Highly Favored of the Lord

Transcription

1 Highly Favored of the Lord Volume V Mike Stroud

2 Copyright Highly Favored of the Lord Copyright 2018 by Mike Stroud. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law. This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. Copyright 2018 Mike Stroud All rights reserved. ISBN-13: ISBN-10: Mike Stroud

3 DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this book to my Heavenly Parents, my glorious Father and Mother, and to the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior and Friend.

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5 CONTENTS Acknowledgements i 48 Calling and Election Made Sure 8 49 Be Ye Not Troubled Adam-ondi-Ahman Youth Fireside Seeing with the Eye of Faith Tip of the Spear Keeper of the Gate Tying Up Loose Ends The Layton Conference Familiar Spirits and Calling and Election Weapons of Light An Evening with Friends Perplexity May God Bless You

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7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Shelle McDermott, author of the NoFearPreps.com site for her help in encouraging, organizing, and bringing this all to fruition. Nothing would have happened without her. I would also like to express gratitude to my two editors, Ann and Elizabeth. They have tirelessly given eighteen month s worth of their time and effort to convert my podcasts into readable books. They are blessing many through their talents and sacrifice of time. God bless you, dear sisters, and blessings to all of you who took the time to contribute. Editors Phillis Ann Postak Elizabeth Postak Transcribers Carol Crisp Pat Crisp Lyne Morgan Melissa Stromberg Robert Briscoe Cindy Ligouri Stan Hooper

8 Mike Stroud Chapter Forty-Eight Podcast 048 Calling & Election Made Sure Good afternoon on this beautiful Sunday afternoon in Eagar, Arizona. I d like to talk to you about the doctrine of election. The doctrine of election answers this question, If we are children of God, and God loves His children, why is there so much inequality and inequity and injustice in this world? Elder Packer once gave an analogy to life and our existence, at least as far as it s revealed in church doctrine, being like a 3-act play. Act 1 is the premortal life, act 2 is this world, and act 3 is the post-mortal world. He makes the statement that, in act 2, with no knowledge of act 1 or act 3, you ll never hear the words They lived happily ever after. Those words will come in act 3 and after that, indicating that it s like going into a theater in the middle of a play. You walk in during the 2nd act, not having seen the 1st act, and not knowing the script; then you try to figure out what s going on in act 2 with what s playing itself out on the stage, up in front of the audience. What s more, he goes on and says, They pull you up, and you become an actor, and you are told to act your part. You did not see act 1, and you have no knowledge of act 3, and what s worse, you have no script. You can imagine how difficult that would be. Well, that s where most people find themselves in this telestial world. That s the purpose of the great missionary effort of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It s to try to provide some answers to the quandaries that we see all around us, and why things seem to be so unfair. Of course, the script for the play is called the scriptures, so we are really fortunate. I think about the scripture over in Doctrine and Covenants 123:12, where the Lord says that there are many upon the earth: 8

9 Highly Favored of the Lord III who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it Of course, that s a great motivation for us who have so much and are so blessed, to go out and share what we have with others. This inequality and injustice is part of a plan and is according to a doctrine that the Lord calls the doctrine of election. Let s go to Election in our Bible dictionary on the bottom of page 662. We have some information here. It would be good for you to read the whole thing on Election, but I want to pull out just a part of it. Go down to this part: An election of grace spoken of in D&C 84: and Rom. 11:1 5 has reference to one s situation in mortality; Double underline that! Act 2 the temporal physical world: that is, being born at a time, at a place, and in circumstances where one will come in favorable contact with the gospel. This part I have triple underlined: This election took place in the premortal existence. So, what it boils down to is this: if we look at patterns, and we want to see how things were and how things will be, if we want to see the past and the future, take a look at what s going on in the present. This has been a great tool for Margie and me to discern the mysteries of God. For example, in the Church we have no problem teaching that the decisions you make, what you do, who you become, and where you are in your progression as you leave this world through death, determines who you will be, where you will be, and what you will be in the next world. We have no problem teaching that. If you keep the commandments of God, then you will have this promise and this blessing, or advantage in the next world. We have no problem with that. To understand election, back it up one estate. We have no problem going from the second estate (the telestial world) into the next estate (the terrestrial/millennial world). But, if you want to get a feel for why things seem to be so inequitable and unjust in this world, go back one more estate. So, what you did in the premortal life, who you became, and where you were at the time when you were to exit that estate and enter a new one, has everything to do with the circumstances that you come up against in this life the environment you re born in, the circumstances of your birth, the circumstances of your life, and the opportunities, or the lack thereof. I like that statement in the definition under Election that said, Being born at a time, at a place, and in circumstances where one will come in favorable contact with the gospel. That s not to be interpreted as everybody who is born into poverty, or everyone who is born into less 9

10 Mike Stroud than ideal circumstances are less than valiant before they came here because God knows the beginning from the end, and all things are done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things. So, it may well be that a person who was valiant and had achieved a high status and spirituality in the premortal life, may be born at a time and in circumstances that appear on the outer surface, to be unfavorable. But generally speaking, look at yourself, for example, look at the things that we re talking about right now. Look at the people who are listening to this podcast, who are members of the Church and have access to the temple blessings. I was talking to an older man the other day who has had an awakening and said, Why have I had to wait all my life in order to find these things we re talking about and have the Spirit confirm them upon my soul? I said, It doesn t matter. It doesn t matter when you come into contact. That s in the wisdom of the Lord. What matters is that you have come into favorable contact with these things. They re blessing your life at a time that God knows is most eventful for you. Not much, if anything, happens by way of coincidence. And, God, who lives in the eternal now, sees all things past, present, and future. All decisions are done according to His eternal wisdom. So, we don t second guess it, we just accept it and the more we come into contact with these things, the more we realize how blessed we really are. Margie and I have traveled to places where we ve seen women selling their baby for five, ten, fifteen dollars, in order to have a meal or to keep themselves alive! We saw emaciated women with emaciated babies offering them for sale, probably to save the baby s life, and also to get a meal and some food to save the woman s life. I look at that, and I think about my life growing up in Sandy, Utah. By the way, if you ll look at me you ll know, I have never been truly hungry! But, I ve been on missions in places where I have seen starvation. And when I looked at that mother sitting on the curb with her baby in the central Philippines, the thought that went through my mind was, That is a daughter of God, with divine potential. Why is she in the circumstance she s in, and I have been blessed with the circumstance that I m in? We don t have to look far, in the world to make those comparisons. You ll see that the majority of the world, by far, wonders what they re going to eat from one meal to the next. I ve never had any of that. I ve been blessed with a wonderful family children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that at least like Grandpa, and some of them even love him! Not only that, but I have the priesthood of God. I ve been able to serve missions in the world. I have knowledge that has been given to me by the holy word of God through scriptures preserved. And not everybody in the world has access to even the minimal Christian scriptures that you and I have, which are 10

11 Highly Favored of the Lord III found in the Holy Bible. Whole civilizations are kept from the knowledge of the truth by governmental, dictatorial means. And here I am, able to go to church on Sunday, able to do my home teaching, and able to give and receive blessings. I m blessed to go to the temple and receive my temple blessings, serve missions, serve in the Church, and have wonderful association with men and women who are not starving to death, and who are not wondering how they can shelter themselves from the elements of nature. It s no wonder that people look at that stark comparison between these two, and they say, You believe in a God that you call Father and that these are His children? You really believe that after what you ve seen? If I didn t have the knowledge that I do, especially the knowledge of the doctrine of election, why, I d be hard-pressed to believe in such a Divine Being. I can understand very well where they come from. Truly we are most blessed, and we need to do everything we can to relieve the suffering and lift and improve the circumstances of our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than we are. With that in mind, I want to read to you a little statement that was sent to me this week. It s really good, and I had seen it before, but it had been a long time, and I had forgotten about it. It s called, Election/Believing Blood, by Brother Bruce R. McConkie. It s in the book, The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man. He said this: Israel, the Lord s chosen people, were a congregation set apart in the preexistence. Think about that for just a minute. Recently, I said to you that there are eternal terms that are used in eternity. They are eternal and were not begun or do not have their origin with the beginning of this world. Some of those terms are Atonement, Zion, and Israel. These are all terms that are used in the vocabulary of the Elohim in every system that They create/organize. And so, in our premortal world, our particular family unit and all of the children who are destined to come to this earth for a probationary experience were a congregation. Out of all of those, there was a group who was the Lord s chosen people. They were a congregation set apart (those are your key words) in the premortal life, and they were called Israel: In large measure, the spirit children of the Father who acquired a talent for spirituality, who sought above their fellow, to do good and work righteousness all these were foreordained to be born in the house of Israel. 11

12 Mike Stroud Now, Paul says, in Romans, that not all Israelites are Israel. So, even within this house of Israel, you have varying degrees and strata of righteousness and spiritual excellence. But, there was a group who had acquired a talent for spirituality, who sought above their fellow [in other words, looked to do more than their other brothers and sisters]... [and they] were foreordained to be born in the house of Israel. There are some times when being an Israelite is an advantage, over other times. For example, the golden age of David would have been a blessed age to be a part of the house of Israel. If you were a Jew, and born in Germany in 1936, and were not able to get out and you were killed in the Warsaw ghetto or perished in one of the concentration camps, then being an Israelite may not have seemed to be a great blessing. It goes on: They were chosen before they were born. This is the doctrine of election. They were true and faithful in the premortal life, and they earned the right to be born as the Lord s people and to have the privilege, on a preferential basis, That kind of goes against the grain with a lot of people because they want to say, Well, God is no respecter of persons. That s true, but He does favor those who love Him and keep His commandments. You can be a no respecter of persons and yet favor those who are obedient and keep the commandments. And, if you re really in a place where God favors you, you are referred to as highly favored. It says: on a preferential basis, of believing and obeying the word of truth. This next part right here is interesting: Believing blood, the blood of Abraham, flows in their veins. They are the ones of whom Jesus said: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand...their numbers were known and the days of their mortal probation were selected in advance... So, how does this fit in today? Well, it fits in rather nicely when you make a comparison on what s happening to you in your life. Let s just take the people who choose to listen to these doctrines. There s a group out there, that when they hear these things, it resonates. That s a good word. Let s take what we re talking about right here for an example. Some people will hear this and say, I ve always known that. I ve talked to people who are new investigators about premortal life. Their churches don t teach that. In fact, they teach against it. So, as a missionary, I ll tell them that they lived before they came to the earth in 12

13 Highly Favored of the Lord III what s called a premortal life, and they were a spirit son or daughter of our Heavenly Father. I ve seen lights go on in their eyes. I ve seen their countenance light up, and they ll say something like, You know what, Elder Stroud? I have always believed that. My church doesn t teach it, but I have always believed that. They embrace it, and they have no problem. That s believing blood. Believing blood means that you have within you a spirit a spiritual DNA if you will that when you hear these truths, it s not new to you. You know these things, but you ve never heard it taught before. It just makes sense. That has to do with who you were, what you were, and what you did before you came here. That s the only answer. All of these things we talk about, deja-vu and things like that are all hearkening to a premortal life experience, a life before you came here. It s all a part of that. It s a system and a plan based on the agency of man that was active in the premortal life, that s active in this life, will be active in the terrestrial/millennial world, will be active in the celestial world, and is found throughout eternity. There is no place anywhere where there are intelligent beings in a state of progression, where agency is not in play. It s an eternal principle. So, when God says,...in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency, it s just that that man has been behind a veil and has forgotten something, and God is re-explaining to him the doctrine of agency, something he already knew, but as a part of his progression has been caused to forget. I can tell you something else, too, brothers and sisters. All this stuff you ve been hearing on these podcasts is not new to you. You know this stuff. It s just that we find ourselves in a telestial schoolhouse where our memory has been blocked. We have telestial amnesia. But, when that veil starts to thin, and you hear these things, you say words like: That feels right. That resonates with me. That distills upon my soul. I feel like I already know that. The reason you feel that way is because you ve always known it. It s not learning something new, as far as doctrine goes. There is something new to be learned as far as experience, but as far as doctrine, there s nothing that you re learning here that s new. It s just re-learning what you ve been caused to forget. That s a part of the process in the telestial school room. So, look at yourself at any stage in your life aside from the adversity that you ve had that seems to knock your socks off periodically get past that and look at your overall blessings. If you feel that you are a truly blessed man or woman, know this, there is no chance behind that. That is because of who you were, where you were, and what you did before you came here. The doctrine of election is the reward or advantage in this world for what you obtained in the world before. That s what the doctrine of election is. You 13

14 Mike Stroud have earned the right to have privileges. Let me do away with earned, since it s not a doctrinal principle. You ve merited the right, through your obedience, through your faithfulness, to come into contact with advantages in this world. It s really not hard to understand. If we look at what we teach, the advantages in the next world are going to be exactly because of what you are doing, the decisions you make, and the agency you exercise here and now. This is the doctrine of election. Because of the choices they made before they came here, there are some people that will come into contact with the doctrines of the kingdom and are still not going to accept them. Hence, the scriptures talk about whole groups of people, the heathen nations that we ve talked about before, that will inherit a terrestrial world, and the Lord simply says, It shall be tolerable for them. Melvin J. Ballard said they are obtaining all they are entitled to. Isn t that interesting? Entitled has to do with what you did with what you were given. If you re going to ditch or skip class, and go out with your sweetie in the parking lot rather than be in your seminary class, down the road, you re going to reap the advantage or disadvantage of those choices. You can t escape them. This is why it s important to understand that every decision that we make, I mean every decision that you make in this life, you are either obtaining or losing light. The Parable of the Ten Virgins talks about oil in the lamp, but the amount of light that you have accumulated and that you re in possession of when you finish your probationary experience is going to be a doctrine of election for you in the world to come. This means you will be born at a time and in a place and in circumstances where one will come into favorable contact with the gospel. Same thing, just a different estate. That s the doctrine of election. It s absolutely fair and just. I want to mention also, that within the parameters of this doctrine, justice and mercy have a role to play. Mercy will claim far more than what justice does. But, justice will claim the amount required in order for God to be considered perfectly just and yet merciful also. That s why mercy can t rob justice. So, everything is fair. Know that what you re doing right now is going to have an eternal effect on your life in the next room because we re moving from one estate to the next. That s what it is; it s like school. The pattern for progress in eternity is the pattern you see going to school in this world. You attend the class, you complete the curriculum, there s knowledge that you have to have, you re given a test, and if you pass the test, then you can move on to the next grade. That s the way it is. If you ditch the class, if you sleep through the class, if you cheat on the material, any of that stuff, it will have an effect on you in the next estate. If you go there and are able to squeak through, you won t have the advantage that others who were 14

15 Highly Favored of the Lord III faithful had. You will go there disadvantaged, and it will take a toll on you. So, you can look again and see where you are, see what s happening to you in your life and you can get a pretty good feel of who you were and what you were doing before you came here. Again, I m not saying that people born in impoverished areas or people who struggle for this, that, and the other are not valiant. I m not saying that at all. But, in a general situation, you can look at the favorability of your circumstances in this life, and understand that they come as a reward for obedience and sacrifice and valiancy in the world before. I hope that makes sense. It s a great doctrine! Because of the truths that came to us through the Restoration, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are really the only ones that have a good feel for that. There may be some people who are not members of our church listening to this podcast who hear that and disagree, but they don t know the doctrines of the Restoration. Paul talked a little bit about that. If you want to read this for yourself, the doctrine of election is found in Romans chapters 8 and 9. I don t want to take time to go into that right now. But, every time that Paul uses the word predestinate, it s a poor translation. Change the word from predestinate to foreordained, and you ll get a better feel for what Paul is talking about in the doctrine of election. Now, brothers and sisters, as I have chatted on the phone and had correspondence with some of you, I feel that there are some questions on the doctrine of calling and election made sure. We ve hit on that a little bit in various podcasts, but I think we ll talk a little bit more about that tonight. Basically, making your calling and election sure is about obtaining the promise of eternal life from God. That can come direct from God, or it can come through His agents, and it s even possible for you to obtain that promise from mortals who are authorized. I know of one man who shared with me his calling and election experience and said that he had received it from under the hands of mortals who laid their hands upon his head and pronounced a priesthood blessing. In that blessing, the pronouncement was made that his calling and election had been made sure. That aligns itself with information in the Restoration. Let me give you a couple of examples of that. In the history of the Church, we had a whole branch of the Church (the Colesville Branch) that was sealed up to eternal life. Now, look how early that is in the history of the Church. Being sealed up to eternal life was done as early as Doctrine and Covenants 68:12: And of as many as the Father shall bear record, to you shall be given power to seal them up unto eternal life. Amen. 15

16 Mike Stroud Those were words of the Lord, to Joseph Smith. So, inherent within the keys pertaining to the priesthood that was restored by Peter, James, and John, was the power to seal up individuals to eternal life. The sealing up of husband and wife as a couple doesn t come until later, much later, when we get into the Nauvoo period. But, as early as 1831, the Prophet Joseph Smith had power to seal individuals up to eternal life. One group was a whole branch of New York saints that moved out into Missouri. It was the Colesville Branch, and they were from Colesville, New York. The prophet sealed up the whole branch to eternal life. There are different sealing powers. Not all sealing power is the same. The sealing power you see in the temple that is exercised when husband and wife are sealed together and that you witness being done vicariously for the dead is not the same sealing power that you see in the hands of Nephi over in Helaman 10. So, there are different kinds of sealing powers, but I don t want to go into that tonight. The sealing power that is given to a temple sealer comes under the direction of the president of the Church, who holds the keys to that sealing power. But, there is a sealing power that can be given to persons who come up through these various steps: baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, making your calling and election sure and obtaining the Second Comforter. You can obtain a sealing power from God that is just as powerful and as potent, but a different level for different purposes than the sealing power that we see in the temple. I just want to emphasize that not all sealing power is the same. Obviously, Joseph had a sealing power that came through as a result of the ordination from Peter, James, and John in June of 1829, that is not the same sealing power that we refer to that Elijah brought back to the earth in 1836 in the Kirtland Temple. So, we ve got different things here. In my studies, I ve been able to identify for sure, three different kinds of sealing powers, and maybe four. Maybe we ll have a little talk on that, but it s not all that important. The important part is that Joseph was sealing up individuals and congregations as early as 1831, but not husbands and wives. Let me read to you a couple of other things that have to do with this. When we talk about having your calling and election made sure, another way Joseph said it is: To obtain a promise from God for myself that I shall have Eternal life. Joseph was once asked the question of what is the definition of having your calling and election made sure, and that s what he said. The surest way of obtaining your calling and election is from the mouth of God. There are other ways to do it as well. It can be done by individual 16

17 Highly Favored of the Lord III servants or angels. For example, over in Doctrine and Covenants 77 question 11: Q. What are we to understand by sealing the one hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel twelve thousand out of every tribe? A. We are to understand that those who are sealed are high priests, By the way, these are not the high priests that we see in our high priest quorums in the Church. These are High Priests after the Holy Order, what Joseph called, the anointed quorum in his day: ordained unto the holy order of God, to administer the everlasting gospel; for they are they who are ordained out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, by the angels to whom is given power over the nations of the earth, to bring as many as will come to the church of the Firstborn. That s calling and election. You do not have membership in the church of the Firstborn unless you ve had your calling and election made sure. It can be done by mortals, by angels, it can be done by God Himself, and there is also a priesthood ordinance that we ve talked about at other times, and we ll talk about it just a little bit. In Section 88, the Lord gave this statement. This was in the school of the prophets, in the Newel K. Whitney store, Dec. 27, There were nine men present when the Lord gave this revelation. This is called the Olive Leaf. What a tremendous revelation it is. You might be interested in who these nine men were: Joseph Smith, Jr., Sidney Rigdon, Orson Hyde, Hyrum Smith, Samuel Smith, Newel K. Whitney (who owned the store where the school was upstairs), Frederick G. Williams, Ezra Thayer, and John Murdock. So, in the first verse the Lord says: Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you who have assembled yourselves together to receive his will concerning you: That s these nine men who were being schooled in the doctrine of how to obtain angelic ministers, how to have and obtain the presence of God. Look at verse 2: Behold, this is pleasing unto your Lord, and the angels rejoice over you; the alms of your prayers have come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded in the book of the names of the sanctified, even them of the celestial world. When you read that, your ears ought to perk up because something is coming now, that s going to tie into this doctrine of calling and election made sure. 17

18 Mike Stroud [3] Wherefore, Wherefore means because your names are recorded in the book of the sanctified, because of your prayers, and because your names are recorded: I now send upon you another Comforter, even upon you my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of promise; which other Comforter is the same that I promised unto my disciples, as is recorded in the testimony of John. [4] This Comforter [the Holy Spirit of promise] is the promise which I give unto you of eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom; [5] Which glory is that of the church of the Firstborn, even of God, the holiest of all, through Jesus Christ his Son There you have it. These nine men had obtained a promise and were sealed up unto eternal life. Their names were written in the Lamb s Book of Life among the names of the sanctified of the celestial world. This is what we re seeking. When we say the term calling and election made sure, this term was not used in the Church at this point. Being sealed up unto eternal life was the terminology, and calling and election comes later when Joseph discourses on the Epistle of Peter where the only place in scripture (2 Peter 1:10) is the wording make your calling and election sure. It s the only place in the scriptures. We ve talked about that. Now, let me read a blessing to you because it concerns what we ve just read in section 88, especially verses 4 and 5. This blessing was given to Vilate Kimball, the wife of Heber C. Kimball, by Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch to the Church. It was given March 9, 1842: Beloved Sister: I lay my hands upon your head in the name of Jesus, and seal you unto eternal life Now, the interesting thing is that husband and wife sealings are still a year away. We don t get into husband and wife sealings until May of This is March of 1842 in Nauvoo: sealed here on earth and sealed in heaven, and your name written in the Lamb s Book of Life never to be blotted out. This is Vilate Kimball s calling and election made sure, made through a priesthood officer, through the authority of the priesthood. I want you to know now, that as Patriarch to the Church, one of the prime responsibilities of the Church Patriarch was to seal men and women up to eternal life. A lot of people don t know that, but that s a fact, and that 18

19 Highly Favored of the Lord III went right on down. We ve had a General Church Patriarch up until just two years ago when Eldred G. Smith died. At that point, the office of Church Patriarch was abolished, and will not be filled. We saw the end of an era when he passed away, and no direct line descendent, or anyone else was called into the position of General Church Patriarch. In fact, for many years, he was the Patriarch Emeritus. But, one of the purposes of the Church Patriarch is to do exactly as Hyrum Smith did here to Vilate Kimball: The same [in other words, the sealing] is mentioned and manifested to comfort your heart, and to be a comfort unto you henceforth all your days. Can you imagine? Put yourself in that situation. If you obtain this promise of eternal life, through whatever channel authorized God, mortal man, angels, or a priesthood ordination and it s sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, then think what a comfort that would be to you, with all the trials and adversity and temptations, and all the vicissitudes of the telestial world. Think of what a comfort that would be. What a great blessing! Do you think that you would view life differently? Would you interact with your family differently? Would you serve your fellow man differently? If you knew that God had sealed you up to a place in the celestial world, that where He is you may be also, and that you have an inheritance with Him, wouldn t that comfort you? Would that set your mind at ease? It is even a promise according to the mind of the Spirit, and the Spirit shall bear record of the truth; the same [meaning what he has done here, this comforter] is called the Second Comforter, not his presence, but his promise. That s something that a lot of people don t know; according to Hyrum Smith (and I think he probably should know), there is something called the Second Comforter of Promise, and also the Second Comforter of Presence: The same is as immutable as an oath by Himself, because there is none greater, and there is no greater promise nor no greater blessing that can be given, and no greater riches, it being the riches of eternity, which are the greatest riches of all riches. So, that was an example of a woman who had her calling and election made sure. Go with me to Doctrine and Covenant 132:49. Let s take a minute and look at some examples in the scriptures. I ve alluded to this before. This is Joseph receiving his calling and election made sure: 19

20 Mike Stroud [49] For I am the Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through all eternity; for verily I [this is from God's mouth] seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father. [50] Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Now, that was Joseph. Let s go to Mosiah 26:20. This is another example of calling and election made sure. This is Alma s calling and election: [20] Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep. This is Alma, the father of Alma, and his calling and election made sure. These are just some examples in the Book of Mormon, but Paul talks about it, and Peter also talks about it. Let s look at one more. Helaman 10:4: Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments. [5] And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever [this is calling and election made sure]; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will. [6] Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it [his eternal life status] unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, and shall smite the earth with famine, and with pestilence, and destruction, according to the wickedness of this people. There we go. Remember, I told you that when you get to this point, you can have access to a sealing power: [7] Behold, I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in 20

21 Highly Favored of the Lord III heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people. Joseph talked about this sealing power. Unfortunately, he was killed right at the time that he was starting to unfold these great mysteries of sealings, priesthood adoptions and sealings of, in some cases, men to men and families to different men. I was talking to someone today, and they said their grandfather was sealed to John D. Lee and through a priesthood sealing this man became a son of John D. Lee, and John D. Lee was sealed to Brigham Young, Brigham Young was sealed to Joseph Smith. So, we have these kinds of things going on, which I believe have to do with keys restored in the Kirtland Temple by Elias and Elijah. But, unfortunately, we only have bread crumbs, and what little crumbs we do have are coming from the Joseph Smith Papers. There s a whole dimension of the gospel here that Joseph was not able to complete because he was killed. He did say that once you have this power, you should go to and seal your wife and children, and as many as you can. I don t have any idea, other than that. He talked a little bit about it, but we don t have a lot of that information. Joseph said that we should obtain an assurance of salvation by an oath directly from God. He went on with this discourse, which was given in 1833, with this: [Paul] was careful to press upon [his Hebrew brethren] the necessity of continuing on until they, as well as those who then inherited the promises, might have the assurance of their salvation confirmed to them by an oath from the mouth of him who could not lie; for that seemed to be the example anciently, and Paul holds it out to his Hebrew brethren as an object attainable in his day. Here s another one by Joseph Smith: But will all this purchase an assurance for me, and waft me to the regions of eternal day, with my garments spotless, pure and white? Or, must I not rather obtain for myself, by my own faith and diligence in keeping the commandments of the Lord, an assurance of salvation for myself? And have I not an equal privilege with the ancient Saints? Whenever you see the word assurance referring to priesthood, sealings, and eternal life, it is a keyword that s referring to making your calling and election sure. So, while he doesn t use the term calling and election made sure, he said that we must obtain this assurance of our salvation directly from God, and that s what you want to do. You want to pursue after this and obtain these blessings. Joseph first used the term 21

22 Mike Stroud calling and election made sure when he gave his first public discourse on June 27, He used Peter s calling and election comments from 2 Peter 1. We had a lesson on that so we won t go over too much. Peter says: [10] Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: Listen to this statement by Joseph Smith where he first uses the words calling and election made sure. Keep in mind, it s only mentioned one place in the scriptures, and that s in the New Testament: After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to [1] humble himself before God, Do you want the keys to receiving your calling and election made sure? Joseph gives it to us. Here is the first one to humble yourself. You ve all been baptized; you ve all had your confirmation with hands laid on your head, so, now, what do we need to do? [2] hungering and thirsting after righteousness, I like what Joseph Smith said: It is my meditation all the day, and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind. You have to have that kind of desire: [3] and living by every word of God, Do you see those three things? Those are the criteria for calling and election according to the great seer: Humble yourself, hunger and thirst after righteousness, and live by every word of God: and the Lord will soon say unto him, Notice who is saying that. It comes from God: Son, thou shalt be exalted. I want you to think of this last statement: When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, I want you to think about when you go to the temple, and you re invited up to the veil the first time; you knock at the veil, and then the presenter says something to the Lord behind the veil. Think about what the presenter says, and then think about these words by Joseph: When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined 22

23 Highly Favored of the Lord III to serve him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and election made sure. You obtain from the Lord, through the veil, after you have been thoroughly proved, and found that you are determined to serve God at all hazards, you then converse with the Lord through the veil and obtain the promise of eternal life. That is calling and election made sure. Now, the fact that you re conversing with God and hearing His voice, but not seeing Him, takes us into something else. This is the scriptural way that you make your calling and election sure, and it s through the more sure word of prophecy. This discourse was given May 14, Joseph was talking about making your calling and election sure, and he said: There is some grand secret here. We ll talk about that in a minute. But Joseph is talking about Peter, James, and John, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they heard an audible voice. You can read about this in Matthew 17. Peter, James, John, and the Savior go up there, and Moses, Elias, and Elijah all appear. The Elias that appears according to the Joseph Smith translation is John the Baptist. He appears on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they hear a voice. That voice said, This is my beloved Son. In other words, they hear the voice of God making a statement. Now, back to the quote: Though they [Peter, James, and John, on the Mount of Transfiguration] heard an audible voice from heaven bearing testimony that Jesus was the Son of God, Now, this has to do with priesthood adoption, foreordination, and the doctrine of election: yet he [Peter] says we have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place. Joseph says: Now wherein could they have a more sure word of prophecy than to hear the voice of God saying, this is my beloved Son? That s not the more sure word of prophecy to Peter, James, and John. That s the more sure word of prophecy to Jesus. Jesus obtained that more sure word, in essence, making Jesus calling and election sure on the Mount of Transfiguration when the voice of God declares that. Joseph goes on: Now for the secret and grand key. Though they [Peter, James, and John] might hear the voice of God and know that Jesus was the Son of God, this would be no evidence that their calling and election was made sure, 23

24 Mike Stroud that they had part with Christ, and were joint heirs with him. They then would want that more sure word of prophecy, In other words, the more sure word means that you know that you are sealed up unto eternal life: that they were sealed in the heavens and have the promise of eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Then later in the same discourse, Joseph says this: I would exhort you to go on and continue to call upon God until you make your calling and election sure for yourselves, by obtaining this more sure word of prophecy, and wait patiently for the promise until you obtain it. So, one of the ways you make your calling and election sure is through the more sure word of prophecy. It s interesting that as early as 1834, Oliver Cowdery taught the concept that the Saints: make their calling and election sure when they obtain the promise from the Lord of glory ( hear his voice [and receive] a promise from his mouth ) that their salvation was sealed that their election was sure. There is so much more to calling and election, but that s all I m going to go into right now. Those are just some historical facts about it. What is it? It means that you know, in this life, before death, that you are sealed up to an inheritance in the celestial world, that there s a throne prepared for you, and that where God and Christ are, there you will be also. That is not a couple sealing. All of these discourses and examples we re talking about took place before husbands and wives were sealed up by a priesthood ordinance called the second anointing, and became members of a quorum of men and women called the anointed quorum, those in Nauvoo. And it continued across the plains, under the direction of Brigham Young. They obtained these promises, and here s the key. It s not enough to obtain a promise from the mouth of a mortal man. I don t care if he s speaking to you by authority, or if it s a priesthood ordinance performed under the direction of priesthood authority in a temple of God. It s not enough and means nothing unless that ordinance that s performed is ratified and sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, which is the Holy Ghost. It s like we said before: you can lie to everybody in this world and get away with most of it, but you can t lie to the Holy Ghost. If you re trying to deceive or pull a fast one through these ordinances, then it s of no value; it s void. There is nothing that happened there because you can t lie to God. But, if this ordinance is received from God s own mouth with an oath, then know 24

25 Highly Favored of the Lord III that at the time it is received, it is already sealed in heaven. When God says: I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father, then you know that is done. It s a done deal. The only way that it can be rescinded is if you commit the unpardonable sin, and that s something maybe we ll talk a bit about another time. Second anointing blessings are performed in temples, under the direction of the president of the Church. That blessing is a husband and wife ordinance. These things that we ve been talking about tonight, calling and election, are done individually and were done before there was any information or doctrine restored concerning sealing a man and a woman up to eternal life and receiving what we call the Fulness of the Priesthood. The ordinance of the second anointing bestows something called the Fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Again, I want to emphasize that it s not something that is obtained individually. This is a husband and wife ordinance. You can have your calling and election made sure and obtain the promise of eternal life individually, separately, and singly. But, to continue the family unit in eternity, requires this ordinance or an ordinance similar to that, where husband and wife are sealed together as a family unit and continue on. They increase after the resurrection of the dead, and as section 132 says, they continue. You can have individuals who have a sealing up to eternal life, where they have the promise of an inheritance in the celestial world, but unless they go on, and have a sweetheart next to them a husband or wife then they cannot be like the Father and the Mother. The Father and Mother are just that; they re a couple. I appreciate the visits I have with you. I am a student. I am learning from you. This week I ve used two things I ve learned on the podcasts in teaching lessons and giving blessings. We re all in the process of learning. The key to remember is to take the Holy Spirit for your guide. Just today I was discussing energy healing and The Body Code with someone, and I believe that there s some truth and Godly science involved in this. I m slow at this point in my life to reject, out of hand, anything that I don t understand, or that I don t embrace as my truth. I m learning to not do that. Yet, at the same time, I m learning how I can discern truth from error. We re involved in that kind of existence here. I mentioned that the powers of evil are so well organized that you could take the corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or you could take Mobil/Exxon, or the bestrun corporation in the telestial world, and see how organized it is, how 25

26 Mike Stroud well oiled it is, and how well it functions, and it will not match the organization that Lucifer has behind the veil to destroy God s children. It wouldn t even come close. And he takes everything that God does and duplicates it, mimics it, camouflages it. If you think you can discern his duplicates for God s truth, without God s help, I testify to you that you don t stand a chance! He is so cunning and so crafty that you need to rely upon the powers of heaven to get you through. You just can t do it by yourself. As far as these areas that are not mainstream healing skills go, I want you to understand that I m not saying they aren t true. I actually believe in a lot of these things, and I also believe that there s truth. But, I also believe that they are easily counterfeited. All of us need to be careful. We need to get in the habit now, of whenever we re looking at something, whenever we re doing something, or making a decision that we don t know about, or that we re not sure of, take a moment right there and ask Father, Is this from Thee? Is this true, or is this false? I m not talking about which artichokes to buy at Safeway. I m talking about things that pertain to your eternal salvation, in a day of deception that s never been seen like this in the history of the world. This is the time for us to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. So, maybe we need to involve the Lord even more in what we re doing so that we don t become distracted by a fraction and end up traveling hundreds of miles out of the way. Well, those are my thoughts. I love you guys, and glad that you find this information helpful. Margie and I are surprised that anybody is finding this worthwhile but apparently you are, and we ll keep going as long as the Lord feels that this is something that we should be doing. I love the Lord. I love His gospel. I love learning and teaching by the Spirit. We re all students, and we re all teachers. God bless you, amen. Resources: D&C 123:12 Bible dictionary, page 662 Election Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man by Bruce R. McConkie, chapter 16 Romans 9:6...For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Moses 7:32...in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency. D&C 45:54...it shall be tolerable for them. Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J Ballard pp Romans 8-9 D&C 68:12 To obtain a promise from God for myself that I shall have Eternal life. The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph May 21, 1843 D&C 88:1-5 The Olive Leaf 26

27 Highly Favored of the Lord III D&C 131:5 sealed up unto eternal life. 2 Peter 1:10...make your calling and election sure Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith Sr. Vilate Kimball Blessing Mar 9, 1842 D&C 132:49-50 Mosiah 26:15-20 Helaman 10:4-7 The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, chapter 43, on obtaining an assurance directly from God The Doctrine of Calling & Election, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p Matthew 17:5 This is my beloved Son 2 Peter 1:15-19 Joseph Smith takes from 2 Peter 1:11, 17, 19 Oliver Cowdery, The Evening and the Morning Star June 1834 Hebrews 6:18 Oath directly from God D&C 132:49...prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father D&C 132:20...they continue The Body Code, Dr. Bradley Nelson Matthew 10:16...wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Election/Believing Blood Israel, the Lord s chosen people, were a congregation set apart in the preexistence. In large measure, the spirit children of the Father who acquired a talent for spirituality, who sought above their fellow, to do good and work righteousness all these were foreordained to be born in the house of Israel. They were chosen before they were born. This is the doctrine of election. They were true and faithful in the premortal life, and they earned the right to be born as the Lord s people and to have the privilege, on a preferential basis, of believing and obeying the word of truth. Believing blood, the blood Abraham, flows in their veins. They are the ones of whom Jesus said: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand their numbers were known and the days of their mortal probation were selected in advance, (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man, Excerpts from Chapter 16) 27

28 Mike Stroud Chapter Forty-Nine Podcast 049 Be Ye Not Troubled Brothers and sisters, let s go to Doctrine and Covenants 45:15. This is Jesus referring back to the time when He stood upon the Mount of Olives with His disciples, looked across the Kidron Valley at what today we call the Temple Mount, and prophesied concerning it. You can read about the correlated scripture that goes with section 45 in two places. You can read about it in Matthew 24 of the New Testament, and you can also read about it in Joseph Smith s Matthew which comes right at the end of the Pearl of Great Price. The Savior says: [15] Wherefore, hearken and I will reason with you, and I will speak unto you and prophesy, as unto men in days of old. I love it when the Lord says, I m going to reason with you. One day the Spirit taught me that when the Lord reasons with you He s going to give you the reason for why He s doing the things He s doing, or the things He s about to do. So, when you reason with the Lord and He reasons with you, you give the reasons for what s involved in the conversation you re having, either you to Him or Him to you. Well, right here, He is going to reason with [us], and...speak unto [us] and prophesy, as unto men in days of old : [16] And I will show it plainly as I showed it unto my disciples I love that part. I love the plainness of Christ s word. If there were a word that describes the Book of Mormon over all other revealed scriptures that have been preserved for us in this day, it would be plainness, especially as Nephi uses that word in 2 Nephi 33:6: 28

29 Highly Favored of the Lord III I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell. Back to verse 16: I will show it plainly as I showed it unto my disciples as I stood before them in the flesh [on the Mount of Olives], and spake unto them, saying: As ye have asked of me concerning the signs of my coming, in the day when I shall come in my glory in the clouds of heaven, to fulfill the promises that I have made unto your fathers, The fathers are Enoch and all the patriarchs. Enoch obtained a promise from God that he and his city would be on the earth during the Second Coming and that they would have a mighty role to play in those days prior to the coming of the Lord. The rainbow in the heavens is a token of that promise God made unto Enoch, that even though His Second Coming was separated from Enoch s day by thousands of years, the Lord promised that Enoch and his people would again be on the earth at that day, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Lord. The rainbow is the token of that covenant. There s more to that rainbow than just having harvest time and seed time and having food to eat. Now, verse 17: For as ye have looked upon the long absence of your spirits from your bodies to be a bondage, I will show unto you how the day of redemption shall come, and also the restoration of the scattered Israel. Now, he begins to speak and prophesy about the days that are only thirty plus years in the future from the time he s saying this: [18] And now ye behold this temple which is in Jerusalem, which ye call the house of God, and your enemies say that this house shall never fall. There were forty plus years in construction just on Herod s part of the addition to the temple that was built by Zerubbabel and came down through time: [19] But, verily I say unto you, that desolation shall come upon this generation And that desolation occurred in 70 A.D. when the Roman legions under Titus and Vespasian came in and besieged the city, eventually breached the walls, and great desolation took place. More than one and a half million Jews were slaughtered on the Temple Mount as they went there in the last siege, hoping they could hold off the Roman legions by being on the Temple Mount in that walled enclosure. They breached the wall, and those Jews were butchered. It is said that the blood ran down the streets like water: 29

30 Mike Stroud as a thief in the night, and this people shall be destroyed and scattered among all nations. Those that weren t killed by Roman armies in 70 A.D. were hauled off into captivity. Some were scattered in and around the holy land, but most of them were taken captive and hauled to Rome. Those that survived the Coliseum, the arenas of Rome and the sport of the Romans were eventually scattered among all nations of the earth. This became what is known as the great Diaspora. And they remained in that scattered condition until May 1948 when the state of Israel was founded under UN resolution, and the Jews begin to return to their ancient homeland: [20] And this temple, [the 2nd temple] which ye now see shall be thrown down that there shall not be left one stone upon another. I ve stood upon the Temple Mount and looked over the south-west corner, and you can still see the great stones of what s left of that temple lying in great rubble around the base of the southwest and south edge of Temple Mount: [21] And it shall come to pass, that this generation of Jews Those Jews that are scattered and remain in that scattered situation from 70 A.D. until 1948: shall not pass away until every desolation which I have told you concerning them shall come to pass. Of course, the history of Jews is before us, and we can see that they have been scattered, and smitten, and have become what the Book of Mormon calls a hiss and a byword...among all nations : [22] Ye say that ye know that the end of the world cometh; ye say also that ye know that the heavens and the earth shall pass away; [23] And in this ye say truly, for so it is; but these things which I have told you shall not pass away until all shall be fulfilled. And by the way everything now in these verses up to this point has been fulfilled: [24] And this I have told you concerning Jerusalem; and when that day shall come, shall a remnant be scattered among all the nations; This is a remnant of the Jews, and you can find the Jews scattered in literally every nation of the world. I m surprised at how many Jews we find in Africa. When I was in the holy land, I was there for Passover and watched Jews coming from all over the world. I was on Temple Mount against the Western Wall and watched the celebration there and saw 30

31 Highly Favored of the Lord III Jews of every skin color, every hair color, every nationality, and there were literally a hundred languages being spoken at once on Temple Mount at the Western Wall. I was able to watch that as I thought about the scripture that says the remnant shall be scattered among all nations: [25] But they shall be gathered again; That took place with the Balfour Declaration and all the events that led up to the declaration of the Jewish state in May 1948: but they shall remain until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. We talked about how the day of the Gentiles is about to be fulfilled, and we ll know it is fulfilled when the remnant of Jacob goes through the Gentile nations of the world like a lion. Verse 26, here we go: And in that day Meaning the day when the day of the Gentiles is fulfilled: shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, Now, we are in our day now: and the whole earth shall be in commotion, Notice that that has been reserved for our day. You don t read about those particular signs of wars and rumors of wars and the whole earth being in commotion until you get down into the day of the Gentile, which is the first half of the dispensation of the fullness of times. We re in that day, and it s coming to its end: and men s hearts shall fail them, And I also want to say that women s hearts will also: and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth. I think that s an interesting statement there. I look at a lot of these prepper sites and at the predictions that are going on that the signs are being fulfilled. I ve watched over the last few years where prominent people among the Latter-day Saints who have had experiences with the Spirit and have shared those experiences, sometimes attach dates to the fulfillment of prophetic events that they have seen in dreams or in visions. Then the dates come and pass, and nothing has happened. And I noticed the frustration and almost the disappointment that takes place when they don t take place. These are events that Bruce R. McConkie said, All of the sorrows and perils of the past are but a foretaste of what is yet to be. I look at us and see that when these events don t take place according to the dates that we set, we become disappointed. I think that we ought to rejoice when these things don t take place. I ve heard some people say, Let s just get it over with! Let s get into this and get it done. I m sick and tired of waiting for it. The sooner we get through it, the sooner we can get out of it. 31

32 Mike Stroud I think to myself, as I read the prophecies, and as I think of what the prophets have said, and I don t think any of us have any idea what s really coming. If we did, we wouldn t be disappointed when it doesn t start, and we wouldn t long for it to happen so that we could get into it. I think that we would count our blessings, and say, I m grateful right now that we still have seedtime and harvest. I m grateful that we re still unoccupied as a nation. I m grateful that we still have the liberties God gave to us by the Founding Fathers in the holy documents of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. I don t think that we should long for all of that to end too quickly. When people are frustrated, discouraged, and depressed because things don t happen according to dates that are set, when it appeared so obvious and so likely that it would happen, I wonder if that is what verse 26 was talking about where the people will say, that Christ delayeth His coming. [27] And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity shall abound. I don t think it takes a rocket scientist to see these things in full-blown fulfillment around us: [28] And when the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel; That light is more than the Restoration. That light is an awakening. I think that when it says, And when the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth, we think that is the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ when Joseph had his vision in 1820, the Church was restored in 1830, and the Book of Mormon came up out of the ground, etc. etc. And that is certainly all a part of it, but I think that light is an awakening that s going to take place in preparation of the fulfillment of the rest of these things that Christ is talking about. And it shall be the fulness of my gospel; [29] But they receive it not; for they perceive not the light, and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men. All through the 24th chapter of Matthew, the Lord refers to the elect over and over, and we need to find out what that means. Let s put our finger here in section 45 for just a minute, and go over to section 29 to get a definition of the elect. You want to be among the elect. That ties in with what we talked about last week with calling and election, but a definition of the elect is here in section 29, verse 7: And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; 32

33 Highly Favored of the Lord III Now, you want to look at that and say, What is this? Here s your definition of the elect: for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts; There are your two steps that define who the elect are. They hear the voice of whom? Who is speaking here in section 29? Let s go back and look at the very first part of it in verse 1: Listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the Great I Am, So, this is the Savior speaking, and the elect hear His voice. Now, that voice can be several different things. According to the Doctrine and Covenants, if you re reading the word of God, you are hearing the voice of God. If you are listening to the inspired declaration of the prophets as they speak under the direction of the Holy Ghost and in the authority of their anointing and their calling, you re hearing the voice of Christ. He says, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. And I want to take it a step further. The voice of Christ is the same thing as the light of Christ, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And if you harden your heart against that, you disqualify yourself from being among the elect. You re not gathered. See, you re being gathered to safe places, holy places. The purpose of the temple is to gather people so that they can receive the blessings, ordinances, and principles of the gospel, along with its covenants. In other words, you harden your heart as the voice of Christ, the Holy Spirit, speaks to you. I know I ve had some people who disagree with this, but that Holy Spirit is the voice you are referring to, the Spirit you are referring to, in the sacrament. The sacrament refers to the voice of Christ; that Spirit that you have promised to be with you for the next seven days as you strive to keep your part of the sacramental covenant. You have your own guide. You have your own Liahona for the next seven days if you ll hearken to that and harden not your hearts. The way you harden your heart is you refuse to listen and obey and hearken to that voice. That s hardening your heart. That s the Book of Mormon definition of hardening your heart, and if you do that, you disqualify yourself from being among the elect. Brothers and sisters, you want to be among the elect. Let s go back to section 45. Verse 31: And there shall be men standing in that generation, That s the generation we re in right now, the generation where the light, the awakening of the Spirit, the striving of the Spirit, is awakening a remnant of the Gentiles. You want to wake up with those Gentiles and be numbered among the house of Israel. Back up one verse to 30: 33

34 Mike Stroud And in that generation shall the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. [31] And there shall be men standing in that generation, And I want to testify to you that we re on the edge of that: that shall not pass until they shall see an overflowing scourge; Now, the Hebrew word for scourge is whip. Skip with me over to 2 Nephi 5:25 for a few minutes. This is where the Nephites and Lamanites separate: And the Lord God said unto me: They [the Lamanites] shall be a scourge unto thy seed [the Nephites], to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction. You can die under the whip. You don t need to have a spear. Look at what Christ went through on the scourging post when the Romans scourged him; most people died from that. So, this scourge that we re talking about over here in section 45, verse 31 is to stir us up into remembrance of the Lord and to repent. It is designed to bring us to repentance. It s not designed to kill you. But if you don t repent, that scourging process can result in your physical death and transfer your rebellious, unrepentant spirit into the spirit world where school continues; and it s much more difficult to repent there than it is here. Verse 31 says: they shall see an overflowing scourge; I wonder if that is the Assyrian that Isaiah is talking about. As far as the United States goes, I wonder what the purpose is for the invading armies that will come in and occupy our land. Is it to stir us up into remembrance? I think of the two stories of Limhi s people and Alma s people that are recorded in the Book of Mormon. We have two examples of God s people who experienced invasion and slavery. I m wondering if those stories of those two groups of people are in there to teach us how we should behave when liberty is lost, while we re waiting for deliverance. In the one group, they tried to deliver themselves by the arm of their flesh, and that almost resulted in the total annihilation of all the men in that society. That was Limhi s group. On the other side, we had Alma s group, who yielded themselves and became subject to the rulers and put their full trust in the Lord instead of in their own arm. Remember, Limhi s people were continually trying to devise strategies to deliver themselves, and it only resulted in the loss of more of their men s lives. And so, they became a society of widows and orphans when they eventually were delivered. But Alma s group didn t lose one 34

35 Highly Favored of the Lord III person; not one person died in that society. They were beaten and lashed with heavy burdens; you know the story. Because of their submission and subjecting themselves to that, the Lord delivered them in a miraculous way because it was never in their minds to deliver themselves. They knew they could not do that. I wonder if that s the overflowing scourge that s going to come upon us to give us the opportunity to see if we will practice what we ve learned in the Book of Mormon. In Mormon 9:31, Mormon says that these things are written to you so you can learn to be more wise than we have been. It s almost as if Mormon says, I know that you re going to go through similar experiences. I know you re going to have your own trials in your day and we ve given you this book to help you learn from our mistakes. Are we going to do that? Back to section 45, verse 31: they shall see an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land. The word desolate means left without life. I have no idea what that is, but here s the good part: [32] But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved; but among the wicked, men shall lift up their voices and curse God and die. [33] And there shall be earthquakes also in divers places, and many desolations; yet men will harden their hearts against me, and they will take up the sword, one against another, and they will kill one another. All of that is just horrible, horrible stuff. Now, remember that when the disciples heard this, it was being spoken on the Mount of Olives, about 34 A.D.: [34] And now, when I the Lord had spoken these words unto my disciples, they were troubled. I would triple underline that because my lesson tonight is on this word troubled. Throughout the week I ve had the opportunity to talk and write to many people. This is my privilege, as I have mentioned before. These are Latter-day Saints who are really very frightened and very troubled. These are the people who are listening to the podcasts, and would I say the people who come into contact with the podcasts are being led here by the Spirit and are part of that light [that] shall break forth among [the Gentiles]. You are a part of that remnant that is being awakened, and you re troubled because of the things you see around you. Whether it s politics, the New World Order, the Illuminati, the Club of Rome, Skull & Bones, the Denver Airport, or President Monson being subpoenaed to go before a grand jury, whether it is this thing or that thing, there are plenty of things out there to be troubled about. It is 35

36 Mike Stroud troubling, and it is easy to understand how we can be troubled and upset by these things. I talked to one good sister just a few days ago, and a part of what she said to me is the motivation for this lesson tonight. She was so worried that she was too late in preparations and that the door is rapidly closing, and she and her family are going to be condemned and damned because they weren t able to accomplish what they felt they needed to do at the time when they needed to do it. She was troubled. I want you to notice verse 35. Verse 35 is where you need to really triple underlined this: [35] And I said unto them [the Twelve]: Be not troubled, That s where you want to be. Here s the question: how can we, in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of everything over here where it says that men s hearts shall fail them, the love of man shall wax cold, iniquity shall abound, wars and rumors of wars, and all of this stuff Lord, how can we not be troubled? You re looking at us, and You re saying, don t be troubled, but how can we be not troubled? Let s go over to Joseph Smith Matthew 24, for just a moment, and I want you to look at something. Go to verse 23. This is kind of a reiteration of the whole thing we just talked about: Behold, I speak these things [everything we just mentioned] unto you for the elect s sake; Now, remember how we defined the elect. Being part of the elect doesn t mean that they can t be deceived because if you go back to verse 22 the Lord says: For in those days there shall also arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch, that, if possible, they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant. [23] Behold, I speak these things unto you for the elect s sake; and you shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled, There it is again, see that ye be not troubled. And all through this section, it s talking about the elect, over and over. So, as I talked to this sister, we identified some words that we hear a lot, day in and day out. Here are some words that we hear: fear, troubled, discouraged, disappointed, and despair. These are all words that do not come from the Source of Light. Anxiety is another one that we ve talked about. None of these words are coming from the Lord of Light. He comes out and says, Be not troubled in the midst of all this and be ye not afraid. Now, there s a scripture over in section 38, verse 30 that says: 36

37 Highly Favored of the Lord III...but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. And of course, we look at that as being our physical preps. And I m not going to say that that s not necessary, but let s go to Doctrine and Covenants 29 for just a minute. What do we need to do in this day of trouble, turmoil, anxiety, and even people having thoughts of suicide? These are members of the Church. We re not talking about nonmembers now; we re talking about members of the Church, the elect according to the covenant. Look what He says in section 29 verse 34: Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things You want to circle that: not some things, or many things, but all things : unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; Now, we have a tendency to look at the commandment to store food as temporal. And it is a commandment; it s not a suggestion. The Lord says that we need to have that food storage put away. He has spoken clearly through His prophets. We have a tendency to think of that as physical and temporal, but the Lord comes out and says that no commandment that He has given us is temporal, or temporary, or physical, or mortal. It s all spiritual. You re receiving spiritual commandments as a person living in a temporal world. But that doesn t mean that the commandments and the laws that you receive are in any way temporal. Look at verse 35, talking about Adam: Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself; and I gave unto him commandment, but no temporal commandment gave I unto him, for my commandments are spiritual; they are not natural nor temporal, neither carnal or sensual. Let s look at our temporal preparation because it appears that everything we do in the prepper area is temporal. And here the Lord comes out and says that none of this is temporal; to Him, it s all spiritual. So, why are we putting away food? What has that got to do with spiritual salvation? Well, it has everything to do with it. I ve come full circle on this in my life, believe me. I have gone 40 years on this, and I ve come full circle. There s a man that I know that had a personal interview with Jesus Christ and has had his Second Comforter experience and has had many other spiritual experiences. He goes to the Lord with questions, and he asked the Lord a question. The question was this: Lord, will I ever need to use the food that I ve stored? And the answer from the Lord to him (and I want to underline to him) was, You will use some of it, but most of it you will give away. 37

38 Mike Stroud Now, that is startling because some of us have labored hard to put food away when everybody else is partying. We ve all heard statements like, When things get tough, I know where I m going. I know Mike Stroud s got some food over there. I don t have to worry about my family or myself. I ll just go over there because I know he s got food. Well, that ticks me off, you see. That got me angry, and I d say, You could come over here past the barrel of the 12 gauge shotgun that s between me and you! That s the attitude I used to have because I viewed all of this as temporal. How am I going to keep my physical body alive through all this? Well, I ve got to have all of this food. I ve got to have all of this medicine. I ve got to have these weapons. I ve got to have this ammunition. I ve got to have the generators. I m not saying these aren t good things to save; don t misunderstand me. What I m saying is that if you can get these things, do it. It s wise to do it. But the question comes: what s your intent behind all this? If it s on leaning upon the arm of the flesh and you making it happen to get you through the trials that are coming up, you haven t learned the spiritual meaning behind what appears to be a temporal commandment. This whole thing is to teach you. Storage of food, brothers and sisters, is to teach you to rely upon the Lord. That s what it s all about. It s all about teaching you to put your trust in Him. You do that, yes, because you are commanded to, and you plan on eating it, but its purpose is to bring you up to something else, and that s to put your trust in the Lord. There are stories in the scriptures of where food was multiplied. We all know the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Why do you think that was put in there? We all know the stories of Moses bringing bread up out of the desert floor and water from out of the stone. Why are these stories in there? Are they all in there to teach us to put our trust in us? Is that why we have these stories there? Is it to strengthen man s arm and put your trust in the arm of flesh? Is that what that s all about? You see, I ve come around in all of the possible scenarios that you can think of for storing food, preparations, keeping my family alive, and having an ark in Eagar. I ve come full circle to know that all of this I ve done is simply to qualify me for miracles when it s not there anymore. That s where I am in my thinking right now. So, when my friend asked the Lord, Will I live on the food storage that I have? The Lord looked at him and had that message for him. And this is his message; this isn t for you. This is like Visions of Glory. A lot of people find fault with Spencer because he shared his visions and his story. And they wanted to tear it apart because even Spencer came out and said, This is my story. This was given to me, and even now to this day I don t understand all of what was shown me. And yet, we want to take it apart because it doesn t fit in with what 38

39 Highly Favored of the Lord III we think is going to happen to us. So, I look at food storage as an act of faith and sacrifice to put away substances and material for a time of scarcity, while living in a time of prosperity. That s the sacrifice. And if I ve done that to the best of my ability, it qualifies me for miraculous events, to where if I need to, that food can be restored. After the bottle is empty and the can is empty, they can be refilled because the God that I worship is the God that brought bread out of the desert floor and water out of a rock. And the whole idea behind doing these things, the spiritual reason behind that, is to teach me to trust in the Lord and not get deceived into putting my trust into the arm of man. So, everything to the Lord is spiritual, and we need to look at that and not get caught up in our temporal interpretation of what is going on around us. The Lord says, be not troubled. How can we get to that point where we can have that kind of attitude in the midst of chaos and turmoil? My answer for you is this: take time to be holy. In your busy schedules, find the time to practice holiness and allow the Lord to make you holy. You don t become holy by anything you can do. There are certain things you do that puts you in a position where the Lord can make you holy. John Pontius once said something, and I don t know if it was in his book or when I had a chance to talk to him. I was never able to talk with Brother John face-to-face, but we chatted back and forth while Margie and I were in the Philippines. I loved his teachings and the things that he put resonated with me to such a degree that it became foundational for me. And I remember one of the great one-liners that Brother John said, and I ve quoted this a hundred times, especially as each day goes by, and we become more frantic, more deceived, more distracted, more in a hurry, and enjoy loudness instead of solitude. Brother John said this, Do less and become more. I think that is so profound, especially in our world. Do less and become more. Over in 3 Nephi, chapter 9, the Lord says that He will accept no more sacrifice of animals and the shedding of blood, but there is a new sacrifice that he requires from us, even a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Can I tell you that to bring that sacrifice to the Lord is going to require that you reorder, reevaluate, and prioritize your time? See, you are going to be able to come to a place where you can be not troubled in the midst of all of this. And the Lord comes out and adds another one, fear not, and another one, be of good cheer. These are the words of the Savior. Think of the dark words like depression, suicide, discouragement, anxiety, and all of that. And then think of the words the Lord uses, be not troubled, be of good cheer, fear not. Those are all the words of light. How do we come to that when you re in the middle of turmoil? You come to that by taking time to be 39

40 Mike Stroud holy. As I pondered this week, I see there s a progression in this. It goes from being evil and the natural man to a state where you re good, and you follow the voice of Christ which teaches us right from wrong, good from evil. You hearken to that, and it takes you to Christ, just as Brother John Pontius book is entitled, Following the Light of Christ into His Presence. That is the formula for everything that is good in this life. So, you move from evil, carnal, sensual, and a devilish natural man to where you come up to a state of goodness, which then progresses up to a state of righteousness. You become righteous. Think about the definition of righteousness. Look at the first word in righteousness; it s right. A righteous person is a person who comes up, who does things that are right. Something has happened in your life, and you ve had a transformation; the Book of Mormon calls it being born again, becoming a child of Jesus Christ, a member of His royal family. But, being born again does not bring you into a state of holiness. You re on the path. You have a desire to submit. You have a desire to be subject to Christ. In Mosiah 3:19, it says you: becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. You notice the word used three times in this verse, submit. One of the fruits of putting off the natural man and becoming righteous is submission. You now come to a point where, It is not my will anymore, but it s Your will. Paul says, in Romans chapter 10, that we need to repent of our righteousness and seek the righteousness of God. Who would ve ever thought of you need to repent of being righteous? And yet Paul is clear on that. It s one of the themes of his New Testament writings. I thought about that and righteousness means you come to a state where you do right. That s righteousness. You choose right. And you become that way because you have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. That s righteousness, and that comes through the born again process where Christ becomes your Father and your God, and you are His child, His son or His daughter, and you enter into a covenant to obey Him for the rest of your life. That s all in Mosiah chapter 5. Then when you get to this stage of righteousness, Paul says you may need to repent of [your] own righteousness and seek God s righteousness. He draws a line between the two. What is [our] own righteousness? Ask yourself this question, Why do I do what is right? If you re like Mike Stroud, the answer comes back stark, staring me in the face; all too often I do the right things to be seen of men and to seek the honors of men. You see, I m doing the right 40

41 Highly Favored of the Lord III things for the wrong reasons. I m still not there yet. That s not a state of holiness; it s a state of righteousness. And I need to repent of my righteousness, which is doing the right things for the wrong reasons. One of the main disqualifiers of priesthood power is to seek for the honors of men. And if you re like me, you re doing this, and you don t even know that you re doing it until you apply the formula in Ether 12:27 where it says: And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. You can be in a state of righteousness, doing the right things, and be filled with weaknesses because you re doing the right things for the wrong reasons. So, come to the Lord, and He will show you, and it s not always a happy experience. It can be painful, but necessary. So, now you want to move from righteousness to the next step, which is holiness. And can I tell you, that when you obtain the state of holiness, you never worry about your intentions? You never wonder if you are doing the right things for the right reasons because you are. When you come to a state of holiness, versus a state of righteousness, your intents are always right. So, how do you come to this state of righteousness? Brothers and sisters, if you come to goodness, righteousness, and then holiness you will not be troubled, neither [would you] be afraid. And you will be of good cheer in the midst of turmoil because you will have been so changed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. The inner man will become so holy that nothing that takes place around you will have an effect to bring upon you that state of darkness, where the Lord had to look at His disciples and say, Don t be troubled. Go with me to John chapter 14 for just a minute. John chapter 14 is probably one of the most doctrinally sacred chapters in the New Testament. It talks about the Second Comforter. If you look in your chapter heading, the last of it says, [Jesus] promises the first and second Comforters. Now, this is right at the conclusion of the Last Supper, the sacramental meal. The traitor has been seen, the feet have been washed, Judas has left the room, and there are now only eleven apostles present. If you look back at chapter 13:34: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. [35] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. This is all to get a feel for what is happening. The disciples have heard the Savior say several times up to this point that He will go to Jerusalem and be delivered up unto the Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests, and 41

