Tuesday, September 30, 2014
285: BE NOT FAITHLESS... BUT BELIEVING
We are living in the Dispensation of the fullness of times, in which God is bringing together all things in heaven and earth. Unfortunately we are too controlled and too disciplined in wrong ways and not sufficiently taught and encouraged in the right ways. We need to become inspired, Spirit-filled, Spirit led. If we are filled with hope, we can be a great help to our family, friends, and fellow Saints. WE have a wonderful opportunity in this life to repent, forgive, seek, pray, fast, and study to gain a greater measure of truth and light.
This video was created over three years ago for a presentation we had at our home. It portrays a story about receiving a personal witness of Christ, and Thomas who doubted due to lack of faith and his unbelief.
"After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses…
Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; …when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions-Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the First Born [Teachings Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 150-51].
Thank you. Powerful and very beautiful message.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!! What a great way to start the morning:)
ReplyDeleteRob
I remember how wonderful it was to watch this. Hope you're doing well.
ReplyDelete-Chase
Are you like Thomas, full of regret for not being good enough?
ReplyDeleteA common theme I have noticed in LDS folks testimonies is that their motivations for what they call faithfulness is anchored in fear. They claim to have beliefs that will lead to happiness but in reality most of the time they are the most fearful, frequently stressed out and unhappy people I come across.
This post is based on creating more fear and doubt too, it's not about being believing! The main point you were stressing was that maybe you are going to regret your life because you aren't exercising enough faith, or you didn't repent enough or you are not being led by the Spirit enough. Just fill in the blank, the premise is you should be doubtful and fearful you are not going to measure up and instead of experiencing endless joy you will be regretting and hating yourself for not doing more. Oh also don't forget not only are you going to be feeling pretty bad about your shameful failures to be enough and do enough, you will also be completely failing your family and friends too and you will be the source of their endless despair. This post is just reverse psychology.
People have many beliefs to keep them in this state of fear. Since you are LDS you have been conditioned and indoctrinated in the worst ways when it comes to fearful living. For example, take agency, it is ingrained into people's minds that they are free to choose to live their life as they wish but really it is just reverse psychology to control them. I say that because the focus the majority of the time is not on the teaching of freedom choice but the consequences of choosing things that go against whatever is to be feared if the choosing is not in line with established teachings and toxic fear base beliefs. There are a variety of different ways to control people and keep them in a state of mind where fear and doubt is a constant consideration. Imposing guilt, shame, constant reminders of forfeiture of blessings as punishment for not adhering to authoritative counsel, or even questioning and doubting established teachings/ beliefs People are conditioned and indoctrinated to the point that their if their sense of conscience is crossed they will be violently racked with pain and that brings on enormous amounts of shame, depression, fear, and anxiety which traps people in an abusive cycle self-hatred and other negative emotions and behaviors. Then they deal with family and church authority who are just as warp in their thinking and behavior, and they will impose more of that darkness on the person. Fear is a constant motivation to remain faithful and true to different authorities. But now, guess what? You will never measure up, see don't forget that there is this natural man part of you that makes YOU an enemy to God. So now because of the perversion of overly authoritarian influences that have been ingrained in you, you are constantly yielding to a conscience that has been toxically conditioned to be always questioning if you are doing enough based on an impossible standard of perfection. Pretty quickly you will be feeling like you are will losing out of a promised reward for yourself. And don't forget you will be taking away the promised rewards and joy of your family and friends too (which only makes you feel worse about yourself) and the self-hatred and abuse cycle continues.
You know for a people that sincerely wants to be with Christ and be like Him you are missing the mark pretty badly. Your focus is truly not on Him regardless what your claims and teachings are. The focus it is on YOUrselves and what YOU must do. You are constantly measuring yourselves wrongly. The people at church measure you and then you meet with your leaders so they can judge you too. Your whole thinking and focus is backwards and keeps you in doubt. You think way too much about yourselves.
ReplyDeleteI would seriously reexamine what "spirit" you think you have been following, because many posts on your blog here are insidiously rooted in doubt and fear, even in the ones that you try to be uplifting. Toxic, doubt and fear-filled living is not going help you receive Christ faster. It's only going to make your suffer more, needlessly. Perhaps you should get away from what you think are precious revealed truths for a while because they are not as fruitful as you make them sound to be. Seriously it's like a mental illness to willingly allow yourself to needlessly suffer because of a toxic belief system.
If you feel like you must "do" something, make a lifelong commitment to the daily study of grace for starters, ;) you will probably read all the "mormon" grace themed books in less than a month, so consider other resources ;) Seriously though I hope you will let go of your false religious ideas that keeps you from living a more believing, faith-filled life and having real happiness now.
Rob:
DeleteI appreciate the criticism. I am the first to admit that I have alot of false traditions running through my blood that I am trying to shed. If I have caused more fear and doubt in people because of what I write, then I have great need to repent and ask for forgiveness. I re-read your comments a couple of times. You bring up some interesting points for me to consider. Anything that helps be turn more fully to Him, I am grateful for.
Perfect love casteth away all fear. I hope to receive that perfect love from Him. Until that day, may the Lord help me with my unbelief, my doubts and my fears.
Rob, do you mind sharing the fruits of your teachings? It seems you are pretty convinced of what must be done...have you met Jesus? Has He spoken to you face to face? If so, I'd love to hear how you have come to that point.
ReplyDelete"Salvation cannot come without revelation; it is in vain for anyone to minister without it. No man is a minister of Jesus Christ without being a Prophet. No man can be a minister of Jesus Christ except he has the testimony of Jesus; and this is the spirit of prophecy. Whenever salvation has been administered, it has been by testimony. Men of the present time testify of heaven and hell, and have never seen either; and I will say that no man knows these things without this"
If you are hoping other to obtain salvation through your teachings Rob, it must be that you have seen both heaven and hell, and that you have received the testimony of Jesus. Is that the case?
Rob,
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of care put into your comments, only someone who cares about others would bother to write something of warning. I would like you as a friend any day.