Night Visions

                We can bring the greatest of all liberties into our individual lives by living true and correct principles.  This liberty comes to us as we learn to live as though Jesus Christ were walking beside us.  We gain this freedom as we invite the Holy Ghost into our lives.

                  The liberty principle for today is number sixteen in a series of true principles suggested by Elder Richard G. Scott in his book

21 Principles – Divine Truths to Help You Live by the Spirit.  I will merely introduce the principle and suggest that you obtain Elder Scott’s book in order to truly understand this principle.  Elder Scott explained that principles “are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances.  A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and challenging circumstances.”  You can see principle #1 “True Principles of Freedom” here.  

                  Principle #16 is the simple fact that God often communicates to us through dreams.  I know this to be true because I have received much personal revelation through dreams.  I have learned that revelatory dreams – called night visions in the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ – usually come in the early morning hours.  My dreams usually come when I am well rested and in the transition from being fully asleep to being fully awake.  Revelatory dreams stay with me long after I have them.  I know they come for my comfort and benefit.

                One such dream came early one Sunday morning.  I had prepared a lesson about the Holy Ghost for my Primary class of six-year-old children.  In my dream that morning I was told, “The Holy Ghost loves you.”  This was a foreign thought to me.  I knew that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ loved me, but I had not even considered the Holy Ghost.  This statement brought such joy to my soul!  Yet I questioned why it had come.  My grandson was being baptized that day, and I worried that I might be asked at the last minute to speak on the Holy Ghost.  When I learned that my son was the speaker, I relaxed and allowed myself to ponder the matter further.  I came to the realization that I was to testify to my Primary children that they were loved by the Holy Ghost as well as by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

                I received much information through dreams about my oldest son while he was serving his mission in Arizona.  Heavenly Father knew that I was having a really difficult time being separated from my son, and He used the medium of dreams to help me “see” him.  I often knew information about my son before he told me.  One morning – another Sunday – I had a dream in which I saw my son suddenly go flying through the air.  That’s all I saw, and my mother’s heart began to fear for my son.  I was afraid that I would receive one of those terrible telephone calls.  The call never came, but I continued to wonder about the dream.  Several weeks later a letter came from my son stating that he had forgotten to tell me about an accident he had.  He was riding his bicycle and did not see a board across his path.  He hit the board and went flying through the air; all the papers and books in his backpack went flying out but he was not hurt.

                Early one Saturday morning I had a dream that my father was dying and that I needed to get prepared to leave.  I spent the entire day washing clothes, preparing the house, and packing my bag, and I received confirmation of my dream early that evening.  I made airline reservations for the next morning and was ready to go.

                Revelatory dreams are different than normal ones.  A few weeks after my mother passed away, I had returned home from her funeral and was fighting depression.  Early one morning I dreamed that my mother came to visit me, and I awoke feeling wonderful and was able to move forward with my life.

                Elder Scott described a very disturbing dream in which he could not find his beloved Jeanine.  He found himself in an “oppressive surrounding” that “was an ugly, artificial, contrived environment.  So intense were the feelings generated by what I had been told by those bent on destroying my hope to take me captive that I had not realized the forces of opposition that made my efforts appear fruitless could have no power over me unless I yielded through fear or abandonment of my principles.  The environment appeared real, yet it had been generated from fear and threat.  Although it was simulated, to those who let themselves believe the falsehoods thrust upon them it became reality.

                “I can now understand that because of my faith in the truths of the gospel plan, I could break through Satan’s manipulative, evil environment to see it as it is – not only in the dream, but in real life as well – a confining, controlling, destructive influence that can be overcome by faith in and obedience to truth.

                “As I awoke, there flooded over me feelings of love and gratitude for our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son that I do not have the capacity to express.  My heart and mind filled with consuming love for Them and inexpressible appreciation for the blessings that are available to every spirit child of Father in Heaven willing to believe and be obedient to the plan of happiness.  I cannot convey the unspeakable joy, the feeling of being wrapped in pure love, the absolute assurance that we will never lose our identity or memory of cherished relationships or the benefits of righteous acts as we continue to resist evil and are obedient to truth….

                “Dreams are just one vehicle the Lord uses from time to time to convey a spiritual lesson.  If you will remain aware, you can learn valuable truths from such experiences” (pp. 78-79).

                I encourage you to be aware of your dreams.  If I have any question about the origin of any dream, I ask God if He sent it to me.  The answer to my prayer determines the relevance of the prayer to me.  I have also learned to ask God to help me understand the meaning of my dreams and have received understanding when I was ready for it.  Night visions are a wonderful form of communication from our loving Heavenly Father.