My Talk and Testimony on Repentance

Talk given on 4/12/15

As of late I have been awe-struck and overwhelmed with the messages in the scriptures. I have been immersing myself in the scriptures and today I would like to share with you some observations that the Holy Ghost has shown to me and has born witness of its truthfulness to me. I want to take Kendra’s talk on faith and build on that principle with some thoughts on the next principle of the gospel, which is repentance.

Why did I choose repentance? What experience do I have with repentance?

My credentials are these…I am a sinner and the Lord has healed me. It is that simple. We are all sinners no matter the sin…great or small. We are all in need of the Lord’s atonement. We are all fallen in a telestial state and need to find our way back to the Lord in this life. Just like the fall of Adam and Eve we all have a fall to overcome and we all have to become once again as a little child and attain to a terrestrial sphere where we are able to withstand the presence of our Lord.  The Lord said the children are the kingdom of God over and over in the Bible. In Matthew 18: 2-4 it says… “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Why does He repeat this concept so many times in the Bible?

Because it is essential in coming to know Him and becoming a part of His kingdom, the kingdom that will be established upon the earth during the millennium that is soon upon us.

There is a process of redemption that is taught in the temple that we need to go through in our own individual lives right now. We are, each of us, literally either Adam or Eve. We were all children at one point living on this earth in innocence during our childhood. Children essentially live in a terrestrial sphere just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. As we get older we lose our innocence and become hardened by life experiences, which is literally our own personal fall. We are hardened by this lone and dreary telestial world and through sin, fears, doubts and other life experiences where we lose our innocence we put up walls and shut doors. We essentially turn away from God (which is the Greek translation of the word sin…turning away from God) and we try to fill that void with things of this world.  

After we realize that this world really doesn’t have that much to offer and filling the void with the things of this world just isn’t satisfying…we begin to understand the awful fallen state that we are in and desire to be back in the Lord’s presence. This leads to us crying out to the Lord and asking for him to come to us, to redeem us and save us from our awful sinful state. When we CRY to the Lord we begin a process. A process of healing and of redemption. And as we slowly break down those walls we erected and as we open those doors we once closed on the Lord we once again become as a little child and we return to that terrestrial sphere to be taught by the Lord and to receive more. We become once again as a little child…submissive, meek, humble and willing to learn everything the Lord wants to teach us. This is the process of redemption. That picture of Christ knocking on the door…each of us have erected that door that is in the picture. We shut him out. He is knocking. We need to open it and let him back in.

How do we begin this process? It is by giving our will to the Lord. Our will is the only thing that each of us possess that isn’t the Lord’s and the only thing he wants us to put on the alter. Everything else we have can be taken from the Lord in a moments notice. After giving our will to him we essentially give the Lord permission to fix anything that is weak and infirm in us and anything keeping us from seeing truth and light and filling us with his all encompassing love, mercy and charity. Once we are filled with love, mercy, and charity we have no choice but to show forth those attributes to others. These are things we cannot fake. They come from God and once received from God we show forth these attributes to others. That is essentially how we live the first 2 great commandments.  

Matthew 22: 37-40 Says…”Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

We are all fallen and need to be redeemed by Him and Him only but it isn’t until we awaken to our awful fallen telestial state and arise that the Lord shows forth his merciful hand and redeems us. It isn’t until we cry to the Lord and show him that we are nothing without him that he is able to do the heavy lifting for us. Do a search in the scriptures of how many times the Book of Mormon says “cry to the Lord”. There are 17 results in the Book of Mormon. 9 in the Old Testament. 2 in D&C and 1 in the Pearl of Great Price.  Searching other variations of “crying to the Lord” gives us even more results in the Book of Mormon. There are numerous examples in the Book of Mormon of people crying…not praying…but crying to the Lord. You should go home and read the account of the brother of Jared and see what happens to him after crying to the Lord. Are the scriptures that the Lord restored to us through his servant Joseph Smith trying to tell us something here? When we cry to the Lord it gets the ball rolling. It allows the Lord to come to you, to fix you and to redeem you. And as a consequence of that, the Lord shows us other things we may have not have considered before as well.  He reveals to us mysteries or the greater portion of the word.

In Alma 12: 10-11 it says…

10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.

 11 And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.

The greater portion of the word is the meat of the gospel and the lesser portion of the word is the milk. Look what happens when we are content with the milk…the devil takes you captive.

