My way of understanding a prophetic dream as a christian is Usually dreams are one of the ways God uses to speak to his people . In these dreams God is speaking about your future actually when you take time and read the book of Genesis chapter 37 you will find a prominent Man his name is Joseph he was always treated harshly by his brothers but one day he got a dream when his brothers , mother and father are bowing down to him so after a some years they all bowed to him just like how he saw it in the dream . Some of God's promise come after a short while others take long to happen but all in all he still says in the bible that when its the right time the word that i spoke onto you shall be quickened
what happens is that some times the heavenly language is hard for us to understand since God uses parables but the holy spirit is there to reveal the meaning but one thing am sure of whether your a christian or not God talks to you because we are all his people so as father he has to take responsibility to tell us his plans for our lives and also inform us the traps that the devil has set for us
Hope this comment brings out the other side of a prophetic dream