We Are Often In the Presence of
Unseen Heavenly Messengers
D&C 84:88
And whoso
receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I
will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in
your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.
Joseph Smith
The spirits of the
just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work; hence they are
blessed in their departure to the world of spirits. Enveloped in
flaming fire, they are not far from us, and know and understand our
thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained therewith. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
p.325)
[Vision given to
Joseph Smith in January 1836 part of which is recorded in D&C 137]
Also, I saw Elder Brigham Young standing in a strange land, in the far
south and west, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a
dozen men of color, who appeared hostile. He was preaching to them in
their own tongue, and the angel of God standing above his head, with a
drawn Sword in his hand, protecting him, but he did not see it. (History of the Church, 2:381)
Brigham Young
They are just as
busy in the spirit world as you and I are here. They can see us, but we
cannot see them unless our eyes were opened. (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.378)
Joseph F. Smith
I believe we move
and have our being in the presence of heavenly messengers and of
heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. We begin to realize
more and more fully, as we become acquainted with the principles of the
Gospel, as they have been revealed anew in this dispensation, that we
are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors, to our friends
and associates and co-laborers who have preceded us into the spirit
world. We cannot forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always
hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and
united to them by ties that we can not break, that we can not dissolve
or free ourselves from. If this is the case with us in our finite
condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, shortsightedness, lack
of inspiration and wisdom from time to time, how much more certain it
is and reasonable and consistent to believe that those who have been
faithful, who have gone beyond and are still engaged in the work for
the salvation of the souls of men, the opening of the prison doors to
them that are bound and proclaiming liberty to the captives who can see
us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know
them. They have advanced; we are advancing; we are growing as they have
grown; we are reaching the goal that they have attained unto; and
therefore, I claim that we live in their presence, they see us, they
are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For
now they see the dangers that beset us; they can comprehend better than
ever before, the weaknesses that are liable to mislead us into dark and
forbidden paths. They see the temptations and the evils that beset us
in life and the proneness of mortal beings to yield to temptation and
to wrong doing; hence their solicitude for us and their love for us and
their desire for our well being must be greater than that which we feel
for ourselves. I thank God for the feeling that I possess and enjoy and
for the realization that I have, that I stand, not only in the presence
of Almighty God, my Maker and Father, but in the presence of His Only
Begotten Son in the flesh, the Savior of the world; and I stand in the
presence of Peter and James, (and perhaps the eyes of John are also
upon us and we know it not); and that I stand also in the presence of
Joseph and Hyrum and Brigham and John, and those who have been valiant
in the testimony of Jesus Christ and faithful to their mission in the
world, who have gone before. When I go I want to have the privilege of
meeting them with the consciousness that I have followed their example,
that I have carried out the mission in which they were engaged as they
would have it carried out; that I have been as faithful in the
discharge of duty committed to me and required at my hand as they were
faithful in their time, and that when I meet them I shall meet them as
I met them here, in love, in harmony, in unison and in perfect
confidence that I have done my duty as they have done theirs.
(Conference Report, April 1916, p.3)
Harold B. Lee
The Prophet Joseph
Smith taught: “The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and
more glorious work; hence they are blessed in their departure to the
world of spirits.” Now listen to this: “Enveloped in flaming fire, they
are not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings,
and motions, and are often pained therewith.” (Teachings of the Prophet
Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book
Co., 1938], p. 326.) It may be that when the anxieties of the passing
of this day shall have gone, in the quiet loneliness of your home, in a
day not too intense because of the motherhood requirements, there will
come times when you will say, “My, he seemed to be so close to me. I
seem to have felt his nearness.” And it will be real. It will be
something you can’t deny. (The
Teachings of the Harold B. Lee, pp. 59-60)
Where is the
spirit world? Is it away up in the heavens? That isn’t what the
scriptures and our brethren explain. They have told us the spirit world
is right here round about us, and the only spirits who can live here
are those who are assigned to fill their missions here on earth. This
is the spirit world. And if our eyes could be opened we could see those
who have departed from us—a father, mother, brother, a sister, a child.
We could see them, and sometimes when our physical senses are asleep,
sometimes our spiritual self—and we have ears, spiritual ears, and
spiritual eyes—sometimes they will be very keen and awake, and a
departed one may come while we are lying asleep and come into our
consciousness. We’ll feel an impression. We’ll wake up. Where does it
come from? It comes from the spirits of those whom we are sealed to. (The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, p.
58)
Ezra Taft Benson
I am sure many of
you know that the veil can be very thin–that there are people over
there who are pulling for us–people who have faith in us and who have
great hopes for us, who are hoping and praying that we will measure
up–our loved ones (parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and
friends) who have passed on. (Teachings
of Ezra Taft Benson, p.31)
Visitors, seen and
unseen, from the world beyond, are often close to us. This is part of
eternity which we are living today–part of God’s plan. There is no veil
to the Lord. (Teachings of Ezra
Taft Benson, p.35)
Sometimes actions
here, by the priesthood of God, the First Presidency and the Twelve, as
we meet in the temple, have been planned and influenced by leaders of
the priesthood on the other side. I am sure of that. We have evidence
of it. (Teachings of Ezra Taft
Benson, p.35)
On the other side
of the veil, the righteous are taught their duties preparatory to the
time when they will return with the Son of Man to earth when He comes
again, this time to judge every man according to his works. These
righteous spirits are close by us. They are organized according to
priesthood order in family organizations as we are here; only there
they exist in a more perfect order. This was revealed to the Prophet
Joseph. (Teachings of Ezra Taft
Benson, p.35-36)