When Acting on Revelation Seems to Blow Up In Your Face

[Guest mormonmusic]

Have you ever felt an extreme prompting to do something, acted on it, and then found the situation actually got worse as a result? Even making you suffer more intensely than before? And then, later, did you see the good that came out of your decision to act on that revelation, resulting in long-term blessings? If so, can you share your experience here? I have one in particular that worked out that way. I'd love to hear yours.

[NeuroTypical]

Yes, yes, not particularly, and sure:

I had a bad manager who made everyone's lives miserable. I was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, prompted directly to go and discuss it with her. It actually felt like the spirit had a finger in my back belt loop and was pulling me up out of my chair and pushing me towards her office.

I needed that level of clarity, because I didn't really see how approacthing the topic with her would help. But I approached the topic with her. And it didn't help. It was a big embarassing mess, and then two months later, everyone got laid off.

To this day, I don't really know why God wanted me to have that discussion. But I'm absolutely certain He did. I can only assume it helped the manager person somehow, because it didn't really do much for me, other than to give me a story to share whenever someone asks the question this thread asks.

LM

[bl8tant]

Sort of.

I was running my own business in one city while living in another. After much fasting and prayer, my wife and I decided to move to the same city where the business was located. Before that happened, I got a great offer to join another company, in a different field and in a different city. After much *more* prayer and fasting, we decided to take that opportunity even though we realized that it would be much more difficult to move to an area where we had no support system in place.

Pros: almost a year later, my original business has downsized sharply; my partners are still hanging in there but I'd probably be unemployed if I'd stayed there. I love my job, and it enables me to provide well for my family. We live in an exciting new area (to us, anyway) that offers lots of opportunities to try new things and meet new people.

Cons: I'm getting a divorce, though to be honest that probably would have happened no matter where we lived. The stress of moving to the new area probably accelerated it.

It's too early to tell if I can see all the good that came out of the decision, but I have no doubt that the Lord wanted us to move here. I'm not really sure why, but that sometimes happens :)

[Guest mormonmusic]

Here's my experience:

My wife wanted me to adopt a child since we didn't have children. She was heavily insistent on it and the issue would not go away. We had alternatives to adopting, but she rejected them, which bothered me.

I was against the idea but prayed and it was definite that I had to adopt. The affirmative answer made absolutely no sense to me given our life situation at the time. I definitely didn't want to do it, but changed my heart to the point I was filled with warmth and spirituality about doing it. I really did want to adopt after aligning myself with the will of the Lord.

Well, we went through the adoption process and then it blew up terribly. At the last step they rejected us and gave me a reason that hurt my deeply. The whole situation was handled in a very abrasive and unprofessional manner. I couldn't sleep for a week and I lost my Church mojo because all the talk about eternal family and guiding your life by prayer seemed so incredibly hollow.

My wife complained to the regional organization (it was LDS Social Services) and this led to a non-reversal of the situation, but a carefully worded 'apology' that only inflamed the situation (it was meant to avoid any kind of legal action, we felt -- a self-protective letter). It was the first time I saw the temporal behavior of one of the Church's appendages and it disturbed me. My wife was totally ripped up by the way it was handled, and it hurt our inner peace for the better part of a year.

But, here's the silver lining -- the dead end of the adoption FINALLY convinced my wife to explore other alternatives, and it also convinced my wife and her doctor to do a procedure that would likely result in children. And it did. I ended up with the most wonderful, biological child who makes me proud almost every day for her good heart.

So, looking back, I think the purpose of the revelation to adopt, followed by the suffering and failure of the adoption was there to simply convince my wife that adoption was not an option for us. It was to unfreeze her mind about adoption.

Kind of like Martin Harris being allowed to take the manuscript so the Lord could convince him to take "No" for an answer....

[Onhech]

I had a missionary companion who got an impression to knock on a door. We did, no one answered. We got back in the car and drove away. He was somewhat depressed and voiced it by wondering if he misinterpreted the spirit.

We expect if he asks us to do something, immediately something amazingly good will happen. My companion was putting qualifiers on the word of God. God asked him to knock on the door. He didn't say "Knock on the door, there a man in baptismal clothing on the other side". We need to follow God, without expectations of reward. Maybe God sometimes asks us to do things to see if we will. If we only obey when he dangles a carrot in front of our noses, how trustful as servants and friends are we?

I believe there is great merit in following a impression and realizing that it cause you to encounter more opposition then relief.

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Lynden Jensen

Check out my Blog at

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[NeuroTypical]

It was the first time I saw the temporal behavior of one of the Church's appendages and it disturbed me.

There are a few words that paint a thousand pictures!

