I dropped by Amazon to check our listings and discovered daughter Elizabeth Bloodworth Mitchell had done a thoughtful review of our first book, Visions, Dreams & Encounters. Here is what she wrote:

Great companion resource on the subject of visions, dreams, and dream interpretation!
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Have you ever wondered if dreams have meaning, or if visions are real? Have you ever thought about whether an ordinary person can have a spiritual encounter, or what that might look like in everyday life? The Bible shows us that God often used visions, dreams, and encounters to communicate divine messages to people. In this book, Visions, Dreams & Encounters, the author uses decades of journal entries to demonstrate that God still speaks in these hidden mysteries today, and that diligent chronicling and interpreting of “things hidden” can lead to clear revelation and direction.

Over the past year or two, I have read several books about how God speaks through dreams and visions. I also participated in an online seminar that devoted several sessions to this subject. The books I read were primarily teaching books—several taught principles of dream journaling and interpretation and used occasional personal examples to illuminate certain points. What is fascinating to me about Russell Bloodworth Jr.’s book is that it is not a teaching book in the traditional sense. Rather, it is a collection of one person’s personal examples, compiled in chronological order, covering a span of decades, so that the reader learns by the author’s observation, interpretation, and application. While this book is not exactly a diary, the reader learns a good deal about the author, his family, and many of the members of his faith community, and their spiritual journey over time. In several places in the book, the author interjects to provide his reflections on particular visions, dreams, or encounters—contrasting his interpretation at the time of the event with his interpretation at the time of writing (in many cases, decades apart). Many hidden gems lie in these reflections; it is here that the author shares some beautiful spiritual insights as well as several vitally important lessons learned.

While the format of this book may not appeal to everyone (it is written as a collection of journal entries), I believe that it offers fresh and authentic insight into the topics of spiritual visions, dreams and dream interpretation, spiritual encounters, and how God speaks. I think this book could be particularly helpful as a companion to traditional books on these subjects. While many other books I have read taught me about these subjects, this book showed me how one can apply these principles in practical ways, over time, and in so doing, reap a valuable reward.

Disclosure: I am a daughter of the author, but my review of this book is completely my own. I read the book in its entirety, and everything I wrote in the review is true. I was studying these topics even before I knew my father was writing this book, and I was fascinated when I did read this book to see the incredible parallels between what I had learned through my own studies and what my father had been living out for years! My father had never shared his journals before, so almost all of what was written in the book was completely new to me. I firmly believe that this book could be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to learn more about how God speaks through visions, dreams, and encounters, especially if one read this book alongside other books on these subjects.