ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS  

      While at Battle Creek in August, 1868, Ellen had a dream. She was with a large group of people. Some of these started out on a journey.

They had heavily loaded wagons. As they went, the road went upward. On one side of this road was a steep cliff; on the other was a high, smooth, white wall, like plaster. As they went on, the road grew narrower and steeper. In some places it seemed so very narrow that they could no longer travel with the loaded wagons. They left them behind and took some luggage and put it on the horses, and journeyed on horseback.

But the path got more narrow. They had to press close to the wall, to save from falling off the narrow road down the steep cliff. Now the bundles on the horses pressed on the wall and pushed them towards the cliff, they feared to fall and be dashed in pieces on the rocks so they cut the luggage from the horses, and it fell over the cliff.

They now went on horseback, afraid as they came to the narrower places in the road, to loose their balance and fall. At such times a hand seemed to take the bridle and guide over the risky way. But the path grew narrower; they could no longer go with safety on horseback, and left the horses and went on foot, in single file, one following in the footsteps of another.

Now small cords were let down from the top of the pure white wall; these they gladly grasped, to help keep their balance on the path. The cords moved along with them.

Still the path got more narrow and they thought they could travel more safely without shoes, so they took them off. Soon it was decided that they could travel more safely without stockings; these were removed, and they went on with bare feet.

 They then thought of those who were not used to hardships. Where were they now? They were not in the company. At every change some were left behind, and those only kept going who learned to endure hardships. The difficult way only made these more eager to press on to the end.

      The danger of falling off increased.  They pressed close to the white wall, yet there wasn’t room to put their feet fully on the path, for it was too narrow. Now they began to put nearly their whole weight on the cords, saying: "We have hold from above! We have hold from above!" They all said this. They could hear noises from the bottom of the steep cliff, laughing and worldly music; bad words and dirty jokes; war songs and dance songs; and cursing, cries, wails and loud laughter. They were so anxious to stay on that narrow path!

Now they depended more on the cords, which grew as they went on. Ellen saw the beautiful white wall was stained with blood. She felt sad to see it but then felt it was  all as it should be. Those who are following after will know that others have passed the narrow, difficult way before them, and that they can do the same. As the blood shall be pressed from their aching feet, they will not faint and give up; but, seeing the blood upon the wall, they will know that others have endured the same pain.

     Finally the path ended at a drop-off. They was no path for their feet at all. But by now they were mostly hanging to the cords, which had grown to be almost as big as their bodies. For a while they were afraid. “What is holding the cords?” they asked. They were having a hard struggle, if they failed now, all the hard journey would be for nothing!

On the other side of the chasm, was a beautiful field of green grass, about six inches high. Bright, soft beams of light, resembling fine gold and silver, were resting upon this field. Nothing upon earth was like it in beauty and glory. But could they reach it? What if the cord would break? In whispers the words were breathed: "What holds the cord?"

For a moment they hesitated then said, "Our only hope is to trust wholly to the cord. It has been our help all the difficult way. It will not fail us now." Still we hesitated then the words were said: "God holds the cord. We need not fear." These words were then repeated by those behind: "He will not fail us now. He has brought us thus far in safety."  They then swung over safely one by one to the lovely field.  They heard voices Praising God. Ellen was happy, perfectly happy.

    She said she would never forget this wonderful dream. 

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS -2

Ellen White was shown many wonderful things. Have you ever wished you could see just what happened in certain Bible times or in History? Many of our history books are not true because wicked men often want to hide the truth from people. Well if you read some of Ellen White’s books you can see she writes about some scenes and you can tell that she has seen them! She is describing just what is going on. In the older books she often says, “I was shown”, or “I saw”.

I think this is why we like movies too much. It gives us the feeling we are seeing what ‘really’ happened. We say ‘seeing is believing’ but this is not true about movies and TV. What we see on them is just what some people decided to make and the actors act out the scenes. It is not true at all and it can be very dangerous to believe a lie!

But when Sister White was shown what happened, it was true. The angels showed her what really did happen. Someday if we are faithful, we will get to see all these records of history in heaven and know what really happened. If you read the story of Jesus trial and death in Desire of Ages, you will know that she was watching it happen.

In the late 1800s, Ellen spent some time in Europe and as she traveled around, she would see things she knew about and tell people what happened there in the past. She would tell them what a certain church or market looked like in the 1500s! I’d have loved to hear her do that, wouldn’t you?

