Author: john144restoration

This is the only significant thing I can say about myself. "Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee;" Abraham. 2:12

Covid-19 Booster Shot

I received my booster yesterday, and today, I am getting weakness and chills just like last time, though not as severe as the second dose. My body temp is naturally low. Since yesterday, my highest temp has been 98.6, but that feels like a fever to me.

I don’t really care what your opinion is of the vaccine, or of me for taking it. Each person should check in with their own highest source of spiritual light and follow where that leads you. As you may know, I asked the Lord to send somebody into my life, just like Him. He told me a year before it happened that somebody, whom I never imagined or thought of, was on the way. When we first met, the Lord confirmed that this was the person, and He told me: “He’s mine. Take care of him.”

I have promises to keep, and I have been faithful to that promise for 35 years. He is disabled and has no other source of income other than me. I will continue to fulfill that promise and remain alive for as long as I can.

Gratitude

Gratitude should be more than just an “exercise” for when we are in the mood. It should be our constant attitude. King David said that praise and gratitude are the gateway to the presence of the Lord.

D&C 78:19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

Try this for 21 days. Every night when you say your prayers. Express to the Lord three things that happened that day that you are grateful for. That’s it. Don’t ask for anything. Just express gratitude for three things. I guarantee it will change your life.

“Mormonisms”

Somebody posted the following on their blog as “Mormonisms” — unique teachings of Mormonism:

  • Mormonisms
    • We are made of gods, blood, and stardust.
    • We were always meant to partake of the fruit.
    • God is a state of relation, not just being.
    • Heaven cannot be experienced in solitude.
    • Obedience is but the first—not the only—law of heaven.
    • To follow Christ is to become Christs ourselves.
    • We are the work and glory of God.
    • Revelation is a democratic enterprise.
    • Authority exists as it is given, not imposed.
    • True power is born from love, not fear or coercion.
    • To truly live is to live for others.
    • If you want to be, act as though you are, and you will become.
    • We progress at the rate we choose for ourselves.
    • The results of Final Judgment are determined by our own.
    • God desires mercy more than obedience to the law.
    • The Plan would have been frustrated were it not for disobedience.
    • We are to serve God by serving others.
    • We will all become the Gods we worship.
    • You die by the same that you live by.
    • Salvation cannot occur in ignorance.
    • The glory of God is intelligence.

My response

`Unfortunately, “Mormonisms” and the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are not always the same thing.

We are made of gods, blood, and stardust. “Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.” D&C 93:29

ADAM (not we) were always meant to partake of the fruit, but on the Lord’s timing, not ours.

“God is a state of relation, not just being.” Not sure what you mean, the but Gospel is all about relationships.

“Heaven cannot be experienced in solitude.” I don’t know what this means. Joseph Smith was alone in the woods. Joseph and Sidney ascended to heaven together. Paul ascended to the third heaven. He doesn’t say anybody went with him.

Obedience is not the first law of heaven. Agency is. We have to be able to choose to obey before we can obey.

“To follow Christ is to become Christs ourselves.” Yes. This is why it is called the church of the Firstborn.

“We are the work and glory of God.” Yes. God defines His whole purpose in life as serving us.

“Revelation is a democratic enterprise.” I don’t know what this means. D&C 67:13,14.121:33

“Authority exists as it is given, not imposed.” A man receives the Aaronic Priesthood by ordination. A man receives the Melchizedek Priesthood by an oath and covenant, by the calling of God’s own voice Gen 14:28-29 JST, D&C 84:42

“True power is born from love, not fear or coercion.” No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the Priesthood. Power or influence ought to be maintained “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned”.

“To truly live is to live for others.” In order to love your neighbor as your self, you have to love yourself. Pray with all the energy of your soul to be given the spiritual gift of charity — the ability to see yourself and all others as God sees you.

“If you want to be, act as though you are, and you will become.” This is the principle of faith. It’s even better to seek revelation from Christ as to what you are to become. Then, have the faith to become it. “I’ll be what you want me to be.”

“We progress at the rate we choose for ourselves.” This is true, but if you follow the Lord and let Him push you a little, your capacity will increase.

“The results of Final Judgment are determined by our own.” We will be our own accusers, as Joseph Smith taught.

“God desires mercy more than obedience to the law.” If you are talking about the law of works, yes. Hos. 6:6. Not even God can violate the laws of heaven. Not even God can revoke “a law irrevocably decreed”. But, He know how to use mercy to leverage justice.

“The Plan would have been frustrated were it not for disobedience.” D&C 29:30 “But remember that all my judgments are not given unto men;”

“We are to serve God by serving others.” Yes. King Benjamin taught that.

“We will all become the Gods we worship.” Yes. Bruce R. McConkie gave a great sermon. To worship God is to seek to become like Him.

“You die by the same that you live by.” The law of Karma, aka the law of Cause and Effect.

“Salvation cannot occur in ignorance.” D&C 131:5-6 “The more sure word of prophecy means a man’s knowing that he is sealed up unto eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood. It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.” You cannot be saved without receiving the testimony of Jesus that you will be saved. D&C 76:51

“The glory of God is intelligence.” Yes, but, ‘intelligence’ as defined by the Lord. D&C 93:36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.

Love

Loving Jesus is the ONLY thing that you can do with ALL your heart, ALL your might, ALL your mind, and ALL your strength. Anything else we love, or anything else we do, we cannot do it with the same level of purity and dedication. We cannot even love sin with all our heart, might, mind, and strength.

The reason for this is because there will always be a part of us that is still tied to the Christ, no matter what else we do.

