Prayer First: Every Dream Deserves a Spiritual Response

Dreams are not random mental movies; they are often spiritual messages, warnings, encouragements, or instructions that require a spiritual response. As believers, we cannot afford to treat our dreams casually. Every dream you receive, whether good or bad deserves an immediate response of prayer, careful recording, and ongoing intercession until its outcome aligns with the will of God.

In this teaching, I want to walk you through a biblical, practical way to handle your dreams so that you do not lose what God is giving you, and you do not allow the enemy’s plans to go unchallenged.

Dreams are spiritual signals

Scripture is clear that God speaks through dreams:

“For God speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night…”  — Job 33:14–15.

Dreams are spiritual signals. Some come from God, some from the human soul, and some from the enemy but all must be discerned and handled spiritually. When you wake up from a dream, you are not just waking from sleep; you are stepping out of a spiritual encounter that requires a response.

• Good dreams often carry: Promises, direction, encouragement, assignments, warnings, and prophetic insight.  

• Bad dreams often carry: Attacks, fear, demonic schemes, satanic covenants, and spiritual traps.

  
  

Whether the dream is good or bad, your first and most important response must be prayer.

Why your immediate response must be prayer

The moment you wake up from a dream, you are standing at a spiritual crossroads. What you do next can either seal what God is doing or leave it vulnerable to the enemy.

When a dream is good, you must:

• Pray to possess it: Ask God to establish that promise, instruction, or blessing in your life.

• Welcome it by faith: Agree with God’s intention and declare that it will manifest in your life.

• Align yourself with it: Ask God what steps you must take in obedience to cooperate with that dream.

When a dream is bad, you must:

• Cancel it in prayer: Renounce every evil plan, decree, or covenant revealed in the dream.

• Overturn every evil expectation: Stand in your authority in Christ and declare that it shall not stand.

• Stand on the Word of God: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper…” — Isaiah 54:17.

Prayer is not a ritual; it is spiritual warfare and spiritual agreement. You either agree with God’s plan or you allow the enemy’s plan to go unchallenged.

When should you pray for the dream?

The answer is simple and non-negotiable: immediately.

Even if you feel sleepy, even if it is the middle of the night, try to wake up and pray before you forget it. That short window after waking is often the difference between retaining a spiritual message and losing it.

If you delay, you risk:

• Forgetting key details.

• Losing the spiritual urgency.

• Allowing the enemy to steal what God has shown you.

A dream from God is like a seed. When you wake up, that seed is in your hand. You must plant it immediately into your life and into the earth through prayer. If you do not plant it, the enemy can snatch it away.

The danger of forgetting your dreams

Many believers say, “I had a very good dream, but I can’t remember it anymore.” That is not a small issue; it is often a sign that the enemy has stolen something precious.

Jesus taught us that the enemy comes to steal the Word:

“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.” — Matthew 13:19.

In the same way, when God gives you a dream, the enemy wants to snatch it away before you can understand it, pray over it, or act on it.  

Notice something:  

• It is very hard to forget bad dreams.  

• It is very easy to forget good dreams.

Why? Because the enemy does not tamper with his own evil schemes—he wants you to remember the fear, the torment, and the intimidation. But he will fight your memory of good dreams that carry blessing, direction, and destiny.

A forgotten dream from God is often:

• A missed blessing  

• A missed direction  

• A missed instruction  

• A missed follow-up guideline from your heavenly Father  

All because you could not wake up to pray and write it down.

Why you must write every dream down

Writing your dreams down is not just a good habit; it is a biblical principle.

“Then the Lord answered me and said: ‘Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.’” — Habakkuk 2:2–3.

A dream from God is a vision in the night. The instruction is clear: write the vision.

When you write your dreams down:

• You honor what God is showing you: You treat it as something valuable, not disposable.

• You gain clarity: Writing forces you to recall details and patterns.

• You create a record for prayer: You can return to it, pray over it, and track its fulfillment.

Your dream journal becomes a spiritual archive of God’s dealings with you; His warnings, His promises, His corrections, and His directions.

Pray continuously until the dream is fulfilled or cancelled

Praying once is not enough. The Bible calls us to persistent prayer:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” — Philippians 4:6.  

After you have prayed immediately and written the dream down, you must:

• Keep praying for good dreams until they manifest in your life.

  Do not drop them in the spirit. Keep presenting them before God, thanking Him in advance and asking for wisdom, timing, and alignment.

•   Keep praying against bad dreams until they are fully cancelled and proved nullified.  

  You do not stop just because you prayed once; you stop when there is spiritual evidence that the plan of the enemy has failed.

Often, when a bad dream or satanic plan has been successfully cancelled, the Lord will reveal it to you:

• Through another dream showing victory, escape, or reversal.  

• Through a real-life incident that confirms the enemy’s plan has been frustrated.

That is when you know you can stop praying about that specific matter. Until then, you are in spiritual warfare—stay on the battlefield.

Dreams, warfare, and spiritual responsibility

Bad dreams are not just “nightmares”; they are often enemy schemes revealed by God so that you can take action. While Satan may be the source of the attack, God is the One revealing it so that you can cancel it.

If you ignore a bad dream, you are ignoring a warning from God. If you ignore a good dream, you are ignoring a gift from God.

Your responsibility is to:

• Discern the dream.  

• Pray immediately.  

• Write it down.  

• Continue in prayer until the outcome is aligned with God’s will.

Anything less is spiritual negligence.

Practical steps for handling every dream

Here is a simple, biblical pattern you can start practicing today:

1. Wake Up and pray immediately.  

   Even if it is a short prayer, respond in the Spirit before you drift back to sleep.

2. Verbally respond to the dream.  

• For good dreams: “Father, I receive this dream. I agree with Your plan. Let it manifest in my life in Jesus’ name.”  

• For bad dreams:  “In the name of Jesus, I cancel this dream. It shall not stand, it shall not come to pass.”

3. Write the dream down in detail.  

   Include people, places, emotions, colors, actions, and any Scriptures that come to mind.

4. Pray again using the written record.  

   Turn the dream into a prayer point. Use the Word of God as your foundation.

5. Keep the dream before God.  

   Revisit it in your prayer time until:  

•  The good dream is fulfilled.  

• The bad dream is clearly cancelled and reversed.

6. Watch for confirmations.  

   Pay attention to further dreams, prophetic words, or real-life events that confirm what God is doing.

Your dreams matter, but your response matters more

Child of God, your dreams are not to be ignored, feared, or idolized, they are to be stewarded. God is speaking. The enemy is plotting. Your response in prayer determines what is established and what is overturned.

• Pray first.  

• Write it down.  

• Pray until something happens.

As Habakkuk reminds us, the vision like a dream from God may be for an appointed time, but:

“At the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.”  — Habakkuk 2:3.  

May the Holy Spirit train you to be faithful with every dream you receive, and may you never again lose a blessing, a warning, or a direction because it was not prayed over, written down, or followed through.

Prayer:  

Lord Jesus, teach me to respond to every dream with wisdom and urgency. Help me to pray immediately, to write faithfully, and to persist in intercession until Your will is fully done in my life. In Your mighty name I pray, Amen.