Mormon Direction

Has anyone noticed in general, there are many people who cannot act well on their own, have problems making good choices and decisions and in general have a poor sense of spiritual direction? Do these people find their way, spiritually, all by themselves? This, of course, shows that no one is perfect and no one has the ability, by themselves and by their own personal beliefs to return to God.

For the least people, God provides direction and leadership. This is the very pattern God set up in all the scriptures in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon. When God cares for his people, if they have not fallen badly to corruption and wickedness, God provides by giving them leadership. This is called a prophet and in all cases in the scriptures throughout time, there has always been a prophet directing, teaching, supporting, caring and loving the faithful people of God. Only when the people abandon God, has God left them to their abandonment, to again later, reclaim them by and through his prophet.

Why then is it that many Christians in this world reject the idea of a prophet for God? – Well the answer is they are not faithful as they could be.

Without leadership and a structured religious organization, God’s faithful would get lost and fall to many follies. This example is seen many times within the scriptures, in particular the New Testament. Many times God’s Apostles had to address false (Greek influenced) beliefs and doctrines in the early Christian Church. How many times in the Old Testament people ignored God, resulting in the loss of the Church, their faith and spiritual direction? Of course, the number is far too many.

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When researching the word “adultery” in the scriptures a person will normally see that the word is associated with sex outside the union of marriage. Other scriptures that do not specifically refer to adultery against marriage, speak in a more general sense as to the nature of some people, as the reference, “adulterous people”, such as what is found in Jeremiah 9:2 and Mosiah 1:13. In reading these references, one wonders if God speaks of these people as all having sexual affairs. Since that does not show a sensible application of the word “adulterous”, then God must be applying that word to mean something else. So what does he mean?

We know that sexual adultery corrupts marriages and in turn, families. It is the affect of the act carried into a marriage or relationship that causes the corruption. As easily as the children suffer the sins of the parents without having committed the sin themselves, so shall the sin of adultery bear onto the members of the family in the same way.

What then can be the definition of adultery in order to understand its application in life and spirit?

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Within the Bible, Apostle Peter had said in 2 Peter 1:20, that private interpretation does not qualify as scriptural knowledge nor does it provide the mind of the Lord. Peter continued to say that scriptural knowledge and knowing the mind of the Lord is when a man of God is “moved” by the Holy Ghost.

To be moved by the Holy Ghost clearly sets out the state of mind and heart of a person who receives revelation from God. Since the Holy Ghost does not have a physical body as ours and does not exist in this temporal realm, he then “moves” us from the spiritual realm. The Holy Ghost does this by his power more so than he enters into us, because the Holy Ghost has many people to inspire, even at the same time so he cannot be in one person to inspire and also inspire another a far distance away. Hence he “moves” us by his power which he affect many at the same time. This example was proven in the Bible at the Pentecost, where many were moved by the Holy Ghost at the same time.

Having said that, what then is the value of personal opinion? - There can be only one truth, not many truths and personal opinion has unfortunately been falsely believed as truth.

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Not long ago, I was in conversation with a fellow who quit the Seventh Day Adventist church because he was against it’s membership in the World Counsel of churches (WCC). He claimed that he believes in Jesus Christ, yet he quit his chosen church which preached salvation by the Bible. This saying that he quit what he believed was his chosen church and his means of salvation because of his personal disagreement with his church. 

Our conversation began about the false traditions of other Christians where he spoke of his short findings about the WCC, but when he asked me if I belonged to a church and I told him, his tune quickly changed, hypocrisy and ignorance began to rear it’s ugly head. 

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The Book of Mormon, edition 1854, written by Joseph Smith is available as a free download from Google Books. The download is in a PDF format (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

To see this book listed by Google, go here >> The Book of Mormon 1854

You can search Google Books yourself with these key words (includes quotations) – “The Book of Mormon” 1854

There will be two books listed, with the same edition date. Either one is fine. The book exists at two separate libraries.

Click the one you want and it opens in a viewing window. You can search the book by key words while online with Google Books or download it completely as a PDF file (23 mb).  The only downside to your own copy is that the PDF version you download cannot be searched. The pages are images and not a regular PDF searchable file. The only option is to find software that can convert the images into text form.

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I have read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. I learned the importance of their content and what it means for my spiritual life with God. How I came to realize this was over time, through many experiences with the scriptures and in life.

I experienced positive changes when I properly studied the word of God. I have found that the key to gaining spiritual awareness, a heightened state of heart and mind, depends on whether I am sincere and humble when reading and studying the word of God. When I leave these books and stop reading them, the heightened change slowly diminishes and I begin to feel “less spiritual”. This showed me that a spiritual state, a “heightened state” (and peaceful) state of mind depends on my focus and involvement with the word of God. It showed me that things in this world are temporary and to maintain something, requires continued attention and diligence. It is just like staying fit, exercise must continue else the “fit state” diminishes.  

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