expert friends. But then, because I’m pretty sure they get inundated with dream requests from other people, I try to not just pick and choose when I ask them, but I also like to vary who I ask so I am not always putting it out to the same person.
Well, I had a confusing dream the other day. The basic concept of the dream wasn’t all that complex, but how the symbology fit with my life, and the significance of a few of the key symbols in the dream were still somewhat confusing to me. So I reached out to a friend. And like I said, I took a minute to decide who to ask first before I just randomly asked someone, and it just felt like this particular friend was the best person to ask. So I did. And she agreed to take a look at it and get back to me.
A day or so later, she wrote me and asked me a question related to my ancestral background and inner healing and deliverance. I was intrigued, because I had no idea how she derived that from the dream. It turns out that in-between the time I sent her the dream and a day or so later when she read it, she and her husband had watched a documentary. In that documentary it included some of the same symbols that were in my dream—except this was a documentary about Irish folklore, not dream interpretation. What it appears happened is that when I was stumped on the dream and was pondering who to consult, the Holy Spirit nudged me toward the one person that He knew he was about to give an interpretation to. Now this is an interesting story, but what does this have anything to do with you, the reader, and what does this have to do with Kingdom specialization?
This makes me think of the book of Daniel, where we see that Daniel was given skill in the interpreting of dreams by the Lord. But he was surrounded by people who also interpreted dreams. Daniel’s skill wasn’t made irrelevant as a result of other people also possessing similar skills, but he definitely had more skill and a level of divine gifting that set him apart. However, Daniel was also not everywhere all at once, so I imagine that the interpretive abilities of everyone else also had their relevance. I think these details are important because there are a few things we can derive from this on a broad level for spiritual life.
The first thing is that being surrounded by others with similar specialization or experience does not make you or your abilities irrelevant, nor does it put you in competition with one another. As a nurse, I literally work with a dozen other nurses on a daily basis. My nursing knowledge and skills are not made invalid as a result of other nurses being present, nor does it mean we are competing to see who can “do it better,” but rather we can pull on each other’s areas of more narrow focus or ability as needs arise. I’m not terrible at placing IVs, but I’m also not the expert on our unit. However, if you need wound care done and aren’t sure what to do, calling me for help might be a good idea. Even with my example of dream interpretation, whether mine or Daniel the prophet, having others in your specialty area isn’t a bad thing, nor does it mean the area is oversaturated. We aren’t in competition with one another in the Kingdom—we lift each other up.
Second, Daniel wasn’t the expert at everything. He still needed other people to do whatever it was they did, and he still needed to primarily hit his areas of expertise. In other words, Daniel’s specializations were just that—areas of focus. It didn’t mean he was never permitted to venture outside of that lane, but Daniel knew where his lane was and for the most part he remained in it. One of the things I think that Kingdom maturity looks like is people staying in their own lane to a certain situational degree.
I have a minister friend who is more than happy to speak to his areas of specialty, but when someone asks him for advice or his opinions on things he is not considered an authority on, he has no qualms about telling them he either doesn’t have an answer or doesn’t consider himself qualified enough to give a good answer to that matter, and moves on. This is actually a very reasonable response, and is a mature approach to something we see with specialization, which is what is known as situational authority. If we are at a Body Shop dealing with car problems, no one cares about my knowledge or input. Why? Because I know little about vehicles and next to nothing about how to fix them. If someone suddenly starts having medical problems in that Body Shop they’ll want my help, but otherwise the best thing I can do is sit silently in a chair and let the experts do their job. Maturity knows when to step in and when to sit down.
Whether talking about Daniel being gifted with dream interpretation who sounds like he became exceedingly good at a rapid pace due to his giftings, or me who may have some measure of gifting but also who learned through experience over time, I think there is additional wisdom we can glean from all of this. In your average dream-interpretation situation neither Daniel or I would need to rely on someone else for the answer. While I don’t consider myself to be on Daniel’s level, when things get high-level though (such as needing to tell someone both the contents of the dream they had and its interpretation), even Daniel needed to take extra time to seek the Lord for help. I think there is an element of this type of maturity that we need to expect ourselves to walk in in the body of Christ—where we know when we can dive in and resolve something as Sons in the Kingdom and when to get outside help.
On a general level, wherever I go there should be a solution because I am present. If someone needs healing, I’m there so you get healed. If somebody needs inner healing and deliverance, I’m there so you get set free. Whether it’s raising the dead, dream interpretation, or anything else, I believe that we as individual believers should be well rounded enough that we are generally able to handle circumstances as they come across our path, whether they are our problem or the problems of those around us. And if for some reason, you are not walking at that level yet, that’s okay. We all have areas in room for growth, this is not condemnation to anyone who doesn’t feel like they have arrived yet. We are all on a journey, technically there is no point of arrival. But there is gradually increasing in maturity, and that needs to be a focus of ours. The term “jack of all trades master of none” is something that should apply to most believers, with the exception that I think it should say “master of few”. There is an element of general ability across the board that I believe each of us should possess, and to the extent that we don’t, we should be intentional about learning and growing in those areas. And yet, there is another side of things—what I mentioned before about staying in one’s lane. We should possess general ability, but also be able to recognize specialization.
Ephesians 4 is clear that Jesus gave SOME to the apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. In Romans 12, we see another list where it lays out workers of miracles. It doesn’t mean that only a special few are permitted to perform miracles, but that there is a specialization where some people are more capable at it than others. This means that not everyone specializes in each of those things—nor should they. If we want to function as a healthy Body of Christ, then we need to understand both generalization and specialization, and operate to a healthy capacity in both. For me, I made a decision many years ago that I need to walk in enough Kingdom power and authority that regardless of the problem and whether anyone else is present who can manifest the Kingdom in an instant, that if I am present that it will be enough. I have by no means fully apprehended that place, but it is something that does drive me to grow in all things Kingdom. This doesn’t negate the need for specialization, as I definitely specialize in areas of healing, whether body or soul, and things prophetic, whether revelatory or interpretive. I still have much room to grow in all of those areas, but it means that I know where I specialize which means I also can be aware of when I need to step up because my skills are best put to use versus when I should step aside and let someone else do their thing.
The good news is that whether in generalization or specialization, Kingdom advancement is Kingdom advancement. My encouragement to anyone who is moving forward is to keep doing so. If someone isn’t sure how to advance, areas of weakness you can shore up, or how to best learn and grow, I encourage you to take some time and ask the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, counsel and guidance, to show you a path forward. If you want to learn and grow in specific areas, then find those who are already blazing a path forward in those areas and read their books, listen to their teachings and podcasts, etc. This site is a great resource for inner healing, deliverance, physical healing, and engaging in the spirit, with hundreds of free articles that also cover things such as faith, miracles, and engaging angels. You can also check out my books on Amazon that cover a range of miracles, raising the dead, theology for life, traveling in the spirit, inner healing, impartation, and more. Be well, be blessed, and advance the Kingdom!