It shocks a lot of people to see a church full of imperfect, fallible, agenda-driven, error-prone people off doing things that really don't seem to be all that inspired. The concept of "we're trying our best" is useful to learn in these situations. If we allow it, the experience can help us be charitable.

LM

[Elgama]

I am in the middle of a situation right now, where my daughter was badly treated by the Primary president, after several attempts to sort this out at branch level, and in the middle of a Stake Presidency change we were asked to step back from Church by Heavenly Father, the particular witness I had to that leaves me in no doubt it was from Heavenly Father and what he wanted. A blessing I had from my husband clarified I may never know exactly why I am inactive right now, but that Heavenly Father would bless and protect my family during this time, our testimonies would grow and we would not be affected eternally.

Its now nearly a year since the incident and I still haven't had any joy sorting the mess out, however we now know our daughter was bullied by an adult from the age of 2 in the branch. She has had no seizures since we became inactive except one were the Branch President visited and she thought we were returning to church. Her neurologist at last visit said she felt Ellie's were not seizures but something brought on by PTSD.

Right now is hard, I managed not to get angry or hurt until recently, but am struggling with the fact some people saw things and never came forward until we went inactive and the prevailing attitude that because nobody elses child is affected it doesn't matter, she can remain as Primary President (I had always refused her to baby sit because of a gut feeling, but I had no idea about this, I don't think they can be confident another child isn't being treated in the same way).

I really want to go back to church, my testimony is rock solid the church is true and Heavenly Father wants me there, but my testimony that what we are doing right now is also rock solid. His promise my testimony would grow was kept and kind of wish He hadn't lol as it makes not going harder. We want to travel to another unit, and were going to go last week, the prompting not to go was strong.

I know we are supposed to do this, my daughter's blessing I had a talk that day and so did another friend, neither of us got any inspiration about what to talk on, a blessing told me that it was because Ellie's blessing was more important than any of the talks. It relates very clearly to whats going on, and there is a section in my Patriachal Blessing I feel is strongly related to right now, Heavenly Father put so much in to preparing me for this since my baptism things have happened that allowed me to deal with this. And I know what happened to Ellie isn't his primary reason for what He is about to do.

But right now still can't see a way back to church and I am just clinging to the fact I know there is one.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Elgama

[Elgama]

There are a few words that paint a thousand pictures!

It shocks a lot of people to see a church full of imperfect, fallible, agenda-driven, error-prone people off doing things that really don't seem to be all that inspired. The concept of "we're trying our best" is useful to learn in these situations. If we allow it, the experience can help us be charitable.

LM

However that sentiment which I agree with wholeheartedly and I am the first to let something go usually (although took a long time to learn that lol), is also what is allowing a lady in my branch to get away with causing lots of people to be inactive, the spirit to be a battle for many. When actually people should be saying what you are doing is wrong, its evil. Sometimes church members perpetuate evil intentionally and are not doing their best to be Christlike. However because I have said NO what you are doing is evil, I am now being protrayed as the evil party.

And since I started posting here about my situation have realised I am far from alone and the its OK we are imperfect statement is causing a lot of evil to go past and causing a lot of fence sitting

[Guest mormonmusic]

But right now still can't see a way back to church and I am just clinging to the fact I know there is one.

Could you ask for a calling that allows you to work from home? For example, be in charge of a mailing list to less active members -- making phone calls to invite people to convert baptisms, be a visiting teaching district supervisor, etcetera? At least then you're still serving God and acting in ways that strengthen faith and testimony?

Not that I necessarily disagree with your partial withdrawal from Ward life (I don't know all the facts and am not here to judge), but I feel it's good to keep serving even when you feel its time to step back a bit. Volunteering that way would allow you to continue you showing your love for your fellow man, your love of the Lord, and would also energize your priesthood leaders who are probably working hard to further the three fold mission of the Church with scarce resources....

I'm in one of those periods now, and I still agreed to teach a class just to keep my spirituality up until I'm out of the woods and ready to do something more time consuming and taxing. As Jeffrey Holland said paraphrased "when storms in the sea of life come, stay in the boat" .

Edited May 13, 2010 by mormonmusic

[Elgama]

Could you ask for a calling that allows you to work from home? For example, be in charge of a mailing list to less active members -- making phone calls to invite people to convert baptisms, be a visiting teaching district supervisor, etcetera? At least then you're still serving God and acting in ways that strengthen faith and testimony?

Not that I necessarily disagree with your partial withdrawal from Ward life (I don't know all the facts and am not here to judge), but I feel it's good to keep serving even when you feel its time to step back a bit.

I'm in one of those periods now, and I still agreed to teach a class just to keep my spirituality up until I'm out of the woods.

