Review: Dreams and Visions: Understanding and Interpreting God's Messages to You

Dreams and Visions: Understanding and Interpreting God's Messages to You by Jane Hamon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I did find it quite puzzling that the book started out with an invitation to non-Christians to say the sinner's prayer at the end of the introduction. The second thing I found strange was the opening vision in Chapter 1 - which ended with a series of questions of what its purpose could be - but oddly Hamon never went back to discuss the matter further. The first couple of chapters were disappointing, with multiple bible narratives in quick succession being cited to in support of the author's substantives (reminiscent of the typical eisegetical charismatic book that I'd get rid of as quickly as I can).

Thankfully, the book got better! In the subsequent chapters, the bible narratives were retold at greater length (exegeted quite well in fact). I especially appreciate the segments on what were NOT dreams/visions in chapters 4 and 5 (Natural dreams and visions; False dreams and visions). Chapter 6 (Knowing the Source of your dreams) was my favourite chapter, especially the segment of "determining factors of spiritual dreams," (p65-66) which is also repeated in kind at the closing chapter. Basically, the content is about the few steps one can take to determine if a dream/vision is from the Lord or not. It is not that Hamon provided a scheme of things that made dream/vision interpretation super easy, but I appreciated how she approached them with a holy expectation and reverent posture toward understanding them.

The book almost fits into the category of a what a work of art a spirit-led Christian can write, without having to engage into proof-texting or making theologically shaky assertions. I honestly did not expect myself to like this book (because I found the front matter a little strange), but I thoroughly enjoyed the effort to be exegetically responsible and how so very practical the rest of the content was. As an avid reviewer, I can only keep books that I feel are really excellent - 6 stars out of 5 (otherwise I'd run out of space on my bookshelf); and this title is one of those I'd want to keep for the ages.

I received this book from the Baker Publishing Group's Chosen Blogger Review Program for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

View all my reviews