Mormon Direction

Not every member of this Church experiences spiritual things. In fact some who quit this Church claim that they have had no spiritual experiences and base their rejection of the Church on this absence. This says that some members have been in this Church for years and have not yet experienced anything spiritual and with that absence, doubt may linger in their hearts and minds about spiritual things spoken of in the scriptures (Bible and Book of Mormon). To some this has even caused doubt as to authenticity of the First Vision and it will not be the last time I hear people scoff at the idea of seeking a spiritual experience, either to determine if this Church is true or for any other reason. So what do I say to them or those who doubt?

Where is thy faith?

It was made clear by God that no spiritual thing can come or occur without faith. It is a simple ingredient and a crucial one. It is by faith that all things can happen. Unfortunately, those who nurture doubt and rejection will also ignore or discount that faith has anything to do with it. Then “ye does not know the scriptures”.  With faith, both evil and good spiritual things may occur. Yes, both good and evil. Satan is not one to ignore if your faith increases. With any increase is the “opposite” reaction from evil. It is all part of strengthening faith.  To help with the faith of others in this Church, I would like to confirm that spiritual things are real, very real in fact. I can talk about faith, but for this writing I would like to give true accounts of spiritual events that occurred with me. This to provide a witness and account of what is real, spiritually speaking.

The First Vision began with evil surrounding and trying to subdue Joseph Smith. This same kind of thing occurred to me, years ago, while I was asleep. This was before I entered this Church and then, I took it as a nightmare as I knew nothing of spiritual things back then. IT was not until years later, when I was going through the lessons from the Missionaries as a new convert, the story of the First Vision was related to me. I was able to identify with that part of Joseph’s vision. I realized by this identification, caused by a past nightmare, that it was actually a real spiritual experience and evil attacked me. It was the account of Joseph’s Smith’s First Vision that showed me that I did have a true spiritual experience. It only took me years to finally identify what it was.

Years ago I had another “dream”. Initially I understood it as only a dream because I did not know any better. A few years later, I believed it was of an angel and then years later the truth was revealed to me that it was the Holy Ghost himself. This became one of my most predominant testimonies. You can read that here.

Experience of peace, clarity, sureness, understanding in something or about something, when there was doubt or fear, is a spiritual experience. This was a blessing from God to assist, help and even teach. If you have taken this as your own doing, then I suggest you correct that mindset and humble yourself before God and thank him for such blessings. I say this as a matter of faith, as it is one reason why I continue to receive spiritual experiences, because I give thanks and credit to God, not to myself. Personal “pride” can be one of the most common reasons why members fail to receive or recognize spiritual experiences.

Physical manifestations by evil are possible. I do not know to what extent at this time, but I am aware, by experience, that something as small as having the skin on my ankles scratched by something unseen showed me that evil has some measure of influence of the physical realm. It seems to me that they affected my body, spiritually, which manifested into physical reality. 

Attacks by evil do occur to people. One night after a traumatic event, I was again in a dream state and I was pulled off my bed and raised to the ceiling. I heard an evil male voice moan behind me as he held me up. By his power, my tongue was bound, but I managed to speak the words for him to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. I was lowered to the bed and I felt and saw this evil entity move from behind me to my right and lay on my bed with his back to me. His skin was quite blemished and discolored. Then he raised himself upward into a sitting position and leaned toward my legs and I saw the side of his face. It was distorted, but it was a man’s face. I called to him that he was to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. I saw that he began to slowly disappear in front of me, but as I looked up toward the ceiling over the foot of the bed and saw letters scratched into the air. It was some other language, it was not English and those letters disappeared as well. Next day I called upon a friend in the Church to provide a blessing. I told him of this account and he brought two visiting missionaries. I received a blessing from the priesthood and all was well from that day on.

Spiritually speaking, good and evil are real. They are as real as you and I. Just because you have not had any similar experiences, to your memory, does not mean that the experiences other’s have had are false. All that says for some is that they have not yet had these experiences or have not yet learned to recognize them.

In that account of the attack in my bedroom, the surroundings were the same as my bedroom, but had a different appearance to them. This tells me that what exists here in this physical reality exists there in spirit as well. Maybe this is why God does his work “spiritual first” and “temporal second”?

A question may arise in your mind as to my faith. If I received spiritual experiences prior to my introduction to this Church, then where was my faith? My answer to that is that I must have had or carried some degree of faith in order to receive those spiritual experiences. It was only that my faith was not realized at that time.

Spiritual things are real, so is the spiritual realm. As a result, since the accounts I have related here show a spiritual realm similar to our temporal realm, then it is true that there are “many Manson’s”, or many places by which people can go when they die. This tells me there are levels of places. I have experienced the higher levels and lower levels. As God afforded similar experiences to past prophets and members of this Church, I will say that it was to teach and increase understanding.

If you seek spiritual experiences, they will come when least expected. DO NOT seek evil things, ask for the good spiritual things. Let God decide what to bless you with. If you still wait for a spiritual experiences, fret not. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost know what and when is best. Carry on with faith, remain humble, give thanks to him that deserves it.

These spiritual things are real and they exist.

Amen