The Holy Spirit/Ghost? part 3

Introduction

The first thing you should know about me is that “the Lord has not made me mighty in writing, but has made me mighty in word by faith.” [1] When I compare my ability to convey information through the medium of formal writing with those from whom my information has come from, I see my inadequacies magnified. The ideal situation for me to discuss the following topic is in a small group of 2-3 people where the Spirit can help the flow of ideas and can edify everyone involved. There is a fluidity of ideas when guided by the Spirit. When you allow a mental navigation through nonlinear topics, you can reveal truth in its entirety, something that becomes more difficult when bound by organized text. Alas, there are 7.5 billion people on the planet and I can’t hold 3.5 billion discussions and so I must relegate myself to using a mode that I find tedious and ineffectual. As this is my third attempt at writing on this topic, I pray that somehow the ideas, thoughts, and truths that the Lord has made known unto me, will be conveyed to your heart.

I was raised in Mormonism and accepted every religious principle that was taught to me throughout my life. I was raised with the knowledge available through the Church’s publications and teaching model which has been both a blessing and a bane. I am eternally grateful to my parents for reading The Book of Mormon (BoM) as a family throughout my childhood. I am grateful for the foundation in the gospel that Primary and Young Men’s provided. I am grateful to have grown up in a community of loving Christ-like adults who patiently dealt with my rebellious attitude towards authority and reverence. I have only just begun my journey towards true salvation and I owe a great deal to the people who were involved in my upbringing. Along with that upbringing, however, I also accepted many traditions that have hindered my progress; the nature of the Godhead being one of them.

I recently had the pleasure of having the missionaries come to my house for dinner. We ate with the family and got to know each other a bit. Afterwards, my children ran off to the park, my wife and her sister went upstairs to work on a quilt and care for our newborn daughter, and my eldest daughter sat at her laptop drawing. This left just the three of us to talk about the gospel. I had my quad (Bible, BoM, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price) handy to back up my positions and started by asking them, “What makes our church the only true church on the earth?” Now, I admit my question was intended to control the conversation towards a particular end, as I already knew what answer they were trained to give me. The newest Elder responded, “We are the only church authorized to baptize for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” I wish I had written down that answer beforehand and then brought it out at that moment to give the illusion that I was a mind reader, although they must have known I was asking simple questions for a reason.

I next asked, “What is the Holy Ghost?” At this, both Elders seemed a bit confused at the question. “It’s a simple question. You said we can have the gift of the Holy Ghost. What is the Holy Ghost?” After a few glances between the both of them, unsure how to answer, I said, “Ok, how about an easier question? What is the gift of the Holy Ghost?” The senior Elder happily replied, “The gift of the Holy Ghost is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.” The ice having broken through, we were suddenly able to move forward with our discussion.

“Is the Holy Ghost a personage?”

“Yes, he is a personage of Spirit.”

“Is he an individual being like God the Father and His son Jesus Christ?”

“Yes, he is an individual being.”

“Can he dwell within us?”

“Yes, he can dwell within.”

“So what is the Holy Ghost?"

Now they were ready to answer, “He is a member of the Godhead. The Comforter. He testifies of the Father and the Son. He knows all things.” Every answer they gave was correct and any Mormon from the age of 8 could tell me these things. I didn’t want the Primary answers though. I wanted the three of us to open our minds and our hearts to a different possibility. I next asked, “Why don’t we feel the influence of the Holy Ghost all the time?” I then received the Primary answer, “We have to live worthy of his influence.” I then asked, “If the gift of the Holy Ghost is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, but I only feel his influence when I am living worthy, how is that different from not having the Gift of the Holy Ghost? Nonmembers are able to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. If someone prays with real intent to know whether The Book of Mormon is true, they can feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. In that moment they are living worthy of its influence. How is that influence any different than the Gift of the Holy Ghost?”

At this point the Elder’s realized that I was asking a question that they could not answer. The problem in answering this question is that the current Mormon belief structure is based on a tradition that we have been teaching for nearly 100 years. This tradition crept into our religion in the early 1900s and has been stifling our ability to have faith in God unto life and salvation ever since. This tradition is why I am writing this. I hope to open your eyes to a truth that has been taught to me by the Spirit. It is a truth that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught to the Saints. If you will delay your judgement, if you will “give place…in your heart”[2]and “experiment upon my words”[3], if you will “not cast it out…that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord”[4], I promise in the name of Almighty God that the Holy Ghost will bear witness of this truth.

Point 1

What. Not Who.

