Connect with the powers of heaven or perish.

[Original_Intent]

Ancient Israel was offered the opportunity to go up and meet God, but they were either afraid, or more likely were not willing to give up what they knew needed to be given up. They told Moses to deal with God for them.

I believe we are either in or rapidly approaching the time that it will no longer be optional. We all must seek God as if our lives and our salvation depends on it, because it does.

I believe this even came across the pulpit at a recent General conference - those that are not receiving personal revelation will be unable to survive what is coming. Actually, those who are in ignorance may survive by the grace of God, but those that are neglecting seeking the Lord will be swept off.

Not everyone's path needs to be nor even CAN be identical. The only universal step is, to the best of your ability, orient yourself towards the Lord and start walking. At the very very least, stop knowingly walking in a direction that is not bringing you closer to Him. Stand still and know that He is God. If you are unable to move forward, change the direction you are facing, turn to the Lord.

I say this not as anyone that is any better, I have plenty of my own course corrections to make that are clearly apparent to anyone that reads my posts.

You, and each of you know that this is the truth, you know what needs to be done, and you know that time is growing short.

I'm not going to say follow so-and-so or read such-and-such. Find YOUR path and walk it. No matter what your situation is, no matter how misguided you have been or how openly rebellious you have chosen to be - there is a path back and the Lord's hand is outstretched to you and you will receive whatever help you need.

I don't know how difficult or easy your way will be. But I know it is doable, the Lord loves you and wants to commune with you, teach you, and use us to help establish Zion.

Thus it is. Amen.

[BeNotDeceived]

Answers are available, if you’re willing to search for them.

[Original_Intent]

I feel an INTENSE sense of urgency today.

I have loved focusing on economics because I feel it is one of the major tools that is used to enslave us, and I still do.
If you do not understand good economic principles, I still encourage you to do so, if you can.

But everything else pales in comparison to seeking or strengthening a connection with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and true messengers.

Literally nothing else matters. After that we can all be guided to knowing what else is important to know.

[kirtland r.m.]

Ancient Israel was offered the opportunity to go up and meet God, but they were either afraid, or more likely were not willing to give up what they knew needed to be given up. They told Moses to deal with God for them.

I believe we are either in or rapidly approaching the time that it will no longer be optional. We all must seek God as if our lives and our salvation depends on it, because it does.

I believe this even came across the pulpit at a recent General conference - those that are not receiving personal revelation will be unable to survive what is coming. Actually, those who are in ignorance may survive by the grace of God, but those that are neglecting seeking the Lord will be swept off.

Not everyone's path needs to be nor even CAN be identical. The only universal step is, to the best of your ability, orient yourself towards the Lord and start walking. At the very very least, stop knowingly walking in a direction that is not bringing you closer to Him. Stand still and know that He is God. If you are unable to move forward, change the direction you are facing, turn to the Lord.

I say this not as anyone that is any better, I have plenty of my own course corrections to make that are clearly apparent to anyone that reads my posts.

You, and each of you know that this is the truth, you know what needs to be done, and you know that time is growing short.

I'm not going to say follow so-and-so or read such-and-such. Find YOUR path and walk it. No matter what your situation is, no matter how misguided you have been or how openly rebellious you have chosen to be - there is a path back and the Lord's hand is outstretched to you and you will receive whatever help you need.

I don't know how difficult or easy your way will be. But I know it is doable, the Lord loves you and wants to commune with you, teach you, and use us to help establish Zion.

Thus it is. Amen.

Thank you Original_Intent! The first time I was reading the D&C the thing I was impressed with the most, was the constant call by the Lord for us to repent and to do it quickly!

[Original_Intent]

I also want to say, I am not trying to play prophet here.
But there are a few things I feel need to be called out.