42 Mike Stroud scribes, to be judged, to be crucified, and to rise again on the third day. They ve heard Him say that over and over. And you ll also know that these disciples are really not understanding what He says. With all of that you can imagine what s in their hearts because He s told them He s going to die, And for this cause came I unto the world. And Peter says, I m not going to let that happen to you. Notice in verse 36 of chapter 13, Peter says: Lord, whither goest thou? He says to Peter: Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Boy, how about that for a prophetic statement. Peter had no idea that following Him would be to a cross. And as Jesus would be nailed to a cross, so Peter would be crucified in Rome. (It talks about that later in a little more detail in the 21st chapter of John.) [37] Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. And then we have this famous scripture: [38]...The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice. Now, we move into chapter 14. So, forget the chapter heading and look at what the Lord says: [1] Let not your heart be troubled: After all of that. Now, we are going to have a great intercessory prayer. They re going to sing a hymn and leave for Gethsemane. And in the midst of all of this, the Lord says: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. [2] In my father s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, That s the Second Comforter. That s not the Second Coming: and receive you unto myself; I want you to think about that: a personal encounter with the Lord. After He goes to the Father to do what? Prepare a mansion for you. You have a garment of light that is in reserve for you, waiting, that you left there, that you took off when you entered this world. When you go back, you will receive that garment, and as a result of your experience in this world, that garment will be much more glorious. It s in reserve for you as is a robe, a crown, a scepter, a throne, and a mansion. I go to 42

43 Highly Favored of the Lord III prepare a [mansion] for you, I will come again. That s a personal encounter, Second Comforter....and receive you unto myself. Now watch, here s the promise of eternal life: that where I am, there ye may be also. Put your finger here for just a minute and go over to section 132. We talked about this last week, and I want to show you so you can pull these correlations and get a feeling for what it s all about. This is where Joseph Smith had his calling and election made sure. What is that? What does that mean? Section 132: 49: For I am the Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through all eternity; for verily I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my father, with Abraham your father. Did you catch that back there in John 14:3 where He says, I go and prepare a place for you, etc., etc.? [50] Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Now, go back with me to John chapter 14: [4] And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. [5] Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? And then this famous scripture: [6] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Back to verse 1, John chapter 14: Let not your heart be troubled: Holiness, brothers and sisters. I want you to do something. I m at a stage in my life where it is easier for me to find the time. My devotionals that I spend with the Lord in the morning, usually last from an hour and a half to two hours. I can do that, and I understand that you can t. It s not the amount of time that you spend seeking for a place of holiness. This is what I want you to do today: I want you to rearrange your time. And mothers, I just empathize with you. I know you ve got little children, and for you to find time for holiness is going to be a major challenge. But that s okay because the greater the challenge, the greater the sacrifice to find it, and the greater the sacrifice, the more the faith involved. Another word for faith is just sacrifice. When you sacrifice for the Lord s sake, it s an act of faith. So, what I m saying here today is that it s not how long; it s the fact that you do find some time somewhere in your day, for holiness. You slow down. You quiet down. 43

44 Mike Stroud You re going to have to plan this out because everything in our lives today is designed to move you faster and distract you away from that place that you need to go to find God. If you can t take time to be with Him, you re going to cut out the opportunity for Him to transform your life in a major way. What do you do when you do find that time? Your big challenge is going to be to find a place of quiet and solitude where you can slow down and quiet down for a period of time. Now, what do we do during that time? You may want to take a look at meditation and pondering. Pondering and meditation are two different things. Pondering, in my experience, is the easier of the two. Meditation is not easy for me to do. I went online because one of my mentors recommended that I look into a man by the name of Phil McLemore. He has some great information on meditation. Meditation is simply a process to find stillness. It comes from Doctrine and Covenants 101:16, where the Lord says: be still and know that I am God. We need to be able to do that as much as we can and as frequently as we can. Don t be discouraged if you try to do these things and it just seems to fall apart. Just work at it. Don t give up. Don t get discouraged and don t despair. Just work at it. Another thing you can do in that private time is to return again to the Book of Mormon. I would recommend that those of you who are seeking for the higher blessings of the Lord, the time for you taking the Book of Mormon challenge (where you just read from 1 Nephi 1 through Moron 10, and do it within a certain time-frame) is over for you. That s good for young people, for youth, for seminary students, for investigators, or for people who do not have years of experience under their belts being a Latter-day Saint and living in the last days. For you, you need to revisit the Book of Mormon and read it in the spirit of revelation. Go to the Lord, and as you find your quiet place and after you ve stilled yourself, ask the Lord in prayer, Father, help me read in the Book of Mormon that which I need to know in order to help somebody today and to give me the knowledge that I need to come closer to Thee and to Thy Beloved Son. Thou hast said that reading the Book of Mormon will bring me closer to Thee and to Thy Son than by any other book. Guide me by Thy spirit to that area that I need to read and ponder and pray about today. If you approach your Book of Mormon study that way and let the Lord guide you, there will be something you read that morning that you will use that very day to bless, edify, uplift, and help others. So that s one thing that I would recommend that you do; take time to be holy. Don t let the distractions of the world, its cares and concerns, and the cacophony of noise of distracting and competing voices drag you away. Ask the Lord to help 44

45 Highly Favored of the Lord III you find that time. In all things: ask, seek, and knock. In the very scheduling of your time to be holy, seek revelation and help from His hand to do so. Don t try to do any this by yourself. Now is the time for you to turn yourself over to Him. Our Christian friends use a phrase that we have a tendency and shy away from, and I think it sad. That phrase is, Give yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Give yourself to Him! And rely wholly upon the merits and mercy of Him who is mighty to save. Let s look at a couple of scriptures. Let s go to Helaman chapter 3 for just a minute. This is at a time when the Nephite church was in a great state of apostasy. You can see in verse 33, the word pride. In verse 34 you can see the word pride, and at the bottom of verse 34 you can see that it: did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction. Which, by the way, is a blessing. Verse 35: Nevertheless [in spite of that] they [the more humble part of the people] did fast and pray oft, That is a big key for you now. You re wanting to become holy, and so you re taking time to become holy. Fasting and praying oft is an absolute requirement for holiness. Fasting once a month as required on a fast Sunday is not fasting oft. Now, be guided by the Spirit, again, and do what the Spirit says: and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, See what comes as a result of fasting and praying oft? Humility is one of the fruits of fasting and praying oft. Here s another one: and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, See, these are all fruits of frequent prayer and fasting: humility, firm faith, and: unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, Another way to say consolation is to be comforted; consoled and comforted. Think about what we ve talked about. It s all leading toward the Comforters, the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Comforters: yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, Another word for sanctification is holiness: which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God. Now, you can t do that by yourself. If you try to yield by yourself, without the help and strength of Christ through His atoning sacrifice, at best you re going to have limited success and end up frustrated. You ll say, I knew it wouldn t work. I knew I couldn t do it. I tried this 45

46 Mike Stroud before, and it never worked. The key word there is I, I, I. You re right, and as long as the word I is in there, you ll never have success. You need to learn to turn that over; give yourself to Christ; yield yourself to Him. Enter into a relationship with Him where you promise to give yourself, to yield yourself. And as you do, then you will see some success start to come into your life. I was talking to a man this week about the doctrine and ordinance of translation, and we were talking about the remnant of Jacob that s being awakened. We were talking about that small group of Gentiles who are going to come to a point where they can be numbered among the house of Israel. And it s a small group; it s few. And you want to be there because it is in the day of Israel that the remnant of Jacob, with those repentant, humbled, yielding Gentiles (which are few, but they are there), will build the New Jerusalem. They will welcome the Enochian Saints with a holy kiss, falling upon each other s necks, embracing and kissing each other. They will be a part of that translated city in preparing for the Second Coming of the Lord. And they will administer the ordinance of translation upon their brother and sister counterparts, the awakened remnant of Jacob. I want to be a part of that. Now, here s an interesting thing I was talking about. There are still people who are not awakened but are foreordained to be a part of that remnant. They were foreordained; it s their election. But they need to be awakened. How are they going to be awakened? They re going to be awakened by adversity and trial. They will be brought to their knees in what I call, the day of take-it-away. And the day of take-it-away is coming. These are those that President Benson says will be compelled to humility. And there are even those who are a remnant of Jacob, who will be awakened because of what they suffer. And that s okay. You could compare that to the group of Nephite disciples that Jesus stood among over there in 3 Nephi chapter 28, and also Peter and James in John chapter 21 and Doctrine and Covenants 7. They all had the same request. We will read it in 3 Nephi 28, starting at the bottom of verse 1. Jesus asked: What is it that ye desire of me after that I am gone to the Father? The nine Nephites and Peter and James said that they desired that when their ministry was completed: [2] that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom. Look at what the Lord said: [3] Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; I m telling you, any time the Lord can look at you and say, Blessed are ye, you re in a good place; that s a good place! Then he touched them 46

47 Highly Favored of the Lord III and, at least the disciples in America, we know that when they obtained unto the age of 72, that there was a change and they were taken. They died, left this earth, and their request was granted. In verse 6, He says to the three other Nephites:...ye have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me. In Doctrine and Covenants 7:2, it tells us what John s desire was: Lord, give unto me power over death, that I may live and bring souls unto thee. So, after this request by John, the Lord says to Peter: [5]...this [Peter s request] was a good desire; but my beloved has desired that he might do more, or a greater work yet among men than what he has before done. And back in 3 Nephi 28:7, He says to the three Nephites, who had the same desire as John: [7] Therefore, more blessed are ye, All of the remnant who will have a part with Enoch and his city, along with the remnant of Jacob, all of the Gentiles that are part of that remnant are blessed beyond imagination. But there is a group even among them, even among those who will be on the earth to prepare the New Jerusalem and to make ready for the King of Kings, that He will refer to as More blessed are ye. And I can tell you, brothers and sisters, that those who awake and seek and find the Lord, and have these blessed experiences in this day of ease and prosperity, will be referred to by the Lord as, More blessed are ye. To obtain your Second Comforter blessing at a time when there is still food on the table, shelter over your head, clothing on your back, and when you can still obtain the necessities of life because of your earthly resources will put you in a position where the Lord will say, More blessed are ye. If you obtain these blessings in that day of ease, it will be because you have the faith of the brother of Jared, which you will have to have. So, even among the hierarchy of the remnant, who are prepared for the events of the latterdays, between now and the Second Coming of the Lord, even among those, the blessed, there is a group that the Lord will refer to as More blessed are ye. These are those to whom the Spirit says, You can be a seer. And you pick up on that message and say, Why not? God wants me to be like Him, why shouldn t I strive to be a seer now in mortality? Why will we let doubts and fears and being troubled, rob us of these blessed events? I love the Savior. I seek to see His face. I want to be ordained by Him. I want to be on the earth full of faith, and firm in every 47

48 Mike Stroud manner of godliness. When the city of Enoch returns, I want to be there to greet them and obtain from them the promises that they obtained from the Lord when his whole city was taken up into heaven, with the promise that they would again be on the earth before He comes as King of Kings. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Resources: Matthew 45, JS Matthew Doctrine and Covenants 45:16-34 JST Gen. 9:17-25 Enoch s rainbow covenant 2 Nephi 33:6 1 Nephi 19:14 a hiss and a byword...among all nations. Stand Independent above All Other Creatures by Bruce R. McConkie, General Conference April 1979 Doctrine and Covenants 29:1, 7 Doctrine and Covenants 1:39...whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. John 1:9...which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 2 Nephi 5:25 Mormon 9:31...learn to be more wise than we have been. Joseph Smith Matthew 24:22-23 Doctrine and Covenants 38:30 Doctrine and Covenants 29: Kings 17, Elijah and the widow of Zarephath Exodus 16, The Lord rains bread from heaven Exodus 17, Moses smites a rock and water gushes forth 3 Nephi 9:20...a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Doctrine and Covenants 101:36...fear not Doctrine and Covenants 61:36...be of good cheer Following the Light of Christ into His Presence by John Pontius Alma 7:14...born again Mosiah 3:19 Romans 10:3...submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Mosiah 5:2...have no more dispositions to do evil, but to do good continually. Doctrine and Covenants 121:35...the honors of men Ether 12:27 John 14:27 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid; John 13:34-38 Mark 10:33 I will go to Jerusalem and be delivered John 18:37...and for this cause came I into the world John 21 Peter is nailed to cross as Jesus was John 14:1 Doctrine and Covenants 101:16 Helaman 3: Nephi 28:1-3, 6-7 Doctrine and Covenants 7:2, 5 John 21 48

49 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty Podcast 050 Adam-ondi-Ahman (Fireside with a group of adult podcast listeners in Gallatin, Missouri) Well, brothers and sisters, I m glad to be here today. A month ago, I never thought that I would be in Missouri excuse me, Missoura doing this. [audience laughing] When Randall asked us to participate in your workshop today, he didn t give any real guidelines at all. I like that. So hopefully, this is going to be Spirit-directed. When he asked me to come, I started thinking, What can I do? You didn t tell me it was going to take several hours, Randall! You have to know that the podcasts last one hour, and at the end of an hour, I m done! It s over. [audience laughing] But, at any rate, I was taken quickly to some scriptures, and I called Randall and said I know what I m going to talk about. Then, yesterday morning, the Lord opened up some more scriptures for you. I saw things that I had read many times, but after being here and meeting you, and listening to your stories as to why you re here, where you came from, and the journey that has brought you to this point, these scriptures took on a whole new meaning for me. That s what I want to share with you today. It s what the Lord taught me about being here with you folks. Three nights ago I said to Margie, What have you learned? Why are we here? We still don t know why we are here. Except, I know I had to come here and see Kim s boots! If for no other reason, I came to Missouri to see Kim s boots. [audience laughing] My wife said, We re here to be tutored. I ve learned to listen to her because the core nature of women is wisdom. Man s core nature is knowledge. Knowledge without wisdom is futile and dangerous. So, I ve learned to listen to her for that reason. So, when she said, We re to be 49

50 Mike Stroud tutored, you know what that means. There s a special lesson that we need to learn. Something needs to happen during the week that we are here, that could not happen to us in any other way, nor in any other place. So, I thank you for that. I still don t quite know what that is yet, other than the fact that I have a whole new appreciation for the people here. I ve heard about people moving to Missouri for years and years and years. I ve heard you referred to as Zion squatters. [audience chuckling] It was a derogatory term when I heard it. It s not favorable. It was people getting the jump on the Church; getting the jump on the Lord. And then, in connection with that, I heard about those who did come here, only lasted for a short period of time, and returned quickly to where they came from, with their tails between their legs. I know people who have done that. So, I assumed that this group of people that I d heard about for all these years were not inspired. They were jumping out and doing things based on emotion, and they wanted to get a jump on the New Jerusalem so they could claim a front row seat. Now, you ve all heard that, haven t you? [audience agreeing] It s nothing new to you. Coming here has changed any perception that I ve had of that, in that direction. I don t feel that anymore because as you ve told me your stories, I feel the Spirit. I can t deny that. I ve tried really hard to live by the Spirit. And so, I m like you. I don t really know what s going to unfold from this point. That s one of the things you say. I say, So what s next? You all tell me, I have no idea. Am I right? I have no idea. But I do know this: the Lord told me to come here. So, isn t that marvelous? That s just so wonderful. I already sense, by the Spirit, that some of you are still not so sure if you should be here. You re here because of your spouse or because of friends, or something. So, not everybody in this room is as committed as some. I can already feel that. That s okay. It s just that we re at different places on the journey, and everybody is growing. That s one of the things my wife taught me when she says, It s okay to be where you are. It s not okay to stay there. That s just where we are on our individual journey. No two people are at the same place, are they? So, let me just take you over and start a little scripture chain here, and I ll share with you some things that I think we re looking at. Let s go to Isaiah 28:21: For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, [we ll come back to that in just a second] that he may do his work, his strange work; That s the part you want to circle, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. 50

51 Highly Favored of the Lord III We ve all heard about the marvelous work and wonder that is mentioned in the Book of Isaiah. It s in Isaiah 29:14. Just skip over there for a minute. It s a famous scripture. A book was written by the apostle, Le Grand Richards, with the name A Marvelous Work and Wonder. Many of you here have read that classic. In verse 14: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Prudent means cautious. That s another good word for prudent. Whenever the Lord uses the word wisdom, many times, he will accompany the word wisdom with prudence. Wisdom and prudence are companion words the Lord uses throughout the scriptures. We take the scripture, in Isaiah 29:14 a marvelous work and wonder, and we use that to refer to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith: the First Vision, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the priesthood doctrine, ordinances, temple work, and all of that; and it is. There is no question about it. But I believe that a marvelous work and a wonder that Isaiah is referring to here hasn t happened yet. I believe there s a deeper meaning to it that more fully fulfills it. I believe the marvelous work and a wonder is the establishment of the cause of Zion prior to the Second Coming. I also believe that it is his strange act and his strange work. Do you have a question? I would like to add that if you have questions, just raise your hands, and we will let you ask. Go ahead. Female audience member: I have a question. If you follow the footnotes, it takes you to Doctrine and Covenants 95:4. Mike: We re going to go there. Female audience member: Oh, okay. Mike: We are also going to go Doctrine and Covenants 101, and we re going to build on that. Thank you. So, look at the strange act. What was the connotation when the Lord says, strange act, or strange work? We have to look to see why He is using those words when He is referring to what this strange thing is. And, I think it is the establishment of Zion. There s nothing greater in the history of the world, from Adam up to the present time, that will match the establishment of the latter-day Zion. Look how many times it s been tried in the history of the world. How many times? Adam tried it, and it basically did not work. Enoch tried it and had some pretty good success. But, it was not a world-wide society. The one we re going to build is going to start small. This is one of the reasons why it s strange. It is going to start in one place with a group, and it will be such a small 51

52 Mike Stroud little pinpoint start, that the people will marvel at that, as it progresses out until eventually, it fills the world. Zion will be a society in the Millennium that s worldwide. That has never been done. And to be able to have success in even starting this thing has not been done in the history of the world. Enoch had to be taken off the face of the earth because that society, its environment, was just wickedness, and blood and horror everywhere around it. Eventually, it had to be changed with water, didn t it? So, you and I are involved in an act that s going to do something that s never been done on a wide-society basis since the history of the world. Melchizedek had some success. And, all through the various dispensations, the doctrine and ordinance of translation have been found. It s found in the New Testament, it s found in the Book of Mormon, and it was found among the Jaredites. In Ether 15:34, The last word that he says as he closed the Book of Ether 15:34 was: Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in flesh, it mattereth not. Now, why would he say such a thing, if he wasn t aware that the ordinance was available to the Jaredite people? It was. And it was available to the Nephites. Alma was translated. Several of the Book of Mormon prophets were translated. It just says, They walked away. We don t know where they went, and we assume the Lord took them as he did Moses. So, in the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, we have this doctrine of translation. I believe this is the strange act. Now, go back and look at something there in Isaiah 28:21. He says: For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon... If you go look at that, you will see that this strange act took place in the middle of warfare and battle. There is a little key. Do you think that this strange act that is going to unfold yet in our day is going to be any different? Do you think there s a pattern here? I think you all know the scriptures, don t you? So, it s going to take place in a day of anarchy and societal collapse, the likes of which have never been seen any time on this earth. That s what we re looking for. Rejoice because you re counted worthy to be in that. And, don t be afraid because you know what won the battle at Gibeon? You think it was Joshua and the army of Israel? Well, they went in and discomforted the five nations of the Amorites, but do you know what won that battle? God sent hailstones. The hailstones killed more of the Amorites and the five kings than the sword did. So, what do we learn from that? What s to be learned, you people who are treading this path into the future? Female audience member: He will fight our battles. 52

53 Highly Favored of the Lord III Mike: God is going to fight your battles, and we re going to look at some scriptures about that. If you think you re going to take up the sword and establish the cause of Zion, you need to repent. That s not scriptural. We ll talk a little about that. Let s go to Doctrine and Covenants 95:4. This little scripture chain here will help us get a feel for how this is going to unfold. The Lord says in Doctrine and Covenants 63 that the establishment of Zion has to come either by purchase or by blood. This is the heart of what we re talking about: [4] For the preparation wherewith I design to prepare mine apostles to prune my vineyard for the last time, There s your key, last time. This ties in with Jacob 5 and the allegory of the olive tree. We re in that last time; we re in the eleventh hour. Everything is wrapping up. He says: that I may bring to pass my strange act, And, here is another purpose: that I may pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Which fulfills the prophecy found in Joel 2:28, which says: And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: Skip to verse 32 in Joel 2:...for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. You remember that? Three places for deliverance coming up: in Jerusalem and in Mount Zion, two world centers shall be established. Mount Zion is the New Jerusalem area. We re in that area right here. We have two geographical places, and then the third place is a group of people because the remnant is not a geographical place; it s a group of people. We want to concentrate on that group. This is a part of this strange act. You d think that to establish something this massive that would eventually take over control of the whole earth, it would be done by government edict or by armies, banners, and swords. It s not going to be done that way. This is going to be done with a small little group of people that begin small, and from that group, it will radiate out, until eventually, it will fill the whole earth. All the continental masses will come back together. The world oceans will disappear. Instead of seven continents, it will come back into one. This is His strange act. All of this is going to start with a small core group of people. Isn t that just magnificent, when you think about it? Now, if that isn t a strange act, I 53

54 Mike Stroud don t know what is. The world looks at huge things taking place by large means. But, Alma 37:6 comes out and says:...that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; What greater thing could be brought to pass than the establishment of Zion, in preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? And it s going to happen how? According to the scriptures, by small and simple things. And the people who are going to be involved in that are what? The Lord uses the term few. He always uses few. It s going to be a few. The Lord talks about how, in 1833, these people had received a commandment to build the Kirtland Temple, and like in Nauvoo, even though we don t have it in writing, they were given a time limit to get this accomplished. And, for whatever reason extreme poverty, procrastination, distraction the Kirtland Temple wasn t being done on time. So, the Lord comes out in Doctrine and Covenants 95:3 and says: For ye have sinned against me a very grievous sin, He calls this sin grievous. By not meeting his timetable to get something done, He calls it grievous. That s a pretty serious word. Skip on to verse 6: They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are walking in darkness at noon-day. So, we get a couple of feelings here in connection with this strange act that the Lord is displeased because He s giving a timetable to accomplish something and the people are not doing it. We are told by the Brethren and the modern apostles that there is a set time for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It s not arbitrary. It is set. If you believe what they say, that s what they say. So, the calling comes up. Let me show you something else here that is interesting about the people who are called. If you look at Doctrine and Covenants 95:5 it says: But behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many who have been ordained among you, whom I have called Notice what the Lord says there. He ties together ordination and calling and puts them in the same category. Now, look at the rest of the verse: but few of them are chosen. There s that word. So, it s like Elder Packer teaches. He comes out, and he says: We have done very well at distributing the authority of the priesthood. We have priesthood authority planted nearly everywhere. We have quorums of elders and 54

55 Highly Favored of the Lord III high priests worldwide. But distributing the authority of the priesthood has raced, I think, ahead of distributing the power of the priesthood. He laments the fact that we have not done a good job in seeing that those ordained men have power in the priesthood. Then in April 2016 conference, the priesthood session, President Nelson gets up and gives a great talk on power in the priesthood. Do you realize that term power in the priesthood is different than power of the priesthood? The only place that the term power in the priesthood is used is at the most sacred and holy place in the temple. It is not scriptural. It s not used anywhere else, but President Nelson uses that in his talk. That should get our attention! We ought to have a heads up on that. Then, brethren, he goes on and talks about Christ Himself teaching you how to have power in the priesthood, and then counsels you to listen to your wives if you really want to get there quickly. So, here we ve got the same thing. A small group of people are going to rise up in a day of massive tribulation, chaos, collapse, and all of that s happening so that we can humble a few who are foreordained, but still asleep. There s a whole group of people who are part of the remnant that have a foreordination to be a part of that remnant and fulfill that destiny but are sound asleep. They are walking in darkness at noon-day. It is their foreordained mission to be a part of that remnant group. So, how are you going to wake them up? You re going to wake them up by taking everything away from them. You take it all away. Go with me to Helaman 12. This is how the Lord is going to wake them up. Remember President Benson came out and said, God will have a humble people. Humility is the foundation of everything that God needs to have in you to perform His work. It is the foundation. Everything is built off of humility; everything. Helaman 12:1-2 is a scripture that President Eyring has memorized, and he gives it by quote in general conference, and it s one of my favorite scriptures. It answers a lot of questions. Now, you are either awake or in the process of awakening, or you wouldn t be here. That doesn t mean that if you re awake, that you have to be here. I m just saying that this group right here is awake. There are also people who listen to the podcast that I have the opportunity to have feedback from. It s a broad base of people that a year ago we never could have ever thought that we would come into contact with. This whole podcast thing has gotten way, way out of control. It was not our design to do this. It was just to communicate with a small group of people that Margie and I had associated with on our missions and that we taught gospel lessons to. When we left, they said, Is there any way that we can continue to study with you? And so, we 55

56 Mike Stroud did that, the podcasts started, and it s just gotten to this point. So, there s a movement out there. And I can tell you that from where I am and what I m seeing daily, what you are part of, there are more of you. There are more of you that are having magnificent experiences and that are awakening and arising. Also, notice in the temple ceremony that women are not told to awake and arise; it s the men. We re all a bunch of dim bulbs, brethren! [Men in the audience chuckling] And by nature, we re asleep, and we re in what Lehi calls the sleep of hell...[bound with] awful chains. And these women are doing the best they can to drag us along. By their nature, they re already awake. That s not to say that all women are good people because there can be some real witchy women out there. But by nature, women are holier and more awakened than men. It s just their core nature. So here s Helaman 12: [1] And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him. That s a key. Here comes the awakening in verse 2. Remember, it is those who are foreordained to this strange act and this strange work that need to be awakened. How are they going to do it? [2] Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; Put things in there that relate in 2016 and that fit that bill: sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; Here is the point. Here is what s going to happen. After he does everything for us: yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity. That s a chain in our day. And a lot of us say, Give me some more links: ease and prosperity. Lengthen my chain. Here we go, here is your key: [3] And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people 56

57 Highly Favored of the Lord III Not the people, HIS people. There is a difference: with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him. So, I don t know of a quicker way to waken people to the cause that the Lord wants us to be involved in than to take away everything they ve got. I don t know a better way to do that. I call it, The day of take it away. And I think that day is coming. Now, I m not a pickle sucker. That s what President Hinckley calls people that get bogged down in gloom and doom. We ve all heard that term gloom and doom. Call it what it is, I don t care, but I m not a pickle sucker. I can talk about those things, and I realize them, and I study them, yet, I can still have a positive sunshiny outlook. Because of what? Because I know what s on the other side of adversity: Zion! That s what s on the other side. But you re not going to get to that place without having been changed, humbled, developing an attribute of meekness, an attribute of lowliness of heart, finding a state of grace, having a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and abiding and retaining that state. Rarely will anybody do that without having to wade through sorrows. Rarely! In order to get to heaven, the old saying is, you ve got to what? You ve got to go through hell. Well, you are in hell. You re in hell right now. Don t go looking for it; you re in hell. All telestial worlds are hell. It s not a place burning with embers, volcanic lava flowing, and where the wicked are burning and never consumed. That s a bunch of garbage. There are no people running around that are half man-half animal with horns and little, pointed tails with arrow points. All that s a bunch of garbage. Hell is simply a place of restriction. That s all it is. And it s always temporary. So, hell-places are temporary, temporal, mortal places. You can describe hell as the resident place of devils and unclean spirits. So, where did the third part go that were cast out? Where are they? They were cast out to here. They re here. So, where are you? Where they are, and where they are is called hell. You re in hell, and that s okay. It s a beautiful place. It s a school room for us to be tutored and trained, and to be prepared to come up and obtain something better. It s part of the plan. It s not a punishment; you signed up for this. When you left there, you came here, and you agreed to this. You knew full well what you were getting into, probably down to the detail of the things that you have experienced thus far; I mean, down to the details. You probably knew about all of it. I happen to believe that you did, and you came here rejoicing. That s an appropriate song we sang this morning because you knew that at the end of that tutoring period, what was on the other side was a garment of light that you took off and left there. And when you pick it up again, that 57

58 Mike Stroud garment of light will be more glorious than when you left it. You left with power, went behind the veil, and when you go back, you won t go back and take the same place. If you re faithful and true in what you re doing here, you won t go back to the same level, inherit the same garment, have the same robe, and live in the same place. You won t do that. You re always moving up. So, you descend down in order, not to go back to where you were, but to go back to a higher place. And those of you that have been foreordained to be involved in the cause of the establishment of Zion and have felt the call to come to this place, for whatever reason, unknown to you yet, it s a part of that foreordained mission. What you obtain when going back will be much more than what you left. Otherwise, what s the purpose? This is the way of the Gods. This is the way the Mothers and Fathers progress, the Elohim. They go down and ascend; they descend and ascend. When They ascend up, They never come back to the same level They left. That s not the way it works. You ascend, descend, you enter and leave. So, it s going in, coming out; descending down and re-ascending up. This is the way the Mothers and Fathers progress in eternity. Male audience member: Essentially, you re describing the law of inertia. For example, when the Apollo 11 shuttle had its malfunction in space, they had to actually go further out in space, circle around the moon, and slingshot back. Mike: I like the analogy. I have no problem with that. In 1 Nephi 11:16, the angel asks Nephi: Knowest thou the condescension of God? Note that word condescend. Go look it up in the 1828 Webster s Dictionary and see what Joseph had to interpret that, and it makes sense. And Nephi said: [17] I know that he [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things. So, Nephi says, I know that whatever is happening, what you re calling condescension, is a part of the plan and is done because God loves his children, but he doesn t understand the ins and outs of it. Male audience member: We know why we are here. We know exactly why we re here, and we ve been working at it for 16 years. My question is going to be at the end of a real quick situational treatise. That is, we move, we go forward, we follow what we feel is the direction, and it comes up idle. So we go back, we move because another door opens, and then another dry well. For 16 years we ve spent all of our money. So, my question is this: when do you know to shut up, sit down, and let God be God? 58

59 Highly Favored of the Lord III Mike: That s always a challenge. We ll come to that in section 105, hold on. Male audience member: Okay, I ll wait. Mike: Let s come on back to section 95, and if you look down here in verse 6, it says a grievous sin. This is what I like about section 95. The Lord is spelling out these sins, and if you go down to verse 10, it says: Nevertheless, my servants sinned a very grievous sin; and contentions [there s your next one] arose in the school of the prophets; which was very grievous unto me, saith your Lord; therefore I sent them forth to be chastened. This has always been the doom of Zion. There are certain elements in the natural man that kills the program: greed, envy, contentions, lustful desires, and jarrings. This is why they were booted out in the first place and lost their inheritances. We would do well to look and see what the pattern was, of why they lost their inheritance, know that well, and then do everything that we can humbly do to avoid those traps. The scriptures tell us some of those things. One of them is contention. Another thing is, you need to be humble. What s the opposite of humility? Pride, the universal sin. So, all of these things are going to disqualify anybody, at any time, involved in this effort. It s a disqualifier. It weeds you out immediately and quickly until you sit back and say, Gosh, I felt so good about it. I know I was so inspired. What happened? Well, look in the mirror. There something wrong with you. So, if you were called to come here, and you felt that call, you need to maintain that level of humility, avoid contention at all costs, and seek for other things. See, there are other qualifiers in there. My point was to show you in the scriptures today, things that we can so that you can don t disqualify yourself. At this point, if you don t do it, somebody else will. The Lord even came out to Joseph Smith and said to beware of pride. So, even he had to be careful. And his closest friend, Oliver, was also warned early on in the Doctrine and Covenants to beware of pride, lest thou shouldst enter into temptation. Then, in 1838, over in Far West, 30 miles away from here, we have Oliver telling Joseph, If I leave this Church it will fall. Do you know what Joseph said to Oliver about that? Oliver, you try it. The message is clear. If you think the Lord can t do this work without you, you better repent because it s going to be done. It has to be done. In order for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to come to the earth, He s got to come to a society of Kings and Queens and Lords. We ve got to rise up. Do you know what the word Melchizedek means? 59

60 Mike Stroud Have you ever broken down the word Melchizedek? You ll find this interesting. Melchi comes from Melek, which means royalty or king. And zedek comes from Zadok which is righteousness or priest. So, the word Melchizedek means king and priest. For women, it means what? Queen and priestess. Right in the name is the key to the whole deal. And how do you disqualify Melchizedek? Two ways. You go after the things of this world and seek for the honors of men. That s your disqualifier. It ll wipe you right out, just like that. Is there anything in this world that would distract you from what you ve been called to do? Are there any distractions out there? Yes? Little ones? This is all the Lord s strange act. Isn t it neat? Are you starting to get a feel here that you ve got be excited about what s happening to you, but you must walk prudently, and with wisdom? You ve got to be cautious. You ve got to pick up some more things the Lord says to His people who are involved in His cause. If you want to succeed, there are certain things you have to do. One of the reasons it s never worked before is His people have failed in those things. So, there are a couple of things that we ve already seen here. The purpose of his strange act is to pour out [His] Spirit upon all flesh. You have to have that Spirit of the Lord in you. That s the Holy Spirit. That s not the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit is your birthday gift, and you need to become experienced and progress in that and become more perfected in that. I think about Nephi, in 1 Nephi 4:6, when he goes back to get the plates from Laban. They have made two aborted attempts prior to that, right? One was to get the plates by persuasion and the other was by purchase. Now, we are going to find out that since persuasion failed and purchase failed. The only thing left is, by blood. Right? There are three things. Do you see patterns here? Persuasion, purchase. How did they try to get Zion in 1838? They tried to purchase it. They bought a lot of land. They did purchase it, and by the way, the deeds of trust on those purchased lands still remain in the hands of the descendants of those original people that purchased it. In the Doctrine and Covenants 101:96-99, the Lord tells them not to sell that land. People were excommunicated in the early days of the Church in the Jackson County, Missouri period because they sold out their lands after the Lord said not to. Those that didn t, still hold the deeds of trust to property now that is worth millions of dollars because it s all been developed. But they hold that, and they re not to sell it. You re to hang onto it. Let s go to section 101:86-89 where it s talking about importuning for redress under their First Amendment rights in the Constitution of the United States. The Latter-day Saints were to importune. Pull up the 1828 Webster s 60

61 Highly Favored of the Lord III Dictionary again, and look up the word importune. It s very enlightening as to why the Lord uses that word importune. Verse 86 says: Let them importune at the feet of the judge; [87] And if he heed them not, let them importune at the feet of the governor; [88] And if the governor heed them not, let them importune at the feet of the president; [89] And if the president heed them not, then will the Lord arise and come forth out of his hiding place, and in his fury vex the nation; How many played the game of hide and seek as a little child? Well, God plays that game. He s hiding. And you re commanded to what? Seek Him. So, it s a divine game in the telestial world, in hell, to play hide and seek with God. No wonder we like that little game as children because it s in our nature, it is foreordained. It s in our DNA to do that because He knew and you knew that you were going to come into a place where He is hidden from you, and He wants you to seek Him. Section 88:63 where it says, seek, ask, and knock is the only place with the seek part, where it says, seek me. All the others say, Seek and ye shall find. Section 88 says: seek me diligently and ye shall find me; See that hide and seek game? Isn t that neat? So, as part of the Zion period, one of the things that s going to happen is that we re going to see a vexation, not only in the United States but in all the places of the world until there is a full consumption of all nations. It s in that period of time when a group of translated men and women on assignment from the Lord Jesus Christ, will go out as rescuers into pockets of honorable good men and women, members and nonmembers, who are trapped in their respective nations with no way to escape, except through divine intervention. It s part of what we re talking about. I believe that those who have felt the call of a Zion call, that it s a part of your future. You ve heard me say on the podcasts that I want to be one of those. At the veil, you knock, and somebody says, What is wanted? That is symbolic, as you come to the Lord and obtain your calling and election made sure, which is the first trip to the veil. After you have been tried and tested in all things and you come up and hear the voice of the Lord you won t see His face but you hear the voice of the Lord, who will seal upon you certain blessings, promises, and privileges. The next time you go up to the veil and knock, you ve already proven yourself from what was given the first time, so that the second time it s not a proving. The second time it s an approval: Enter. 61

62 Mike Stroud Now, the Zion men and women are men and women who are going to have experienced those things. It s going to be a real trial to come up. Let me just say that those who need to be awakened by take it away are blessed. What a blessing that is. If you can survive that furnace, that fiery exchange, that transition from asleep to awake, then the Lord will refer to you as blessed. But if you can obtain that in the day of ease and prosperity, when society is still intact, when government still rules, when you still have food on the table if you can obtain that stature at that day without having everything taken away, the Lord will say, more blessed are [you.] It all depends on us because He is no respecter of persons and in Him is no shadow of changing. So, it all depends on what you want and whether or not you have the spiritual backbone to come up and claim it. At that day when the more blessed are coming up, it won t be the day of everything being taken away. It will be the day of a pointing finger, of mocking and scorn. Remember the building floating in the air? There were people who made it to the tree, folks. They made it to the tree, partook of the fruit, cast their eyes roundabout, and were ashamed and walked away. But, they made it to that tree. More blessed are those who could come up in the day when this kind of stuff is going on: when you re called stupid, idiot, when you receive derision, scorn, and there are pointing fingers. There s something in all of us that wants to be accepted by our fellow men and women. We want that. But, you will have to overcome that and face that scorn in order to claim it. I m wondering if that isn t more of a test, to come up and face that in the day of claim than it is to survive the day when everything is taken away. Either way, that s the remnant group. And, in that group, there will be those who are blessed, there will be a smaller group within that small group, who are more blessed. Are you? Let s go to Doctrine and Covenants 101:95: That I may proceed to bring to pass my act, my strange act, and perform my work, my strange work, that men may discern between the righteous and the wicked, saith your God. So, what s another purpose of a strange act? We ve seen a couple of purposes here, haven t we? And here s another purpose: from this point or while you re in this movement that s going on, to help you discern right from wrong. Are there any questions or comments on the strange act of the Lord? Have we covered that enough from these three scriptures? That s the only place that it s mentioned. Another place where there is a connection with that is in section 101:3. He says: [3] Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels. 62

63 Highly Favored of the Lord III That statement is also tied in with this strange act, in that day when I make up my jewels. Something to ponder about. Interesting things. Questions or comments about this strange act, this strange work of the Lord? Male audience member: Putting something together here: all my life I ve wondered about where it says the first shall be last, and...the last shall be first. What does that mean? And I ve known this will be the Church because they were first and won t be first here the second time. It has just finally dawned on me that this has got to happen before that, and that s getting really close. Mike: And every one of these things is doing what? Every one of these things is further separating the wheat from the tares, aren t they? So, when the Savior comes, everything that is of a telestial nature all animals, and that includes ticks and mosquitoes will be burnt and sent to hell! [audience cheers] Male audience member: And chiggers too! Mike: Chiggers too! They serve their purpose here. Thank goodness they live off of blood, and where we re going, that will change, right?! [audience laughing] Alright, get rid of those guys and send them out. So, all buildings, all facilities, everything that is of a telestial nature, all human flesh that can t make the transition up into a sanctified, purified, perfected, and cleansed state, will die in a fire. Everything because the ascent of this world from the telestial to the terrestrial is a fiery ascent, and Elijah s chariot and the horseman thereof is symbolic of the rise of the earth from a telestial to a translated, terrestrial state. How s it done? By fire. Female audience member: Don t you think that when we have that opportunity, it s a blessing? I have always felt it was a blessing that I ve already experienced this bit by bit. The Lord knew how far He could push me to take it away. So I ve learned to not to grieve it and not look back longingly on the stuff I ve left behind but to look forward. I keep thinking about how blessed we are with the less we have because when the world is swept, we aren t going to be grieving for what we ve lost because we ve already left it. We are looking forward and rejoicing because of who we are and where we place our trust. It isn t in the stuff. It is going to be a day of rejoicing because of who we are and what we ve obtained and what we are seeking. Mike: Well said. I couldn t say it any better, and said by somebody who has given up stuff, right? Female audience member: Lots of stuff. Male audience member: Except those boots! [audience laughing] 63

64 Mike Stroud Mike: She has given up stuff, but she s still got those boots there! I guess those are terrestrial, translated boots. [audience laughing] Female audience member: But we do have tough feet, so we could be barefoot. [audience laughing] Mike: Any other comments on strange acts before we go on over to section 105? I d like to spend some time in 105. Any others? Female audience member: When you were talking about strange acts, I guess I keep thinking about that word. For us, we look at other people and say, You re strange. Doesn t that mean you are not in the parameters of what everybody considers normal? So, it s coloring outside the lines? Can I say that? Mike: I think that fits and that s very good. Let me just bring another dimension to that. If you take the word Gentile and you go back to the original languages of Hebrew and Aramaic, it comes up stranger/foreigner. A Gentile is a stranger, in other words, outside of a covenant relationship with Christ. With that in mind, you could say that His strange acts would be to strip off the natural man and bring you into a closer relationship through covenants and ordinances with our Father and with the Savior. How He does that is the interesting part. Right now we are doing that through ordinances in holy places. I think that it will still continue, but I have a hunch that something s coming that none of us think of. We re just going to go, Oh, my gosh. I never thought of that! That s what I think is coming. I m not sure what that is, but I m in! [audience laughing] Anybody with me? Female audience member: Me too! [audience laughing] Mike: Okay, alright, I m in! Any other comments on the strange act? You re involved in that strange act. That s my message for you today; you re involved in that. You are probably in a vanguard. What does that mean? The first group out. I m not just saying those people in this room, or even just those people in Missouri. I testify to you there is something going on in a wide base, all across the world. I m getting messages from all over the world: texts and phone calls of what s happening there. It s that doctrine. When you preach the word of God and teach the word of God out of the scriptures, and not stray too far away and stay within the patterns, stay within the guidelines that the prophets and apostles have given us in their interpretation, if you stay in that, then you get a feel for what s happening. Male audience member: When you are talking about people being asleep I am from Utah as well. Every time we ve gone back to Utah, and people find out we re from Missouri, they ll ask us what we re doing out there and we ll answer and tell them what s going on. They ll say, Why aren t we doing that here? 64

65 Highly Favored of the Lord III Female audience member: preparedness. Male audience member: Why aren t the people preparing? There is an awareness that people are asleep, not expecting what s to come; not looking at what s to come and preparing for it. Mike: Thank you for that and it brings a thought to mind that I want to share with you. You must be very careful in this group because you are susceptible and wide open to pride. You re thinking, What do you mean, pride? I ve been so beat up and kicked around the block! I lost so much. How can there be pride in that? The way pride comes in is that you end up comparing yourself to others. You ve got to avoid that. You can t do that here. It s easy to do, and I mean so easy to do. Most of the things, brothers and sisters, that will block us from doing what needs to be done, we re doing it, and don t even know we are doing it. It is the very things that will disqualify you individually, as families, and as a group. Let s be careful. This is why we move forward with wisdom and prudence. Which means what? To be cautious. The greatest caution that you can exhibit is under the direction of the Holy Spirit. I want to go back to Nephi when he goes up over the walls. This is you. You can all relate to this. Remember, he went back and couldn t get it by purchase, and he couldn t get it by persuasion, so he goes back and ends up getting the plates by blood. I ve stood outside those walls of the ancient city of David. It s really interesting. There s a big archeological dig off the south slope of the temple mount, and they found the ancient City of David. They found some walls and they were surprised that there were these walls there. I was there one night, and a friend and I were walking the outer wall of the temple mount. We had gone in there to take a tour. He wanted to go to bed, and I said, You re in Jerusalem, and you want to go to bed? He said, What do you have in mind? Let s put on our gym suits and let s go walk the walls. I wanted to walk the outer walls that you see that go around the old city. So, we walked out on that south-east side, down by the pool of Salome. All of a sudden we found ourselves in the darkness and off in one corner we saw a cigarette. In the dark, someone took a drag on that cigarette, and we saw the little light. I looked at my friend and asked, Did you see that? We heard a scuffle, and we turned around, and there is someone behind us. We couldn t see anything and all of sudden we hear footsteps coming up around us from three directions. It was pitch black, and this guy walks into the center and says something in Arabic. I answered back in English. I said, Do you speak English? He said, Are you Americans? Yes! 65

66 Mike Stroud Are you Mormons? How s that? [audience laughing] This was someone who speaks Arabic, and we said, Yes, we are. We thought that might be a death sentence. [audience laughing] He says, Do you know Dr. Ken Brown? I said, Yes. He said, He s our friend! He s a BYU professor in charge of archaeological digs and different things like that. So, that opened up a conversation with these guys who were the security guards at the entrance to an ancient dig into the City of David. They had the keys to unlock the doors. They asked if we wanted to see something and I said, We can t see anything! We didn t have flashlights. They took us in and here the two of us had the chance to stand upon Jebusite walls that were 5,000 years old. These were not open to the public. I thought about it as I stood on those walls because those are the walls of the Jebusites that David breached and took Jerusalem. These are the same walls that later Nephi goes on up over in 1 Nephi 4. He told his brothers, Wait here, and I will come back. And in verse 6 he said: And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. That should be pretty clear to you. You should really love that scripture! I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Let s go over to section 105. I had some other things in sections 103, 101 and also 78, but we ll skip on over to section 105. This is revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, on Fishing River, Missouri, June 22, I did a podcast on this recently, about The Law of the Celestial Kingdom. We ll just hit on that real quickly because you have about an hour s worth on that. Let s go up to Doctrine and Covenants 105:2. Over in section 101 verse 6, the Lord says the people were kicked out of Jackson County, Missouri because they sinned against the Lord. This is His people. There were jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, etc. There were evil doings, and the Lord comes out and says,...they polluted their inheritances. You don t want to do that. Here we have a chance. Are we going to learn from these guys? In Mormon chapter 9, what Mormon says before he gives the records to Moroni, who takes over as the custodian, is: [30] Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my words. [31]...that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been. 66

67 Highly Favored of the Lord III Are we going to learn that lesson or are we going to go and have to tread the same thorny path as our predecessors? Are we going to learn? That s the purpose of all this, right? At any rate, let s get to section 105, and go on up to verse 2: Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now. I like how the Lord pulls it from the general church institution, down to the individual. So, even if an institution is condemned, it doesn t mean that the people within the institution need to remain in a state of condemnation. We ve talked a bit about that. [3] But behold, they have not learned Are they going to say that about us? The group that takes our place to get it done is it going to be written of us, by them, They didn t learn? That s what we have got to ask ourselves. Do you think that you can make this just because you are here? You have to learn some things from them, and the first thing is that they had not learned to be obedient: to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, Well, you folks have been obedient. You ve heard the voice of the Lord and that Spirit has brought you here. So, congratulations! You re up! Then it goes on to say: but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, We are starting to get some keys now, about what it s going to take: as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them; So, there s your great key. If you obtain a Zion status, the way you retain that Zion status is in Mosiah chapter 4. The key word is retain. So, if you are in a state of obtained, the question is, how do you retain? If you have obtained a state of grace and you are in a position of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, what is the key to retaining that, so that you don t lose it and have to obtain, at a greater price, again? Every time you come back to do that, it gets a little harder. The Lord figures that you didn t hang on to what you should have, so I am going to keep it away from you for a little longer so that when you get it next time, you ll appreciate it more. That s the purpose of losing things. That s the purpose for disciplinary councils in the Church. It s not to damn you or to shame you or shun you. It s to take away something you ve taken for granted so that when you get it back, you ll appreciate it more. You will be more diligent in retaining. That s the whole purpose for disciplinary councils. Now, go on down here to Mosiah 4:25. Our question is, How 67

68 Mike Stroud do we retain these things we have obtained? There is really only one way to lose them, and it ties into what we just read in Doctrine and Covenants 105. We can link those two together. You may want to do a cross-reference on these two. Verse 25: And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received. You can go back and read the whole thing. It s the whole discussion on the beggar. The universal sign of the beggar is this: [Mike makes gesture with hands] Remember that, will you? It is an outstretched cupped hand. Everywhere in the world, everybody knows that s the sign of somebody who is begging for something. Can you see more? Are you picking it up? Now, look at what it says in 26: And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, You see the key word there is retain. How do you do it? that ye may walk guiltless before God That means to remain in a state of justification, not only justification but sanctification because if you are retaining a remission of your sins, you have also obtained a state of sanctification. The remission of sins only comes with the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. You being forgiven is one thing, but having your sins remitted is something else. It s a stair step. Forgiveness of sins is preparatory to the remission of sins. He s talking about people obtaining and retaining a remission of sins. The Book of Mormon is clear that that happens through the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, the completion of the baptismal ordinance. All ordinances have a beginning and an ending, a beginning and a completion. Your baptismal ordinance begins with a water immersion and ends with a fire immersion. If you are baptized by water, you have two witnesses that are there for what purpose? To make sure of what? That the immersion is what? Male audience member: Complete. Mike: So that if a hair of your head comes up or your big toe comes up, what? Do it again! I have been in places where I have seen people baptized, in Mongolia, in portable baptismal fonts that were only that high. [Mike gestures with his hand] There was a big person they had to lay down in there, and I watched them be baptized, how many times Margie? Margie: Six! 68

69 Highly Favored of the Lord III Mike: Six times. We just couldn t stuff that person under the water. [Mike and audience laughing] Something kept floating up. In the end, we were so embarrassed for that person because this is supposed to be this great experience and we found all the witnesses leaning over like this and saying, Okay, I think we got her that time! It s the same with the baptism of fire. It s not a little feeling; it s not a little emotional impact and not a tear that creeps down your face. It is an immersion. That s what baptism of fire is: an immersion in heavenly fire and that completes the baptismal ordinance. Those of you who have been through the temple and received your endowment, you haven t received the complete endowment yet. You ve had the initiatory, and then the endowment that took you up where you went through the veil after the prayer circle and entered into the presence of the Lord. You are not done! Your endowment ceremony is incomplete. Until you obtain that part that talks about, Brothers and Sisters if you are true and faithful, the day will come when you will be chosen, called up and anointed Kings and Queens, Priests and Priestesses, whereas you are now anointed only to become such. That first anointing is your initiatory anointing. There is more. Until we have the conclusion of that, your endowment is not complete. Here is the key, back over in verse 26. If you want to walk guiltless before God and have a remission of your sins: I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, That s the key: every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants. Go back to section 105. The Lord says: [3] But behold, they have not learned to be obedient... What have they done? They:...do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them; There s the great disqualifier, right? Remember also what Paul says in Hebrews 13:2: Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. They are sent to test your bonafides. They are translated beings, and they come down here. They are who we are going to meet in Zion and fall upon their necks. So, they are down here to see what you re doing with what you ve got. They are testing us! You ve probably met them and don t even know it. In fact, I have mentioned that I doubt that there 69

70 Mike Stroud is anyone here that has not met a translated being, or a messenger who has been sent to test your bonafides. How are you doing with the covenants you have made? Go over to Doctrine and Covenants 105:4: And are not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom; Look at the key words in verse 4: united and union. Those are your key words. Those are words that define the law of the Celestial Kingdom. That s your primary requirement, for people who want to establish Zion. Over in Moses 7:18, it gives the definition of Zion. It says: And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them. The pure in heart; there is no poor among them. You re united. There s a union there. You don t esteem a brother above another. You realize, like Mosiah says, we are all beggars, every one of us. You think you ve got it better than somebody else because your bank account is bigger? You re in trouble. It s okay to have a big bank account, but if it lifts you above another to where you esteem yourself above another because of your earthly possessions, you ve got to repent. That s disqualifying you from Zion. The Lord has nothing against you having a nice house and having good things. It s where your heart is. I knew a man who received the Second Comforter, and the Lord appeared to him. After he d fallen upon his feet and worshipped Him, the Lord picked him up and looked him in the face and said, Ralph, where s your heart? This man said, I couldn t answer the question. It s all He really wants, right? He wants your heart. That s why you remain in a state of grace with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. It is the acceptable sacrifice of Zion in the latter-days. No more burnt offerings. He doesn t care about the things of the world. No more law or carnal commandments. No more of that, just a broken heart and a contrite spirit. He wants your heart. That s all He wants. If you can come up to a point where you can give it to Him, whatever that means for you, then you qualify for this exciting, wonderful experience. Look at section 105, verse 6: And my people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer. We talked about that. Then over in verses 10-12, He talks about preparing an endowment for them in the Kirtland Temple where they will be endowed with power. All of that takes place over in section 70

71 Highly Favored of the Lord III 110.We re in 105 right now. Look at this in verse 14, and we ll wrap up today with the rest of this: For behold, I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfil I will fight your battles. That s key. That s another key for Zion. That has different levels there with the heart and spirituality. If you re thinking of physical weaponry, you re not part of Zion and have not heard the call. That absolutely shuts you out because if you are using physical weaponry to establish the cause of Zion, you re putting your trust in man and in your own arm, and that disqualifies you. That s not to say that some Latter-day Saints may be called to take up arms in the conflict that s raging. But you want to be a part of this because there is a place for Second Amendment rights, obviously. Somebody, when I taught that principle, said, Yeah, what about the Nephites? They were commanded to take up arms. I said, Nowhere in the Nephite society were they commanded or given the invitation to build Zion. Nowhere. Their message was to protect their land, their government, their rights, their freedoms, their families, their loved ones, their children, and to do it with the shedding of blood under the direction of the Lord. You don t have that. Go to Doctrine and Covenants 45:56. I want to point out something. This is us. He s talking about us: [56] And at that day [the Second Coming], when I shall come in my glory, shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins. You ll know that in the podcast, this is the central scripture to everything I do in the podcast. The purpose of the podcast is to get us to rely on and trust the Lord, to develop and become more perfected in the skill of recognizing and receiving personal revelation. I have lots of people write and say, What should I do here? What should I do there? What does this mean? What does that mean? My mentor taught me this, and I m doing it to them. I m saying, Have you asked the Lord? That s a good question. Write it down. Take it to Him. Get revelation for yourself. That s kind of the center of all of this. Look at the next verse: [57] For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day. 71

72 Mike Stroud Abide means live in, and the day is the Second Coming, which ushers in the millennial reign. So, what s the key? Receive the truth. That s no small challenge in hell. No small thing. I think of when Jesus was brought before Pilate in John 18:33: Art thou the King of the Jews? [34] Jesus answered him, sayest you this thing of thyself, or did other tell it thee of me? Then the Savior says: [37] For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth Pilate looked at him and asked this great question: [38] What is truth? It s a great question. The first criteria in verse 57 is to receive the truth. The second thing is how you do it. You take the Holy Spirit for your guide. The purpose, the main mission of the Holy Spirit (which is not the Holy Ghost) is to teach you right from wrong, truth from error, light from darkness. That s the main purpose: knowing truth from error. Female audience member: So that s the Spirit of Christ? Mike: That s the Spirit of Christ. That s the Spirit you are promised every Sunday for the next seven days if you live up to your part of the covenant in those prayers. I ve caught flack on that because it s been taught in general conference that s not the way it is. It s okay. It is a Liahona for you for seven days, so you can make it through the next week without being what? What does it say down there? Not being what? Male audience member: Deceived. Mike: Not being deceived. That s your guide. That s your personal Liahona. Let s go back over to section 105, verse 19. Now, this is coming down to you. Let s take what was written to them and apply it to us, here and now. Think about yourself and bring it on up into our day: I have heard their prayers, and will accept their offering; and it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far You need to triple underline thus far. I m thinking of you folks; thus far: for a trial of their faith. It s not like you haven t already had one or two of those. But every time you move up, you re going to have an opportunity to witness against the opposition and to show your devotion to your Father. That s the purpose of these things. When you come up to this level, there is an eternal law that says there s going to be opposition. When you come up to a level 72

73 Highly Favored of the Lord III seven, you re not going to get opposed at a level five. There is no growth in that. What s more, you are vulnerable to fall away from the blessings given you because you haven t been proven. That s key! There has to be spiritual muscle developed here. Muscles always develop through opposition, through resistance. He is going to test you each step along the way. But, don t worry about that. I know people who fear to move to the next step because they understand the principle that opposition matches the blessings, and they re scared to death. They ve had an experience with an evil spirit, or a dark spirit, on their missions when they were 19, and they were traumatized. Now they are 40 or 50 years old, and they are scared to go there because of the experience they had. Don t be afraid because, with the growth that moved you to the level of blessings, there is a transformation that took place inside you. You re not the same. If you are a five on the blessing side, you re not the same person you were at a four. The purpose for the transformation is to prepare you for the opposition that s going to come in, that matches the level you are at. Does that make sense? [audience members agreeing] I got frustrated because I wasn t receiving some of the higher blessings from the Lord. I m doing this, and I m doing this. I checked everything off: This? Check. This? Check. Yep, I ve done that: check, check. I found out that the Lord doesn t work on checklists! He s looking at one thing. What s He looking at? It s right here. [Mike points to his heart] He s not looking up here. [Mike points to his head] This is the launch platform. Up here in the head is the launch platform for what s right here in the heart. So, I got frustrated because my desires were righteous, my intents were good, and I had everything checked off. I was good, living the gospel, etc., etc. and it wasn t happening, so I got frustrated. Here is what He told me. He said, Mike. I didn t hear His voice; it was inside. It was a feeling. I could feel it. He said, I can t take you to where you want to go because you are not prepared for the opposition that matches the blessings. That was such a revelation to me because it just set me at ease and instilled in me a degree of patience because I knew He had my back. I knew it was for me. It wasn t me doing something wrong. This was to prepare me for an encounter that had to come with the blessing I m receiving. Now, I m moving forward, and I m willing to learn what I need to learn, in order to be successful and obtain it. He told me, I have these in reserve for you. They re yours, but not yet. And then He said why, and I m okay with it. Questions? Comments? Does that make sense? Male audience member: For a lot of us, being here in Missouri, He has said just that. There are trials and tribulations to give to you, but not yet. 73

74 Mike Stroud Mike: And look at what He says over there, [I have] brought [you] thus far for a trial of [your] faith. Verse 20: And now, verily I say unto you, a commandment I give unto you, that as many as have come up hither, that can stay Are there any who have come and left? See, I saw these things, and now meeting with you, they came alive to me. Those of you who have come up hither and can stay: in the region round about, let them stay; Apply that. Now go to verse 23: And let all my people who dwell in the regions round about Think about it here. Look out the window. You are [dwelling] in the regions round about. You re dwelling the very regions these scriptures are talking about. You re here! This isn t talking about New York or Ohio or Illinois. The regions round about He s talking about are Missouri. Here we go: be very faithful, and prayerful, and humble before me, Not just be faithful, and prayerful but be very faithful, and prayerful, and humble. Those are your keywords: and reveal not the things which I have revealed unto them, until it is wisdom in me that they should be revealed. Look out the window. You are dwelling in the regions round about. You are dwelling in the regions these scriptures are talking about. You re here! This isn t talking about New York or Ohio or Illinois. The regions round about He s talking about is Missouri. The key words here are: be very faithful, and prayerful, and humble. See these things? You want to stay here, and for whatever reason, you have been brought here, whatever that is, and you don t know yet and none of us know yet, right? In order for you to obtain whatever is coming, you are going to have to be very faithful, and prayerful, and humble. And what does this mean? Watch this next one: reveal not the things which I have revealed unto them, Keep your mouth shut. Why would you invite opposition? Just quietly go about what the Lord is whispering to you to do. If you can find a small group of people who ve been tried and tested and are trying to do away with the negative attributes of their natural nature and you can be nurtured by those around you, so be it! But if you can t get away and you can t come to a state where you stop being argumentative, you stop being proud, you stop finding fault, and you stop accusing and 74

75 Highly Favored of the Lord III condemning, if you can t do that, leave! You ll find the society that says, reveal not the things which I have revealed unto them. You ll find that that society won t trust you. You can t be trusted because they realize what you exhibit, and don t have a desire to shed, destroys the integrity of the group. Then it goes on and says: [24] Talk not of judgments, These are things that got a lot of the Latter-day Saints in trouble here. This is why, in these places, Mormons are still looked upon with suspicion, big time suspicion. They have a tendency to go in and do what? Female audience member: Take over. Mike: Take over! And you are certainly talented. The talent and your ability to lead and direct comes with you as a result of a covenant relation you made within the bonds of the Restoration. It s one of the blessings. It s one of the fruits that flow from entering your covenant. You ve got to keep that down. It s okay to let your light so shine, but don t let it shine through doctrinal discourse. Just go out and do what? Love your neighbor, serve them. If they are in need, go out of your way to serve them. Give them some bread, take care of their afflictions. But, for heaven s sake, don t talk openly about Zion. Otherwise, you just increase the opposition and make it more difficult for angels to do what they need to do and for devils to be successful in what they want to do. So, we ve got to work harder at it. Here are some keys that we are getting out of this. You see the scriptures talking to us a little bit? Let s go down a little bit further: Talk not of judgments, neither boast of faith nor of mighty works, You have gifts. Keep them to yourself: but carefully gather together, Did you catch that? I thought about you guys when I was studying this. Be careful! You guys have got to be careful. The day will come when the things that we know will be spoken of openly and boldly, but not overbearingly. But not now! You re in the day of the Gentile. You re in the first half of the dispensation of the fullness of times. This is where you must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The day will come when the things you re experiencing, and your gifts and your experiences, you ll be required by the Lord to speak about them openly. But not now! If you do it now, in the present circumstances, you ll bring upon yourself derision and persecution. If you think the day of persecution in Missouri ended in 1839, I ve got news for you. This is an area where the opposition now controls things. My opinion is that this is an area where the land outside Church property with the white fence 75