Our eye cannot be single to anything else, so why not adjust our focus, our aim and place our affection (heart), our faith (might), our loyalty (mind), and our effort (strength) on the one place where it is possible to be single-pointed? He is the only thing worthy of our attention, our time, and our service.

As one protestant man who received his Second Comforter said: I want to serve Him because He deserves to be served.

New Testament – “Inspired Translation”

Today, I uploaded an “inspired translation” of the New Testament that I have been working on for the last six months. It’s found at https://john144.com/bible/.

In it I take the King James or the Joseph Smith translation and pair them up, verse by verse with the Amplified Bible, and then I add comments of my own, historical notes, quotes from the LDS standard works, and quote by LDS general authorities. It’s quite big — 1380 pages — but you can download individual books in PDF format. The four gospels, and Revelation use the JST. The others use the King James.

Dream

8 February 2020 02:48:03

I dreamt, I was standing at attention in a courtyard on a sunny day. I heard the ringing in my ears calling me to attention, to listen, to witness as the Lord called his servants together and apportioned to each man and women his calling. And these are the words I heard whispered in my ears, followed by the ringing of bells, three times:

Tell it out.
It is no longer a dark secret,
For the Lord God hath begin his work.
Tell it out.
Tell it out.

I was awakened.
I wrote this down,
And, as I wrote, I heard more,
Line by line, it was given.

I will cry unto thee by the dark of morning.
And speak it from the shady place of the Day.
A voice, awakened, saying,
Hear O Israel
Come forth from your secret places
The voice of the Lord is heard again in your lands,
And in all the earth.
And He is calling you forth to gather.
Who can forbear?
Who can hold back?
For the the voice of the Lord hath spoken it.

He will make manifest his arm, and his armies.
He will call forth his mighty men and women,
His valiant ones,
They, whom He hath called in their secret places,
They, shall now work openly.
They, who were esteemed as naught
Will now come forth.
They shall go out from His holy mountains
And gather the weak, the frail, and the despised
From the four corners of the earth.
Hurt not the trees, not the grass
Until we have sealed the servants of our Lord in their foreheads.
Thus saith the eternal God.
We stood in ranks in the courtyard of the Lord
We heard the bells in our ears
Calling us to order.
To each, his portion of the word.
To each, his calling.

Zion is Coming

Notes from My Journal

10/22/2003 8:57PM (written that evening)

A couple of nights ago, I was praying about what I was supposed to be doing. Christ said: “I want you to … write. Don’t worry about what you will write about. Just sit down and write I will tell you what to write about.” The above document is what has come out of this effort. I consider it to be the finest and most inspired piece of writing I have even written, or at least that came from my hand.

10/22/2003 3:16AM (written that morning)

Re Priesthood authority and Zion.

Here are some principles to keep in mind:

  • If ye have desires, ye are called to the work.
  • You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.

Where is there room to sit around and wait for a prophet to appear? Do the work you feel called to do now. Be your own prophet. Follow the light that is given you. And it may be that God will show you a greater vision of the work you could perform, and the vision he shows you will be according to your desires and your faith. Jesus said: “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” Another translation of this is “You have not chosen me SAVE I have chosen you.” In other words, he is saying that we could not be able to choose him unless he chose us first.

If God gives you a vision of a great undertaking or work, and if you begin to serve and perform the work which God has shown you, and if you perform it under the influence of the Holy Spirit, you will be a prophet to the degree that your followers sustain you as such and God will place as much authority in your hands as is necessary in order to accomplish the work you are called to do. When you have exhausted your personal reserves of knowledge and your personal mental capacity, and if you seek God in humility, you will have the added endowment of light which you need in order to accomplish the task.

This is how Enoch, Moses, and Joseph received their callings. This is how Abraham obtained his priesthood. This is how Peter obtained the promise that he could quickly join Christ in his kingdom, and how John obtained the promise that he could remain in mortality and bring souls to Christ until His kingdom came to earth. This is how the promises of God are sought for and obtained.

The day will come when one or more people have such an overwhelming desire to establish Zion and such a sense of mission that they will have the desire above all else to see it accomplished and presented to the Lord as his Bride that they will work to that end, and God will bless them jointly with a greater vision of the work and provide whatever authority they need to accomplish the task. And the light which they generate will attract other lights. And the lights which are gathered will sustain each other in their endeavors. And because of their desires they will have the ability to call down the resources of heaven and obtain whatever revelation is necessary to complete and perfect the work.

God already has people in mind who will perform this work. But they need first to choose themselves and to find themselves. Then God will take over and supply whatever else is lacking. And all this will happen because God has already ordained and set in place a covenant which will allow this to happen. This is the covenant which God made with our fathers when he told them that when men look upward, then will the Kingdom of Heaven look downward, and the day will come that those of the Kingdom of Heaven, Enoch and his family will come down and dwell in our midst.

It is well-said that Zion cannot be built up on any other principles but those of the Celestial Kingdom, and the Celestial principle which rules in this case is this: If we are willing to consecrate all that we have to the building of up Zion, then God is willing to consecrate all that He has to the same effort. We have the opportunity, even in this life, to enter into the same Celestial order which God belongs to. It’s an order of equals, each giving their all for the good of all.

The questions we need to answer are these: Is the time right? Are enough people prepared? Are we prepared to sacrifice all that we have in order to obtain something better? Until we can answer yes to all of these questions, then more preparation is in order.

11/30/2003 7:10PM

God does not have to wait for Zion to be established. If one or two people are ready now, he will abide with them, and they will have a little Zion.