“There are two personages who constitute the great matchless, governing and supreme power over all things-They are the Father and the Son. The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fullness: The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle…And he [Jesus Christ] being the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fullness of the glory of the Father possessing the same mind with the Father; which Mind is the Holy Spirit, that bears record of the Father and the Son; and these three are one, or in other words, these three constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things; by whom all things were created and made, that were created and made: and these three constitute the Godhead and are one: the Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power, and fullness; filling all in all-the Son being filled with the fullness of the Mind, glory, and power; or in other words the Spirit, glory, and power of the Father-possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom; sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father-a Mediator for man-being filled with the fullness of the Mind of the Father, or in other words, the Spirit of the Father; which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments; and all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all; being filled with the fullness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one.”[5]

In 1835, this was voted in by the Saints of the Church by common consent as canonized scripture. Furthermore, the Prophet Joseph Smith (who headed the editing committee that prepared these scriptures) signed his name to the preface in which he claimed this to be one of, “the leading items of the religion which we have professed to believe.”[6] Specifically, he advanced this scripture as containing, “the important doctrine of salvation”.[7] For nearly 100 years, the doctrine advanced in the above text was found in the beginning of the Doctrine and Covenants. The Doctrine portion being what you’ve just read above, and the covenants listed afterwards.

If you are a Mormon, you have to believe The Book of Mormon to be true. You might not “know” that it is true, but you have to at least believe that it’s true. If you believe The Book of Mormon is true, you have to believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Again, you might not “know” that he was a prophet of God, but you have to believe that he was. If Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, you have to believe that he would not advance something as “the important doctrine of salvation”, unless it truly is an important doctrine of salvation. So what is doctrine? Doctrine is eternal, unchanging truth. You might want to get out the Lectures on Faith and read them.

To summarize the above lecture, the Holy Ghost is the mind of God. It is the mind that the Father and Son share. It is the mind that the Father will share with you, if you believe in the Son and keep his commandments. We are going to explore many scriptures and see if we can prove this to be true. After all, Joseph Smith said, “If any man preaches to you, doctrines contrary to the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or the Book of Doctrine & Covenants, set him down as an imposter...Try them by the principles contained in the acknowledged word of God; if they preach, or teach, or practice contrary to that, disfellowship them; cut them off from among you as useless and dangerous branches.”[8]

Before we get into our scripture study, you might be wondering, “If the Holy Ghost is the mind of God, why does the Church teach that he is a separate personage of the Godhead?” That is an excellent question. The short answer is Doctrine and Covenants 130:22-23.

“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us. A man may receive the Holy Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not tarry with him.”[9]

This revelation was recorded in April 1843 and included in the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. As this revelation was received after 1835, the committee that removed the Lectures on Faith in 1921 decided that this revelation clarified the nature of the Holy Ghost. If you believe the Holy Ghost to be a legitimate personage, almost all of the scriptures dealing with the Holy Ghost make sense, sort of. I will admit to you that I had a hard time reconciling these two seemingly conflicting ideas. In one instance, the Holy Ghost is the mind of God. In the other instance, the Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit. Contained within that same revelation is another contradiction that is really the key that ties everything together.

“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s”. In the Lectures on Faith, we are taught that our Heavenly Father is “a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fullness”. Well, which one is it? Is he a personage of Spirit or does he have a body of flesh and bones?

Fortunately, a month later (as if God knew we would have this issue pop up), God revealed to Joseph Smith that “There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.”[10]

There is no scripture nor revelation which advances the principle that God, the Father of Heaven and Earth, can not be a personage of Spirit and have a body of flesh and bones. Open your mind to the possibility that God has a resurrected Spirit Body of flesh and bones. “The Son also”, but he is a personage of tabernacle, acting as the great mediator between us and the Father. The Son has a body that can be handled and felt, but can also move about the universe unhindered by the laws of mortality. The committee in 1921 could not reconcile these differences. They supposed that Joseph erred in doctrine and that the Lord must have made the clarification in 1843. I testify to you that Joseph knew what he was teaching, and the Lord revealed unto Joseph more information that would unify what had been previously taught and accepted as eternal, unchanging truth.

“There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones - For instance, Jesus said: Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. Secondly: the spirits of just men made perfect, they who are not resurrected, but inherit the same glory.”[11]

The above scripture was revealed to Joseph in February of 1843. I want to now look at the progression of revelation given to the prophet over 4 months. February - 1. Resurrected personages have bodies of flesh and bones. Spirits do not. April - 2. The Father and Son are resurrected beings with flesh and bones. The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. May - 3. All spirit is matter. The only thing revealed that is not in harmony with the Lectures on Faith is “the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit.” Having reasonably and rationally reconciled what appears to be a contradiction concerning the Father, we will now discuss what seems to be an anomaly, but in reality is the beautiful truth about the Holy Ghost.

