Home » Calling and Election Made Sure » How You Received Your Calling and Election Made Sure » By Invitation Only
| By Invitation Only [message #1912] |
Fri, 11 January 2013 12:39  |
scootd28
Messages: 11
Registered: June 2012
Location: Holladay, UT
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Junior Member |
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I may have shared some of this in an earlier post, but certainly not in this detail. My apologies for any redundancy. I was asked to post this. You can access my blog (this text is from that) at scottstover.wordpress.com
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When I was in High School, I considered myself a non-denominational Christian a "Jesus Freak" in the vernacular of the day. I was very serious and very sincere. I applied as a conscientious objector in the draft because I was convinced that I would never use violence against another human being even to protect myself and my family. When I graduated, I went to work for the Southwestern Publishing Company selling Bible reference books door to door in Rome, Georgia. It was kind of like a 3 month mission in that I had a difficult job to do with only remote support and direction, mostly from a daily routine that included early to bed, early to rise, bicycles, study, etc. I had a companion who basically blew it all off and left me on my own. I was even mugged one night on my way home, losing 3 teeth, my bicycle and all my demo samples. Boooo!
One day that summer, I was going door-to-door through a neighborhood minus the 3 teeth (VERY humiliating but I endured). A southern summer shower broke out, and I was standing out there in the rain. I was driven to drop to my knees and pray, and at that time I gave my life to the Lord. It was a very youthful, idealistic, spiritual moment, and one that I managed to dismiss as soon as I got to college and dove into the party culture of the early 1970's.
It was 25 years before the stirrings returned. I had finally, in 1992, left behind the last vestiges of that party culture and I spent the next 5 years becoming reacquainted with myself. I started playing music again, and this led to meeting my wife, Diana. She was LDS, and I saw and felt something familiar and beckoning. During that winter of 1997, I began experimenting with prayer. I would pray while I was jogging in the dark November mornings. One day, after I had finished praying, I saw a falling star to the east. The next day, the same thing happened; likewise on the third day. So, on the fourth day, as I was praying, I asked the Lord if He was really trying to get my attention. My answer flashed across the sky to the east. Finally, on the fifth day, I prayed, "Lord, I understand that you're talking to me. If you will show me another falling star, I promise I will seek to know you! (I had no idea that John 17:3 would become one of the most important scriptures in my life.) No sooner had the thought gone through my mind than another falling star streaked across the Wasatch Mountains! I stopped in my tracks, knowing that my life would never be the same.
To make a long story short, I was baptized in May of 1998.
I must tell a side story here as it has implications for later. The following July, Diana and I were on a ward camp-out. Everyone else had left, and we were preparing to pack up and leave ourselves. We sat on a log and prayed together, then began walking hand-in-hand towards our tent. I got the distinct impression that we were walking just slightly off the ground embarking on an eternal spiritual journey together. I've obviously never forgotten this experience, but I didn't recognize its significance until recently.
I received my endowments in July of 1999, and Diana and I were sealed in September of 2002. We served an inner city mission in 2006, and a full time mission from 2009 to 2011. We were progressing in the gospel.....I was the ideal convert. Then, during the summer of 2011, I was introduced to the book, "The Second Comforter" by Denver Snuffer. I had been told shortly after my baptism to "never ask for your calling and election to be made sure, because the trials may destroy you." After reading the Second Comforter, and being warned again about the trials, I decided that it didn't matter what lay ahead, I needed to seek the Savior. My journey, which unbeknownst to me had been going on my whole life, had begun in earnest. I began praying daily for this blessing.
I could tell that the Lord was answering my prayers, but I needed preparation. I read the Second Comforter a second time. After about a year, my daughter, Jules, began teaching my wife and me about receiving our Calling and Election. We learned that this was typically a preliminary step toward receiving the Second Comforter something that Denver Snuffer had mentioned in his book, but hadn't emphasized to the point that I really understood. We read "The Fullness of the Gospel" by Elliaison twice. We began praying. Then things really started happening......
- Having realized over the last couple of years that I had not given my heart completely to the Lord that I had never truly come to Him with a broken heart, I wrote the following blog post: http://scottstover.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/a-broken-heart-and-a-contrite-spirit/ . This proved to be cathartic for me because the "spiritual hairball" that kept me from giving my all has gradually (actually rather quickly) disappeared.
- Even before we began praying to have our calling and election made sure, my love for my wife seemed to be "bursting" its bounds. I repeatedly had promptings over about a 6 month period that our marriage was sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise. I wasn't seeking this it wasn't something that had ever occurred to me it just started popping into my head. This hearkens back to the camping story above.
