0:00:00 - 0:00:24 I made a video that I thought was gonna be about the vividness of visions and it turned out to be all about the temple and blood and smoke. So, um let's actually address this so I can hopefully finally move on with my morning. Um So in that video, I spoke a little bit about a vision that I had while 0:00:23 - 0:00:52 at the dinner table um last night and it was the smells and the sights were more real than real than reality. They're more real than reality. And that's kind of what I wanna address here. I think that there's a tendency I could be wrong, but I think there's a tendency to minimize information that does 0:00:52 - 0:01:19 not come through temporal channels. And I've had uh I've, I've mentioned before, there's a wide range of kinds of visions and anything you could group under revelation, voices, impressions, even feelings, whatever. I've had a wide range of these, not just in terms of volume of, of experiences in the 0:01:19 - 0:01:48 , in the frequency, but in terms of how they come in the manner that they're experienced. And, and so these are not all vivid, some can be quite subtle, but I just wanted to make what I think would be a short video to state the following. The realist, not all revelatory experiences that I've had have 0:01:48 - 0:02:11 been vivid, but the most vivid experiences I've ever had have been revelatory. And it's quite an amazing thing to be what I would consider a perceptive person in life. I mean, I'm not Jason Bourne level of perceptive where I walk into a restaurant for a split second. And then I can describe every single 0:02:11 - 0:02:30 person that was there, what they were wearing, you know, what might, you know, this person's got a limp, you know, it's, it's nothing like that. Uh And that's a movie. So maybe nothing is like that. But I consider myself to be quite a perceptive person, at least in comparison to others that that's just 0:02:30 - 0:02:59 been my experience and that um I'm just stating the facts here, the facts as I've experienced them, but it doesn't even hold a candle to the intensity of some of these experiences that I've had. And that makes it very difficult to describe them. But uh more to the point, I, if you want a richer life 0:02:59 - 0:03:29 , there's a limit to how rich your life can be without opening access to this channel of information. It's, it's capable of much deeper saturation in, in all regards, in terms of depth of emotion, in terms of even vividness of color. There's, there's no limit just, just anywhere, any direction you take 0:03:29 - 0:03:55 this, there's more and better available in the the realm of revelation. So now what happens now what happens when you overlay this onto reality that it's cheesy. But the best, the best way I can think of, of describing this is the Grinch Stole Christmas. Remember that old movie where the Grinch has this 0:03:55 - 0:04:21 very limited range of experience and perception in life and then he has this experience. It's been a while but with Cindy Lou, who I believe the little girl or whatever she is, whatever kind of creature a who I guess. Um And then after that, there's this scene where you see his heart and it grows some 0:04:21 - 0:04:49 number of times larger. And the amazing thing about that is if that were to occur, you know, obviously figuratively speaking, you would have greater capacity to feel love more often. And of course, to a much deeper extent, a deeper intensity and that would be yours to keep all the time. And so you would 0:04:49 - 0:05:17 have new eyes to see the world, a new heart, to feel the world, a new mind, to think about the world, a new degree of vision in the sense of faith, to bring into creation, things that don't already exist in the world and on and on a new resilience to affliction based on a new depth of meaning and purpose 0:05:16 - 0:06:02 . As the angel said to Nephi, this is how God's love sheds itself abroad in the earth. What an interesting choice of words because when we talk about something spreading like a disease sheds. But that's, that's a very modern phrase. But the only old use of the word shed, the verb is in speaking about 0:06:02 - 0:06:42 blood. So the love of God sheds itself abroad in the earth through people who experience it and then turn and show it to others, treating them the way God has treated them. Those are two thems in the sentence. But I think you get it. So visions, not just visions, but all forms of revelation. They can 0:06:42 - 0:07:12 reveal not just the information that those revelations contain, but they can open you to greater breadth and depth of perception in the temporal world. And you bring with you everything that was expanded there and you're able to apply it to all things and situations and people here, which is really something 0:07:11 - 0:07:46 to put it lightly. There are several extraordinarily important things in the gospel that cannot be understood until you understand and believe that revelatory experiences can be at least as real as real life. For one thing, you'll never understand the life of the Lord until you understand that. So we 0:07:46 - 0:08:11 read that he suffered more than any man can suffer without dying. And yet when you look at his life, there isn't a single mention of anything that he ever went through in the physical realm that was significant even compared to the afflictions of anyone else you might say. Well, he was crucified. Yeah 0:08:11 - 0:08:41 . How many thousands of people did the Romans crucify? Did it hurt him more? The answer is yes, but not for any reason. Having to do with being crucified. This is the amazing thing. The limit of the worship of most Christian churches is to say Jesus was crucified for us. OK. So has a man never died for 0:08:40 - 0:09:08 another person? Even in much more gruesome ways than that? Yes, they have. That wasn't the point. But that's the thing that they show with the Easter plays. And you can't criticize them too badly because how would they show the real sacrifice? I'm not downplaying the fact that he