False Promptings


Sunday21
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Do any of you suffer from false promptings? I have had many. My mother is now living in a senior’s residence. She had a fall and I raced hours on the highway to get to her. During the drive, I received several ‘promptings’ that she was dead. Previously I had received several promptings that she would be dead by various dates. All false.

i also received several promptings that I should not bother to find a senior residence for her because she would die before entering the residence. Well my mother is now happily tucked up in a senior’s residence. 

I am now thinking about all the other supposed promptings that I received: times when I have put my heath at risk or made decisions that hurt me professionally and personally. I am not sure that I will ever trust a ‘prompting’ again.

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12 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Have you heard of this happening to anyone? Is this just me?

I'm not a counselor at all, but I know it can be difficult to tune in promptings.  The natural man is imperfect.  You can put crystal clear water in an earthen pot and the water IS pure but it's almost impossible to see the clarity of it in the pot.  Such is understanding the Spirit when we're spoken to.  

I believe it's even more difficult for us because we're always looking, and hoping, for promptings.  Sometimes we see them when they aren't there.

Edited by Grunt
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5 minutes ago, Grunt said:

I'm not a counselor at all, but I know it can be difficult to tune in promptings.  The natural man is imperfect.  You can put crystal clear water in an earthen pot and the water IS pure but it's almost impossible to see the clarity of it in the pot.  Such is understanding the Spirit when we're spoken to.  

I believe it's even more difficult for us because we're always looking, and hoping, for promptings.  Sometimes we see them when they aren't there.

Thank you Grunt! I feel that the bottom has dropped out of my world!

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31 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Have you heard of this happening to anyone? Is this just me?

I am definitely no counselor so don’t take my words as professional (which I know you won’t)

When you live faithfully and believe there is a spirit that will whisper words into your heart and mind, it is pretty typical to have moments in you life where you find yourself having thoughts and wondering if it is you or the spirit.

When I find myself in situations like yours where you receive strange promptings, I tend to ask myself if being warned by the spirit of this thing would change decision making or not. Like being prompted that your mother was dead while going to her house. Either way, prompting or no prompting, you are still going to do the same thing... drive to her house. It is these situations where I take those thoughts and throw them out cause they are no good to me.

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4 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Thank you Grunt! I feel that the bottom has dropped out of my world!

I know it's easier said than done, but don't let it.  You, as a spirit child, are pure and perfect.  You're trying to navigate this natural world in a mortal body that's acting as the clay jar would to pure water.  It's very frustrating at times.  I don't want to tell you not to worry about it, but I do want to point out how irrelevant most of it is.  This life the length of a hair on a super-highway.  

I love this talk by Elder Stevenson https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/your-four-minutes?lang=eng

This is your 4 minutes.  Christ has the utmost confidence in your capabilities.  You'll have eternity to look back on the lessons learned in this life.

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1 hour ago, Sunday21 said:

Do any of you suffer from false promptings? 

So sorry for this.

All the time.  Most of them are not important enough to matter much if they are wrong.  The ones i know/suspect are important, i look really critically at them, and try to make decisions very slowly.  Actually, i sort of use a benchmark of how many times i still feel good/correct about something when i wake up in the morning.  

This was not a luxury you had, of course.

i don't know i've ever found answers for what you describe.  A bit of a confusing mess, to be honest.  i know a mother who found her teenage daughter - after she had taken her own life.  She hadn't received any prompting to go in and check prior.  And then a few weeks later, i heard this lady talk about how the Spirit had prompted her to go down this one street to find the perfect boat at a good price for her vacation.  They are both actually really good people.  But just the inconsistency rocked my views of just how accurate our perceptions of prompting or the lack thereof actually is.

About the best i can do is say that you now know one thing/particular delivery for revelation to be more suspicious of in the future.  And i know that isn't enough to really answer the question you are asking.  i think God still guides and helps us, but maybe it's less common than we'd like to think.  He Governs all the time, but Intervenes very rarely - including in the correction of many perceptions.

Faith through pain and confusion seem to be a major currency of the universe - redeemable at a future time.  That's what i hope at least.

