Faith Like Enos

When the Lord speaks, do we have faith in His words?

When the Lord forgave Enos, his guilt was washed away because he knew the Lord could not lie.
     
       "And there came a voice unto me saying, 'Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.  And I Enos, knew that God could not lie, wherefore, my guilt was swept away."                                                           -Enos 1:5-6

When the spirit speaks to us, when we receive a priesthood blessing (etc), when a voice comes unto US, do we place full faith in that?  Do we let those words turn into knowledge and faith that sweep away our worry, or guilt?

When you practice hearing and acting on the promptings you receive, you start to have more confidence in your own ability to discern and hear his voice.  Much of our doubt or disbelief is based on doubt in our OWN ability to discern rather than doubt of the Lord's words, love, or power.  Nevertheless, that doubt chases away faith and places a stumbling block for miracles, as the Lord cannot bless us with more than we are willing to receive.
     
 "....they shall return again to their place, TO ENJOY THAT WHICH THEY ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received."                                                                                                                     -D&C 88:32

The more you act on these whisperings from the spirit, the more promptings you will receive. Your love and gratitude for him will grow as you receive additional spirit, and precious experiences through following those promptings.  Placing your faith in the words the Lord speaks to you, as well as the word of the Lord through prophets and scriptures, will allow you to experience more of the Lord's peace, power, and blessings in your life.


TAKE ACTION: One of the best ways to learn and develop faith in the way the Lord speaks to you, is to jot down notes of the promptings you receive.  Write down (or take note on a notepad on your phone) every prompting, however small, whether you acted on it and what the outcome was.  Pray and let the Lord know you want his help in recognizing his voice more clearly in your day to day life.  

May the Lord bless you and keep you and may you draw near unto Him so that he can draw near unto you.

A Wall Broken

I am so happy to share that I was able to perform my songs with my sweet family at my Grandma's care facility in St George a few days ago.  Now, I know there are some people who do this sort of thing all the time, and those who have grown up performing regularly.  I am not one of those people.  I did not grow up performing all the time, and sharing MY music is an even MORE vulnerable thing than just singing some other music.

Well, I'm very thankful to my family for all of the support they gave and especially to Justin for singing with me, since more than half of the songs I've written are meant for BOTH of our voices and it just brought such beautiful light and variety to the music to have him there.  I also am SO SO happy my little Joshua (7) and my Dad were willing to sing on "Dear Dad."  So precious.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that I'm so happily encouraged by this experience and I have entered into this new chapter of being a "sing-songwriter" called "performing." :)

My Savior, My Brother

I had a special feeling in the temple last week.  It was my first time to go to a session in 6 months, as my baby is 5 months old.  The new movie had my brain functioning in a different way, learning and pondering new things.  I imagined the grand council in heaven, all of us sitting around with the father discussing the plan and who was to be the Savior.  (It may have been way more formal than this, this is just the way I pictured it.)  It felt almost like a family sitting around in a family home evening, or a ward sacrament meeting with our father in heaven at the pulpit, and feelings of love, connection and familiarity with all of the people in the congregation.  In this meeting, Jesus Christ stood up and said, "Here am I, send me."  I imagine I felt so much love and admiration for him, and I also feel that I felt proud of him, as my sweet brother whom I knew and had seen progress.  I was proud and also happy for him that he would get to have this experience that would help him grow even more.

How must we have all felt in these moments about the missions WE were to fulfill on the earth?  How do we feel about our missions now?  Are we searching the spirit and our hearts to know what the Lord would have us do for the people around us?  Are we opening our mouths to all in our spheres so that we can be cleansed from "the blood and sins of this generation"?  (Or in other words so that the choices of those to whom we did not open our mouths, will not be upon our heads.)

  Could we extend the feelings of love and family that we must have felt in that counsel to the guy that cuts you off in the car, to the woman that yells at her kid in the store for doing almost nothing, and to the neighbor across the street who seems to want nothing to do with you?  Are we seeking the Lords will as to what he would have us do for these people?