Many things from her visions came back clearly to her as she saw places where they had happened and some things she understood better. That is why when she returned from Europe she wrote another edition of Great Controversy in 1888 with more detail in that are not found in the 1884 one, and even a few more chapters. Both books are good to read as, like the four gospels, they each have important things in them. You will always find that anything that is important, God repeats it in different ways; so more people will understand it.

One of the things she saw was that in the dark ages many times the papal powers would send soldiers and even whole armies after God’s true people and when they were about to attack them, suddenly the armies would become very afraid and run away as fast as they could! This will happen for God’s people in the last days also. No one can stay when an angel of God tells them to go!

I urge you young people to get the books of Ellen White and read them as well as read the Bible for yourselves. Don’t wait for teachers or church people to tell you what is in them. You must ‘eat’ for yourself. By doing this you will become wise in the Lord and have great peace and courage!    

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS –3

The Great Controversy Vision

In the very first vision Ellen received as a teenager, she was shown things that have to do with the last days of the great battle between Jesus and His angels and Satan and his fallen angels that has been raging on this earth ever since Adam and Eve listened to the serpent instead of obeying God.

Later in 1848, she was shown more and then in 1858, she had what we know as the ‘Great Controversy Visions’, which gave her more information.

What were these visions really about? Well, they basically give us the details of Satan’s master plan to fool all the world, even God’s faithful people. They even give us some of the very words of Satan as she was allowed to listen in to him talking to his angels and see him as he schemed and planned to defeat Jesus and trick people into following him instead of God.

This is just what he did in Eden, and he has been doing it ever since. But now there is a difference! He knows his time is almost gone and soon he will be stopped. So he has more plans and tricks now than ever before, and he’s using them all!

God knows we need extra help to see Satan’s evil tricks because now he makes himself to be an angel of light. In other words, he makes people think that his ways are good for them and true. He mixes some truth in with his lies and then the people think because the truth is good, that it is all good. Remember that rat poison is always mostly good grain.

Satan was raging angry when Jesus showed his plans to Ellen and she started to write them down for us to read and be warned. He tried to kill her right after the vision, before she could even get back home!

“A strange, cold sensation struck my heart, passed over my head, and down my right side.” She was unconscious for a while but awoke when they prayed earnestly for her. She was not able to move her arms or legs and thought she would die. Satan had tried to kill her, But an angel was sent to help her and as the dear people who loved Jesus continued to pray she began to be able to move a little and could go home the next day.

However she was still partly numb, very sick, and unable to walk properly. In this suffering way, she began to write the book. At first she could only write one page and then she would collapse and have to rest for three days. But she kept trying and the people kept praying. Finally the power of Satan was broken and the book was written.

First came Volume 1 of ‘Spiritual Gifts’ then in 1884, in Volume 4 of “Spirit of Prophecy’ she wrote a more complete account. After she had been to Europe, she added some more chapters and information, which was printed in the1888 edition. The 1911 book has some quotes changed, as the enemies of truth had been busy finding and destroying old history books that tell the truth about the dark ages and the reformation.  Some of the books used before could not be found. They had to use other books that said much the same thing.

 It is good to read all of these Great Controversy editions, as each has something the others don’t have, it is like the four gospels, they tell the same story but in slightly different ways. God does this a lot in the Bible, especially with prophecies. 

Now I want to tell you a true secret; any time that any body starts to read or give away to others the book Great Controversy, Satan is angry! That is why you should pray before you read it, for Jesus to help you understand it, and read it all through. Satan will make you busy, or get your mind off on something else.

I have seen many people read the first half of the book and say it was so interesting and then, just when they were getting to the MOST interesting part, they loose interest, get busy and the book is thrown aside. Satan hates that book! That is why we should love it, second only to our dear KJV Bible, which Satan also hates.

I also think of the courage that Ellen White had, as she wrote faithfully even when sick and suffering, so we can have the messages God wants us to have. When we see her in heaven, we must say thank you! 

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS –4  

A Warning

Ever think it would be great to be a prophet? Well, when Ellen was still just a teenager, she was given messages to deliver to the people, all kinds of people, strangers, older people, men and women. Imagine how hard that would be!

It was very hard for her to tell them just what the Lord said so she often softened them down, and made them as mild as possible for fear of making the people angry or sad.

She said, “It was a great trial to declare the messages as the Lord gave them to me. I did not realize that I was so unfaithful, and did not see the danger and sin of such a course, until I was taken in vision into the presence of Jesus.

