Satan 's Deceptions
By Cordell Vail
Copyright 2000 by Cordell Vail
Some time ago I had a very vivid dream. I dreamed that I was the engineer of a locomotive. The dream seemed so real. I was riding along the track sitting on my little chair looking down the track looking for danger. As we raced along, I saw what looked like a brick wall across the tracks. It was very big and I could see that if we hit it, the whole train would be destroyed. On the instrument panels that were in front of me I had gauges that were like a radar. They looked down the track and told me if there were any obstructions on the tracks. As I saw the brick wall coming I looked at the gauges and they said "ALL CLEAR", but at the same time I kept hearing a voice yelling to me, "JUMP... JUMP you are going to die." I was very tempted to jump off the train so I would not die. But the gauges all said that the track was clear.In all my training as a train engineer they always told us to depend on the gauges more than what we actually saw. They taught us that the gauges would be right even if what we saw disagreed with them. The brick wall drew closer very rapidly and the voice kept saying to me "JUMP.. JUMP.. or you are going to die". The wall was coming, but the gauges said the track was all clear. As we got to the wall, one last time the voice screamed in terror in my ears, "JUMP... JUMP.. or you are going to die". But I decided that I would follow the gauges and so I just closed my eyes and let the train hit the big brick wall.
When the train hit the brick wall, I heard a ripping sound. When I opened my eyes again the track was all clear just as the gauges had said and I realized that someone had just painted a "paper brick wall" and put it over the track to deceive me. I was so startled that I woke up from the dream. I immediately realized the symbolism of the dream. In this life many times, Satan (the voice in the dream) tries to tell us that we should do things that are not right. He calls out to us and tries to make us panic and follow him rather than what we know is right. He even makes things seem to appear as what they are not (the paper brick wall) to convince us to follow his voice. But the Holy Ghost and the living prophets (the gauges on the locomotive), can always be depended on.
The Holy Ghost and the living prophets are never wrong. Sometimes it
is so very, very hard to follow the prompting of the Holy Ghost or the
words of the living prophets. Satan's voice sounds so convincing in our
minds and so real. The "Paper Brick Walls" that Satan puts up in our lives
can look so real sometimes. But the Holy Ghost and the counsel of the
living prophets, like the gauges on the train, are never wrong. And if we
follow the prompting of the Holy Ghost and the teachings of the living
prophets we will never make a mistake.