Onetimequestion

It's good to do good in doing righteousness and drawing near to God through righteous conduct, but it's not enough, we all have to come a knowledge of our own nothingness before God and an intimate and personal knowledge of His Goodness. This knowledge motivates us and propels us forward. And it is the most beautiful thing. Tell me what is wicked about this?

Interesting, read alma. All you who call me an anti-Christ and that I have spoken with cunning words, I have done no such thing. I implore you to come unto Christ and be saved. Come unto the knowledge of your redeemer and LET THAT GUIDE YOU IN YOUR OBEDIENCE! Faith and WORKS ARE NOT OPPOSED! But where is your foundation, is it with the church or with Christ? As I said, this is the Lords Church, but even the scriptures speak of Grace and being BORN AGAIN! yes it is by righteous works we are sanctified but by Grace are we JUSTIFIED! And it is LIBERTY TO TRUST IN GOD EVERY DAY! I say, any man who does not follow coming to a knowledge of his own nothingness before God and the beauty of His grace with faith and works manifest of that change is indeed a liar. For GRACE IS NOT LICENSE TO SIN! OR ELSE CHRIST IS THE MINSITER OF SIN! (Galatians) But it is liberty from feeling burdened every day with a consciousness of guilt. Yes we must repent daily, but with His Grace and a constant dependance upon Him! Get on your KNEES AND PRAY! EXPERIENCE IT! If this doctrine is not true, than to me the church cannot be true.

Where have I bashed the church. And ask me any question you wish if you don't believe I am sincere. Your hypocrisy causes me to question my revelation. But it's not worth it. I thought I had friends here, but it's clear just ignorant and close-minded pharisees. Everyone was quick to jump on the bandwagon because YOU DONT KNOW CHRIST! If you did, the spirit would have testified to you that I am sincere. And for the sequence of things, I can only blame timing.

Sometimes, a fresh perspective is what helps you see the clearest. My prayers were answered through my home teachers and what I took away seems to be this. 1. The Lord will always answer my prayers and take care of me. 2. Just because many members don't understand the meaning of Grace does NOT mean that it's not a principle of the gospel. Even if that misunderstanding may be preached in Sunday School and sacrament meeting. 3. That if the Lord is my foundation He will reveal all things to me that I sincerely desire. I even fasted! And while your advice is sound, I'd say apply it yourselves as well. Maybe I don't know all things, but as long as I trust in the Lord He will help me understand gradually. If you doubt your understanding than that only means you need to put more of your trust in the Lord and seek either a confirmation of what He's taught you or you need to go back to Him and find out for sure. And I knew that a previous revelation would never conflict with one I had recieved. I have felt the spirit in the temple in an amazing way, so much so that I remember it seven years later. And the power of the priesthood is real. :) Yet, it is through grace that I am saved. And I need to rely on that every day and still do my best. Yet, when you are sincere and humble and consciously depend on His grace, it seems to become easier to keep His commandments. And while it is neccesary to keep them, it isn't by doing that that I become saved, as if I put him in a debt. I owe God nothing. Everything is a gift. I suggest anyone that is confused about the nature of Grace to turn to the Lord in prayer and knock. Keep knocking on that door til it opens and when it does, as it surely will if you want to know, Great will be your Joy. I feel this way. My faith is foremost in Christ and God. Even if the church were not to be true, I know that Christ is. And so, I feel no obligation to defend it. Because the truth shall be manifest of God's spirit. Where truth is, the spirit is also. And also, one more and my favorite... The Truth Shall Set You Free! I'm also disappointed that you would think I was somehow decieving you. It's a good thing I put my trust in God and not in the members, otherwise you would have driven me off as an enemy when you should have loved me. But I forgive you. Much Love, your brother in Christ, Derek.

And see I feel like this attitude present in the church practically leads to exactly that qoute by Jacob. If we do not understand how grace is an active principle everyday than nothing at all matters. Ironically, I feel like this describes the church membership at this present time. And it's a general trend, something is happening or has happened that has caused people to lose their REAL faith and REAL connection with Christ, and we've become a church that with a lot of semantics, explains away Grace and leaves man to his own devices to make it to heaven on his own, and at the last minute God says ok come on in. This seems to me inaccurate and seems more Catholic than true. We today are more like the catholic church than any other. We trust in our own works and in ordinances but deny the influence of the living God. I have at times felt the spirit in this church and I do feel like this is possibly the restored gospel, but the situation is critical. I do not believe that I can simply follow commandments and be saved. To me that seems a lot like the Jews of the New testament. Grace shouldn't come in at the end, but at all times and all places. There's a discipleship and a walk with Christ than can only be experienced and cannot be described with words. This is the relationship that we are to "endure to the end" in. If we do not enter in by this gate, than nothing we do matters. And when you enter in by this straightgate (and check your NT because Jesus always talks about how He is the way and the life, not just the words he speaks) you understand the scriptures in a different way.

