Praying for Your Dreams

by Francis MacNutt
May/Jun 2011

Many years ago I was deeply impressed by something I heard Father Dennis Bennett say. Father Bennett was famous for being the first pastor from a mainline church to be baptized in the Spirit in 1959. What struck me was that before his experience of the Baptism in the Spirit his dreams had a strong sexual content; but afterwards God cleaned up his dreams so that he had no more problems in that area. This change is truly amazing, because normally we do not have much control over the content in our dream life.

Was this change just a special grace given to Father Bennett or can we pray to receive it ourselves? I believe that we can pray for God’s help if dreams cause us difficulty. Not only can sexual dreams cause problems but even more, fear (nightmares) can invade dreams and rob people of much needed rest.

Praying for Protection

A question to ask is, do your dreams give you problems? If so, the old, traditional idea of praying before we sleep, “Now I lay me down to sleep…” is a great idea. We can pray for protection. Judith and I pray every morning and then just before we go to sleep. We ask God to send his angels to guard and protect our family from Satan and any of his spirits.

Praying for Cleansing

We also ask Jesus to cleanse us from anything harmful or evil that we might have picked up in the course of our daily work. For this cleansing purpose pray a prayer of command “If we have picked up anything harmful or evil in today’s work we command that the spirit or its effects depart and go to Jesus Christ for him to dispose of as he wills.”

We are very much like doctors who scrub up before they work with a patient and then, when they are through, they wash up again. Just being in the presence of spiritual sickness we can be affected, especially after praying for a person who has gone through a deliverance. Afterwards, we pray with our team for cleansing. This need not be a fearsome, emotional prayer. Instead, it is very much like taking out the garbage — you have to do it every so often. It is a very ordinary and necessary activity which we pray for daily.

Some people are harassed by evil spirits at night and they can pray for protection. An example prayer can be “If there are any evil spirits trying to disturb my sleep, I command those spirits to depart and go to Jesus Christ for him to dispose of as he wills. Jesus, send your angels, especially our guardian angels, to watch over us as we rest.”

Praying for Wisdom and Guidance

As you may know, some people receive guidance and prophecy in their dreams. If you are one of them, pray with gratitude for receiving that gift and also pray that the Spirit keep the guidance true.

The main point is to ask God to protect our nights. We ask him to protect us from anything that might harm us, whether physically or spiritually. Beyond protecting us from evil, we pray that our nights may be filled with God’s goodness, power and love.

“Lord, give my body rest and restoration, give my mind light and guidance and give my spirit encouragement. I thank you for every blessing I have received today and I forgive anyone who has hurt me. Where there is hatred let me sow your love. Fill our lives with your life, and especially with your love. If we dream, fill our dreams with your love. Give us deep sleep and let us wake up in the morning refreshed.” I do not know if this circumstance is unusual, but I personally do not have any powerful emotional dreams even though these types of dreams can be very helpful.

In short, what we do is turn our nights over to God’s wisdom and direction, and the commonly known prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep…” is a wonderful way to invite God into our nights.

“In peace I lie down and at once fall asleep for it is you and none other, Yahweh, who make me rest secure.” (Psalm 4:8)

Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM.