The convenience of fortune telling dreams

A friend posted the following status message on facebook:

''Had a dream someone I know robbed my sister & I masked...not knowing it would be us but continued....I couldnt get to gun #foreshadowing?''

The first response said: 

''Good that you could get gun....just pray..sometimes dreams are meant to make you more cautious..pay attention to detail.....tell all to slow down and be more aware. pray first rebuke and bind that dream''

 My friend replied:

 ''Couldnt...and yeah that was my first step...i have dreams that tell the future...this isnt one of them...i know what those feel like now....but something still remains weird about this one...is like who it was is not important but instead the type of person...a flashy person always in the mix...that some would assume had it all that i know is a loyal person but only to thosd he cares about...out robbing and ashamed to support the lifestyle...tomorrow is not promised...cherish the day fbers...sveryone you think cares even though ashamed...they have goals...it could be at your expense''

I'm fascinated at how the first commenter (mistakenly) thought it was ''good'' my friend could get his gun and in the same breath also urged him to ''pray first rebuke and bind that dream.'' Seems to me the presence of the former would not require the latter as a means of security. Anyway, I could have sworn cooperating while being robbed more often than not ensures the avoidance of risk of loss of life and injury, rather than react violently and risk a potentially fatal outcome. Especially in this case where a family member is involved. But he didn't elaborate on the details of the dream that prompted him to reach for a gun that wasn't there so I'm just speculating on what I read.

I do wonder, however, how this dream (and conversation between the two) would have played out if they lived in say, the United Kingdom where strict laws against gun ownership exist as opposed to Texas, where my friend resides and I assume is where he was located when he had the dream. Perhaps he would have been equipped with a knife or, unarmed and forced to cooperate? It's quite interesting how one's surroundings affect their thought process and subconscious.

Now the interpretation of the note of caution makes sense. But this is what stood out for me in the reply from my friend;

''i have dreams that tell the future''

As seen in the full quote at the beginning of this post, he did state that this particular dream wasn't one of them, but I was still struck (as always, despite hearing them repeatedly from other people that share in his faith-based belief system) by this revelation. However, from what I've observed, these Nostradamus predictions almost always deal with the immediate surroundings (made up mostly of personalized experiences) of the dreamer (usually involving family and friends but sometimes complete strangers) and hardly ever stuff that strays out of that surrounding (unless of course you're a public religious figure, in which case, the predictions are more grandiose). For example; I don't know of anyone that had a dream which predicted Fermat's last theorem would be solved by British mathematician Sir Andrew Wiles, or that the Higgs Boson particle would be discovered 48 years after Professor Peter Higgs publicized his theory in 1964.

The only two people that could reasonably have had such ''dreams'' that predicted their respective futures are the individuals mentioned; i.e Wiles and Higgs, and possibly their family, close friends, and colleagues privy to their day-to-day work. It is for this reason that I take with a pinch of salt ''prediction'' dreams which sometimes originate from a supernataural source (based on the beliefs of the dreamer). My friend is a christian, and as seen from the first response to his status message, it didn't take long for communication with god through ''prayer'' (a popular post-dream action when contents of the dream depict threats) to be suggested. My friend's affirmative response (''yeah that was my first step'') suggests ''prayer'' would somehow lead to an intervention from above that would prevent the events of the dream unfolding in reality at a future time.

This makes me think of the biblical story of Joseph in Genesis chapter 37 who also saw ''future events.'' I find it extremely convenient how the dreams of many Christians I've encountered who ''predict future events'' happen to fall in line with Joseph's and rarely deviate. 

If there was no story of Joseph and his dreams (including other biblical stories of ''visions'' revealed during slumber), would these folks (that subscribe to the belief system that weaved these tales) categorically state they could see the future in their dreams? I doubt it.