76 Mike Stroud around it is cursed. This is a land that has seen blood and horror on it. This land is known by all the ancients as a sacred place, where God Himself has walked the earth. The enemies of God know that, so what do they want to do to this land? They want to desecrate it. And it has been desecrated, and on purpose because the enemies of God know that it is a sacred place. They want to have it filled with blood and carnage and horror. So, quietly, God is going to do a strange act, and first of all, lift that curse. How are you going to do it? You re not going to do it by talking about it. Let s go back and look at a couple of other things. Doctrine and Covenants 105:25 And behold, I will give unto you favor and grace in their eyes, that you may rest in peace and safety......if you do what verses 23 and 24 talk about. If you don t do 23 and 24, forget 25. Verse 26: Now, behold, I say unto you, my friends, Doesn t that make you feel good? I see five levels in developing a relationship with Christ. #1 is what I call the Parent/Child relationship. We come to a point where we realize that He is our Father and we are His children. That s good; that s a beginning place. #2 is the Stewardship. He s going to find out what you are going to do with that relationship by giving you responsibility. What are you going to do with what He gives you? #3 is Discipleship level. Discipleship by its very word requires that you discipline yourselves. You have to be disciplined. #4 is Friend, and #5 is Beloved: state of progression within a personal relationship with the Master. I believe that He calls many of you friends: Now, behold, I say unto you, my friends, in this way you may find favor in the eyes of the people, until the army of Israel becomes very great. You ought to ponder that army of Israel. That s not an army of weapons. It s an army of men and women who ve come up, obtained the baptism of fire, had their calling and election made sure, and had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ: [27] And I will soften the hearts of the people, as I did the heart of Pharaoh, from time to time, until my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and mine elders, whom I have appointed, shall have time to gather up the strength of my house, 76

77 Highly Favored of the Lord III Something is happening here. Even though this was talking about Zion's camp and redeeming the distressed members of the Church because of the Missouri mobbing, I bring it up into our day: [28] And to have sent wise men, to fulfil that which I have commanded concerning the purchasing of all the lands in Jackson county that can be purchased, and in the adjoining counties round about. Go down to verse 30: And after these lands are purchased, I will hold the armies of Israel guiltless in taking possession of their own lands, which they have previously purchased with their moneys, and of throwing down the towers of mine enemies that may be upon them, and scattering their watchmen, and avenging me of mine enemies unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So, there are two different things. The Lord is going to call a group of people that He refers to as His soldiers, His army, and the purpose is to throw down the towers and scatter the watchmen. Don t think physically on this. Let s go into the spirit realm. The watchmen, in this case, are evil. Anciently they were referred to as watchers. What are they watching? They are watching what s happening to you and to others who have made a covenant. Their strongholds, their towers anciently they built walls and put towers with watchmen in them, both good and evil watchmen because the Gods do the same thing. The watchmen over in Ezekiel are the good guys. These are not the good guys. They have their counterfeit. Everything that God does is counterfeited very, very closely. So closely, that if you are not careful, you can't tell the difference between God s work and the darkness. It s very close. You have your endowments, signs, tokens, names, covenants, and laws; you have all of that. They do too! You have your organization and institutional structure of three, twelve, seventy, etc. They do too! You have your ceremonial clothing that identifies you as princes and princesses moving towards kings and queens. They do too! You can be rewarded by God for good works and faith. They are rewarded and advanced in their ranks with rewards and honors in dark places. Everything that you see here, you can see there. What does that do? That gives you knowledge, which is power. So, if you are awake and understand the enemy, you ll have power. You can know a lot about a man or a woman by those who oppose them. Let s go a little bit further, wrapping it up. Down to verse 31: 77

78 Mike Stroud But first [before you scatter the watchmen] let my army become very great, and let it be sanctified before me, Another word for sanctified is to become what? Holy. Moroni 10:33 says:...that ye become holy, without spot. That s sanctification. Maybe you ve heard me tell this on the podcast: With our seminary/institute and we had endless in-service meetings. I have been to so many of those things: endless, endless. I didn t enjoy a lot of them; I m sorry to say. I m too proud. I thought I knew more than anybody there, so why am I wasting my time? We had a man get up and ask this question, What s the best thing we can do for our students? They listed some things on the board and he got up and said, The best things you can do for your students is to sanctify yourself. It s not only the best thing for your students but your wife, your husband, your children, everybody around you. You can t teach or testify above the level of your own conversion. So, become sanctified. Let s continue with Doctrine and Covenants 105 verse 32: That the kingdoms of this world may be constrained to acknowledge that the kingdom of Zion is in very deed the kingdom of our God and his Christ; Skip down to 34: And let those commandments which I have given concerning Zion and her law......which is a law of unity and unification, which I believe that law has a name in heaven called atonement: be executed and fulfilled, after her redemption. There has been a day of calling. Remember, that calling is the same as ordination in the eyes of the Lord, but the time has come for a day of choosing. In priesthood terms, to be called is to be ordained. To be chosen is to begin to experience power as a result of the ordination. Ordination alone is a dead-end. Ordination means nothing if you don t take it to the next level, which is power. Female audience member: In this scripture, aren t we choosing to be chosen? Mike: I like that. Ultimately, you choose to accept the chosen status. You choose. You never make covenants with the Lord. You know that, don t you? You don t initiate covenants. All covenants with the Lord are initiated by Him. You can make vows, and you can enter into promises, but covenants come from God. He is the author of the covenant. Your job, once it is presented to you, an invitation extended, is whether you are going to accept it or reject it. That is your job. 78

79 Highly Favored of the Lord III Female audience member: So, we choose. Mike: He is the originator of the covenant. You choose to enter in or not. Question? Female audience member: You said that called is to be ordained. What did you say to be chosen was? Mike: Ordained is the same as being called. Female audience member: Right. So, to be chosen is to be what? Mike: Chosen is to take that calling or ordination and do something with it at the next level. What are you going to do with it? Then it goes on, verse 36: And it shall be manifest unto my servant, by the voice of the Spirit, those that are chosen; and they shall be sanctified; This is the core scripture of the whole lesson today. Let me show you that. Your calling is not going to come from another man or any kind of mortal institution. It s not going to happen. You are going to be called by the Holy Spirit through personal revelation. I marvel as I listen to your stories. That s fulfilled in every one of you I talked to tonight. I went up to one of you the other night at the fireside and asked, So what are you doing here? And he just said, The Lord called me here. Remember what I said to you? Knowing these scriptures, I said to you, Who are you? I m not talking about your identity on earth. Who are you that would receive such a message? Wow! Then it goes on, and in verse 37 it says: And inasmuch as they follow the counsel which they receive, they shall have power after many days to accomplish all things pertaining to Zion. Where does the call originate? It comes from the Holy Spirit. Who does it come to? Individuals. One at a time. It doesn t come to couples; it comes to individuals. If you re a couple, the other person in that couple is going to have to get that for themselves. The Lord doesn t do things that way; it s a one-on-one. It s so private, so individual, so intimate, and yet, taken in the whole, it s glorious, and you can see the formation of society. Let s close, one more time. Go back to Doctrine and Covenants 45:66. I feel I need to give that to you. These are the verses that talk about the establishment of the New Jerusalem. I want you to circle some words here. This is talking about you. That city that hasn t been built yet, but it s not going to be built until you have a group of men and women who have come up and obtained a certain stature. Zion begins with one man and one woman. That s how it begins. It is a 79

80 Mike Stroud heart-centered thing. The pure in heart knows no poor among them. The poor are taken care of automatically when your heart has changed. You can t see anybody suffer in any way if you have had a mighty change of heart and you re Christ-centered. You can t do it. It s impossible. So let s go on over here, and I will give you three words to look at. This is what this area s going to be in a coming day. Not right now, but it s going to be: [66] And it shall be called the New Jerusalem, a land of [here s your first word] peace,...in a world of war. Look at all your opposites. Take all the opposites of the words that the Lord uses here, and you will see what s going on at the time He s talking about these words. What s the opposite of peace? War! How much war? Global! What kind of war? Every kind that you can think of thermonuclear, chemical, bacteriological anything that man can devise will be poured out in desperation to stop this work. The establishment of Zion and the building of the New Jerusalem spells the end of hell in the telestial world, for at least 1,000 years. Then they have one more shot. Look at the next word: a city of refuge, What s the opposite of refuge? Exposure! You re out in it. Do you have to be in a building to be protected from a thermonuclear blast? No, but you have to have a priesthood shield. You need to be bold. You need to have a shield. Then if one goes over your head and ground zero is 200 feet above you, it won t singe your eyebrow. What did Joseph say? Noah came before the flood; I have come before the fire. Isn t that great? The next word: a place of safety Look at those three words: peace, refuge, and safety: for the saints of the Most High God; Not the ain ts of the Most High. That s Latter-day Saints, not Latterday ain ts! [Audience chuckling] According to parables, at least 50% of the members of the Church are not going to make the transition. I believe that it will be more than 50% because the Lord does not talk about half; He uses the word few. That could still number in the millions with the population of the Church in the millions. If you take the population of the earth, few can still be a considerable number. We have to have somebody here. You can t toast everybody and still do the job. [audience laughing] Alright, verse 67: And the glory of the Lord shall be there, and the terror of the Lord also shall be there, Remember back in section 105, verse 26 when the Lord says, until the army of Israel becomes very great? Wonder why the Lord refers to 80

81 Highly Favored of the Lord III Zion as terrible? This is the word; this is the one word the Lord uses when He describes Zion from the enemy viewpoint. You know why it s terrible? Because every time you try to make an attack and try to breach it, you die! That s pretty terrible. I don t care what weapons you ve got when you make an attack against this place or these people; it turns against you. It s an implosion. Every device used against Zion, that same device ends up wiping out her enemies. This is why it s terrible. insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it, and it shall be called Zion. The reason they won t come isn t because they haven t tried. They ll try because they are proud and arrogant. But I tell you what, their numbers get decimated in a big hurry. Some of you have seen visions of using this power against your enemies. It s not a societal power; it s an individual power. It comes through the power of the priesthood and only translated beings, or those in the process of being translated, and those authorized at that level have that kind of power over the elements. This is one of the powers of translated beings since they dwell in a fiery realm. The millennial, terrestrial, third estate world is a fire-based world. The world we re in here is a water-based world. The next world to come is fire-based, and the people who are there live in fire and have access to the use of it. This is why they call down fire. That s where they come from, and that s the power at their disposal. [68] And it shall come to pass among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor must needs flee unto Zion for safety. If you pick up the sword and you choose not to flee to Zion for safety (sword, i.e., weaponry of the telestial world), you will die by the sword. That s what I ve been taught. Looking at me up here, you see a massive, all my life, shooter. See these hearing aides up here? I am deafer than a cob! It comes because I started shooting at age eight, and nobody said, Cover your ears, stupid. Nobody did that. We just got out there. So, I am just deaf because of gun blasts. Margie and I have a Friday night date, and this date is to take my Buck Mark Browning semi-automatic pistols and go out and shoot tin cans. That s our date. By the way, I don t do that very often because she shames me! [audience laughing] Dang! Nothing better than a woman that shoots. However, one that shoots better than you is questionable! [audience laughing] Verse 69: And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; How are they going to get to the New Jerusalem? The 144,000, the rescue squad will go out, and the telestial elements and powers will have no hold on them. Time and space won t hold them. You have pockets of 81

82 Mike Stroud Latter-day Saints and others who are honorable, just men of the earth, but are trapped and their destiny is physical destruction, temporal death unless something miraculous takes place. You and I will go out on assignment from the Savior having been changed, and having power over time and space, and bring them to Zion with songs of everlasting joy. Ever wonder why Isaiah says they re singing those songs? Because it was hopeless, there was no escape, and only death stared them in the face. Then you come, calling them by name because you have been taught everything about them in your translated state, and you bring them. You won t have to worry about ships or intercontinental transportation on land, which will be non-existent. You won t need that. You ll bring them: and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another. [70] And it shall be said among the wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible [there s that word again]; wherefore we cannot stand. [71] And it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy. Verse 74: For when the Lord shall appear he shall be terrible unto them, that fear may seize upon them, and they shall stand afar off and tremble. [75] And all nations shall be afraid because of the terror of the Lord, and the power of his might. Even so. Amen. Well, that s my message to you today. It s a message of sustaining and support. From here on out, whenever I hear anything negative about my friends who gathered here to Zion, you will have a voice who will ring out loud and clear, You don t know what you re talking about because you obviously have not heard and felt what they have! But they ve shared with me, and the Spirit testified of their words. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Resources: Isaiah 28:21 A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by Le Grand Richards Isaiah 29:14 D&C 95:4 D&C 101 Ether 15:34 82

83 Highly Favored of the Lord III D&C 63:...by purchase or by blood Jacob 5 allegory of the Olive Tree Joel 2:28, 32 Alma 32:6 D&C 95:3-10 The Power of the Priesthood by Boyd K. Packer, April 2010 The Price of Priesthood Power by Russell M. Nelson, April 2016 God will have a humble people. Ezra Taft Benson, April 1989 Beware of Pride 2 Nephi 1:13...the sleep of hell...shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound Helaman 12:1-3 Pickle sucker Gordon B. Hinckley BYU devotional Oct. 29, 1974, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled 1 Nephi 11:16-17 D&C 23:1...beware of pride, lest thou shouldst enter into temptation. If I leave this Church it will fall. Oliver, you try it. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, ch Nephi 4:10, Nephi commanded to obtain the brass plates by blood. D&C 101:96-99 Saints commanded not to sell their lands in Jackson County. D&C 101: seek, and ye shall find Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9, 3 Nephi 14:7 D&C 88:63 D&C 101:95 D&C 101:3 3 Nephi 24:17...in that day when I make up my jewels D&C 29:30...the first shall be last, and... the last shall be first. D&C 101:6 Mormon 9:30-31 D&C 105:2-6, 14, Mosiah 4:25-26 Hebrews 13:2 Moses 7:18 John 18:34-38 Matthew 10:16 wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Ezekiel 3:17, 33:2,6-7 watchman Moroni 10:32 D&C 45:66-75 Noah came before the flood; I have come before the fire. Joseph Smith the Prophet, Madsen, p. 105 Isaiah 35:10...to Zion with songs of everlasting joy 83

84 Mike Stroud Chapter Fifty-One Podcast 051 Youth Fireside (This fireside was held in one of the wards in Gallatin, Missouri. Mike was invited by the bishop to address their youth.) Well, greetings from Arizona. When I tell people here that I m from Arizona, they say, Oh, this must really be cold for you to be here in Missouri in January. But we live at 7,000 feet up in the mountains in Arizona, and when we left the other morning, it was 11 degrees with 6 inches of snow on the ground. So, how s that for Arizona?! I m happy to be on sacred ground. I view Missouri as sacred ground. I am a student of Church history, and I have taught it for years and years, and I know the stories. Today, with Randall and Marla, I was going over the battle of the Gallatin Square where the Mormons tried to come in and vote one day and were met with some opposition, about 10 to 1. That started a whole series of events that led to us being in these favorable conditions, meeting in this beautiful chapel. I ve been asked to speak about that scripture in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 12, which was quoted by Randall: Be thou an example of the believers. I have a friend that taught me a little saying that says, How can we find them if we look so much like them? How will they know who we are if we look so much like them? Think about that for just a minute. In the Doctrine and Covenants, it says there are many out there who are kept from the truth because simply don t know where to find it. As Latter-day Saints, we have to be peculiar. I know we don t want to stand out; it goes against our nature to be a light in a crowd, but we have to be 84

85 Highly Favored of the Lord III peculiar. You have to be different. That s the word the Lord uses. That s not my word, that s His word peculiar. And as the world continues to spiral downward, which it is, the people who are the honest and true and honorable men and women of the earth need to be able to look somewhere where they can find the light that shines in darkness. We belong to a church called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you see, and in order for us to fit the commission that s been given to us, we re going to be required to stand out more and more, as this continues towards the coming of our Savior. You re going to have to be different. Now, there s a way to do that, and there s a way not to do that. The Lord says in the Book of Mormon to be bold, but not what? Overbearing. So, that s a fine little razor s edge there, isn t it? Sometimes in our zealousness, we want to stand up and declare with all the fervor we can, and instead of making friends, it ends up that we distance ourselves from those who are looking for the truth. Sister Stroud and I have had some opportunities to serve some missions together. It s been a great experience as we have served two years in Mongolia. You think you ve got it cold here? [audience laughs] In Mongolia, we would walk from our apartment to the Service Center, which was the Church s headquarters, and was about a five to sixminute walk. We would do it in 40-below-zero weather, and we would have everything on our faces covered except a little slit right here. Sister Stroud had regular shoes when she went to Mongolia, and the Mongolian s would stop her and point to her feet. We couldn t understand their language, but they would point and indicate that she needed to cover her feet up. So, by the time we would get to the Service Center we would have icicles hanging from our eyebrows, literally! Your breath would come up from here, and by the time it collected up here, you would have icicles hanging on your eyebrows. Really cold weather. And then we got called to our second mission; we went to the Philippines. Now you want to talk about extremes? [audience chuckling] I had a rash on me for 18 months, and I couldn t get rid of it there. It s just amazing. So, we went from one of the coldest capitals on the face of the earth, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, into the Philippines. There, you didn t take suit coats, you wore sandals, and we traipsed around in the jungle. We went to these great extremes. I m an adventurous soul and like to get out there and pioneer, so I thought, Mongolia, isn t that great! Talk about pioneering! Then, The Philippines is okay; the Church has been there for 60 years, but that s okay. So, when we put in our papers for our third mission, I was really expecting a call to go to some developing nation or to Germany. Every time I went on these missions I brushed up on my German. I just knew because I was a German speaker I was going 85

86 Mike Stroud to be called to go back to Germany where I served as a young man. [Mike speaks some German phrases] You see, I can still speak it. So, we got called on our third mission to New Jersey. Now, that s a foreign country! [audience laughs] And it has its own language, right? So, we ve had some great experiences together and have seen all kinds of things. I know some of you have traveled the world and you ve seen some of the things that we have. When we came back from Mongolia, we hadn t seen the people in our town for two years. We had just barely gotten home, and we went to Safeway to stock the refrigerator, and this old cowboy poet in our town was there. We bumped into him, and he said, You re back! And I said, Yes. His next comment was, We have no idea, do we? No, you don t. And I don t know how to explain it to you what it s like out there, what s going on. It s wonderful, and it s also stunning, and also saddening at the same time. We have seen so much. What I would like to talk to you about tonight is how to stay happy. You stay happy when you follow the Lord and learn to listen to and obey His Spirit. All we need to do to be happy in this life is learn to follow the Spirit of the Lord, and recognize it. You know, President Hinckley gave an interesting talk in General Conference in October He gave three things that we can do, that every member of the Church can do, in regards to new members. How do we get people that have come into the Church to stay in the Church? How do we get them to stay active? How do we get them to be believers and stay believers? And he gave three things. Now, all over the world, I have talked about these three things. It s interesting to me that everywhere I go, people can remember two, but I ve only met one person in ten years that could remember the third thing. In the Philippines, we were on what s called an MLS mission. That s Member Leader Support. Our job was to go out and talk to members of the Church who, for one reason or another, were not actively involved in church anymore. I sat with the Mission President in his office in the Mission Home in Cebu, and he said, How do we get them back? How do we keep them from leaving? How do we keep members from leaving church activity? They can t be an example of the believer if they re not involved with the membership of the Church and activity. How do you do that? You have to come into the Church to make some covenants. You have to come into the Church to partake of the Sacrament. The Church is a great schoolhouse that teaches us the things we need to know in order to be successful in this life, and we have far too many who decide to leave. So, how do we do that? President Hinckley came up with three things; are you thinking about what they 86

87 Highly Favored of the Lord III are? I ll bet most of you can come up with two. Let me see right now how many of you know all three of the things that President Hinckley gave? [a few raised their hands] Good! Give them to me, Bishop. Bishop: You need a friend. Mike: Everybody needs a friend. Bishop: A responsibility or a calling. Mike: A calling. Bishop: And to be nurtured by the good word of God. Mike: Now that third one, that s the one that s missing everywhere across the board. I m impressed. I m impressed! Did you know all three? [asking those who raised their hands] Did you know all three over here? Did you? The third one, To be nourished by the good word of God. That s the one that s missing. And across the board, the membership of the Church can t give the third one, and that s what we need to know about the most. So, over in 1 Nephi chapter 15, Nephi had this great vision where he has re-seen his father s dream of the Tree of Life. He is meeting with his brother s once again, and Laman and Lemuel are complaining. They are having all kinds of discussion, We don t understand what our father says; it doesn t make sense to us; we don t know if we believe it anyway. Nephi comes on the scene, and they ask him in verse 23: What meaneth the rod of iron which our father saw, that led to the tree? [24] And I said unto them that it was the word of God; Now, watch this principle right here and think about what Bishop said. Being nourished by the good word of God is the absolute key to success and happiness and making it through this probationary experience, young people, and moms and dads. Do you want to be happy in this life? Joseph Smith said that it is the object and design of God that man should be happy. That s His object and design that His children should be happy. So, Nephi goes on, and he says this: and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, We will come back to that in a minute. When we read the scriptures we need to slow down and break it down; not be in a rush and try to get through the verses or our day s reading quota time. We need to slow down a little, especially in the Book of Mormon. And whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it and then look at the promise: they would never perish; Now, think about that for just a minute. There s an adversary that wants you to leave church membership. He understands the covenants; he 87

88 Mike Stroud understands the Sacrament; he understands the doctrine; he understands the priesthood leadership and the love and care that we need to have in church membership; he understands and wants to distance all of us from that. But look at this promise, and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish. That s not talking about physical death. That s talking about spiritually perishing. Everybody in here tonight knows somebody who is perishing spiritually for one reason or another, and they have left the source of happiness, and the source of peace, which is what the gospel provides, and the Church administers those things. Look at the second promise. Promise number one was that they would never perish. Here s the second promise: neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. Look at those two promises, brothers and sisters. What a powerful scripture! If you will hearken unto the word of God and hold fast to it, you won t perish spiritually, and the fiery darts of the adversary and the temptations won t overpower you. It doesn t say they won t have an effect on you; it doesn t say you won t come into contact with it; it just says you will be victorious after the encounter. You have to come into contact with these things. That s the purpose of being here in this life. It s when we come face-to-face with the enemy and withstand the onslaught and testify against him, that you show your dependence and your love and loyalty to God the Father and the Son. That s what you do. You have to do that. But you won t be overpowered. So, what s he going to do to void those two promises? He is going to do everything he can to take you away from the word of God, the iron rod. What is that? What is the word of God? Well, here s the first part of it, but this isn t all. President Benson said the word of God could be divided into three categories: 1) scriptures 2) message of the prophets and apostles 3) Holy Spirit and personal revelation President Benson likened it to an old three-legged milking stool. Some of you are old enough to know what those are, right? He said if you take one of those legs off it becomes really unstable; if you take two of them off you re going to either be on the ground or kicked by the cow, right? You have to have all three of those things. So, let s talk that word of God for just a minute. You want to be happy in this life and successful? Do you want to complete your sojourn here in this telestial schoolhouse? Do you want to make it successfully through? You re worried about helping others in your families. Some of you adults are worried about 88

89 Highly Favored of the Lord III children, grandchildren, and maybe a spouse. You can t do anything for them until you take care of you. I was sitting in an in-service class as a seminary teacher, and one of the men said, What s the best thing we can do for our students? We were always talking about the best thing we can do for our students. We went around the room, and there was a discussion. People said things like, We can greet them at the door; We can shake hands with them; We can make sure we tell them we love them every day. And these are all good things. The discussion went on for 4 or 5 minutes with the in-service. Finally, after everybody had listed about ten things on the board, this man said, The best thing you can do for your students is sanctify yourself. Then he went on and said, That s not only the best thing you can do for your students, but it s also the best thing you can do for your students, your children, your husband or wife, and everybody around you. How can you reach down and give a helping hand when you re not on higher ground? So, the word of God is found in the scriptures. Here s the Book of Mormon. [holding up a Book of Mormon] In our day, people want physical evidence to prove the truth. You want me to believe in something? Prove to me it is true. Well, here it is. You have physical evidence right here. You can hold it in your hands. You can turn its pages. You can read its words. And what s more, it is the only book in the world that has this promise. Of the all the billions of books in libraries or the world, there is no book anywhere that has a promise in it from God, that if you will follow a three-step formula, God will tell you personally, that that book comes from Him. It s the only place you can go. So, you want physical evidence of the restoration and the truth of the Book of Mormon. The adversary is going to do everything he can to keep us out of this book. Latter-day-Saints, I m going to make you a promise. If you re not spending time in the Book of Mormon every day, you re not going to successfully complete this journey. The adversary knows that. He is going to do everything he can to keep you out of that. Notice the catch-word:...and whoso would hearken unto [it], and would hold fast unto it. [Mike does a visual demonstration to illustrate the difference between clinging on and holding fast. ] So every day, you ve got to be in that book every day. It s what God has given to us. Joseph Smith said: The Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and 89

90 Mike Stroud a man [/woman] would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book. You know what keystones are. I won t go there. All of you have had seminary and have seen little examples of the stone in the top of the arch, etc., etc. Think about that for a minute. Of all the books that are written on the earth, this one that you and I have is physical evidence; it s proof. Satan has been trying to disprove and discredit this book for 180 years. The people who don t like God and want to do damage to those who do, especially Latter-day Saints, will do anything they can to keep you out of this. They can t disprove it. They can come at you in a lot of other different ways. These are people who don t want you to believe and have faith and be happy and successful in life. They don t want that. But they can t take this one. They ve tried. There is no way that this can be disproved. And most of the people now who go after you don t use the Book of Mormon as a tool against you. They ll go after you with other things because you can t disprove this book. So, brothers and sisters, let s get back to it. Let me give you a challenge. Starting tomorrow, take a little time each day and revisit the Book of Mormon. Kneel down before you do it and say, Heavenly Father, help me to understand what I m going to read today in such a way that it will clothe me in armor to fight this battle. Because it is a battle, isn t it? The stakes are high. Our souls are involved in this. So, we have the Book of Mormon, and then the words of the prophets. What can I say? We are so blessed to live in a day when apostles and prophets are on the earth. Now, I would like to speak to you about something that s a little more difficult to obtain, to nurture, and to develop and that is personal revelation. Section 45 of the Doctrine and Covenants is talking about the Second Coming of Christ, and it says: [56] And at that day, when I shall come in my glory, shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins. [57] For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day. Let me share something with you about personal revelation. In every one of us, there are three voices competing for your attention three voices. One of them is the voice of the Spirit. You came into this world with it. It is a birthday gift. It s something that you have; it s called the Light of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Light of Truth, and the 90

91 Highly Favored of the Lord III Spirit of Truth. It has many names. It s not a person; it s an IT. It comes from God, and it is light, and it teaches you right from wrong, light from darkness, truth from error. Everybody has that. When it speaks to you, you hear it in your mind in the form of a thought, or you hear it in your heart in the form of a feeling. It very seldom will speak in long sentences or will give reasons for the prompting it gives you. It simply says things like this: Go here, Don t go there, Do this, Don t do that. Everybody has this. This is not the Holy Ghost. Brother Packer says in Preach My Gospel that: The light of Christ should not be confused with the personage of the Holy Ghost, for the light of Christ is not a personage at all. Its influence is preliminary to and preparatory to one s receiving the Holy Ghost. If you will be obedient to and harken to that light, it will by its very nature, take you to greater light. Your own voice is another voice. It s the voice you hear in your mind; it s the voice of your mind. This voice is always asking questions. What should I do? Should I go here? Should I do that? By its nature, it s designed to ask questions because you have two other voices, the voice of the Lord, which is the voice of light, and you have the voice of opposition. Both are trying to entice you and persuade you to follow them, and you stand in the middle while your mind is asking, What should I do? It s designed that way on purpose. If the Holy Spirit tells you to do something that is right, immediately you will have another voice that will come up and give you ten reasons, really good reasons that make it sound reasonable, as to why you should not do what that voice just prompted you to do. That s the opposing voice. If you want to have happiness in this life and you want to be successful, you ve got to learn to recognize these voices and follow them. Heed that one that says, Go here. If you do that, it will lead you to a greater light that will fill in the blanks. Let me give you an example of how this might work. Missionaries, you will relate to this. Let s say the Elders are out working in a neighborhood, and a woman inside is ironing her clothes. She sees the Elders coming down the street with the black name tags, and she says, I think I know who they are. And all of the sudden they are knocking on her door. If you were this woman, you would have a voice that says, Open the door. [Mike snaps] Just like that. Then another voice comes in and says, You don t have time. You are busy. You know who they are; they re the Mormons. You don t want them in here. And it gives ten reasons why. 91

92 Mike Stroud Now, you stand in the middle, and you do what? Oh, my, what should I do? Should I let them in or shouldn t I? There s the point where you exercise your agency and make a decision on what you're going to do. So you listen to the little voice that says, Open the door, and you open it. The Elders say, We want to give you a little message. We ve come here with a message for you. That little voice says, Listen to them. Then five or six on the other side says, You don t have time. The kids are screaming. Your husband s going to be in from work. They are just after you. Maybe they are just looking for a wife, and who knows what else, all this garbage. But you make a decision to listen to them. One thing leads to another, and you set up an appointment for them to come back when you can hear the discussions. And as you are listening to the discussions, another voice comes and says, It s true. This was the right decision for you to make. Listen to what they are saying. All of the sudden you are getting more information than just, do this, don t do that. Now, we are moving into the realm of the Holy Ghost, who testifies, who teaches, who fills in the blanks. This first voice just simply says, Go here. Go there. Do this. Don t do that. It s a personal Liahona. It is a guide and a director. The Holy Ghost is something else. Now, the Holy Ghost starts to testify. And as you listen to that, and as you feel that testimony and that feeling that comes with the Holy Ghost, it builds, and it s leading to a covenant. And if you ll listen to that, go all the way to the covenant, which is baptism, then you re going to have hands laid on your head and receive the right to the constant companionship of that member of the Godhead. Those are the three voices. Sister Stroud and I had some experiences in the Philippines. We were driving down the road one day, taking some missionaries to set up an apartment. I had a little pickup truck full of all kinds of things, and if you re from the Philippines you understand; you ve probably helped a few missionaries move around. We had the Elders in the back and all this furniture, and as we came around the corner, there was a young woman standing on the side of the road with a baby in her arms, and on the ground next to her was a stack of firewood. Now, over there they have little bundles of firewood. Where we were, they do all their cooking on open fires, so firewood was for sale. And as I went to pass her by, Sister Stroud said, We need to stop and buy that firewood. I said, We need to meet these missionaries here in about 10 minutes, and we ve got rain coming in. What s going on? 92

93 Highly Favored of the Lord III What did she say? Stop and buy the wood. There was no reason for it, yet she just said, You need to stop and buy that wood. And I said, But, but, but, but, but, but... As we went down the road a bit, she said this, She needs to sell that wood so she can buy food for her baby. Now you are in the realm of the Holy Ghost because the first message didn t get through to me. By that time, I had driven down the road a mile, and rather than turn around and go back, I said, I ll tell you what, we ll stop on the way back. You can see who the inspired person is in our companionship, can t you? You can see who listens to the Spirit. So, we went and did our business with the missionaries and turned around and came back. When we got to the point where I knew right where it was, this gal was gone, but the little bundle of sticks was still sitting in the road. By this time I am feeling pretty bad, like I have really blown an opportunity here, right? But I am learning. So, we had two missionaries with us, and there was a little village off to the side, down in the jungle, and there was a steep hill that went up the side. We stopped where the wood was, and I said to the two Elders who could speak the language, Go down there and see if you can find the lady that owns that wood. They went down there and talked to the people, and when they came back, they said, Elder Stroud, they don t know anything. So, as they got in the car and we started to go, right across the street was a little trail that went up this hill. Sister Stroud said, She lives up there. And here I said, How do you know that? She said, I think she lives up there. Well, it s getting late, and we tried and we drove off. Instead of hiking up there and looking, I just said, I tried, and at least my intentions were good. That is an example of learning to listen. We made up our minds that from that point on that whenever we have any prompting or any impression like that, we were going to stop whatever we were doing and go and follow up on that impression. We were going to do that. And I have tried to do that. I m getting better at this, but she s still my mentor and better at following the Spirit. Let me give you another example. I train horses, and I ve had horses and ridden horses almost all my life. I m an Arizona cowboy. I know how to move cows and do those kinds of things, alright? I had this palomino horse that I was training, and he was a young gelding and was pretty well trained, but he didn t like to cross water. So, I was working with him to get him to cross water. I was riding up in the Escudilla Wilderness area at about 7,000 or 8,000 feet, and we came across this little trickle that was no wider than this pulpit. I mean you would think it 93

94 Mike Stroud was the horse monster trying to kill this horse. Anything that looked like water and ran, he was just petrified of it. I came up to the edge of that water and tried to get him to go across it, and he just wouldn t budge. Keep that in mind and let me back up. Before I left, I was putting on my riding boots. I have two pairs of boots. I have regular calf-high ropers, and then I have big tall, what they call Buckaroo boots that are usually designed to tuck your Levis in, they act like a leg chap. I wear chaps but when I put this on it just adds more protection against brush, etc. I put on my regular ropers, and then the Spirit said, No, wear the high-top ones. I didn t know it was the Spirit. I thought that I just had a thought that I ll put those high-top boots on. So, I pulled those boots on and tucked my Levis down in the top of them because I was going to put spurs on. Then I had the feeling, Pull your Levis over the welt on the boot. Wear the top of the boot under the Levis. I didn t want to do that because usually, it was a tight fit. But anyway, I did that. Consequently, I ve got these boots that usually come up just below your knee, and I ve got my levis pulled down over them, and I put the spurs on and the chaps on, and we go riding. So, I am coaxing this horse across this little stream. I can t get him to move. I m on his back, and he won t move. I m doing everything I can to get him over there. I had an 8-foot lead rope, so finally, I got off the horse, walked over the stream, turned around and faced the horse and just said, Come on, come on. I was just trying to coax him over. All he had to do was step over, but he just wouldn t go. So, I turned my back, and I had forgotten that I had this horse trained that the minute my back was turned, he should start to follow me. As I turned my back to get better footing, he jumped that creek and came right down on me. He didn t jump to the side. He came right down that rope, and that rope was right here in the middle of my back. So I got 1,000 pounds of quarter horse that came down, and his front hoof started at the back of my knee, on my right leg, and that iron shoe rode from the back of my knee all the way down my calf and ended at the back of the ankle. He hit me with a shoulder and knocked me about ten feet. And then he just stood there and looked at me like, What are you doing down there? Well, I knew I was hurt so I had another rider come over and I said, Help me pull this boot off. We pulled that boot off, and all the way from the back of my knee to my ankle was a plowed furrow about one inch deep, all the way down. It just ripped that muscle to shreds. I thought, If I get this nice and cold it won t be too badly damaged, so I laid that leg in the creek. Here s the point. I came through it okay, horribly bruised, but nothing was broken. We had gotten our mission call to the Philippines, so watch 94

95 Highly Favored of the Lord III what had happened. If I had had that boot on the outside of my Levis and that horse s hoof had come down and hooked that boot behind my knee, what do you think that would have done to that leg? It would have snapped that leg in half a dozen places, just slicker than a whistle. That little impression, Pull your Levis over the boot, allowed that hoof to ride all the way down and not hook in the top of that boot. If it had, we wouldn t have been able to go on that mission. And all the good things that happened to us in that mission, and hopefully what we were able to do to help others, wouldn t have happened if I hadn t pulled the Levis over the top of the boot. And that s how that works. 1 Nephi 15:24:...and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. This is the key to everything we try to do to be successful as members of the Church; it is learning to listen to that Spirit. And it will always, always lead to happiness and peace, and you ll successfully complete this. Well, brothers and sisters, I found out these secrets the hard way. I ve learned how to follow the Lord s voice. It s been a great blessing to me. It will lead you into places that are marvelous. All the blessings of the gospel are available if you ll just learn to listen to that one little voice and obey it and hearken unto it. I love the Church. The Church is a hospital for the sick. I just can t understand why somebody would leave when everything that is good in life up to that point was a result of their membership in the Church. I ll make you a promise today. I have never met anyone who has walked away from church activity who loved and read the Book of Mormon daily. If you are reading that prayerfully, and you kneel down and talk to Father in the name of Christ before you read that book, you won t go away. You ll be able to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost through all trials and be able to successfully complete what we are sent here for. I testify to you that that s true. Thank you for allowing me to come and share some things with you tonight. I love the Lord, and I thank Him for His marvelous church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am thankful for prophets and apostles and am especially thankful for the Book of Mormon. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 95

96 Mike Stroud Resources: 1 Timothy 4:12 D&C 124:12 kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. Power of the Word by Ezra Taft Benson, General Conference April 1986 Alma 38:12 Use boldness, but not overbearance; Some Thoughts on Temples, Retention of Converts, and Missionary Service by Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct Nephi 15:23-24 Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], , Happiness is the object History of the Church 4:461 The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion... D&C 45:56-57 Preach My Gospel, Boyd K. Packer, pg 90 1 Nephi 15:24 Keystone: A keystone (also known as capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry arch or the generally round one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch or vault to bear weight President Hinckley Someone has failed, failed miserably. I say to bishops throughout the world that with all you have to do and we recognize that it is much you cannot disregard the converts. Most of them do not need very much. As I have said before, they need a friend. They need something to do, a responsibility. They need nurturing with the good word of God. They come into the Church with enthusiasm for what they have found. We must immediately build on that enthusiasm. You have people in your wards who can be friends to every convert. They can listen to them, guide them, answer their questions, and be there to help in all circumstances and in all conditions. Brethren, this loss must stop. It is unnecessary. I am satisfied the Lord is not pleased with us. I invite you, every one of you, to make this a matter of priority in your administrative work. I invite every member to reach out in friendship and love for those who come into the Church as converts. As the Prophet Joseph Smith told us, Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], ). 96

97 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty-Two Podcast 052 Seeing with the Eye of Faith Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. It s good to be with you again on this Sabbath afternoon. In the late 1970 s, I was approached by a person who introduced me to a product that was made in a man s garage in Tempe, Arizona. It was a water filter device called Blondal Water Filters and was supposed to have been developed through NASA spacetechnology. I became intrigued and went to a meeting that he held in his converted garage that had room for about 15 different chairs. I took one of the water filters home and tried it, and it worked marvelously. It made the water taste so good that I figured that all I had to do to sell this was to hook it up on people s faucets and leave it with them for two days. If I let them taste the water, and let them be the judge, then all I would have to do is come back and pick up the check, which is what I did. Over a period of four years, I had tremendous success with this company and became their top distributor/salesperson. I traveled all throughout the United States and in Canada, traveled in corporate jets, and rode around in Rolls Royce limousines. They had a car program, and I won all kinds of cars. I was the top distributor for four years, and I made a LOT of money! One of my responsibilities was to train new distributors in this company in how to have success. Our textbook for that training was a book written by Napoleon Hill called, Think and Grow Rich. In that book, the main statement, the take-off statement for our goals was: Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. 97

98 Mike Stroud One of the ways we taught people to have success was through goal setting and visualization. I remember that I had my eye set on a new Corvette. It was part of their car program, and in order to get that Corvette, I had to break my own existing sales records. So, what I did was go down to the car dealer to see that car on their showroom floor. I got behind the wheel of that Corvette and had someone take a picture of me as I sat behind the wheel with my smiling face. I smelled the leather seats, and I started up the motor and listened to the engine run. I could see myself driving it down the street, and I did everything I could, while on the showroom floor, to set up a way for me to visualize that automobile being mine. I took those pictures, and I plastered them all around my house, on my bathroom mirror, etc., and I visualized for about three months, me owning that car. An interesting thing happened. Sales picked up, and within three months they had a car presentation and that very car that I had sat behind the wheel of was brought and presented to me in a great big rally with hundreds of people. That car was given to me, and I got the keys, sat down, and started it up. The owner of the company came over and said, You don t seem to be too excited. I experienced kind of a let-down after I had gotten the car. It s hard to understand, but I had already gotten that car long before that night. I had already, in my mind, owned that car, driven it, and spent a lot of time in it in my mind. So, when the time came that I actually had the keys to the car and was presented with the car, it was kind of a letdown. Well, I have to tell you, I got over that real quick! But nonetheless, it was an interesting experience. Every level of success in that company, I was able to move through and always was at the top because I was able to visualize myself in possession of the goal. I remember in Think and Grow Rich, that Napoleon Hill would visualize himself in board meetings and corporate meetings with Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford. Both men were dead at this time, but he knew enough about them that he could bring those two in his mind and visualize them counseling him and becoming a part of his partnership, in order to develop the success that he did over the years. Why am I telling you this story? Because at the time when this took place for me, I didn t understand doctrinal principles that are at work here. Let s go over to the Pearl of Great Price, to Moses 3:4. This is an account of the creation of the world: And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth, 98

99 Highly Favored of the Lord III [5] And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. That s the part we want to talk about. Everything that God does, he does first, spiritually. Then secondly, he does physically. Notice that he says, all things, of which I have spoken, [I created] spiritually, before they were [created] naturally upon the face of the earth. All things is the part you want to underline. We are seeking for the great mysteries of Godliness and to have experiences that have been written in the scriptures by the ancients. We are seeking to have those same experiences in our day, knowing that God is no respecter of persons and that everything we read in the scriptures every visitation, every dream, every miracle, every spiritual experience and highlight can be experienced by us, in this life. Otherwise, God is a respecter of persons. We know that He isn t and that in Him, there is no variableness neither shadow of changing. The core of our lessons over the last few weeks has focused on our being able to seek for and obtain the face of God while in the flesh. If you are like me, you have a preconceived notion, based on your experiences and what you ve learned, based on some truth and some traditions, on how that should be done. I d like to just share with you that at this point in my progress I m learning that that is an impediment for these very things to happen. Our preconceived notions of how, when, and where these things should take place, can be the very barrier that keeps them from happening. The pre-conceived notion could be the main central part of walls of unbelief that keep us from obtaining these promised blessings. While I was in Missouri last week, I heard a little phrase that I hadn t heard before. It says, Let go, and let God. I pondered on that, and I wondered if we are trying to force our feelings, thoughts, and ideas on God and in doing that, we limit what He can do with us. For example, as I ve contemplated and thought about receiving the Second Comforter in my life, invariably, I can see myself all alone on my knees in my bedroom, and have Jesus come through the ceiling, through the wall, or through the door, and appear to me in my bedroom. And, after a period of time that can measure even into years, when these things don t happen the way I had them preconceived, I become discouraged and give up and lose the opportunity and blessings for obtaining these precious promises. I ve also wondered what it means to be within the veil. We ve talked about that before, and decided that at least part of it is that our physical 99

100 Mike Stroud body veils us from spiritual realities and truths and that we have to step out of that veil, in order to see things in the spirit. I d like to go over to Moses 1 in the Pearl of Great Price and look a little closer at an experience that Moses had with God. He sees God face-to-face and talks with Him as one man talks with another and then the Lord withdraws. Let s go to verse 9: And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth. [10] And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed. [11] But now mine own eyes have beheld God; There is a semicolon there. It s like he s saying, Let me explain what I mean by that. but not my natural [eyes], but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him. Notice that the experience of Moses speaking with God face-to-face takes place through his spiritual eyes and not through his physical eyes. I guess the question comes up, what does it mean to be able to see with the eye of the spirit? Notice that one of the things that has to take place for that to happen is, you must be transfigured. The very word transfigured means changed. This is a change that takes place through the power of the Holy Ghost, which enables you to enter into His presence. Now, the secret to being able to see God with the eye of the Spirit is given to us right in the very first chapters of the book of 1 Nephi. Nephi is desiring to see the vision that his father saw, that we call the vision of the tree of life. Let s look at chapter 10:17: And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, I want you to underline that part. We call it the vision of the tree of life. and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God and the Son of God was the Messiah who 100

101 Highly Favored of the Lord III should come I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might [three things here] see, and hear, and know of these things, And I might add one more thing: handle. by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him [that includes you and me], as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men. I would like to say that is a veiled reference to each individual obtaining for themselves, in the flesh, the Second Comforter, to have an encounter with Christ: [18] For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men The way to do what? To see God in this life: from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him. Watch this in verse 19: For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round. Notice that we are referring to being able to have these experiences of seeing, hearing, knowing and handling, by the power of the Holy Ghost. There s your key. And notice up in verse 19, it comes out and says, and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Being able to see with the eye of the Spirit is a gift that is given to you by the power of the Holy Ghost. Now, go to 1 Nephi chapter 11, verse 1. Here s the first step in the whole process of seeing the face of God through the eye of the Spirit. Watch this: For it came to pass after [1] I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and [2] believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat [3] pondering in mine heart Now, this is the part you want to watch: I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. Now, the question comes up, does that mean that you have to be physically transported from point A to point B, or can you be taken there 101

102 Mike Stroud in the Spirit, by the power of the Holy Ghost? And can your body still be where it was when you began the process of desiring, believing and pondering, and yet you can be caught away in the Spirit...[and be taken upon] a high mountain in which [you] had never before seen, and upon which [you] had never before set...foot? That s the point we want to talk about. Is it possible for you to be taken in the spirit while your body is still where it was when you began the process, and see and hear and know and handle and touch something in the spirit? I guess the question that comes up when we hear about these visions that take place is where was that person who was beholding that vision, physically, when the vision unfolds? As I am being mentored by people who have had this experience, and by the Spirit, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, I m more and more coming to find out that what we think of as reality in this world, is not the real world. We ve mentioned this before a little bit. We re in a threedimensional world here and seldom do we get into a fourth dimension. Yet, there are people who have had sacred experiences that come back and say that there are as many as twelve dimensions, layered upon each other. We only experience three here, while in the flesh. Here s the point I m making. I m finding out that we must not limit ourselves to what we think will happen as we seek for these greater blessings. That thought of how it should be will take you away from the experience so that you ll die and never experience it. Go to Doctrine and Covenants 88. This, again, is a primary scripture on seeing the face of God. Let s look at verse 67, and here it is again. Here s this statement: And if your eye be single to my glory, Now remember, we re thinking about seeing things with the spiritual eye, not the natural eye; like Moses did: your whole bodies shall be filled with light, I think that s a ponderable statement. I think there s a great mystery in there. If we can train ourselves to spiritually see things with a spiritual eye, the result will be an infusion of light that otherwise would not be attainable. God dwells in a place called everlasting burnings. I look at those burnings as glory. If we experience Him and are taken to where He is, we re going to need to be changed and transfigured for a number of reasons, in order to have that encounter. That s not to say that He can t come into this world and that you can t encounter Him flesh-to-flesh. As I m reading the scriptures, I m seeing some things differently that I ve never seen before. Look at verse 68: Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see 102

103 Highly Favored of the Lord III him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be [here are your keys] in his own time, and in his own way [that s the part from today s lesson that you want to triple underline], and according to his own will. See, if we try to determine how this is going to happen, it s probably not going to happen. We have to let go, and let God. We re dealing with things here that humans, even the best of us who are spiritually accomplished, can barely comprehend. Why would we want to detail out in our mind how God is going to do things with us when we barely understand this world, our own physical bodies, and our own existence? Until we can be in His presence and can ask Him questions and be instructed from on high, at best our knowledge and experience are limited. It seems to me like we ought to be slow to have preconceived notions on how He s going to do what He wants to do with us. We need to let go, and let God, trust Him, have faith in Him, and let Him unwind it to us as He will, in his own time, in his own way, and according to his own will. Let s go to Ether 12, and continue this train of thought and see if we can uncover some more. This is Moroni speaking about the brother of Jared and the experience that the brother of Jared had with the Lord: [19] And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes This is what we re trying to do. I m going to present to you that they are seeing things with the eye of faith: the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad. This seems to indicate that you have to visualize some things in your mind before the Lord actually opens up the reality of it to you. As I understand this scripture, for example, if I want to see for myself the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Nephite people (as recorded in 3 Nephi 11), then I can. The Book of Mormon tells me that I can, and Nephi certainly testifies of this. Joseph Smith said: God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them. So, there s the invitation. The door is open. There is nothing that has happened in the past, or for that matter, that is coming in the future, that you can t see if you find the key to unlock the process. I believe the key is here in verse 19, but you have to see, first of all, with the eye of faith. 103

104 Mike Stroud So, based on what I ve read in the scriptures, artwork that I ve seen, or what I ve heard from other people s experiences, if I want to see 3 Nephi 11 and the appearance of the Lord, then I sit down and try to get a mental picture of that. I try to bring that image up in my mind, visualize it, and in the process of doing that, the Lord can catch me up in the Spirit, and take me to a place where I can see that unfold as it actually took place. So, again it says, [They] could not be kept from within the veil. You re going to have to come out of the veil. We talked about the body being the physical veil. If we re taken out of that, your body still stays where it is, but you re taken out. This seems to fit in with what Nephi said, I was caught away. Paul also talks about being caught up in the spirit. See, your body stays where it is, but you re taken out of the body veil and taken to a place where you actually see what took place and are glad. You see it with your spiritual eyes what you first behold with the eye of faith. That eye of faith is visualizing something to a degree, and with such faith, that you know that the Lord will take what it is that you re visualizing and let you see and experience the actual event. But it begins, first of all, with seeing with the eye of faith. Don t you find it interesting that in the word visualization is also the beginnings of the word vision to be able to see things? A vision is real. In a vision, you will see things that are just as tactile as if you were in a body. The point is it s just as real. Just because you re not sitting here in a 3-dimensional world experiencing these things through the natural senses, doesn t mean that they are any less real. This is what I m learning. So, I m training myself now to think in terms of seeing with the eye of faith, being caught up, visualizing things, and in the process of this, the Lord takes me and shows me the actual event through the eye of my spirit, not through my natural eye. See, these things are hidden from us. We talked once before; it s like celestial gaming. It s a game of hide and seek. Look at Ether 12:20: And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith. We talked a little bit about that in another lesson. We are seeking something that s hidden, celestial hide and seek. You can see in the scriptures where it says that the Lord shall come forth out of his hiding place and in another place, Seek me diligently and ye shall find me. I find it interesting that our childhood game in this world is hide and seek. 104

105 Highly Favored of the Lord III What makes it so difficult for us to do this as adults is that we have lost, to a great measure, the ability to imagine things. Now, I m going to speak for me; I m discovering that at this point of my life, I don t have much of an imagination. It seems that the older I get, the more my imagination seems to fade with time. We lose our ability to imagine things. So, as a result of that, we struggle with one of the criteria for us to be able to see with the eye of faith, which opens up the door to visions, puts us in a place where things are experienced spiritually, and is more a reality than things we actually see in this world. I want to emphasize that those people who have been taken into the spirit, have experiences such as this. There is a person who has had the Second Comforter experience and describes being able to see with the eye of faith, which results in a heightened sense of awareness. You can see in all directions as you choose. You can see up close, or panoramic. You can see through, up, down, around or all around. Colors are more pronounced or indescribable. This is how people describe being able to see with the eye of faith. I remember reading Spencer s book, and if you ll remember, all of Spencer s visions took place while he was out of body. In other words, he died, and his spirit came out from behind the veil, which is the physical body. In fact, as he was standing in the spirit, he would look down at his veil, lying lifeless on a stretcher or on a gurney in a hospital, and he describes all the things that took place around him. He was able to walk through objects. He could sit on a couch and know how many cowhides made up that couch. He saw things in the spirit that are absolutely impossible to see while you are in the flesh. Let s take a look at more scriptures. Let s go to Alma 5. It s a great tie-in with Ether 12. Here, we talk about this eye of faith again. Start in verse 15: Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view The word view is also tied to the word vision: this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body? [16] I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, That goes back to Ether 12 that you, first of all, see things with the eye of faith, through visualization, and then the Lord takes you to the next level, where you actually behold those things, and as a result, you re glad. But, the beholding can be an extension of seeing with the eye of 105

106 Mike Stroud faith. Visualizing with the eye of faith is the beginning of a vision. The Lord can show you things that are every bit as real in a vision as anything you will experience in the flesh. In fact, more so, according to what I hear. He goes on and says: saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth? [17] Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth and that he will save you? [18] Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse? I would say, Can you imagine yourself standing before the resurrected Christ? Can you do that? To help me visualize this, I have a picture of the Savior that I especially feel drawn to. When I want to move into that area of starting to visualize what He looks like, I picture this in my mind. I will gaze upon it. I don t just glance, but I will sit and gaze upon that. I ll look at the facial expression. I ll look at his eyes. I ll look at his nose and his ears. I ll look at his hair and his beard. I ll look at the clothing that he s wearing in this picture. That helps me to begin to see with the eye of faith. Here s what I m discovering, I begin to visualize knowing that the next step to that is for the Lord to usher me into a vision, where I actually encounter the Lord. See, here s the part; we think that if we see Him in a vision, that that s not a Second Comforter experience. I ve thought that for all my years. This is just something I m learning now. But what I m realizing is that encountering Him in a vision is every bit as real and as tactile. We need to get past that thinking. In that vision, when you are brought into His presence, and He comes up and embraces you, in a vision, you will feel the warmth of His body; you will feel His breathing as His body inhales and exhales. In that vision, you will feel His cheek against your cheek. And, if you are blessed to have Him kiss you, you will feel that kiss, a holy kiss, from the resurrected Savior. He will invite you, in that vision, to become a witness of His physical, resurrected body, and you will see the marks of the prints of the nails in His body. And it will be more real, in that experience, than if you were to see Him in the flesh, and He were to condescend in His physical body to come into the telestial world. I believe that the experience in a vision is as real, if not more real, than what would take place if He were to walk into your room and you would see Him. This is what I m starting to learn. 106

107 Highly Favored of the Lord III Let s look at another scripture. Let s go to Alma 32:33. This is the great story about the experiment with the seed, but notice what it says: And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good. Here we go, down to verse 40: And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, How do you nourish the word? looking forward with an eye of faith [there s your key] to the fruit thereof, And what s the fruit we re talking about? It s seeking and finding Christ in this world. And then, after you have found Him, have Him introduce you and present you to the Father and to Mother. ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. If you don t look forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, you ll never pluck of the fruit. [41] But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life. Again, back to Moroni in Ether 12:18. Now, think about all this: [18] And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God. [19] And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad. So, I m learning some new things here. I m grateful for these podcasts because what this has done is put me in touch with people who are loving and caring, and are willing to share with me one who has not had the Second Comforter experience the things that they ve learned. They are sharing the things that have taken them to that point, so that I may look forward, with an eye of faith, to the fruit, and partake of that fruit and enjoy that experience. Now, I want to go to 3 Nephi 11. There are other criteria that I have found out that are necessary. I have discovered that any time the Lord says something multiple times within a few verses, it s probably something we should pay attention to. In verse 37, they are having a 107

108 Mike Stroud Second Comforter experience here. You ve got 2,500 people here, who are seeing the resurrected Lord. He says this: [37] And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things. I want you to mark become as a little child because this is a key, the secret ingredient to seeing the face of God, while still in mortality. He repeats this again: [38] And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. Let s go to Mark 10:13 in the New Testament: And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: Over in Luke, the companion scripture to this says, They brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them. and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. [14] But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. [15] Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Now, when you have the Second Comforter experience, you are entering into the Kingdom of God. You are entering into the Kingdom of Heaven. Wherever God is, wherever you find Him, wherever He takes you to Him, or whenever He comes to you, what you re experiencing there is the Kingdom of Heaven. You can t encounter God, and not encounter the Kingdom of Heaven, to a degree. So, what is it about little children that the Lord says is so necessary in order for you to obtain this marvelous experience? I know one thing that little children have is that they are stubborn. They don t give up. In fact, it doesn t take very long for a child to learn how to get what they want from their parents. They just pester them! I don t know about you, but I know that with my kids, they would say, Dad, can I do this? Dad, can I do this? I d say No. And, they d say, Dad, can I do this? And again, I d say No. Dad, can I do this? 108

109 Highly Favored of the Lord III And finally, out of just being tired of it, especially when I was a younger dad and didn t know better, and I d find myself giving in just to get them off my back. In Luke 18:1-8, there is a parable about a widow woman who pesters a judge with her pleadings, her importunings. Interesting word. You may want to look up the word importune. It s a word that God uses over in the Doctrine and Covenants and the New Testament. Finally, because of her crying and persistence, the judge finally relents and gives in. So, little children are persistent. They will continue to harass their parents until eventually, parents give in to their requests. Joseph Smith said, Come to God, weary Him until He blesses you. And Paul said, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. So, I think we have to take a look at that, and not give up. If you re like me, after an attempt or two at entering into a visionary state or seeking to have the ministering of angels or visitations, etc., and it doesn t happen when or how you think it should happen, you have a tendency to give up. I m finding out that I give up too easily. I am too easily discouraged, and little children are not. They also have a different outlook on the world. They are curious, believing, trusting, and open to new ideas. Here is another scripture we want to look at that talks about little children, in Matthew 18:1-5. Let s take a look at this: [1] At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? [2] And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, [3] And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [4] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, That s the key within the key. the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [5] And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. The quality the Lord mentions here, specifically, is humility. I believe that being humble is being teachable. Other synonyms might be impressionable, lowly, malleable, moldable, receptive, thirsty for knowledge, trainable, unpretentious, and willing. All of these are attributes of little children. Here s another one. Little kids are asking questions all the time. They just ask, ask, ask. The big question is why, why, why? The older we get, the more we move away from that. We 109

110 Mike Stroud lose that attribute of a little child. Little children will knock until the door is opened. Here s one more scripture. Go to Luke 11:9: And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. [10] For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. [11] If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? [12] Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? [13] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? I had someone, this past week, call and ask about the importance of mentors, versus the fact that we re supposed to seek and ask for the Holy Spirit. You ve heard me teach that you go to the source and get your answers from the source, instead of drinking water down through the cow pasture. Then what is the place for a mentor in that? Well, I m mentored in just about every step along the way. Most of what I have learned in the gathering of information has been from mentors. I have not personally, yet, met one of my spiritual mentors. I ve either been mentored or tutored over the internet, over the phone, or through . Every one of my mentors has been a stranger, every one of them. What s magnificent and fascinating to me is that if you set your foot on this path of seeking after the mysteries of God and looking to have the heavens open and call down the powers of heaven upon your head, the Lord is aware of your footsteps along the path. He s aware of your desires and what you re trying to do and is going to help you along the way. He is going to provide information and people in your life at the time when you need it the most. He s watching you. He knows what you re doing, and He s going to custom and tailor-make, what Neal A. Maxwell called, divine tutorials, and you re going to receive it at the time, and in a place, and from the person that can most help you move forward along the path. Now, where the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost come in is that as you re gathering information from your mentors, it s your responsibility to try the spirits. Remember, we talked about this in the past. You don t just assume information just because it comes to you and seems to answer your question. You d better make sure your information 110

111 Highly Favored of the Lord III is coming to you from the right source. So, from whomever you receive information, make sure that you take it to the Lord, and seek for confirmation through personal revelation. Then have the Holy Ghost confirm to you and testify that the information you re receiving from your mentor is Godly and is truth. Any other way, it s going to be a precarious position for you to be in; you can be deceived. Even the very elect are still susceptible to deception while we re in this world. So, you have to very careful with this. Be grateful for mentors/messengers, which is just another word for angels. I look at my mentors the same as I do angels. They have brought me information that I needed, at the time I needed it, and in a way that I needed it. I ve taken that information to the Lord, had it confirmed, and I look upon their messages as coming from messengers, true messengers. If you ever have a chance to serve a mission in a developing country and help people come out of the world and into the Church, and you see them enjoy the blessings of a spiritual witness a testimony of the Holy Ghost, ordination to the priesthood, temple ordinances, etc. when you leave that mission field, those people will look upon you, the missionaries, as angels. There is no difference in the way they view the missionaries than the way they would view a messenger from beyond the veil. It s with the same love and acceptance and awe, and they say the same words, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of [those] that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace. Whether mortal or immortal, whether spirit, translated or resurrected, you still try the spirits, and make sure that their message is coming from the Godly source. Well, let me wrap up tonight s lesson a little bit. Here s a statement from Words of Joseph Smith, by Ehat and Cook, talking about seeing with the eye of faith. This is a little-known quote. Here s what Joseph said: All things whatsoever God has in his infinite wisdom has seen fit and proper to reveal to us, while we are dwelling in mortality, in regard to our mortal bodies, are revealed to us in the abstract, and independent of affinity of this mortal tabernacle, but are revealed to our spirits precisely as though we had no bodies at all. Interesting! See, there s more evidence that when God wants to have an encounter with us, it may not be so much Him coming to us, as us being taken to Him your spirit ascending to Him. What does this mean? It means that unless Jesus condescends to come down to earth, in the flesh, we must go to Him in the spirit. How do we do that? Through the process of first seeing with the eye of faith, visualization. Think of those scriptures we talked about in Alma: imagining and seeing with the eye of 111

