I bear testimony of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. All those things we read about them in the scripture are true. I’ve received a witness of this fact. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, our Advocate with the Father.
I can bear testimony of Jesus Christ based on my own personal experiences, from my own book of scripture as it were. It gives me great joy to ponder and reflect upon the blessings the Lord has, in his condescension’s, brought to pass in my life.
As a boy, I’d learned at church that if one were born in the covenant you were the elect of God. I wasn’t born into the covenant, my mother was inactive and my father wasn’t a member, so I concluded I wasn’t elect. I loved my mother and father with and overflowing love and it tore me up inside to experience the pain that came to our family. When I was in the 8th grade my divorced, so based on what I’d learned at church I assumed in the honesty of my heart I must have messed up real bad in the pre-existents or else my prayers for my family would have been answered differently–I stopped attending church.
Years later, as a 19 year soldier I felt a stirring in my soul, I decided to read the Book of Mormon and test the promise made by the prophet Moroni. Within days after making this decision, before I even opened the Book of Mormon, the Lord left the 99 and my journey back to activity in the Lord’s church began. The Lord gave me an unusual spiritual experience which taught me powerfully that there are two powers in the universe–the power of Godliness and the power of satan. This experience was given to me as an invitation to return to God.
The Savior taught:
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing… Luke 15:4-5
This scripture was fulfilled for me, I learned what it is like to be carried on the Saviors shoulders. I came to know something of his unconditional love. The Lord nurtured me and led me by my hand, giving me answers to my prayers. When I read the Book of Mormon for the first time, it was a daily spiritual feast for several months. It was an awesome experience.
In those days of spiritual refreshing, He raised up friends, helped me overcome challenges, provided opportunities, and showed me great compassion and kindness. He is a true Friend! I love the Lord because he loved me first. I am awed by undeserved blessings that have come to me. When I’ve sought him diligently, with lowliness of heart, I’ve been given dreams and visions that comforted my soul and taught me wondrous things. I know now that I’m not a second class member of his church.
On a few special occasions, unseen ministering spirits came in answer to my prayers. When experiencing a severe trial, when I thought my heart would break, the comforter spent the night with me and my pain was turned to joy. I do not have words to describe these experiences. When I’ve plead for mercy he forgave me and sent fire and the Holy Ghost as I partook of the sacrament.
I had supposed, because of what I learned at church, that these kinds of experiences were reserved for those the Lord calls to important positions in his church. I know now, that is a false tradition had among us. I’ve learned the Lord is no respecter of persons and that he gives his gifts for the benefit of those who love him and keep all his commandments, and him that seeketh so to do…D&C 46:9.
I’ve learned that mighty prayer is the primary means to obtaining things of the spirit. Having said that, I don’t want to create the impression I have an open channel to the Lord anytime I want it. There have been many times I have sought guidance on very important issues, and it was has though the heaven were sealed to me. I have just accepted these experiences and moved on and done the best I could.
Most often I have received answers to prayers by the whisperings of the spirit that comes into my heart and mind. I must emphasize that these things have come to me because of the Lord’s condescension’s and not because of any special worthiness in me.
The Lord has given me these experiences and I bear testimony of the Lord’s grace because I want to be an instrument in his hands to increase faith, refresh testimonies, and increase hope in the promises we have as covenant followers of Christ.
I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers us!
Listen to the words of our Savior Jesus Christ:
HEARKEN, O ye people of my church, to whom the kingdom has been given; hearken ye and give ear to him who laid the foundation of the earth, who made the heavens and all the hosts thereof, and by whom all things were made which live, and move, and have a being.
And again I say, hearken unto my voice, lest death shall overtake you; in an hour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the harvest ended, and your souls not saved.
Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him-
Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;
Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. D&C 45:1-5.
It is my fervent desire to come unto Christ and be perfected in him and receive eternal life.
This post touched me in a powerful way. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt testimony. Reading it has helped strengthen my own. I, too, feel unworthy of the multitude of blessings I receive each day. I, too, have had a very personal experience with the Comforter at a time when I desperately needed it. I know I am a loved daughter of heavenly parents who, for the most part, are letting me experience mortality the way they intended. The tough times are, well, tough, and sometimes it’s frustrating not to receive instant answers to my prayers, but in the end, I’ve never been left entirely on my own. Each day I try to place my trust in the Lord and be worthy to have His spirit with me. He has yet to fail me.
mairsydotes–
Thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts and testimony.
Jared:
Your testimony is greatly appreciated. I was fortunate to be raised in a home where both my mother and father taught me about the Lord from as long as I can remember and who provided spiritual and emotional stability into their 80′s. I’ve also been blessed with a wife who has made the road of life far easier than it would otherwise be.
I’m sorry for the struggles you had to go through to find your testimony, but I am honored to read it.
Hi Fire Tag,
Thanks for your comment. I wouldn’t change the family the Lord sent me to. I’ve learned that I was sent to them as a “messenger”. The Lord does that, but there is a price to be paid for those so called.
I believe that for most, if not all, our place of birth is by design and accomplishes the will of the Lord for individuals and their family.
It’ll be interesting to eventually relearn what we knew before we were born regarding the whys and wherefores of our birth.
hi jared-
appreciate your testimony….i find that i have alot in common with you.
thanks
shaorn-
Thanks for visiting.
Jared,
I don’t belong to any religion. I was born and baptized a mormon. Every word that you have written is written in the ONLY true word of God. The Holy Bible. What is your true testimony? The Lord said “you shall overcome by HIS blood and the word of your testimony”. He raised me from being dead, brain stem dead. Do you go on the streets and have mercy on the whores, the thieves, the drunks? Are they allowed in YOUR church with their trashy clothes? No, they need to wear a dress, jacket and white shirt.
The Lord loves the lost. The Lord does go after the lost sheep.
God’s people aren’t pretty people, they are transformed by Him. The pretty people in Utah and Idaho, the mormon’s are cruel. Why don’t you go and live the way you are going to live in heaven. Having one woman after another. Go bless a drunk or prostitute today. Don’t just give them a book of mormon. By their fruits ye shall know them.
Satan can come as an angel of light. Maroni was satan.
A desciple and peculiar person in Christ.
Live what you preach. Stop perverting the word of God. You shall be surprised at judgement day!
Lind–
It’s difficult for me to respond to your comment. I wish you the best, and hope your path to God works out for you.
Lind,
It is unfortunate that you’ve experienced a particular type of Mormon in such a way that you believe it characterizes all of us. I assure you it does not. There are some wards, and perhaps some areas of the country where there is a gross overemphasis on appearance, and where the fact of Mormon majority makes it easy for them to be dismissive of outsides. As a life long outsider, I have experienced some of that. But I’ve also experienced many many good Mormons who look on the heart and are accepting, patient and kind.
You might be interested to know that the Book of Mormon condemns the very thing you are describing in the church:
Mormon 8:
Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.
36 And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of every fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts.
37 For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.
38 O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies—because of the praise of the world?
39 Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?
… ~