Point 2

Who. And What.

                Where does the Godhead reside? Heaven is the obvious answer.

“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”[12]

This makes rational sense as the Father and Son dwell in heaven and as we have previously discussed the Holy Ghost is the shared mind of God and Jesus Christ. Just as they can come down from the heavens, it stands to reason that the Holy Ghost, which is the mind of God, can also be sent down from heaven.

“Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.”[13]

When the Holy Spirit is sent down from heaven as a gift unto man, it is often accompanied by extraordinary events.

“And behold, the Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven, and did enter into their hearts, and they were filled as if with fire, and they could speak forth marvelous words.”[14]

How can this be? How can a person suddenly be filled with knowledge to speak “marvelous words”, a new language, even with the tongue of angels?

“Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.”[15]

“Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?”[16]

“But, behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for you that ye had not known me.”[17]

From the above scriptures it becomes apparent that when someone is filled with the Holy Ghost, one of the gifts/abilities they can acquire, even if for a temporary period, is the ability to speak with the tongue of angels. This new tongue may or may not be in a new language, but can be “the words of Christ.” Does the Holy Ghost come and take over our bodies? Do we become puppets of heaven unable to move of our own accord? When we go to speak do some other words pour out of our mouths? To me that is an altogether foolish thought. The sole purpose of being on this Earth is for us to learn how to exercise our agency. If, therefore, we were to receive the Holy Ghost and thus lose our agency, it would make the plan of salvation null in void. In fact, having our agency controlled by another is the opposite of the plan of salvation and the reason we had a war in heaven to begin with. So if we don’t lose control, how exactly does the Holy Ghost bring about the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit through us? Who is this Holy Ghost!

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”[18]

This might be the only scripture that exists that describes the relationship between the Holy Ghost and ourselves. What? Know ye not that you are a being of flesh and bones? What? Know ye not that you are soul comprised of a Spirit and Body? Where did that spirit come from?

“But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”[19]

“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” [20]

“And the spirit and the body are the soul of man.”[21]

“Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal.”[22]

“And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”[23]

Even if you are not a Mormon, we can all agree that God is the Father of our Spirits. The very word Spirit should have been an eternal clue that when the prophets were speaking of the Holy Spirit, they were speaking about that Spirit that resides in us made Holy through the mind of God.

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”[24]

Think about the veil that separates us from heaven. What is that veil? If we have a Spirit which is eternal, without beginning or end, that has a foreknowledge of heaven, and existed with the Father before this Earth life, why don’t we know everything about heaven? Human existence is the veil. Growing up in Primary, they taught us that a veil has been placed over our minds. Our minds are the veil. This weak, frail, corruptible, temporary body is the veil that separates us from heaven. There is, however, a Spirit that resides within that veil of a body that has a knowledge of things beyond mortal comprehension.

Don’t be afraid to consider the Holy Ghost in this way. We have already shown through scripture that the Holy Ghost is the mind of God. Why can’t the Holy Spirit be your spirit connected with the mind of God? Let’s explore this possibility.

To Be Continued...

---

[1] Ether 12:23

[2] Alma 32:28

[3] Alma 32:27

[4] Alma 32:28

[5] The Lectures on Faith Lecture Fifth, Paragraph 2 (my own emphasis added).

[6] Doctrine and Covenants 1835 ed. Preface

[7] Doctrine and Covenants 1835 ed. Preface

[8] Times and Seasons, 5:490-491, April 1, 1844

[9] Doctrine and Covenants 130:22-23

[10] Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8

[11] Doctrine and Covenants 129:1-3

[12] 1 John 5:7

[13] 1 Peter 1:12

[14] Helaman 5:45

[15] 2 Nephi 32:3

[16] 2 Nephi 32:2

[17] 2 Nephi 31:14

[18] 1 Corinthians 6:19

[19] Job 32:8

[20] Hebrews 12:9

[21] Doctrine and Covenants 88:15

[22] Abraham 3:18

[23] Abraham 5:7

[24] 2 Peter 1:21

The Holy Spirit/Ghost? part 2

"There are two personages who constitute the great matchless, governing and supreme power over all things-by whom all things were created and made that are created and made, whether visible or invisible: whether in heaven, on earth, or in the earth, under the earth, or throughout the immensity of space – They are the Father and the Son. The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fullness: The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle…And he being the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fullness of the glory of the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit…” (1835 ed. Doctrine and Covenants, Lectures on Faith, Lecture 5, emphasis added).