Pointing out the flaws of the LDS church or its leadership are completely insufficient if you are not willing to save the baby from the bathwater, and also unwilling to build on that. Yes, Christ condemned the church leaders of His time, BUT he not only respected the law and the prophets, but fulfilled them. Of course, we can't do THAT, but we MUST lay a foundation as best we can and build upon it. This is DOABLE and ...not necessary for the plan but necessary for each of us.

I am not saying this as anyone any better than anyone here and certainly have as much or more work to do than most.
I will say this for Emily - she has been deceived in the past and probably will be in the future. But she is TRYING probably more than anyone on this site. I clearly don't know each of you or your day to day, please forgive me for my judgement. All I will say is Emily is moving in the right direction and she is not just making efforts, my sense at least is that she is making "stretch" efforts all the time. Very admirable, I hope I can improve to making half the effort, the dedication.

Consecrate yourselves.
No more "social media" levels of commitment.
No more virtue signaling.
No more intellectual pissing contests. (I know, I know, "Physician, heal thyself")

Break that heart.

[honestseeker12]

Lately, I have felt myself as a lost sheep who is crying out to the Lord to come and find me and carry me back to Him. I am trying my best to come unto Him, but I actually need Him to come to me. In other words, I can't get back into His presence by my righteousness. I realize that everything, literally everything is a gift from Him. There is nothing that I can do that will save me, except I can give the Lord my heart. I try to hear His voice, but I still see myself as a lost sheep that can't make my way back without Him just putting me on His back and carrying me home. I love the picture of Jesus carrying the sheep on his shoulders.

[kirtland r.m.]

Lately, I have felt myself as a lost sheep who is crying out to the Lord to come and find me and carry me back to Him. I am trying my best to come unto Him, but I actually need Him to come to me. In other words, I can't get back into His presence by my righteousness. I realize that everything, literally everything is a gift from Him. There is nothing that I can do that will save me, except I can give the Lord my heart. I try to hear His voice, but I still see myself as a lost sheep that can't make my way back without Him just putting me on His back and carrying me home. I love the picture of Jesus carrying the sheep on his shoulders.

It is interesting that the Lord will do everything that we cannot do for ourselves to bring us back into his presence. It is also interesting that he wants us to act prayerfully, thoughtfully, and to follow him in faith and to be believing even as a small child. I also love the painting you describe. He is always working to beat away the wolves from the edge of the sheepfold. May we help him. I am also buoyed up every time I remember the Savior's words that Father in Heaven knows even when a sparrow falls to the earth, and we are then told that we are worth more than many sparrows to him.

[JohnnyL]

I have a growing feeling, "Ha ha, if you thought covid was bad..."

BTW, I'll add: not only survive spiritually, but physically as well.

[nightlight]

Verily

[simpleton]

I also want to say, I am not trying to play prophet here.
But there are a few things I feel need to be called out.

Pointing out the flaws of the LDS church or its leadership are completely insufficient if you are not willing to save the baby from the bathwater, and also unwilling to build on that. Yes, Christ condemned the church leaders of His time, BUT he not only respected the law and the prophets, but fulfilled them. Of course, we can't do THAT, but we MUST lay a foundation as best we can and build upon it. This is DOABLE and ...not necessary for the plan but necessary for each of us.

I am not saying this as anyone any better than anyone here and certainly have as much or more work to do than most.
I will say this for Emily - she has been deceived in the past and probably will be in the future. But she is TRYING probably more than anyone on this site. I clearly don't know each of you or your day to day, please forgive me for my judgement. All I will say is Emily is moving in the right direction and she is not just making efforts, my sense at least is that she is making "stretch" efforts all the time. Very admirable, I hope I can improve to making half the effort, the dedication.

Consecrate yourselves.
No more "social media" levels of commitment.
No more virtue signaling.
No more intellectual pissing contests. (I know, I know, "Physician, heal thyself")

Break that heart.

My opinion:
Joseph, as the instrument in God's hand, laid up that foundation. It is already here, and we must get back to it. Not lay up another.

