Joel 2:29

"And also upon the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days will I pour out of my Spirit.

It should be noted that beginning with the previous Joel 2:28, this portion of Joel (to the end of the chapter) forms a separate chapter in the Hebrew version of the Bible, giving four chapters instead of three in that version.

This refers to the universality of membership in the Lord's church and the consequent reception of a measure of God's Spirit in the hearts of all believers during the times of the Messiah. Many of the Christians to whom Colossians and Ephesians were originally addressed were slaves; and in that is a most accurate and extensive fulfillment of these very words. Of course, it is not necessary to suppose that even Joel fully understood the import of this prophetic word, as noted above. As Robinson said: "Joel probably had but a vague appreciation of what these words really meant in the great program of God."[39] Of course, there has never been any need to understand Joel's prophecy here as a promise that "all of God's people" will be supernaturally endowed with the Holy Spirit. It was not so in the days of the apostles, nor is it true now.

"Old men shall dream dreams ... young men shall see visions ..." The place of dreams in the new covenant is greatly downgraded by a number of considerations:

"No other dream is mentioned in the N.T. save those given to Joseph in the very beginning of the N.T., before the full Gospel had come, and to the wife of Pilate, a Gentile."[40]

There is absolutely nothing in the N.T. to indicate that any Christian or any other person (exceptions noted above) ever relied upon a dream for anything whatsoever. Christians of all ages have refused to trust dreams.