“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22, emphasis added).

In order to parse the scriptures in a meaningful way, we must first address what would appear to be a contradiction in doctrine. The first scripture reference comes from The Lectures on Faith which was included in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. These lectures, along with the revelations that constitute the Doctrine and Covenants, were presented by the leaders of the church and voted in by the members as scripture. The prophet Joseph Smith Jr. recorded in his own journal that he spent a considerable amount of time editing the lectures for publication so as to be included in this edition.

Throughout the history of the church many prophets and apostles have declared The Lectures on Faith to be scripture, though they are not found in the Standard Works today. Read the account of how these lectures were presented and accepted in General Assembly, 17 August 1835 which can be found in the back of the Doctrine and Covenants 1835 ed. They were considered the leading items of our religion for 80 years. You should consider whether they are still scripture today.

We now have to find a way to reconcile what appears to be a direct contradiction in scripture. Though this seems like an impossibility, both scriptures listed above are true and in reality contain no contradiction. Consider for a moment the following picture:

Understand that this simple display has infinite possibilities. This is: a line, a plane, a divisor, a shape, a depiction, a perspective, a symbol, a picture, a representation, a horizon, a focal point. It is: contrasting, layering, giving dimension, drawing attention, eliciting a mental response, triggering biological responses. In an abstract sense it could be anything such as a table, a shelf, a bed, a rope, etc. Isaiah understood the concept of depth and wrote in such a manner that people from all places and in all times could relate his writing to them. Jesus taught in parables so that those with spiritual ears would hear and understand, and those who were unprepared would “hear, and not understand” (Mark 4:12).

How can we reconcile the Father being a personage of spirit, glory, and power AND having a body of flesh and bones?

“There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; we cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter” (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8, emphasis added).

“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another” (1 Corinthians 15:39-40, emphasis added).

With two quick references we see from both modern and ancient scripture that Father is a personage of spirit, which is comprised of matter, and that his celestial body is also flesh. What do we hope to obtain from this mortal probation if not eternal life and a resurrected body? What is eternal life? 

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

“It is the greatest of all the gifts of God, for it is the kind, status, type and quality of life that God himself enjoys. Thus those who gain eternal life receive exaltation; they are the sons of God, joint-heirs with Christ, members of the Church of the Firstborn; they overcome all things, have all power, and receive the fullness of the Father. They are gods” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine).

If we hope to obtain the kind, status, type and quality of life that God enjoys, then our mortal “tabernacles” are going to have to go through a spiritual change.

“Now, behold, I have spoken unto you concerning the death of the mortal body, and also concerning the resurrection of the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an immortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption” (Alma 11:45, emphasis added).

The “perceived” contradiction in doctrine is that God can not be both a personage of spirit and a personage of flesh and bones. From the aforementioned scriptures I would like you to ask, why not? Just as the picture illustrates the infinite depths that exist within the mortal consciousness, the meaning of these scriptures can go far beyond what we can perceive and understand. I have only listed these references to quickly move through this first barrier and could include many more references concerning the resurrection of body and spirit. Let us agree that God, who is an exalted being, has a celestial body of flesh and bones that is of a spiritual nature.

The Holy Spirit/Ghost? Part:1

I am still formulating my thoughts on the Holy Ghost. I have a good foundation and have attempted many times to put them all into a singular document. Since I seem unable to do so, I am going to share with you the rough drafts of everything I have tried to write about the Holy Ghost. Each part is not a piece of the whole. Each one is an independent work that I started but was not quite able to continue. Perhaps as you read them, ideas, concepts, and inspiration will come to you that you can share with me. Thus, collectively, we might come to a greater understanding of the Holy Ghost in our lives.

I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not trying to draw any attention to myself. If you knew who I was before turning my heart to Christ, if you knew my life and the detestable things I have done, you would know why I feel like the least Saint among you. I am a weak and fallible individual who is trying to share my experiences with others that we might all grow. I hope that by sharing my experiences, others might be open to sharing theirs and we might all be edified by the Spirit.

Over the past couple of years I have moved from feeling the inspiration of the Holy Ghost to hearing the words of Christ through the power of the Holy Ghost. Although to the inexperienced this may seem one and the same, they are two completely different interactions. There is a stark contrast between driving by a homeless person and feeling that you should help them and driving by a homeless person and being commanded to help them.