As I have been doing. THe things you describe of doing our best seem to come naturally after I knew God that night. I think that to know God (and I mean to know Him personally) takes care of that. When your on your knees the works and the desire to continue in faith come naturally. Trusting in His grace EVERY DAY to see me through, and I don't mean a promise at the end of my life, but an active and enduring principle that governs my life every day. Knowing that my sins are remitted, and not from a continual effort on my part to keep commandments (but yet commandments are still kept) but from His mercy and His grace. This knowledge and this personal acquaintanceship with Him personally fuels my faith day by day. And I believe that without this, we are all doomed. No amount of working our way to heaven with Christs sacrifice becoming a free pass at the end will matter. We need to consciously TRUST HIM every single day. And he says, be still and know that I am God. Fear not. I feel peace from trusting in my savior. Now where a lot of people get up in arms is over a silly conflict that is from a lack of this knowledge. I say that most members in the church and the general consensus understood as doctrine by members is that we do our best every day and at the END of our lives Christ makes up for it. Why then is Grace mentioned in the scriptures? This sounds an awful lot like plain works to me with someone saying "well God's said this is the way it is." No. Any doctrine which denies the power of God explictly or implicitly is NOT of God. Yes it's admirable to work for a desire within ourselves to serve God. But after knowing Him it seemed to come naturally to me. And I find that the scriptures take on a whole new meaning from this paradigm. The conversion seems more as an event than a process which we work solely by ourselves or with Christ in the background. Christ takes the foreground and changes me. Not me changing myself by Christ. Does this ring any bells with anyone? it's caused me a great deal of distress seeing this absent in the members of the church. This understanding of Grace seems straight from God. I've been praying my guts our for 3 days, searching the scriptures and I keep feeling like the book of mormon may not be true in contrast with this experience I had on my knees before God. When I put off all my pompous airs and just said, "Lord, I don't understand everything, but please come into my life. Please help me understand. Please, father.. remove this curse from me.." At that moment I felt like I knew Him and saw Him as He was. And was led by the spirit the rest of the evening. Yet, I have felt the spirit abundantly in the temple. And so I feel confused. I feel that joseph smith was a prophet, yet i wonder. What is wrong with this gospel today? it seems so much focused on becoming Gods and Godessses and obsessing over temple ordinances that it seems in apostasy. Where is the living faith of our fathers? Why do we place more trust in Covenants and ordinances than the being that gave us them? I go to non-demonational churchs and feel more sense of community than I ever do at my ward. And could it be, that it's because the people there are truly Christian, and not just trying to be Christ-like? And if you have to ask, is there a difference, than I know you do not understand what I am saying. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Actually, this isn't true at all. Many people in the Christian world still believe in Apostles and prophets. It's a large non-denominational movement called the five-fold ministry. And don't generalize other religions beliefs. Not all of them are the same. Also, they don't see it as "we have all we need." They see it as, through the spirit we can know all things. They have more faith than most LDS.

Also two nights ago I recieved a witness of God's grace. I've never heard us talk a lot about grace in the church and now it's affecting my faith in the truthfulness of the restored gospel. The general consensus seems to be that we work our way to heaven and at the end God says ok, great job here you go. This is the thought instead of trusting in God's Grace every single day. This is blashphemy to me. Does anyone else understand what I'm talking about? Spiritual experiences always help me realize if I am far off from what i SHOULD be doing. It was as if I felt keenly aware of His mercy and that there was NOTHING I could do to bring myself salvation. And it wasn't that I needed to "do my best". That was done. I needed to follow his Grace and trust in Him daily and have true faith. I felt like after I finished my prayer, there was this amazing feeling of peace and relaxation. I just laid on my back and looked at the stars and I haven't felt so at peace in years. Is our church a grace church?

So does that mean that God has multiple personalities?

Recently I've come to the conclusion that I have a demon with me. I'm afraid to talk about this due to the fact that people will think I am crazy. I notice that these unusual thoughts and feelings seem very foreign & hostile in nature and I only started having them after I began listening to certain music which had a luciferian and satanic spirit. It filled me with a spirit of rage and thirst to prevail over my fellowman. I had a thirst for unrighteous dominion and allowed myself to rejoice in this. I then began to investigate the occult in the darker spectrum. Witchcraft and luciferan societies. Now this is evil. And I have come to the conclusion that this is the spirit of the devil that was within me. Just as the holy ghost can dwell within us so can the spirit of the devil if we allow him in. I've tried resisting this music and have not indulged in it for some time, but the feeling is addictive. The best I could describe it is feeling drunk with power. And desiring to cast down all in my way even if I have to overthrow God himself. It feels almost identical to the spirit in which Lucifer is described in the preexistance. I pray you will take this question seriously as my very soul may depend on it. It's important to note that I accepted this. I thank God that I did it ignorantly that I did not become a son of perdition in my acceptance of this spirit. I ask you, how may I be cleansed of this nightmare? In my heart I want to do good. I have made a lot of progress distancing myself from this influence and spirit and have spent more than a few nights on my knees in prayer, but this thing is still with me and it now scares the hell out of me. More over people around me can sense it. I have a very good friend who is nonmember but is very close with Christ. He can feel this negative vibe from me and it got stronger when I started praying with him to God to remove it. I have asked my bishop for a blessing in the past, but he did not command it to leave. Simply asked for my mind and body to be healed. Quite frankly, I am uncomfortable with my bishop either due to this influence or because I feel his faith is lacking in that he would not take me credible and thus makes it impossible for him to magnify his priesthood and cast it out. You who call yourselves chosen of God, hear the plea of a repentant sinner and tell me where by I can have deliverance. It's important to note that while I fully understand how this comes across, that I have never had any history of mental illness of this nature and this is all new. One must ask a difficult question. If it is real and genuinely evil, than the only thing that psychiatry will do is suppress it or cause it to become more of a problem. However more likely things of this nature may be of a biological or medical nature, the outcome if it is not is far to great not to take into consideration. I am also seeking consultation with a professional. However, please respond with faith.