| Re: All Those Who Believe [message #71 is a reply to message #68] |
Mon, 28 June 2010 14:01   |
Seeker
Messages: 244
Registered: June 2010
Location: Las Vegas
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Senior Member |
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Ok, so I'll share an experience I had while serving a mission that sheds shows the gifts of the spirit among non-LDS. This really surprised me because I though we, LDS had a patent on the spirit, meaning that God supported our church and none of the other Churches with the presences of the Holy Ghost and Gifts of the spirit... I learn otherwise...
I served briefly with an Elder from England who's father was a protestant, (baptist I think), minister. He had been also serving as a minister with his father. (Family business type of a thing.
He told me some of the amazing experiences he had prior to joining. Below are 2:
1 - A visiting dignitary from Africa was visiting their baptist church. after services, they held a private meeting with this dignitary where a few prominent people in the church were invited. At the close of the meeting, one of the sisters in the church was asked to give a "closing prayer". My companion was there. She said the entire prayer in some unknown dialect/tongue. The spirit was strong in their meeting. As soon as she closed the prayer, the dignitary thanked her and told the group that she had spoken the prayer in his native African language perfectly and without any discernible accent. My companion was surprised because he knew the lady and that she didn't know African anything.
2 - Since he was young, my companion would pray sincerely. At some point he felt prompted to pray in an unknown language, so he did. The words came easily and he knew what he was saying in his mind and heart but he didn't know the words he was using. Years later, while ministering with his father, he came across the missionaries that he had been warned about. He decided that he would prove them wrong. So he had them over and after many lengthy discussions and spiritual witnesses he accepted the missionaries message and joined the church. He said, "I had to, I knew it was true." His father and family had disowned him.
When I was serving with him, his father hadn't spoken to him for about 3-4 years. He was an awesome missionary! Converted through and through. He continued to experience this fluent prayer in an unknonw tongue whenever he wanted but he only did it in personal prayers.
While on his mission, (I think, but definitely after joining the church), he learned 2 new words that he hadn't heard spoken by anyone else before. "Jehovah" and "Elohim". He was shocked when he heard these words because he knew them, but with a slightly different pronunciation. He knew them because when he prayed in the unknown language, he always addressed his prayers to Elohim and closed in the name of Jehovah. (He said that the pronunciation was slightly different but that he was certain that they were the right names for whom he prayed and addressed his prayers. He later learned somethings that led him to believe that he is praying in Adamaic or the perfect tongue.
That is all I can reasonably share. If I can contact him again, I will ask him to join and share his own stories.
I spoke with many protestants and found that they have experienced the spirit and can in most cases recognize it's presence. I came to understand that many of them were converted to their churches when the holy Ghost confirmed some truth to them as taught by their church. They took the experiences to mean that their church was true. I can't fault them for this because we do the same thing using the logic that if they gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, then Joseph Smith who translated it must be a prophet of God and the Church must be true. (I understand now that this is really poor logic, but it made sense to me at the time, just as their investigator logic says, "You feel the spirit tell you this principle is true and we teach it, so everything we teach must be true.")
Philip
~ Seeker
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