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I even wonder if there is a God or a Spirit…or if we just have these things inside us as humans. But I still can’t explain away some of my experiences…so I chalk it up to the mysteries of God and find it is usually a good thing to seek the Spirit and tap into the goodness in the universe…whatever that means.
I wonder sometimes too, Heber. I’ve often asked myself in the past if maybe it was just my own emotions.
In the end, however, I do believe that there is a God. I’ve definitely felt blessings from Him in my life- again, I could say that these instances were just lucky on my part, but I truly believe that they weren’t just coincidences, as I can’t explain them myself.
Just A Girl wrote:I truly believe that they weren’t just coincidences, as I can’t explain them myself.
Agree with you 100%. And so attributing it to the Spirit or to God is an acceptable answer for me.I also think that helps me be open to how others want to express it in words or thoughts…like a collective conscience, or the human spirit or whatever…we’re trying to express the same ideas, I think.
I have one experience that something came so clear in my mind that I didn’t have room to doubt and there was no logical way my mind could have come up with it. It is probably the only experience that I can’t just write off as possibly emotion.
It is the reason why I didn’t throw in the towel in the depths of my faith crisis.
This is a great topic, and I think almost everybody can relate with feeling frustrated with unanswered prayers, or the absence of the spirit when we might hope to feel it. I concur with all of the comments that have been made: we all experience the spirit in different ways, things happen in their own time, and it can be hard to tell the difference between the spirit and our own feelings. I’ve never felt the spirit in the temple, despite years of desperately trying to feel it there. I can’t remember the last time I felt the spirit in church. But, I have been able to feel it in quiet moments in my car, sitting at work, washing the dishes, and all kinds of other unexpected times and places. When I was serving a mission in Belgium, we tracted into a Catholic Bishop. He invited us in and sat us down in his office, which looked more like a library than an office. Then he pulled a Book of Mormon off his shelf and told us about the parts that he liked, and the parts he disagreed with. He did it in a very non-confrontational way, and wasn’t attacking at all; just sharing his opinion with us. When he asked us to share our thoughts, we instinctively launched into the 1st discussion. When we finished, he said that he thought it was interesting, and then he shared his beliefs with us. He basically bore his testimony that he knew Jesus Christ was his savior. He was talking about the very basic fundamentals of the gospel. And we all felt the spirit strongly. My companion and I were dumbfounded, and when we got back to our apartment we had a long conversation about why we were feeling the spirit so strong while we were listening to a Catholic Bishop. What it boils down to is that the spirit testifies of truth. Most religions teach different pieces of the truth, and I don’t believe that we have a monopoly on the spirit as Mormons, and I don’t think we have any more or less of the truth than anybody else. The spirit can be felt in the most unexpected places and times, and sometimes isn’t felt when we would expect or want to feel it. It’s a personal search, and an individual experience.
Holy Cow wrote:This is a great topic, and I think almost everybody can relate with feeling frustrated with unanswered prayers, or the absence of the spirit when we might hope to feel it. I concur with all of the comments that have been made: we all experience the spirit in different ways, things happen in their own time, and it can be hard to tell the difference between the spirit and our own feelings. I’ve never felt the spirit in the temple, despite years of desperately trying to feel it there. I can’t remember the last time I felt the spirit in church. But, I have been able to feel it in quiet moments in my car, sitting at work, washing the dishes, and all kinds of other unexpected times and places.
When I was serving a mission in Belgium, we tracted into a Catholic Bishop. He invited us in and sat us down in his office, which looked more like a library than an office. Then he pulled a Book of Mormon off his shelf and told us about the parts that he liked, and the parts he disagreed with. He did it in a very non-confrontational way, and wasn’t attacking at all; just sharing his opinion with us. When he asked us to share our thoughts, we instinctively launched into the 1st discussion. When we finished, he said that he thought it was interesting, and then he shared his beliefs with us. He basically bore his testimony that he knew Jesus Christ was his savior. He was talking about the very basic fundamentals of the gospel. And we all felt the spirit strongly. My companion and I were dumbfounded, and when we got back to our apartment we had a long conversation about why we were feeling the spirit so strong while we were listening to a Catholic Bishop. What it boils down to is that the spirit testifies of truth. Most religions teach different pieces of the truth, and I don’t believe that we have a monopoly on the spirit as Mormons, and I don’t think we have any more or less of the truth than anybody else. The spirit can be felt in the most unexpected places and times, and sometimes isn’t felt when we would expect or want to feel it. It’s a personal search, and an individual experience.
:thumbup: Well said. The church certainly does not have a monopoly on truth or the Spirit, and I think most converts who were active in another church prior to joining can testify of that.
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