"have ye ^aspiritually been ^bborn of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty ^cchange in your hearts?

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a ^achange of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the^bsong of redeeming love, I would ask, ^ccan ye feel so now?"

Alma 5:14,26

 I would ask, ^ccan ye feel so now?

Thoughts from Conference

From Elder Robert D. Hales in October 2013 Conference:

"President Harold B. Lee taught: "The only safety we have as members of this church is to...give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through His prophet.  There will be some things that take patience and faith.  You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church.  It may contradict your [personal] views.  It may contradict your social views.  It may interfere with some of your social life.  But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that 'the gates of hell shall not prevail against you;...and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory' (D&C 21:6)."

I know I want the powers of darkness dispersed from before me!  What marvelous promises we have given when we can trust the Lord and his counsel.  I heard some wonderful imagery today: that to be in the world and not of it, is like being the lotus flower in the water, it floats on the water, but remains dry and untouched. If we will have the guts to be a peculiar people and to cling to the Lord, He will pour down blessings from heaven in all of the abundance that we are able to receive.

We were Saved for These Days

I've been studying about this, the last dispensation and the hastening of the work of the Lord.  I still want to spend time with some conference talks and such on the topic, but I have learned a lot already, and I don't want to leave any hypothetical readers waiting too long for another post. :)

  I am always sort of unsure about all the heads of various dispensations and what that means for sure.  Well, you may already be clear on this, but each time that the fullness of the Lord's gospel, specifically the priesthood, was lost from the earth, the person through whom it was restored is the head of that dispensation.  It is also recognized that we don't really know for sure who all are dispensation heads BUT they are at least Adam, Enoch, Noah, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith.  We know that the priesthood will never be lost from the earth again, and that this is the final "dispensation of the fullness of times." (D&C 112:30)

Prophets through out time have looked forward to our day, "for in it will take place the glorious fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers, while the manifestations of the power of the Most High will be great, glorious, and sublime." (Teachings of Joseph Smith, p512)  WE get to prepare the earth for the return of our Savior.  What a glorious privilege our Father has entrusted to us, by reserving us for this time in the earth's history.

Joseph Smith said, "The work which has to be accomplished in the last days is one of vast importance, and will call into action the ENERGY, SKILL, TALENT, and ABILITY of the Saints..." (ToJS, p512)  I have an eternal friend that calls herself a "secret agent for the Lord."  Again from Joseph Smith, "Dear Brethren, feeling desirous to carry out the purposes of  God, to which work we have been called, and to be CO-WORKERS WITH HIM in this last dispensation...." sounds like the Lord wants us all to be secret agents for him right!? ....He goes on, "Here, then beloved brethren [and sisters] is a work to engage in worthy of archangels....a work which kings and prophets and righteous men in former ages have sought, expected, and earnestly desired to see, but died without sight;....a work that is destined to bring about the destruction of the powers of darkness, the renovation of the earth, the glory of God, and the salvation of the human family." (Tof JS,513-514)

Do you want to feel important and needed?  There you have it.  The Lord needs YOU to bring about his great work on the earth.  He saved YOU for this time, gave you the knowledge you have, and will pour out his blessings and spirit upon you as you do his work.  He will make mighty the humble followers of Christ.  He will show you the work that he has for you as you seek him.

Amber

Opposition In Us

I've been pondering lately on what brilliant beings we are...how our spirits are drawn toward light and truth and how if we could see each other in all our glory, we would be tempted to worship even the least of the people on the earth.  All of this, and at the same time, the scriptures often refer to our nothingness, and we often have to learn the same seemingly simple lessons over and over again.

Our Spirit
"Our spirits want only to be with God." (audio recording Goshen fireside - John Pontius)  I have felt that pull from my spirit over and over in my life as I have tried desperately at times to not be a spiritual being, while something inside of me could not live there forever and had to have something more.  This is why "wickedness never was happiness." (Alma 41:10)  Because even though the veil is drawn, and we don't recall our divine nature, it is nevertheless there, and our spirits are unhappy when we are not choosing God. Our spirits will continue to tug on us, and that is a gift in this fallen world.