was crucified by the 0:09:08 - 0:09:39 way, I've shared in other times that I think I have some intimate information about that. I won't, I won't go so far as to say some shared experience. But the Lord's revelation revelatory, we'll say revelatory suffering far exceeded his physical suffering. And we know from scripture, we know the conversion 0:09:38 - 0:10:24 here, the connection. We know that it's possible for someone to suffer the pains and sicknesses and afflictions of all people through revelation. So when was, when did Jesus have bone cancer in the flesh? When did Jesus lose a son in the flesh? When did Jesus watch his wife die powerless to do anything 0:10:24 - 0:11:20 about it? Because he knew it was father's will. When did Jesus see his daughter kidnapped, raped again and again in the flesh? He didn't what did the spirit he did and he went through it enough times that had no longer had anything that it no longer had anything to teach him. And you need to think about 0:11:19 - 0:12:03 that. You know, we probably be hard pressed to find even one of you who hasn't suffered some terrible, terrible thing. Something so terrible that, that, that people would hesitate to question you if you questioned God and his love for you. But you need to understand what Jesus went through and what he 0:12:03 - 0:12:41 needed to go through and, and even in that thing or that, even if you have a job, like set of things, even if it hits you all at once, like it did for Joe, you need to understand, you need to use that to help you approach even the in the slightest bit what Jesus, what price Jesus really paid and you 0:12:41 - 0:13:18 can't have a church play about that one. It's not so simple. It's just reenacting the crucifix crucifixion. There's no way to portray what happened in Gethsemane and there's no way to appreciate it except as far as you've experienced it. So the next time you, you face something hard, realize that even 0:13:17 - 0:13:58 if the only value in that is feeling a little more of what Jesus felt for you, it's worth it. That alone makes it worth it. And yet his purposes far exceed that the benefits of that situation far exceed that because in his case, in his case, he had absolutely nothing to gain through going through that 0:13:58 - 0:14:34 . There was nothing for him to gain for himself in your case, until you can say this has nothing left to teach me. It's still actually a tremendous blessing for you personally to go through those things. And when the smoke clears and the dust settles and we've been endowed with a much greater understanding 0:14:33 - 0:15:21 than the flesh limits us to. You will freely admit that as the, the as is described in the scriptures, you know, the, the great pains of childbirth, they all go away when they're replaced with the joy of the child. And as you come to that point, you look back and wish that you had greater joy, even not 0:00:00 - 0:00:24 I made a video that I thought was gonna be about the vividness of visions and it turned out to be all about the temple and blood and smoke. So, um let's actually address this so I can hopefully finally move on with my morning. Um So in that video, I spoke a little bit about a vision that I had while 0:00:23 - 0:00:52 at the dinner table um last night and it was the smells and the sights were more real than real than reality. They're more real than reality. And that's kind of what I wanna address here. I think that there's a tendency I could be wrong, but I think there's a tendency to minimize information that does 0:00:52 - 0:01:19 not come through temporal channels. And I've had uh I've, I've mentioned before, there's a wide range of kinds of visions and anything you could group under revelation, voices, impressions, even feelings, whatever. I've had a wide range of these, not just in terms of volume of, of experiences in the 0:01:19 - 0:01:48 , in the frequency, but in terms of how they come in the manner that they're experienced. And, and so these are not all vivid, some can be quite subtle, but I just wanted to make what I think would be a short video to state the following. The realist, not all revelatory experiences that I've had have 0:01:48 - 0:02:11 been vivid, but the most vivid experiences I've ever had have been revelatory. And it's quite an amazing thing to be what I would consider a perceptive person in life. I mean, I'm not Jason Bourne level of perceptive where I walk into a restaurant for a split second. And then I can describe every single 0:02:11 - 0:02:30 person that was there, what they were wearing, you know, what might, you know, this person's got a limp, you know, it's, it's nothing like that. Uh And that's a movie. So maybe nothing is like that. But I consider myself to be quite a perceptive person, at least in comparison to others that that's just 0:02:30 - 0:02:59 been my experience and that um I'm just stating the facts here, the facts as I've experienced them, but it doesn't even hold a candle to the intensity of some of these experiences that I've had. And that makes it very difficult to describe them. But uh more to the point, I, if you want a richer life 0:02:59 - 0:03:29 , there's a limit to how rich your life can be without opening access to this channel of information. It's, it's capable of much deeper saturation in, in all regards, in terms of depth of emotion, in terms of even vividness of color. There's, there's no limit just, just anywhere, any direction you take 0:03:29 - 0:03:55 this, there's more and better available in the the realm of revelation. So now what happens now what happens when you overlay this onto reality that it's cheesy. But the best, the best way I can think of, of describing this is the Grinch Stole Christmas. Remember that old movie where the Grinch has this 0:03:55 - 0:04:21 very limited range of experience and perception in life and then he has this experience. It's been a while but with Cindy Lou, who I believe the little girl or whatever she is, whatever kind of creature a who I guess. Um And then after that, there's this scene