[Original_Intent]

I also want to say, I am not trying to play prophet here.
But there are a few things I feel need to be called out.

Pointing out the flaws of the LDS church or its leadership are completely insufficient if you are not willing to save the baby from the bathwater, and also unwilling to build on that. Yes, Christ condemned the church leaders of His time, BUT he not only respected the law and the prophets, but fulfilled them. Of course, we can't do THAT, but we MUST lay a foundation as best we can and build upon it. This is DOABLE and ...not necessary for the plan but necessary for each of us.

I am not saying this as anyone any better than anyone here and certainly have as much or more work to do than most.
I will say this for Emily - she has been deceived in the past and probably will be in the future. But she is TRYING probably more than anyone on this site. I clearly don't know each of you or your day to day, please forgive me for my judgement. All I will say is Emily is moving in the right direction and she is not just making efforts, my sense at least is that she is making "stretch" efforts all the time. Very admirable, I hope I can improve to making half the effort, the dedication.

Consecrate yourselves.
No more "social media" levels of commitment.
No more virtue signaling.
No more intellectual pissing contests. (I know, I know, "Physician, heal thyself")

Break that heart.

My opinion:
Joseph, as the instrument in God's hand, laid up that foundation. It is already here, and we must get back to it. Not lay up another.

My own foundation is based on what Joseph restored, what the Christ established and what I believe was instituted before the world was.

Joseph also said that many great and important things remained to be revealed pertaining to the kingdom of Heaven. And If you believe that those things must only come thru the ordained leaders of the LDS church, by all means, put your shoulder to that wheel and push along.

I believe that what Joseph established was with the intention that the day would come "when no one shall ask another "Know ye the Lord? For all shall know Him."

[simpleton]

I also want to say, I am not trying to play prophet here.
But there are a few things I feel need to be called out.

Pointing out the flaws of the LDS church or its leadership are completely insufficient if you are not willing to save the baby from the bathwater, and also unwilling to build on that. Yes, Christ condemned the church leaders of His time, BUT he not only respected the law and the prophets, but fulfilled them. Of course, we can't do THAT, but we MUST lay a foundation as best we can and build upon it. This is DOABLE and ...not necessary for the plan but necessary for each of us.

I am not saying this as anyone any better than anyone here and certainly have as much or more work to do than most.
I will say this for Emily - she has been deceived in the past and probably will be in the future. But she is TRYING probably more than anyone on this site. I clearly don't know each of you or your day to day, please forgive me for my judgement. All I will say is Emily is moving in the right direction and she is not just making efforts, my sense at least is that she is making "stretch" efforts all the time. Very admirable, I hope I can improve to making half the effort, the dedication.

Consecrate yourselves.
No more "social media" levels of commitment.
No more virtue signaling.
No more intellectual pissing contests. (I know, I know, "Physician, heal thyself")

Break that heart.

My opinion:
Joseph, as the instrument in God's hand, laid up that foundation. It is already here, and we must get back to it. Not lay up another.

My own foundation is based on what Joseph restored, what the Christ established and what I believe was instituted before the world was.

Joseph also said that many great and important things remained to be revealed pertaining to the kingdom of Heaven. And If you believe that those things must only come thru the ordained leaders of the LDS church, by all means, put your shoulder to that wheel and push along.

I believe that what Joseph established was with the intention that the day would come "when no one shall ask another "Know ye the Lord? For all shall know Him."

I would say "if they were ordained of the Lord", but, they are not, no not one, today. Or yesterday for that matter.
I am in agreement that each must stand upon his own light/knowledge. And each must have that testimony/light and knowledge from God, independant of any man.
But I believe that a personal independent testimony/foundation is just that, personal. But that the foundation that Joseph laid, is sure and everlasting, and that our personal foundation will fit into or upon what Joseph laid. That is, if the light we receive is from the same source.
What is constructed and being constructed today upon that foundation by the powers that be today, I believe, will be demolished or swept away when the winds blow and the earth shakes. But the foundation Joseph laid is sure, and will continue, I believe, on to and through the millennium.
I am not disputing you at all, in total agreement, just that I see many, that it seems, figure they will start their own setup.