“He looked upon me with a frown, and turned his face from me. It is not possible to describe the terror and agony I then felt. I fell upon my face before him, but had no power to utter a word. O, how I longed to be covered and hid from that dreadful frown. Then could I realize, in some degree what the feelings of the lost will be, when they cry, 'Mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’.

 Then an angel told her to rise, and the sight that met her eyes can hardly be described. She saw people presented before her whose hair and garments were torn, and whose faces were the very picture of despair and horror.

“They came close to me, and took their garments and rubbed them on mine, I looked at my garments, and saw that they were stained with blood, and that blood was eating holes in my garments. Again I fell like one dead, at the feet of my accompanying angel. I could not plead one excuse. My tongue refused all utterance, and I longed to be away from such a holy place.”

Again the angel stood her up on her feet, and told her that this wasn’t her case yet, but it would be if she failed to tell the people just what the Lord showed her to tell them!

The angel continued, “If you are faithful to the end, you shall eat of the tree of life, and shall drink of the river of the water of life. You will have to suffer much, but the grace of God is sufficient." She then felt willing to do all that the Lord might want her to do, that she might have His smile, and not feel his dreadful frown. 

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS –5  

What Jesus is Doing in Heaven Now-

In 1847, Ellen was shown the Heavenly Sanctuary and Jesus working in the Most Holy Place! It happened during a prayer meeting in a believers home- She tell about her vision:

 “I saw an angel swiftly flying to me. He quickly carried me from the earth to the Holy City. In the city I saw a temple, which I entered. I passed through a door before I came to the first vail. This vail was raised, and I passed into the Holy Place. Here I saw the altar of Incense, the candlestick with seven lamps, and the table on which was the showbread, etc. After viewing the glory of the Holy, Jesus raised the second veil, and I passed into the Holy of Holies.”

Here she saw the ark all covered in pure gold and two golden angels on each end facing each other and looking down to the top of the ark. On it was a golden censer (a pot on a chain for carrying incense)

Above the ark appeared a throne and she knew God was there. Jesus was before the ark and as the prayers of His people would come up, the censer would smoke and He would offer the prayers to His Father on the throne.

She saw inside the ark a pot of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded also the precious 10 Commandments on two stones. Jesus took them out and opened them up like a book and she saw the law of God. The first 4 commandments were on one stone and the other 6 were on the other one.

Here’s what she said about them: “The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six. But the fourth (the Sabbath commandment,) shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The holy Sabbath looked glorious--a halo of glory was all around it. I saw that the Sabbath was not nailed to the cross. If it was, the other nine commandments were; and we are at liberty to go forth and break them all, as well as to break the fourth. I saw that God had not changed the Sabbath, for He never changes. (See MAL. 3:6) But the Pope had changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week; for he was to change times and laws.” (see DAN. 7: 25.)

She saw that if God had changed the Sabbath to Sunday, He would have changed the words on the stones to “Keep the first day holy” but He has not; they are the same as when He wrote them with His own finger!

All God’s true people will keep His Sabbath holy and God will bless them! Did you know that if man had always kept the true Sabbath of Creation, Satan could not have fooled them with the evolution lie?

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS –6  

The Battle!

In a vision, Ellen White saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was carrying flags of worldly things; the other was led by the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel.

Many flags were dropped in the dust as people from the Lord's army joined the enemy; but also tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the faithful people of God.

An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the flag of Jesus into many hands, while a Mighty General cried with a loud voice: "Come into line. Let those who keep God’s commandments and love Jesus and His truth, now take their places. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters. Let all who will come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

  The battle raged. Sometimes it seemed that the soldiers of the cross were loosing. But it was only to get to a better position. Shouts of joy were heard. A song of praise to God went up, and angel voices united in the song, as Christ's soldiers planted His banner on the walls of fortresses till then held by the enemy. Our Captain, Jesus, was guiding the battle and sending support to His soldiers. His power was mightily displayed, encouraging them to press the battle to the gates. He taught them and led them on step by step, conquering and to conquer.

  At last the victory was gained. The army following the banner that said; "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," was Victorious! The soldiers of Jesus were close beside the gates of the city of God, and with joy the city received her King.