112 Mike Stroud faith. As we begin to do that and press forward, that process of seeing with the eye of faith can take us to where He is. You then can have a very real experience where you can not only see, but you can hear, you can smell, perceive, understand, and handle, as though you were in the body. In closing, I would again like to share the words of a person I know, who has had their Second Comforter experience. In regards to the process we have talked about tonight of seeing with the eye of faith, he says this: When you begin to crack open the door and see with an eye of faith, expect things to blur, and then focus. Expect to see glimpses, followed by blackouts, or disappearing images. Keep focusing and talking with the Lord. Don t phase out because you think it s your imagination. Trust yourself, trust the Lord, and push forward. Keep chasing the Lord all the way to the courts of heaven. Don t give up. Don t get negative. Hold on to the images you see and keep revisiting them until they expand and lead to another. At first, you will feel like a person trying to focus, who hasn t slept for days. You re tethered to the flesh, and until you completely let go, and focus on the Lord, and what he is showing you, it will seem a little disconnected. Remember the Savior s words, Peace be still. Over the past year that we ve been doing the podcasts, I ve had several of you who have had Second Comforter experiences, but you weren t quite sure as to whether you saw them in the flesh or you saw them in the spirit. And because you think you saw them in the spirit, you therefore questioned whether you d had a Second Comforter experience. Let me just lay your mind to rest at this point. You did have a Second Comforter experience. Remember, that we in this world think this is reality, when in reality the spirit realm is the real world. This world, in the telestial world, behind the veil, or within the veil, is illusionary and limited to only a few dimensions. Where God dwells, there are many, many more dimensions. Time and space are irrelevant to Him. When you are taken into His presence, and you view these things and experience these things through a vision, it is no less real than if He were to come into this world and appear to you in your bedroom, or in the way that we generally see that happening. May the Lord bless us to seek after these things. Keep an open mind. Don t have a preconceived notion on how this should happen. Go into this with the faith of a little 112

113 Highly Favored of the Lord III child, trusting in the Lord. Let go, and let God. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Resources: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Moses 3:4-5 Mormon 9:9...there is no variableness neither shadow of changing. 1 Nephi 10: Nephi 11:1 D&C 88:67-68 Ether 12: Nephi 11, the Lord appearing to the Nephites God hath not revealed anything to Joseph History of the Church, 3:380 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, Paul caught up D&C 101:89...come forth from his hiding place... D&C 88:63 Seek me diligently and ye shall find me Alma 5:15-19 Alma 32:33, Ether 12: Nephi 11:37-38 Mark 10:13-15 (Luke 18:15-17) Luke 18:1-8 parable of the unjust judge Come to God, weary Him until He blesses you. The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph, comp. Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace Matthew 18:1-5 Luke 11:9-13 Divine Tutorials Be of Good Cheer, Thanks Be to God, and Dec 1984 BYU fireside by Neal A. Maxwell 1 John 4:1...try the spirits Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains Words of Joseph Smith by Ehat and Cook, pg 360 *Importune: To request with urgency; to press with solicitation; to urge with frequent or unceasing application. 113

114 Mike Stroud Chapter Fifty-Three Podcast 053 The Tip of the Spear I have been taught and learned much this week. I m excited to be able to share some things with you. Let me just say that because of the many s and phone calls that I get from people throughout the week, it s easy for me to observe, as we mentioned before, that there s a great awakening taking place. People are being gathered by the Spirit, and the scripture in Joel chapter 2, verse 28 is verily being fulfilled. I can tell you, and testify that when the Lord says He s going to: pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions......that it s happening. This week, I have been taught and learned some things about translation. I ve learned that it s an ordinance and an ordination and that it s a process of going from the physical, natural fallen man, to a state of translation. It appears that is not an in the twinkling of an eye experience, but that it actually begins with an ordination and that a person is instructed and taught in the principles of this doctrine, this ordinance, and that they grow into it, as it were. There is instruction that goes on, and there is a process to where you are changed, not immediately, but at least at this point, we are talking about the beginnings of translation among the remnant over a period of time. I also learned about something that is called the tip of the spear. This is the terminology that is used by one of the people that I m talking to. Another term that is used to discuss the same concept is the first wave. A third concept is to gather the gatherers. So those three concepts all pertain to a small group of people within a larger group, and these are all 114

115 Highly Favored of the Lord III the people who are foreordained to be translated and serve as the rescuers that we ve talked about in other podcasts. The tip of the spear is a small group of young men and women who are ordained and have received this ordinance from God himself, or through authorized immortal, non-telestial beings, angels who have a charge from God, or translated beings from the city of Enoch who are charged with administering this ordinance. Tip of the spear I like that the phraseology. I thought that was really neat. This is your very, very beginning vanguard. This is what was referred to by another person as the first wave of persons who receive an ordination and the ordinance of translation. Because of this Godly, heavenly ordination ordinance, they are then authorized to go out and perform and administer that same ordinance to other gatherers. So, the first group who gather the gatherers, and all of these they gather, then end up being part of that rescue group, the 144,000. They end up as translated beings, men and women, whose job it is to rescue pockets of Latter-day Saints and good men and women everywhere, from among all the nations of the earth who find themselves in a hopeless situation. Hopeless because of the environment that accompanies the earth s history at this time, which is an environment of collapse, loss of law, and anarchy. Now, I ve just mentioned that there are two groups within that rescue group, the tip of the spear and then the remainder of that group who go out and perform this ordinance and bring them to Zion with songs of everlasting joy. That s really an exciting concept when you stop and think about it. Some of these people have already received their ordination and are in the process of learning and being instructed by angels and translated beings, sent from the city of Enoch and from the courts above. They are being instructed and trained to prepare this vanguard group for the return of the city of Enoch and also to ordain others who are foreordained to this ministry. So, it s not something you have to look for in the future; it s something that s taking place right now. Isn t it wonderful and exciting to be living in the day when the things that we have read of for years in the scriptures are being fulfilled before our very eyes?! Isn t it also exciting to contemplate the possibility that you and I are a part of that wonderful group who are going to have that opportunity to serve the Lord? Let s go over to section 77 in Doctrine and Covenants for just a minute. One of the men I talked to, who used the term tip of the spear referred to this scripture. Section 77, verse 11: Q. What are we to understand by sealing the one hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel twelve thousand out of every tribe? 115

116 Mike Stroud A. We are to understand that those who are sealed are high priests, ordained unto the holy order of God, to administer the everlasting gospel; for they are they who are ordained out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, by the angels Those angels can be interpreted as Christ, resurrected beings, translated beings, or mortals who have been given that authority to perform that ordinance. Angel means messenger, and Christ would be considered that. Section 129 refers to Christ in the office of an angel because He ministers and as a messenger with a resurrected body of flesh and bone: to whom it is given power over the nations of the earth, [here s the purpose] to bring as many as will come to the church of the Firstborn. We re going to talk about the church of the Firstborn in just a few minutes, as we go into the Book of Mormon. At any rate, wonderful things are happening. After last week s podcast, I put into practice some of the things that we talked about: seeing with the eye of faith. I m learning that it s a process much like a baby learning to see. One of our people who taught me these concepts said that when an infant first opens its eyes, it doesn t see much. It can t fix on an object, it doesn t track moving objects, and it takes a period of time for that infant, even with its eyes open, to start being able to see things in this world. The man said that that s exactly the way it is when you learn to see with the eye of faith and to seek for visionary experiences. It takes time; you grow into it. It takes practice; you must not be discouraged along the way, and you just keep trying. This last Monday, I had a wonderful experience with that and want to testify that it is a correct principle. In that experience, I saw some sacred things that took place in the New Testament period. [I saw] with [the] eye of faith, and...[was] glad. So, I testify to you that it is a principle that we need to work on. I just think that all kinds of marvelous, wonderful things are going to open up to us as we exercise our faith, move forward, and practice these principles, line upon line, here a little there a little, and precept upon precept, until we pierce the veil and receive what the Lord has reserved for each of us on the other side. I had some wonderful experiences this weekend in studying the Book of Mormon. Let s go to 1 Nephi chapter 14. I d like to share with you some the things that I saw, some of the things that I was taught. It was just a really exciting experience! Now, I ve taught 1 Nephi 14 for forty years. This is a testimony of how the Lord has things hidden in plain sight. When you understand certain knowledge, and you have certain concepts in place, then scriptures that you ve read before take on a 116

117 Highly Favored of the Lord III whole new meaning. This was very exciting. If you go to verse 1, I d like to walk you through this, and show you a couple of things the Spirit taught me this week, and then you take this information to the Lord as seek confirmation as to whether it s true or false: And it shall come to pass, that if the Gentiles When you read Gentiles, I want you to think members of the Church. Think back to the previous podcasts we ve had. If you haven t listened to all the podcasts, there are three podcasts you re going to need to have information on in order to understand what I m going to share with you today. One is called The Remnant, another was called The Remnant of Jacob, and the other is The Gentiles. You need to have the information that s in those three podcasts. Maybe you ll want to listen to those three before you go with us into chapter 14: And it shall come to pass, that if the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day That day is right now. So, this scripture is being fulfilled as we sit here and breathe air and talk with one another. If the [members of the Church] will hearken unto [Christ, right now] : that He shall manifest himself unto them I want you to think about when the Book of Mormon talks about manifest. There are different levels, and we ve chatted about that before. I want you to think about having a personal manifestation with the Lamb of God. That s to you; you are one of the Gentiles; you re a member of the Church in that day [when Jesus] shall manifest himself onto [the Gentiles] : in word, and also in power, So, we re going to get that. Word can be the more sure word of prophecy. There are different levels. It could be the scriptures, it could be in the words of the prophets, but at a deeper level, it can be that you hear His voice as He extends promises to you. Watch this: in very deed, There s your key. He s going to manifest Himself unto the members of the Church in this day in word, in power, and this I have triple underlined, in very deed. And what will happen when that happens? He says: unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks What are the stumbling blocks that we are talking about? Pride, unbelief, hardness of heart anything that blocks Him from manifesting Himself in word, and power, and in very deed, is a stumbling block, and we ve talked about so many of those in the various podcasts. It is whatever keeps you from rending the veil. Then notice there s a dash after that: 117

118 Mike Stroud [2] And harden not their hearts Okay, we ve talked about how hardening the heart, according to the Book of Mormon, means that when He manifests Himself in word, and in power, through the Holy Spirit, you refuse to hearken to that Holy Spirit. It s over in section 29 that we are called to bring to pass: [7]...the gathering of mine elect; And then He defines mine elect : for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts; Back to 1 Nephi 14:2. If you respond to that revelation that comes to you as He manifests Himself and don t harden your heart against the Lamb of God, then: they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father; Now, let s stop for just a minute. We ve got two groups here: we ve got the Gentiles, and then we have the seed of Lehi. This angel is speaking to Nephi here, so the father there is Lehi. So, what you ve got in our day is a group, a remnant of the house of Israel. That could be found among all the twelve tribes, but this one particular is talking about a remnant of Joseph that is found in the American continent. So, if the members of the Church will not harden their hearts and won t disregard the promptings and manifestations of Christ, they will be numbered as Gentiles among Lehi s seed, which is a remnant. We are talking about two days here: we ve got the day of the Gentile, which we re living in now. That day ends when the remnant of Jacob goes through the Gentile nations like a lion. And the end result is in 3 Nephi 20:16, where it says they will be: as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who...treadeth down and teareth [them] in pieces, and none can deliver. That event signals of the end of the day of the Gentile and begins the second half of the dispensation of the fullness of times, and that s the day of Israel. You can see both of those mentioned in verses 1 and 2 here in 1 Nephi chapter 14. Verse 2: And [if those Gentiles will] harden not their hearts against the Lamb of God, they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father; You want to be among that group of Gentile members who are numbered among the house of Israel, and on this continent, among the seed of Joseph, who are the descendants of father Lehi and others....and they shall be a blessed people upon the promised land forever; they shall be no more brought down into 118

119 Highly Favored of the Lord III captivity; and the house of Israel shall no more be confounded. So, we re talking about two groups here. Let s take a look at that captivity for just a minute. A short little summary is that when the Lord manifests Himself unto the Gentiles in that day, if they will hearken unto Him, He will take away their stumbling blocks, and they ll be numbered among those of the house of Israel that are going to be gathered and blessed in the second half of the dispensation of the fullness of time. Now, the first half, the Gentile half of the dispensation of the fullness of time, is Aaronic priesthood. Now, don t get me wrong by saying, Wait a minute we ve got Melchizedek priesthood there. Yes, we do, but the Melchizedek priesthood order that is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the most part, is an administrative order of the Melchizedek priesthood. The Holy Order which is a Patriarchal Order of the Melchizedek priesthood is in a limited way, being seen at this point, in the day of the Gentile, but will be magnified and manifested tremendously in the coming day of Israel. I like to look at it this way: again, these are preparations that lead to something higher, something greater. You can see it in the Church. When you come out of the world and into the Church, what the Church is trying to do from the very getgo is prepare you to get to the temple. It s understood that it s not the part that administers and governs and makes sure that the mission of the Church is properly carried out, but it s that portion of the priesthood that is centered in a mother and father, a family oriented priesthood, where the real power of the Melchizedek Priesthood will be manifest in a coming day. I know that there are miracles performed in our day. I know that those who are being called into this vanguard-group to prepare for the Second Coming, that what they re experiencing is the Melchizedek Priesthood, but for the majority of the Church members coming out of the world, into the Church, and being prepared for the temple is an Aaronic Priesthood function. You can see that baptism is Aaronic Priesthood; the sacrament is Aaronic Priesthood. And so, these essential ordinances that are performed as we come out of the world and into the Church are centered on the Aaronic Priesthood. Let s come back to that captivity part we were talking about, in the bottom of verse 2. It says, that if the Gentiles do this, and are numbered with the house of Israel, during the transition from part A to part B, from the Gentile day to the day of the house of Israel, they shall no more be confounded. And then verse 3: And that great pit, which hath been digged for them by that great and abominable church, which was founded by the devil and his children, that he might lead away 119

120 Mike Stroud the souls of men down to hell yea, that great pit which hath been digged for the destruction of men shall be filled by those who digged it, unto their utter destruction, saith the Lamb of God; not the destruction of the soul, save it be the casting of it into that hell which hath no end. [4] For behold, this is according to the captivity of the devil, and also according to the justice of God, upon all those who will work wickedness and abomination before him. Let s go over to 2 Nephi chapter 2 for just a minute and look at verse 29. Here s a great scripture that helps us understand how the devil captivates the souls of men. This is a great scripture that actually starts up in verse 27. It talks about choosing either eternal life or choosing eternal death, and then it says in verse 28:...that ye should look to the great Mediator...and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit, Pay close attention to this part: [29] And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, Now, that evil is the weaknesses of the physical flesh; it is the natural man. This is what we come into. This is the veil. This is what hides us from heavenly things in this life. There are weaknesses within the physical body simply because of the nature of a fallen world, and the elements that make up our body are part of that telestial world. This is why that needs to be purified by fire and transformed and all of that dross burned out. Then it goes on and says: which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom. It s the weakness of the flesh and the evil of it, the natural man, which gives the devil power to captivate. So, there s that great struggle again. On the one side, we have the spirit of the devil, who appeals to and persuades to the flesh of the telestial world, the natural man. And then you have the Spirit of the Lord who appeals to, and pleads with and persuades to listen to the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, to choose righteousness. Let s go back to 1 Nephi chapter 14 again: [4] For behold, this is according to the captivity of the devil. Now, let s skip on to 5: And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me, Nephi, saying: 120

121 Highly Favored of the Lord III Here we go; we re going to start talking about these two groups. First of all, here are the Gentiles: Thou hast beheld that if the Gentiles repent it shall be well with them; I have if circled. Now, repentance needs to take place before the day of the Gentile ends. The majority of the membership of the Church, as we ve mentioned before, is not going to make this transition. The minimum requirement to transition from telestial to terrestrial is moral cleanliness. You cannot be involved in whoredoms or immorality of any kind and think that you re going to make that transition from telestial to terrestrial. Sexual morality and personal purity and cleanliness are the requirements to go from telestial to terrestrial. Now, most of us have been stained in one way or another with that. It isn t what s happened in the past; it is that you access the power of the Atonement of Christ through your repentance and have those blots and spots removed through Christ s Atoning sacrifice. And then when this day of the Gentile now starts to wrap up, you can stand spotless, clean, and pure, sexually and morally, because that is the main qualifier for you to enter in. Another qualifier to move from telestial to terrestrial is you need to be honest; you need to be honorable and just. That applies not only to members but nonmembers. Being a member of the covenant is not a qualifier to make the transition from telestial to terrestrial, but honor and integrity, and especially moral cleanliness and repentance from sexual sin is an absolute must. You can look around and see what s going on. As we ve mentioned in the past, our bishops and our stake presidents spend almost all of their time dealing with members of the Church who are stained by these earth stains and helping them to repent before this day runs out. So, going back to verse 5: if the Gentiles repent it shall be well with them; Why? Shoot back up to number 2 because it says, they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father, the remnant of Jacob. This is the group that is going to construct the New Jerusalem, along with others. But it is the responsibility of Joseph, and in particular, Ephraim to oversee the building of the New Jerusalem. So you want to be in that group where the Lord says in verse 5: it shall be well with them; Now, look at what else he says: and thou also knowest concerning the covenants of the Lord unto the house of Israel; and thou also hast heard that whoso repenteth not must perish. [6] Therefore, wo unto the Gentiles Here we go, let s think members of the Church now: 121

122 Mike Stroud if it so be that they harden their hearts against the Lamb of God. Everything you see promised, it will be well with them, but in verse 6 the opposite is if they don t repent, it will not be well with them. They will not be numbered among the house of Israel, and the seed of Lehi. In the middle of verse 3 it says they will end up in a place that the Lord calls their utter destruction : [7] For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; That s harkening over to Isaiah 29. A couple of podcasts ago, we talked about that when I was in Adam-ondi-Ahman. I believe the great, marvelous work at the deepest, most significant levels for us in our day is to come up, obtain a Zion status with the Lord, have all these promises and privileges bestowed upon us, and obtain a translation state: a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds Here comes that captivity thing again: unto their being brought down into the captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken. So, what do we get out of these verses here? These first seven verses are pointing right to our day, right now, and what they re talking about is going to happen. It was future when Nephi saw this vision, but it is happening right now. And you and I who are studying these concepts and being guided by the Spirit and learning these things, are a part of that group. We are a part, and if we re not, we need to quickly repent, so that we can be numbered among the house of Israel, the seed of Lehi, in the transition period that is coming up. Now, I want you to skip down to verse 10, and I want to look at a scripture that s very famous. I had a really neat insight this week as I was studying it. The angel is speaking to Nephi: And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth. 122

123 Highly Favored of the Lord III Nephi uses the term the church loosely. They didn t have churches in Nephi s day. The closest they had to that was synagogue and baptized members of the Church met in homes. So, it s really a word that s a little bit confusing. To us, when we see these churches, we think of all of these steeples sticking out in Gilbert, Arizona and up in Orem, Utah, and that s what we identify with the word church. Actually this church, and especially when it says the church of the devil, can be anything that takes you away from Christ. It is anything that is anti-christ. Whether it is religious organizations, whether it s governmental, or socioeconomic, it doesn t matter; if it moves you away from the Savior, it is the church of the devil. Now this other church we re going to read a couple of verses, and I m going to show you that I can see where some people say the church of the Lamb of God is not talking about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Let s go down to verse 11: And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. Now we re going to look at the church the Lamb of God: [12] And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, This part right here, you re going to want to underline: and its numbers were few, That s the part I have triple underlined, and I circled the word few. Why? because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; Now in the past, I ve interpreted that part to say that in comparison with a population of 7 billion people on the earth and organization of 15 million is very few. So, I used to interpret it that way, still keeping that the church of the Lamb of God is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. And then it goes on and says: nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; See that fit well; I didn t have any problem that. We ve got congregants everywhere in the world: and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small. I have that word small circled, and then I ve run a line up and connected it with few. I looked up the definition of dominion, and it 123

124 Mike Stroud says, territory of a sovereign. That sovereign is a person over the natural world, and a person who has dominion has absolute ownership. Those are definitions of dominion. So I thought, Okay, I ve got a couple questions about the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in using the word dominion. But I m okay with that; I ll just let it go. Let s go down to verse 13: [13] And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God. We re talking about our day here, and it s talking about a warfare from this great abominable church, from among the nations of the Gentiles, who fight against the Lamb of God. We re still okay there. Now, verse 14 starts to throw a little monkey-wrench in the whole thing: And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; This part right here: and they, Meaning those who are few, whose dominion is small, who are scattered throughout all the face of the earth, who the Lord refers to as the saints of the church of the Lamb. It says: and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. Now, I started looking among the membership of the Church. I started to question; does that fit the bill for the membership of the Church? While I was pondering that, I had a thought come to my mind, and this was just exciting for me because this is a verse that if you misunderstand it, it could draw you away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are many people who quote this verse to show the Church is not the church of the Lamb of God. And so, as I was reading and pondering this, the thought came to me: The church of the Lamb of God has two parts to it just like the dispensation of the fullness of times has two parts. It has the day of the Gentile, which is preparatory to and precedes the day of Israel. I had the thought that the church of the Lamb of God has two parts to it: one is Aaronic, and the other is Melchizedek, and it fits perfectly. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Aaronic portion of the church of the Lamb of God. The other part that is armed with great glory and power upon all the face of the earth is the Melchizedek part of the church of the Lamb of God, the one leading 124

125 Highly Favored of the Lord III to and a precursor to the other. And now all of a sudden I can see within the church of the Lamb of God, part A is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and part B is the church of the Firstborn. Now all of a sudden, everything starts to click. All these verses, from verse 10 where it says, there are save two churches only, all the way through to verse 15 where it stops talking about this particular concept, now fit beautifully, and comfortably. You can see that the Aaronic Priesthood, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prepares members for the Melchizedek Priesthood part which you begin to get when you enter into the temple. Remember that Brigham Young said that all the ordinances of the temple, beginning with the initiatory, are ordinances of the church of the Firstborn. None of the ordinances in the temple pertain to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But you can t get into the temple without first going through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. So, I can see where both the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and the church of the Firstborn are a part of the church of the Lamb of God, the one preparing the way for the other. If we will let it, the Aaronic portion moves us up to receive the everlasting portion. There are other references that identify with the church of the Firstborn in addition to the church of the Lamb of God. One is that organization that has a book where the Saints of God s names are written in the book of the Lamb of God. Another one is the book of life, and another one is the book of the names of the sanctified of the celestial world. All of these are pertaining to the church the Firstborn, which is the Melchizedek portion of the church of the Lamb of God. Not everyone who enters into the temple obtains the church of the Firstborn. It is an initiation. It s teaching you how to obtain that. The temple is a template for membership in the church of the Firstborn. We don t get beyond the casual attending of the temple and doing the work for our kindred dead, which is a mighty work. But because we don t take those temple ordinances, covenants, signs, tokens, names, and everything that we learn there and let them take us into full membership of the church of the Firstborn, then we have verse 12: And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few. And this would also fit because in verse 12 when it says, their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, dominions really start to apply toward royalty. Dominions don t apply to servants; they don t apply to strangers outside the household. They apply to heirs and heiresses, princes and princesses, who ultimately become kings and queens. There s no wonder why the dominions of the Saints of God that 125

126 Mike Stroud were upon all the face of the earth were small. But nonetheless, look down at the bottom verse 14. Those who obtain that dominion: were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. So, that was a fun thing for me to discover this week. The Lord showed me how I could look at the church of the Lamb of God, and make all of these verses in 1 Nephi chapter 14 fit very nicely and answer a question I ve had in my mind for quite a while. Well, I hope that helps tonight, and I hope that this information will be a blessing to you. Have a blessed week. We ll talk to you again next week. Resources: Joel 2:28 Isaiah 35:10...to Zion with songs of everlasting joy D&C 77:11 D&C 129:1-2, Christ referred to as having the office of an angel Ether 12:19...they had beheld with an eye of faith, and were glad. 1 Nephi 14:1-7, Nephi 20:16 D&C 29:7 2 Nephi 2:27-29 Isaiah 29:14...a marvelous work 126

127 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty-Four Podcast 054 Keeper of the Gate Well, my friends, Happy Birthday to you! You re saying, What birthday? Why it s exactly one year to the day that we started the podcasts. What an interesting time this has been for Margie and I. Let me just tell you how this all started. We served missions in various places of the world. Two of those three missions were CES (Church Education System) missions. The fact that I was a retired Church Education System employee made it a natural thing for us to be considered to serve CES missions. The first mission we went on was to Mongolia, and our assignment was to train the first ever, professional, full-time CES country director for the country of Mongolia. He is a marvelous man that I still meet with weekly on Skype and is now the first stake president of that country. I remember when we first met. Training him to be a CES man would not be difficult at all. He s a very bright man with a Ph.D. in Forestry from Moscow University and was being trained by the Russian political system to become a communist boss. He has a very interesting background. Within the first two hours of arriving, I sat down with him and had a private one-on-one. I looked at him, and said, President Odgerel, what do you know about the atonement of Jesus Christ? He was the district president at that time and had been a member for about ten years. He bowed his head, looked down into his lap, then he looked me right in the eye and said, Elder Stroud, I don t know anything about the Atonement. I said, That s a good place to start. That began an exciting in-depth study of the scriptures. Training him to be a CES country director was only incidental to what we did. Every day at a certain time, we would go 127

128 Mike Stroud into a room, shut the door, take the phones off the hook, take our scriptures, and we began at the beginning of the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi chapter 1, verse 1. During the two years I was in Mongolia, we went through all of the Book of Mormon verse by verse, all of the Doctrine and Covenants verse by verse, all of the Pearl of Great Price verse by verse, and much of the New Testament. When we came back, he asked if it would be possible to continue our study, so we set up Skype meetings. I have been meeting with him every week for ten years, and we have gone through every verse of all of the standard works of the Church together. What a marvelous experience that has been. It was his request that we continue to study, that kind of started all of this. We also had some people in Austria who wanted to do the same thing. We went to the Philippines on a second mission, and again my assignment was, among other things, to teach institute classes to the adults. They didn t have any adult religion classes. So, I taught adult religion class and institute classes every day, five days a week, for a year and a half in the Philippines. When we got ready to leave, those good people asked the question, Elder Stroud, is there any way we can continue to study together? So, that added another group with the Mongolian group that we continued to get together with, at first on s and then later on Skype, and finally through the podcasts. We went to New Jersey on a third mission, a young single adult mission. We worked with the young people ages 18 to 30 there, and it was a CES mission again. My job was to teach institute classes and then to party with these kids. That was really hard for me because I m not by nature a partying person, but I ll tell you that in New Jersey, I learned how to do it. So, when we left New Jersey, guess what! Some of the people there that we had learned to love said, Brother Stroud, is there any way we can continue to study? They wanted to continue these classes. One of those young women there, Kate Foster, talked to Margie and said, Instead of doing this through s, have you ever thought about doing it on podcast? Neither one of us had ever heard about podcasts. But my sweetheart, who is extremely talented in computer science and IT, went to work and before long she had a system set up where we could record these classes and put them on the internet via the podcast, and that s kind of how it came to pass. So anyway, it s been one year, and it started out with those small groups of people. There were probably less than thirty people in three or four nations that we were studying with, and I would record little lessons and then put those out for other people to hear. And now a year later, this has gone way beyond what we ever thought that it would, to my 128

129 Highly Favored of the Lord III amazement and to my great joy because through the podcast system, Margie and I have made some wonderful new friends. We continue every day to learn as people share their stories and their experiences. Some of these experiences are very sacred, and they share them as they feel prompted to by the Spirit. I am grateful that they cast their pearls to us, and those pearls bless our lives in ways that we could never have imagined. So, Happy Birthday to the religion class podcast series. With that, my announcement is that this mission now comes to a close. We have had feelings and have received blessings and have had multiple witnesses over the last two months that this mission (we look upon it as a mission) was coming to a close. We ve felt the day was not far away that the purpose of the Lord would be fulfilled and there would no longer be a need for us to do what we have been doing. And so, this weekend as Margie and I were getting ready to go to the temple over in Snowflake, we were thinking about whether it is time for us to make some changes here. There are a number of reasons for that, but the main reason is that we don t want to be between anyone and the Lord Jesus Christ. We just don t want to be in that place. It s not like that s designed to happen; it just appears to be the nature of this kind of a program that we ve been doing for a year. For persons like myself who are sharing knowledge and are teaching, lecturing, doing workshops or classes, or whatever you want to call it, it s very, very easy to slip into a place where that teacher and those that he teaches consider him a light to the world. Without really trying, you find yourself between those that you are teaching and the Lord. I think it must be a part of our human nature, especially our fallen nature, living in a dying world, to want to take those who the Lord sets up for guides and directors for us and to put them up as the light on the hill. That sets them up so that they are now considered as being the fount of all knowledge and wisdom and experience. The subtle trap is that it begins to rob people of their precious right to go to the Lord and receive personal revelation. So we sensed that that was a challenge and a danger. I have been aware that pride is always in the wings, especially as the classes got bigger and the numbers got bigger. You ve been so gracious in the things that you have said and kind in your words. It is very easy for Satan to take that whole situation and twist it to where it becomes an issue where you can easily begin to seek for the honors of men and the things of this world. I have said in my podcasts, that those are the two great disqualifiers for power in the priesthood, as per section 121. Yesterday, we went to the temple with that in mind and were considering making some changes and maybe discontinuing or at least 129

130 Mike Stroud stopping the program we designed. We went to the temple with a prayer in our hearts and when we came out the decision had been made, and it had been confirmed by the Holy Spirit that there were some changes to be made. So, here is what we are going to do: the regular, scheduled, Sunday night podcasts will now cease. There will not be any more weekly podcasts. That s not to say that if at some time in the future, the Lord impresses me that I need to share with people in the podcast community some precious truth that I have been taught or some insights, that I won t get online and record a little message and put it out. We have been doing this every week. You ll notice now that there are 52 or 53 different podcasts there. That s one per week, and we ve been pretty strict on that. That will now end. There won t be any more regular Sunday podcasts. We are going to leave the podcasts online for awhile so you can continue to share that information with your friends. From what you ve told us it s a valuable thing. The people that have been in charge of seeing that our first book was put into print, Highly Favored of the Lord, which is the first twelve podcasts, will continue to put those podcasts in a book form and make them available, at no cost other than printing and putting the book out. Nobody makes any money. I m very careful to avoid what the Book of Mormon calls priestcraft, and that is being compensated for preaching the word of God or teaching the Doctrine of Christ. If these books will help you in your study of the doctrines, we will do that. Some people have said that it is so much better to have the written word in front of them. I just want it to be a blessing and help to people s lives. That is our main desire and what we d like to see happen. As people have communicated with me personally, they have found me saying, more and more, that you need to take it to the Lord. There is always a place for mentors in this journey that we are on. I once asked one of my mentors a question about a gospel topic, and he said this, I was about to answer that, but then the Holy Ghost said, I ll take that. I ve never forgotten that. I asked him a question, and he had the answer but he deflected to a God, and the God told him I ll take that. I think, too often, as we do our studying, our due diligence, and our pondering, that if we could see the Holy Ghost, He would kind of be over in the corner with His arms folded, tapping his foot and saying, When is it my turn? So, in summary, the regular Sunday podcasts, as of today, I will not air on a weekly basis anymore. If I have something that I want to share with you and you re following the podcast, then when I post that it will automatically go out and you will receive a notification. We will keep that option open. If we are too busy to talk about the doctrine of Christ, 130

131 Highly Favored of the Lord III then we re too dang busy, and we need to realign our priorities. We re all on the same journey and moving in the same direction. I d like to share with you a scripture. If you ll go with me to 2 Nephi 9:41: O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name. The fact that he employeth no servant there, is what motivated us to decide what we have with the podcasts. Everything in this world is combined to put somebody or something between you and the keeper of the gate. Mentors, leaders, general authorities, prophets, apostles are all guides. They are all directors. They are pointing you to the Holy One. What happens to us is that we get hung up at the guide and director level, and we look to them. So, in essence, your path, at that point, has an employee between you and the Savior. You have to use wisdom on that. As we were considering doing what we talked about here, an interesting thing came to my mind. For a year of podcasts, it s interesting that the very first podcast had to do with the foundation of all of the doctrine of Christ, as the Holy Spirit/the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghost, and the relationship between those two. That was the very first podcast. I can thank Brother John Pontius and his marvelous book, Following the Light of Christ into His Presence, for setting that foundation for me and my own personal growth and expansion in the doctrine of Christ. What an appropriate way to start out our podcast series. And then it ended last week (even though last week I hadn t intended on it being ended) with a podcast called, The Tip of the Spear, which deals with the doctrine of translation. Translation is the highest honor that a man and woman can be blessed with in this telestial world. Everything in the scriptures is pointing us toward that. Here we are living in the day when translation is a reality and will become more so as each day and each week goes by. So, we did this without thinking about it, and I can see the hand of the Lord in the podcast series. It started from the foundation of listening to, heeding, and harkening to the voice of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Ghost, and goes all the way up to being among those people the Lord will use in the coming day while obtaining the greatest of all things that you can obtain in this life. That day is soon coming, fast approaching, where He will bring those which 131

132 Mike Stroud have been gathered and prepared, to serve as rescuers and saviors for their brothers and sisters who are trapped in a dying world. So, I think that s appropriate that we covered the full spectrum in 52 broadcasts, from the foundation to the very Tip of the Spear. So, brothers and sisters, we love you so much. We have learned so much from you. The Lord has been so gracious and kind to Margie and me! We continue now, our quest, to obtain the face of God and to receive the Second Comforter. How blessed we would be to be translated and a part of the 144,000 who rescue their brothers and sisters in a decaying, world, preparatory to the establishment of Zion and the coming of the New Jerusalem. We are so grateful to be a part of this. I bear you my testimony of these things and all that I have taught in these podcasts over the last year. All of it can be summed up into one thing: the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Holy Messiah, amen. Resources: 2 Nephi 26:29, definition of priestcrafts Following the Light of Christ into His Presence by John Pontius 2 Nephi 9:41 132

133 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty-Five Podcast 055 Tying Up Loose Ends Hello, my friends! It s good to be back with you again. It s been a couple of months, and I m excited to be able to discuss some things with you this Sunday afternoon. I think we ll entitle this podcast Tying Up Loose Ends. It will be a discussion in several different areas that I feel impressed to talk about this afternoon. I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will be with us and that the Holy Ghost will give me utterance so that what I say will be edifying to all of us. It s my pleasure to be able to announce to you that there will be a three-hundred-page document that accompanies this podcast. I m so excited to have permission to be able to do this. Let me tell you a little bit about it. Some of you have read John Pontius s book The Triumph of Zion: Our Personal Quest for the New Jerusalem. I know many of you have read it, and if you haven t and you feel a desire to be a part of the establishment of Zion that is underway right now, you need to get this book by Brother Pontius; read that, and then reread it. I know Margie just completed it again. We ve both read it two or three times, and each time we read it, new things come to our attention as a result of the progress that we re making and where we are on our own individual path. The quoted material, scriptures, and prophetic utterance material for that book were given to Brother Pontius by Brother Joshua Mariano. Brother Mariano lives in Missouri. I was able to come into contact with him this week, and he has compiled three hundred pages of scripture quotes, verses, and prophetic 133

134 Mike Stroud utterance and has entitled it Zion and the Doctrine of Translation. [see link to pdf in the reference section at the end of this chapter]. What a marvelous service Joshua has provided for all of us who are seeking to know the Lord s will for us concerning the establishment of Zion, the ordination of the 144,000 and the doctrine of translation. He has given me permission to post that on this podcast, and so you will have that information for your consideration. Thank you, Joshua, for your kindness in allowing us to have this. What a marvelous service you ve provided. For those of us who feel the call to be a part of what s unfolding right now, this will be a scriptural and prophetic handbook for us to use as we seek to fulfill our prophetic destiny and foreordination, as these events unfold. Thank you, Brother Mariano. Over this past year, while the podcasts were presented on a weekly basis every Sunday, there were several of them that have elicited more response than others. One of them was the very first podcast called The Holy Spirit; that is podcast 001. I didn t know it at the time, but that was exactly where the Lord wanted that discussion to be, at the beginning of a year-long series of podcasts. The information in that podcast ended up being the foundation necessary in order to move forward and accomplish what we hoped to do as a result of these recordings. It has information that is not well understood by the members of the Church, and I ve received many, many comments about that podcast, the majority of which were thanking me for explaining the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Light of Christ and how those two come together. I m glad that s been a blessing to you, and that it s provided a foundation. There have been questions, however, when we talk about the sacramental prayer and that the Spirit that is spoken of at the end of both a blessing on the bread and the blessing on the water, as being the spirit of Christ and that differing from the Holy Ghost. I am aware that that distinction between those two is not made by some authorities within the Church. I choose not to make a comment as to why that is. All I know is that there is a difference between the two and that the Spirit spoken of at the end the sacramental prayers is the Light of Christ, and is not the Holy Ghost. I choose not to make any accusations, nor question why people teach that. But to me, it s clear that it is talking about the Light of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, the Light of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and that the covenant that we make with the Lord every Sunday, provides an opportunity for us to have the direction of the Light of Christ with us throughout the rest of the week. I think the confusion comes with the term Holy Spirit and that most often when authorities refer to the Holy 134

135 Highly Favored of the Lord III Ghost in their talks and in their discourses, they use the term Holy Spirit. And that is totally appropriate. But the term Holy Spirit can also be used to describe the Light of Christ, which is different from the Holy Ghost. They are both holy. And so, to understand how the one works in comparison to the other or how one works in conjunction with the other, you have to take a look at the content and the context of the scripture. That s the only way for you to draw distinction in your study as to the roles of these two Holy Spirits: the one being an it, a channel and a medium, and the other one being a man. We ve talked about that in great detail, so there s no need to go into that. I think one of the greatest quotes on this is by Bruce R. McConkie in his book, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pages 257 through 258. Again, just part of it says this: There is a spirit the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Christ, the light of truth, the light of Christ that defies description and is beyond mortal comprehension. It is in us and in all things; it is around us and around all things; it fills the earth and the heavens and the universe. It is everywhere, in all immensity, without exception; it is an indwelling, immanent, ever-present, never-absent spirit. It has neither shape nor form nor personality. It is not an entity nor a person nor a personage. It has no agency, does not act independently, and exists not to act but to be acted upon. As far as we know, it has no substance and is not material, at least as we measure these things. It is variously described as light and life and law and truth and power. It is the light of Christ; it is the life that is in all things; it is the law by which all things are governed; it is truth shining forth in darkness; it is the power of God who sitteth upon his throne. It may be that it is also priesthood and faith and omnipotence, for these too are the power of God. That is that famous quote. Now, the part that I didn t have in the handout, I m going to add: The light of Christ is neither the Holy Ghost nor the gift of the Holy Ghost; but that member of the Godhead, because he along with the Father and the Son is God, uses the light of Christ for his purposes. Thus spiritual gifts, the gifts of God meaning faith, miracles, prophecy, and all the rest come from God by the power of the Holy Ghost. Men prophesy, for instance, when moved 135

136 Mike Stroud upon by the Holy Ghost. And yet Moroni says: All these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ, Catch this part right here: meaning that the Holy Ghost uses the light of Christ to transmit his gifts. But the Spirit of Christ, by which the Holy Ghost operates, is no more the Holy Ghost himself than the light and heat of the sun are the sun itself. Again, I don t profess to understand why in some of our conferences and some of our manuals and in some of our teachings, that the distinction is not clearly drawn between these two. But enough general authorities and prophetic utterance exist for us to make that distinction and move forward in our studies, our personal understanding, and to use that understanding as we worship God the Eternal Father in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, that we may worship them in light and truth. I will not make accusations nor find fault with anyone. I will simply seek to know the truth by the power of revelation, through the spirit of revelation and prophecy. I hope that helps. Another area I would like to address has to do with priesthood administrations and ministrations. I d like to share with you three scriptures that help me as I perform priesthood ordinances in behalf of those who request them. Let s go to Doctrine and Covenants section 24, and let s just look at a couple of scriptures; verses 13 and 14. Brethren, this is for you, and if it helps you that is wonderful, but this is what I do whenever I m asked to bless somebody and give them a priesthood blessing. I like to go in and sit down and go over these three scriptures with them. Teach them what the Lord has said about using the priesthood to bless, administer, and heal. Let s look at verse 13. And the Lord says: Require not miracles, except I shall command you, And here is a second except. Look: except casting out devils, healing the sick, and against poisonous serpents, and against deadly poisons; Now, notice the exceptions here. Require not miracles, except I shall command you. There are a group of miracles that you are not to perform unless God commands it. Let me give you one example. Put your finger here and go over to section 124 in the Doctrine and Covenants. If you want to get a feel for this, you would actually would start in verse 91 and go all the way through to verse 100. This is the word of the Lord to Hyrum Smith and William Law. The content and context behind these scriptures are that Hyrum Smith was being released as the Assistant President of the Church to take up his role as the Church Patriarch, and William Law was being called into the first presidency as 136

137 Highly Favored of the Lord III a counselor to Joseph Smith. Now, you can read the blessing on Hyrum, the word of the Lord concerning Hyrum, from verses 91 down through 96. Those are great blessings and wonderful information for another lesson, but I want to go to verse 97: Let my servant William Law also receive the keys by which he may ask and receive blessings; That has a direct reference to this signs, tokens, names, and keywords that will be revealed in the Nauvoo era in the future. You ll notice that everything, all the blessings that are spoken here in section 24, are future, something that s coming. Continuing on, with verse 97: let him be humble before me, and be without guile, and he shall [notice the future tense] receive of my Spirit, even the Comforter, which shall manifest unto him the truth of all things, and shall give him, in the very hour, what he shall say. And then it lists some gifts that William Law has available to him as a holder of the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood. These gifts, by the way, belong to that. Notice as it starts, it says: [98] And these signs shall follow him he shall heal the sick, he shall cast out devils, and shall be delivered from those who would administer unto him deadly poison; Now you see, that s a direct reference right back over to section 24: [99] And he shall be led in paths where the poisonous serpent cannot lay hold upon his heel, and he shall mount up in the imagination of his thoughts as upon eagles wings. We re going to come back to that in just a moment on another section. But watch this part right here in verse 100: And what if I will... You see that? What if I will. Now, go back to section 24 where it says, Require not miracles, except I shall command you. There are certain miracles that you don t go into unless you are absolutely directed by God to do that. Notice what it says: And what if I will that he should raise the dead, let him not withhold his voice. That s the first exception. But now there s another group that you can move into as priesthood bearers. Notice the second group of things. The except here is an exception to the little phrase, I command you. These are areas that by virtue of the priesthood which we hold are inherent in that ordination to use that priesthood to perform these miracles. The first one, interestingly enough, that he lists is to cast out devils, then healing the sick, against poisonous serpents, etc. etc.: 137

138 Mike Stroud [14] And these things ye shall not do, except There s the third exception: it be required of you by them who desire it. So, casting out devils, healing the sick, those kinds of gifts, those kinds of administrations, should not be done except required by those who desire it. Now, you need to teach the doctrine. There are a lot of people who are not going to request having devils cast out or being healed of sickness and disease because they don t understand doctrine, so they re not going to request it. This is where you come in, as a righteous priesthood bearer, and you teach them the doctrine. There are so many people in the world that believe that you can t request a priesthood blessing unless you re gasping your last breath and the hearse is backed up to the door. We need to teach that the priesthood and the blessings of the priesthood are available as a service and a blessing from Father in Heaven to His children, and they don t have to be on death s door to wait to have a priesthood blessing. We need to teach them the doctrine of devils and unclean spirits so when they understand that doctrine, they can look to you and say, Would you give me a blessing to this extent? Would you do that for me? We re going to talk a little bit about that in just a minute also. Requesting the blessing is an act of faith. And these people need to understand the doctrine before they ll request the blessing, and thereby exercise faith onto deliverance and healing. So, I thought that was an important scripture. Let s go over to one more; let s go to section 35. I go over with these scriptures with people before I lay my hands on their head and give them a blessing. These are the three, so brethren of the priesthood out there, I m doing this for you because I found it to be worthwhile and a blessing in my life and in the blessings of those to whom we are called to minister. Let s go to verses 8 through 11. Verse 8: For I am God, and mine arm is not shortened; and I will show miracles, signs, and wonders, unto all those who believe on my name. That ties back to section 24; when a person requests a blessing, they obviously have the faith and belief necessary to receive that ministration. But you may have to do some teaching before we get to this point. Remember that it is true doctrine understood that changes behavior. People are not going to move or act if they don t understand the doctrine involved: [9] And whoso shall ask in my name in faith, Look at the first thing again! Here it is again: they shall cast out devils; 138

139 Highly Favored of the Lord III I find it interesting that in the New Testament, wherever Lord talks about faith to perform miracles, He says, in my name, and all those who believe in My name. You see, that s male and female; that s just not male. Mark 16:17: And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; The first thing listed is to, cast out devils. Then heal the sick, and then it goes from there. I know a man who struggled with depression; I mentioned this one time. I went up and first of all, taught him this doctrine. His depression became so debilitating at times that he couldn t even get out of bed and had suicidal thought tendencies. So I taught him the principle of these devils and unclean spirits. It was my feeling, and I testified to him that this was the cause and encouraged him to receive a blessing that would cast out these devils and unclean spirits and send them on their way. Well, he had a degree in human psychology, and his feeling was that this whole process of casting out devils belonged to an older, less enlightened time. He believed that we now have access to scientific models and information that we don t cast out devils anymore. I thought, Boy, how the devils in Hell rejoice in that kind of thinking because it further shrouds them in their anonymity that keeps them from being exposed to the light! Going back to section 35, verse 9: And whoso shall ask it in my name in faith, they shall cast out devils; they shall heal the sick; they shall cause the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. [10] And the time speedily cometh that great things are to be shown forth unto the children of men; Notice that he was saying that those things were in the future from right now, the time when this was given. This is in the 1830 s. I want to testify to you that the time for great things to be shown unto the children of men is NOW. It s happening NOW. And it s going to become more so. So, if there ever was a need, for example, for casting out devils and healing the sick in the past, it is more so NOW, as we ll see from a couple of things I want to discuss with you. And the need for that is not going to be diminished; it s going to increase exponentially as we move closer and closer to the end time events that the scriptures talk about: [11] But without faith shall not anything be shown forth except desolations upon Babylon, So, we ve learned a few things here, that the Lord s arm isn t shortened, it wasn t shortened in 1830 in comparison to the New Testament times, and it s not shortened now in 2017 as we near the of the day of the 139

140 Mike Stroud Gentile. In fact, things are stirred up and in more turmoil now than they ever were in 1830 or in the early days of the Church. So, the need to do these things is increasing. Now, let s look at one more scripture. Let s go to section 42 in the Doctrine and Covenants. I remember when I saw this one, I was just amazed. I had read it so many times in my life but had not seen it. I know that in the chapter heading, section 42 is referred to as the law, and it says: The prophet specifies this revelation as embracing the law of the Church. So, let s go to verse 43: And whosoever among you are sick, And I would put, with diseases or afflicted with devils; doesn t matter. And this part right here is the part we never see. This is the part that we read, and we verbalize the words, but we don t see it: and have not faith to be healed, but believe, Now, we re going to see two groups of people here. The first group are people that don t have the faith to be healed, but believe. In other words, they believe that healing is possible, they just don t believe that it can take place to them. They re weak in their faith concerning the ministration of the priesthood to them. And yet, these may be people who have men who have participated in priesthood ministrations upon others and maybe even seen miraculous results but don t have the faith necessary in whatever circumstances they find themselves in, to be healed. Well, look at what you should do: shall be nourished with all tenderness, with herbs and mild food, and that not by the hand of an enemy. [44] And the elders of the church, two or more, shall be called, and shall pray for them and lay their hands upon them in my name; and if they die they shall die unto me, and if they live they shall live unto me. Notice that it doesn t say anything about healing. It s a big if, everything in this. These are people that are sick or afflicted but do not have the faith to be healed. They are to be nourished with tenderness; they are to be prayed over and administered to by the brethren, anointed with oil, lay their hands upon them, and pray for them. But there s no promise there that anything is going to take place as a result. Now, skip down to verse 48 for the second group: And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath faith in me to be healed, 140

141 Highly Favored of the Lord III See those two groups? Why, I ve read that a hundred times and never saw those two groups for decades. And then the Lord showed those to me, and I went, Oh my! Now, look at this one: he that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, Stop right there. Here s the little clause in there. They have faith to be healed, but they re not appointed unto death. What that means is that every one of us has an appointment to leave this life. There is a date set. President Kimball said: I am positive in my mind that the Lord has planned our destiny. We can shorten our lives, but I think we cannot lengthen them very much. And millions do shorten it through the improper use of their more moral agency. But you can t lengthen it. I can think of only one scriptural example of where a man s appointed death date was lengthened, and that was Hezekiah in the Old Testament. If I remember right, it was lengthened out fifteen years. I haven t looked at that, but nonetheless, it doesn t matter. Now, look at verse 44 again. If you have faith in the Lord to be healed, and it s not your time to go, look: shall be healed. And then it goes on and says: [49] He who hath faith to see shall see. [50] He who hath faith to hear shall hear. [51] The lame who hath faith the leap shall leap. [52] And they who have not faith to do these things, but believe in me, have power to become my sons; This is Christ speaking, so you have power to have the born-again experience that the Book of Mormon talks about where Christ becomes your father and you become His child, and you re adopted into the royal family of Christ: and inasmuch as they break not my laws thou shalt bear their infirmities. These are interesting things if we re not in such a rush and stop and take some time to look. So, what do I get out of these scriptures? What I do after I go over these with them, I tell people, If it is not your time to die and if you have faith to be healed, God says that you will be healed. Now, I don t have the information on hand as to whether your time to leave is here are not. Since I don t have that information, I m going to act, unless the Lord reveals to me in the administration, that your time to die is here. But you know what, in all of the blessings I ve given over my lifetime, I ve never had the Lord reveal to me that it is this person s time to die. I ve not had that revelation. So, without me knowing that 141

142 Mike Stroud and if the person has faith to be healed, I go ahead and pronounce the blessing that they re going to be healed. I speak the words. But one thing I do, after having gone through these three scriptures, I look at the person before they re anointed with oil, and I ask them, Brother or Sister, do you have faith that the Lord Jesus Christ can deliver you from affliction or heal you from disease and sickness? I want to know that. I ask them that. I never give a blessing but what I don t ask that. And I wait for their affirmation. If they say, Yes, Brother Stroud, I do, then I ask them another question. Would you offer a little prayer and pray for us, those who are about to pronounce this blessing? Would you offer a prayer and pray for us that the Lord will bless us with His Spirit that we may speak in His place as though it were Him giving you this blessing? I ask them that. So, what we ve done now is taught them out of the scriptures. Brethren, when you re asked to administer, take some time and go in and teach the word of God. These are three scriptures that I use, and it helps them. They ve already asked me to come in for a blessing, so by the time I ve gone over these three scriptures the real question is, Do you have faith to be healed? That s the question. And I want them to verbalize that to me, and when they do, then I know that their faith is sufficient. I also know that I am clean. They have faith to be healed. I m clean to pronounce the blessing, and I have the priesthood authority and the mandate from the scriptures to do so. I can then proceed with confidence and pronounce a healing blessing and whatever else the Spirit moves me to speak, and I do so with faith that those things will be realized upon the head of this person. I hope that helps. But brethren, we are timid; we are way too timid! And I think the timidity and our hesitance comes, at least in part, because we lack knowledge. And hopefully, you ll mark these three scriptures and try an experiment. The next time you re invited to go in and give a blessing, sit down, and go over these three scriptures, the word of God, with the person who has asked for a blessing. Watch the Spirit pour into the room as you use God s word in teaching, prior to ministering. It s a powerful concept. I also use the power of quorums. Notice that it says up in section 42, verse 44 that, the elders of the church, two or more, shall be called; two or more. Sometimes it s just me because the circumstances are such, but whenever I can, I always try to get three brethren to stand in and administer. I always anoint with oil. I never administer in the priesthood but what I use the oil. I know that that is contrary to some things that we ve been told, but what can I say? The fruits of the administration are success and if the Lord honors what you do with success, can there be anything wrong in it? Are we so hung 142

143 Highly Favored of the Lord III up on protocol, that we deny and stifle the Spirit? Brethren, the day is here. Listen to President Eyring in general conference last week and compare it with what was spoken a year ago in general priesthood meeting by President Nelson. We ve gone over that. You need to listen to what President Eyring said this time and again what President Nelson said. We need to move forward in the power and majesty of our priesthood. Don t be so restricted by protocol that you stifle the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. I m going to share with you something that I do, but you shouldn t do it just because I do. When I can, I find three men to come in, and we surround that person. Before we lay our hands on the person s head, the man or the woman, I ask them to say a prayer, and that invites the Spirit of the Lord in mightily. If it s a man or the father of the home is there, I tell him that I m not usurping his authority to ask for a prayer. But I ask, Would you pray for us who are about to lay our hands upon your head and administer a priesthood blessing to you, please? And invariably in that prayer, you re going to see a Spirit-directed prayer, from that man or that woman, where their heart is opened up, and the Spirit of the Lord just flows into that room. So, I recommend that you do that. Another thing that we do is that after we anoint with oil, the wording I use in the anointing is thus: By the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood, we anoint your head with this oil which has been consecrated for the purpose of... And then I list two purposes,...delivering the afflicted and healing the sick. And then close it in the name of the Son of God. The two main signs and privileges we have scripturally is to cast out devils and unclean spirits and to heal the sick; to deliver the afflicted and heal the sick. And so, I use those wordings in my anointing with oil. Then if there are three of us, we determine beforehand which one is going to seal the anointing and pronounce a blessing. And then the three of us surround that person with our hands upon their head, and after the person who has been chosen to pronounce the blessing finishes, he ll say, In the name of Jesus Christ, but we don t pronounce an amen. That is the sign for the next person in the circle to pronounce further blessings as directed by the Spirit, upon the brother or sister that s being blessed. When they get through with their pronouncement, they say In the name of Jesus Christ, but no amen. That then is the signal for the third person standing in the circle to pronounce a blessing as directed by the Spirit, and when that pronouncement is done, they say, In the name of Jesus Christ and pronounce the amen. This has been a wonderful experience for us to do. And is there any harm in that? For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And at times, at 143

144 Mike Stroud the end when all three of us have been over, the Holy Ghost inspired me for something else, and I ll say, Would you sit here just a minute? I need to pronounce an addendum to that blessing. Then, I ll pronounce their name, say what the Spirit has added to that, which the three of us may not have gotten but was inspired afterward, and pronounce that on their head, ending, In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. These are just some things for you to think about, brethren, so that we can begin to exercise our priesthood more fully. I guess the message here is that the scriptures want us to do more than we re doing. We re way too timid, and I think our timidity comes from a lack of knowledge and a lack of confidence. These scriptures, if nothing else, should give you confidence to go forward and move, especially when the Lord says, He that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed. You can work on that. You can take that. That s the word of God, for you, brethren, to move forward in the majesty of your priesthood callings. And don t pray over people. Pronounce a priesthood blessing. There s a difference between praying over somebody and pronouncing a priesthood blessing. At any rate, we re going to need to stand up and do much more than we ve been doing. I was riding a new horse one day, a beautiful horse; he s what s called a Rocky Mountain Spotted Walking Horse. He s just beautiful, but he was new. We had four horses in a trailer, and they worked themselves loose in the trailer while we were traveling. The people that put their horses in didn t tie them up well, and with the movement of the trailer, three out of the four horses were free. When we opened the back door, they just bolted, and we had to step out of the way. They just took off running, and we lost three out of the four horses. Well, I was the only one that had experience in chasing runaway horses and could rope them. So I took my black-and-white spotted horse out because it was the only one there. He was new, and I had ridden him but was not really familiar with him. He was all upset anyway because all of his friends had taken off and he s the only one there that was still tied down. I took him out, saddled him up real quick, threw my rope across the pommel and the horn, got on his back, got him to move, gave him a little nudge, and he just locked in. I mean, it was just like he was in an epileptic seizure. I thought, What the heck is this? He just stood there stiff-legged. So, I split the rein, and went to plow-rein him to one side, to kind of turn his head to get him going, and the minute I did that, he exploded and came up in a full rear. He came all away over and, what we call pancaked me. I had twelve hundred pounds of horse that came right over on me. The horn of the saddle glanced off my left breast, didn t come direct into me, so it was a glancing blow. Otherwise, I d have been dead. That s 144

145 Highly Favored of the Lord III what kills cowboys up in this area. There are many people in cemeteries up where I live here that have been killed by a rearing horse that came over on them. It s the horn of the saddle that gets you. It s like the steering wheel in an automobile in a head-on collision. When he came over on me, he immediately stood up and went off to the side and stood there, and Margie came over. My head missed the edge of the running board of the trailer by about a half inch, or that would have just definitely killed me. But he got me. He got me full-bore. When Margie came over, the first words out of my mouth were, He s killed me! I thought I was dead. I was curled up in a fetal position, and they wanted to straighten me out. I said, No, don t move me, don t move me. Once I knew I wasn t going to die, I said, Call for Wyatt. Get Wyatt over here and give me a blessing. Margie was holding me in her lap, and Wyatt, my niece's husband and an elder, came over. He had some oil, and he anointed my head and then started to proceed to give me a blessing. But, he was praying over me, and I needed him to say the words. I needed him to stand up in the power of his priesthood like he s never done before. I needed him to give me a priesthood blessing and pronounce that blessing. And so, I stopped him and said, Wyatt, I need you to say the words. I need you to be bold and say the words, because I knew I was badly hurt. And he did, bless his heart scared to death! But he got up there, and he said, I command you to be healed. I don t remember the exact word, but it was a command. I mean he just got up there and said, You re going to be alright. I command you to be blessed until you can receive medical help, etc. etc. Anyway, it was a marvelous blessing. The ambulance came up there and got me, and they radioed the hospital, told them what would probably happen. They were looking for the worst-case scenario. When I got down there, they cut my pants off; I still had boots and spurs on. They cut those off because they weren t sure how badly broken up I was. Long story short, I received another blessing in the hospital emergency room. They were preparing for the absolute worst-case scenario: broken back, crushed pelvis, punctured lungs, internal bleeding. You name it; they were prepared for it because that s usually what happens. What happened was: I broke three ribs on one side and was bruised from the back of my knee to the base of my neck. I was just black and blue but was able to walk away from that. That s what we need to do, brethren. We need to be bold in our priesthood, but with that, we need to also be clean, which takes me into the next areas I want to talk about. I am concerned about the increase in homosexuality, lesbianism, and the movement of the LGBT into the membership of the Church. I have some great concerns there, and I know the Brethren are concerned. This 145

146 Mike Stroud is a slippery slope. I ve put off doing this podcast for a couple of weeks because I wanted to make sure that I could approach this subject properly. I ve lived long enough to see where these issues were referred to as abominations and perversions. You can see in President Kimball s book, The Miracle of Forgiveness, how he viewed these things. He viewed them as they are viewed in the scriptures, in the Old Testament, Romans, and in the New Testament, as grievous sins and an abomination in the sight of the Lord. I ve lived long enough to see how we, as a people, have come to a point where we now talk about inclusiveness; and I agree with inclusiveness. I firmly believe that we should love the sinner because I know that God does. And I know that He is no respecter of persons in His love. But I also know that He favors those who keep His commandments. I ve lived to see where we, as members of the Church, have come to a point where we are enduring what s going on amongst us more than we should. We are embracing the sin and offering no hope or thought on how to be delivered from this compulsion, this addiction, this attraction or whatever you want to call it. We re living in a day when no one is offering any solution to this other than inclusivity. Now, I want to be quick to point out that I am not finding fault with anything that the Church and the leadership of the Church are doing. I have no idea what goes on in the council chambers of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. I have no idea of what s going on in the mind of Father and Christ concerning this issue that is plaguing the members more and more. I choose to support the Brethren. I choose to say they are walking a very fine line on a slippery razor s edge to deal with sin, and at the same time keep the direction, focus, and purpose of the Church moving forward. They are trying to minimize the negative press, which is all too ready to castigate and condemn the Church for whatever it does, and still keep the missionary operations of the Church successful to find the pure in heart, and bring them to Christ through the ordinances of the gospel and the message of the restoration. With that said, I am in no position to make any kind of a judgment or to find fault and accuse. I refuse to do that because it s satanic anyway, and I will not align myself there. With that said, I want to offer some information that s not being spoken of, along with a handout that I believe will be a blessing to those who struggle with same-gender attraction, homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, and all other sins (and that s what they are) of this nature. What I d like to propose is that these are caused primarily by devils and unclean spirits. I have no idea of DNA or genetic predisposition; I don t know that. And so, I m not going to say that all of 146