[BuriedTartaria]

No more virtue signaling.

Interesting statement to make in a thread like this where you're essentially telling everyone they aren't focusing on the right thing and telling them that another user is more on the right path than everyone else is and implying you're more on the right path than everyone else by telling everyone how they need to be, implying you're a teacher on this matter, which suggests you're better than everyone else at it.

[randyps]

OI

I cant express words as well as you did, you hit the nail on the head.

I think of my 8month old son and how I will raise him in the church and give him his priesthood and my patriarchal blessing says my posterity will go on forever bearing the robes of the holy priesthood.

Our last day could be tmrw it could be in 30 yrs, best to stay on the right path as you say.

[Original_Intent]

No more virtue signaling.

Interesting statement to make in a thread like this where you're essentially telling everyone they aren't focusing on the right thing and telling them that another user is more on the right path than everyone else is and implying you're more on the right path than everyone else by telling everyone how they need to be, implying you're a teacher on this matter, which suggests you're better than everyone else at it.

I also said I did not know what each of you were going thru or doing, so it was wrong of me to make that judgement. It was meant as more of an encouragement for Emily, who has been either going thru some real struggles for a long time or is one of the best internet fakers I've ever encountered.

I'm not telling anyone they aren't doing the right thing, I am simply saying what the right thing is. There are doubtless many here ddoing the right thing better than me, I think I said at least a couple of times that I wasn't saying this from a position of any particular righteousness, but only based on a strong impression that I had yesterday.

Now I did say, connecting to the powers of heaven was a more important focus than coming here to bellyache about the church leaders and so forth. I even said that criticizing the leaders was fine when it was called for, but you have to move on from that. I think that is more of a self-evident truth than any kind of virtue signaling. So I am not sure where your accusation is coming from. If you have something to say that connecting directly to the powers of heaven is not something people should do, then say so.

[TheChristian]

The foundation was laid nigh on 2000 years ago, Jesus of Nazerath Himself.

"In the last days whosoever calls apon the name of the Lord (Jesus) shall be saved."

What moves me so is His unconditional love for us all, a perfect love of a Father for his children, for while we were yet sinners or going to come into this world to sin, Christ Jesus was dieing for us that we his erring children might be brought back into His presence forever.
Never lose sight of Calvary and the empty tomb and there will come a time will you will arise in glory to behold your Jesus the Saviour of your very soul.

Yes look to Him alone, for He has engraven us apon the palms of His hands. He will never forget us, nor forsake us, the proof of that is Calvary.

[nightlight]

No more virtue signaling.

Interesting statement to make in a thread like this where you're essentially telling everyone they aren't focusing on the right thing and telling them that another user is more on the right path than everyone else is and implying you're more on the right path than everyone else by telling everyone how they need to be, implying you're a teacher on this matter, which suggests you're better than everyone else at it.

He is obviously not doing that

A lot of the time....our reaction to what somebody says has more to with ourselves

[BuriedTartaria]

No more virtue signaling.

Interesting statement to make in a thread like this where you're essentially telling everyone they aren't focusing on the right thing and telling them that another user is more on the right path than everyone else is and implying you're more on the right path than everyone else by telling everyone how they need to be, implying you're a teacher on this matter, which suggests you're better than everyone else at it.

He is obviously not doing that

A lot of the time....our reaction to what somebody says has more to do with ourselves

If that is a true statement, it is just as applicable to your response to me as it was my response to him

What do either of you consider virtue signaling? He said we shouldn’t do it. So what is it?

Is it getting on a soapbox to let everyone know they aren’t doing as well as a particular person in a wide-sweeping general assessment on a group of people while admitting they don’t know the individual stories and progress levels of the people in the group they are judging?

It was virtue signaling