Definitely one of the things i'm hoping to get an explanation for on the other side.

i hope your Mom is doing better.

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Hello @Sunday21

You are not alone with what you consider promptings that turn out to be false, as I have had my share of promptings/visions come to pass, and I have recently had the experience of a prompting that was specific to 9 years not come to pass. On my mission I met a brother that was very close to the Spirit, not perfect, but very close. 7 out of 10 times what he prophesied of came true. What I found most intriguing is how some missionaries would focus on the three times he was wrong instead of the seven times his prophecies were true. I experienced personally three of his prophecies all which came true. As I have pondered promptings from observation and experience this is what I have concluded:

1) As sons and daughters of God we are "becoming" like our Father in heaven. This becoming is experienced through our yielding to the enticings of the Holy Ghost. We are striving for a more sure word of prophecy and revelation. This means we will experience false promptings at times, which are able to be influenced by multiple aspects in our lives.

2) A false prompting may occur more often when we are over anxious for something in our lives. Jacob, Book of Mormon prophet, shared how he hoped he would not loose the Spirit due to his over anxiety (compassion, love, and desire) for his people. We may be filling the Spirit and then loose it as we become over anxious for something.

3) At times we experience what we consider a false prompting because the result isn't what we anticipated. We, at times, have the false notion that if God inspires us to move, the outcome will always be good. I personally believe God will test us with false prompting in order to see if we will obey. This scripture comes to mind, "I know not, save the Lord commanded me." A personal application, "I know not, save the Lord impressed me and I obey." Even when we get to our friends house and nothing is wrong. Because that next time we feel that prompting, we are ready and God knows we are listening. I observed this with one of my missionary companions. He was closer to the Spirit than any of my other companions. One day, he stopped, and then went to talk to someone. When he came back, he said, "Well, I guess I was wrong. I thought the Lord told me to speak with that guy." He assumed because the Lord told him, that the outcome will be good. I realized then, that at times the Lord may command/prompt us to simply obey, and because the desired result we thought would occur didn't occur we assume a false prompting when in reality it was a true prompting preparing us for something else.

I believe this suffices. So, may the Lord bless you to continue to do your best in following promptings, and not assume 100% perfection as we are "becoming" like our Father in heaven.

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15 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

Do any of you suffer from false promptings? I have had many. My mother is now living in a senior’s residence. She had a fall and I raced hours on the highway to get to her. During the drive, I received several ‘promptings’ that she was dead. Previously I had received several promptings that she would be dead by various dates. All false.

i also received several promptings that I should not bother to find a senior residence for her because she would die before entering the residence. Well my mother is now happily tucked up in a senior’s residence. 

I am now thinking about all the other supposed promptings that I received: times when I have put my heath at risk or made decisions that hurt me professionally and personally. I am not sure that I will ever trust a ‘prompting’ again.

Hey!

Good to see you as always :)

This makes me think of another mentor I had. He was SO rude and often I was unhappy to listen to him teach me. He was actually mainstream LDS but friends with my closer Mentor and was also into Polygamist teachings (I know RIP my life) His beliefs ultimately lost him his marriage as well. He is also a Master Mason and would talk to me for hours.  Haha NOW, excuse my story Diarrhea but I am getting to my point.  One thing he would tell me often  (Especially when things would go wrong) He would listen to me speak and relate my story then he would say:

Remember, wherever you go, take your brain with you

Or he would say

Why are you telling me this? Go speak to the Lord

Haha. Here Overwatch, have a rude sandwich BUT you know what Sunday?  He was kind of right. As I grew I was able to take the mess of knowledge that was crammed into my mind, of course I am still unwinding it, and make it work for me. I have to use my brain. I will take your promptings and apply them to my thought process. This is what I would do if that happened to me.

- If it creeped me out I would first and foremost, raise my right hand and command El Diablo to be gone in the name of Jesus. That way I could have a clean working area. Empty room with me and the spirit.