I'm not partially inactive, I am completely inactive as its what Heavenly Father asked, and who needs a calling to serve lol? For some reason I have never been over burdened with callings despite living in a branch where I should be, but maybe its because most people know I can be counted on to enrich their callings, and I don't require one to compel me to serve or love my fellow Church members or maybe it was merely to prepare me for this time. Our branch covers everyone in a large area, I have done service for members and non members alike in the past few months, not to mention I actually think fighting this situation is a service all of its own:) My husband and I were both strongly prompted to ask to be released from our callings before we became inactive. (that was so hard I was teaching in Relief Society and adored it)

Plus I can't be a missionary in my area how can I in all conscience right now encourage a family with children back to church or to even visit?

Edited May 13, 2010 by Elgama
add last sentence

[Guest mormonmusic]

I'm not partially inactive, I am completely inactive as its what Heavenly Father asked, and who needs a calling to serve lol? For some reason I have never been over burdened with callings despite living in a branch where I should be, but maybe its because most people know I can be counted on to enrich their callings, and I don't require one to compel me to serve or love my fellow Church members or maybe it was merely to prepare me for this time. Our branch covers everyone in a large area, I have done service for members and non members alike in the past few months, not to mention I actually think fighting this situation is a service all of its own:) My husband and I were both strongly prompted to ask to be released from our callings before we became inactive. (that was so hard I was teaching in Relief Society and adored it)

Plus I can't be a missionary in my area how can I in all conscience right now encourage a family with children back to church or to even visit?

I don't have an answer to this -- you have to want to serve to the point of action if you're going to do it willingly, and if you feel you've been directed to be completely inactive... I don't know what else to say.

[Elgama]

I don't have an answer to this -- you have to want to serve to the point of action if you're going to do it willingly, and if you feel you've been directed to be completely inactive... I don't know what else to say.

Me neither lol I don't know enough to have any answers its part of trusting Heavenly Father knows what He is doing:)

However right now my head is saying maybe I'm wrong and questioning, my heart is confident and at peace

[anim82r]

My wife and I started a small canteen. It was going quite well. As a LDS we strived to be honest in all our doings, because here in our country, the Philippines, many transactions are done under the table , meaning in somewhat illegal way (to make things shortcut), especially when doing transactions or making business with government agencies. I filed my registration in Bureau of Internal Revenues in a legal way (the long cut), we declared that we are tenants of the place where our business is, despite the landlord's advise that we should declare that we are the owner of the place because he did not want to pay the 5% tax of our rent. Well, it was a simple prompting to be honest while I was registering our business. When the Landlord learned of our BIR registration and that we declared we are tenants, he burst into anger. His wife was even worse, telling us all sorts of threats. The land lord said that, "in our day being perfectly honest is never a tool for survival, especially when dealing with government agencies. Since our government is corrupt we might as well tag along to survive". And here's what really surprised me, he said, "I know you are a religious person. But let me give you an advise. It's okay to lie a little, steal a little or hurt someone a little as long as you ask forgiveness after committing those little sins. You have the right to be happy. And sometimes the only way to acquire that is by doing just a little tiny bits of sins. If you want to survive that's what you should be doing, especially in this country! When you die the Lord will whip you with just a few stripes then you'll go to heaven with him". I went to my uncle who is also a leader of a Christian religion and told him what happened to sort of indirectly solicit a sound advise. To my great surprise (and my jaw really dropped) he reiterated almost the exact words my landlord said!

We had to close down the business immediately after our confrontation with the landlord. Our heart was so sore in hurting because we were not able to get even just a little return on our investment, and it was quite an investment for a newly wed struggling couple. Even my mother cried painfully because she too had to put a lot of money as a loan to us for that business.

Later, I realized that what the landlord and my uncle told us kind of ring a bell. I opened my copy of the Book of Mormon and there it is!!! 2 Nephi 28:8! Then it all came very clear. I may have lost the business but I gained a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. Nephi saw these people! He knew that this will be one of most popular teachings in our day. At some point I was thinking, sometimes we really have to pay a great price to earn additional knowledge of the ways of God. That episode in my life left me a very precious evidence that The Book of Mormon is true and that the Church where I belong is indeed in every whit the only true and living Church upon the face of the earth! Need I say more?

[kimiko]

...At some point I was thinking, sometimes we really have to pay a great price to earn additional knowledge of the ways of God.

This is so true. I'm currently experiencing a situation where personal revelation has seemed to go wrong, but I know that good will come of it soon, even if I don't fully understand it yet.

