The Plan
Let Love and Light and Power restore the Plan on earth









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Saturday, November 23, 2002
 

When somebody said "I'm looking for a Church", my response was "I'm looking for God".

I am happy to report that I have found God. But this is not a one-time process. I have found God whenever I have looked for God, and He shows up in all the likely places, and in some of the unlikely places.

I can see God in others, and I can also tell whether others have seen God in themselves and I can see whether they simply know about God, or whether they actually know God.

Besides using the oneness principle, here are some (but not all) of the ways in which you can tell if somebody knows God, or simply knows about God:

Anybody who says that God wants to hide and not reveal himself, does not know God. It is the nature of God to reveal all truth.

Anybody who says that God can only reveal himself/herself in a certain way, and if you do not know God in the same way this person does, he does not know God.

God is not God because of His power to withhold. God is God because of His power to bestow.

I'm not offering this so we can judge others. Instead I offer this as a few keys by which we can discern between true teachers who will lead us to a knowledge of God, and those who are not as far along in the growth process.

The definition that we usually think of as a "church" today is a rigid, hierarchal system of government designed with two purposes: perputuate it self and rule over people. The original Christians were called "people of the way", and the original Greek meaning of the word from which we derive the word "ecclesiastic" was "those who have been called".

If you have known even a brief taste of the goodness of God, you natural reaction, IMO, is to share your discovery with others, any by so doing, you are serving God. For it is desire to be known of men, and when you reveal God to others, you are doing the work of God. As D&C Section 4 says "Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;" In fact, in accordance with your desires, so will you be called.

Oliver Cowdery desired a witness (D&C 6:27) and he received that witness which he sought. He also received a calling as one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.

Joseph Smith was instructed to seek out the Twelve and was told that the Three Witnesses would know them by their works and be their desires (D&C 18:37-38). Because of their desires they received the calling as apostles.

John the Beloved desired to remain on the earth and bring souls to the Lord (D&C 7:1), and he was granted the desire of his heart. And he received the calling to "minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation who dwell on the earth" (D&C 7:6). To some, he was known as John the Revelator for having written the Book of Revelations, but to those to whom he has ministered in his current calling, he is a revelator indeed, for his mission is to reveal the Christ unto those who shall be heirs of salvation.

These individuals, and countless other saints down through the ages, collectively form that body of those who have been CALLED and chosen, and qualified themselves to live a Celestial law. When we have likewise qualified ourselves (and it starts with the desires of our hearts), we will have an opportunity to associate with this grand company (D&C 76:66-67) in the work both here in this earth, and in the Celestial Kingdom.

This company is called "the general assembly and church of Enoch, and of the firstborn", but don't interpret the word "church" in the hierarchal, legalistic sense for there is no hierarchy there. We are to be equal. We are to be one. Contrast that to the glory of this kingdom where one glory differs from that of another.

"They who dwell in his presence are the church of the Firstborn; and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace; And he makes them EQUAL in power, and in might, and in dominion. And the glory of the celestial is ONE, even as the glory of the sun is one". (D&C 76:94-96)
6:07:17 AM    comment []



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