- I would then get on my knees and pray to God to open my mind. I would ask why I was having the same feelings over and over. I would also ask Him to help me figure out why I was so worried. I would then pause, listen to see if a response came and if not get up to start planning.

- I would look at my Mother's medical records and history, with her permission. I would speak with her and ask her if she was alright. Ask her if she was happy to be alive. If everything was good and I knew it was time to put her in a home (per your story) I would just do it like you did. Good job by the way.

If you are you thinking that everyone has it figured out they DON'T

I have some relatives that are LDS and out of all of them the only one that is stable financially is the inactive one BUT most of his kids have fallen away.

The active ones have tanked businesses but almost all of their children are active members of the LDS church.

What I concluded is we are blessed according to our efforts. What we choose to put our talents into. What we choose to be good stewards over. BE WISE.  Challenge your impulses, if it is the spirit it will reaffirm itself. If a PROMPTING is telling you to invest all of your money into a shady pyramid scheme CHALLENGE it. If losing that money will put you in the hole DON'T Do it.  If going to that event is going to make you spiritually bankrupt, avoid it like the plague.

Don't be led to and fro by impulses, indigestion or misread promptings. Make a stable base of operation and then if you are called to go outside the walls DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Respectfully challenge the idea and the Lord will make Himself known more clearly, if it is essential you act in ONE particular way

okay. I hope this helps.

C :

Edited by Overwatch
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On 6/2/2018 at 6:44 AM, Sunday21 said:

Do any of you suffer from false promptings? I have had many. My mother is now living in a senior’s residence. She had a fall and I raced hours on the highway to get to her. During the drive, I received several ‘promptings’ that she was dead. Previously I had received several promptings that she would be dead by various dates. All false.

i also received several promptings that I should not bother to find a senior residence for her because she would die before entering the residence. Well my mother is now happily tucked up in a senior’s residence. 

I am now thinking about all the other supposed promptings that I received: times when I have put my heath at risk or made decisions that hurt me professionally and personally. I am not sure that I will ever trust a ‘prompting’ again.

I have been a caretaker of my aged parents for more than a decade and a half (though my father passed away some 8 years ago). And, during the last several years, my handicapped mother, who just turned 90-years-old,  has experienced a serious fall, a heart attack, and several strokes, among other tings, some of which occurred while I was out of town or at work.

During the last two serious  incidents, while traveling to be by my mother's side, I experience similar "promptings" as you, only to then discover that my Mom was still alive and on the road to recovery. 

However, upon further reflection, particularly in light of the evidence contrary to the  "promptings," I have come to understand that it wasn't so much a promoting as it was apprehension-induced, dream-like preparation for the inevitable. When my father passed, it was extremely difficult for me, in part because I was unprepared. I believe my mind and body has since learned from that experience, and has made adjustment so that it won't be repeated again--at least not to the same devastating degree. Granted, my mother's passing will still be very difficult for me, but now I am more prepared. (kind of like the difference between being surprised by a punch to the gut and being prepared for the punch). Both may hurt., but...)

I have frankly considered the possibility that it may also be wishful thinking, not in wanting my Mother gone and out of my life--far from it, but that her struggles and pain and sorrows (and by extension my own) may have come to an end and she has entered into peace and rest. That, or the  false "prompting"may provide something of a brief respite to catch my breath and once again put my shoulder to the wheel.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

 

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On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 9:17 AM, Sunday21 said:

Have you heard of this happening to anyone? Is this just me?

Everyone has false promptings, it is when we thing with our mind not our soul. Even General Authorities has false promptings. The write books and it is common for them to have retractions. I find strong feelings about things and it is hard not to think they are promptings. Brigham Young thought there were people on the moon. That does not make him a false prophet it makes him a man. All of us including leaders are men. Leaders once thought it was wrong for races to mix. Now that is not leader thinking. I would have really messed up things even though at times I have had the gift of prophecy has been bestowed for special reasons. One of the main things I have learned that leads me wrong is any time I think I know more than others. We are each given a little bit, in the bigger picture we all know almost nothing and most depend on the Spirit and learn to depend on others. I too have been questions about leading my siblings to put my mother in a nursing home. She had Oxygen problems and kept falling. She hit her head, broke her ribs, and when she broke her back I felt she should not leave the facility she went through rehab. It is hard but we can not know what would have happened if we had not put her in a protected environment. 

