Angels That Bring Knowledge
By Anne Hinton Pratt · March 10, 2021
From
time to time God allows His angels to inform us of things that we could
otherwise not know. They have abundant access to information and sometimes have
permission to communicate it with us in some way.[1] I’d like to share five profound
experiences where angels have brought knowledge and understanding through
voice, thought [2] or sight to those who were ready
to listen…
“You Don’t Belong Here”
Haven Bouton had life-changing knowledge and direction conveyed to her by an
angel. She reports,
“I
joined the church with my family when I was 15 years old. Prior to our lessons
with the missionaries, my family and I attended different churches, trying to
find where we belonged.
“When I was 14, my mother and I attended a local church service and while we
stood during a musical performance, I felt the intense presence of
someone behind me in the aisle, but when I looked nobody was there. Clear as
day I heard a voice say, “You do not belong here!” This repeated a few
times more. I could feel the overwhelming presence of the angel through the
rest of the service. I never went back there again and in a matter of
months we were talking to the missionaries. When I attended my first sacrament
meeting, I felt like I had finally arrived home. I knew that I belonged there,
and I was grateful for the guidance of that angel to help me find truth.”[3]
Bringing
truth and light is one of the assignments of angels.[4] They are instrumental in helping
many people find the Gospel.
Miraculous Intercession
Amelia Segi shared with me a story of a remarkable conversion that was
instigated by an angel. Her parents had been Ward Missionary leaders in
her San Francisco 3rd Ward, Tongan Stake, and they often took
her “tracting” with the missionaries. She writes,
“On
one of these ‘tracting’ undertakings, my father walked up and knocked on the
door of a house. Nobody answered the door, so he started to walk away.
Suddenly, a man ran up to the side gate and yelled out “Wait! Wait, I’ve been
waiting for you all day. The man told me you will be coming today!”
Amelia’s
father was puzzled and asked the man to explain what he meant. The man
began to cry as he told them his story. She continues,
“He
explained that he had been struggling the past year or so because he
had
been injured at his job and couldn’t work. He felt useless at home and
became very depressed. He started to become an alcoholic and he was slowly
starting to lose his family. He told us that the night before we came he was so
drunk his family had left him.
“He said that he woke up on his kitchen floor to a bright light
standing over him telling him that my father and missionaries would be stopping
by to save him and that he should listen to them.
“He
couldn’t stop weeping while telling us the story. My father, mother, my
siblings and I, and the 4 missionaries also started to cry. He said it was
shortly after this bright light went away that he heard the knock. He was so
weak, but he kept yelling out ‘I’m here.’ He crawled all the way outside and
that’s when he was able to stand up and yell out to my father.
“My
family went on to help him by spending every day with him until he started to
feel bright and happy again. His life began to change. After a
month or so, this man, his wife, and four kids were baptized, and we were all
blessed through the process.”[5]
Amelia’s
family harvested blessings that were brought by an angel of God. Angels can
bring knowledge and blessings in many forms.
Best Friend Returns from Grave to Inform and Comfort
Robert
Cowart shared a touching experience that happened to his family.
On
August 12, 2020 his wife of 53 years passed away and his son-in-law started
calling family members on the phone about 45 minutes later to inform them of
the death.
Robert
tells what happened then. He explains,
“My son
Stephen grew up in Savannah, Georgia and became lifelong friends with a boy
down the road from us named Rob Hernandez. Rob had married and had two
small children but contracted cancer and died 2 years ago. Before he died,
Rob extracted a promise from my son Steven to look after his wife and children,
which he has done religiously.
“Within
moments of my wife’s death, Stephen was out walking with his wife Amy. He
suddenly stopped and said to her, ‘Amy, Rob just spoke to me and told
me Mom has passed. He told me not to worry, because he will take care of
her.’
When my
son-in-law called him a few minutes later to report the death, Stephen revealed
that he already knew she was gone.”[6]
The
knowledge Rob brought from beyond the veil was strengthening and supportive to
the entire family.
How Angels Often Communicate
Boyd K.
Packer taught illuminating doctrine when he said,
“Should
an angel converse with you, neither you nor he would be confined to corporeal
sight or sound in order to communicate. For there is that spiritual process
described by the Prophet Joseph Smith by which pure intelligence can flow into
our minds and by which we can know what we need to know without either the
effort of study or the passage of time, because that is revelation.”[7]
Sometimes angels are directed to reveal pure intelligence to our
minds. Nothing is more enlightening or edifying than that flow of
revelation…
Angel Brings the Gift of Language to A Discouraged Missionary
Many
years ago, there was a missionary who was struggling with German while on his
mission. It was a source of great frustration and seriously interfered
with his ability to serve the people in Germany.