I’d like to share an experience with you to illustrate the point. There was a time in my life when I was contemplating attending BYU to pursue a degree in Near Eastern Studies. Through a series of answered prayers “the way had been opened unto me.” Throughout a certain week, barrier after barrier seemed to come down and it was as if God had parted the red sea to make a path for me to pursue, (what was to me), the only degree worthy of my intellect. All of this was overshadowed by the fact that I had not yet beheld my Savior, God had not spoken to me audibly, and it seemed that all my effort to gain an audience with them was in vain.

While driving home at the end of the week, I pulled off the freeway and up to the intersection at the end of the off ramp. I had passed this intersection over 600 times and knew all of the homeless people. Though I can barely recall any of them now, I do remember them with their cardboard signs which read, “Anything Helps God Bless!” I could recognize each one by sight as they were imprinted on my mind, and whenever I had some left over change or money in my wallet, I would help.

This day, however, someone new occupied the street corner. A man with red hair, sun dried skin, and a scraggly beard seated on an orange Home Depot bucket. I pulled out my wallet and found it to be empty. “Oh well,” I thought. Then a thought came to my mind, “You should give that guy money.”

“I don’t have any money,” I replied to myself.

“Your bank is right around the corner. It will take you less than 5 minutes pull out some money and help him out.”

“I’m not going to go to the bank and pull out some money. I help when I have some spare change or dollars, but I am not going to turn around and get money out of the bank.” No more thoughts came and I considered the matter closed. As I pulled up to the next light, however, I felt a pull at my mind like my subconscious was trying to get me to make the right choice. I pulled the car into the opposite turn lane and proceeded to drive to the bank. “This is crazy. Where am I going to break this 20?”

“Don’t break it. Just give him the whole 20.”

“No way. I still have another week till payday and we only have 150 bucks left for groceries. I can’t give him the whole 20.”

“Don’t break it. Just give him the whole 20.”

“Fine!” I shouted in my mind. “What am I going to say to him when I hand it to him? Here man. God bless you?”

“Tell him, God knows of your struggles, and He loves you.”

“That is about the kookiest thing I could say to him. There is no way I am going to say that.” By this time I had already pulled into the bank and gotten a 20 out from the ATM. Because of where the man was sitting, and the way the intersection was located, I would have to park my car and walk up to him to give him the money. I pulled into the parking lot and thought, “What am I going to say to him?”

“Tell him, God knows of your struggles, and He loves you.”

“Fine,” I thought dejectedly. Though I felt like a fool and thought it a weird thing to say I resolved to do just that. I would walk up to him and hand him the money and…

When I arrived at the intersection, the man was gone. I looked at my watch and it had taken less than 5 minutes. I turned around from the corner and looked up into the heavens. “What was the point of that?”

“John. God knows of your struggles, and He loves you.”

I could barely see where I was going as the love that filled my soul brought me to tears.

This experience was during a period of my life where I wanted to go from spiritual infancy to Enoch status overnight. I did not understand the maturation process, nor did I want to go through any such process. To me, I had read that I could be in the presence of the Savior while in the flesh. 

"Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;" (Doctrine and Covenants 93:1). - AND MANY MORE!

That meant that if I prayed hard enough and had enough faith (even though at the time I had no real idea what that meant), I could have an audience with the Savior. 

In the context of that setting, I would later look back on this experience as my own mind trying to reassure and reinforce the effort I was making. Although this experience did reassure me that the path I was walking was the straight and narrow, and it did reinforce my decision to see it through to the end, I did not understand at the time the nature of the Holy Ghost and the method of communication that the Lord uses to speak to us.

Fast forward several months. I was not accepted into BYU and had found a lot more information on the Near Eastern Studies degree. Pretty much the only career I would be able to get with that degree would be a CES instructor which I most definitely did not want to become. I wanted to be like the Indiana Jones of the Mormon community, and now that dream was gone. I find it amazingly wonderful how Heavenly Father puts us through Hell so that we can find Heaven. Doubt had crept into my mind and: 

“Where doubt and uncertainty are there faith is not, nor can it be. For doubt and faith do not exist in the same person at the same time; that persons whose minds are under doubts and fears cannot have unshaken confidence; and where unshaken confidence is not the faith is weak.” (Lectures on Faith).

For months I let my doubt tear nearly every shred of faith to pieces. Every experience, every feeling, every hope was reasoned and rationalized away into the ravings of a mad man. I wanted desperately to believe that a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior were just on the other side waiting to come down and visit with me. But for all my efforts, daily I would raise my voice to an empty sky. In the darkness of my closet, hours would pass while I stared up into the ceiling hoping beyond hope that I would see something that could not be rationalized away.