Fallen Man
"The natural man is an enemy to God, and has been since the fall of Adam..."
Here are some scriptural phrases associated with the natural man:  enemy to God, bonds of iniquity, contrary to nature of God, devil has all power over, evil continually,nothingness, less than dust of the earth.  (Mos 3:19, Alma 41:11, Mos 16:5, Alma 42:10, Ether 3:2, Mosiah 4:5,11  , Hel 12:7)  Satan does in fact have a lot of power on this earth and when we follow the desires of the flesh, or the carnal man, we are under that power.  Sounds harsh, but it is true.

Opposition
We come with our divine nature into this fallen world.  We come pure, innocent and beautiful.  We come with our conscience, the light of Christ, and we recognize good and evil.  And as we are divine beings in this carnal flesh, in this fallen world we FEEL and recognize this opposition daily.  This opposition is part of our very flesh.

We have the opportunity, the blessing (that 1/3 the hosts of heaven do NOT have) to overcome the flesh, to strengthen our spirits and purify the flesh little by little as we choose God over and over every day of our lives.  The more we choose God, the more light, knowledge, and healing we receive, the more we live after the "nature of happiness" (Alma 41:11), and the more we prepare our flesh, through the atonement, to one day live in the presence of God.

               
  "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them
   which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal
   life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death,
   according to the captivity and power of the devil, for he seeketh that all men
   might be miserable like unto himself

   And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken
   unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal
    life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit."
                                                                                              2 Ne 2:27-28

Prayer and Consecration

Alma 32:9

“‘But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint;

that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first

place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he

will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance

may be for the welfare of thy soul.”   -Alma 32:9

D&C 109

17 That all the incomings of thy people, into this house, may be

in the name of the Lord;

18 That all their outgoings from this house may be in the name of

the Lord;

19 And that all their salutations may be in the name of the Lord,

with holy hands, uplifted to the Most High;

I have loved these scriptures for a long time because it is the desire of my heart to be living always remembering Christ and dedicating my life to him.  I also love the verse in the bible where the Lord tells Moses something like, take off thy shoes from on thy feet, for the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground.  I want to walk in holiness to the Lord with nothing standing in between us to lessen the clarity of connection.  My spirit knows the joy that comes from being with Christ and Heavenly Father, and my spirit desires this joy.

Several weeks ago a dear friend talked to me about consecration and some things the Lord has been teaching her about moment to moment consecration. Moment to moment consecration comes from remembering Christ all day long, from remembering in each moment to seek the Lord’s will and guidance and to dedicate what you are doing to Him and asking him to make it holy.  It turns your mundane moments into holy moments that are blessed by our Father in Heaven.  Although I have had some special experiences with the help of this idea, I have a long way to go in fully and consistently applying these principles.

Prayer is such a blessing.  It is our door to heaven.  Here are some key words and phrases associated with prayer in the scriptures: waxed bold in mighty prayer, oft, wrestles, without ceasing, offer your whole souls as an offering, diligence, with all the energy of heart.  No where does it say, short, sweet and without conviction. ;)  

There are many scriptures that say to pray always.  I feel that this moment to moment consecration is a way to do that.  If you are consciously living each moment for God, with the intention of being his instrument, and promptly giving away any feelings from the adversary to Christ, you will have more power over the adversary.  Christ said,

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always

lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive

by him.”  -3 Ne 18:15

Here’s another fitting scripture:

“Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be

full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and

also for the welfare of those who are around you.” -Alma 34:27

With diligence unto prayer, and with Christ going before our face, we can experience our burdens being lightened by Christ and receiving the joy of those who are able to be his hands on the earth.  This is also a wonderful way to keep an eternal perspective and not become complacent in our spiritual seeking.  Before my friend came and talked with me, I was so desiring a way that I could better maintain eternal perspective in my day to day life.  For me, this is the tool I needed.