December 10, 2010 -- This morning, as I was counseling with the Lord--conversing with Him through the veil--He told me, plainly that it was time to share the "sum and the substance of the whole matter" (Joseph Smith, Teachings, p. 151) as He has blessed me to live it.

Tempted to fear, I held back at first and asked Him point blank if this was truly His will for me or might I just be overreaching. He spoke to me again with great plainness in His own words through the Spirit's still, small voice and said, "It is not too soon." He reminded me that just an hour before I had through the Spirit received our Father's witness directly that I had no need to "take counsel from my fears," but only from His Son.

And so, risking looking foolish, I begin yet another blog. The purpose of this blog is to share my testimony concerning exactly what Joseph meant when he spoke these words:

"Now what is this other Comforter? [Referred to in John 14:12-27.] It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and the substance of the whole matter." (Teachings, pp. 150-151.)

I do not share these things from an intellectual or scholarly point of view. I share them with you as one speaking from within the lived and living reality of this experience. I share these things with you upon the invitation of Jesus Christ Himself, in other words from God as I best comprehend God.

I am no one extraordinary. I am no one special. In coming to this reality, I have been, in fact, reduced to absolute nothingness. No one knows of their own nothingness more totally than when they have stood in the presence of the Eternal God, and witnessed His perfection and His glory.

Of this I testify and lay my life and my reputation before all whom He may lead to this sharing . . . in the sacred Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Omni 1:26 -- Offer Your Whole Soul to Jesus Christ

Omni 1:26  -- And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.  Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.
In 1987, I began to awaken to my need most specifically and personally for a Savior.  My weaknesses and my foolish indulgences in fearful, dishonest choices had brought me down into such depths of humility that the only way to describe them was that they were as "the deepest abyss." (See 2 Nephi 9:42 and Mosiah 27::29.)  All of my previous 24 years in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been focused on taking His name--the name of Jesus Christ--upon me and doing all my prayers and all my service in His name.  Beyond that, I had no comprehension that I needed Him any more than that.  His Name upon me--sort of like having it stamped on my hand so I could go through a turnstile to get within praying distance of our Heavenly Father's throne.  And so pretty much all the rest of my definition of God was focused on our Father in Heaven.  I had no idea that I--a baptized, confirmed and endowed Latter-day Saint, as devout and active as a woman could be--needed more of Christ than that.  And then, as I said earlier, I came face to face with my need for a Savior God.  I will never forget the joy I felt coming back at me through the veil on the day I told my Heavenly Father I desperately needed His Son Jesus Christ.  It was like I had just given my Father the greatest gift I could give Him!  That was the day when I came to myself like the prodigal and took my Father's offer of the Way back to Him.

Scriptures cited in this post:
2 Nephi 9:42  And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. 

Mosiah 27:29  My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity.  I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God.  My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more.
 
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