Before my husband and I were married, we engaged in sexual activity. At the time, I was not a member of the Church, but he is an endowed member. He did express to me that he wanted to want until we were married to be intimate, and even though I wasn't a member, I completely agreed with him. But we did it anyway. We felt horrible for this, and still do. We prayed and prayed and asked Heavenly Father for forgiveness. Even though we knew our actions were "wrong" it never felt "wrong" because we knew what our intentions were, that we love each other immensely and want to spend eternity together. I realize now why we should have waited.

I'm going through the temple classes right now to prepare to receive my endowment and be sealed to my husband next month. The guilt and sorrow I've felt for disobeying the law of chastity has been heavy on my heart. Last Sunday during the temple class, the Bishop was going over the temple recommend interview questions and mentioned the importance of discussing certain transgressions with priesthood authority. I guess because I'm still a new member, I didn't fully understand what sins needed to be brought to his attention. I felt an ENORMOUS prompting to talk to the Bishop more about this, so we made an appointment with him, which we had last night.

During the meeting, I kept feeling like we needed to confess to him what we had done before we were married. My husband agreed, and we finally did. I was fully prepared to face whatever consequences I needed to, but the complete opposite happened. The Bishop informed us that because I did not have a high level of understanding at the time the sin was committed, that I was forgiven as I've already gone on through the repentance process on my own. However, my husband is held to a higher accountability because he's an endowed member. He will have to face the church court and disciplinary actions, even though he has also repented on his own. I don't feel like this is entirely fair because this is something we both did, not just him... so why should he be punished more severely than me?

I know that my husband's heart is bleeding with remorse. The thought that he could potentially be excommunicated for OUR sin completely destroys me. But I remind myself that somewhere along the line, good will come from this, for both of us. So far, we have grown closer together, my testimony of the Atonement and understanding of the importance of temple covenants has greatly strengthened. I know that when we are finally able to go to the temple together, that we can do it with pure and honest hearts, but this is the price we pay for that.

Nothing worth having in life comes easily.

[NeuroTypical]

"I am far from alone and the its OK we are imperfect" statement is causing a lot of evil to go past and causing a lot of fence sitting

Yeah, we need to know the difference.

Example 1: When I returned to church activity, I was asked to help set up chairs for something. I was so excited to help that I accidentally dumped a pile of chairs on my bishop and almost broke his leg. I was very sorry and spent the next week apologizing.

Example 2: [Elgama's experience]

You should put up with examples like mine, but not put up with the stuff that was happening to her daughter.

LM

[Elgama]

Yeah, we need to know the difference.

Example 1: When I returned to church activity, I was asked to help set up chairs for something. I was so excited to help that I accidentally dumped a pile of chairs on my bishop and almost broke his leg. I was very sorry and spent the next week apologizing.

Example 2: [Elgama's experience]

You should put up with examples like mine, but not put up with the stuff that was happening to her daughter.

LM

lol

[sulli]

I have acted on several such promptings...

The most interesting prompting that I had was something that has gone unfulfilled. About seven years ago now my brother in law was sent to Afganistan. When a unit leaves they have a send-off/last good-bye for the family and the members of the unit. I remember being there feeling like I should join the military. The prompting to join the military did not go away for months. Over those few months I began to look into what it would take to join the military and found that with certain health problems I have I would never be accepted into the military.

Over time the prompting faded away, but I often wondered how I would feel so prompted to do something and have it turn out to be not possible. I often relied on the story of Nephi and the idea that God will make a way for his children to fulfill his commands, but that was simply not the case with this prompting.

[Guest mormonmusic]

I have acted on several such promptings...

The most interesting prompting that I had was something that has gone unfulfilled. About seven years ago now my brother in law was sent to Afganistan. When a unit leaves they have a send-off/last good-bye for the family and the members of the unit. I remember being there feeling like I should join the military. The prompting to join the military did not go away for months. Over those few months I began to look into what it would take to join the military and found that with certain health problems I have I would never be accepted into the military.

Over time the prompting faded away, but I often wondered how I would feel so prompted to do something and have it turn out to be not possible. I often relied on the story of Nephi and the idea that God will make a way for his children to fulfill his commands, but that was simply not the case with this prompting.

I believe the Lord prompts us to do things just to change our mind about something he knows we want to do desparately. For example, maybe he knew this would become and issue for you later on in your life, and could interfere with a relationship. He had you look into it now to get it out of the way.

Also, there are times when we think we are prompted, and we're not. I've had those moments and I sometimes write it off as being uninspired. When I've been prompted at certain times, I've known it, other times, it's not clear.

[zippy_do46]

Sometimes when we are prompted to do something ...the test may be if you act on the prompting not the results of you being prompted.

[Wingnut]

Sometimes when we are prompted to do something ...the test may be if you act on the prompting not the results of you being prompted.

I knew a sister in my mission who referred to this as a spiritual fire drill.