147 Highly Favored of the Lord III this is caused by that, but I have a feeling that the majority of it is, and let me explain to you why. Let s take a heterosexual man who has been married and has fathered children and then suddenly starts to have these attractions toward his same sex. It just seems to come out of nowhere. It builds and builds until all of a sudden this temple-married father suddenly tells his wife he s gay, has a lover, and doesn t want to be with her anymore. Then he just ups and leaves his family. I hear about this all of the time, and it happens to women who have married and borne children also. What I d like to present to you is that this man is possessed with an adulterous, immoral female spirit who once lived on the earth and was immoral during her lifetime. She lived and died without redemption from those addictions and compulsions and took them with her into the spirit world. Those immoral tendencies were enhanced and intensified after death, and she finds some kind of relief from that by possessing, in this case, a man. That man then starts to feel the emotions, passions, desires, and appetites of this immoral female spirit that is inside of him. What s his desire going to be? It s going to be for another man. Likewise, for a woman who has desires for another woman, it is because she is possessed by a male spirit who was immoral, an adulterer, a fornicator, and a whoremonger in life and died in those sins. In Hell, those sins are enhanced and intensified, and that male spirit possesses a woman in this life, and his compulsions, addictions, desires, and appetites are going to be for women. The woman he possessed is going to feel an attraction to women. Now, take this throughout all of these situations, and you can apply it in every way. By the way, brothers and sisters, little children are not immune from evil spirit affliction. The scriptures say they can t be tempted, but the scriptures are also clear that children are afflicted by evil spirits. I m presenting this: could it be that this is the case with some children at an early age? I m seeing teenagers, now, that are exhibiting these same-sex, same-gender attractions to other teenagers in our wards and branches. Are they in the beginning stages of being influenced by these devils and unclean spirits? Is this the reason for their attraction? I just give that to you to think about. I have a handout that I am going to include. It s called Through the Rainbow and into the Light Overcoming Heavy Adversity. It s written by a gay man who escaped these chains and was able to find deliverance and joy through the atonement of Jesus Christ, but he had to be dealt with directly for possessive, evil spirits. So, I m going to put that in there for your consideration. I can t tell you how many brothers and sisters, over the year of the podcasts, have contacted me concerning same-gender attraction and homosexual behavior. These families are just in a quandary, and are now being told, Just love them. 147

148 Mike Stroud Yes, just love them is right; you bet! You better love them! That s God s commandment. Include them. Yes, you need to be inclusive; they should not be ostracized from the family. But there needs to be an alternative for an escape. We re not offering any escape. Basically, what we re doing is saying, You ve got this. We don t understand why you ve got it. You learn to live with it, and we will learn to love you in spite of it. I just feel that there needs to be priesthood administration here. Now, there are some warnings at the beginning of this handout, this document, which is about twenty pages long. I think that this will be a great blessing to families you moms and dads out there that have been struggling with sons and daughters who have been walking this path and you just have no idea what you can do. Is there anything you can do about it? This document will give you some information for you to take a look at it. God bless you. My heart goes out to you who suffer with this challenge in your family and maybe with yourself. Can I tell you that I ve had personal experience through my own ministrations, using the priesthood, to know that this is true? I testify to you this is truth, and priesthood administration and the power of the atoning sacrifice of Christ can and will deliver these men and women, these boys and girls, from this attraction. Now, brothers and sisters, I d like to end with two things. I d like to give you a little more information on seeing with the eye of faith. I m going to bring Margie in here and let her share with you some things she taught me this week, and I just said, We need to get this out to the people in the podcast. The other day when Margie and I were talking about the things we d learned when we study together and study separately, and she had this wonderful insight that I ve asked her to share with you here. Margie, why don t you share what you shared with me? It s so wonderful, and I m grateful for that information. Sister Stroud: I ve been studying about the characteristics of little children. You know, we re taught in the scriptures that we need to become as a child. And so, I thought, okay, there s got to be more to it than being this little innocent child. So, I ve been pondering and going over the different characteristics that they have, and I thought about the innocence, how they re quick to forgive, they always want to please. Then I was around our little 3-year-old grandson, and, oh my goodness! Every other word was Why? Why? Why? I would say, Do this... do this... don t do that. Why? Why? Why? And that ties in with the ask, seek, knock concept. Then I thought about the things that most kids do probably every day, and it is to use their imagination. They have imaginary 148

149 Highly Favored of the Lord III friends, they play with trucks and dolls, and they re driving them down imaginary roads and through imaginary towns and cities. The dolls have a house; they might be a princess in a castle or whatever. They re in this imaginary world all of the time. I thought about how we used to read books; people always read books before television. Through reading those books the author paints a picture, and we participate in that storyline as he paints a picture with words. And so, in our minds, we envision this imaginary world that he paints with words. We come up with our own visuals using our imagination, and instead of being acted upon in the storyline, we are acting. Look how crafty and sneaky Satan is; he s stifling our imagination. What he s doing is he s putting us in front of the television, he s putting us in front of cell phones, he s putting us in front of social media, anything and everything where we just sit and vegetate, and we re being acted upon. We don t even have to visualize the storyline because it s all acted out in front of us and it s acted out with violence, sex, and with anything that is carnal in nature and pleasing to the natural man. So, I thought, look at this; here we are being acted upon, and we don t even realize it. Satan is using one more tool against us, and that s one more reason we need to become childlike. We need to have that visualization. We need to have our imagination active if we re going to activate the eye of faith and have these sacred experiences between us and our Heavenly Father. Mike Stroud: Yeah, and I thought, you know, all of this media, the social media, what a great blessing it is in so many ways. It s like a giant Urim and Thummim for us in this day, as far as accessing information. But it s literally killing our ability to imagine things and to access, or make the first steps toward seeing with the eye of faith. Thank you, sweetie. We ve talked about Alma chapter 5 and how the word imagine is used over and over. If we were to do a study among young children and our youth who now have their own iphones and their own access to all of this social media, I ll bet you that their ability to imagine, which I think is God-given at an early age, is dulled and deadened as far as using their imagination is concerned. I found out that as a seminary teacher, it seemed as every year went by, that the young people in the classes became less and less creative, and had to be told more and more, or given prompts on what to do. I think it would come naturally, or more naturally if it weren t for the deadening effect of all of this media. I know when I was teaching institute on a mission in New Jersey, at the beginning of the classes all the young single adults would come into class with their digital devices that had their scriptures on them, etc. etc. I noticed that no matter what was going on with the lesson, they were 149

150 Mike Stroud easily distracted if a text came in. If Moroni had been up there giving this lesson, I think that they would have broken in and answered the text anyway. And so I gave them all a challenge. First of all, I started out by saying, I want you to put your devices on airplane mode. I only want you to use your scriptures. I don t want to have anything come in here that interrupts the lesson and the Spirit. And that worked pretty well. And then I said to them, Do me a favor. The next time you come to class leave your digital devices home, pull out your quads, and your triples, and your Bibles, dust them off and bring them to class. And then I gave a lesson on the importance of having that word of God, physical word of God in front of you, and not letting it be diluted by everything that comes in from the side, every possible distraction that is available on a digital device. To my amazement and to my utter joy, almost every one of those young single adults came next week with their scriptures. And you know what they told me? After about three lessons, I had them come up and say, You know Brother Stroud, there is a difference in studying the word of God off the written page, versus out of a digital device. So, I would recommend that if you want to get serious about studying the scriptures, that you dig out your old hard copies, dust them off, and go back to them. I think you ll find they ll welcome you as an old friend. I want you to go with me to Revelations in the Bible, chapter 13. Yes, that s right! That s the chapter that talks about the mark of the beast. For years I ve read this, and I am just now understanding it because of what I m seeing. Starting in verse 14, it talks about the beast that:...deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; What miracles? What is one of the miracles that the beast is right now performing in his behalf and is going to increase? saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword, and did live. Circle the word image in these verses: [15] And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. I want you to look at that image. I ve wondered about that for years. I remember when I first read George Orwell s 1984, and I wondered if what was represented there was the image of the beast. And now, I have 150

151 Highly Favored of the Lord III my grandkids come and visit me. The other day I was sitting in the front room with my grandkids. There were about five of them in there. Margie and I were sitting on the couch. I looked at Margie, and she looked at me, and we shook our heads and shrugged our shoulders because every one of our grandkids was sitting around in various places, in the same room with us, and they all had their faces pasted to their iphones and were texting and searching. And I thought, The image of the beast. They were gazing on that. Margie and I have Fridays where we go out, and we explore. We call it Friday date day, and we took our 13-yearold granddaughter with us the other day. All the way out there, there was no conversation. I looked over my shoulder into the backseat and here s this little gal, sweet little gal, and she s got her face in her iphone. When we got there, it required us to park the truck and hike about a mile to this canyon where we were going to look at some ancient Indian ruins where some petroglyphs were. I looked at this granddaughter, and she s walking and texting. The whole time we were gone this girl had her face in the iphone, the image of the beast. What is it doing? It is destroying your ability to use your imagination. Why? Because you don t have to do anything. You re not required to act, you just sit there, and everything is delivered to you and given to you without you exercising any action. How cunning, how crafty, how devilish the adversary is in his attempt to keep you from seeing with the eye of faith because to see with the eye of faith requires you to make the first step. In Doctrine and Covenants 88 it says: [63] Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; And then it talks about the Second Comforter. It s all in that same section. If you want to have the Second Comforter experience, you re going to have to draw near unto Him first. You re going to have to act, which brings me to the last thing that I want to talk to you about. And that is this: even though Christ can come into the telestial world physically and there is nothing that He can t do but when we encounter our Savior, it s probably not Him coming here, but us being taken there. Think about a couple of examples on this. The Book of Mormon gives us a classic example. I think about Lehi in the very first chapter of 1 Nephi. He sees the pillar of fire; he receives his commission to go and preach repentance to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and warn them that if they don t repent, they ll be destroyed by the Babylonians. They reject his message. He goes home and casts himself upon his bed. While he s on the bed: [8]...he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels So, he sees God the Father sitting upon His heavenly throne. Then: 151

152 Mike Stroud [9]...he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven, One with a capital O-n-e. That would be Christ: [10] And he also saw twelve others following him Here s Lehi that has a Second Comforter experience. He sees the Father, he sees the Son, he sees numerous angels, but my question is: where is his body when all of this is happening? It s on his bed. He is what Nephi calls, caught away. Go to first Nephi chapter 11, and let me give you a secret to seeing with the eye of faith that I have found out. I ve taught it, and now I ve found out for myself that it is verily true. Now, this is all in response to Nephi wanting to see what his father saw. Here we go right in verse 1. Let me give you a little background, content, context. First go to 1 Nephi chapter 10, verse 17: And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God and the Son of God was the Messiah who should come Here we go; this sets the stage. Put yourself in place of wherever Nephi s name is used: I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might... Here we go, three things: see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto[circle this word] all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men. [18] For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever... [19] For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round. That sets the stage for verse 1 in chapter 11. Let s look at it. This is the key to seeing God: For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, There s your first step, desire to know; it s number one. Number two: and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, Number three: 152

153 Highly Favored of the Lord III as I sat pondering in mine heart There are your three steps: desire to know, believe that God will show you, ponder these things in your heart. Here s your key: I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. You want your Second Comforter experience? The odds are that instead of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to you, which He can do, you re probably going to be taken in the Spirit, caught away in vision to where He is. And don t think for a minute that these visions aren t real. Here s the mystery of all this. We ve chatted a little bit, but let me kind of say this: because we live in a three-dimensional world where we exercise five senses as the natural man, we seldom get into the fourth dimension, which is time. We have a tendency to think that what we experience with those five senses and in those three dimensions is real. We think that s the real world. At 73, I m coming to find out this is not the real world and the Mike Stroud that sits here is not the real me. The real me is inside. It s a spirit being that has a different name and belongs to and longs to be back in the real world, which is spiritual, not physical. I have found out for myself, through this process, that when you re caught away in the Spirit and see, hear, know, and handle, that that world is more tactile and the senses you have are there but are enhanced to a degree that you can t even fathom here. The five senses here are still in operation there. The three dimensions in which we operate here are only the beginning to the number of dimensions that you access there. No wonder, when people are caught away in the Spirit, and see, hear, and know, and handle something, they make statements like the one in Doctrine and Covenants 137:1:...whether in the body are out I cannot tell. And another in 3 Nephi 28:13:...and they were caught up into heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. I testify to you that that is verily true. That is the real world. How do we get there? It begins by you coming to Him. It begins by you drawing near to Him. And you do that by acting and using the eye of faith, your sacred imagination, to begin the process. Once you ve begun the process of using your sacred imagination, the Lord will pick it up at some time there, and carry you away in the Spirit to where He is, and you will see and hear, know and handle, the real world. I had an experience here a week ago doing this, and I rejoice in what I saw, heard, and touched. When I came back from that experience, there 153

154 Mike Stroud was a voice that greeted me, and that voice said, It s all in your mind. It s just your imagination. And another voice gave me the words to say. I turned to that dark voice and said, You re right, my sacred imagination. And that dark voice immediately disappeared. Brothers and sisters, God bless us all to access these gifts. Be guided by the Holy Spirit and receive information from the Holy Ghost. Be open, draw near unto Him, and He will draw near unto you, but you have to make the first move. In the sacred name of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, amen. Resources: The Triumph of Zion: Our Personal Quest for the New Jerusalem by John M. Pontius Zion and the Doctrine of Translation by Joshua Mariano A New Witness for the Articles of Faith by Bruce R. McConkie, p D&C 24:13 D&C 34: D&C 35:8-11 Mark 16:17 D&C 42:43-44, Tragedy or Destiny by Spencer W. Kimball, BYU speech 1966 Isaiah 38:5, Hezekiah s life lengthened 15 years Mosiah 5:7,...children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball homosexuality: a grievous sin and an abomination: Genesis 18:20,, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26-27 Alma 39:5...an abomination in the sight of the Lord Through the Rainbow and into the Light Overcoming Heavy Adversity Revelations 13: by George Orwell 1 Nephi 1: Nephi 11:1 caught away 1 Nephi 10:17 1 Nephi 11:1 D&C 137:1 3 Nephi 28:13 *Zion and the Doctrine of Translation by Joshua Mariano: _joshua mariano-2.pdf 154

155 Highly Favored of the Lord III Bruce R. McConkie Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], pp ) There is a spirit -- the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Christ, the light of truth, the light of Christ -- that defies description and is beyond mortal comprehension. It is in us and in all things; it is around us and around all things; it fills the earth and the heavens and the universe. It is everywhere, in all immensity, without exception; it is an indwelling, immanent, ever-present, never-absent spirit. It has neither shape nor form nor personality. It is not an entity nor a person nor a personage. It has no agency, does not act independently, and exists not to act but to be acted upon. As far as we know, it has no substance and is not material, at least as we measure these things. It is variously described as light and life and law and truth and power. It is the light of Christ; it is the life that is in all things; it is the law by which all things are governed; it is truth shining forth in darkness; it is the power of God who sitteth upon his throne. It may be that it is also priesthood and faith and omnipotence, for these too are the power of God. This light of truth or light of Christ is seen in the light of the luminaries of heaven; it is the power by which the sun, moon, and stars, and the earth itself are made. It is the light that proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space." It is "the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things." It is the agency of God s power; it is the means and way whereby "he comprehendeth all things," so that "all things are before him, and all things are round about him." It is the way whereby "he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things." Because of it, "all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever." (D&C 88:6-13, 41.) Thus, when the Mosaic account of the creation says that "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2), and when Abraham records of those same events that "the Spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the face of the waters" (Abraham 4:2), the revealed word is speaking of the light of Christ. And when Job says that "by his spirit [the Lord] hath garnished the heavens" (Job 26:13), and the Psalmist explains that all things were created because the Lord sent forth his spirit, by which also he "renewest the face of the earth" (Psalm 104:30), 155

156 Mike Stroud both are teaching the same truth. Creation itself came by the light of Christ. The light of Christ is neither the Holy Ghost nor the gift of the Holy Ghost; but that member of the Godhead, because he along with the Father and the Son is God, uses the light of Christ for his purposes. Thus spiritual gifts, the gifts of God meaning faith, miracles, prophecy, and all the rest -- come from God by the power of the Holy Ghost. Men prophesy, for instance, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost. And yet Moroni says: "All these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ" (Moroni 10:17), meaning that the Holy Ghost uses the light of Christ to transmit his gifts. But the Spirit of Christ, by which the Holy Ghost operates, is no more the Holy Ghost himself than the light and heat of the sun are the sun itself. 156

157 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty-Six Podcast 056 Layton Conference (An address given by Mike at a conference with podcast listeners, held in Layton, Utah on May 19, 2017.) Margie: I m not Mike. Mike: She thought she was going to get out of this tonight. We re not going to let her do it, are we? Margie: Ahhhh. He s going to need a new place to stay tonight. Anybody want to volunteer? [audience chuckles] Mike: I just want you to see the real power behind the podcasts. All I do is teach doctrine, but to get it out, this is where it comes from. So, I just want her to take a minute. [applause] I d like her to take just a second. This is my sweetheart; the best thing that s ever happened to me in my life, right here. Margie: It s about to get nasty. [audience laughing] I feel like an appetizer. You know, you go to the restaurant, and they say that you need to get an appetizer to help you get hungry. Why do I need that? I came to the restaurant because I was hungry. [speaking to Mike:] These guys came to hear you, not me! The appetizer is a little too salty, a little too greasy. We probably ought to just get to you. Mike: She had the Lord reveal to her what she is supposed to say tonight. We are not going to let her get away from that revelation. [audience laughing] Margie: That s what I get for opening my mouth. Here was the deal. He says, You are going to talk, aren t you? I said, Absolutely not! And so I said, Heavenly Father, I m not talking, but if you want me to say anything, you d better tell me because 157

158 Mike Stroud I don t have a clue. And bink, bink, bink, bink, bink and I thought, Oh shoot! I won t tell Mike a word. And then he came out and said, Well, you re pretty happy. Well, I just had a little revelation. I get excited when I get those because I don t always get them. Well, I probably do, but I just don t realize it. And so, um... Gosh, my mind just went blank. I guess I d better sit. I guess basically [Mike leans against Margie at the podium] You make me feel like I can t move! [audience laughing] Here comes dinner! Forget the appetizer; dinner is on its way! [audience chuckles] I guess as I was thinking about that because he kept insisting I was going to talk. I said, I don t think sooo! [audience laughs] Probably the greatest thing that I can think of that has helped me in my life is that of taking time to be holy. I think Satan has done a very good job of keeping us distracted and keeping us too busy. The perfect acronym is: Being Under Satan s Yoke B-U-S-Y. And we feel like we re not good enough; that we ve got so much to do, and yet, there s just not enough time. We re doing good things. I mean, we re not going to lose our temple recommend over all these things we re doing. They just aren t the better or the best things that we could and should be doing. So, I found that when I take time not make time, but I take it. I take time each morning to be holy I find as I do that, the rewards are great. I spend time each morning with my Father in Heaven, and I ask for His help and guidance. I ask Him where He wants me to read today in case I meet somebody who needs something. And when I am living right and doing my part, He answers those pleas. When I ve maybe been a little ornery to Mike... (That never happens, does it?) If I were to be ornery to Mike, then I probably wouldn t get those so readily. But I think that my most sacred time of the day is when I get up and spend time, one-on-one, with my Father in Heaven. I thought of the scripture that says, Be still, and know that I am God. I ve learned from Mike that when you break apart the scriptures, they come alive. I spent years reading the scriptures, and I didn t learn a whole lot, but I was obedient. I read, read, read, read, read every morning just like I should. I couldn t tell you what I read, but I read. And then, I found that there s a better way and that s studying. That is looking at each word individually, oneby-one, because that s the way the Savior teaches: one-by-one. So, if I were to take just a minute or two, which reminds me: I was asked to speak in Stake Conference once. The Stake President said, You ve got 13 minutes. And I said, President, you and I know there isn t a woman alive that can get a point across in 13 minutes or less. [audience laughing] But I 158

159 Highly Favored of the Lord III did it, so I will just take a couple of minutes of Mike s time because you really don t want to hear me. Anyway, where was I? [to Mike:] Were you listening? [Mike whispers to her] Oh, yes: one-by-one, that scripture. He s got the photographic memory. I don t, but that s all right; I m working on it. The scripture, Be still, and know that I am. If we take the be part of that scripture be is now, in the present. Satan wants us to go to the past and remember all of the bad things that we ve done. He wants us in the future where we can t really have a whole lot of control. But, God is in the now. So, we just need to be. Be in the present. The second word there is still. Be still. And I looked up the word still. I love to read the scriptures with a dictionary because I ve found that I thought I knew what all these words meant, but I don t. I know maybe one definition. One of the definitions in Hebrew for still is hush. Shhhhh! I have a hard time with that sometimes, but I found out that when I am quiet, I can hear the still small voice. I can hear Father talking to me. So, Be still, and know. And who do we want to know? We want to know the Savior. We want to know Father. We want to know what our mission and calling is...for that day. I just take one day at a time. So, if we Be still, then we will know that I am. And who is I am? When Moses was called up to the mount, the Lord told him, I m going to send you to Pharaoh, and I want you to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses says, Me? Who am I to go to Pharaoh? And the Lord explains that He wants Moses to do this, so Moses says, They are going to say, Who are you? and they will ask who sent me. And the Lord says, Tell them that I Am sent you. So, when we, Be still, and know that I am, and we take that time to be holy, we will come to know Father; we will come to know who we are. We will come to know who our neighbor is and what our calling is. And we will come to know Him in such an intimate way, that we will wonder what took us so long, to be still and know I Am. I testify to you that God loves you. He is waiting for you. Just you! One-by-one He always ministers one-by-one. I invite you to take time to be holy every day. It s not about quantity of time; it s about quality of time. Some of you are at a point where you have little children and time is not available so much by yourself. I had a friend that, to be by herself, had to go to the bathroom to read her scriptures, and even then there were knocks on the doors. So, it doesn t matter. All that matters is that you take time. It s not important to take time to be holy it is critical to take time to be holy. I testify to you that if you do that, take time to 159

160 Mike Stroud be holy every day for the Savior, He ll come, and you will know that He is God. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Mike: Well, brothers and sisters, thank you, for coming here tonight. This is remarkable! I ve thought about this today and about who is going to be here and who you are. I think this is so unique that a group of gatherers have come together. This is the time of gathering. The time of scattering has passed. We are about to enter into a new dispensation. We are about to end one called the day of the Gentile. We are about to enter a new one called the day of Israel. By and large, the day of the Gentile is an Aaronic Priesthood, preparatory, foundational day. Call it Part A, if you want, of the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. There is Melchizedek Priesthood which is operative and people have received ordinations in the day of the Gentile, but the Melchizedek Priesthood will really be manifest in the day that is about to dawn. If you watch closely in your temple endowment ceremony, you can see that the robes represent priesthood authority. Where the robe is placed represents either Aaronic or Melchizedek. The next time you go through the temple, watch and see where you are and what time is represented by the various rooms that you proceed through, and you will see that what I am saying is true. We are about to enter into a day of miracles that will eclipse anything you have read about in all of the standard works of the Church. We ain t seen nothin' yet! In Jeremiah 16:14, he says: Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; All through our written books, our scriptures the Book of Mormon, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and even the Doctrine and Covenants the premier miracle that people have talked about for thousands of years and still talk about today is the parting of the Red Sea, isn t it? It s the one that the Lehi Colony referred to over and over again: that miraculous deliverance of the house of Israel from the Egyptian Armies. Jeremiah says that we are in a day that we won t talk about that anymore. The reason we won t talk about that is because the miracle we will talk about is the return of the Ten Tribes of Israel out of the north. That miraculous return will eclipse the parting of the Red Sea, and all of the other minor miracles, sub-miracles that will be a part of that, will be so dynamic that for generations from that time forward, that s what they ll talk about. You and I, brothers and sisters, are living in that time when the preparations are being made for that to happen, right now. That s going to require a group of men and women who have priesthood power that can perform miracles, command the elements, and can have power over time and space. Three-dimensional type senses of 160

161 Highly Favored of the Lord III the telestial world will be a thing of the past. We will move into multidimensional space, and many more senses that we don t use in the telestial world will be open to us. You are the group that is being groomed for that. Why do you think you are here? Why do you think the Lord has whispered to you? Have you felt drawn to the doctrine of Zion and her establishment? Have you felt that? Have you felt like this is a part of you? Have you felt or sensed that this is in your future? You have, or you wouldn t be here! Here is an interesting thing about the podcasts. You all know; you ve heard the story. We didn t have any plans on this. Margie and I have served three missions together. We went to Mongolia, we went to the central Philippians, we went to New Jersey, and because I was retired CES, my job was to teach Institute classes in all of those places. Margie s job, especially in developing nations, was to put together a physical preparation program because in the Philippians and in Mongolia, they have no idea about food storage or any of those physical preps. They knew nothing about it. When you get to be a senior couple in a lot of places, you ll have a chance to sit down with the mission president, especially in third world countries, and he ll say, Take a look around, see what needs to be done and do it! That s your call. True! Because I was retired CES, I had that label: Institute. Oh, he s got to do that. So for three missions, I taught Institute. As we left these mission fields, the brothers and sisters that were part of our classes (they were small groups) said, Elder Stroud, do you suppose it would be possible for us to continue to study together? I mean, there are scientific ways and high tech ways that we could do that now. So, we said, Sure! Let s do that. When we came home from Mongolia, I started meeting weekly, on Skype, with a stake president there. Well, he wasn t the stake president when we first started, but now he is just completing eight years. We have met together weekly for ten years on Skype, and that good man and I have been through every verse of the standard works, not skipping Leviticus, and especially spending time in Isaiah. You got it, right? Isaiah! And who do you think benefited from that exercise? Me! Because you know what happens with that? It s the same on the podcasts, and you ve had this experience. You can t be a teacher in this church for very long and not have the experience of being up there teaching and having the Holy Ghost reveal something to you. While you re opening your mouth and saying one thing, the next thing that comes out you ve never spoken or known before in your whole life. Let me see how many have had that experience. Raise your hands. Sure you 161

162 Mike Stroud have. If you have the gift of the Holy Ghost, you are bound to have that experience. So, we did that. It began as a small, little group of maybe thirty people. Then we came home, and one of our friends said, Why don t you do a podcast? I said, A what cast? My wife asks, What s that? And they got together, and pretty soon this little high-tech gal here put this together and has done such a good job. Let me tell you about the podcasts. I think you ll be interested in knowing this. I don t tell you this as a way of bragging because you and I both know this isn t us, right? Every week, we get information from the podcast company that tells us who s listening, where, and how many in numbers daily, and then we get weekly stats. There are 180,000 podcasts on that company right there, and Father has taken this to a point where these lessons are number 2! Nobody is more surprised than I am. Shelle McDermott says that my books have 21 pages per talk, and you ve got 12 of those talks in a book I didn t know I had that much to say! Gee! The podcasts are number 1 in Christianity and number 2 overall. Now, you might also be interested to know that every seven days there are from 13,000 to 15,000 downloads and plays on these podcasts. It surprises the heck out of me! But here s what s really surprising. Half of all the podcasts are in Kenya, Africa. Kenya, Africa has more downloads than all of the United States put together. What the heck is going on? And then, it goes like this: #1 is Kenya. #2 is the United States. #3 is, are you ready? The Democratic Republic of the Congo. #4 is the United Kingdom. #5 is Canada. #6 is Ghana. #7 is Uganda #8 is Nigeria #9 is Yemen In the first eight countries listed, five of them are the countries that go from Ghana on the west coast of Africa all the way over to Somalia on the East coast of Africa. I would just love to know what s going on there, wouldn t you? I have no idea. But obviously what we have done here has struck a chord, and people all over the world appear to be benefiting from them. I am so grateful and astonished, frankly. People said, Aren t you worried about putting your and your phone number out there in public? 162

163 Highly Favored of the Lord III Frankly, we didn t even think about that. We just thought, Let s do it! Because, what are we worried about, thirty people? We know them all, right? [audience laughing] And so we ve got our phone number and out there. Here s something else. You would think that we would really get hammered from time to time. Do you know how many times I ve heard Do the Brethren know what you re doing here? Have you gotten any push-back from the Church? Does your stake President know what you re doing? How about your Bishop? [Mike chuckling] And to all of those questions, I say that I have no idea; I don t. Shouldn t you ask permission to say some of the things you say? See how we think as Latter-day Saints? Out of all of that, for a year and a half, I have had one negative comment. One. It was a comment that was placed on the podcast site with one of the lessons, and it said, I don t think you re teaching correct doctrine. In fact, I think this doctrine is false. Now, I respond to every , and so my response was, At this point in my life, you may be right. We are all learning together. I never heard another thing. But don t you find that remarkable that there have been no negative things that have come back on that? I just wonder about that and am so grateful. At this point, I will not argue, and I will not find fault. So, I thought you might find some interest in some of those things that are happening that you are a part of. Where is it going to go from here? At least at this point, we ve been impressed by the Spirit that the podcasts need to stay up. The Spirit seems to whisper to us, I will continue to use those as a resource to gather people. But you, Mike, just remember: I just use your wretched mouth as a tool. And that s where we need to be. Let s go to some scriptures for a minute. I want to show you what kind of a state you need to be in to obtain the great blessings that the Lord has in store for you. As Nephi is writing 2 Nephi, he s an old man, and all of the experiences that you and I want, he s had; he s had them all! You can name them all. All the things we ve talked about the greater portion of the word. Let s go to 2 Nephi 4, verse 16. Nephi said this: Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard. Those are keywords! If you want to be like Nephi, you want to obtain what Nephi saw and heard, and I will put one other word in there: handled. Now, look at the next verse: [17] Nevertheless

164 Mike Stroud That word means, in spite of everything that s happened to me : notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, At this point, there is hope for us, isn t there? Watch this: my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! How can a person that s been embraced in the arms of Jesus and has found safety in that embrace, and someone who has been born of fire, say, O wretched [person]? What he s doing is establishing a pattern for us, brothers and sisters. And in his words, what he is doing is telling us what we need to be, what we need to feel like, what we need to do and say in order to obtain what he has seen and heard and handled. That s the key. It s a pattern: Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; He has had the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. He is a holy man. He is in his 70 s and yet, he understands that while he abides in the telestial schoolroom, the tugs and pulls of this earth and his flesh will have a downward movement on him always. That s just the way it is. Until you become translated and exchange this telestial body of flesh for a translated, terrestrial body of flesh, while you are in this world, you will feel the downward tugs and pulls of a dying world. That s just the way it is. So, if we understand that concept, we can see how it is that this holy man can say that: my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. [18] I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. Does anybody relate to this great, holy man? I do! Let s go to another one. Let s go to 2 Nephi 9. Don t you love the Book of Mormon! The Book of Mormon, brothers and sisters, is a handbook on how to receive the Second Comforter and to be received by Him. This is the book. This is not the only record of people who have seen Christ, but this is a record of a people who are alive in Christ! And yet, with all that, they lived a lesser law, they practice Aaronic ordinances, and their society, as a society, were not given the higher law. They had to come up as individuals and obtain something of a standing in what s called the Holy Order. Now, go with me over to verse 42: [42] And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches Did you catch those three things? The learning of the world, the wisdom of the world, and the riches of the world disqualify you from what this 164

165 Highly Favored of the Lord III verse is going to promise you. Those are the disqualifiers. Let s take an inventory right now and see how we re doing: yea, they are they whom he despiseth; Strong word. We need to let that one sink in as we take inventory of where we are and what kind of a person we are. Where s your heart? Are you loved or are you in a situation where you are still struggling with the natural flesh? Not that He despises you, He loves you! But He does despise the unredeemed man and woman that you are. Then he goes on and says: and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. Periodically, as the result of the podcasts, I will get a little note that will say, Who are you and what are your credentials? And I m just so quick to reply, I m nobody, and I don t have any. And then another will come back and say, What I mean is [Mike chuckling] Really, I m trying to be like Nephi. I want to be in this place where because of the change that has taken place in my life, the view that I have of who I am and of who He is, and the vast difference between us, the only word that I can think of that fits is fool. And I m okay with that because I know that until I get to that point, I can t go up. Look at the next verse: [43] But the things of the wise and the prudent shall be hid from them forever yea, that happiness which is prepared for the saints. Well, brothers and sisters, [Mike getting choked up] all our dear Savior wants from you is your heart; that s all He wants. We are not in competition with each other here, not a one. Satan wants you to compare, and in the comparison begins the competition, and in the competition comes the pride, and we go astray. It s just one-on-one. Have you ever noticed, like Sister Stroud said, everything the Savior does is one-on-one? And you think, How can He do that? He s so busy! Where He lives, He can spend time with you, face-to-face, as long as you need and still maintain control and order over all things. He can do that. You can have a personal audience with Him, and everything still remains orderly. I d like to talk to you tonight about the enemy. Of all the podcasts that we did, I think that the ones that have received the most comments were the ones on Devils and Unclean Spirits. Without a doubt, wouldn t you say Margie? That s the one, and there s a reason for that. Go with me to Doctrine and Covenants 24 for a minute, and let s look at a couple of things. In verse 13, the Lord says 165

166 Mike Stroud [13] Require not miracles, except I shall command you, except [catch those two exceptions] casting out devils, healing the sick, and against poisonous serpents, and against deadly poisons; Here is one more thing to pay attention to. The first thing listed is, casting out devils, and the second thing listed is, healing the sick. Did you ever stop to think that there may be a reason why those are listed that way? Let s go to another one in Doctrine and Covenants 35:9: And whoso shall ask it in my name in faith, they shall cast out devils; they shall heal the sick; Notice the first one listed is, casting out devils, and the second is, healing the sick. These are just two examples of what you will find throughout all the scriptures in the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and in the New Testament. In the gospel of Mark 16:17-18 it says: [17] And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils [18]...they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. We need to pay attention to that because these enemies have been operating too long in anonymity. We need to cast light on this. Until we do something about this affliction, you are going to meet stumbling blocks and barriers in your progress. For 30 years I taught the Seminary and Institute program, and I thought that casting out devils and unclean spirits were two terms referring to the same group. They are not. These are two different groups of people. The ones we refer to as devils are the ones who run the show in hell. They are the ones in charge. They are the movers and shakers. They are the ones who are malevolent and murderous. I ve seen them; I don t want to see them again. What I saw caused me so much trauma that I couldn t get over it for days and days, maybe even a couple of weeks. We need to know that they are there. The devils control the unclean spirits. The devils are the third-part that were cast out. Their aprons are black. No life. No family. No wife. No children. The unclean spirits are men and women who have lived on the earth and died in their sins. Either they knew better and rebelled against the principle of repentance, and the atonement of Christ or they didn t know better and simply lived and died, taking with them their addictions, compulsions, desires, appetites, and passions. They find themselves unembodied in another world, still having those same addictions, compulsions, desires, and appetites intensified! This is something the early prophets and Brethren have talked about. When you lay the body 166

167 Highly Favored of the Lord III down and you go into the spirit realm, that person that you are the good and bad your attributes and your addictions are intensified and enhanced. It has something to do with being without the physical body. It is my feeling that the devils have no care for things of a sexual matter because they ve never had a physical body. It s my feeling that the devils are more interested in control, slavery, and power. But the unclean spirits are still operating with their addictions and compulsions. So, they are taught quickly by the devils that they can find a release from these afflictions by taking them out on mortals still in the telestial world. It s not enough to satisfy, but it is enough to keep them coming back for more. Now, this is Mike Stroud: from my experience, we can take them and put them into three categories. One is just what I call the common influence of these spirits that are here, just because we live in their realm. This is their world. You re in hell. The telestial world is not a kingdom of glory, yet. You are in a hell place. You are in the realm of these spirits who are in rebellion or are caught up in addiction and don t know what to do with it except afflict you. Most of the unclean spirits, I ve found, are not malicious, murderous, or malevolent. They can be nasty sometimes, but most of them are just flat confused. All of the emotions that we see in this life anger, frustration, depression, discouragement, suicide anything that s negative that we see in humankind in this world, they continue to experience in the spirit, and you pick up on those emotions. Have you ever had anger come out of nowhere for no reason and just settle on you and not know what the heck is going on? Devils have no respect for the agency of God s children in this world, none. They intrude. They are trespassers; they are interlopers, and they come where they re not wanted. Unclean spirits do this also. The only difference is that unclean spirits still have the gift of repentance available to them. They can turn. Some of these who afflict us in the flesh, after having been dealt with by priesthood power and teaching the doctrine of Christ, without railing accusation, but with love and charity in your heart, repent and will then be enlisted as your guardians instead of your tormentors. You better look up railing accusation in the Doctrine and Covenants. So, what do we do about this? They are hidden in this anonymity. The more they can remain cloaked in mystery and lack of knowledge, the happier they are. So brethren, you need to wake up. We need you. There are people all around you (and perhaps you yourself) that have either an influence, an attachment, or a possession. Those are the three words that I use to describe their involvement with mortals in the 167

168 Mike Stroud telestial world. Just being here, you are going to be under their influence because that s just a part of being here. However, they can attach themselves to you. I picture it almost like Velcro. One piece is you, and the other piece is them, and they are just, more or less, with you all the time. That s where you start to get into trouble. It becomes more difficult for you to make correct choices and you end up being more confused because of their influence in your life. If you continue to make the wrong choices, they go from an attachment to a possession and right through the crown of the head, they go inside your body, and they take over. Now you ve got them inside you, and for all intents and purposes, your spirit now becomes, as the Book of Mormon says, subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. We ve got to get these guys out. You can t use general priesthood ordinance language and get specific results. We need to educate ourselves. There is no reason for us, at this time and in this world, to be ignorant of these things. There is no reason. You have the greatest general, social Urim and Thummim ever found among mankind called the Internet. Now true, both evil and good come from it; you can get everything on it. You just have to spend some time. Go back and read what the early Brethren had to say about this subject. It was...are you ready for this? In their conferences and in their church meetings, it was the number one topic discussed among the members of the Church in those days. You can see that section 50 and other sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were given to deal with this phenomenon. Joseph Smith shed light on it after 2,000 years of darkness and the lost knowledge of who these people are, what they want, and how to deal with them. What do we do about it? You need to avail yourselves of that. Brethren, we need you to become informed and rise up in the power of your priesthood. One of the first things you will do as you start to exercise that magnificent power will be to liberate those who are afflicted with unclean spirits and devils; you ve got to do it. There are people in this room, right now, that are severely handicapped because of this. There are people who have been delivered and will tell you the difference. How are we going to do this, brethren? How are we going to do this? Right now, the powers that fight against us are so massive, and there are so few who will rise up and pronounce a blessing, not just pray over somebody. There is a difference between praying over somebody and standing up and pronouncing a blessing. By the authority of the priesthood and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, depart and come not hither again! Use those words. Your wives and your children are 168

169 Highly Favored of the Lord III suffering, many of them. You would be surprised how many phone calls and text messages I get from sisters who recognize this affliction from within the family and are just desperate to see it stop and don t know what to do. So, we get on the phone, and we talk to husbands, and we try to give scripture passages. I m no guru on this. I don t profess to be anything, but I know what the Brethren taught in the early days. And we need to just do what they were doing! We need to be bold and yet not overbearing. We need to stand up and rebuke, but not with a railing accusation. We need to be filled with the love of Christ so we can approach these people because that s who they are. I don t care if you call them a demon or a devil or an unclean spirit. They are people. It is organized intelligence, and its purpose is to captivate and enslave God s children, and they need to be redeemed and liberated. You anoint with oil, seal that anointing and pronounce a blessing, and you address these people as the Spirit directs, specifically and directly. And the Lord will teach you, brethren. There is no handbook on this. But if you ll step out and do this, God will reveal to you through His Holy Spirit, who you are dealing with, what words you should say, and with time and experience, like all other gifts of the Spirit, you will become more perfected in this. You have to start! Brethren! If I can t talk to this group, whose foreordination and destiny is to be translated, then who can we talk to about this? This is critical! And we need to do something about it. So, step out; have courage! You don t have to be perfect. You just need to have a desire to serve God. And if you have a desire, you are called to the work, and He will sustain you in that desire and that effort. We have got to start, and it has got to start right here! Zion will not be redeemed by any of you that have not control, through priesthood power, over evil spirits and devils. He won t do it. You won t be a part of it because part of that is going to be to cast out, to invite to leave, to release, to deal with all kinds of things that can only be discerned through the power of the Holy Spirit. There are no books written on this! You have to be taught by the Spirit. Now, let me talk to you about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints for a minute. Another question that I get all the time is, Brother Stroud, are you one of those apostates? [Mike chuckling] Why? Because I teach the doctrine of Christ from the Book of Mormon? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is doing exactly what it s supposed to be doing right now. Because that doesn t measure up to some people s thinking, that then becomes their test. The scriptures tell me that the Lord is going to do a strange act... [and a] strange work. You don t have to wait for that to start. It s happening right now. 2 Nephi 30 says there will be a great division among the 169

170 Mike Stroud people. You don t have to look for that in the future. It s going on right now. There is no reason for anybody to leave the Church. There is absolutely no reason. If you re contemplating that or if you ve done that, it s because your view is skewed. You re not seeing it. You have bought into some traditions that have come down in the last 180 years that we have embraced as truth. As soon as you shed some of those traditions you thought were true, your view changes of the Church, its mission, and the people in it, and you find no fault. The other day, I was talking to the author of The Perfect Day blog. Do you follow that blog? It s marvelous! The perfect day comes from section 50 and the perfect day is to stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and be received of Him. That s the perfect day. He and I were talking about the events we see taking place across the world right now, and we were marveling about how many people are choosing to have their names removed from the membership of the Church, or are taking a walk. We talked back and forth about it, and we said that if they had the correct view of what the Church s mission and purpose is, and do not find fault with the flaws of men and telestial, mortal, institutional mistakes, they would never walk away. Stop and think about it: if I were to walk away, I would be leaving the one thing that has brought me everything I know, to this point. How stupid is that? Why would you do that? It s throwing the baby out with the bath water! You just need to change your view and understand that the Church is designed to do certain things. It operates on a foundational level. The purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ is to bring you out of the world, into this organization by covenant, establish your feet on a foundation, and then get you to the temple where the fun really begins. So, for the members of the Church that never make it to the temple, the purpose of your membership is void. You re baptized by water, which Joseph Smith says begins the baptismal ordinance, but You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and the getting of the Holy Ghost, and the other greater ordinances that are associated with the greater portion of the word. If you understand that, you understand what the purpose of the Church is. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I have no illusions. I understand that God always has and always will work with flawed men in this world. And it doesn t take anything away from Him, Who knows all things and Who does things in His wisdom nothing! In wrapping up tonight, I would like to testify to you how grateful I am to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I pray for the Brethren. Oh, that s a tough place. Do you think you could do any better? I pray for my stake president. I pray for my bishop. But, I 170

171 Highly Favored of the Lord III understand that it s the Savior and me, and He employs no servant between us. I have great guides and directors in prophets and apostles, stake presidents and bishops and teachers, parents, friends great guides and directors. What they do is say, Mike, I m not Him. He s over there. Now, picture with me a little story and let s go back to my Perfect Day blog person. You thought I d forgotten that and got side-tracked! He s up in Idaho, and as I was talking to him he said to picture a big, old Idaho potato field out there (for all you Idaho folks out there, right!). You re on one side of the potato field, and you re looking across to the other, and it s all green and everything. All of a sudden on a dirt road you see a pickup truck coming up on the left. It s one of those Idaho pickup trucks, you know? And it comes down and stops right straight across from you in the field. You look at that, and you can see the driver, but you can t make him out, and you wonder, What is he doing? The driver reaches over and opens the passenger side door, which opens facing you. You look in, and you say, Why, it s the Savior driving that truck! As you re marveling about this, He waves for you to come over. So, you walk through that field, wondering what this is all about. You get up there, and He says, Come on in. You climb into the passenger seat. He says, Shut the door. And you shut the door. He says, Now, where would you like Me to take us? Notice who is in the driver s seat. If we get a feel that we can trust Him to take us where He knows we need to go and surrender our will to His timing and His way, why He ll do everything you need. You don t need a list. All you need to do is simply follow that Spirit, which is the voice of Christ, speaking to you and it will take you every step of the way without missing one thing to where you need to go, that is unique to you, and only He knows it. Well, brothers and sisters, there are translated beings on the earth right now. The day is here. They have always been on the earth, but there is an increase right now. There are people who are coming down from the city of Enoch. They can see us. They know the time is here. Can you feel it? There is a sense of urgency but no haste because the establishment of Zion will not be done in haste. Isn t that a paradox: urgency but no haste? It s done in order. These beings are coming down from the City of Enoch and are appearing to men and women who are who are awake and aware of their mission. There are covenants, ordinances, and ordinations involved in the process. If you ve always had an interest in this and you feel drawn to it, it s because this is your future. I honestly believe that we are looking at a group of gatherers. What s another name for gatherers? The 144,000! 171

172 Mike Stroud I was talking to a man who has some special information about translation. We were talking about the use of portals and how they move through portals. And he said, Mike, here s how it works. My ears went whoop! You ll call up that portal, and you ll move through it as assigned by the Savior. It belongs to you. It s yours. As you step through that, you ll find yourself in a dirty, dark, little street in Germany. In the darkness, you will hear some crying, some sobbing and you will follow that. You have been sent there on that mission. You are in the exact, right place, doing what you need to do. And you will see a little, 11- year-old girl, down behind the garbage cans in the dark, weeping and scared, fearing for her life, hungry. [Mike s voice choking up] You will speak to her in English, and she will understand you perfectly in German. She ll speak to you in German, and you ll understand her perfectly in English. You ll take her to a place where she can be safe. Where there is no more anyone to hurt or make afraid. And as you deliver her to that place of safety and you see her stepping away from you mission accomplished! As she turns around to thank you, you won t be there as you have simply stepped back through the portal. If you want to find out more on that, pull out Spencer s book, dust it off, and take a look. There is some real stuff in there. Do you think you can come to that point and still embrace Babylon? Do you think you can come to that point and maintain and hide your pornography addiction? There are quite a few in here that have that and are trying to hide it. Why do you hide something from Him who sees everything? Why don t you admit that you re a victim on a battlefield and that you re temporarily missing in action because that s what you are. You are not wicked; you re not evil; you re wounded, and you need help. Satan will influence you to remain hidden in the dark and to lie. Step forward. Don t forfeit your destiny. It s the time now! [Mike sniffles] I testify to you of the reality of Jesus Christ. He who says, Be of good cheer, is cheerful. He says Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. But until you come to Him, and consider yourself a fool, He will not open to you, and you will not obtain. One of the great revelations I ve had this week is one of the simplest ones I ve ever seen in my life before. I don t know what you think when you think of the Second Comforter and what your expectation and your vision of that is. How many times in the Book of Mormon do we read the phrase, Come unto Me, right? Come unto Me. It isn t, I will come to you. That s once in John, over in the 14th Chapter, but throughout all the scriptures, you see the Savior with His arms out, inviting you to come to Him! And that s what s more likely going to happen. When you 172

173 Highly Favored of the Lord III see Him, even though He can come to you and does, you re in a telestial world, and He is the Lord God of the terrestrial world, and His Father is the King of the celestial world. Even though they can come here, it s more likely that you ll be taken to Them. Come unto Me, and be received by Them. I ve learned that one of the things that They enjoy most is surprising Their children with things they least expected to get, at a time when they are least expected to come. Heaven just rejoices in bestowing gifts like that. They are not far away. And it s us, our false traditions and our precepts, the philosophies of men mingled with scripture that keep us here. They wait and long for us to come to Them. I testify to the truthfulness of that, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Messiah, amen. -Question and Answer Session- Mike: Shelle says that we ll take questions and answers for 15 minutes. Here s the microphone up here. You can come up. First of all, let me say, I am not the font of all knowledge, so be prepared to hear I don t know! [audience laughing] Really, I m not comfortable with this, but we re going to do it anyway and see where it goes, okay? Now, I m deaf; I m wearing two hearing aids up here, and I left my little controls down at my friend s house, so you must speak up, especially women s voices. My wife says it s selective hearing. [audience laughing] Okay, let s try it and see what we ve got. Female audience member: I want to know how, ultimately, we gain power to overcome either the evil or unclean spirits attached to depression. Mike: I m not going to say that there isn t such a thing as chemical imbalances or that there isn t such a thing as bipolar. I m not going to say that. But, I believe, this is Mike Stroud 16:4, and my experience is that depression and discouragement and the vast majority of these afflictions that we hear about with people taking medicine, after medicine, after medicine, are the direct result of the influences of these beings. They need to be released and sent away. The Spirit will teach you how to say that. Now, it s not enough for you just to release them. There is a parable in Matthew 12, that s just three verses long and talks about a spirit being cast out of its house, then going to and fro on the earth. After a while, it comes back and finds the house empty, swept, and garnished. Then he takes seven other spirits worse than himself in, and the state of that person in the latter time is worse than the first. What is to be learned from that parable? You have to pull the weeds and plant 173

174 Mike Stroud the flowers. You can t just create a void and expect that it s going to stay that way. One of the things that I do when I am asked to administer to somebody is that I teach them the doctrine of Christ. I m not in a rush to get in and lay my hands on them, but I take the scriptures, and we go through the scriptures. And then I teach them that I need to have their permission to invite beings of light to come in. Whereas these negative personages care nothing about the agency of man, God s emissaries and true messengers must have your permission. They need to be invited and given permission to come in. So, I ask the person right there after I ve explained it, Do I have your permission to invite these people to come in, and they need to say yes. Here s something else brothers and sisters, you can t expect that this is going to be a one-time fix-all forever. Otherwise, what s the purpose of the telestial world? What s the purpose of mortality? You are going to continue to fight these beings. What we are trying to do is level the playing field and give you an edge, give you some breathing room, come up out of the dark, catch a little sunshine, take a deep breath, put on your armor, and get back in the fight! The word in the scriptures is stand. When you re down KIA or MIA, when you re not standing, and if you re down in the battle, you re no good. You are not doing any good, so we need to get you some first aid and get you standing up. Angels, the spirits of just men [and women] made perfect, your ancestors, your guardians, and all of the guardian angels that watch over you and there are more than one they are all your family. They are not strangers. These are your ancestors who have been here before you, and these are those who have yet to be born that are coming into your family line. You are in the battle, and they are extremely interested in your welfare because those that have gone on, you re doing something that is going to bless their lives eternally. And those who are coming, they want to make sure that the place they come to gives them a fair shake on their time on the earth. You may have to do this more than once. Just remember, if you only had to do this once, it would negate the purpose of this experience. That s why we need to be able to do this. Did that help? Female audience member: Thank you very much. Online question: If you have been called to the 144,000 already, will you know that you have been called? Mike: You ll know by the Spirit. I have a hunch that a lot of you have not received your official calling or ordination because it is an ordinance that comes under the hands of heavenly beings. You ll know it when it happens to you. It will come from the other side of the veil or from those on this side of the veil who have been authorized and hold the proper 174

175 Highly Favored of the Lord III keys to do that. And those on this side of the veil who are still mortals in this world that have that authority to perform that, got it from translated beings and heavenly beings. They have received that ordination with the charge now, when the Lord says, to ordain and to administer these ordinances and covenants to others. They are here. The constitution of Zion is Moses 7:18. This is the constitution of Zion and the New Jerusalem: And the Lord called His people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them. There are covenants that are associated with this calling. Two of them are the covenants of chastity and purity. You will have to find out the third one. It s waiting for you. Did that help? Male audience member: Thank you for being here. My name is Daniel Christensen. I m a full-time student at the University of Utah. I am 24 years old, and I have a statement, and it leads to a question. My statement is: it seems like every day when I get on Facebook or Instagram or whatever, I see friends, family, and close people that I know, associates, that leave the Church and pronounce that they don t need the Church, whatsoever. My question to you is will they come back? That s one. And how can I avoid falling off the wagon, so to speak, and be one of those that are deceived? Does that make sense? Mike: Yes, it makes sense. Male audience member: Okay, thanks. Mike: Let s go to the Doctrine and Covenants. Section 45 is the center scripture for all the podcasts. You should have this memorized by now if you ve been listening to them. We are going to go over to verse 55. This gives you a context of where we are in the following two verses: And Satan shall be bound, and he shall have no place in the hearts of the children of men. That is the millennial, third, terrestrial estate that is coming up. Now watch this: And at that day, What day? When the Millennium begins. Daniel, you are witnessing things that prophets for 6,000 years have seen in vision and have longed to be where you are. And you need not be afraid, but go forward in faith as long as you do one thing, as these scriptures talk about. Watch: when I shall come in my glory [the Second Coming], shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins. You know that parable. We won t go through that. 175

176 Mike Stroud Here s your key. Do you want to get through from today into the millennial world with an inheritance in that world? We all want that, right? We want to successfully complete the callings and missions that the Lord has in store for us and help others do the same. Here is what you must do: [57] For they that are wise Remember the five wise and the five foolish. This is the wise: and have received the truth, That is no easy thing in this world: and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day. Abide means to live in, to take up residence. What day? It s the day between now and the Second Coming of the Lord, which is going to be very, very tricky to navigate. In fact, you won t navigate it unless you ve done this. Here are the two keys to get from here to there. Receive the truth. You can ponder that. (I ll give you a little key on that in a minute that I was taught by a holy man.) And take the Holy Spirit for your guide. What about this truth? How can you tell that it s true? A man that I love dearly, who is listening to this, taught me this principle. He said, Mike, truth prevails... You want to write that down. This is one of those little gems, Daniel. It s for you. Look that up. You need to understand what that means. Truth prevails. Falsehoods dim and die. There is no prevailing in untruth. So, when you come across something that is new to you, that kind of slaps you and you go, Whoa! Be slow to reject out of hand just because it s something that you don t understand or haven t heard before. You can t be like the Saints in the days of Joseph where he says, Men will set up stakes and say thus far will we go and no farther. They put up stakes. That means boundaries; they built walls around them and say that they will go so far and no further and then they die, and in the resurrection find out their mistake. You don t want to do that. And yet, you want to be open, but you want to be wise and prudent. Prudent means cautious. Don t be afraid of being deceived. You are already deceived. [audience laughing] Fear of deception is deception. Fear of being deceived effectively stops you. Don t be afraid. Be faithful. Move forward with confidence. Let the doctrine of the priesthood distill upon you as the dews from heaven and move forward. 176

177 Highly Favored of the Lord III The only answer to your question, Daniel, is that you must learn how to receive personal revelation and take that as your guide. You must become practiced in that, and the only way that you can become more perfected in that is to make mistakes along the way and learn from your mistakes. Now, set it on the shelf. If something is new and you just go, My gosh! I don t know about that. Well, don t throw it away. Set it up on the shelf knowing that if it s true, it will prevail and when you revisit it, it will have a resonance. It will still be there as bright and undimmed as it was when you placed it up there. Have you ever wondered why Nephi said the brass plates would be bright and never become dimmed in time? It s because they contain truth! And truth shineth. That is section 88. Truth shineth! That is a physical property of truth. That s not an allegory or symbolic. If truth is physically perceived, it s perceived in light and heat. We ve got it all wrong when we say, It s hot as hell. [audience laughing] We ve got it backward! Hell is cold; Heaven is hot. God dwells in everlasting burnings, okay? So, Daniel, did that help? Take the Holy Spirit as your guide. Female audience member 2: Thanks for doing our homework for us, Mike. Speak to the power of women to cast out devils, and also tell us what you can about using the keys we learn in the temple for the true order of prayer. Mike: Okay. Boy, I got in trouble with this on some podcasts. I had a couple of men get downright upset with me. They said I was a female chauvinist. Not male female chauvinist. I said, What, what? Here are my feelings on that. It s not a matter of one being better than another. It s a matter of roles. It s a matter of who you are. Sisters, my opinion is, you re not seeking to become like Father. You are seeking to become like Mother. Brethren, you are seeking to become like Father. Father and Mother together are whole. If God were to appear to you tonight, do you know what you would see? A Man and a Woman. Him standing out in front and Her standing in the back? I ll tell you not! Okay? [audience chuckling] In the temple, we hear Adam, awake and arise. You notice that s not said to the sisters. Adam, awake and arise! See? So brethren, there is nothing in eternity more glorious than a glorified, exalted, perfected man. But he can t do it without a woman, can t do it. Women s nature, by nature, is sacrificial and the symbol of blood and sacrifice is with a woman throughout her life. She gives up everything when she comes into the telestial world, including her own name, and for the rest of her life, she has a life of sacrifice for others. Men, we are by nature selfish. This isn t bad; put the rocks down. This isn t bad. It s just a part of the plan. There is something that we 177

178 Mike Stroud need to learn in this world that we need priesthood to help us learn it. Priesthood, brethren, it s my feeling that priesthood is to help you learn to sacrifice, which is difficult for men. Now, we have other wonderful attributes protecting, and knowledge. But priesthood is to help us do that. As to what s in the temple, I can t talk to any degree on that other than what Brigham Young, in the Seventy s book that was given in the Nauvoo Temple, told us. The keys of the priesthood are in the signs of the priesthood, and in the signs of the priesthood, you receive an endowment that gives you keys to understand past, present, and future. Every person who has been to the temple and has received their endowment blessings has received keys, that when authorized by God, will allow you to inquire into and receive information concerning the past, the present, and the future. Let me just say also brethren, that one of the things you need to do is to practice using your priesthood in minor ways to see how elements respond to your entreaties. Someday in the future, you are going to receive something called the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood. That s a required thing for you to have for you to be one of the 144,000 men. Women can also be a part of the 144,000 and will be. When you receive the fullness of the priesthood, men become kings and high priests and women become queens and priestesses, and that s about all I can say on that right now. Take this to Father and say, What is this fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood? Go into the internet and Google that up; do some research and when you feel like you have sufficient knowledge, go to the Father, in the name of His Son, and start to inquire and plead to obtain and receive. There is a law in Heaven, brothers and sisters. It s an eternal law. Almost without exception, answers to questions are never given until the questions are asked. We need to learn to ask and ask a lot. You should have a list of questions that you can take in your prayers to Heavenly Father. You let the Spirit give these. And when you part the veil and stand in the presence of those persons on the other side, you want to have a list of things to ask them. You don t want to be at that point where you re there, and you say, Oh my, I m here! and you can t remember one thing to ask. You want to be prepared for that because that s what you re striving to do. So, you want to prepare now and ask the questions. Have them written out. Take them to Him now in prayer and fasting. Receive answers through the Holy Spirit and be prepared, also to ask those questions when you see as you are seen and hear as you are heard. Okay? That s about all I can say on that. 178

179 Highly Favored of the Lord III Online question: In podcast 001, you talked about how to know the voice of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost and how to identify them. But how about our own voice? Mike: I would refer you to John Pontius book called Following the Light of Christ into His Presence. He deals with that much better than I could. It s just that there are three voices that we are dealing with all the time: the voice of your own mind, the voice of righteousness and goodness, and the voice of evil. We ve gone over that to some degree in the podcasts. Let me just say that you can tell the voice of the Spirit. Joseph Smith said this: They can tell the Spirit of the Lord from all other spirits. It will whisper peace [there s the number one thing] and joy to their souls, Now, joy starts to get questionable because happiness can also be counterfeited by the devil. Peace is the one thing, in my experience, that cannot be counterfeited by the devil. Joseph continued and said: and it will take malice, hatred, envying, strife, and all evil from their hearts; and their whole desire will be to do good, bring forth righteousness, and build up the kingdom of God. Tell the brethren if they will follow the Spirit of the Lord they will go right. This is how you recognize the voice of the Spirit. So, let me say those things again. First is peace. I gave a blessing to a lady that was just wrought upon by evil. So, I laid my hands upon her head. I talked about this in the podcast. She could hardly sit still. After the blessing, it didn t seem to get any better, and I got a little nervous. I thought, This isn t going to work. What am I going to do now? It shows where my faith was. Then all of a sudden, the Spirit just said, Put your hand on her head, reach over her shoulder, take hold of her hand, and say this word, peace. So, I did that. The Spirit said, Say it again. Peace. One more time. Peace. And all movement stopped. She went down in her chair. It was like this huge weight. I watched the peace of the Master descend upon her; irrefutable evidence of the presence of angels and the Holy Ghost. Here they are again: peace, happiness, take away hatred, greed, malice, and your whole desire will be to do good. Now, brothers and sisters, I think that s it for the night. Thank you so much. I hope that this has been helpful. I love you, and I am so happy to be one of you! I love my Father in Heaven. [Mike siffling] He is so 179

