Spirit World Assistance, per Brian Mickelson

In a recent blog post, LDS blogger Brian Mickelson wrote this excellent article.

Assistance from the World of Spirits…

As has been mentioned before, Mormons are pretty focused on genealogical research, or in other words, family history. I went over a few reason in this post. But let me add one more… One of my favorite former students posted this quote from Elder John Widtsoe:

Perhaps if we would do our work in behalf of those of the unseen world who hunger and pray for the work we can do for them, the unseen world would in return give us help in this day of our urgent need. There are more in that other world than there are here. There is more power and strength there than we have here upon this earth. (Elder John A. Widtsoe, Conference Report, April 1943, 39)

My personal belief is that those who pass away continue to live, disembodied (until the resurrection), in the world of spirits. They think, choose, exist, and work, unseen by us (for the most part). They may be given assignments to assist those on earth from time to time, I’m sure.

When Elisha and his servant were surrounded by an opposing army, Elisha felt the help and presence of heaven and expressed that to his servant: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kings 6:16). That was hard for the servant to believe, so Elisha asked that God would allow the servant to see things that were typically unseen. When the eyes of the servant were opened, spiritually speaking, “behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). I do believe that you and I have help from the other side of the veil. Probably a lot of it. Probably more than we can appreciate. I also suppose that all other reasons aside, one of the best reasons to work to provide ordinances for those who have died without the opportunity to perform them themselves is to qualify for the feeling that we’ve worked together, us and our ancestors. We are helping them and they are helping us. The veil isn’t as thick as it sometimes seems…