Perhaps you have experienced dreams, visions and had prophecy spoken over you life. Some of it may have been very clear while other elements were full of mystery. The prophetic language of God can take many forms and be expressed in various images. God is now revealing the meaning of His pictorial language so that His people can understand what He is releasing through the prophetic realm. Dreams Interpretation and understanding visions comes from the Holy Spirit so ask Him to give you this ability. It would take a complete book to fully cover this subject but in this article I want to lay down a few principles and share some examples that will help you.
 
Let me recommend first that when you have a dream, a prophetic vision or receive a prophetic word to always write it down. Otherwise, many details can be completely lost within a short time. If you received a prophetic word from a prophet(tess) then ask them to explain what they saw and the sense of what they felt. If it was a vision or dream, I recommend you make descriptive notes. You then can search your Bible for any of the images or pictorial types to see what that image conveyed in the scriptures. For example, in John's Gospel Jesus is presented as the Bread of life, the Light of the world, The Vine and the Water of life. There are many electronic Bibles for free on line that include word searches and study helps so these can be very helpful.
 
It is important to prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to bring understanding to you. He authored the dream so He has the details. He does however, work with details that will make sense to you. He often uses experiences, memories and settings that are unique to you alone. Someone else would not understand them in the same context as you. For instance, seeing a hot stove may bring a sense of warmth, family, comfort and peace to someone. For another person seeing a hot stove in a dream may create feelings of fear or pain because they were badly burnt when they fell against a stove as a child. In these scenarios God may be leading the first person into comfort, sense of security or relationship. In the second example, God may be inviting that person into freedom from childhood fears. So ask Him to identify areas that may reveal a deeper work of restoration within you. Pay attention to the following statement.
 
CAUTION:   When trying to understand the meanings of symbols in your dreams please remember that the symbols in a dream must be interpreted within the context of the dream. You will not understand a dream if defining the dream by it's symbols only. Symbols are defined by the dream. If you try to do it in reverse you will end up confused. Pay attention to the context of that specific dream when doing dreams interpretation.
 
Let me focus on images. There are so many images in the Bible that God used, so reference these in a concordance. See if they relate to what you received. Jesus often used parables which are illustrations that contain a spiritual truth. A lamp represents light and guidance, whereas a net would represent harvest. Acquaint yourself with these through word searches and note the application, if any to your encounter.
 
When interpreting a dream it is important to look at the emotional, spiritual and circumstantial content within that dream. Was it frightening, peaceful, encouraging or threatening? Did details provide direction or promise of provision? Was the dream detailing issues to pray about? Was the dream a training module in which the Lord put you through a test or equipping session? Ask questions - why this and not that? Some unresolved issues in dreams are unimportant. If there were details you didn't notice (like colour or size etc.) they probably were unimportant.