…I ask, then, for what reason have you sent for me?" So Cornelius said, "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.' Acts 10:29-32
God speaks primarily through His Word, rather than through visions and dreams. But while it is not the norm, God can, and sometimes does, give visions and dreams.
We hear of these things even in our day, especially in Muslim cultures. But look at what God did with Cornelius, and see an important parallel with these modern reports of visions and dreams. God didn’t communicate the gospel in Cornelius’s vision. His vision instructed Cornelius to call for Peter. In the modern stories I’ve read concerning the conversion of Muslims following visions or dreams, the gospel was not communicated in the vision or dream. Rather, as in Cornelius’s case, the vision or dream prompted people to speak to a Christin or to read the Bible.
In Cornelius’s case, Peter came and preached the Gospel, resulting in salvations. In the modern testimonies, those who received such visions or dreams sought out Christians and/or Bibles, and upon hearing or reading the gospel, were converted.
The takeaways I get from this are as follows: (1) God communicates the gospel through His Word and the preaching of the gospel, not through visions or dreams (1 Corinthians 1:21). (2) In rare instances, God has spoken to people through visions or dreams prompting them to read the Bible and/or hear the Gospel preached, resulting in conversions. (3) I will not condemn these visions and dreams because (a) there is biblical precedent, and (b) the conversions do not violate the biblical instruction that conversion happens as a direct result of the gospel, not directly from the visions or dreams. (4) I praise God that He will save and is saving His people!
An Important Footnote: For we who are saved and have access to the Bible and biblical preaching, we must be diligent to read God’s Word and to hear biblical preaching to hear God’s voice, rather than chasing after visions and dreams!