One day, I got into my car and drove across the city. I prayed with all of my soul asking God why He didn’t want to talk to me. I can say that I cried out to the Lord. I arrived at the job site and wiped the tears from my eyes. “Just a fool talking to himself,” I thought sadly as I went to work. An hour later I got back into the car to drive back to my office. I pulled out of the parking lot and continued the prayer.

“Lord, it’s so hard to believe. I don’t want people to call me a fool. I don’t want them to think I am stupid and following after nothing. I can’t continue on this path with nothing but my own thoughts as company.”

The best way I can describe what happened next is to say that time paused for a moment and everything around me became still. A thought entered in with such force and power to make an impression upon my soul forever.

“Doubt not, but be believing. For so they persecuted me while I was on the earth. They mocked me and called me a fool. They crucified me and hated me. The world will think you a fool. They will call you a fool and they will see you as foolish. Have faith in me.”

Then all returned to normal. Tears streaming down my face, I thanked God for his love. I thanked him for my life and the light he had given unto me. I promised that I would not doubt, ever again. I can gladly testify that I have been true to that promise and the Lord has blessed me with greater light and truth.

I have had other experiences since then where Christ has spoken to me through the power of the Holy Ghost as mentioned above. That phrase, “the power of the Holy Ghost” has taken on a deeper meaning to me and has become real. I want to try and explain it to you in the hopes that you can develop faith and trust in the Lord.

In order to understand the power of the Holy Ghost, one must first understand “what” the Holy Ghost is.

“There are two personages who constitute the great matchless, governing and supreme power over all things-They are the Father and the Son. The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fullness: The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle…And he [Jesus Christ] being the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fullness of the glory of the Father possessing the same mind with the Father; which Mind is the Holy Spirit, that bears record of the Father and the Son; and these three are one, or in other words, these three constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things; by whom all things were created and made, that were created and made: and these three constitute the Godhead and are one: the Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power, and fullness; filling all in all-the Son being filled with the fullness of the Mind, glory, and power; or in other words the Spirit, glory, and power of the Father-possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom; sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father-a Mediator for man-being filled with the fullness of the Mind of the Father, or in other words, the Spirit of the Father; which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments; and all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all; being filled with the fullness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one.” (The Lectures on Faith, Lecture Fifth, Paragraph 2 (my own emphasis added)).

The Holy Ghost is the mind of God. It is the mind that the Father and Son share. It is the mind that the Father will share with you, if you believe in the Son and keep his commandments. I can hear some people saying, “Holy Spirit is not the same thing as Holy Ghost.” Sorry, you are linguistically wrong. The Holy Ghost does not pop up in the scriptures until the New Testament, and in Hebrew and Latin, the word Ghost and Spirit are the same word. It is not until you have the English Translation of the Bible that Ghost/Spirit becomes forever Ghost and a third personage in the God Head. I’m not going to lay out the research on this one. You can take my word for it, you can take the Prophet Joseph Smith’s word for it, or you can find it out for yourself. Whatever you have to do to get there, do it.

Just in case people raise their pitchforks and cry heresy, this is from lds.org:

"They acknowledge the Father as the ultimate object of their worship, the Son as Lord and Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as the messenger and revealer of the Father and the Son. But where Latter-day Saints differ from other Christian religions is in their belief that God and Jesus Christ are glorified, physical beings and that each member of the Godhead is a separate being" (www.lds.org/topics/godhead, emphasis added).

Ok, so the Holy Ghost/Spirit is the shared mind between God and Jesus Christ. It can also be shared with us. How?

“Who cannot see, that if God framed the worlds by faith, that it is by faith that he exercises power over them, and that faith is the principle of power? And that if the principle of power, it must be so in man as well as in the Deity? This is the testimony of all the sacred writers, and the lesson which they have been endeavoring to teach to man.” (LoF Lecture 1).

God is upholding us day to day with his power. He has given us free agency to use that power as we see fit, but make no mistake, it is through His power that we are animated and have the ability to do all things. Move your hand. Power of God. Move your tongue. Power of God. Think a thought. Power of God. Everything we do is through his almighty power. We are beings connected with the very Father of Heaven and earth who created all things and through His power all things continue. It is when we submit our will/ability to think for ourselves to His will/ability to speak to us, that we begin to hear His voice through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As I was driving around the other day I was lamenting deep in my soul because as Nephi put it: 

“O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.” (2 Nephi 4:17-19). 

Why when my heart wants to continually ponder the things of heaven does my mind frequently wander off into worldly thoughts? Worse so, why are some of my thoughts inappropriate?

