Does God still speak to people through dreams? Throughout Scripture, God used dreams to communicate with His people. He spoke to Joseph in the Old Testament and Joseph in the New Testament, Daniel, Solomon, Jacob, and more. Hebrews 13:8 says, “God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Yet many people struggle to believe that God could still use dreams to speak today.

That doesn’t mean every dream comes from God. Many dreams are simply the result of our thoughts, emotions, or experiences. But I also believe there are times when God, in His sovereignty, uses dreams to prepare our hearts or reveal His providence.

Years ago, I had no desire to get married or have children. In fact, I worked at the front desk of a hotel and found myself easily irritated whenever families with young children checked in. Looking back, they were simply being kids, but I had convinced myself there were already enough people in the world without me adding to it.

Then one night, I had a dream.

In the dream, I had two children—a seven-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl. I knew they were my children, but I also knew I hadn’t given birth to them. They weren’t adopted either, yet somehow they were unmistakably mine.

When I woke up, I was disappointed it wasn’t real. I really wanted it to be true; after that, I enjoyed when kids would come into the hotel. My entire attitude and perspective changed, just like that. God had already begun changing my heart before I had any idea why.

Fast forward 5 years. I was graduating from college soon and met a guy online that seemed compatible to me. I wasn’t really looking for anything serious, but always kept my options open… And he was checking a lot of boxes. The first thing he emailed me was, “Please don’t stalk me.” This guy was funny! So, we upgraded from emailing to texting, and everything seemed to be great, until…he mentioned he was going through a divorce and had kids. At the time, I wasn’t interested in stepping into a complicated situation, so I casually stopped texting him. It didn’t seem to bother him. He just didn’t text me either. I thought, that was easy!

Two weeks later, he texted me again. This was the MySpace era and meeting multiple people online wasn’t unusual. I thought he sounded familiar, but couldn’t remember why I stopped talking to him .. He seemed so great! Then he mentioned his situation again and then it hit me – this is the guy that has an ex and kids in the mix, but by then it was too late… I liked him.

We started talking on the phone and eventually he drove 3.5 hours to where I lived and met me at a Panera. We continued driving back and forth and as our relationship grew, I finally met his children.

A seven-year-old boy.

A little girl who was almost four.

They were just like my dream!

If God hadn’t given me that dream, I don’t know if I would’ve recognized His Providence in calling me to be a step-mom.

Later I learned something else that amazed me. During the two weeks when I thought he had simply stopped texting me, he was actually in the field as a Marine without access to electronics. He had no idea I had stopped responding. When he returned, he simply picked up where we had left off.

Looking back, I can’t help but see God’s hand in the timing. That unexpected pause gave me just enough time to let go of my initial hesitation. God didn’t ask him to hide the truth. Instead, He gave me time to process it and quietly prepared my heart for the future He already knew was ahead.

Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

I can’t say with certainty why God chooses to speak through dreams in some situations and not others. But I do know this: He knows the beginning from the end. Sometimes He prepares our hearts long before we understand what He’s doing. Years later, when we look back, we begin to see His fingerprints all over our story.

Maybe you’ve had a dream you can’t shake. Maybe it was just a dream—or maybe God was using it to gently prepare your heart for what He had planned. Whatever the case, bring it before Him in prayer, measure it against His Word, and trust that His plans are always better than our own.