where you see his heart and it grows some 0:04:21 - 0:04:49 number of times larger. And the amazing thing about that is if that were to occur, you know, obviously figuratively speaking, you would have greater capacity to feel love more often. And of course, to a much deeper extent, a deeper intensity and that would be yours to keep all the time. And so you would 0:04:49 - 0:05:17 have new eyes to see the world, a new heart, to feel the world, a new mind, to think about the world, a new degree of vision in the sense of faith, to bring into creation, things that don't already exist in the world and on and on a new resilience to affliction based on a new depth of meaning and purpose 0:05:16 - 0:06:02 . As the angel said to Nephi, this is how God's love sheds itself abroad in the earth. What an interesting choice of words because when we talk about something spreading like a disease sheds. But that's, that's a very modern phrase. But the only old use of the word shed, the verb is in speaking about 0:06:02 - 0:06:42 blood. So the love of God sheds itself abroad in the earth through people who experience it and then turn and show it to others, treating them the way God has treated them. Those are two thems in the sentence. But I think you get it. So visions, not just visions, but all forms of revelation. They can 0:06:42 - 0:07:12 reveal not just the information that those revelations contain, but they can open you to greater breadth and depth of perception in the temporal world. And you bring with you everything that was expanded there and you're able to apply it to all things and situations and people here, which is really something 0:07:11 - 0:07:46 to put it lightly. There are several extraordinarily important things in the gospel that cannot be understood until you understand and believe that revelatory experiences can be at least as real as real life. For one thing, you'll never understand the life of the Lord until you understand that. So we 0:07:46 - 0:08:11 read that he suffered more than any man can suffer without dying. And yet when you look at his life, there isn't a single mention of anything that he ever went through in the physical realm that was significant even compared to the afflictions of anyone else you might say. Well, he was crucified. Yeah 0:08:11 - 0:08:41 . How many thousands of people did the Romans crucify? Did it hurt him more? The answer is yes, but not for any reason. Having to do with being crucified. This is the amazing thing. The limit of the worship of most Christian churches is to say Jesus was crucified for us. OK. So has a man never died for 0:08:40 - 0:09:08 another person? Even in much more gruesome ways than that? Yes, they have. That wasn't the point. But that's the thing that they show with the Easter plays. And you can't criticize them too badly because how would they show the real sacrifice? I'm not downplaying the fact that he was crucified by the 0:09:08 - 0:09:39 way, I've shared in other times that I think I have some intimate information about that. I won't, I won't go so far as to say some shared experience. But the Lord's revelation revelatory, we'll say revelatory suffering far exceeded his physical suffering. And we know from scripture, we know the conversion 0:09:38 - 0:10:24 here, the connection. We know that it's possible for someone to suffer the pains and sicknesses and afflictions of all people through revelation. So when was, when did Jesus have bone cancer in the flesh? When did Jesus lose a son in the flesh? When did Jesus watch his wife die powerless to do anything 0:10:24 - 0:11:20 about it? Because he knew it was father's will. When did Jesus see his daughter kidnapped, raped again and again in the flesh? He didn't what did the spirit he did and he went through it enough times that had no longer had anything that it no longer had anything to teach him. And you need to think about 0:11:19 - 0:12:03 that. You know, we probably be hard pressed to find even one of you who hasn't suffered some terrible, terrible thing. Something so terrible that, that, that people would hesitate to question you if you questioned God and his love for you. But you need to understand what Jesus went through and what he 0:12:03 - 0:12:41 needed to go through and, and even in that thing or that, even if you have a job, like set of things, even if it hits you all at once, like it did for Joe, you need to understand, you need to use that to help you approach even the in the slightest bit what Jesus, what price Jesus really paid and you 0:12:41 - 0:13:18 can't have a church play about that one. It's not so simple. It's just reenacting the crucifix crucifixion. There's no way to portray what happened in Gethsemane and there's no way to appreciate it except as far as you've experienced it. So the next time you, you face something hard, realize that even 0:13:17 - 0:13:58 if the only value in that is feeling a little more of what Jesus felt for you, it's worth it. That alone makes it worth it. And yet his purposes far exceed that the benefits of that situation far exceed that because in his case, in his case, he had absolutely nothing to gain through going through that 0:13:58 - 0:14:34 . There was nothing for him to gain for himself in your case, until you can say this has nothing left to teach me. It's still actually a tremendous blessing for you personally to go through those things. And when the smoke clears and the dust settles and we've been endowed with a much greater understanding 0:14:33 - 0:15:21 than the flesh limits us to. You will freely admit that as the, the as is described in the scriptures, you know, the, the great pains of childbirth, they all go away when they're replaced with the joy of the child. And as you come to that point, you look back and wish that you had greater joy, even not 0:15:20 - 0:15:51 just appreciation but greater joy in the afflictions that you faced. That your loving father had the great love to gift to you when each and every one of those gifts required his son to suffer much more so you could have them.