“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit…” (Mosiah 3:19)

I am a natural man and as such a natural enemy to God. If I choose to use the free agency that God has given me through His power to entertain thoughts of depravity and sin, then God will allow me to. If, on the other hand, I resist the natural man and turn my thoughts to Heaven, and open myself up to receive His words, He will speak to me through my thoughts and lead me to do His will on the earth. When that happens and we connect with heaven then those thoughts:

"shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord" (Doctrine and Covenants 68:4, emphasis added).

 I can tell you that Christ has given me commandments directly through the power of the Holy Spirit. As I have obeyed and fulfilled those commands, my life has significantly been blessed. This is only one meaning of “keep his commandments.”

I wish I could share with you the marvelous things the Lord has done for me. I wish I could share with you every opportunity I have had to serve others and the knowledge that I have gained from those opportunities. Suffice it to say, when you submit your thoughts to those of the Father and Son, they will speak to you.

If we can align our thoughts with the Father and Son, can we do so with the adversary? Can Satan speak through your thoughts to you? Can your thoughts deceive you?

Dreams and Visions

I have had many dreams in the past. Dreaming is one of my favorite things about human existence. Most of my dreams in the past have been diffuse, nonlinear, jumbled images put together to form a scene you would expect to see in an indie film. I can testify that I have had 1 vision in my life back in 2009. The contents of that vision did not include the Savior, but led me to the answer that I was seeking from the Lord. It was as clear as if I had lived it, and I awoke from the dream as if I had been awake the whole time. There was no grogginess, no sloughing off the sleep of the night. Upon “awakening”, I immediately knew the meaning of the vision and though I misinterpreted a portion, the answer was still resoundingly clear. The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, has seen fit to fulfill that vision in my life in 2014.

Why bother telling you the vague details of a self-proclaimed vision that supposedly came to pass 5 years after the fact? Why even mention such an experience that occurred 7 years ago? I feel it is important to explain to you that I can discern between a dream and a vision. As recent as 4 years ago, I began to have dreams again. They began as diffuse, non-linear, jumbled images of fancy and fun. Sometimes I would fly, other times I would pole vault over mountain tops. I began writing my dreams down in a journal and when I read them, I can still picture those dreams in my mind. It is rather like watching a movie and then reading the book in which it was based off of.

Then I began to have more spiritual dreams. Dreams in which I was no longer the important subject, the star of my dreams if you will, but dreams filled with symbolism. I would awake, write down my dream and after some pondering have meaning made known unto me. Less than a month ago I had a dream that was rich in symbolism and upon awakening I could not remember the dream at all, but rather, only the meaning of the dream. As I wrote down the meaning, the imagery of the dream came back to my remembrance. This was an altogether different experience than I had ever had before.

Throughout my life I have desired to have my own “Tree Of Life” vision. I have read the account of Lehi and Nephi and like Nephi have had a desire to behold the Tree Of Life. Several weeks ago, I poured out my heart unto the Lord in solemn prayer asking him to send me a dream of the Tree Of Life. The following is the dream that I had that night.

I was standing at the pulpit of the Conference Center. The building was empty. I looked over and saw my sister. She was teaching a small group of children how to perform magic. They all had wands and were weaving spells into the air, the effect of which produced colors and sparkles. I turned around and Thomas S. Monson was walking onto the stage. Suddenly, he grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. I rushed over to him and grabbed his hand. I told him, “You’re having a heart attack. You’re going to be okay. I’m going to go get some help.” He then became angry. He punched me in the face which knocked me back. He stood and raised his hands in the air.

The Conference Center was now filled with people who cheered much like a sporting event at the height of a victory. I then grew angry and punched him in the face, twice. My punches did not faze him in the least. He motioned for his security and they grabbed me by the arms and pulled me off stage. They escorted me to a room in the back where Thomas S. Monson and several others were now seated upon red couches in an “L” formation.

I have provided the following image to give you reference only. I apologize for my lack of artistic skills. The black box was a concrete column, the red blocks represent couches upon which sat several couples. Thomas S. Monson sat closet to the column. I was standing next to the column as indicated by the lonely “X”.

As I looked upon these people, their skin was sallow and spotted. Their appearance disgusted me as they appeared to have deteriorated well beyond normal human age. I pushed my brown leather bound quad-scriptures at Thomas S. Monson and said, “Here are the words of the Lord. Contained within are His revelations to the world as revealed by His prophets. Where are your revelations?” He simply motioned for his security and said, “Get him out of my sight.” The same two men came and grabbed me by my arms and I watched, from a third person perspective, as they escorted me down a hallway and out of the building. I was fighting against them the whole time. I watched as I screamed out, "You won't get away with this!" and as I watched them pull me around the corner, I knew in my heart that no matter of legal power could touch these men, for they were protected by legions of lawyers.