- I started following Elliaison's directions. I asked if my calling and election was sure- the answer was no. I asked if we could have it no answer. What do I need to do? wait. I waited and I prayed.
- I began having little nudges in my reading and scripture study, especially in passages that described characteristics of the wicked, the apostate, and the godless, that I was very much not like them that I was in fact quite pure in heart. This occurred multiple times and my eyes began to open to how the Lord saw me.
- One morning, while I prayed, I felt the spirit very strongly and it evolved into what was almost a vision. I had asked if my sins were forgiven, and I had this clear sensation again, almost a vision, but not quite of the Lord saying "Yes" and beckoning me to come to Him. I had the sense of Him standing in front of me with open arms, inviting me to come. I said to Him tearfully (in French, as I've prayed mostly in French since our mission), "Je vais, Je vais! (I come, I come!)"
- While Diana and I were on vacation in Escalante, UT, I had time to ponder and pray more than usual. During this time, I simply began feeling like my calling and election had been made sure. I think I was most convinced that this was true because I had little desire to tell anyone. I had been afraid that I was seeking this just so I could be a member of "the club", and that perhaps I might actually fabricate the experience. But when I began to realize that this had come about, I had no desire to tell anyone. I was humbled. I only had the desire to fulfill the Lord's expectations of me. I felt a greater commitment, a greater power, a greater confidence (D&C 121: 45).
- Promptings increased. I began to receive nudges pointing out my weaknesses and things that I needed to correct things that had always been there, but now I saw them more clearly.
- While we were still in Escalante, I received a couple of confirmations that, if my marriage was truly sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise (which I was already sure of), that largely equates to having our calling and election made sure, as they go hand in hand as a promise of exaltation.
- Still fearing that this had come about as a fabrication of my own mind, I asked directly of the Lord 2 or 3 times after that, and each time I just felt comfortable that, in fact, my calling and election had been made sure. I have been reminded multiple times of the line in "How Firm a Foundation" that says, "What more can He say than to you He has said?"
- Only a couple of days later, during the same trip, my wife received her confirmation, but that is her story, and she needs to tell it.
It is perhaps important to realize that these experiences are consistent with the way I have learned and grown all my life. The Lord's teachings have always been subtle. I've never had dramatic spiritual experiences (well, the falling star experience was pretty dramatic but He really needed to get my attention). The experience of the Lord beckoning me to come to Him was probably the most dramatic and obvious manifestation of the spirit that I had had up to that time.
However, that all ended this past weekend. I was praying on a Saturday morning and found myself suddenly in the Lord's presence. I did not see His face, I did not have a vision at all, but He was there with me it was undeniable. When I realized what I was experiencing, the questions came pouring out. Imagine if you found yourself in a room with the Savior what would you say? What would you ask for? The questions that flowed from me in that precious and stunning moment were:
- Please, Lord, bless my children save them, teach them (each one by name)
- Take my wife in your arms and just love her hold her embrace her!
- Help me to lose my jealousies and fears that I might see your face. (D&C 67:10)
- What do you want of me what do you want me to do?
- Let me stay and bring souls unto you!
- Please don't go! Will I be able to have this experience every time I pray? Please don't go? Will you come again? Please don't go!!!!!!!
Just this morning, I had another experience in which I remembered that while I was in Georgia in 1971, I attended a Pentecostal meeting. At the end of the meeting, the minister, who called himself a prophet, invited people to come forward and receive blessings. I decided to come forward and ask that my acne be removed (there's no accounting for an 18 year old mind); but to my surprise, the prophet laid his hands on my head and said something to the effect that, "God has great things for you to do in your life". After remembering this through my prayer, I was told that my 30 year hiatus from the gospel was necessary for me to be able to serve now, and I had a clear revelation that now I am home the process has come around, and I am ready to serve.
If I had any doubts before, these experiences convince me that this sequence of subtle promptings, nudges and confirmations comprised MY OWN calling and election being made sure. I testify that the Lord desires to bless us. We must seek, ask and knock. We must humble ourselves before Him. We must give our hearts to Him completely; and if we do, He will keep His promises. I love my Savior and I know He loves me. I personally have adopted the story of Nephi in Helaman 10:4 as my spiritual goal. I testify boldly that the Lord is leading me in that direction, and the blessings are limited only by my own obedience, humility, jealousies and fears.
Men are that they might have joy.
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