180 Mike Stroud gracious, kind, and merciful. I love His beloved Son, Jesus. I only want to do what s right. I m nobody. I m grateful that this has happened. This has happened, and I can still feel the depth of humility and love for my Savior. I have not been captured by that pride. I pray that I can always remain in a state of grace, and you too, having broken hearts and contrite spirits. I pray for all of us in the name of Jesus, to give us humility, meekness, and lowliness of heart, to love the unlovable, to be slow to anger and quick to forgive. I pray to have our views changed by the Atonement of Christ, to be filled with the charity of God and the pure love of His Son so that we see each other and all others as They do. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and Redeemer, amen. References: Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God Exodus 3, Moses instructed to tell the Israelites that he is sent by, I AM. Jeremiah 16:14 2 Nephi 4: Nephi 9:41-43 D&C 24:13 D&C 35:9 Mark 16: Nephi 9:8...subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil D&C 50 D&C 50:33...railing accusation D&C 101:95 strange act [and a] strange work 2 Nephi 30:10...a great division among the people The Perfect Day blog: ldsperfectday.blogspot.com D&C 50:24...the perfect day. You might as well baptize a bag of sand from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on July 9, 1843, in Nauvoo, IL. Spencer s book: Visions of Glory by John Pontius Be of good cheer. Matthew 9:2, 14:27; Mark 6:50; John 16:33; Acts 23:11; 3 Nephi 1:13; D&C 61:36, 68:6, 78:18, 112:4 John 14:27 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Book of Mormon, Come unto me. John 14:18 I will come to you. Matthew 12:43-45, parable of unclean spirit cast out and returning Moses 7:18 D&C 45:55 Joseph Smith quoted from the James Burgess Notebook 1 Nephi 5:19, brass plates should never be dimmed by time D&C 88:7...truth shineth. Following the Light of Christ into His Presence by John Pontius Joseph Smith on recognizing the voice of the Spirit, Quoted by Brigham Young, Feb. 17, 1847, Church Archives 180

181 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty-Seven Podcast 057 Familiar Spirits/Calling and Election Well, good evening, brothers and sisters. It s good to be back with you again. It s been a couple of months since we have discussed the doctrine of Christ, and I ve felt for some weeks now that I needed to do this podcast tonight. It s been impressing upon my mind, so here we go. I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will be with us as we discuss these things and that it will be according to His holy mind and will. Let s turn to some scriptures in the Old Testament. I want to take you to a few places and talk to you tonight about what the scriptures call familiar spirits. Up until three months ago, I ve never given this really any thought. But as a result of some of the things I ve read and learned that I m going to share with you tonight, I can see that this is one of those hidden things of darkness that the Doctrine and Covenants talks about that needs to be brought into the light. I am amazed at just how many people are struggling with spirits. Let s go to 1 Samuel 28:3. This talks about Samuel being called up by the witch of Endor, which she really did not call him up because mediums don t call up dead prophets. But nonetheless, there was a spirit there that identified himself as Samuel. 1 Samuel 28:3: Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. There s a reference to familiar spirits, and notice that it is tied to something called wizards. Let s go to Isaiah 19:3. What I want to point out to you is that this is an Old Testament term. You don t find this term 181

182 Mike Stroud mentioned at all in the New Testament. You don t find it mentioned at all in the Doctrine and Covenants or the Pearl of Great Price. It s mentioned twice in the Book of Mormon, but only in connection to Old Testament prophecies from the Brass Plates. So, this is an Old Testament term. Isaiah 19:3: And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. So, we now add another group people, those who seek idols and charmers. Leviticus 20:6: And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. Can you see that this term familiar spirits is not listed with anything that is godly or from light sources? It is always ungodly and has to do with dark sources. 2 Kings 23:24. I m going to take you to a couple of these. There are more; they are all Old Testament: Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, Familiar spirits are now listed in the category of an abomination. Deuteronomy 18:11: [11] Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. If you look up necromancer, it is a person who has the skill to bring forth the dead from their graves and communicate with them, usually about future events. That s your familiar spirits. I wondered why they are called familiar spirits. I found out they are called that because the word familiar is tied to family. So whenever we are dealing with dark, familiar spirits, you are dealing with your own family ancestry. These are men and women in your ancestry who plague and afflict their posterity. That s the key you want to dial in on. As I was taught this principle, I was also taught some other things by the Spirit. And that s this: these spirits that are your ancestors, who are dark spirits, come in every grade that you can imagine. Some of them are murderous and malevolent, and some degrees less than that. But they all have one thing in common; they seem to feel a legal right to afflict their posterity. Isn t that interesting? They seem to feel like they have a legal right to do what they do to their posterity. And the legal right is 182

183 Highly Favored of the Lord III something like this: You wouldn t be here if it weren't for me. You are on the earth at this time because of me. And so they feel like they have some kind of perverted legal right to do what they do, and they need to be moved on their way. I ve had a few experiences. A couple of months ago when a friend of mine and I were talking about these spirits that afflict God s children in the flesh, the Spirit was testifying to both of us that this is a major problem, these devils and unclean spirits. I shared with him my thoughts, and I have since learned much more. By the way, it is not getting less; it is on the increase. So, as we were discussing that, I talked to him about familiar spirits and what I was learning at that time. While I was talking to him, he asked for a blessing. As we were preparing, I said, I have a feeling that you have a familiar spirit. It was just a feeling. It wasn t anything revelatory as far as an angel coming and standing above the ground; it came as a feeling. Then the feeling went from there, and I said, I have a feeling it s on your mother s side. And he immediately lit up and knew exactly who it was. He told me it was his grandmother and that he had a good relationship with her as a grandmother and grandson, but she had died miserably and was negative and had some real issues upon her death. Now catch this: he immediately felt that some of the physical problems that he was experiencing were tied directly to this grandmother. It wasn t that she hated him; it was just that her misery and her pain translated over into her posterity, only one generation removed: her grandson. He felt that he was experiencing some affliction and some disease as a result of her influence. And so, as I laid my hands on his head to give him a blessing, it came to the point to speak about this grandmother. I had asked him what her name was, and we addressed that issue and severed any connections that she had with him. I d like to go to a scripture that the Lord showed me in connection, that we can use with these familiar spirits. Go to Doctrine and Covenants 132. This is talking about covenants being sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. We are not going to deal with that particular issue, but here s what the Lord showed me. Look at verse 7: And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are these: All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations [I want you to remember all those words], that are not made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise [skip down to the end of the verse] have an end when men are dead. Now look back at those words: covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, and expectations. 183

184 Mike Stroud What the Lord taught me was that for every one of those things on the Godly side, there is its counterfeit on the dark side. There are covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, and expectations in the dark side of things. Those same words are used. So, as we are dealing with familiar spirits, we want to stop generational cursings because we are talking about the effect of our ancestors that can go back innumerable generations. They can go back a 1,000 generations, and what we want to do is to sever those connections. When I pronounce a blessing, I use the same words that are in verse 7. I now sever, by the authority of the Priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ, all covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, and expectations from the dark side, who seek to afflict this person, and declare them severed, void and nullify them. And I do that by the power of the priesthood. I use section 132, verse 7 as the pattern to do that, and I have found the Lord honors it and will stop that. Remember, brothers and sisters, that the opposite of blessings is cursings. And so what is a curse? It is simply the opposite of a blessing. So, if there is anything going on in your life that is blocking you from receiving the blessings that the Lord has in store for you, in that sense, you are under a curse, and it needs to be severed. There is this unique application of justice in heaven. I am not sure I understand it completely, but let me share with you something I do understand. There seems to be a place within the heavenly realms, where evil can request and obtain a hearing. I am learning this from my own personal experience and personal revelation. Whenever an accusation is made anywhere in eternity, it has to result in a hearing. This is the legal ramifications of the heavenly realm. One of the names in Revelations that John attached to Lucifer and Satan is, the accuser of [the] brethren. I gave a lesson on accusation and admonished us to be careful making accusations because there needs to be a hearing. This appears to be eternal law. You can see in the mortal, physical world, the phenomenon of the way devils and unclean spirits think, in that they are the perpetual victims. Their main approach to things is to not assume any responsibility for their actions. It s always somebody else s fault for whatever is going on in their lives that results in misery. It s always somebody else s fault. Now, that kind of a mindset sets them up to become accusatory. You can see in the Book of Mormon where Laman and Lemuel taught their posterity that they were wronged. That s the word the Book of Mormon uses. [We] were wronged in the wilderness [We] were wronged while crossing the sea [We] were wronged in the land of [our] first inheritance. It s always somebody 184

185 Highly Favored of the Lord III else s fault for what s not going right. That is the main thread of thinking that goes through the dark side. God is not only merciful, but he is also just. And so when an accusation happens, in order for God to be just, and not only just, but perfectly just, every accusation needs to be given a hearing. And these familiar spirits that feel like they have a claim on you must be dealt with in such a way that when everything is said and done, and judgment comes, they will be bound to exclaim, My sins are my own, and thy judgments, O Lord, are just. The only way that can happen is for hearings to be given, and it appears that in the heavenly realm, there are places for that to happen. I want to share with you a story, an experience that a man shared with me that s just marvelous. I have been given permission to share this with you, and we will put it in Dropbox so you can look at it [see additions at the end of this chapter]. This is so filled with doctrinal insights. This man also shared with me a principle called Revelatory Triggers. And this document is so filled with that. The names have been changed, obviously, because this is taken from his personal journal dated February 20, I want to read this to you, and then you can have this to look at because you will want to look back over this and pull out these great doctrines. 2/20/17. My wife Susan has suffered health issues for many years. For decades after experiencing a head trauma, she suffered migraine headaches. I gave her many priesthood blessings, a few helped, most did not. Yet, most blessings I have given others for all kinds of afflictions were effective. I have wondered at this and just assumed that my faith was lacking or that because our relationship was not always the best, she lacked trust in me to act as voice to heal her. The point is I just wasn't sure why she still suffered. About 3 years ago I was allowed to give her a powerful blessing which healed her for a couple of years, but I did not understand why that blessing worked. After a couple of years, the migraines gradually returned. Last Saturday night she was suffering horribly and asked for a blessing. I prayed, received instruction of the Lord and gave what I thought was a blessing of healing. Sunday, she still had the headache. Last night as she continued to suffer I pled with Father while on my knees as never before to teach me why she was not healed. I think this is the first time I ever conceived of asking that question. I received an answer! I have learned in the last few months that if I do not receive an answer to prayer, it may be that I am asking the wrong question; or that my question or request is not based in truth. Unless something is right and is true, we cannot exercise faith in it, and it will not be granted or 185

186 Mike Stroud received. This is a witness that until we can conceive of the right question and it is based in truth, Father may not be able or willing to answer our desires. In the past, I had been giving her blessings of healing but did not stop to ask, and ask, and ask what the cause was, or why previous blessings had not been effective as a way to learn what Father wanted for us and how he works to bless us. Mike: I will just add a little post note in there that there are some great doctrinal insights in there and you ll want to ponder a few things in how to pray and receive revelation. This time, as soon as I asked the right question, the answer was given. It was revealed that a female, disembodied evil spirit has been plaguing and infesting Susan. This evil spirit caused all kinds of health issues and pain including these headaches. I was then prompted to give Susan another blessing. I expressed concerns to Father that it might be hurtful to simply announce to her the nature of the problem. He encouraged me to act. I went to her and told her I was directed to give her another blessing and asked that we kneel together in prayer to receive instructions. She was very grateful. In that prayer, we were both taught about the plague of this evil spirit and how to cast her out. Susan broke down in deep gratitude as she came to realize what had been plaguing her. She came to know that relief and protection were available to her and it was what Father wanted for her. Mike: Again, let me just say something. Notice they came to this point because this brother had learned how to ask questions. Ask! Ask! Ask! I anointed, then sealed. In the sealing and blessing, my heart was filled with empathy and love for this evil spirit as never before. In previous casting-out experiences, I had always used a commanding voice and attitude because of previous experiences with evil spirits that resulted in significant fears and retaliations. This time was different. I learned in that moment about who this individual was. In love and empathy, I bound and cast out this great, great...grandmother of Susan s, who had suffered such horrible trauma in her life that she became attached to pain and suffering. I was shown that down through time she had plagued certain females in her own posterity causing great pain and suffering in them. Susan was not the first. It was puzzling why this spirit would hurt her own posterity this way until we were taught that many dark and miserable ancestors who have died act as familiar spirits in this way. As family members, they naturally know how to be familiar with their familial victims. Then they take up residence with them. This multi-generational great-grandmother as a familiar dark 186

187 Highly Favored of the Lord III spirit indulged in the physical and emotional suffering she caused in Susan as a way of relieving her own pain and suffering. Indulging in this mortal pain was actually a distraction for her very deep misery caused by numberless abuses and finally a torturous death in her late 20's. It was a kind of anesthetization by use of lesser pain. As I cast out and bound her to the depths of spirit prison, I felt deep compassion for this individual. I pronounced that she would never again plague Susan and would be bound in spirit prison until she repented or until she received her final judgment of the Lord. I finished the blessing of Susan with pronouncements of healing and comfort. As I write this (the morning after the blessing took place), my heart is full, and I feel inclined to bless this hopeless spirit with generational healing. I will ask Father about doing that as soon as I finish writing. I do not know if Susan is to be healed immediately although I checked with her when she got up at 6 AM, and she was feeling well, then she went back to bed. I know she is and will be healed by the Lord through application of the light of Christ, and by enlightened medical treatment which will come by Him. I trust Him and His ways. Praise to Him and His glorious Son for their love, mercy, and sacrifice for us. After I finished writing, I then prayed and was given to know of the Lord what to do and what to say in blessing and healing this cast out spirit. As I began with my arm to the square, I was first led to pray that I may travel to where that spirit is now. I was immediately taken there by portal and could barely see her in the darkness, huddled in a corner, slumped and sulking. In great love and empathy, I commanded her to be still and hear the voice of God. She winced and then lashed out in great rage and vitriol, in blame and revenge. I have never heard or felt this kind of misery, violence, and vulgarity. I again commanded her to be still and hear the voice of God. She was silent, but I could feel the rage and evil darkness within her. I commanded her to receive the truth and the love of God. She was taught that she could repent and find relief if she chose, but that her anger, rebellion, and resistance might keep her from this truth for a time. She was further taught that as she pondered this possibility while continuing to be stuck in her pain and suffering, she would experience a change of heart where she would begin to believe it was possible to be relieved of her horrible pain. I blessed her to know now or in the near future that God the Father has provided a Savior, Jesus the Christ, to love her and bless her to access His sacrifice and Atonement for her sins and pain. I blessed her to know that I knew, and that God knew of her suffering and that there is a way to overcome it. I promised her that as she pondered, her mind would take hold of this truth and she would then receive true messengers who would teach her 187

188 Mike Stroud how to be liberated from this place of suffering. I again commanded her to be healed, that her pain and suffering would be relieved through the cords of the Light of Christ that now bound her, but would soon penetrate her heart and mind and shed forth truth and hope. The blessing promised her that she would then go to all those who hurt her and through the power given her of Father she would take on the great mission of healing them and healing those she has hurt. I blessed her that she would become a great power in healing her posterity. As I closed this blessing a vision opened up, and I saw her being taught and embraced in the arms of angels, then caught up and embraced in the arms of Father and Jesus. I saw her going about and healing thousands of our family members both living and in spirit prison. I saw her embracing us in thanksgiving for hearing her pleas for help. What a marvelous possibility for the future! D&C 128:15 And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let measure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers that they without us cannot be made perfect neither can we without our dead be made perfect. 3/7/17. This morning in prayer I was told to go unto Jane in spirit prison and minister to her. I asked Father how and what to say. I was told I would be given the words. As I pondered this, I was immediately in front of her, in the same place I had visited on Feb 20, This time I could see her more clearly as it was not so dark. She was in the same corner but did not seem to be bound as tightly as before. She was not emitting hatred, but deep sorrow. I said, I am here to speak with you as I have been directed of Jesus Christ. Will you hear me? She said, Yes, in a muffled tone of anguish. I raised my arm to the square and professed that she may obtain mercy of Jesus Christ if she would simply believe in Him and His power to save her. She said nothing but I felt her agony and pain. I said, If you will cry unto Him for mercy, you shall be visited with the truth of how to be saved. I felt her heart soften. In a moment, the Savior Jesus Himself appeared in front of her. I took a couple of steps back to make way. He went to her, gently spoke something to her that I could not hear, then reached down and lifted her up. Instantly I saw them in a brilliant, vast garden filled with all kinds of 188

189 Highly Favored of the Lord III colorful vegetation and flowers, with many winding paths. I watched them for a time as they were walking and talking. She was dressed in white and was smiling, asking questions and receiving answers with many hugs along the way. She looked deeply into His eyes often in a believing and grateful way. The vision was then closed up, and I found myself on my knees thanking the Savior and Father for this glorious experience. I then prayed that we may find her genealogy so we can do her temple work. We know we will be helped to do this. Update: I have received her name and the year of her birth, 857 AD. Mike: Brothers and sisters, when this brother shared this story with me, it had such a profound, deep effect upon me. I have since shared it with many and have seen the light and truth of it answer deep questions that many brothers and sisters have had concerning why certain things are taking place in their lives. I give this to you and thank this brother for allowing me to make this public. I believe that this story and this information on familiar spirits will yet bless thousands and thousands of those of us who are in the flesh, and those of our ancestry who died without a knowledge of the redeeming mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, the power of the priesthood, and the saving name of our Savior. I pray that that will be a blessing to you and your family. The next thing I would like to discuss with you is a little bit more on the doctrine of making your calling and election sure. I ve given some podcasts on this and mention of this doctrine, this precious promise is found in several other podcasts. About a month ago, I received a phone call from a good brother who had had this experience. I asked him if it was permissible for me to post this experience and maybe read a little portion of it to you. He is very careful to remain anonymous and protect his identity, and I respect that. But after he and I had talked a little bit, and he asked the Lord if it was permissible, he felt that his experience would lead to hundreds and maybe thousands of others obtaining this great blessing. So, I pulled a portion out of that to read to you, but the whole account is marvelous, and it will be posted in the Dropbox [see additions at the end of this chapter]. This will explain to you what took place to this man on March 22, On March 22nd of this year, I came home from a business trip. All afternoon I had been feeling the Spirit. I felt tremendous love for God. My whole being felt illuminated by the Spirit. I spent some time with my wife and family that evening. I stayed up after my family went to bed to 189

190 Mike Stroud spend some time with the Lord. The Spirit continued to just glow all about my entire being during the entire afternoon and evening. Finally, I got tired, and I went to my bedside. I knelt down. I wept over the continued false beliefs of rejection. But, I also praised and thanked my Heavenly Father for all of my blessings. I told Him how much I loved Him. I told Him how much I loved my wife, and how grateful I am for her. Finally, I just brought forth gratitude from the depths of my soul and with great sorrow, I told the Lord how much I loved Him. I explained that if I were indeed rejected by Him, I would continue to worship Him and love Him. I told Him that even if he hadn t forgiven me for some of my sins or weaknesses, I would always try to repent. From the depths of agony, I said that even if, at the final bar of God, I had somehow missed my exaltation by one small mistake or weakness, I would ask for a do-over or another opportunity. If I were rejected in that moment, I would beg and plead for another chance. If rejected in my request, I would still worship and love Him, and I would never stop asking for any opportunity to try again. I explained that I would never stop trying to repent and work on myself. Further, I would always ask for another opportunity for exaltation even if I was denied. I wept, but I also praised Him and told Him that I would do this even if He didn t love me or He had somehow rejected me. I told Him I would always love Him. The Spirit was so strong in the quiet of that beautiful night while I kneeled at my bed. I had not come to this prayer asking, once again, about my calling and election. I just felt that Heavenly Father needed to know that if He had given up on me, I would still repent and love Him. I would still try. I would always try. Suddenly, the Spirit seemed to increase in intensity as I expressed my love for God. Something started to happen which I did not fully understand, and I even questioned what was taking place. Nevertheless, the Spirit burned as I felt Heavenly Father and my Redeemer enter the room. I sensed their hands placed upon my head, and a blessing flowed into the depths of my soul from them. Here is a part of the message that was given. You are now promised exaltation and eternal life. You will be given all that the Father has. You are ordained to be a King and a Priest unto the Most High God. I was instructed to see myself as a King and a Priest and to see my wife as a Queen and a Priestess. I was given a brief vision about the meaning of the titles of King and Priest unto the Most High God. They have little to do with dominion, but much to do with serving and blessing others. The 190

191 Highly Favored of the Lord III concept of a servant- king is probably more accurate to describe the nature of this promise. I was given wonderful revelation regarding my wife. I was told how beloved she is by God. I was told that she already has her calling and election made sure, but she has not yet personally received this blessing. Nevertheless, she will receive eternal life and exaltation. I was told that my wife and I are part of the Church of the Firstborn. I was taught that I am redeemed from the Fall and that the veil will now be lifted by degree. I was promised many things that cannot be spoken because they are similar to sacred words spoken in the temple. I was so surprised and perplexed at what was happening that I asked questions. One of my biggest questions came quickly. To explain my first question I need to share that you are instantly aware of your weakness and unworthiness before God when you are suddenly outside the veil like I found myself. You are very aware of your own nothingness. I had no idea how unworthy I was until this experience. I asked why this was happening now because I felt unworthy. Heavenly Father and the Savior are so warm in their communication (it almost seemed like humor, but humor is the wrong word to describe how I felt). I felt their humor/joy/warmth at my expressions of unworthiness. They communicated what seemed like a question and an answer at the same time. The question seemed to be, Do you think this is happening because you are worthy? This doesn t happen because you are worthy. The answer seemed to be more because I was now ready. The Savior is the only worthy person that has lived in this mortality. Because of Him, I was worthy, but I alone was not worthy. Only the Lamb of God is worthy; I was nothing before them. They simply bestow their blessings upon us out of absolute love. Mike: The whole story of this account written by this beloved brother will be found in the Dropbox [see additions at the end of this chapter]. What s the purpose? Why are we doing this? He would be the first one to tell you, as he said in his account, I m nobody; I m just a Latter-day Saint trying to do the best I can. He would tell you that, and he has told me that. It has been my privilege to talk to him many times and sense his deep humility and his wonder and awe at why this is happening to him. Now, this last general conference, in Priesthood Session, President Eyring got up and gave a talk called, Walk with Me. Brothers and sisters, you need to go back and look at that because, since April 2016, there has been a definite shift in what the Brethren are teaching. They are teaching about things that have not been spoken of before. They are 191

192 Mike Stroud doing it in such a way that it is somewhat veiled, but these talks are open. The first talk was given by President Nelson on, The Price of Priesthood Power, and then this one, Walk with Me. President Eyring quoted these scriptures. In it is a direct reference to your calling and election made sure. Go with me to JST, Genesis 14:25-40, starting with verse 25; this Joseph Smith Translation, right after your Bible dictionary: [25] And Melchizedek lifted up his voice and blessed Abram. [26] Now Melchizedek was a man of faith, who wrought righteousness; and when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire. [27] And thus, having been approved of God, That is your marker sentence to calling and election made sure. After everything is said and done, that sentence, more than anything, describes the doctrine of making your calling and election sure. Now, look what else happens here: he was ordained Remember our brother and that he got hands laid upon his head? In this account there was an ordination that took place: an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch, The Book of Mormon refers to this ordination. We ve talked about it in Priesthood. It does not come from mortal institutions nor under the hands of unauthorized messengers; it doesn t happen. There is no record of this ordination kept on any mortal, intuitional records nothing. This is a record that is kept in heaven and is a part of the church of the Firstborn. Look at the next verse: [28] It [the covenant that God made with Enoch] being after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man, nor the will of man [that excludes anything in this world]; neither by father nor mother [it doesn t come down through lineage]; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God; In the account I just read, there is this brother with hands laid upon his head receiving a blessing from God. I want you to notice that he also mentioned that when They appeared to him, he did not see Them but sensed that They were there. That s important. That s an important part. Look at the next verse: [29] And it [this ordination/covenant] was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice [that s calling and 192

193 Highly Favored of the Lord III election made sure], according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name. There s one of the scriptural reference pertaining to making your calling and election sure. When you have your calling and election made sure you are now a member of the church of the Firstborn. There are rights and privileges and promises that go along with that. One of the things this good brother explained to us was that the veil would now begin to be opened. That s one of the privileges that go along with this. You are now instructed. Can I tell you, my friends, that once you receive these ordinations and these promises, the knowledge of what you do with them isn t automatically bestowed, whether it s an ordination to that Holy Order, or having your calling and election made sure, or whether it s the more sure word of prophecy, the ordination to translation, or to be called to be a member of the 144,000. Once the ordination is bestowed, instruction just begins. Once you ve obtained these promises and these blessings, that doesn t mean you know what you re going to do with it. People like my friend and others who ve obtained these lofty blessings are the first ones to say, I m not sure what I m supposed to do from here. And every one of them has that in common. So, there s a process of instruction and teaching that takes place. If you receive the ordination to be translated and to be numbered among the 144,000 laborer/gatherers, do you think you understand what s involved in that mission and that ordination and that assignment? You have to be tutored and instructed. The pattern is, as with everything else that God does: here a little and there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line. This applies also to the greater portion of the word and these precious promises and ordinations. Our friend mentioned a portal. Do you think that just because you are told about one that you automatically know how to use it? I testify to you that the instruction on how to use these obtained blessings and promises begins after you obtain them and then continues on, line upon line, here a little and there a little. I would like to share with you a thought, brothers and sisters, about being called before you came here. Those of you who are obtaining these promises and feel the draw within you, know that there is something magnificently obsessive. There is something in you that just draws you forward. When you feel that, as we ve mentioned before, that s a call. I ve been taught that all covenants with associated privileges and blessings come in three stages. The first stage to this covenant relationship is the promise stage. You obtain a promise from God that you now have access to certain things. The second phase is an 193

194 Mike Stroud ordination or an ordinance. The third phase is the sealing of that ordination and ordinance. The sealing part is what we read about earlier in Doctrine and Covenants 132:7, that once you obtain the promise and the ordination/ordinance, then you seek to have that sealed upon you. Once it s sealed upon you, all of the powers, rights, privileges, blessings, which are tied to that covenant now become operative. Back to the talk that President Eyring gave this last general conference. He quoted JST Genesis 14 and all the rights, privileges, and blessings that are associated with the church of the Firstborn, with your calling and election made sure, with the Second Comforter, to stand in the presence of God, the Baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, and even translation because that section in JST Genesis 14 talked about people who had come up to this order, exercised this faith, and were taken into heaven and translated into the City of Enoch. It s all right there, and he quoted that whole section and then said that we should ask ourselves if we are having these kinds of experiences. When he said that I almost fell off my chair! And then he said, even if only figuratively, are we having these experiences to accomplish God s will? What more can the Brethren say than that to a worldwide church where every word is scrutinized closely by the enemy and the apostate press to set traps to catch the Brethren in their words, as 2 Nephi 28:8 says, to dig a pit for thy neighbor. What more can they say to us and still maintain the direction of the Church and its mission without bringing undue ridicule and persecution upon the membership? And yet, I fear that all too many, way too many men did not hear that message. Let s refer back again to President Nelson s talk in April The name of the talk is The Price of Priesthood Power. The subtitle is, Are we willing to pray, fast, study, seek, worship, and serve as men of God so we can have priesthood power? We ve gone over this before, his four fears, but I want to point out something to you. He listed the things we need to do and here s one that did not get enough attention. He said this, and you can look it up in that talk: Are you willing to follow President Thomas S. Monson s example of serving others? For decades he has taken the long way home, following promptings of the Spirit to arrive on someone s doorstep and then hear words such as, How did you know it was the anniversary of our daughter s death? or How did you know it was my birthday? Now, brethren, if you really want to get the power in the priesthood, listen to what President Nelson says: 194

195 Highly Favored of the Lord III And if you truly want more priesthood power, you will cherish and care for your wife, embracing both her and her counsel. Adam, here is a woman whom we have formed to be a companion and a helpmeet. What will you call her? Eve. Notice the helpmeet part? Brethren, our wives are designed to help us come up and attain the promises and blessings and power of the two examples of these two brethren, who truly are now receiving power in their priesthood. And the Lord wants that to happen to us. I want to share with you something from the other day. My little wife just opens things up to me that are so marvelous. She shared this with me as we were talking. I want you to go to Alma 9:16. I want to show you what she shared with me, hidden in this. We re going to take a different look at this. Let s change a few words to make it speak directly about us: [16] For there are many promises which are extended to [us]; for it is because of the traditions of [our] fathers that caused [us] to remain in [our] state of ignorance... Skip down to 17: And at some period of time [we] will be brought to believe in his word, and to know of the incorrectness of the traditions of [our] fathers; and many of [us] will be saved, for the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name. When we get past the incorrectness of the traditions of [our] fathers that have kept us in ignorance, we obtain these blessings. This is what Margie pointed out to me. There s a list here, if we skip on down to verse 20, where the Lord talks about if we remain in that state: [20] Yea, after having been such a [#1] highly favored people of the Lord; yea, after having been favored above every other nation, kindred, tongue, or people; after [#2] having had all things made known unto them, All things! I want you to think back to sections 35 and 121, where it says we live in a day where knowledge that has been kept from the foundation of the world, only to be revealed in our day is being poured out upon the Latter-day Saints. We have access to information that has been kept from the foundation of the world, reserved, to be poured out upon us in our day. 195

196 Mike Stroud according to their desires, and their faith, and prayers, of that which has been, and which is, and which is to come; Do you see that? Past, present, and future, which by the way, you receive the keys to those when you receive your endowment blessings. In your endowment blessings, according to Brigham Young, you have received the keys to inquire after and receive information concerning things past, things in the present, and things in the future. [21] [#3] Having been visited by the Spirit of God; That s your Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost, revelations of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. [#4] having conversed with angels, and [#5] having been spoken unto by the voice of the Lord; Do you know what that is? That s your calling and election made sure. and [#6] having the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and also many gifts, [#7] the gift of speaking with tongues, and [#8] the gift of preaching, and [#9] the gift of the Holy Ghost, and [#10] the gift of translation; We are not talking about translating records. We re talking about being caught up, receiving an ordination, having your telestial flesh exchanged for terrestrial flesh, and receiving, as in section 84, the renewing of [your body]. This is to fulfill a foreordained mission, the training for which is now underway. Well, brothers and sisters, I would like to just conclude by encouraging you to continue to seek to see with the eye of faith. Seek for visions and to become practiced in peeling back the veil of flesh, to be carried away in the Spirit into the heavenly realm and see, hear, understand, touch, and experience unspeakable things, as Nephi said. I testify to you this is all available. Angels are visiting us. They are real male and female. The Savior is visiting people. They are seeing Him face to face. He is inviting them to come forth and handle Him and see. Translation is taking place. Messengers from the City of Enoch are on the earth. They are being seen. That communication is happening. This is not will happen yet in the future. It is now. Just let me say one last thing. Before you came here, all of you knew how to create. You were all creators, male and female. You were instructed in this sacred priesthood skill, and now you find yourself behind the veil; you are still a creator. Use your creativity to peel back the veil and access what s there waiting for you. Don t be afraid; move forward in faith. Put your trust in Him, and rely on upon our Father and His Beloved Son to bring to pass their marvelous work and a wonder in 196

197 Highly Favored of the Lord III your individual lives. God bless you. I testify to these things. I know they are true. I know they are happening. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Messiah, amen. References: D&C 123:13...bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness 1 Samuel 28:3 Isaiah 19:3 Leviticus 20:6 2 Kings 23:24 Deuteronomy 18:9-12 D&C 132:7 Revelation 12:10...the accuser of our brethren Mosiah 10: they were wronged D&C 128:15 Walk with Me by Henry B. Eyring, General Conference April 2017 The Price of Priesthood Power by Russell M. Nelson, General Conference April 2016 JST Genesis 14: Nephi 28:8 Alma 9:16-21 D&C 35:18...from the foundation of the world D&C 121:31...revealed in the days of the dispensation of the fulness of times 3 Nephi 28:13...caught up D&C 85:33...the renewing of their bodies. 3 Nephi 28:13...saw and heard unspeakable things. Casting Out and Healing of a Familiar (Familial) Spirit By Unnamed Edited version of an entry from personal journal Dated February 20, /20/17. My wife Susan has suffered health issues for many years. For decades after experiencing a head trauma, she suffered migraine headaches. I gave her many priesthood blessings, a few helped, most did not. Yet, most blessings I have given others for all kinds of afflictions were effective. I have wondered at this and just assumed that my faith was lacking or that because our relationship was not always the best, she lacked trust in me to act as voice to heal her. The point is I just wasn't sure why she still suffered. About 3 years ago I was allowed to give her a powerful blessing which healed her for a couple of years, but I did not understand why that blessing worked. After a couple of years, the migraines gradually returned. Last Saturday night she was suffering horribly and asked for a blessing. I prayed, received instruction of the Lord and gave what I thought was a blessing of healing. Sunday, she still had the headache. Last night as she continued to suffer I pled with Father while on my knees as never before to teach me why she was not healed. I think this is the first time I ever conceived of asking that 197

198 Mike Stroud question. I received an answer! I have learned in the last few months that if I do not receive an answer to prayer, it may be that I am asking the wrong question; or that my question or request is not based in truth. Unless something is right and is true, we cannot exercise faith in it, and it will not be granted or received. This is a witness that until we can conceive of the right question and it is based in truth, Father may not be able or willing to answer our desires. In the past, I had been giving her blessings of healing but did not stop to ask, and ask, and ask what the cause was, or why previous blessings had not been effective as a way to learn what Father wanted for us and how he works to bless us. This time, as soon as I asked the right question, the answer was given. It was revealed that a female, disembodied evil spirit has been plaguing and infesting Susan. This evil spirit caused all kinds of health issues and pain including these headaches. I was then prompted to give Susan another blessing. I expressed concerns to Father that it might be hurtful to simply announce to her the nature of the problem. He encouraged me to act. I went to her and told her I was directed to give her another blessing and asked that we kneel together in prayer to receive instructions. She was very grateful. In that prayer, we were both taught about the plague of this evil spirit and how to cast her out. Susan broke down in deep gratitude as she came to realize what had been plaguing her. She came to know that relief and protection were available to her and it was what Father wanted for her. I anointed, then sealed. In the sealing and blessing, my heart was filled with empathy and love for this evil spirit as never before. In previous casting-out experiences, I had always used a commanding voice and attitude, because of previous experiences with evil spirits that resulted in significant fears and retaliations. This time was different. I learned in that moment about who this individual was. In love and empathy, I bound and cast out this great-greatgrandmother of Susan s, who had suffered such horrible trauma in her life that she became attached to pain and suffering. I was shown that down through time she had plagued certain females in her own posterity causing great pain and suffering in them. Susan was not the first. It was puzzling why this spirit would hurt her own posterity this way until we were taught that many dark and miserable ancestors who have died act as familiar spirits in this way. As family members, they naturally know how to be familiar with their familial victims. Then they take up residence with them. This multi-generational greatgrandmother as a familiar dark spirit indulged in the physical and emotional suffering she caused in Susan as a way of relieving her own pain and suffering. Indulging in this mortal pain was actually a distraction for her very deep misery caused by numberless abuses and finally a torturous death in her late 20's. It was a kind of anesthetization by use of lesser pain. As I cast out and bound her to the depths of spirit prison, I felt deep compassion for this individual. I pronounced that she would never again plague Susan and would be bound in spirit prison until she repented or until she received her final judgment of the Lord. I finished the blessing of Susan with pronouncements of healing and comfort. As I write this (the morning after the blessing took place), my heart is full, and I feel inclined to bless this hopeless spirit with generational healing. I will 198

199 Highly Favored of the Lord III ask Father about doing that as soon as I finish writing. I do not know if Susan is to be healed immediately although I checked with her when she got up at 6 AM, and she was feeling well, then she went back to bed. I know she is and will be healed by the Lord through application of the light of Christ, and by enlightened medical treatment which will come by Him. I trust Him and His ways. Praise to Him and His glorious Son for their love, mercy, and sacrifice for us. After I finished writing, I then prayed and was given to know of the Lord what to do and what to say in blessing and healing this cast out spirit. As I began with my arm to the square, I was first led to pray that I may travel to where that spirit is now. I was immediately taken there by portal and could barely see her in the darkness, huddled in a corner, slumped and sulking. In great love and empathy, I commanded her to be still and hear the voice of God. She winced and then lashed out in great rage and vitriol, in blame and revenge. I have never heard or felt this kind of misery, violence, and vulgarity. I again commanded her to be still and hear the voice of God. She was silent, but I could feel the rage and evil darkness within her. I commanded her to receive the truth and the love of God. She was taught that she could repent and find relief if she chose, but that her anger, rebellion, and resistance might keep her from this truth for a time. She was further taught that as she pondered this possibility while continuing to be stuck in her pain and suffering, she would experience a change of heart where she would begin to believe it was possible to be relieved of her horrible pain. I blessed her to know now or in the near future that God the Father has provided a Savior, Jesus the Christ, to love her and bless her to access His sacrifice and Atonement for her sins and pain. I blessed her to know that I knew, and that God knew of her suffering and that there is a way to overcome it. I promised her that as she pondered, her mind would take hold of this truth and she would then receive true messengers who would teach her how to be liberated from this place of suffering. I again commanded her to be healed, that her pain and suffering would be relieved through the cords of the Light of Christ that now bound her, but would soon penetrate her heart and mind and shed forth truth and hope. The blessing promised her that she would then go to all those who hurt her and through the power given her of Father she would take on the great mission of healing them and healing those she has hurt. I blessed her that she would become a great power in healing her posterity. As I closed this blessing a vision opened up, and I saw her being taught and embraced in the arms of angels, then caught up and embraced in the arms of Father and Jesus. I saw her going about and healing thousands of our family members both living and in spirit prison. I saw her embracing us in thanksgiving for hearing her pleas for help. What a marvelous possibility for the future! D&C 128:15 And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers--that they without us cannot be made perfect-- neither can we without our dead be made perfect. 199

200 Mike Stroud 3/7/17. This morning in prayer I was told to go unto Jane in spirit prison and minister to her. I asked Father how and what to say. I was told I would be given the words. As I pondered this, I was immediately in front of her, in the same place I had visited on Feb 20, This time I could see her more clearly as it was not so dark. She was in the same corner but did not seem to be bound as tightly as before. She was not emitting hatred, but deep sorrow. I said, I am here to speak with you as I have been directed of Jesus Christ. Will you hear me? She said, Yes, in a muffled tone of anguish. I raised my arm to the square and professed that she may obtain mercy of Jesus Christ if she would simply believe in Him and His power to save her. She said nothing but I felt her agony and pain. I said, If you will cry unto Him for mercy, you shall be visited with the truth of how to be saved. I felt her heart soften. In a moment, the Savior Jesus Himself appeared in front of her. I took a couple of steps back to make way. He went to her, gently spoke something to her that I could not hear, then reached down and lifted her up. Instantly I saw them in a brilliant,, vast garden filled with all kinds of colorful vegetation and flowers, with many winding paths. I watched them for a time as they were walking and talking. She was dressed in white and was smiling, asking questions and receiving answers with many hugs along the way. She looked deeply into His eyes often in a believing and grateful way. The vision was then closed up, and I found myself on my knees thanking the Savior and Father for this glorious experience. I then prayed that we may find her genealogy so we can do her temple work. We know we will be helped to do this. Update: I have received her name and the year of her birth, 857 AD Joshua s Story I want to share part of a recent experience to reassure others about God s love and his intent to bring us to Him. If you think you know me (based upon anything that I share), please do not disclose my name. If you need, you may simply call me Joshua. My purpose is to lead people to their Heavenly Father and to their Savior Jesus Christ. I want you to know I love them. I want to help connect people to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so that they will receive their calling and election made sure. We need to be ready to live in Zion, the New Jerusalem, and begin the process of sanctifying our lives to be ready. This is really more about you, how you can approach Him, the Savior Jesus Christ, and how you can receive your calling and election made sure. I believe we are living in the latter part of this dispensation. The Lord needs us to sanctify our lives and to awake. I believe that the Lord wants us to build Zion. To do so, we need enough individuals who have individually sanctified their lives, have received their calling and election made sure, and are ready to live in Zion, the New Jerusalem. If we follow Jesus Christ, I personally know that we can progress and receive all the blessings given to ancient prophets. Receiving a calling and election made sure is NOT just for the leaders of the Church. The fullness of the gospel is so that ALL men and women may partake of ALL of the blessings of the gospel. As I read the scriptures, I now realize how 200

201 Highly Favored of the Lord III the Lord takes ordinary men and women and lifts them to spiritual levels wherein they ultimately receive their calling and election made sure. There are more people who have their calling and election made sure than the number of people who have received their calling and election made sure. Receiving is an important principle. For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. Doctrine and Covenants 88:33 Receiving is actually one of the most important principles to grasp in all of the ordinances of the gospel. Perhaps this is why the word receive is used in the ordinance of confirmation and in connection with other ordinances of the gospel. There are some who have their calling and election made sure who have not yet received their calling and election made sure. My every desire is to help others receive their calling and election. Each of us have spiritual gifts, and I need you as much as you need me if we are going to build Zion and if we are going to survive the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets. If you read the Book of Mormon with eyes to see, you will realize that the fulness of the Gospel is contained within its pages. However, the Book of Mormon does not even mention the ordinances of the temple. Maybe the Book of Mormon and the fulness of the gospel is something much, more simple something more plain and simple for the understanding of all men and women. When we read the words of Nephi in 2 Nephi Chapter 31 we read, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel. The Book of Mormon was written so that all men and women can come unto Jesus Christ and ultimately receive the Holy Ghost, who will teach us all things that we should do. When the Holy Ghost teaches us all things, then we will learn what we must do to be ready to receive our calling and election made sure. All things will then become our fulness of the gospel because He will teach us through the Holy Ghost. So, who am I (without disclosing my name)? I am a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have served several missions. I am married and have children. I felt the Spirit as a young boy when I was baptized and when I sang I am a Child of God in Primary. I love teaching the gospel because I experience joy in those moments when the third member of the Godhead enters into the room and testifies of Jesus Christ and the restoration. I enjoy temporal preparations and reading about the last days. I have a canvas tent and lots of food storage. I believe some people have been and will be led to places of safety and refuge. However, I don t believe our food storage will save any of us if we haven t sanctified our lives. Why would the Lord save us for 201

202 Mike Stroud obeying the commandments about self-reliance and food storage if we haven t sanctified our lives or if we carry around some hidden sin? I don t follow or associate with fringe movements in the Church. The Holy Ghost has instructed me about which books to read. The Spirit has also warned me about certain literature that is commonly held to be authoritative on certain gospel or scholarly subjects, but that content may draw us away from the gospel. I believe we should follow the Holy Ghost; He will teach us all things that we should do. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26 As we seek our calling and election, I do not believe that the Lord will lead us away from the restored Church of Jesus Christ, which I testify is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love the church, I am grateful for my membership, and I appreciate the Lord s servants. I am also a member of the Church of the Firstborn. Everyone, who has received their calling and election made sure, is a member of the Church of the Firstborn. I am still wrapping my head around my membership in the Church of the Firstborn, and I am learning what this truly means. The Church of the Firstborn is not in conflict with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in any way. To compare the two churches is like comparing the orders of the priesthood. The comparison is similar to how the Melchizedek Priesthood works in concert with the Aaronic Priesthood neither is in conflict with the other. Both are important, but there is a difference in priesthood administration. I am active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I don t expect this to ever change. I also readily recognize that I have received a witness that I am a member of the Church of the Firstborn, whose head is Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus Christ is our Savior, our Redeemer and our Eternal King. I love Him, and I will now share how I came to receive my calling and election made sure. I have spent a large part of my life pondering and praying about my standing before the Lord. Around the age of 17 and 18, I started to pray and ask Heavenly Father whether I could receive my calling and election made sure. I wanted to have experiences like Nephi, Alma, and the Brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon. I would pray for hours in my efforts. Most of the time I would ultimately either give up or wake up. I felt discouraged thinking I was just not good enough or worthy. Embedded in those thoughts were false beliefs that prevented me in my efforts to receive this blessing. I will address false beliefs later since they are a stumbling block to our progress. At the age of 17 and 18, I had a testimony of the restoration of the gospel and many other truths but, I was discouraged that I could not pierce the veil and have the experiences that I desired. During this time of intense spiritual growth, I left home to attend BYU. Shortly after arriving, I was invited to attend a family get-together with a girl that I dated occasionally. Since I enjoyed spending time with the girl and her family, I agreed to go to the family get-together. I enjoyed my time with my friend and her family at the get-together. 202

203 Highly Favored of the Lord III As the evening progressed, I was approached by an elderly member of her family and started a conversation. As I recall, the man was her grandfather, and I believe he was an ordained Patriarch. At some point in the conversation, the man mentioned something to the effect of, I ve been instructed to speak with you. Those words and the rest of what I will share may not have been his exact words, but I will share his overall message to me that evening. This kind elderly man then told me that there are individuals on the earth today who do, in fact, receive their calling and election made sure. He had received his calling and election made sure. He said that even though people have received this blessing, they don t often speak about the experience (particularly the details) openly. At times, however, the Spirit directs these individuals to speak about this to others. For me, there was no vow of silence only an understanding of sacredness and reverence. The man encouraged me to stay on the course but taught me that I was not yet ready. I was very drawn into the conversation with this elderly man. We probably spoke for at least an hour. He explained that there are some things that cannot be shared with others. There are also some things which can be shared when directed by the Holy Ghost. He was very careful with what he shared, but he tried to be as open as possible. He explained that there are multiple events that happen which members of the church mistakenly combine to characterize what individuals consider receiving their calling and election made sure. However, each of these experiences is different in their nature and purpose. For example, he explained that there is a temple ordinance (usually given later in life) after receiving the endowment and the sealing ordinance which some individuals receive from a member of the First Presidency or the Quorum of the Twelve. I have studied various historical records about this ordinance in church. I have learned a great deal about this ordinance. The ordinance is given to married couples who have been previously sealed to one another. However, I have not personally received this ordinance with my wife in the temple from a member of the Twelve Apostles or the First Presidency. I also do not feel that I should discuss the sacred nature of this ordinance. I respect the sacredness of temple ordinances and our temple covenants. This elderly family member of my friend taught me that this ordinance does NOT, by itself, constitute receiving your calling and election made sure. However, receiving this ordinance may lead to a series of events wherein one does receive their calling and election made sure. This higher ordinance in the temple is given to certain couples in the temple today. Most likely, this ordinance is given to help couples progress towards receiving their calling and election. This higher temple ordinance may lead someone to a series of events wherein the Holy Ghost ultimately bears witness to an individual that their calling and election is made sure. And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are these: All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made and entered into 203

204 Mike Stroud and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise... are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end have an end when men are dead. Doctrine and Covenants 132:7 The man also explained that there is an experience known as the second comforter. I remember that he implied, but he directly did not speak about whether he had, in fact, received this blessing. I do know people who have received the second comforter. From my recollection, the man taught me that receiving the second comforter often occurs AFTER one receives their calling and election made sure. I mistakenly believed that receiving one s calling and election always happens simultaneously to receiving the second comforter. I believe these two events sometimes do happen simultaneously; however, the elderly family member of my friend seemed to teach me that this is not always the case. Often, one receives their calling and election made sure, and then, at a subsequent time, they receive the second comforter. Consider the words of the prophet Joseph Smith in this matter: After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses. Notice the timing suggested by the Prophet Joseph Smith. First, the calling and election is made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other comforter. So what does it mean to receive your calling and election made sure? Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught, To have one s calling and election made sure is to be sealed up unto eternal life; it is to have the unconditional guarantee of exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world; it is to receive the assurance of godhood; it is, in effect, to have the day of judgment advanced, so that an inheritance of all the glory and honor of the Father s kingdom is assured prior to the day when the faithful actually enter into the divine presence to sit with Christ in his throne, even as he is set down with his Father in his throne. (Rev. 3:21.) Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Bookcraft, 1973, 3: About 33 years have now passed since I listened intently to the words of the elderly family member of my friend. Since that conversation, I have tried many times to pierce the heavenly veil. I have pled with the Lord, I have prayed, and I have asked. During the last year, I was introduced to another man that has received his calling and election made sure. He s a quiet, active Latter-day Saint. He has 204

205 Highly Favored of the Lord III served as a Bishop, and in other capacities in the Church. He taught me many of the same principles as the first man. We would talk for long periods of time. I would share spiritual experiences that I have experienced, and he would share his. Based upon our conversations, he would ask, (Joshua), are you sure you don t have your calling and election made sure? He would tell me that he felt like I was at his level as a spiritual peer. As much as I wanted to have the same blessings as this man, I would respond, no. At that time, to claim such an experience would have been untruthful from my perspective. He taught me that some people have their calling and election, but do not know they have it (in effect, they haven t received their calling and election). He taught me some things about how to receive this blessing, but he mostly taught me how to ask the Lord. He taught me to seek for the Holy Ghost s guidance in this matter. He reassured me and encouraged me to try again. \ I started to pray earnestly sometimes for hours. I experienced more discouragement. After praying for lengthy periods, I usually found myself, once again, giving up or waking up. At his suggestion, I started to quietly ask if I had my calling and election made sure. I sought for a simple answer by the witness of the Holy Ghost. For a long time, I received no answer to this question. Next, I started to ask what I needed to do to receive my calling and election made sure. At times, I would get small answers. On other occasions, I would receive simple and quiet guidance. I was given occasional instruction like Trust Me and Be Humble. I didn t think I was proud, but I started to work on this principle. I was given tremendous trials and tests. At times, I thought I would lose everything. I followed God s revelation to do or not to do specific things even when the probable outcome looked like I would ruin my life or by following His guidance that I would lose everything. Someday, I may share the Abrahamic tests, but suffice to say, I passed through incredible adversity. If I had trusted Him more, I believe the awful Gethsemanes through which I passed could have ended sooner. I believe that I would have received my calling and election sooner if I knew what I know now. I am certain that you and others can receive this blessing sooner. One impression given to me was that I needed to work on anger. I was shown how I had hurt others through my anger. I couldn t even fix this for there are so many people who I have hurt over the years that I don t even know how to reach them - customer service operators, unknown drivers on roads in big cities, wicked politicians, and people just doing their jobs. Even though the Lord was gentle in his reproof, I knew my weakness and my guilt. I was ashamed and embarrassed. I have worked on my anger, but I need to say I am not yet perfect with this principle. It s best to say I am focusing on progress not perfection. I asked for forgiveness for my anger. I asked the Lord to bless and heal those that I had hurt through my impatience and anger. I constantly work on controlling any degree of anger. One of the last, but vitally important, pieces of revelation came just prior to receiving my calling and election. I have mentioned in this narrative a little about false beliefs. One day, the Lord revealed to me that I carried a number of 205

206 Mike Stroud false beliefs. I was a little surprised because I didn t even think that I had false beliefs. I believe in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe there is a living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Sometimes, we blindly believe everything we re told or given and learn to doubt later. The danger is that false beliefs are worse than lies. The Lord taught me that false beliefs are based upon lies. All of my faith and my actions were centered on the lies embedded in my false beliefs. Just like the Pharisees in Christ s day, we have many false traditions and beliefs even though we think we re doing what s right. We go to church, we pray, we read the scriptures. What could possibly be false? I started to ask the Lord, What are my false beliefs? He started to show me. For example, I experienced a fair amount of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse growing up. As I worked with the Lord, I realized that my self-esteem and my sense of self-worth were in the toilet. Throughout my life, I had also felt tremendous rejection. I often felt alone and neglected. I had even developed an almost unconscious feeling that maybe the Lord didn t love me or care about me. At times, I felt loved, but I also felt that the Lord had more important things to do than help me with my trials and afflictions. Sometimes, I even interpreted the quiet of unanswered prayers that He had rejected me. All of these were false beliefs. All of these were based on lies. I worked on these feelings. Then, I even experienced more rejection. One feeling of rejection came immediately before I received my calling and election made sure. I was serving on a High Council in our stake. I have served on multiple High Councils. Each time, I have been told, the Lord was preparing me to be a Bishop. I have had a father and a brother serve as Bishops. My patriarchal blessing led me to believe I would serve as a Bishop. Each time I have served on a High Council, most of the men in front of me had either served as a Bishop or were later called as a Bishop when the Bishop of their home ward was released. Ultimately, I found myself serving as the senior high counselor, and I was released to serve in another calling. I have held a position of leadership in the church where individuals ordinarily have served as a Bishop prior to being extended such a calling. In that calling, I often trained Bishops and Stake Presidents, but I felt awkward since I did not have the experience or wisdom normally gained from serving as a Bishop. Shortly before receiving my calling and election, I was again serving as a high councilor. I received many indications that I would be called as the next Bishop. I was worthy of my temple recommend. I have received impressions that I would be called as a Bishop some day, but I am getting older and that day is quickly passing. My Bishop, at the time, would spend time talking with me. He is one of my dear friends. As his time was coming to a close, the Bishop would say I would soon know his burdens and responsibilities. He seemed to clearly indicate what was coming. I am also good friends with my stake president. I respect and love him as a man of God. Notwithstanding the clear signals being given, I tried earnestly to put aside the thoughts that I might be called as the Bishop, even though nearly every man on the High Council before me had been called to serve as the Bishop. I thought I was totally fine not to be called. I didn t even necessarily want the assignment, but as the days passed, I 206

207 Highly Favored of the Lord III started to prepare for what looked like an assignment that would likely fall on my shoulders. The man who was ultimately called as our new Bishop is a dear friend. I love him. I know he was called by revelation. I sustain him, and he is doing a wonderful work. Although I was totally supportive of this change, I realized this subconscious false belief of again being rejected and possibly even being unloved by the Lord. I hurt inside and pondered if I had somehow offended the Lord or if had truly been rejected of Him. Time passed, I continued to work on my false beliefs. Finally, I had to ask the Savior to take my pain and remove my false beliefs of rejection or of being unloved. I am not perfect in having removed my false beliefs, but I and the Savior are working on clearing out the false beliefs. On March 22nd of this year, I came home from a business trip. All afternoon I had been feeling the Spirit. I felt tremendous love for God. My whole being felt illuminated by the Spirit. I spent some time with my wife and family that evening. I stayed up after my family went to bed to spend some time with the Lord. The Spirit continued to just glow all about my entire being during the entire afternoon and evening. Finally, I got tired, and I went to my bedside. I knelt down. I wept over the continued false beliefs of rejection. But, I also praised and thanked my Heavenly Father for all of my blessings. I told Him how much I loved Him. I told Him how much I loved my wife, and how grateful I am for her. Finally, I just brought forth gratitude from the depths of my soul and with great sorrow. I told the Lord how much I loved Him. I explained that if I were indeed rejected by Him, I would continue to worship Him and love Him. I told Him that even if he hadn t forgiven me for some of my sins or weaknesses, I would always try to repent. From the depths of agony, I said that even if, at the final bar of God, I had somehow missed my exaltation by one small mistake or weakness, I would ask for a do-over or another opportunity. If I were rejected in that moment, I would beg and plead for another chance. If rejected in my request, I would still worship and love Him, and I would never stop asking for any opportunity to try again. I explained that I would never stop trying to repent and work on myself. Further, I would always ask for another opportunity for exaltation even if I was denied. I wept, but I also praised Him and told Him that I would do this even if He didn t love me or He had somehow rejected me. I told Him I would always love Him. The Spirit was so strong in the quiet of that beautiful night while I kneeled at my bed. I had not come to this prayer asking, once again, about my calling and election. I just felt that Heavenly Father needed to know that if He had given up on me, I would still repent and love Him. I would still try. I would always try. Suddenly, the Spirit seemed to increase in intensity as I expressed my love for God. Something started to happen which I did not fully understand, and I even questioned what was taking place. Nevertheless, the Spirit burned as I felt Heavenly Father and my Redeemer enter the room. I sensed their hands placed upon my head, and a blessing flowed into the depths of my soul from them. Here is a part of the message that was given. You are now promised exaltation 207

208 Mike Stroud and eternal life. You will be given all that the Father has. You are ordained to be a King and a Priest unto the Most High God. I was instructed to see myself as a King and a Priest and to see my wife as a Queen and a Priestess. I was given a brief vision about the meaning of the titles of King and Priest unto the Most High God. They have little to do with dominion, but much to do with serving and blessing others. The concept of a servant-king is probably more accurate to describe the nature of this promise. I was given wonderful revelation regarding my wife. I was told how beloved she is by God. I was told that she already has her calling and election made sure, but she has not yet personally received this blessing. Nevertheless, she will receive eternal life and exaltation. I was told that my wife and I are part of the Church of the Firstborn. I was taught that I am redeemed from the fall, and that the veil will now be lifted by degree. I was promised many things that cannot be spoken because they are similar to sacred words spoken in the temple. I was so surprised and perplexed at what was happening that I asked questions. One of my biggest questions came quickly. To explain my first question I need to share that you are instantly aware of your weakness and unworthiness before God when you are suddenly outside the veil like I found myself. You are very aware of your own nothingness. I had no idea how unworthy I was until this experience. I asked why this was happening now because I felt unworthy. Heavenly Father and the Savior are so warm in their communication (it almost seemed like humor, but humor is the wrong word to describe how I felt). I felt their humor/joy/warmth at my expressions of unworthiness. They communicated what seemed like a question and an answer at the same time. The question seemed to be, Do you think this is happening because you are worthy? This doesn t happen because you are worthy. The answer seemed to be more because I was now ready. The Savior is the only worthy person that has lived in this mortality. Because of Him, I was worthy, but I alone was not worthy. Only the Lamb of God is worthy; I was nothing before them. They simply bestow their blessings upon us out of absolute love. A surprising part of my experience came when I was told that I was being given the sealing power. I was taught that whatever I seal upon earth will now be sealed in heaven and whatever I loose upon the earth will now also be loosed in heaven. I was told not to use this power unless the use of this power was in accordance with the will of God. I was also taught not to use this power to satisfy any selfish want. Nevertheless, I was told they were confident that I would only use this power appropriately. Receiving the sealing power raised many questions. I asked how this could be. I accept the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator as the only one on the earth who holds the keys to this authority. I was told not to worry; the prophet is aware that this happens. He agrees with and ratifies such occurrences. I had a lengthy conversation about this matter, but I was simply reassured that the sealing power was now being given to me. I was also told that I should study righteous kings and priests in the scriptures, but that I would be taught by heavenly messengers such as former prophets who would help me learn how to use this sacred power. I will mention that the sealing 208

209 Highly Favored of the Lord III power has been the hardest part of the blessing to understand and accept. However, shortly after receiving these blessings, I was discussing the experience with a friend who has also received his calling and election. While explaining the sequence of events, he interrupted me and asked if I had received the sealing power. I was a little surprised by his question and replied that I had indeed been given this power. My friend shared that he had also received the sealing power and that some men, but not all men, who receive their calling and election also receive the sealing power at that same time. Others do not receive the sealing power, and some men receive the sealing power at a later date. I m not sure why this happens, but I believe it may have to do with future responsibilities. I was told that I would be taught by revelation and heavenly visitors how to use the sealing power. I had the opportunity only a few days later while praying about a difficult matter. I was taught how to use the sealing power to resolve the matter, and I was told I could use the sealing power for that purpose. I have to acknowledge that the sealing power worked in a seemingly miraculous way. The sealing power is very real, but I am very careful in its use. I wait for the Lord to instruct me when I am to use this power. Since receiving my calling and election made sure, I am very aware of who has their calling and election made sure and who is close to receiving that blessing. Remember having and receiving your calling and election made sure are two completely different things. Some people already have the blessing but have not sought to receive the blessing similar to how many of ancient Israel would not look up to the brass serpent to be healed. In our church traditions, people are often discouraged from seeking the blessing of receiving their calling and election made sure. I have heard many church members (and even leaders) mistakenly counsel others not to pursue this path because they knew someone who fell away while they were seeking this blessing. Embedded in these traditions is a false belief. The false belief unknowingly created in the Church is that if you pursue your calling and election, you will fall away. May fall away, and will fall away are two completely different possibilities. Just to be clear, we had the potential to fall away as soon as we received our agency. We chose Christ s plan even though many held the false belief that everyone would be saved if they followed Lucifer s plan. The Father s plan required faith. While we may fall away while pursuing our calling and election, we can just as easily fall away in following the preexistent Plan of Happiness by coming to this earth. Not pursuing our calling and election because we will fall away is a huge lie. Unfortunately, many people have mistakenly created false beliefs that prevent people from spiritual progress. From what I have observed, the reason some individuals fall away when they finally pursue their calling and election is that they are tried and tested in the fiery furnace of affliction. The tests often involve the greatest trials that we will ever experience. However, we must be tested to show the Lord and ourselves that we will place everything on the altar. We have to be willing to give up everything. That is the test we will be called upon to endure if we really want eternal life. Abraham had to be willing to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac had to be willing to surrender his own life. The widow of Zarephath had to be willing to give up her own life and the life of her son to feed 209