He went
to a little grove of trees nearby and prayed with all his heart, pleading with
the Lord to help him. While there, an unusual thing happened. His
mother, who was dead, was allowed to appear and to have a long conversation
with him. He related the aftermath of that beautiful experience:
“…Thus,
two or more hours were spent together, by far the most memorable of my whole
life. Mother said she knew I was having a hard time with the German
language and asked me to meet her at the grove again the next day at the same
hour as she also wanted to be helpful to me in this. She explained that I
would not see her again just as I saw her that day, as this personal appearance
and visitation was by a special and divine appointment. Then my mother
disappeared exactly as she had come – almost unperceived.
“The
next appointment was sacredly kept,… This time I could not behold her person
nor hear her voice just as I had done on the preceding day, but there
seemed to be just as divine a presence and an unquestionably clear conversation
under a much higher law than we could possibly enjoy in our communications with
each other here. We understood and exchanged thoughts more rapidly,
clearly and satisfactorily than is possible with human voices, for there was no
worry about what to say and just how to say it to be properly and clearly understood.
“Exactly
all that took place on this occasion, I do not remember, but I do know that
something did transpire whereby I was able from that time to easily understand,
to read and even write this new language (German) and in a most surprising
manner to myself and those with whom I came in contact.”[8]
I love
the process and principles by which angelic revelation can flow.
In this
last poignant story, an angel brings revelation in a very unusual way.
Departed Catholic Priest Brings Saving Knowledge
Carola
A. Strauss relates an extraordinary experience of how the appearance of a
Catholic priest aided her grandmother, Anna Maria Theresia Lormess Fischer in
becoming a member of the church. This account took place in
Hernkaschuetz, Germany in the late 1890’s.
“Anna
Maria had always been extremely inquisitive about her church and its doctrine.
She spent many hours talking to her priest in an attempt to understand and
resolve in her own mind who God was, and what the purpose of life was, etc. She
never felt satisfied with what she was told and always felt that something was
missing. Anna Maria was especially concerned with what happens to us when we
die. In fact, that is what she and her priest discussed during her last
visit with him.
“One morning, just prior to dawn, as Anna Maria was waking up,
there appeared before her, her Catholic priest — he was holding a book. As he
approached her, he held the book up and pointed to it. It was titled ‘Das Buch
Mormon’ (the Book of Mormon). The priest said nothing to her; he simply
continued to point to the book and then he disappeared.
“Confused,
bewildered, and baffled by what had just taken place, she got out of bed, then
set out to visit her priest so she could share with him her strange experience
or dream.
“Upon
reaching the church, she quickly learned of the untimely death of the priest.
He had suddenly passed away earlier that week. My grandmother was thoroughly
confused, to say the least. She was convinced that she needed to find
this mysterious book . . . she just knew it would provide her with some
important answers to this entire puzzle.
“Although
her attempts to locate the book seemed an exercise in futility, Anna Maria
remained determined — she never stopped searching or hoping to find ‘the Book.’
A number of years as well as World War I passed by and then one day she found
it… in an outdoor garbage can! She also tracked down the missionaries
herself.
As she
read through the Book of Mormon’s pages, she found the answers to so many of
the questions that had for so long perplexed her. She also now understood why
her priest had appeared to her. He must have discovered the truth himself and
wanted to make sure that she found it too!”[9]
The
departed priest’s newly acquired level of light and knowledge must have
qualified him for that angelic errand. He wanted to share his new
understandings with Anna Maria, because he knew how much she sought truth.
Angels Bring Pure Intelligence to Shape Our lives
As
these stories illustrate, angels operate at a higher level of light than we
comprehend and can transfer that life-changing knowledge to us in amazing ways.
Angels can bring truth; comfort or even a new skill to move us forward on the
path God wants us to be on.
Do you have any angel stories that you would like to
share? I’d love to hear them. Please CONTACT me at annehpratt@hotmail.com.
[1] Alma 32:23 “He imparts his words by
angels to men, women and children.”
[2] Dallin H. Oaks, Conference Report,
Oct. 1998,, or Ensign, Nov. 1998, p. 39. “Angelic messages can be delivered by
a voice or merely by thoughts or feelings communicated to the mind”
[3] Haven Bouton Al-Otaibi, personal
correspondence. Story used with permission.
[4] Doctrine and Covenants 20:35,
“revelations … come hereafter by … ministering of angels,”
Moroni
7:25, “Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded
forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ;”
[5] Amelia Segi, personal
correspondence. Story used with permission.
[6] Robert Cowart, personal
correspondence. Story used with permission.
[7] Boyd K. Packer. From an address
delivered at a seminar for new mission presidents on June 19, 1991.
[8] Joseph Heinerman, Spirit World
Manifestations: Accounts of Divine Aid in Genealogical and Temple Work, 1986.
pages 185-189.
[9] Carola A. Strauss, personal
correspondence. Story used with permission.
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