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Sunday21, this is a great question.  I have struggled with this as well.  For what its worth, here's how I try to avoid deception:

- I know that any type of inspiration that contradicts revealed truth and God's written word is false and I can immediately reject.  There is an important balance between The Word and The Spirit....and if we focus too much on one without the other we open ourselves to deception:  whether it is hyper spirituality without being grounded in the word or a legalistic following of The Word with no regard for The Spirit and the spirit of the law.  We are constantly told to pray and read the scriptures....if we focus on one without the other I think we can get off course.

- For important decisions, I seek multiple confirmations.  For minor stuff, like "Go visit that person"...I try to follow immediately.  If it is, "Resign your job and move to another location" I am going to really try to fast and pray to get this one right.

- Seek out the inspiration of others that also have interest in the issue.  I seek my wife's personal revelation to keep my own in check.  Whenever we feel the same thing or receive the same revelation, things have always turned out well.  Going it alone can open either of us up to deception.  She was starting to get caught up in the Julie Rowe movement...and so I helped to point out how that movement is inconsistent with gospel pattern.  Likewise, she helps keep me in check.  Do you have any siblings that also have interest in the well-being of your mother.?...perhaps you could seek out their advice and involve them in the revelation and decision process.

- Make sure you're living the gospel.  When I am not worthy or living the gospel as I should my view of things becomes distorted and I open myself to deception.  Hard to see things clearly when I don't have the Light of Christ, let alone the Holy Ghost.

- Seek out counsel from priesthood leaders.  I would take any advice from me or anyone else on MormonHUB carefully because we don't have any priesthood authority that encompasses you....also, these are almost all anonymous posts on a non-church sponsored website.  So, for those difficult decisions, talk to an EQ president (or RS president) or Home Minister or Bishop.

My experience is that God does guide us and provides a means for us to discern correction inspiration from false promptings.  All the best!

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On 6/2/2018 at 8:17 AM, Sunday21 said:

Have you heard of this happening to anyone? Is this just me?

It happens to all of us almost all the time.  The human brain makes up information all the time.  That is the test we face, to discern promptings from the carnal mind vs promptings obtained from the still small voice.  There are clues as to which is which but that discernment is the test we face in this life to see which one we will follow and which one we listen to.  But even if one is an "expert" at that discernment, they still receive the human brain influences at the same time, that doesn't go away until death.  Paul could not get rid of his "thorn in the flesh", or else he would be exalted above measure.  There is no test unless we have false choices placed before us to give free agency. Overall, we rarely hear the spiritual promptings.  This is, in part, why Moses said, he never thought man was nothing.  Most of man's actions and reactions to the world around, including promptings and thought, is carnal in nature.  We all have that. 

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8 hours ago, Fifthziff said:

It happens to all of us almost all the time.  The human brain makes up information all the time.  That is the test we face, to discern promptings from the carnal mind vs promptings obtained from the still small voice.  There are clues as to which is which but that discernment is the test we face in this life to see which one we will follow and which one we listen to.  But even if one is an "expert" at that discernment, they still receive the human brain influences at the same time, that doesn't go away until death.  Paul could not get rid of his "thorn in the flesh", or else he would be exalted above measure.  There is no test unless we have false choices placed before us to give free agency. Overall, we rarely hear the spiritual promptings.  This is, in part, why Moses said, he never thought man was nothing.  Most of man's actions and reactions to the world around, including promptings and thought, is carnal in nature.  We all have that. 

Experts often are experts on man's.laws!!!!!

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On 6/4/2018 at 5:14 AM, Luke said:

Sunday21, this is a great question.  I have struggled with this as well.  For what its worth, here's how I try to avoid deception:

- I know that any type of inspiration that contradicts revealed truth and God's written word is false and I can immediately reject.  There is an important balance between The Word and The Spirit....and if we focus too much on one without the other we open ourselves to deception:  whether it is hyper spirituality without being grounded in the word or a legalistic following of The Word with no regard for The Spirit and the spirit of the law.  We are constantly told to pray and read the scriptures....if we focus on one without the other I think we can get off course.