210 Mike Stroud a prophet. The poor widow who quietly cast two mites into the temple treasury gave all of her living. Heber C. Kimball brought his own wife Vilate to the prophet in the ultimate test of sacrifice and consecration. Joseph and Hyrum Smith gave their lives in testament to the restoration. I was taught this morning that our trials and adversity in life are comparable to a fast. Like a fast, we seek spiritual growth for a period of time in which we abstain from some comfort like food. We also make a sacrifice (a fast offering) in connection with our fasts. Adversity is designed for our spiritual growth; we agreed to fast from deliverance for a period of time in a fallen state until we experienced the intended growth. At the end of our adversity and afflictions, our need for growth and food (deliverance) becomes intense. Our fast from deliverance and divine help ultimately brings the intended spiritual growth and the Lord finally intercedes. What are you most afraid to give up or lose? What is your Abrahamic test? Ultimately, you will be given the test to see if you will truly consecrate everything. Don t worry, I have been through horrible trials, and I testify that the Holy Ghost will comfort you and guide you. If you have to ultimately grab the rod of iron and pass through the mists of darkness, please have faith and know that the Holy Ghost will guide you. The Savior may even carry you. But, have faith. You can overcome the tests that you will surely face. Please... have the faith that caused you to originally choose the Savior s plan. Here s a quote from Joseph Smith that should settle the matter, I would exhort you to go on and continue to call upon God until you make your calling and election sure for yourselves, by obtaining this more sure word of prophecy, and wait patiently for the promise until you obtain it. One of the last messages given to me on the night of March 22nd was that my wife and I would live in Zion, the New Jerusalem. The Lord wants me to help others learn about receiving their calling and election. We need to prepare to build Zion by helping those who are close to receive their calling and election. Calling and election made sure still happens to ordinary people. If it happened to me, I know others can also receive this blessing. My head is still spinning after receiving my calling and election. Much has happened since that day. In summary, my whole view of coming events has changed. I don t think about places of safety and refuge like I did. I m no longer worried about food storage, tents, and temporal preparations. I am thinking about Zion, the New Jerusalem, not tent cities. I will still prepare temporally, but I am more aware of the spiritual preparation that is needed for the coming days. I used to think calling and election made sure was close to the end of the journey. Today, my perspective is that there is a long road ahead after receiving this blessing. Individuals who have received their calling and election made sure are very aware of their weaknesses and their own nothingness before God. There is a lot of progress required after receiving your calling and election. Calling and election may be closer to the beginning than to the end of the journey. The Prophet Joseph said: When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with 210

211 Highly Favored of the Lord III the principles of the Gospel you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave. As I have pondered my own calling and election, there is something important to recognize. While there are similarities, every experience with calling and election made sure is different. Someone recently shared an experience related by an individual who received this blessing in a manner that was a little different than my own personal experience. I recently spoke with someone who received their calling and election made sure a few weeks after my personal experience. Their experience was also little different than mine. I believe each of these experiences are valid even though they were both different than my own experience. I believe that you should not base your expectations or your experience with my experience of receiving my calling and election made sure (or anyone else s). A simple spiritual witness received from the Holy Ghost that your calling and election is made sure is just as valid as my experience even if you do not have the same experiences that I received. Trust the Lord and the revelation that is given to you by the Spirit. As I ponder my own experience, I realize that I needed something that was different than others receive for a purpose known only to Heavenly Father. Nevertheless, I am expected to exercise faith in any spiritual witness given to me at whatever level it is given. At this time, I will share a part of my experience that I did not share originally. I cannot share all of the details with others unless I am directed. I believe there is now some guidance about certain aspects of my blessing. When I received my calling and election, I was given instruction and knowledge about certain aspects of translation. Others may not be given this instruction; however, I am coming to recognize by the things I was taught prior to and during my blessing that I will be translated. From my perspective, translation is a process. As we progress in certain aspects of translation, then our faith and knowledge grows, and we receive more. Someone recently asked a question through a friend of mine, Was I translated? The question is difficult to answer. The question implies a sense of completion and finality. I can probably best answer the question by saying I was changed by degree and I am continuing to change by degree. I am not fully translated, but I have started the process by which this change fully occurs. I have already noticed physical changes. I can share that I received a visit recently from two individuals who started the translation process several years ago. They are a married couple, and I have known them for a period of time. I had previously suspected that the husband was a translated individual. I had even asked him about translation once, but he quickly steered the conversation in another direction. This couple called us on a Friday and told us they were coming for a visit. It was quickly revealed why they had come. They shared with me that they had started the translation process several years before. They taught my wife and me over a period of two days. They helped me remove certain temporal aspects that relate to my physical body. I am starting to 211

212 Mike Stroud recognize the changes in my physical body. They are real, and I can literally feel the difference. Before I close my account, I just want to say how grateful I am for my Mother. My own mother loves the Lord, and she taught me to love the Lord. My mother has been a temple worker for many years, and I am so grateful she is my mother. I am also eternally grateful for my wife. Some time ago, I kneeled by my bed and started expressing appreciation for my wife. My prayer became totally centered on the many things I recognize in my dear wife. I believe I spent about an hour just expressing gratitude for her. In my prayer, Heavenly Father even brought my attention to great blessings that I enjoy because of our relationship. I thanked Him for those blessings. I told him how grateful I was to be blessed with someone who has gone through the terrible trials and afflictions with me. We have lost nearly everything together, and I have struggled with a terrible disease throughout my life. I have come to understand how much she truly loves me. How much I love her. We have been married for many years. Sometimes, I cannot control my tears and the feelings of my heart with respect to my wife. I would encourage anyone to have a very lengthy prayer and just express gratitude to your Heavenly Father for your wife or your mother. One day the Lord invited me to ponder the heavy trials through which I have passed. I don t like to go there. Pondering my trials is not ordinarily a safe place to go. I feel vulnerable to feeling discouraged and having the false beliefs of being unloved or rejected surface once again. I consciously strive to be an upbeat, positive, and happy person. Nevertheless, I followed the direction of the Lord to ponder my trials and affliction. I pondered my lifelong struggles with health problems. I was quickly invited to ask what blessings I had received from my health problems. I responded that I have great compassion for suffering. I have learned a measure of unconditional love. I have learned who my true friends are. The Lord encouraged me to write down the blessings of suffering with each trial individually. I realized that I have many blessings that have come from my suffering. I learned that the price for learning compassion is a very heavy price. The pain and suffering one must go through to learn compassion are immense. In the end, what do we want and what do we choose? I don t want adversity any more than anyone else wants it. But our preexistent choice to fast from deliverance and a painless, carefree life is designed so that we might become like Him! Do we truly desire to have compassion in the fleshy tables of our heart? We may feel this is unfortunate, but there is a law irrevocably decreed... During my trials, I realized that my true friends were very much a smaller group of individuals than I originally thought. For example, I had a close friend that I met in college. We were friends for over thirty years. We often talked. As my health challenges advanced, changes in my physical appearance happened that may have changed the relationship. I also endured a period of great financial stress. One day, I discovered that my friend had made fun of my debilitating physical well-being to others when I wasn t around. I was devastated when I discovered what happened. I have long since forgiven the situation, but my friend still does not recognize the deep pain that he caused me. For some time, I 212

213 Highly Favored of the Lord III was unable to control the sorrow and the humiliation I felt. I thought he was my friend. Ultimately, my life circumstances created a situation where my friend moved on to other relationships. More than many other blessings that I now enjoy, I wish that I could have the friendship back. I knew a lady once whose son was arrested for a crime. Her son broke her heart. I am sure she has served many people throughout her life. She had taken casseroles and salads to women who were sick and dinner to the families of women who had just had a baby. She was probably a one-woman compassionate service committee. This wise woman said something deeply profound to me one day. We were discussing the pain and sorrow of her son s choices. She said, No one brings you a casserole when your son gets arrested. No one wants to associate with someone whose son goes to jail. I learned something about true compassion and mourning with those who mourn from this good woman. I became like a leper as greater and greater health and financial trials were placed upon me. No one goes to see the leper. I grew deeply depressed and discouraged for a time. I lost many relationships with those who I thought were my friends. I wondered, what had I done that was so terrible to offend or hurt my Heavenly Father? Do you see how my false beliefs affected my relationship with God? I often felt so broken and alone. I learned, however, that the Lord loves broken vessels. I will talk more about broken vessels someday. I love broken vessels and broken hearts. Jesus Christ can truly bind up the wounded and heal the broken-hearted. Here s how my journey to recovery began: Probably, one of the greatest blessings of my life came while listening to an October 2007 General Conference talk from President Henry B. Eyring entitled O Remember, Remember. President Eyring s talk was direct revelation to me. Here are a few lines from this talk, I would ponder this question: Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today? As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done. I spoke with my wife. Our lives were so difficult that we needed hope. I suggested that we do exactly as President Eyring had counseled. We started to look for the Lord s hand in our life every day. Sometimes, I would kneel down and ask, Heavenly Father, how were you personally involved in my life today? I m so sorry that I missed recognizing your hand. Please help me to recognize your blessings and your personal interaction in my life. I would just ponder what it was like to be in the presence of God and wait. Slowly, at first, thoughts, feelings, and impressions began to form. I started to see His hand in our life. The scales of blindness began to fall from my spiritual eyes. As I took time to look for His hand, I began to recognize and see. Recognizing is a key to receiving! I began to express my gratitude towards Him for everything I recognized. I wanted to know when He had been involved in my life. Miracles began to happen. We noticed Heavenly Father constantly. I even began to feel as though I had been ungrateful during the previously dark period. I met President Eyring 213

214 Mike Stroud once; he is one of the most Christlike individuals I have met. But, I wish I could let him how his words pulled me from one of the darkest places in my life. I started to notice the hand of the Lord frequently. I read a passage of scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants that spoke to my soul. But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me. Doctrine and Covenants 38:7 I realized God s eyes are upon us because He loves us as His children. He watches us, and He wants us to be happy and have joy. I testify that I came to know that He is constantly in our midst in a way that I don t fully understand. Nevertheless, He is there because He wants to be a part of our daily life. I recommend reading or listening to President Eyring s talk someday. I hope his message changes your life as much as it changed mine. Write in a journal or a notebook how the Lord has been involved in your life today. You will see his hand. One day, I was praying, and the Lord said He wanted me to have a fullness of joy. I quickly responded that I knew that was what He ultimately wanted for me. I knew that was the goal. No, He responded. He wanted me to have a fullness of joy, now. I pondered this with Him. I discussed the great pains and sorrows that I experience. I discussed my afflictions and trials. I asked, How could I possibly have a fullness of joy with all that I bear? Then, He began to teach me. He shared how He bears some of the sorrows that He experiences. I felt a small measure of His sorrow for His children on the earth who don t follow Him. I didn t receive all of the answers, but...he did teach me. I learned that exaltation does not mean an absence of sorrow; it means we can have a fullness of joy. Exalted beings choose to live in a manner where they experience a fullness of joy even when faced with immense sorrow. I realize this is a paradox, but God chooses to experience eternal life with a fullness of joy. We can choose to exercise our agency in a similar manner. I started to choose joy. One of the keys to receiving my calling and election was to see His hand in my everyday life, to learn the role of suffering, and to choose joy in all things. These were all important trail markers in the last mile of my journey. Probably the greatest lesson I have learned from my trials is I have learned how to receive love. Heavenly Father wants us to receive all that He has. He gives and receives the purest love in the universe. I pray that you will receive His love. I am sharing part of my personal experiences because the Lord is allowing this. He wants others to come directly to him to receive their own personal witness of their calling and election. We need thousands and thousands to receive their calling and election made sure to enable us to finally build Zion. I pray the Lord s blessings to be upon everyone who begins this journey. 214

215 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty-Eight Podcast 058 Weapons of Light Well, good evening brothers and sisters. It s good to be with you again tonight. I hadn t planned on doing this podcast up until two days ago, but some events have taken place and some things have happened, and I feel inclined to do this. Once I had made up my mind to do this, it was confirmed by the Spirit that it should be done, and actually, the Lord revealed to Margie and me what the name of this podcast should be. And the name that came to us in revelation was Weapons of Light. So, with that, let s go ahead and begin. There are some things that I am observing and am a little concerned with and have had seen an uptick in these activities. One is, I am seeing more and more where people are using the name of Jesus Christ, the healing powers of the gifts of the Spirit to help people, but are charging money to do it. Over in Acts chapter 8, there is a story about a man called Simon the sorcerer. You can look this up. This man was observing some of the miracles that Philip, one of the Seventy, was performing. Simon followed Philip around and watched Philip baptize, cast out devils, etc. All that he did was within the power of the Aaronic Priesthood because, at this time, Philip did not have the power to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then the apostles came from Jerusalem, and they take Philip s converts who have been baptized and lay their hands on their heads and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost. With this bestowal, there are some miraculous things that take place, and this Simon of Samaria sees these things. He goes up to Peter and asks him to give him the power to do this, and he will pay him money to do it. Peter, being very bold said: 215

216 Mike Stroud [20]...Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. [21] Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Let s go to Matthew chapter 10, and look at verse 1: And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Skip to verse 8: Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: [this part right here] freely ye have received, freely give. Let s go to 2 Nephi chapter 26: [27] Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance. [28] Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden. [29] He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men [and I would say also women] preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion. I am troubled when I see brothers and sisters invoking the name of the Savior and the gifts of His Spirit to bless others lives, but charging money to do it. I think this is something each of us needs to look carefully at and beware and make sure we are not offending the Spirit and have not been deceived off into an area that is not pleasing to the Lord. Another thing that has come up is that I ve been asked what my thoughts are about various men and women who have left the Church or have been excommunicated. They are teaching things that appear to be contrary to what the Church teaches and what was revealed through the Restoration prophets and sustained by the living prophets and apostles. I ve been asked about that quite a bit so I would like to tell you what my feelings are on that. I take the position that you read about in Acts 216

217 Highly Favored of the Lord III chapter 5. In this chapter, you see that Peter and John, and maybe other apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling class and religious leaders of the people. And Peter has this bold statement in verse 29:...We ought to obey God rather than men. Then he accuses them of killing Jesus in verses 30 and 31. And then, verse 33: When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them. This is what they want to do now, put them to death as they did Jesus, for blasphemy. Now, in verse 34 an interesting exchange takes place: [34] Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; You can see there are seventy men on this council. I don t know if they were all there this time, but the Sanhedrin was made up of seventy men, and this man is their spokesman and top leader among this council. I want to point out what he then says in verse 35: And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. And then in verses 36 and 37, he gives an example about some apostate Jews and false Messiahs, something that was current to their memory and history, and it sounds like everybody on that council had a part in what took place there. Now, verse 38: And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men [Peter and John], and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: [39] But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. That is my feeling towards these various groups and leaders of the groups, and anybody that takes a different path than the one that I am on. I refuse to and try hard not to accuse or condemn anyone. I simply say, I don t know what s in their hearts. I don t know what their interaction with God and the Savior is. I don t know these things. All I know is I am not inclined to follow that path. And that s how I look at these people. I don t condemn; I don t find fault; I don t try to correct; I don t persecute; I don t malign or spread any kind of gossip or rumors about them. I leave them alone. I am on my path that I have chosen that blesses my life, and I seek diligently to follow the voice and whisperings of the Holy Spirit and to take the Holy Spirit for my guide. I gave you those previous two examples because I ve been asked, quite often about 217

218 Mike Stroud those two things, and I thought maybe it would be good for me to state my feelings on that. I just know that in our day that we need to be very wise and prudent. One of the main definitions of prudent is cautious. So, be wise and cautious. As I mentioned earlier, the name of this lesson is called Weapons of Light. I would like you to go to Revelation chapter 12, and let s look at something else in here. Revelation 12 is in the news a lot these days. There s a great wonder in heaven for the constellation Virgo, the virgin, and Leo, talking about a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, and she gives birth to a child. You can look into that all you want. I will just say that there s a notable eclipse that s going to take place on August 21, 2017, followed by an alignment of these constellations on September 23, There s much being spoken about that as one of the great Biblical signs that fulfill the material written in the 12th chapter of Revelation. I find it interesting that this particular sign of the woman and her child has not been seen like this for over 6,000 years. And the Lord does talk about great signs in the heavens and on the earth. So, I think it behooves us to pay attention and do like the scriptures say, Watch [and be ready, for] I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know the hour I will come upon thee. The part I want to emphasize in Revelation 12 is verse 12. It says this: [12] Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. I think that it s easy to see that things have never been more perilous than they are now. Perilous is the word used in the letter Paul wrote to Timothy about our day. Let s go over to 1 Peter 5 and let me just show you a couple of scriptures that to me, identify the day that we re in. And then we ll move into the purpose of this lesson tonight. Let s go to verse 8: [8] Be sober, be vigilant; You want to look that word up. Take a little time; take your 1828 dictionary out and look up that word: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: That s a pretty good description of what s going on. There s been a shift. Things have changed. Things are not the same. Things will never be the same. I feel impressed to say again, as Elder Eyring and other prophets 218

219 Highly Favored of the Lord III have said, that a casual approach to our membership in the Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ will not sustain us in the days that are coming. The devil for sure has upped his game and ramped up his power. Let s look at some scriptures here. The Book of Mormon is the one scripture that identifies the works of darkness and the devil more than anything else. What a great blessing it is to have this book. Let s go to 2 Nephi chapter 28, verses 20 to 22: [20] For behold, at that day [our day] shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good. Boy, I don t know about you, but I don t know anybody that isn t under attack and that isn t seeing family members, spouses being brutally abused and in some cases, some are losing their lives as a result of this raging and stirring up to anger that is going on. Let s look at verse 21. [21] And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. The key word is carefully. In the last few months, I ve talked to many people, including people in leadership positions. When we talk about dealing with devils and unclean spirits I ve heard them say, Well, it s not that way anymore. That s the way it used to be in the days of Jesus, but it s not that way anymore. I don t know what to say about that. To me, that is so myopic. How can you read these scriptures here that were written to us and have that view? And the answer to that is that they are not reading these scriptures, and that is one of the problems. Look at verse 22: [22] And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none It s surprising to me how many people, not only Christians in the United States, but also within the Church, have a real casual approach to the reality of the devil and those who have aligned themselves with him, and the battlefield of this life. I am just amazed at how casual they are, and that s the fulfilling of verse 22, I am no devil, for there is none and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance. Now, before you get to the chains, let s look at another one. Go back to 2 Nephi 26:22. Remember where he said, [he] leadeth them away carefully. Here s how he works: 219

220 Mike Stroud [22] And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; [this part right here] yea, and he leadeth them by the neck By the way that s a great picture of a person captured and being led away into slavery. They bound them around their necks and led them away with cords. Notice that he said, he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, Flax is a plant that when you crush the stems, it has really fine fibers that come out of it. The cloth called linen used to be made (I don t know if it is now) out of flax. If you look in the Book of Mormon it talks about rich clothing, and it also says, fine-twined linen. Well, this fine-twined linen is made from the fiber of the flax plant, which is so fine. When I taught in class, I would take one little strand of flax and hold it up between my fingers and then turn it loose into the air, and it was so light it would float. There was no gravitational pull to it, and it would just float in the air. I used to take a strand of that and ask a student to come up and hold up two fingers, and I would wrap a strand around their finger and tie it off, and I d say, Now, break that. And they could easily break that little flaxen strand. But you take that same flaxen strand and wrap it around the finger five or six times, and you can t break it. Back to verse 22: he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever. Let s go over to Moses chapter 6 in the Pearl of Great Price. This was going on at the time when Enoch s Zion was being established. You can look at the scriptures before and after to get the context of this, but let s look at verse 15: [15] And the children of men were numerous upon all the face of the land. And in those days I would like to say that those days are the pattern for our day. I think we are in a latter-day pattern of the early days in the history of the world: And in those days Satan had great dominion among men, and raged in their hearts; and from thenceforth came wars and bloodshed; and a man s hand was against his own brother, in administering death, because of secret works, seeking for power. That is just a perfect example of what we re talking about here. Go over to Moses chapter 7, which is speaking of this same period of time. In 220

221 Highly Favored of the Lord III verse 23, you see that Zion is taken up, and look what happens in verse 26: And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he [Satan] looked up [at God] and laughed, and his angels rejoiced. That s the day that we are in. Let s look at a couple others. Go to Doctrine and Covenants section 71, verse 9. Just three more and then we will get into this: [9] Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you there is no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; Let s go to section 109, verse 25. This sets the stage for what I want to talk to you about: [25] That no weapon formed against them shall prosper; that he who diggeth a pit for them shall fall into the same himself; [26] That no combination of wickedness shall have power to rise up and prevail over thy people upon whom thy name shall be put in this house; In verse 25, no weapon formed against them shall prosper. And if you go to Isaiah 54:17, again, we have the Lord saying through the great prophet Isaiah: [17] No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper Brothers and sisters, that is what I want to talk to you a little bit about tonight. In helping deliver people from the powers of the adversary, the Lord has weapons that He uses. You may be surprised to know that; there are heavenly weapons. One we hear mentioned frequently is the sword of light or sword of truth. There are others. And Satan has his own weapons. In the scriptures, his weapons are referred to as the fiery darts of the adversary. These are spiritual weapons that are designed to destroy spiritually, to captivate, and enslave. The Lord s weapons are designed to deliver, to free, and to lift up. The Lord s weapons are all light based. Like the armor of God that is spoken of in Ephesians 6, there is actual spiritual armor that can be placed upon you, usually placed by heavenly beings. In that armor, you ll have a helmet, breastplate, a shield, things to protect your legs, and things to protect your loins, and an offensive weapon that can be used called a sword of light. How do we access these things? First of all, we have to have faith that they actually exist. Once you have that faith, as in acquiring all the spiritual gifts that our Father has, you ask, seek, and knock to have them bestowed upon you. That s the word that is used; bestowed. One of the 221

222 Mike Stroud greatest of all the weapons of light is the gift of charity. I know a man who was concerned about the dark side using scriptural references and prophetic utterances in order to move forward their agenda of deception, captivity, and enslavement. They were using the very thing that the sons and daughters of God were using to promote and advance the cause of God in Zion. This man was concerned because he observed many of our brothers and sisters being sucked into these false movements that were talking about the establishment of Zion, translation, and different things like that. As he stood in the presence of Father, he expressed his concern about this deception. The interesting thing that I found out was that Father quoted to this man, a scripture from the Book of Mormon. This scripture is found in Moroni 8:16. Now, keep the context of this in mind. This brother is standing before the Father; His Beloved Son was also there, and as he expressed his concern about the use of God s words and prophetic utterance to deceive, Father quoted this scripture in Moroni 8:16: [16] Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear. The number one weapon of the dark side is fear. The number one weapon of our Father in defeating that is perfect love. Then look at the next verse, verse 17. [17] And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love; I love the idea that here is this brother, standing in the presence of the Father and the Son, asking a question, and the Father quoted the verse out of the Book of Mormon to him. He told me that after the vision, he had to go and look up it in the Book of Mormon to find where it was. Isn t that a marvelous experience? Accompanying this podcast tonight will be several handouts in the Dropbox. One of them is a new copy of the paper that Scott Gillespie did that I had on an earlier podcast. He and his wife have been working on this for a couple of years, and they sent me the newly revised edition of that wonderful work and I will post it in the Dropbox. Thank you, Scott, to you and your sweet wife for all the time you ve spent in making this available. It s a marvelous document and will be a blessing to all of us. [see Resources section at the end of this chapter for the Dropbox link]. Since the Tying up Loose Ends podcast, I ve had experience with people dealing with same-gender attraction, same-sex attraction, homosexuality, lesbianism, and all the LGBT movement out there. I 222

223 Highly Favored of the Lord III found out from personal experience that casting out devils and unclean spirits frees a person from these inclinations, from these desires, appetites, and passions. At least from my personal experience, I can testify to you that in the majority of the cases, what we thought was true about these attractions being caused by spirits, is true, and there is a way to escape. There is hope, and it comes through casting out devils and unclean spirits. Here, a few days ago, I was taught by a man who has some extensive experience, over years actually a number of men and it s because of some of the things that I have learned and some of the things that were shared that I felt impressed to do this podcast. So, I would like to go ahead and share some things that were given to me by these wonderful men and their experience. Included at the end of this chapter, you ll see a link to a PowerPoint presentation entitled, The Battle Against the Powers of Darkness and the Adversary. This was what we went over together, and I m going to go over it briefly here and just discuss a few things. You can look at the PowerPoint completely on your own, but there are some principles involved as we talk about using heavenly weapons to combat dark weapons. Remember that all of God s power, His weaponry is based upon light, the light of Christ, the Spirit of Christ. If we access some information and have some knowledge, we can move forward with confidence and not be afraid. Even though these things can be frightening, we should come to a point in our knowledge and then our experience where we are not afraid and we address these things with the gifts of God; the number one gift being that of charity or perfect love, as Moroni says. PowerPoint Presentation: Principles [Information from the PowerPoint is italicized.] 1. The Power of the Priesthood and/or the name of Jesus Christ always works. The reason for the and/or is that women have power by faith and the name of Jesus Christ to command these spirits to depart, and they will depart in the name of Christ. 2. You do not always need to raise your arm to the square or say words audibly if you are confronted with a physical attack. Raising your arm to the square is best, but sometimes we are not able to do so. Many of you have shared with me actual physical attacks. We have the feeling in the Church that spirit beings can t interact with physical beings in the telestial world. We go right to the first vision and see that that s not true. Joseph was physically attacked so that it bound his 223

224 Mike Stroud tongue and he could not speak. Some of the other accounts said that the attack was so violent that he feared for his life. I ve heard some experiences where people not only had their tongues bound, but they were literally physically bound so they could not raise their arm. In this case, you can say the words in your mind because they cannot bind your mind. So, if you come to that point in whatever experience you have and you find yourself physically bound, you can say in your mind, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to depart, and they will obey. The power of the priesthood and/or the name of Jesus Christ always works. 3. Do not use or permit language like, afraid, scary, or scared. Don t go there. It gives them power and knowledge that you are frightened of them. Remember that where fear is, faith cannot be. You cannot have faith and fear on the same ground. Perfect love overcomes all fear. Approach in faith. The purpose of this podcast is to give us all additional knowledge so that we can move forward with faith and confidence. We need to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His power and priesthood, to not only keep ourselves safe from the dark side but our loved ones and everyone else that the Lord brings within our circle to be delivered from these dark powers. 4. Every negative emotion, unworthy thought, or temptation is almost always sourced in the powers of darkness. 5. Everything on our Heavenly Father s side, the light side, is mimicked or imitated by the powers of darkness. For example, the gift of discerning of spirits is mimicked by divination and/or psychic powers. Witches, warlocks, sorcerers, necromancers, all of these things that Moses talked about in ancient Israel, are alive and well in our day. Don t be afraid. If you go into this with fear, it gives them power and minimizes your effectiveness. 6. Use the gift of discerning of spirits and revelation and other spiritual gifts to identify the adversary and their weapons. You don t have to use worldly technology for this. Become more perfected in the gifts of the Spirit. When I see different healings that are being done and blessings that are being given to people through various modalities, my question is this, Where is the priesthood? I talked to a lady this week who has some gifts that bless the lives of people, and she said, I am simply a cleaning lady. I come in and use the gifts that Father has given me to help clean things out and up, preparatory for things that I cannot do that the priesthood can. If she is truly using those gifts for that purpose, and the fruits of those gifts are manifest, then my concern is that we often stop at that level, which is a 224

225 Highly Favored of the Lord III terrestrial level of ministering to people, and we never get to the celestial level which is priesthood. When working with individuals, they: 7. often reveal matters that require repentance. Ask them to discuss matters related to repentance with their bishop. Explain that you are not their bishop. They can begin the process of repentance, but you don t have the keys for that stewardship. Definitions Here are some definitions to think about: Evil Spirits third part that followed Lucifer in the premortal existence Unclean Spirits those who kept their first estate in the premortal councils. Most likely, they lived on the earth and led unworthy lives. They are unclean until they repent and receive the Savior s atonement. Then, they become clean through the atonement. Hence, the title unclean spirits. I am finding out that there are other entities. That s a good thing to call them. Entities Disembodied things or creatures that may or may not have a spirit. Examples include spiritual snakes and wolves. Also included, evil intelligences. Up here on the Navajo Reservation, they have a thing called Skinwalkers just about every culture has something like this. I personally had an interaction with these. I know that they are real, but they are counterfeits of something. If you can identify it, you can approach that with knowledge and not be afraid. Just know that there are all kinds of tools and weapons that the dark side uses to deceive and enslave. I want to say again that it is my feeling that the reason the sequence of casting out devils and unclean spirits precedes the healing of sickness and diseases is that much of the sickness and disease that afflicts us in this world, physically, is caused by these spirits. I not only believe you need to get rid of these spirits out of you in order to be healed of sickness and disease, but I also believe that these spirits need to be cast out before you can be properly instructed in the doctrine of Christ and the mysteries of the kingdom. I don t believe that while you are under the influence of the dark side, you can properly understand and comprehend the doctrines of the mysteries of godliness and the priesthood. I don t believe you can. So, it s necessary. This is the reason why in all the 225

226 Mike Stroud scriptures the Lord lists casting out devils before healing the sick and other blessings that could be received. Prerequisite Laws 1. The will of our Heavenly Father this is inviolate law. Always keep in mind in your blessing, the will of your Heavenly Father. That is a law. We need to make sure when we minister in the priesthood, brethren, and sisters if you are doing this as an act of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, always have in your mind that it is according to Heavenly Father s will. 2. Agency God honors the law of agency. Also inviolate. 3. Accountability God honors the law of accountability. 4. Mercy God desires to bless His children with mercy. The Savior, who is the master physician, heals. 5. We use Him. We should not take or seek for the credit in this work in any way. That disqualifies you if you seek to become a light unto yourself. We are finding out there are many different degrees of devils and unclean spirits, not just the two, but they come in different degrees. My friend who did this PowerPoint made a diagram to show a visualization of the battlefield to represent some of the groups that he calls Tempters, Observers, Emotion-Focused, Tormentors, and a group called Intermittent (see diagram below). I find it really interesting that as in any battlefield, you have those that are in the battle and then you have those that are behind the front lines. Here s one of the great things I have found recently: I ve been dealing with those who are on the battlefield they re in the mix. They are the ones who are causing physical torment, emotional distress, psychological damage. But the group that I have not known about are the reserves that are behind enemy lines and who are tied in with those that are on the battlefield. So, in this little representation, you ll see some circles with x s in them that represent the evil we are combating. We are represented by a large circle in the middle, and then you ll see the entities that are in the battle and engaged, and you ll see larger groups or other entities that are behind the lines, and we need to take care of those also. So, we are going to need to address the reserves, not only those that we are battling in the fight but also those that are in the reserves. 226

227 Highly Favored of the Lord III They look for weaknesses in order to come and infiltrate into our lives. There are so many things in this world that can cause a breach in our defenses that it is just impossible for us to list them all. But if you are following the Spirit of the Lord and hearkening unto the Holy Spirit and receiving guidance and companionship through the Holy Ghost, you can be taught what things to avoid. Some of the obvious ones are things that we listen to such as television, things that are unworthy, things that violate the second covenant that we make in the telestial world in the temple (to avoid every other unholy and impure thing). We ve entered into a covenant in the Law of the Gospel to avoid every unholy and impure thing. In our casual approach to the gospel, we open ourselves up and make a breach in our defenses, and the enemy pours in. That breach can be television; it can be things we read; it can be music we listen to; it can be our conversations that we have. It all boils down to Mosiah 4:30 where Jacob says: [30] But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not. Notice what he says to watch? Your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds because those are the very things that make a breach in your spiritual defenses. Some of the other things that you may want to watch out for are devices. Let s talk for just a moment about the classes of evil and unclean spirits. 227

228 Mike Stroud Classes of Evil and Unclean Spirits 1. Physical attackers throw and damage or destroy physical objects, shake buildings, try to physically hurt people 2. Possessors attempt possession It often occurs when there is a breach in your defenses, and they are allowed to enter in. The name of that defense in the scriptures (and you hear about it in the temple) is called enmity. Think about how the word enmity is used in the temple. Satan makes a threat to possess Adam and Eve s posterity. God simply says, I place enmity. If you look that up, you ll see that it is a natural, built-in repulsion/repulsiveness towards things that are from the dark side. Your spirit is Godly and is light. There is something that comes with you into this world where you have a natural repulsion towards dark things and evil things. Now, we can lose that in time, but that s a barrier that Father has sent us into this world with to protect us against possession by evil spirits. 3. Tempters 4. Emotion-Focused Spirits and Entities 5. Tormentors 6. False Priests who oppress and create false beliefs 7. Diviners, Psychics, Witches, Warlocks Here s another group we talked about in the last podcast: 8. Ancestors and Intergenerational Family Members These are all things you are going to need to be taught by the Spirit and learn to use this knowledge in your ministrations to bless you and your family, wives, children, and others. 9. Observers I found it interesting we were taught that this group never comes into the battlefield. They stand behind enemy lines and watch and observe. We were taught that this group is very sophisticated, very dangerous. The last thing they want to do is possess the body of one of Adam and Eve s children because if they are caught and bound and cast out, they find themselves in a place they can t escape. 10. Indirects work through others to attack 11. Intermittent spirits 12. Advanced evil and unclean spirits take the name of the person they are affecting. This is very dangerous with respect to identifying personal thoughts. These are just some things in the PowerPoint. 228

229 Highly Favored of the Lord III Priesthood Instructions 1. By the authority of the priesthood or by invoking the name of Jesus Christ, command all evil and unclean spirits and entities and their replacements [see, those are the reserves] to be immediately bound and contained. You see, you re capturing, by the power of the priesthood or in the name of Christ, not only those in the immediate battlefield but those who are in the background who direct and observe. You want to get them all. 2. Command them to follow and obey these instructions with respect to you, the individual for whom the blessing is intended, and for our mutual families, friends, and acquaintances. You command them in the name of Jesus Christ to obey the instructions you are giving through the authority of the priesthood and in the name of the Savior, not only for the person you are blessing, but for all mutual family, friends, and acquaintances. You want to protect everyone associated in this circle. You don t want any transferal of these spirits from one person to another person. So, even though you may be blessing one person, what you re doing is you are putting up a shield, and you are protecting the family of that person, any acquaintances, etc., etc. I know a man who s using his priesthood right now and through the priesthood that he bears, and in the name of the Savior, is blessing the members in his neighborhood, not only his family but his neighborhood and his ward. He s been instructed by Heavenly Father to use his priesthood power to bless all the members in his ward and his neighborhood, even those that aren t members of the Church. In these blessings, he rebukes and casts out evil and places shields and protective barriers against the dark forces and these people. They don t know about it. He is doing this without them knowing about it, using his priesthood to do that. I thought that was marvelous. 3. If working with ministering angels, ask the ministering angels to give these priesthood instructions. Specific Priesthood Instructions You ve gathered them, you ve bound them and contained them. Now, these are specific instructions to give: 1. NEVER return! 2. Do not reveal anything, including from where or by whom they were cast out. Think about that for a moment, brothers and sisters. You ve commanded these spirits to listen to you by the power and authority of the priesthood and the name of Christ. They are now commanded and bound to listen to 229

230 Mike Stroud your instructions, and you re telling them to never return; do not reveal anything including from where or by whom they were cast out. This next part I thought was marvelous, and I ve used this in some blessings. I want to testify to you the power: 3. Destroy all records and record keeping devices. We are talking about in the dark side. They are keeping written histories and records, and resource material on each person they are assigned to, to afflict, torment and captivate. They keep records, just like we do. In your blessing, command in the name of Jesus and by the authority of the priesthood, that all records concerning these persons remember whom we are talking about: the person you are blessing and all of their associates, their family and acquaintances destroy all records and record keeping devices. Whatever they use to keep these records and histories destroy them all. 4. Do not transfer. Transfer happens a lot in homes with immorality and abuse. Do not give them any opportunity to transfer. If you want to see an example of that, you can read the story about the man possessed with a legion of devils in the New Testament, and when Jesus cast them out, they asked for the opportunity to go into a herd of swine. Do not allow any transfer. 5. Other instructions as directed by the Spirit or recognized as needed by ministering angels. Such as destroy central records and knowledge of the individual. Take it on out. If this group that is afflicting this person has written material or records on this person in their immediate possession destroy that. You can even go out to a Central Record place and destroy all records written about this person. And they are bound to happen. The Lord will send angels or will see to it that these records are gone. Another thing is to erase from the memory of those devils and unclean spirits that you are now binding and containing by the power of the priesthood and in the name of Jesus, concerning this person and any of his family, acquaintances, and associations of the person that you are blessing at that time. In other words, what you ve done by doing this, is you have removed all resources for future use against this family, this person or anyone in this family or associated with him. This is marvelous! 6. Cast them out to spirit prison or to a place beyond their ability to influence the involved individuals. And do so until they repent or they receive the final judgment or the Father permits them their release. Follow the Spirit. Some of the weapons of light we can use are cords, light cords, especially with the very dark ones, the devils. You may receive 230

231 Highly Favored of the Lord III promptings in your ministration to address unclean spirits, at least some unclean spirits, in a different way. You may feel impressed to invite them to repent and seek out a teacher in the spirit world, with authority, that can teach them the doctrine of Christ and put their feet on a path of repentance and deliverance. You can teach them they do not need to stay in the employ of these dark ones. You ll have to discern that by the Spirit. In the article that we had about Jane two weeks ago that lived in 857 A.D. as it pointed out, she went from a tormentor to a guardian. Part of her desire after being converted and healed by the Lord was not only to go forward and release and bless her posterity but to go backward and teach and bless her ancestry. So, this is a person who was an unclean spirit and who after accepting an invitation to repent and come to the Savior, ended up being a powerful guardian for everybody in that family. You need to follow the Spirit. We are just giving you some thoughts to think about. I know one person who binds and contains these dark ones, these devils binds them with cords of light. I ve even heard that some call down chariots of fire and warrior angels to take these bound and confined spirits and to carry them away to an abyss or prison place for 1,000 years, until after the Millennium or until the Father sees fit for them to be released. Remember, these instructions must be obeyed with respect to the individual receiving the blessing to you, to your mutual family, friends, and acquaintances. They must be obeyed. This is where power comes in for you to have knowledge to use your priesthood and in the name of the Son, under the will of the Father, to deliver these afflicted ones and to free them up so they can be healed physically, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically and be taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now they are free from dark influences and are able to comprehend and rejoice in the greater portion of the word and the blessings the Lord has in store for them. They have to be delivered first. Weapons, Tools, and Resources [that are used by the dark side] 1. Fiery Darts of the Adversary is more than just a Metaphor. It s a statement that describes all the weapons used on the dark side. Some of these are: 2. Curses 3. Structures 4. Chains, Cords, Ties, Bonds, Connections, Links 231

232 Mike Stroud 5. Layers and mists of darkness 6. Coverings and shields These are some of the different tools that can be used by these dark beings. Think in terms, brothers and sisters, of warfare. Think in terms of a battlefield. Think in terms of what you know it takes to wage war in the physical world. And then look for patterns that take place in the spirit, and you will start to get a feel for this. Other weapons, tools, and resources are: 7. Openings, portals, doorways [from the dark side] 8. Viruses often attached to lies 9. Embedded Weapons (i.e., DNA and intergenerational structures) I was taught about viruses and embedded weapons. I used to think of a virus as a cold. But now I think in terms of these devices that are inserted and embedded in computers that just wreak havoc, and could completely fold up a computer and cause everything to be erased. The dark side has some of these. These viruses used by the dark side are attached to lies. We hear a lie, and we adopt that lie and internalize it and from that point on it wreaks havoc with our lives even little children. I had one person tell me an example of a little child that sees their parents get divorced. They have no idea what dynamics are of the interaction between adult man or woman. All they can see is that everything is falling apart and in so in order to rationalize what is happening in their life, many of them say, It s my fault. If only I had been a better son or daughter. And so, they take in lies that then embed themselves deeply into our Spirit DNA and cause havoc throughout life. We can address some of these and ask the Father in the name of Christ by the authority of the priesthood to remove these lies, these embedded, sometimes weapons, embedded in the DNA and intergenerational structures. 1. Covenants and Contracts (refer to Doctrine and Covenants 132:7) 2. Programs 3. Patterns very dangerous due to subtlety The example of patterns I heard was a person comes in, and they turn on the television, and they go to a YouTube video, and they watch something very harmless. Then YouTube takes them to the next thing, and it is not dangerous. But off to the right, they may see something that s unsavory, and it lists further YouTube videos, and pretty soon they go from one channel to the next channel. I ve seen this happen as I ve gone from one YouTube channel to the other. Seldom on the first click in, do I see anything of a sexual nature. If I continue to click in, following one YouTube site to the next, usually within the third or fourth one there will be something that is sexual in nature, harmless and 232

233 Highly Favored of the Lord III is not hardcore pornography, but it s just something to catch your attention. And I ve found when that happens, that there is a powerful draw there and you just have to back out. So, they use these kinds of patterns, and they use our habits. They also use things that we do throughout our lives that in and of themselves appear to be harmless, but if followed, take you into a place where a spiritual breach will be made in your armor and in your protection, and they ll gain access, programs, etc. etc. Weapons, Tools, Resources What is the promise? Isaiah 54: No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. We ve talked about that. All of the adversary s weapons, tools and resources need to be severed or removed from individuals, from their homes, from their businesses, from their work location, even from your automobile. Wherever you spend a good portion of your time, you need to use priesthood and the power of the name of the Son of God to sever all the adversary s weapons, tools, and resources from these places. Then destroy these items. Once you ve identified it, destroy it and use your priesthood power to do that. Our Weapons and Tools Some of the weapons of light, we ve already talked about. 1. The Priesthood and Invoking the Name of Christ 2. Absolute Faith (no fear) I found out that if we focus unduly on this we can lose sight of what s really important and that s a relationship, a healing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to deal with these things to get rid of them, but if you are not careful, you can develop an obsession with the very thing that you are trying to get rid of, and it can distract you and lead you away. So, you have to use wisdom and prudence. Another weapon is: 3. The Light and Love of Heavenly Father We ve talked about that. This is the number one weapon. Wherever there is darkness you replace it with light. You pull the weeds and plant the flowers. You replace beauty for ashes and a robe of righteousness for rags. Ask Father to send this light down from heaven and fill the soul of the afflicted individual. You have power in your priesthood and in the name of Christ to invoke light and to command it to come down and replace any darkness. 233

234 Mike Stroud 4. Maintaining a spirit of gratitude, forgiveness, joy, and love for everyone Let me show you a beautiful scriptural pattern. Go to Moroni chapter 8. I want to show you a list, and if you follow this list, you will never become captivated by the devil; you will always be able to be used as a powerful instrument of light in the hands of the Lord. And you will fulfill the purpose of your probationary mortality experience: [25] And the first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins; We ve talked about how a remission of sins comes with the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Now watch, here s your sequence in verse 26: [26] And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; The five things that I ve listed that if you obtain those, you ll never need to worry about falling away and going astray: Humility Meekness Lowliness of heart Broken heart Contrite spirit If you remain in a state of Grace, having those five attributes and gifts of the Spirit embedded in you, you will successfully complete your probationary experience AND the foreordained mission for which the Lord has brought you here. Back to verse 26: and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, Remember what we said about love being the number one weapon? The light and love of Heavenly Father is the number one weapon of light against the dark side: which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God. Well, I hope this is helpful, brothers and sisters. Some more of our weapons: 5. Repentance 6. Spiritual Structures [weapons that you can use]: A. Shields, boundaries, or barriers around homes and people You have the power and authority to do that. B. Ties and connections to the Savior and Heavenly Father 234

235 Highly Favored of the Lord III C. Spiritual Pillars that bring light, healing, peace, love or other blessings into a home One of the great weapons of light that we ve talked about in the past is to dedicate your home. If you haven t done that, I strongly urge you to do that, especially now when everything is ramping up. When a person has these dark entities and spirits removed, many sense that things seem overly quiet for a few weeks; and that s good because when you are under the influence of these beings, what you re feeling is chaos, confusion, turmoil, disarray. And when you bind and contain these entities and spirits, you re going to sense that all that chatter, confusion, shadow, darkness, disarray all of that is gone. You will find yourself enjoying quiet. Some have a little remaining darkness after the blessing. This can be like peeling back layers of an onion. You can usually remove all of the darkness in one blessing; that has been my experience. There have been times before I learned some of these additional tools and resources, where it was not unusual for me to have people return and say, I had great healing and great peace and rest there, but they are coming back. But now I ve learned with knowledge and different information. Destroy their records, command them not to come back, not to me, not to anybody they know. And you can name the people. Keep this in mind: whatever you invoke by the power of the priesthood, or in the name of Jesus Christ, they will obey. They must obey by law. Usually what is happening, if the results of the blessing don t seem to be as we wanted them, it s because we left them an opening and there was some knowledge we didn t have; we didn t understand things. Hence, that is the purpose of this podcast to give us additional information. We ve talked about other things such as quorum blessings and different things like that. And that is being used out there with some wonderful results. This podcast is just additional information to help you deliver people. Use your personal revelation and your spiritual gifts, like the discerning of spirits. Avoid anything that jeopardizes the Spirit. Obviously, one of the main criteria, if you re going to be effective in the hands of the Lord and be able to speak in His Name, and invoke His Priesthood, you MUST be clean. You must be in a state of repentance. You must be in a place where the Lord can trust you. If you want Him to honor your ministration, you will have needed to sacrifice somewhere along the line, to put yourself in a place where you can speak, and He will honor that ministration. You ve got to watch out for music and entertainment, television, movies, books. Watch out for that. Take an inventory of your house, and remove anything that the Spirit tells you is restrictive to revelation and the Spirit of the Lord. Say a little prayer and 235

236 Mike Stroud walk through your home using the spirit of revelation, and remove anything and everything that the Spirit guides you. Some of these devils can also leave markers in your home signs. Sometimes you may not see it, but they might leave marks on your walls, spiritually, so that other spirits can identify this place. It s much like the hobos did during the Depression Era. When they were walking from the East Coast to the West Coast, they had a particular graffiti that they would mark on walls, bridges, and fences telling those that came after them what this particular person who lived at this house or on this street or at this business what they could expect. Either they would go in as a result of this graffiti and markings, or they would pass it up. These devils do the same thing. There s another thought for you in your administration. Remove all markers, hellish graffiti, anything that leaves messages to those who might follow. Wear your temple garments faithfully if you ve been to the temple. This is one of the great weapons of light. And think about what you were taught in the temple when you received the garment. Also, go back over your initiatory blessings. This is another great weapon of light. Think about the blessings pronounced upon you that identified certain parts of your body and claim those blessings, spiritually and physically. Ask the Father, in the name of His Beloved Son, to seal those blessings upon you. Ask the Lord to send angels who have charge over garments of light spiritual garments. And ask the Lord to have those garments of light placed upon you to protect you and also to keep inviolate the covenants that you have entered into so that you can be effective in the warfare. Remember that all of this is not designed to remove you completely out of the battlefield. It s designed to give you an advantage. Every battlefield general knows that he can win the battle if he can gain an advantage over the enemy. The problem here is, the dark enemy has had the advantage for way too long. And what the Lord is doing now, brothers and sisters, is pouring out knowledge in fulfillment of Doctrine and Covenants 121. Let s go there for a minute. Go with me to verse 26. Remember that Joseph Smith said, A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge. I would put that physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically. Knowledge gives you the advantage. Remember the old prophet Hosea said, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Section 121: [26] God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed si nce the world was until now; 236

237 Highly Favored of the Lord III [27] Which our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times, which their minds were pointed to by the angels, as held in reserve for the fulness of their glory; We talked about that in a podcast, and basically, you, the seed of the forefathers, are the recipients of knowledge that has been held in reserve for 6,000 years. Your forefathers saw this in vision, and their minds were pointed forward to the time when their children would obtain this knowledge that they didn t receive. And the knowledge that their children obtain, which angels showed unto their forefathers, has been held in reserve for the fullness of their [the forefathers] glory. Brothers and sisters, what this means is that what you re doing here has a huge ripple effect forward and backward, backward into your ancestry and forward into your posterity. You and I have no idea what we re doing here in the battlefield of life, what an effect that has on those who ve gone before and those who are yet to be born into your family line. You are on the battlefield, the battle is enjoined, and the enemy is combined, but we should go forth victorious. And I close by quoting section 128: [22] Brethren [and sisters], shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren [and sisters]; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free. And I would tell you that a person in this life who is captured by the devil is in prison. So, not only those who have died and find themselves in a different spirit prison place but also those who are in his life who have lost the advantage on the battlefield and find themselves captured and enslaved by devils and unclean spirits. The King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free. God bless us as we use this information, this additional knowledge, in freeing those that are brought into our circle. Whether your circle includes your own family or others, the Lord will bring them to you because you are now armed with knowledge. The Lord will bring His children to you who need to be delivered because you are now prepared to exercise the priesthood after the order of the Son of God, invoke the 237

238 Mike Stroud name of Jesus Christ, and set the prisoners free. In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen. Resources: Acts 8:9-21 Matthew 10:1, 8 2 Nephi 26:27-29 Acts 5:29, Revelation 12:1,12 Revelation 3:3...watch...I will come on thee as a thief 2 Timothy 3:1 perilous 1 Peter 5:8 2 Nephi 28: Nephi 26:22 Moses 6:15 Moses 7:23-26 D&C 71:9 D&C 109:25-26 Isaiah 54:17 Moroni 8:16 Mosiah 4:30 Moroni 8:25-26 D&C 121:26-27 A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge. Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 4:588 Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge D&C 128:22 Possession by Devils and Unclean Spirits: By%20Devils%20and%20Unclean%20Spirits.pdf?dl=0 Pornography, Sickness, Evil Spirits and the Priesthood: ness%2c%20evil%20spirits%20and%20the%20priesthood.pdf?dl=0 The Battle Against the Powers of Darkness and the Adversary PowerPoint: attle_against_evil_spirits anonymous_.pdf 238

239 Highly Favored of the Lord III THE BATTLE AGAINST THE POWERS OF DARKNESS AND THE ADVERSARY PRINCIPLES The Power of the Priesthood and/or the name of Jesus Christ always works. You do not need to always raise your arm to the square or say the words audibly with physical attacks. Raising your arm to the square is best, but sometimes we are not able to do so. Do not use or permit language like afraid scary or scared. Use better language like intense or crazy. Nothing is scary about this when you know the priesthood works every time. PRINCIPLES Every negative emotion, unworthy thought, or temptation is almost always sourced in the powers of darkness (i.e., an evil spirit). Everything on our Heavenly Father s side (the Light) is mimicked or imitated by the powers of darkness. (i.e., the gift of discernment is mimicked by divination and psychic powers) My Recommendation: Use the gift of discernment and revelation (spiritual gifts) to identify the adversary and their weapons. Father instructed me to use spiritual gifts. I personally do not use worldly approaches like muscle testing also known as applied kinesiology. Another recommendation: Individuals often reveal matters that require repentance like pornography, adultery, or fornication. I ask them to discuss matters related to repentance with their Bishop. I explain that I am not their Bishop. DEFINITIONS Evil Spirits: one-third part that followed Lucifer in the premortal existence. Unclean Spirits: those who kept their first estate in the premortal councils. Most likely, they lived on the earth and led unworthy lives. They are unclean until they repent and receive the Savior s atonement. Then, they become clean through the atonement. Hence, the title unclean spirits. Entities: Disembodied things or creatures that may or may not have a spirit. Examples include spiritual snakes and wolves. Also included, evil intelligences. PREREQUISITE LAWS The Will of Our Heavenly Father this is an inviolate law. Agency God honors the Law of Agency. Also, inviolate. Accountability God honors the Law of Accountability Mercy God desires to bless His Children with Mercy. The Savior (who is the master physician) heals. We use Him. We should not take nor seek for the credit in this work. 239

240 Mike Stroud A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE BATTLEFIELD At Birth, the circle represents each of us. A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE BATTLEFIELD The Goal A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE BATTLEFIELD CLASSES OF EVIL AND UNCLEAN SPIRITS Physical attackers throw and damage or destroy physical objects, shake buildings, try to physically hurt people Possessors -attempt possession (often occurs when the energy field for a person is broken or severed). Tempters Emotion-Focused Spirits and Entities. I call them emoters. Tormentors False Priests who Oppress and Create False Beliefs Diviners, Psychics, Witches, Warlocks CLASSES OF EVIL AND UNCLEAN SPIRITS Ancestors and intergenerational family members Observers (formerly known as watchers) Indirects work through others to attack Intermittent Spirits Advanced evil and unclean spirits take the name of the person they are affecting. This is very dangerous with respect to identifying personal thoughts. 240

241 Highly Favored of the Lord III PRIESTHOOD INSTRUCTIONS By the authority of the priesthood or by invoking the name of Jesus Christ, command all evil and unclean spirits and entities and their replacements to be immediately bound and contained. Command them to follow and obey these instructions with respect to you, the individual for whom the blessing is intended, and for our mutual families, friends, and acquaintances. If working with ministering angels, ask the ministering angels to give these priesthood instructions. SPECIFIC PRIESTHOOD INSTRUCTIONS Never return Do not reveal anything; including from where or by whom they were cast out Destroy all records and record keeping devices Do not transfer (an example is with Legion in the New Testament. Don t give them any opportunity to transfer). Transfer happens a lot in homes with immorality and abuse (i.e., pornography) Other s instructions as directed by the Spirit or recognized as needed by ministering angels. Such as destroying central records and knowledge of the individual. SPECIFIC PRIESTHOOD INSTRUCTIONS Cast them out to spirit prison in a place beyond their ability to influence the involved individuals until: They repent or They receive the final judgment or The Father permits their release. We re so close to the millennium that it doesn t matter if they are bound and contained for 1,000 plus a few extra years. Remember: these instructions must be obeyed with respect to the individual receiving the blessing, to you, to your mutual families, friends, and acquaintances. WEAPONS, TOOLS, RESOURCES Fiery Darts of the Adversary: More than Metaphor Curses Structures Chains, Cords, Ties, Bonds, Connections, Links Layers and mists of darkness Coverings and shields WEAPONS, TOOLS, RESOURCES Openings, portals, doorways Viruses often attached to lies Covenants and Contracts (refer to Doctrine and Covenants 132:7) Programs Patterns very dangerous due to subtlety 241

242 Mike Stroud Embedded Weapons (i.e., DNA and intergenerational structures) WEAPONS, TOOLS, RESOURCES What is the promise: Isaiah 54: No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. Necessary Actions: All of the adversary s weapons, tools, and resources need to be severed or removed from individuals, their families and their homes or even business or work location. Then, destroy these items. If they cannot be destroyed (i.e., embedded DNA weapons), I have been instructed to sanctify them so that they can now only be used for righteous purposes. OUR WEAPONS AND TOOLS The Priesthood and Invoking the name of Jesus Christ Our absolute faith (no fear) The Light and Love of Heavenly Father. Ask for this to come down from heaven and fill the soul of the affected individual. Counsel to individuals to look for the hand of the Lord in their everyday life. Reference President Eyring s October 2007 Conference Talk entitled O Remember, Remember. Maintaining a spirit of gratitude, forgiveness, joy, and love for everyone. OUR WEAPONS AND TOOLS Repentance Spiritual Structures: Shields, boundaries, or barriers around homes and people. Ties and connections to the Savior and Heavenly Father Spiritual Pillars that bring light, healing, peace, love or other blessings into a home. EXPECTED OUTCOME Many sense that things seem overly quiet for a few weeks that s good! Some have a little remaining darkness after the blessing. This can be like peeling back the layers of an onion. We can usually remove all of the darkness in one blessing. COUNSEL Use revelation and your spiritual gifts like discernment. Avoid anything that jeopardizes the Spirit particularly many forms of music and entertainment (i.e., television and movies). Wear temple garments faithfully 242

243 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Fifty-Nine Podcast 59 An Evening with Friends (A dinnertime chat that Mike and Margie had with a group of podcast listeners in Draper, Utah on May 18, 2017.) *[note: This speech was given the same week as podcast 54 but was not given a number. The podcast originally numbered 59 was not a lesson, only a short announcement. For the purpose of the book and to keep the chapter numbers the same as podcast numbers, we slid An Evening with Friends into this spot. You will notice that the subject matter fits with Chapter 54 discussions.] So, you all thought that Mike Stroud was a ghost author for Shelle McDermott; is that right? [friends laughing] I m glad to be here with you my friends, brothers and sisters. Welcome to the Remnant because that s who you are. You know that don t you? If you don t know what that means, you need to go look at past podcasts. There is a movement going on right now. And this thing that we are involved with right now this podcast well, we never, ever intended for it to get to this point. Never! It was not in the plans anywhere. It was designed, as you ve heard in our podcasts, to be with a small little group of maybe 20 or 30 people that Margie and I had met as we served missions in Mongolia, the Philippines, and New Jersey. My job there was to teach institute classes, and we did that in all three of those missions. So, when we left those missions, the brothers and sisters that were there asked, Is there any way we can continue to study with you? So, we started out on Skype, and we started ing. Then somebody asked if we ve ever heard of podcasts. And neither one of us had heard of podcasts. But I m married to this IT professional over here, [friends laughing] computer 243

244 Mike Stroud knowledgeable, par excellence, right? So, she was able to pick that up, and this has just grown from that point on. Since you are part of this base that we are engaged with through the podcast, let me just tell you some things that are happening out there. There is a spiritual movement that I identify with, and for me, it began about ten years ago. I m sure that it was before then. Shelle, wouldn t you say that it s been about a decade? There is a group of people that are being moved upon by the Holy Spirit to do certain things that they maybe have never thought of before. Some people are being inspired to move. Some people are leaving jobs, high paying jobs in some cases, and are moving to areas that they never had any idea or thought that they would ever go there. The Lord is moving individually with a group of people collectively to put them in places and to prepare them for something magnificent. And as I hear from this base, that I otherwise wouldn t if it weren t for the podcasts, I get a feel for what s going on out there. So, I am very grateful to have that opportunity. It has ended up being a one-year mission. If you listened to last Sunday s podcast, it was called The Tip of the Spear. We planned completely to continue going on from there, but this last week we had some feelings and some impressions. We went to the Snowflake Temple with some questions on our mind and some prayers on our lips. We went in there and meditated, held hands in the celestial room, and prayed individually. When we got out of the temple, it was clear that the podcast series as it has been going on, one a week, should now come to an end. Isn t that interesting? When we looked at that, we could see the hand of the Lord in this because the very first one, at this time a year ago in February, was on the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost, which is the platform for everything. And the last one called The Tip of the Spear is on the doctrine of translation. I didn t look at that. We didn t plan that way. There are no plans on any of this. Nothing was planned out in advance. It just happens to come. So, we looked back over a year, and low and behold, there is this interesting thing that starts out with the platform of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost and receiving personal revelation and goes to the end into something called translation. We could see the hand of the Lord in that and said, Thank you, Father, for the opportunity of being involved in that. It has just been a magnificent thing. You know those are going to stay up. We are not taking them down at this point. It becomes a resource. The Lord also whispered to me, You need to leave those up there. I authored them don t you forget that Mike! See, these are My podcasts so leave them up there. You are just a poor, wretched instrument in My hand to see that we are going to 244

245 Highly Favored of the Lord III get this done. And so that s what s going to happen until the Lord directs us otherwise. I d like to talk to you about a few things tonight that have been on my mind as we ve sat here. I ve gotten a lot of requests from people to give a podcast on the signs of the last days and the events leading up to the Second Coming. I ve declined all that. I know them; I ve taught them over and over. I know all those scriptures, but I ve hesitated to go into that because, frankly brothers and sisters, I don t want my focus to be on those events. You need to know what s coming, and you need to follow the Spirit to be prepared for it, but it s enough to know it s there. And it is going to come at us, but the thing to focus on is what s on the other side. And the other side is something called ZION. Now, we are at a point in the history of the world and the history of the Church where we need to start thinking seriously about this concept of Zion. You know, President Ezra Taft Benson said: God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble. I think choosing is better. However, according to the first three verses in Helaman chapter 12, men and women are going to need to be compelled, especially men. They are more likely to need the compelling than women. I ve gotten some flack on that by the way, because people say, You favor women. I do. They are better. [friends laughing] There is a reason why in the temple they say, Adam awake and arise, and not Eve, right? There is a reason for that. So, when I thought about this, I thought about the whole idea behind what s coming. And by the way, I believe we have a little reprieve. I believe we had a train wreck coming at us, and the Lord in His mercy has given us a political, a geopolitical reprieve. I don t care how you voted or what your feelings are, but America has bought some time. According to Ether, the God of America is Jesus Christ. And if the people in America worship the God of the land, which is Jesus Christ, they have certain immutable promises there that are decreed in heaven that will never, ever be overturned. As long as the people in the land worship the God of the land, then the promise is secure. Unfortunately, we are not headed in that direction. Ether 2:7-12 gives us a clear picture of what will happen to those that do not serve the true and only God. The fulness of the wrath of God will come upon us as it did to the inhabitants that lived here before us. They were swept off. Four times in three verses it warns that those who possess this land shall serve God, or they shall be swept off. I testify to you that we as a nation are headed toward feeling the fullness of His wrath. Our Father and His Son, in their mercy, have given us a window to do what? Do you really think 245