Next, I found myself at home. A package had come for me which my father handed to me. I opened it to find my quad. As I opened the scriptures, I found that they had been marked all over with random notes and references. I flipped to the front of the cover and found the following written:

I hope that you can one day find God.

Thomas S. Monson

D&C 10:10

In my dream I turned to Doctrine and Covenants 10:10. As I read the scripture in my dream, the verse did not make sense to me and I knew that it was only a part of the whole message. As I read the next few verses, the meaning became clear to me.

Then I woke up. The first thing I did after waking up was grab my phone and look up D&C 10:10.

“And, behold, Satan hath put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have translated, which have gone out of your hands.”

I then remembered that in my dream, verse 10 was not enough and that I had to read the next few verses to get the whole meaning. D&C 10:10-12.

“And, behold, Satan hath put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have translated, which have gone out of your hands. And behold, I say unto you, that because they have altered the words, they read contrary from that which you translated and caused to be written; And, on this wise, the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan, that he may destroy this work.”

3 verses. 10 being part of a whole. 3 is the symbolic meaning of all. The beginning, the middle, the end.

I then proceeded to write down every detail I could remember about the dream. I told my wife about this dream. We were both confused as to what this dream meant and why God would send me this dream when I asked for a dream of the Tree Of Life. I then called my closest friend, the one man I trust with my life. After recounting my dream he thought for a moment and then asked how Lehi’s dream of the Tree Of Life began.

1 Nephi 8:4-8

“…methought I saw in my dream, a dark and dreary wilderness. And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him. And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.”

After we discussed this, he then asked me how Nephi’s vision of the Tree Of Life began.

1 Nephi 11:1-5


“I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou? And I said: I desire to behold the things which my father saw. And the Spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken? And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father.”

After we discussed this, he asked me how these two accounts differ. We then ended our conversation as both of us had to go about our work life. As I thought about these two different beginnings and my dream, I came to the conclusion that Lehi followed a man and was led to a dark and dreary waste. He then had to pray to the Lord for mercy to be saved. Nephi, on the other hand, began his vision with the Spirit of the Lord present. Why?

Lehi had seen the pre-mortal Messiah by this time and had been led out of the land of Jerusalem. Perhaps he still had doubts about whether what he was doing was correct. He had, after all, lived in the land of Jerusalem and was a Jew.

Even though he followed the Law of Moses and knew the scriptures, he knew to whom they pointed. He had heard the prophets prophesying and calling the people to repent which led him to pray for the people at Jerusalem. Perhaps he was still considering the words that the High Priests, (who by this time were corrupt and living lives of idolatry), had spoken against these “so-called” prophets. Perhaps he was still conflicted inside because what he was doing, (leaving the faith and basically starting his own sect of Judaism), was in direct conflict with what the leadership of the church had forbidden. They were the High Priests, the sons of Levi, the sons of Abraham, the Chief Priests and such. They were the chosen vessels through which God revealed the Law. Who was he? Some obscure merchant on the outskirts of the city.

As such, in order for Lehi to have a vision representing the Love of God (Jesus Christ), he had to first understand the consequences of following after a man, even if he is dressed in white robes.

I don’t know if anything is going to happen on 10/10. I have come to find out some things about 10/10 as the details of my dream have come to mind again and again over the past few weeks. I was born in 82. On 10/10 there are 82 days left in the year. This year (2016) 10/10 falls on a Monday and is the day on which the US celebrates Columbus Day. Throughout my life I have, almost to the year, called my father on 10/10 to wish him Happy Birthday. Although this might not seem strange to you, it becomes a little confusing as my father’s birthday is the 5^th of October.

Before ending, I wanted to note something which you may or may not have noticed in my dream. It started out with my sister performing magic tricks. What is the symbolism or significance of that? The next morning as I was working, my sister called me. This is not something that happens with some regularity. I asked her if she had dreamed of me the previous night. She had not and thought my question was a bit weird. I told her that I had dreamed of her the night before and so I thought it was a perfectly acceptable question. She asked me for my help with her website and I performed a bit of "computer magic" to solve her issue. I don't really believe that the "magic" part  is legit, just a funny play on words. Later that day the words of Joseph Smith came to my mind.

“A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.” (History of the Church, 3:381).

I’m not sure if my dream means anything. I want you to know that I pray for the leaders of the LDS Church. I pray that they might seek the Lord diligently, hear his voice, and be inspired to lead the Church. I don’t know if my dream is anything more than a dream, but I have felt compelled to record it in public. Perhaps the Lord will make it known unto me at some future time as to why.