- For important decisions, I seek multiple confirmations.  For minor stuff, like "Go visit that person"...I try to follow immediately.  If it is, "Resign your job and move to another location" I am going to really try to fast and pray to get this one right.

- Seek out the inspiration of others that also have interest in the issue.  I seek my wife's personal revelation to keep my own in check.  Whenever we feel the same thing or receive the same revelation, things have always turned out well.  Going it alone can open either of us up to deception.  She was starting to get caught up in the Julie Rowe movement...and so I helped to point out how that movement is inconsistent with gospel pattern.  Likewise, she helps keep me in check.  Do you have any siblings that also have interest in the well-being of your mother.?...perhaps you could seek out their advice and involve them in the revelation and decision process.

- Make sure you're living the gospel.  When I am not worthy or living the gospel as I should my view of things becomes distorted and I open myself to deception.  Hard to see things clearly when I don't have the Light of Christ, let alone the Holy Ghost.

- Seek out counsel from priesthood leaders.  I would take any advice from me or anyone else on MormonHUB carefully because we don't have any priesthood authority that encompasses you....also, these are almost all anonymous posts on a non-church sponsored website.  So, for those difficult decisions, talk to an EQ president (or RS president) or Home Minister or Bishop.

My experience is that God does guide us and provides a means for us to discern correction inspiration from false promptings.  All the best!

When did the practice of leaders sharing private things with their wives, This cuts down on leaders being asked for advice

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On 6/2/2018 at 8:44 AM, Sunday21 said:

Do any of you suffer from false promptings? I have had many. My mother is now living in a senior’s residence. She had a fall and I raced hours on the highway to get to her. During the drive, I received several ‘promptings’ that she was dead. Previously I had received several promptings that she would be dead by various dates. All false.

i also received several promptings that I should not bother to find a senior residence for her because she would die before entering the residence. Well my mother is now happily tucked up in a senior’s residence. 

I am now thinking about all the other supposed promptings that I received: times when I have put my heath at risk or made decisions that hurt me professionally and personally. I am not sure that I will ever trust a ‘prompting’ again.

I am not LDS, and I really don't understand what a "prompting" is, but I am guessing by this thread that it is the idea that God is somehow speaking directly to you about something.  Once again, not knowing LDS doctrine, I would say this: if a prompting is in some way out-of-line with some other element of faith, it probably isn't from God.  Example: (remember that I am Catholic) if I thought I had a 'prompting' to have an abortion, that would clearly violate known doctrine, so it wouldn't be a prompting from God.  

In the situation with your mother, the prompting sounds like some manner of seeing into the future ( I suspect all Christianity frowns upon it, as the future is only God's to know).  Maybe a more obvious example would be if LDS had a prompting to share details of the Temple with a non-LDS, that would clearly violate LDS doctrine, so it cannot be from God.

It's hard, hard, hard to deal with aging parents.  My prayers are with you.

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6 hours ago, john4truth said:

When did the practice of leaders sharing private things with their wives, This cuts down on leaders being asked for advice

Agreed.  To be clear, that is not what I was referring to.  I was referring more like something where a husband feels prompted to take some action that relates to his family...say, moving the family to another location.  I think best practice would be for the wife to also seek her own confirmation.  

Cheers,

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I don't know but I have been told this 3 times with bishopric calling . My daughter learned my wife was divorcing me through the bishops daughter 2 days after I told the bishop. The bishops daughter said they discussed It in family home evening.

 

Edited by john4truth
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3 hours ago, askandanswer said:

Count your blessings - now you have a short cut to Australia :)

There is a real prophet who receives real revelation. Heavenly Father does offer hope. This life is a short test, it is only a test. In the scope of things we can fan happiness if we look for it. Do for others and you will find happiness.

7

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