246 Mike Stroud that this nation is going to turn around as a nation? Well, I hope that it does! But if it doesn t, at least we have been given a little window to repent and align ourselves with the God of the land. But more than that, I think the Remnant that is being called has been given some time in order to make some spiritual preparations so that when this stuff all comes down, they will be ready for what the Lord needs them to do. I m going to talk to you about the events that are going to lead up to this. They are not pretty, right? There will be thermonuclear war, plagues, wars and rumors of war, you name it. You guys are preppers; you know all of these scriptures. Okay, it s coming! Doctrine and Covenants 29 says it will come if the people don t repent. And the Lord said that they won t repent. Did you catch that? It s the only place in the scriptures, section 29 verse 17. Usually, the Lord says, If they ll repent, then we ll forestay that. Verse 17 says: I will take vengeance upon the wicked, for they will not repent; Joseph Fielding Smith quoted this scripture and said the day would come when these will come upon us because we won t repent. It s not conditional; we won t. So, what s the purpose of all that is about to come upon us? I used to think it was because of an angry God who will take His vengeance out upon his disobedient, hard-hearted, stiffnecked children. And there may be some truth to that, even though God doesn t need to do that. All He does is withdraw when you say, I don t like you, or I don t want you. And when He withdraws, His Spirit and Mind withdraw. That Spirit does three things to everything that s alive on this earth. That Spirit is the three L s; it s responsible for light, and where there is no light, there is no life and law. And so, when the Lord withdraws because we reject Him, then the consequences are a loss of light, which results in a loss of law. Anarchy always follows, which is a loss of light, life, and law. So, brothers and sisters, what s going on? Instead of looking at it as Him being angry, see the events that are coming up now as persuading people who are a part of the remnant but are asleep to wake up. They are caught up in the things of the world, they aspire for the honors of men, and they like the things of Babylon, but they have a foreordained mission from before they came here to be a part of this. However, they are not awake. How are they going to wake up? They are going to wake up by having everything taken away. It s the day of take it away. That day is coming. So, what s the purpose there? It s because He loves His kids, and they have a foreordained mission. This is a part of their future. They can t remain asleep any longer and still fulfill the destiny of their 246

247 Highly Favored of the Lord III foreordination. They can t do it! And so, what s He going to do? Well, because of their stiffneckedness and the choices they make, the Spirit withdraws. When the Spirit withdraws, all of nature groans, everything goes into anarchy, we have a collapse and the remainder of the remnant wakes up because everything they had was taken away. You can read about it in Helaman 12:1-3. That s coming! God will have a humble people! Humility, brothers and sisters, is the platform for everything that has to happen in order for you to be redeemed from the Fall, brought back into the presence of the Lord, and behold His face in the flesh. Humility is the platform! So, in President Benson s great talk on pride, he said the universal sin is pride and the cure for that is what? Humility! People are not going to choose humility in a day of ease and prosperity. Very few will. It s rare for a man or a woman to choose humility, meekness, and lowliness of heart when everything is going well. It s just not our nature, and that s what Nephi is talking about in Helaman. We are looking at a day when we are going to go backward in time. Why? Punishment? No, to wake us up. You don t appreciate what you ve got, and you don t look to your Maker at a time when you ve got everything you ve ever wanted and more. It distracts you, and it competes for your attention. So, for the remainder of the remnant who have foreordained missions, the Lord, in His mercy is going to take some things away and get their attention. You know, we are only ninety days away from homelessness, any one of us. You know that don t you? You are ninety days away from homelessness. And so, it wouldn t take very much: a grid failure, a cyber strike. There are a thousand triggers out there that are all in full-cocked position. Now, if you are a shooter, you know what I m talking about, right? They are in full-cocked position. You don t need five to ten of those to go off in order to start a domino effect. You only need one, and it can be any one. We are told to prepare. We are told to have a year s supply of food and clothing, and where possible fuel, to get out of debt, own your home, and have a three months survival cash supply. This is the council of the Church, right? Why? Do you think that this whole collapse that s coming down is going to miraculously end exactly twelve months after it begins? Do you think that s what your year s supply is all about? Oh, well I ll get more than a year s supply. Well good. What about the new little man and woman, the new convert to the Church that knows nothing about this, who joins the Church tomorrow and then next week: collapse! What about them? Oh, too bad. Do we think we re favored because we ve lived on the Wasatch Front and have had this council for decades and generations? Do we have an edge over those people who are just joining the Church? Or in Mongolia, when we went there, and they 247

248 Mike Stroud knew nothing? After twelve years of Church presence in Mongolia, they knew nothing about a year s supply of food or temporal preparations. So, what s this all about? There is no such thing as a temporal commandment with God. All of His commandments are spiritual. Then what s all this prepping about? And don t you also know that you can lose it in one day? You can lose it in one day! And there is always somebody who s got bigger guns and more men than you and your puny little AR-15 and your 1,000 rounds in your closet. And by the way that isn t the way we are going to do Zion anyway. Get those things. You are commanded to have those things. We have been told by prophets to do that. And yet, if you know anything about collapses, and if history teaches us about anything, we ve got to know that there is something more to this than survival because of what I ve put away. Well, here is what it is. Your obedience to this so-called temporal commandment, which is not temporal it s spiritual qualifies you to be a part of and perform the greatest miracles that have ever been performed that we are on the edge of right now. It s a qualifier. I know a man that talked to the Lord face-to-face and received his Second Comforter blessing. He went to the Lord and asked, Am I ever going to need this food storage that I ve got here? Do you know what Jesus Christ told him face-to-face? A little bit, but you re going to give all the rest away. Now, if you re a prepper like me for forty years, that s a tough pill. I ve gone through the full cycle where I used to think, You want to come and take my stuff? You ll be looking down the barrel of a big, bad, sawed-off twelve-gauge between you and me. I m not going to sacrifice my children for you because you were partying when you should have been obedient. You see, we ve gone through all of that whole deal. What s happening here is that your obedience qualifies you to use a priesthood law called the law of multiplication. There is a law there, and that priesthood law will allow you to multiply what you need, which is expedient for you, by the Lord, to take care of your needs so you can stay alive and fulfill your mission. Why do you think we have stories in the New Testament of multiplication of two little loaves of bread and seven fishes that feed five to seven thousand people, not counting women and children? What do you think that s in there for? Why do we have the story of the widow of Zarephath and Elijah? What is this all about? Why did the Lord allow for us to keep these stories in here? So, brothers and sisters, you do what you can as you ve been counseled by prophets, and you be diligent. But know this: the purpose is not to keep you alive physically. The purpose is to qualify you to call down the 248

249 Highly Favored of the Lord III powers of Heaven and have God s command control the elements. That s where it is. Now we re talking Zion! If you are just going to rely on temporal preps, you re still in Babylon because what you re doing is relying on the strength of your own arm. And cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm. Cursed! There is a curse on that. So, we prepare because we want to be obedient. The key is the Lord is counseling you through inspired servants to do this. But, what s your intent? What s the idea? It s to qualify you for power. It s to qualify you to make you invisible if enemies come. You want to put a shield on your property and your family? You need to have power and favor with the Lord to do that. You don t curry His favor in any other way but by being obedient, meek, lowly in heart, and remaining in a state of grace, having a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Those are the five elements of Zion. Do you want to go to Zion? Then cultivate those things. How do you come into contact with those attributes so that the Lord bestows those on you and they become a part of your very being? It s through obedience to what He asks you to do, in everything He asks you to do. All He wants is your heart. That s all He wants. So, as we evaluate where we are in our progress, we constantly ask ourselves the question, Where s my heart? Another man that received his Second Comforter, the Savior appeared to him, called him by name, and just asked, Where s your heart? The guy said, I couldn t answer the question. Sometimes when we get into an aspect of the gospel, we start to ask, What s my intent? Why do I do the good things I do? And if you look inside yourself, you are past the point where you do gross sins. You have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. I know that everybody in this room is in that category. But now, you ve come to a whole new level of spirituality. Now, you re basking in righteousness. But, is it your own or is it His righteousness? Paul the Apostle said we need to repent of our own righteousness. Who would think we would need to repent from being righteous, right? But it s clear doctrine, and the problem with your own righteousness is where is your heart? When you ask where your heart is, you have got to ask yourself the question, What is my intent? So, when we move into this Zion category here, we have to start looking, not up here, in your head but here, in your heart. Pray that the Lord will take what you ve got in your head and move it to your heart. That is when you start to access power. Now, brothers and sisters, we are on the eve of a transition. The restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the dispensation of the fullness of times is broken into two main categories. We are in phase

250 Mike Stroud It s called the day of the Gentile. The day of the Gentile ends when the remnant of Jacob goes through them like a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces and none can deliver. That s when the day of the Gentile ends and the day of Israel begins. When we move into part B, now you are looking at Melchizedek Priesthood power that has never been seen in the days of the Restoration. Mainly the things that we ve seen from Joseph Smith up until this day is because we rejected what God wanted us to have and accepted a lesser position with Him. It s an Aaronic Priesthood position. The next day that we move into, the day of Israel, will be a day of true Melchizedek Priesthood power. That s not to say that we haven t seen Melchizedek Priesthood power, but we are going to move into it where it becomes system-wide and society-wide. And it has to because that s the group that prepares for the coming of the Lord by building up the New Jerusalem, which begins with one man and one woman at a time at the heart level. Right? You all of a sudden have it given to you. None of this you can access by yourself none of this! This is the magnificent stuff. You and I are nothing and that s pointed out in King Benjamin s address, right? So, we have to look at our own nothingness and His goodness. We have to repent of our own righteousness and acquire His righteousness, which is always correct and always Godly. Ours isn t all the time because our intentions are sometimes skewed in a dying world. And that s okay. What s happening here is that with all of these wars and rumors of war, this is an earth groaning under the darkness and poor decisions made by God s children. The decisions of God s children affect this planet. It groans under the weight. Look it up the scriptures. In section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants and other places, the earth groans under the weight of the iniquity of God s children. So, our choices have an effect upon nature. When you make a choice that rejects God, it withdraws light, and the earth and everything living on the earth reacts from that loss of light everything! What we re going to do now is go through a phase where we are going to remove everything that s telestial off the face of this earth. Anything that cannot abide a terrestrial glory will have to be left behind. Much of it, if not all of it, will be taken off by the element of fire. So, the earth is going to move from where it is. We are a long ways out from the center of our system. If you look at a galaxy, and you can t look at the Milky Way Galaxy because it s too dang big, so we have to look at neighboring galaxies, right? In the middle of that galaxy, you see a huge galactic light bulge. Do you know what that is? Do you know 250

251 Highly Favored of the Lord III what that is in the center of these galaxies? It s redeemed earths. It s celestialized planets like this that have gone through a Fall and a cycle because God s ways are one eternal round. So, it s created near where He dwells. It goes a third of the way out for a Garden of Eden experience a terrestrial, paradisiacal, Edenic experience and then it drops on out two-thirds of the way from the center. Do you want to see where we are in the Milky Way System? Go google Where am I in the Milky Way System? You ll see that we are two-thirds of the way out from the center. Three steps, 1, 2, 3. Don t you find that interesting? Do you think this is all by coincidence? And when we go back, we are going to go back, in how many steps? 1, 2, 3, we are going to go back. The earth is female. The sun is male. Go to section 88:45: And the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night. So, what s happening is, you re on a planet that s on a journey; it s alive. And this is an obedient planet. Not all planets are obedient. Can you believe that? Section 88 comes out and says that the earth filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law. Well, you can t make that statement about this earth unless you have some rebellious planets out there. Sorry, you can t do that. If ours keeps the law, then it indicates that there are those who choose not to. I don t understand that, but I know that has to be because of the way that scripture is read or the Lord wouldn t word it that way. So, we are on a planet that is very, very faithful. This is a good ole gal! And she is going to make it all the way back because the Lord, already in His foreknowledge, says that she filleth the measure of [her] creation and section 88 points out what the end result is. It s a celestialized planet near where God dwells, brought back, endowed with light, and becomes a celestial world for those that inhabited her face in these various transitions and are able to ride her all the way back. Not everybody is going to do that. In fact, the majority won t. So, the transition is from telestial/mortal to terrestrial/translated most of the people on the earth today will not make that transition; they will not make it. Now, there are going to be a lot of people who are not members of this church on the earth, in its terrestrial, third estate, millennial world. You are not required to be covenant in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to make that transition. But you are required to be morally clean. That doesn t mean that if you ve had some sexual sin in the past, that you are automatically disqualified, but it does mean you d better repent. You d better access the power of the atonement so that is wiped clean, and you stand clean from that sin in the day that the 251

252 Mike Stroud transition comes. That is the minimum requirement to make the leap from the telestial to a terrestrial world. We are going to go back; the earth will move back to where it was when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden prior to the Fall. This is our 10th Article of Faith: The earth will be renewed Think about the word renewed. Renewed means that you can take it back to a state that it was in before it lost, and we are going to go back to it, right? The Garden of Eden lost....renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. Paradise, paradisiacal: that s terrestrial. The millennial world is a translated world. You need to be prepared before the transition, before the planet moves. If you re a part of that and have been foreordained, and the Spirit whispers to you, and something you are hearing tonight resonates with you (especially when we talk about the doctrine of translation), then you need to go and pray about that and do some research on what that s about. I ll tell you that Joseph Smith said that translation is the doctrine of a terrestrial world: Many may have supposed that the doctrine of translation was a doctrine whereby men were taken immediately into the presence of God, and into an eternal fulness, but this is a mistaken idea. Their place of habitation is that of the terrestrial order. That s where we are headed. I chuckle when I talk to Latter-day Saints, and I ask, What do you want? What do you hope to achieve with your membership in the Church? Well, I want to go to the Celestial Kingdom and be exalted. So, we quote section 130:18-19: [18] Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. [19] And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. If you were to quote that scripture in a ward, in a gospel doctrine class, or any group of Latter-day Saints and ask, What s the world to come? Do you know what they are going to say? They are going to say, The celestial world. Wrong! The celestial world is fourth. The premortal world was one; this world is two; the millennial world is three, and the celestial world is four. Four estates two of them veiled and two of them unveiled. We as Latter-day Saints want to drop out the whole 252

253 Highly Favored of the Lord III third estate. We want to go from here right into heaven. It doesn t work that way. Can I tell you that every person that has an experience in a telestial world, in a mortal experience, in a second estate experience, must have a terrestrial world experience? You can t bypass that. Why? Because there are lessons, experiences, ordinances, and covenants that you enter into in the terrestrial world that qualify you and enable you to even go to the celestial world. You have to have that experience. That s the world to come. That s the one we are moving into, right? All of the events of the last days sections 29, 45, 101, Matthew 24 all of these prophecies about these upheavals and cataclysmic events that when the disciples heard Jesus talk about them, they were troubled. Remember that podcast? And He said what? Be not troubled. What s happening is that the earth is readying itself for the transition. It s getting ready to move. She knows that there is something afoot. We need to know what she knows; she, being the earth. We need to know what she knows because we want to make this ride with her; you don t want to get off at a stop anywhere along the way. That s not a good sign. You don t want to do that. You want to stay with her. And she s going to go through all of this. She has already had her baptism of water in a water-based world, which is a telestial world. There are billions of telestial worlds throughout the systems. They are the schoolhouses of the Mothers and Fathers. All of these telestial worlds are water-based worlds, meaning that water, H2O, is required for the sustaining of life. When you leave this world and go to the next one, you won t be in a water-based world. You will be in a fire-based world. I had one lady come up to me and ask, You mean there won t be any more oceans? They ll be all evaporated? There will be oceans there, but they won t be like this. They will appear as beautiful and as tangible and as enjoyable to us in that world as anything that s beautiful appears to us in this world, but it won t be the same. You are moving up into a spiritual realm. You are moving into a translated world now no wars, no death, no police, no soldiers, no pain. Think about that, women: bearing children in the Millennium with no pain! Female friend: Woo-hoo! Mike: It s only in this world that when you go down, God says, I will preserve her in childbearing. It used to be said in the temple. Are any of you old enough to remember that? A promise was given to Eve, I will preserve her in childbearing. You won t have to worry about that. Children will be born in the Millennium. It s my opinion Mike Stroud, chapter 13, verse 22 that the aborted babies, all those little babies that 253

254 Mike Stroud had their lives taken in the telestial world for the sake of Babylon-system laws, will be born again in the Millennium and given to parents who want them. Nothing in this life is denied to that child. This is why the Lord says that they will grow up without sin unto salvation. Joseph Smith taught that mothers who lost their children in childbirth didn t need to worry because not a thing that was lost in this life would be lost. It will all be restored in the world to come. Which is what? Friends: The Millennium! Mike: The Millennium. Let s not drop the Millennium out of there, okay? So that s what s happening in this transition period that s coming up. We will be in that place for a thousand years, which is one day. There won t be a need for a sun there. We have a need for a sun here. Do you know why we have a need for a sun here, S-U-N? It s because we are so far out from the galactic center, that the light can t reach us. Call it the cosmic dust, or whatever you want to call it. It doesn t matter. But it veils the light of the center where the Mothers and Fathers dwell in this system. When we go back into the terrestrial world, there will be no need for a sun. Do you know why? We will have a Son, and it s spelled S-O-N because Christ is the God of the terrestrial world. You re in a world today where face-to-face is not the norm. We are in a world behind the veil where the God of this world is the Holy Ghost, and His helpers are angels and messengers. In order for you to have a face-to-face experience in the telestial world, which is normally not a face-to-face world because it s behind the veil, you really have to do something extraordinary. I think the people in this room and the people that I m talking to on the podcasts here, are that group that has the ability to do something extraordinary while in the flesh. Do you know what that is? It s to be redeemed from the Fall and brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, see Him face-to-face, have Him put His hands on you, ordain you and introduce you to the Father and the Mother. You can do that here, but the majority won t. It s just too distracting in this world to concentrate on it. But you will, and the first step to doing it is knowing about it. There are people all around us who have had this experience. They are not men and women in high positions of authority. Not to say they can t be but they are just common, ordinary folks. They are quiet, and they are the STPs of your ward and your stake. The same ten people who do everything; the STPs. Does anybody have any of those in your ward? You look around, and they are the ones who are always there, right? Some of those, if they were impressed to do so, could tell you about their experiences with the Lord. I m not talking about dreams and visions. I m talking about a tactile embrace, a kiss on the cheek, hands 254

255 Highly Favored of the Lord III laid on your head, and given priesthood power that cannot be bestowed by mortal hands but is more than ready to be bestowed by immortal hands on any man or woman who wants to pay the price and come up and obtain. Brothers and sisters, seeing the face of Christ in the terrestrial world is wonderful! Isn t that great? It s default because somewhere after the telestial world experience, every tongue will confess and every knee bow. You will see the Christ, but it won t be to salvation. You will see Him walking the streets in the Millennium, but there is an advantage in seeking for this now and praying for it. If you feel, in your heart, that it s something that s possible for you, entertain it because you wouldn t have that come into your heart if it wasn t possible for you to obtain. Can you see yourself as a translated being? Can you see yourself calling the powers of Heaven down, having control over the elements? Can you see yourself being sent out in a special missionary force in a world that s collapsed and dying and blood and horror and total anarchy reign? Can you see yourself being sent out to pockets of good men and women trapped throughout the nations with no hope of escape, except for divine intervention? Can you see yourself as one of those? Man and woman can you do that? If you can see that, you can do it because if it weren t possible for you to do, you wouldn t see it. That is the evidence that it can be done. This is what the Remnant is about. This is what s happening, and you are a part of that. Does that make sense? I ve not received my Second Comforter blessings. I want to, but I have learned that the Lord just says to me, Mike, I know what your desires are. Cool your dang jets. Right? I m the kind of person that when I see it there, I say, Let s make it happen! I m learning that the Lord says, We are going to do this My way and in My time and according to My will. And I am finally comfortable with that almost. [Mike and friends laughing] So, brothers and sisters, this is what s coming, and you are a part of that. In the book of Joel, it says that deliverance before the coming of the Lord will be found in three places. It will be found in Jerusalem, in the state of Israel. It will be found in Zion, and in the Remnant, whom He will call. Within that Remnant is what I call The Tip of the Spear. That group s foreordination is translation, rescue, and to remain on the earth by request so they can bring souls to the Son of God while the earth lasts. It s a divine request. If you have that request inside you, it s given to you by the Holy Ghost. This isn t something that you just mustered up and said, Well that s cool. I kind of like that. This is something that comes through personal revelation. There is a group, The Tip of the 255

256 Mike Stroud Spear, that is awake and willing to humble themselves and be obedient in the day of ease and prosperity. You are the ones that will go forward in the day of take it away, and under the direction of the Spirit, find your brothers and sisters who have been asleep because of Babylon. Then, when they are awake, teach them about the ordinance of translation and ordain them under your hands and begin the process for them to become like you are. That s The Tip of the Spear. They are here. I testify to you that there are translated beings at work among us. They look like us. They are here to test your bonafides. What does it say in Hebrews 13:2? Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This is a sobering reminder the next time you pass that guy at Walmart with a sign. They look like us, they are amongst us, but they are not us. They are here to see where your heart is because they can t work with you if your heart is not right and they are barred from training and ordaining until they check you out. Resources: Beware of Pride by Ezra Taft Benson, April 1989 Ether 2:7-12 D&C 29:17 Helaman 12:1-3 2 Nephi 28:31 Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm Mosiah 5:2...no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. Romans 10:3, Philippians 3:9 own righteousness Micah 5:8...the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles...as a young lion among the flocks of sheep Mosiah 4:5-6, our own nothingness and His goodness D&C 1 D&C 88:45 D&C 88:25...filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law 10th Article of Faith Translation is a terrestrial order. History of Joseph Smith, Deseret News, Vol. V, No. 11 D&C 130:18-19 D&C 29, 45, 101; Matthew 24, prophecies about upheavals and cataclysmic events D&C 45:35, Matthew 24:6...be not troubled D&C 45:58...grow up without sin unto salvation." Joel 2:32, three places deliverance will be found before the coming of the Lord Hebrews 13:2 * 256

257 Highly Favored of the Lord III Chapter Sixty Podcast 060 Perplexity Good Morning, brothers and sisters. It s good to be with you again. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give direction and guidance during this podcast lesson/presentation and that the Holy Ghost will be a companion to all of us to me as I teach this lesson, and to you as you receive that both teacher and learner can be edified and rejoice together. Please turn with me to the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter 18. This chapter contains one of my favorite stories in all of scripture. This is the story of Elijah and his confrontation with the priests of Baal. You can read the chapters before and the chapters after to get better content and context. But, basically, this is a confrontation, a showdown, between Elijah and four hundred and fifty of the priests of Baal who served under Ahab and Jezebel. The whole country is in a severe famine and the members of the Church, and the priesthood leaders are being hunted down by Jezebel and Ahab and are being killed. Some of them have been hidden in a cave by Obadiah, who was a follower after the Lord. But it is a severe time of trial for the baptized, covenant members in that day. I think one of the reasons that I love this story is I am partial to firebrand individuals. I love these kinds of people who are fearless. Some examples of firebrand individuals from the scriptures, along with Elijah, would be Peter after his baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, John, and others who are absolutely fearless in the cause of the Lord. The Book of Mormon is filled with such individuals: Moroni and Mormon. These are just people that I admire so much because they are fearless in the face of overwhelming opposition. And the opposition at this point is one versus four hundred and fifty; quite the odds. We re going to scan the verses rather quickly to get to the meat of this story. Let s go to verse 257

258 Mike Stroud 17 where Ahab meets with Elijah and accuses him of being the one who troubles all of Israel: And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? I love Elijah s response in verse 18: And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father s house, In other words, It s not my fault that you are in the situation that you are in; it s you and your father s house. The bottom of verse 18: in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. [19] Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel s table. So, we know that there s going to be, at least outside of the congregation of Israel, on Ahab s side of the line, eight hundred and fifty people: [20] So Ahab sent and to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. Verse 21 is the place where we want to start to pay attention. With this large congregation that has been brought together there: [21] And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? Now that s the part that I would be underlining my scriptures. I would underline it two or three times: How long halt ye between two opinions? And then he goes on to say: if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. Then I like this little statement at the end of the verse of 21: And the people answered him not a word. This is a very, very tense, very intense situation. A lot of the people in the congregation of Israel are not going to say anything because they know that anybody under this government regime who aligns themselves, in any way, with the God of the Israelites, will suffer a death penalty, and many have. Many are in exile and are hiding in caves and other places to escape the persecution of this government regime. Let s go on down to verse 25 and see the circumstance Elijah sets up: [25] And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. Now skip back up to verse 24: 258

259 Highly Favored of the Lord III [24] And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. I want you to concentrate on that consumption of this sacrifice by fire. Now, it was common for the sacrifices offered in the Old Testament, called burnt offerings, to be consumed by fire under certain circumstances. I m going to attempt to pull all of this into our day in a few minutes. I want you to concentrate on the words by fire. The Lord will answer by fire. Now, let s go down to verse 26. So, there are four hundred and fifty priests of Baal: [26] And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. Now, I love this part. Every time I read it, I just love it. Verse 27: [27] And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awakened. In other words, You have had four hours to call upon your god to consume your sacrifice, and there s not a word nor an answer coming from anywhere. So, he really stirs them up with this mockery, and it s a righteous mockery. Look at verse 28: [28] And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. I had interesting experience here a few years ago. I had a woman and her husband call me these are family members and they were concerned about their daughter who had gone way off the deep end into drugs, sex, and all manner different things. She had withdrawn from the membership of the Church in activity, and even to the point that she was making a mockery of those who were faithful in their church membership. She had really departed from anything that was light. So, they called and said that their daughter was possessed with an evil spirit. When Margie and I got over there, the spirit that was there that had frightened both the mother and the father had left or had at least gone into hiding so that when we walked into the room, we didn t sense his presence. The mother was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall and was holding this young girl, her daughter, in her arms. Her arm was all bloodied because she had made about thirty slices with a razor blade 259

260 Mike Stroud down it. This girl crawled across the floor, wrapped her arms around my legs, and said, Grandpa, please help me. I had the Spirit whisper to me some things about all of this cutting. Some of you out there are going to relate to this cutting because it has been something that girls in our day do a lot of. I was taught by the Spirit that she was possessed with an ancient evil spirit. When spirits like these were on earth in a mortal existence, they practiced the cutting of their flesh as a form of their devotion to their false gods. And so that spirit that had entered into my granddaughter was an ancient Canaanite spirit that perhaps could have even come from this period of time that we re reading about in 1 Kings chapter 18. Having had that information given to me by the Spirit, I rebuked that spirit, identified it as such, and commanded it come out, depart, and never come back. This girl has never cut herself since. Now, going back to the scripture, let s go to verse 29: [29] And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Now, you see they have been at this all day. We are at least involved in this now seven or eight hours, where all Israel and Elijah have stood back watching the antics and the frustration and franticness of the frenzied actions of these priests. As each minute goes by they become more and more of frenzied in their activity. You can get a mental picture of this. They re jumping up and down on this altar slicing themselves with knives. There s blood, frenzy, confusion, and chaos; it must ve been quite a scene. And it says at the bottom of 29: that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, or any that regarded. Now Elijah says, Enough! In verse 30, I love how:...elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. He draws them up close: And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. You see, this place on Mount Carmel was a known sacred place where an altar to the Lord, Jehovah had been built. Apparently, the enemies of the Lord who knew about this place had desecrated it and had torn that altar down. I want to just digress a little bit and tell you that last January I had the opportunity to visit Adam-ondi-Ahman with some friends who had invited us out there. I was impressed that when you go on to the Church property, there s a sweet spirit a spirit of peace, a spirit of calm, a spirit of unity, the Spirit of the Lord. But when you go off of that property into the surrounding areas around the Church property, it s obvious that that 260

261 Highly Favored of the Lord III property is heavily cursed. Anywhere around the property of Adamondi-Ahman, just the opposite feelings are felt, unless the property is owned by some of the Latter-day Saints who have blessed and dedicated that property and thereby lifted the curses off of it. But the thought came to me while I was back there, that for the last 6,000 years, ancient societies have known about this property that was Adam s home after he was driven from the Garden of Eden and traveled about 70 miles northwest, from where modern-day revelation says the Garden of Eden was. He spent the next almost 1,000 years in and around that area that we now find around Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri. Well, the ancient people knew that this was sacred ground and hallowed by the presence of our first mother and father, and the presence of the other patriarchs, even Enoch, Mahalaleel, and Jared, and all these ancient patriarchs that you can read about in section 107 and in the Old Testament. And so, when these prophets were no longer there, then these ancient societies came in and desecrated all this ground. The ancient altars, built up unto the Lord were torn down. Some were buried, perhaps by the Lord s people, so that when the Prophet Joseph Smith came into Adam-ondi-Ahman, he took a shovel and uncovered the altar that Adam had offered sacrifice on. Now, whether Adam and his people had buried that, or whether it had been buried by time, the point was it was still in the pristine condition that it was. When Joseph stood upon the uncovered altar and identified it as Adam's altar, it was still there in its form, fashioned after the ancient order in three different tiers. That altar is all gone now. It has been carried away a stone at a time until there s nothing there. But nonetheless, as in the days of Elijah, people who recognized the sacred places where the Lord s altars were, would desecrate those and tear them down. So, here in verse 30, we have Elijah who repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. [31] And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: So, he includes those stones in the construction and the rebuilding and repairing of this altar: [32] And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. There s some controversy as to just what the measurement here is. It is obvious that the trench around the altar is designed to hold water that overflows the altar, which you will see here in a minute, and there are lots of different opinions of just how much that is. But, it was sufficient 261

262 Mike Stroud for everybody that was there as a witness to know that under the circumstances that Elijah is creating here, it would be impossible for the sacrifice that s going to be placed on the Lord s altar, to be consumed by fire. It couldn t be done under normal circumstances after it had been drenched and soaked with so much water that it filled the trench that was dug around the base of the altar. That s the idea. How much that really was doesn t matter that much. After he has done this, he prepares the bullock, and they cut it to pieces, and lay it according to accepted ritual, accepted ceremony, on the altar: [33]...and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And then in verse 34, he tells them to do it a second time and then later in verse 34, to do it a third time. And look at 35: And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water. It s interesting that about 250 feet below where this altar platform is, there is a perpetual spring of water and that even in times of famine and drought, this little spring never ever runs dry. So, it would have been very easy for them to haul this water up and to drench this altar to this degree, where it fills the trench with the overflow water. Continuing on down to verse 36, three lines down: [36]...Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. [37] Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. It s an interesting thing right there. God will [turn] their heart back again because of what they are about to see. These are people who are going to come back to the Lord because they re going to witness a miracle of His power. They re not coming back because of the whisperings and promptings of the still small voice. This is a group of people who are hard-hearted, frightened as it were, but will not align themselves with the Lord because of the government persecution and executions and deaths that have taken place. So, their conversion and turning back to the Lord is going to come because of a mighty miracle, a sign as it were, from heaven. I want you to remember that; it s a sign from heaven that is going to cause them to turn back to the Lord. I am reminded again of what President Benson said, God will have a humble people. Either we 262

263 Highly Favored of the Lord III can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble. Alma said, Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble. Now, that s over in the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 32. Alma talks about voluntary humility or compelled humility. He says that humility at any level is desirable, but to be compelled is not as desirable as voluntarily humbling yourself according to the whisperings and impressions and promptings of the Holy Spirit. If it takes a mighty miracle to turn our hearts, so be it. But I believe that more blessed are those who love the Lord and follow the promptings of the Spirit when there is no need for a mighty sign in heaven or on earth. They do it simply because the love of the Lord is in their heart, and they are accustomed to following the promptings of the Holy Spirit and have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Verse 38: Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. When this shaft of fire comes down in response to Elijah s ministrations and authority with the Lord, there is nothing left. There is nothing left! The altar, not only the meat, not only the flesh of the bullock, but the altar itself is vaporized disappears along with the stones, water, and even the dust where the altar stood is stirred up. No wonder then in verse 39, we have this response: [39] And when the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. Then you can see the rest of the story. You can look at it and see that Elijah gathers up the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal and causes them to all be executed. Quite an interesting story! What does that have to do with anything to do with us today? Well, Elijah had the sealing power of the Patriarchal Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood, what the scriptures call the Holy Order. He is also a translated being and could move about at will. If you go back in the same chapter, verse 12, Elijah is having a discussion with Obadiah, and Elijah is a telling Obadiah to go tell Ahab that I am here and Obadiah is worried about that. And what is he worried about? Look at verse 12. Obadiah says: [12] And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; See, it was known that Elijah had power to travel as a translated being at that time, and space did not hold him captive. So, this is a man who is in full possession of all the rights and privileges and blessings of a 263

264 Mike Stroud translated being. He has the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and has a right to control the elements, as you will see toward the ends of this story. If you want to read the end of chapter 18, he ends the famine by using the sealing power of the Melchizedek Patriarchal Order. He called forth rain from the heavens and makes quite a show of that miracle so that there can be no mistaking that this is not some circumstance that happened, but an actual result of the exercise of the sealing power that Elijah had. Brothers and sisters, the purpose of this story is that Elijah brought the people of Israel to the point where they had to make a choice. I love that statement, How long halt ye between two opinions? We could ask ourselves that. Here we are in the latter-days, and there s some joking about not being Latter-day Saints, but we are Latter-day Aints. We talk about social Mormonism, and being social Mormons. That we enjoy the sociality that exists in the Church, but when it comes to keeping the commandments and being serious about our relationship with God, we just can t be bothered. And so we could easily ask ourselves, as members of the Church today, the same question that Elijah asked our ancient forefathers, How long halt ye between two opinions? It s like brother Neal Maxwell used to say, that the Latterday Saints try to keep one foot in Babylon and another foot in Zion: Let us once and for all establish our residence in Zion and give up the summer cottage in Babylon. They want to have all the blessings of Zion, but they also want to have a summer cottage in Babylon, you know? You just can t have it both ways. In the New Testament, Matthew 6:24 says: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And that is what we re trying to do. I think that s a big problem for us today. I think the Brethren are trying to teach us in general conference that we need to come up and be loosened from the tethers of Babylon. We just can t have it both ways. And if you think that we live in a day now where you can have it both ways and enjoy the world and all the blessings of the gospel, then you ll find yourself perishing in the events that are about to come. As we have said over and over in these podcasts, we have to take the Holy Spirit for our guide. You cannot survive what s coming if you putteth [your] trust in man, or maketh flesh [your] arm. You need to use the guides that the Lord has given you in mortality. Eventually, you need to come to a point where you are so experienced and practiced in receiving personal revelation, that the Lord 264

265 Highly Favored of the Lord III can speak to you in the still small voice, and you will immediately recognize that voice and hearken to His words. That is the only safe way for us to make it through the challenges that are coming because the day that we are in is both magnificent and terrible. As I was thinking about our day, the Spirit whispered this to me, Today, right now, September of 2017 is the mirrored image time in the premortal life, where the lines were drawn, the controversy ended, and the decision now had to be made. Who s on the Lord s side? In essence, the same question that Elijah asked, I m sure echoed through the corridors of our premortal life, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him. And I think that we are right now, today, where we were then when the great division took place. The battle lines were drawn, the controversy ended, the testimony bearing period was over, and Lucifer and those that followed him were expelled from the presence of our Father and the heavenly realm. I believe that we are, in our day, at that exact point that we were in when we were there. Brothers and sisters, we have been here before. This is not new. And if you will slow down, and quiet down, and take time to be holy, the Lord will teach you through His Spirit that this is a repeat of something that we ve already passed through. We passed through it successfully then, but we stand in jeopardy now. The leadership of the Church is doing everything they can to warn, teach, inspire, encourage, and persuade us to come up to something higher, something more significant, something more profound. But I fear that way too many, and actually, I feel safe in saying that the majority of the membership of the Church has been distracted, neutralized, and are enjoying their time in Babylon. This brings me to the point of this podcast. I had felt the quiet, still impressions that I needed to do this podcast. I had several different thoughts that came through my mind over a period of days. I told Margie that I needed to do another podcast, and I wasn t sure exactly what it s about, but I had the feeling that I needed to do that. So, as I was kneeling in prayer in my office, which is the place I have dedicated by priesthood power and authority for holy purposes, the word came into my mind, perplexity. I pondered on that for a minute, and I even said in my mind, What? And as I thought about it, again came into my mind the word perplexity. Then I had the thought to go to the LDS.org site bring up the scripture app, type in this word, perplexity, and see how often it was is used in the scriptures. Before I could end my prayer, I had another interesting experience. Into my mind came a picture of a solar eclipse, and I thought, What is this? So, now in prayer, with no explanation, I see a picture in my mind of a total solar eclipse. And then twice, with no 265

266 Mike Stroud explanation, I was given simply the word perplexity. As I closed my prayer, I immediately got up, went to the computer, and pulled up the word perplexity. I was interested to find that in all of the scriptures, in all of the standard works, this word perplexity is only found four times: once in the New Testament, in Luke chapter 21, verse 25; once in the Doctrine and Covenants section 88, verse 79; once in Isaiah chapter 22, verse 5; and once in the book of Micah chapter 7, verse 4. I think you will find it interesting that as I went to the scriptures, one of the common threads I found was that all of these chapters talk about the days leading up to the Second Coming. Some of the chapters talk about the signs in the heavens with the sun being darkened, and then the rest of it with the moon turning to blood and the stars falling, etc. I thought, Okay, I m getting a very, very interesting message here that we need to do something with this. So, let s go into this a little bit and let me share with you some things that I have found. The origin of the word perplexity comes from old French and Latin which simply means to be entangled or confused. Another word that is associated with it is bewildered. Now, before we go any further let s go to the 2 Nephi chapter 30 and look at a prophesied event that I believe is now happening. Let s look at verse 10: For the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people, and the wicked will he destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must destroy the wicked by fire. Now, I want you to think back about the fire experience that took place at Elijah s altar. I believe this division is not only worldwide and nationwide but also among the Latter-day Saints. It being among the Latter-day Saints is what I want to talk about. I see in sacrament meetings and in classes that we have become so addicted to our Internet devices that I even see members of the Church who are texting and receiving texts during the sacrament. And I think, how distracted we have become when the key to surviving the day is to take the time daily to be holy. I look at us, and how distracted and involved we are with our Internet devices and how absorbed we are into the world that it becomes very, very difficult for us to find any time for the Lord, even during something as sacred as the administration of the sacrament of the Lord s suffering. There is great need for us to be reclaimed and have our hearts changed, even if it has to be through the things which we suffer. Go with me over to section 105 in the Doctrine and Covenants, and let s look at verse 6. Speaking about the principles upon which a Zion people must be founded, the Lord comes and says this: And my people

267 Highly Favored of the Lord III This isn t speaking to the general population. His people are those people who have entered into a covenant relationship with him. And my people... : must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer. I think that that s the day that we are moving into. I feel that there are many who have received a foreordination before the Lord to perform a mighty task. It s my feeling that the majority of that elect group, the 144,000, the gatherers that the Lord is going to use to prepare a people for His coming and to establish the cause of Zion are asleep, distracted, and absorbed into the Babylon culture. And even though they have been foreordained to this great calling, which includes the ordination of translation, the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood, and the sealing power of the Patriarchal Order of the priesthood even though they have a foreordained mission and a destiny to that, they are so absorbed in the things of Babylon that these things have little meaning to them at this point. The only way the majority, even of this select group who have this mission ahead of them, will be awakened will be through the things that they suffer. I believe that that awakening day, that cleansing period, that time of necessary holiness is going to come and that the doors are opening for that day right now. There is a group who are already awakened, who have chosen to follow the path of righteousness and seek for the face of the Lord without having to be compelled to humility or to have these sacred doors opened by their suffering. This group is in the process now of receiving all the blessings, rights, and privileges that belong to those Saints who are foreordained to these missions and are receiving these powers that we have talked about. The ordinance of translation is being performed. There are many who have received it and are in the process of receiving it. The fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood is being restored and bestowed from heaven upon men and women. Power over the elements to command and have the elements obey men and women who are priests and kings, and priestesses and queens are amongst us now. As we speak, the groundwork foundation is being laid to counter the vicious evil that exists, and that will increase as we come nearer to the advent of our Lord, and to come off victorious. Go with me for a moment to Luke chapter 21, verse 25. Let s look at this word perplexity and see how it is used: And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity [remember what that means]; the sea and the waves roaring; 267

268 Mike Stroud [26] Men s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Let s go over to Isaiah chapter 22 and look at verse 5: For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. Notice again when we use the word perplexity, it has reference to a day of trouble and treading down. Let s skip over to Micah chapter 7. To get context for verse 4, look at verse 2: The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. Now verse 4: The best of them is as a briar [a brier is worthless]: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: See, there is nothing good. The whole house of Israel is in such a state of darkness and apostasy that Micah mourns them. Now, look at the rest of verse 4: the day of thy watchman and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. To see the Lord s comparison in our day with our ancient ancestors and their apostate condition, go with me to section 112 in the Doctrine and Covenants, and let s look at verse 23. You can see that we are in the exact same state as our ancient fathers and mothers were: Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face. That was uttered in It was the same in ancient Israel. So, because of this: [24] Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, Here we go with this fire again: a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind Think of a tornado. Think of the one that went through Joplin, Missouri a few years ago: it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. And this sobering thought: 268

269 Highly Favored of the Lord III [25] And upon my house it shall begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; Why? Because the rest of the world cannot benefit from the covenant people of the Lord as long as they are entrapped in Babylon and live in the filthy vessel with hard hearts and a rebellious attitude. The Saints that are going to be the leaven of the earth and to bless the whole earth as the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob cannot provide any blessing while they are in a state of filthiness and apostasy. So, the Lord is going to wake us up. And it s my testimony that we are in that day; it is here. Look at the next verse: [26] First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name [think about that brothers and sisters] and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord. So, these things are coming. And I think the Lord gave me the little impression on the word perplexity and the image of the solar eclipse for a purpose. It s interesting that this solar eclipse only takes place when something is placed between us and the sun. The sun is symbolic of the Son, the source of all life and light and love. When that moon goes between the earth and the sun, it results in total blackness. As we have mentioned in section 112, the Lord says in our day darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face. What a perfect symbol to represent that human condition, a total solar eclipse. We have allowed something to be placed between us and the source of all life and light, and the result is darkness and death. Well, let s look at one more scripture. Let s go to Doctrine and Covenants section 88. This is the last of four places where the word perplexity is mentioned. Let s look at verse 79. The verses at this point in section 88 are talking about the event of the latter-days events that I believe are imminent. First, in verse 78, the Lord tells us that we need to:...be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; [79] Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; This is the thrust of my podcast today. I believe that we are at that point. The short period of time that the Lord is mentioning here is over: 269

270 Mike Stroud things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms Now, this brings me to this solar eclipse that we witnessed on August 21. Anciently, the total solar eclipse, especially when they happened during times of holy days and festivals by the covenant people of the Lord, was always viewed as a sign of judgment. I noticed what the Lord says there in verse 88 says,...the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land. What land? Well, I think the judgments are upon the land of America. This is the land of Jesus Christ. This is His land, and the Book of Mormon speaks specifically that if we reject the God of the land, then we stand to be swept off when the fullness of His wrath comes. And there s a great division among the population of the United States right now. I d like to think that there is at least a majority of the people, the inhabitants of the land of America, that still have traditional values of family, honesty, prayer, and uprightness. It doesn t matter which religion you belong to; this is a Christian land. I d like to think that the majority, at least 51% of the population of the United States, still worship the Lord to the best of their knowledge and with the scriptural resources that they have available to them. I d like to believe that, but I m not so sure. It is my opinion that we have been given our current president of the United States so his administration can now show us the stark contrast between good and evil and between the government of the Lord and the institutions of darkness, as Elijah did on Mount Carmel. Not that he can save the United States or turn us from the course we have been involved in for so many years, although I believe he is trying to do that. In the last seven months, I think that his administration has made it more clear than ever who the enemies and the traders are in this country. Now that that is being made manifest, the question comes up to all of us, How long halt ye between two opinions? I think that this is being made clear and manifests to us through the administration of Donald Trump so that there can be a perfect and a just judgment pronounced upon this holy and sacred land, so that with the events that are coming no one will be able to say, This isn t fair. It wasn t clear. I didn t know. These signs and wonders that we re talking about that are in the heavens this month and will be in future days, weeks, and years, also have ancient precedents in the Book of Mormon. If you ll go with me to Helaman chapter 14, we can see an account where Samuel the Lamanite is on the wall, and he has given us signs to the people concerning the birth and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was commissioned by an angel to say these words. And I 270

271 Highly Favored of the Lord III think what we read in these next few verses has great counterpart significance for us right now, especially in this month and in the coming months. Go with me to verse 28: And the angel said unto me that many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent I have that part double underlined. What s the purpose?...to the intent : that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men [29] And this to the intent that whosoever will believe might be saved, and that whosoever will not believe, a righteous judgment come upon them; and also if they are condemned they bring upon themselves their own condemnation. Basically, the Lord is putting us in a position where we will be left without excuse. As I already mentioned in this podcast, what we see taking place under the administration of President Trump is also placing us in a position where we will be left without excuse. It s interesting to me that the term left without excuse is only found only four times in all of the standard works of the Church. Those four times are only found in the Doctrine and Covenants. Since we ve already quoted section 88, let s look at verse 82. Remember that these verses are talking about all the judgments that are coming upon the earth. Remember we also said that a total solar eclipse is a sign of judgment upon this land. Verse 82: Therefore [because of these things], they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads. And another place, in section 101 of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 93, the Lord says: What I have said unto you must needs be, that all men may be left without excuse; See, all of these things that are happening are as a sign and a wonder that have intents. One of the intents of these signs and these wonders is for those that disbelieve a righteous judgment might come upon them, and they will be left without excuse. Now, let s take one more. Doctrine and Covenants section 123, verse 6 says this: That we may not only publish to all the world, but present them to the heads of government in all their dark and hellish hue, 271

272 Mike Stroud This was a document/proclamation of recourse against the United States government and the government of Missouri for the false persecutions against the Latter-day Saints. The Lord commanded this proclamation to be written and that the Saints exercise their First Amendment rights under the Constitution, that for redress against wrong: as the last effort which is enjoined on us by our Heavenly Father, before we can fully and completely claim that promise what shall call him forth from his hiding place; and also that the whole nation may be left without excuse before he can send forth the power of his mighty arm. Let s go back over to Helaman in chapter 14, verse 29. It says that:...a righteous judgment come upon them; and also if they are condemned they bring upon themselves their own condemnation. Now, look at these last two verses, and think about us in our day and the events and the signs and the wonders that the Lord is bringing to pass for these intents: that those who believe can be saved and those who disbelieve and are hard-hearted will be condemned, judged, and perish: [30] And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; This can only happen when the controversy is clearly and perfectly declared, and when people understand exactly what is involved in the decisions they are about to make: and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself, for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God has given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. Now, this knowledge comes, at least in part, in the signs and wonders that the Lord is showing forth in the heavens and on the earth: [31] He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you. Even though there may be perplexity, when all is said and done, the issue will be clear, the controversy perfectly understood, and the decisions that men and women make in the midst of that will either bring upon them their salvation or their damnation. Now, let s look a little bit closer at what s coming. You are all aware of the signs that are taking place and that have been prophesied. I m not 272

273 Highly Favored of the Lord III going to go into that. You could look under Revelation chapter 12 signs. You can also Google September 23, 2017, and you can read everything that is there. The one thing that s clear is that there are signs in the heavens and on the earth that have taken place since 2015 and 2016, and now into 2017 concerning blood moon tetrads, solar eclipses, and now the alignment of the constellations Virgo and Leo, which appears to fulfill the prophetic utterance of John found in Revelation chapter 12. You can go into that and get all that background. There is much that is spoken of about that within the Church and also among our evangelical brothers and sisters. In fact, some of them are more lucid and more clear on the interpretation than we are as members of the Lord s church. So, I invite you to look into that. Just look up Revelation 12 for September 23, and you can find out everything there. One thing is for sure, there are signs that have been seen, and are now being seen, and are about to be seen, that cannot be and should not be dismissed easily. The Lord is giving us some signs in the heavens in the form of moons, blood moons, and solar eclipses. It s interesting. You are all familiar with the solar eclipse that took place on August 21, where it passed from the West Coast of America on down through South Carolina. It had its longest duration of total blackness in an area that encompasses Adam-ondiahman. Then, in April of 2024, there is another total solar eclipse that will come up from off the West Coast of Mexico and travel into the North Eastern part of the United States. Those two eclipse paths are predicted to cross over the same general area. Is the Lord trying to tell us something here? I believe that He is. There s a lot of talk about September 23, A lot of people feel that this will be the time of the rapture that the Christian brothers and sisters talk about. Here are my feelings on this. I believe that this date marks the end of the day of the Gentile. This is just my opinion that I m giving to you as such. Now, I m not going to say, and I don t believe that on September 23, we re going to have major upheavals, that society as we know it is going to collapse, and that we re going to see huge physical upheavals. I don t believe that is necessarily so. But, I do believe that this is the sign that marks the ending of an era and the opening of another. The day of the Gentile effectively began with Peter s vision when he visited Cornelius house in Joppa in the modern state of Israel. This is the beginning of what we call in the scriptures of the day of the Gentile and proceeds all through the New Testament record with Paul being called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. It continues on, figuratively, throughout the dark ages, but then it is again opened during the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. We have been living in the day of the Gentile since that time. It s 273

274 Mike Stroud my feeling that the sign of Revelation 12, along with the solar eclipse that took place in early August, signal the end of the day of the Gentile. Now, I want you to go over to chapter 16 in 3 Nephi for just a minute, and let s look at a couple of scriptures there. I gave a whole podcast on the definition and meaning of Gentile, and it might be well at this point to go back and look at that lesson on the Gentile in order for us to get a feel for what we re seeing here. In the 16th chapter of 3rd Nephi, the Lord Jesus Christ makes a distinction between two definite time periods that are going to be represented in the latter-days. Let s look at verse 6 for just a minute. In verse 6 the Lord speaks about Gentiles and says: And blessed are the Gentiles, because of their belief in me, in and of the Holy Ghost, which witnesses unto them of me and of the Father. [7] Behold, because of their belief in me, saith the Father, and because of the unbelief of you, O house of Israel, [See those two groups?] in the latter day shall the truth come unto the Gentiles, that the fulness of these things shall be made known unto them. Now that has happened. That s a fulfilled prophecy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Gentile church. And again, go back and listen to the podcast to understand that. But now look, here is a wo in verse 8: But wo, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the Gentiles for notwithstanding they have come forth upon the face of this land, and have scattered my people who are of the house of Israel; and my people who are of the house of Israel have been cast out from among them, and have been trodden under feet by them; [9] And because of the mercies of the Father unto the Gentiles, and also the judgments of the Father upon my people who are of the house of Israel, verily, verily, I say unto you, that after all this, and I have caused my people who are of the house of Israel to be smitten, and to be afflicted, and to be slain, and to be cast out from among them, and to be hated by them, and to become a hiss and a byword among them Now, watch. Here we go, verse 10: And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, And I testify to you that that has happened: 274

275 Highly Favored of the Lord III and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, And it s my testimony to you that the Gentile nations and even the majority of the Church membership have done that: behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. That right there signals the end of the day of the Gentiles, whether you re talking about the Gentile nations of Western Europe and others among the Gentiles rejecting it or whether you re talking about the members of the Church rejecting the fullness of the gospel. We talked about that in section 84. The Church has been under condemnation for rejecting the fullness of the gospel which is contained in the Book of Mormon and the other commandments which the Lord has given us. Because of that, the Lord says in section 84, verse 58:...there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion. Remember section 112 said, Upon my house it shall begin? With the closing of the day of the Gentile, which I believe is happening this month, and I believe these signs in the heavens and on the earth are an indicator of that change of time, let s look back to 3 Nephi 16: [11] And then will I remember my covenant which I have made into my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them. So, we end the day of the Gentile. The day of the Gentile, in my understanding, has been an Aaronic Priesthood day. It is the day for the covenant of baptism, for the covenant of the sacrament, and for the ministry of angels. Basically, even though we have Melchizedek Priesthood among us, the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Patriarchal or Holy Order and all the rights and privileges associated with that order of the priesthood is not generally found among the membership of the Church. With the day of the Gentile ending, which I believe is Aaronic/preparatory, we now move into the Melchizedek Priesthood part of the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. I believe the dispensation given to Joseph Smith is divided into at least two parts. The first part is called the day of the Gentile, which is Aaronic or preparatory; the second part being in the day of Israel, which is 275

276 Mike Stroud everlasting and Melchizedek. Now, let s look at the scriptures again. Look at verse 11: And then will I remember my covenant which I have made into my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them. [12] And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and you shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel. Verse 13, a very important verse: But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel. Now, brothers and sisters, you have to determine by the Spirit whether this is correct or not. But, if what I m presenting to you is correct, that these signs indicate the close of the day of the Gentile and that the fullness of the gospel of Christ is now being withdrawn, then that means the opportunity is going to be withdrawn and now taken more fully to the covenant house of Israel. We are members of the Gentile church, being numbered among the Gentiles because of the time in which we live, so you want to be among these repentant Gentiles who will be numbered among the house of Israel in this day. Verse 14: And I will not suffer my people, who are of the house of Israel, to go through among them, and tread them down, saith the Father. And we talked about that in our podcasts on the Remnant; the Remnant and 3 Nephi 20 and Nephi 16: [15] But if they will not return unto me, and hearkened unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden underfoot of my people, O house of Israel. Now, brothers and sisters, there was the eclipse that took place on August 21 of this year, and in seven years from now, there s going to be another eclipse that takes place in April I believe it is not by coincidence that the period of time that divides these two eclipses is seven years. The scriptures speak about seven years of tribulation. Again, I m not going to go into that. There is so much on the Internet. 276

277 Highly Favored of the Lord III All you have to do is go in and type in the beginning of sorrows, that Matthew talks about in chapter 24; or you can type in seven years of tribulation; or you can type in 70 weeks of Daniel; and you are going to see that there is much out there about the prophecies that are written in Daniel, and Ezekiel, and also the Revelation of John that seems to be about to be fulfilled. I will let you draw your own conclusions if you do your homework. But I think it is interesting that there is a seven-year period between these two eclipses. These prophecies divide the seven years up into two 3 ½ year periods. In one of those periods, I believe it s in the first part; we re going to see the coming forth of great political changes and turmoil in the world, globally. You re going to see the coming forth of a global world leader that the scriptures refer to as the antichrist, accompanied by his religious counterpart, the false prophet. Isn t it interesting that the Devil s prophetic leadership mirrors exactly what the Lord is going to do? You have a king and a priest on the light side, and you re going to have a king and a priest on the dark side exact mirrored opposites. So, I believe that the next 3 ½ years should show forth great political, global turmoil and upheaval where people will be further divided, and the majority of the world s population will side themselves with this dark lord, the antichrist and his false prophet. They will have power to perform miracles to such an extent that a large number of the world s population will refer to him as God, and many Christians will look to him as the coming Messiah. The second 3 ½ year period seems to be major cleansing. You can read about that in all the scriptures in section 29, and section 101, section 76, section 88, Matthew 24. There is so much that has been written on this period of time where the earth is cleansed, and large population numbers are ushered out of life into the spirit world so that the earth can make its transition from telestial to terrestrial. That transition will be with those humble men and women who have made the decision to stand on the Lord s side, who have not put their trust in flesh nor man, but have shown by their faith and works that they love the Lord and are willing to trust in the Lord with all [their hearts] and lean not unto [their] own understanding, [and] in all [their] ways acknowledge him, and he [has directed their] paths. This is the group that will have power in the priesthood, and they will be able to make themselves invisible. They will be able to destroy armies and will be able to call upon the elements of the universe to call down fire from heaven to consume their enemies, to multiply the necessities that they need in this life using priesthood power to do that, all of that. Being prepared now, there are men and women who are receiving keys and authority and the 277

278 Mike Stroud powers to do that. It will escalate as we move into the day of trouble and the day of turmoil and travail. What a glorious day this is to be alive! As never before we should be able to say, Let not your heart[s] be troubled, neither let [them] be afraid. I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell. I love the Lord. I love my Father. I m so grateful for Their blessings to me. I testify to you it s time for us to awake and arise, follow the Spirit, listen to the still small voice, do quickly what it prompts you to do, and take time to be holy. Listen to the message of the Lord s apostles and prophets this coming general conference. I think that we re going to hear some magnificent messages of warning and of peace. Truly, this is the day that is terrible and magnificent. I so testified to you with my love. I love you. You have become my friends. For some reason, the Lord has given Margie and I this marvelous opportunity to teach and testify. I had a man call me the other day and say, Can you tell me a little about yourself? And I truly feel I m in great company with magnificent men and women when I declare I am nobody but a wretched fool, who for some reason has been given this platform to speak to so many. I pray that my words are not in any way offensive. I m only doing the best that I can, and like you, seeking to follow our beloved Master and Savior. And I say these things in His holy name, even the name of Jesus Christ, the coming holy Messiah, amen. 278

279 Highly Favored of the Lord III Resources: 1 Kings 18:17-30 Beware of Pride by Ezra Taft Benson, April 1989 General Conference Alma 32, choose to be humble or compelled to be humble 1 Kings 18:12 Neal A. Maxwell, A Wonderful Flood of Light [1990], 47 Matthew 6:24 2 Nephi 28:31... putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm... Luke 21:25 D&C 88:79 Isaiah 22:5 Micah 7:4 2 Nephi 30:10 D&C 105:6 Luke 21:25-26 Isaiah chapter 22:5 Micah 7:2-4 D&C 112:23-26 D&C 88:78-79 Helaman 14:28-31 D&C 88:82, 101:93, 123:6, 124:7...left without excuse 3 Nephi 16:6-15 D&C 84:58 D&C 29, 101, 76, 22, Matthew 24 Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding John 14:27 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 2 Nephi 33:6 I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell. 279

280 Mike Stroud Chapter Sixty-One Podcast 61 May God Bless You Brothers and sister, dear friends, nineteen months ago we started on a journey to teach some lessons to a few friends that we had met in various mission fields while Margie and I were serving. They had requested that we continue to share gospel study time together. Little did we know that those lessons we began there would develop to the point where they have at this moment. It has been a wonderful and an exciting journey. We have made so many friends and benefitted so much from all of the people over this time, who have written us, who have called on the phone, and even some who have gone out of their way to visit and meet with us personally. We thank you all for what you have contributed to Margie and I and our knowledge and our experience in meeting with you wonderful brothers and sisters. Truly, we have been the beneficiaries of this nineteen-month experience. I would like to think that what we ve shared has been a benefit and a blessing to most of you. I would like to think that what you have learned has increased your testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. I would like to think that your devotion to Him has increased and deepened and that you have a closer relationship with our Father and His Son as a result of the things we ve talked about. I would like to think that your temple worship has improved and that as you go to the temple, you re more open to the spirit of that wonderful place and that the Lord is more able to pour out His blessings upon you because of your understanding and the knowledge that you ve gained through personal revelation. I would like to think that your service in the Church has become more meaningful and that your views of life and people have changed and that you ve become more founded upon the rock of Christ, the Redeemer. It has been Margie s and 280

281 Highly Favored of the Lord III my fondest desire, in presenting these lessons, that all of this be the case. We have not sought for any fame. We have diligently sought to not take any light unto ourselves. We have purposefully moved away from placing ourselves between you and the Lord, Jesus Christ. I hope that we have been successful in those endeavors and that the Lord is pleased with our attempts to do so because again, we have been the beneficiaries of it all. This heavy involvement, however, has taken a toll on our family time and other activities that we had been involved with prior to the podcasts but have taken second place because of the time involved. So, with that said, it becomes time now to end the podcasts and to say farewell and thank you. You may wonder why I have decided to not keep the podcasts up. If I were to do that, it would encourage more phone calls, more s, and more activity which would place me right back into the situation that I find myself in now: not enough time for my family. This week the podcast site will be taken down, and I will need to place more time and emphasis on taking care of my family and to see that those that are struggling come back into full activity in the Church and to support those that are active and moving forward. I also plan to put much more time, now, into Family Search and seeking out information on my ancestors so that we can perform temple ordinances for them and in their behalf. Margie and I want to express our love and gratitude to each one of you, for your support and kindness to us. So with that, we say thank you and bid you farewell. May the blessings of our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son rest upon each and every one of you. We pray that you will move forward and seek your Heavenly Father and His Son, and seek to enjoy your membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the privileges that it affords. I testify to you that our Father in Heaven lives and is close and that our Savior is not far from any one of us who are seeking Him with our whole heart, might, mind, and strength. I pray the Lord s blessings will be upon you and your families and that you will have your hearts desires in righteousness. I testify to you the truth of all of this. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. Joseph Smith was the great seer of the latter-days. It s a great blessing to be led by modern prophets and apostles, and I admonish you to value and cherish your membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I testify these things to you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 281

282 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mike Stroud was born March 1944 to Walt and Eileen Stroud in Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended BYU and received a BA and MA degree. He is trained in Outdoor Survival and Primitive Living and has spent a lifetime in the outdoors as a hunter, tracker, and outdoorsman. Mike enjoys training horses and has spent many years exploring wild places on horseback. He is a western history lover and re-enacts the mountain man era and the old west. He served a mission to Bavaria, Germany, and he and Margie have served missions together in Mongolia, Central Philippines, and in New Jersey. Mike has spent his lifetime as a teacher, working 27 years in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church Education System. He retired from CES in Mike and Margie reside in Eagar, Arizona. He is the father of 12 children, 29 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren. 282