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS –7  

Weighing Our Hearts

 “ I have seen an angel standing with scales in his hands weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God, especially the young. In one scale were the thoughts and interest tending heavenward; in the other were the thoughts and interest tending to earth. And in this scale were thrown all the reading of storybooks, thoughts of dress and show, vanity, pride, et cetera. (TV, Movies, Games and Sports as well)

 Oh, what a solemn moment! The angels of God standing with scales, weighing the thoughts of His professed children--those who claim to be dead to the world and alive to God. The scale filled with thoughts of earth, vanity, and pride quickly went down...

The one with the thoughts and interest tending to heaven went quickly up as the other went down, and oh, how light it was! I can relate this as I saw it; but never can I give the solemn and vivid impression stamped upon my mind, as I saw the angel with the scales weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God.

 Said the angel: "Can such enter heaven? No, no, never. Tell them the hope they now possess is vain, and unless they speedily repent, and obtain salvation, they must perish." . . . those who give up the mind to be diverted with foolish stories and idle tales, have the imagination fed, but the brilliancy of God's word is eclipsed (dark) to them. The mind is led directly from God. The interest in His precious word is destroyed.” 1-T. –124

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS –8

Satan’s Snares

One of the main reasons God sent messages for His dear people to Ellen White was to warn us about Satan’s tricks and snares in these last days. There are some people who will tell you that we shouldn’t talk about Satan and his lies. How nice for our enemy, eh? He has all his tricks to fool us and we aren’t even supposed to talk about them? If we are truly belonging to Jesus, we are not to spend our time being afraid or worrying about him, but we certainly need to study and know his tricks!

In the Spirit of Prophecy writings, ‘Satan’ or satanic is mentioned in19,292 paragraphs. Why? Because if we know our enemies tricks we can avoid getting fooled! Jesus doesn’t want His dear children fooled, but all too many say, “Awe, I don’t believe that. Those writings are too ‘Old Fashioned’. Things are different today.”

Yes, things are different in this way; Satan’s lures and traps are all around us more than ever before, except maybe just before the flood. Ellen White was shown Satan’s plans, she even got to listen into his words as he commanded his angels how to fool God’s people.

One of the things he uses is to make us greedy and covetous. If we want to have lots of earthly money and pleasure, we don’t have time to really get close to Jesus. The missions that are to tell the people all around the world about Jesus, end up failing because the people won’t give their money to help the missionaries. They want to keep the money for themselves.

Another thing she saw was that Satan keeps young people busy with holidays and entertainment, shows, parties, socials, sports and even music. They are so busy with these things that they have no time to study and pray and allow Jesus to get their hearts ready for heaven. Even church socials and programs can do this.

We have more of these time wasting tricks today than ever before. With TV, video, computer games and video games, music and entertainment, sports and hobbies everywhere. Take a good look at your life; is Jesus first with you? Pray earnestly and ask Jesus to show you the truth about yourself, if you are ready for heaven, or just fooling yourself.

God’s message to the young is that Jesus is soon coming and we must be ready!

ELLEN WHITE’S VISIONS AND DREAMS –9  

Iceberg Ahead!

In 1904, Ellen White was shown a strange dream about a ship hitting an iceberg. She knew that this dream was warning that there were some very wrong ideas that people were trying to bring into the church. The dream showed her that God wanted the leaders of the church to speak out against this and not allow it to come into the church. This is the dream:

“One night a scene was clearly presented before me. A vessel was upon the waters, in a heavy fog. Suddenly the lookout cried, "Iceberg just ahead!" There, towering high above the ship, was a gigantic iceberg. An authoritative voice cried out, "Meet it!" There was not a moment's hesitation. It was a time for instant action. The engineer put on full steam, and the man at the wheel steered the ship straight into the iceberg.

 “With a crash she struck the ice. There was a fearful shock, and the iceberg broke into many pieces, falling with a noise like thunder to the deck. The passengers were violently shaken by the force of the collisions, but no lives were lost. The vessel was injured, but not beyond repair. She rebounded from the contact, trembling from stem to stern, like a living creature. Then she moved forward on her way.”

By the church ‘striking’ right away at the wrong ideas that men were bringing in, they were stopped from taking over the church.

It is interesting that when the great ship the ‘Titanic’ ran into the iceberg in 1915, if it would have hit it straight on like in this dream, it would not have been cut open and sunk. But when they tried to slow down and go around it, the side was cut open and the ship sunk.

This is like wrong habits and sin in our lives. If we meet it head on with the power of Jesus, we will overcome it. But if we try to find a way around it; decide to wait and see what happens; or make excuses or compromises with it- sooner or later it will sink us.

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