Those mysteries and greater portion of the word are what make the gospel delicious. I would suggest most of those mysteries lie in the pages of the Book of Mormon and anything brought forth by the hand of the Prophet of this dispensation Joseph Smith. Those mysteries are what fill the void that we try to fill with sin. Sin is anything that distracts us from Christ.  It is anything we choose over following Christ and his plan for us. It is anything that distracts us from finding out what our calling and election is in this life and making it sure. We all have a void that we try to fill…whether it be through food, TV, alcohol, electronic devices, an addiction of any type…even sports, shopping and yes, even facebook. Anything we do in excess…we are trying to fill a void.

Sin is anything that turns us away from what God is trying to show us and repentance is turning back to God to face Him and learn from him by doing what he asks us which is essentially what keeping the commandments means. Doing what he commands you to do individually. He wants us to follow him. He wants us to learn from Him. This is all literal. This is the life to do these things.

That anvil that is holding you down and you are dragging. Don’t curse it.  Bless it. Thank God he gave it to you. It is that anvil that will cause you to fall to your knees and cry to the Lord, give your will to him and to have him come to you to be healed. How he comes to you is according to your faith. See what happens to the brother of Jared according to his faith. What is the result of crying to the Lord? Look at the process in the Book of Mormon. It’s all there. There is a process and there is a result. God works in patterns and the patterns are laid out in the Book of Mormon.

When you give your will to the Lord and cry to him don’t be surprised where he takes you. Don’t be surprised at what he is trying to show you.

Are we redeemed because we keep “the checklist”? Is that checklist attainable or is it set up, just like the Law of Moses, so that you fail and cry to the Lord and say I can’t do it… I can’t win, please show me the way. Or, is it your heart that matters the most? Do we have it backwards?  I used to think that if I could just keep “the checklist” to a “T”, THEN, I would be worthy of the Lord’s love, mercy and guidance. This is not the case, He is always there for you. None of us will ever be worthy enough anyway. That is what He came to fix. We need to focus on Christ and His will for us and then all of those things that we think matter will just fall into place by Him shedding forth His love. Love that we cannot even imagine, and in return you show forth love to others, and achieve more of “the checklist” then we ever thought possible.

I also used to think that once we are sealed in the temple, then we were “good to go”. Come to find out, that is only the beginning of our spiritual journey and ascension in this life. Most of what happens in the temple is symbolic of the real thing. You have to seek the real thing. You have to have everything sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise.

On July 28th, 2014 early in the morning…the Lord showed forth His mercy and healed me from sins I suffered with for close to twenty years. He literally came to me and took upon Him my sins through the baptism of fire. I did not see Him, but I felt my spirit connected to Him, and we were of one heart and one mind. I felt the refining cleansing process within my bosom. I felt the warmth, the love and his undeniable presence.  I testify to you that He will come to you. He will heal you. It is a literal thing. I owe everything to my Lord and Savior for delivering me from the bondage of sin that I was carrying with me for so long…essentially from the time of my own personal fall…after I lost the innocence of my childhood.

As I continue to break down walls and open doors back up, I look forward to the day when I can ascend to the next level in this life… the next level being a terrestrial sphere. The level we all need to attain to in our present life to be able to bear the presence of the Lord when He returns for the second coming, because when He comes His glory will be so great it will burn the wicked.  Just like how the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisical glory. We need to be as well. This is essentially how we reach the celestial kingdom. It is all here and now. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking we can procrastinate anything until the next life. The test is now and it is upon us. The Lord is coming in judgment. We can either come to him now as a lamb or we can wait until he comes in judgment as a Lion.

So, after we cry to the Lord to be delivered from our awful fallen state and bondage to sin, here is the process to receive the baptism of fire…it is in 3 Nephi 9: 20-22…

Verse 20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.

 21 Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin.

 22 Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved.

So what is it that we need to repent of? Do what Joseph Smith essentially restored. Ask the Lord. We as Latter-day Saints do this to see if the Book of Mormon is true but we stop there. We should be doing it for everything. We should be exercising this practice with everything that is taught to us. You should do it with this talk I am sharing with you today. He cannot provide any new light, truth, and knowledge until we ask Him first. It is not in the pattern of God to provide anything to us until we ask. Ask the Lord. He will answer but you need to be listening and watching carefully. It may start off really quiet…keep going…it gets louder.

I have learned for myself, through years of sin that it is humility that matters. It is the heart that matters…

Look at Luke 18: 10-14

10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

I testify these things to be true. I believe Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. I believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know the Lord is real because He healed me. God is Love. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.