01/10/2015

"The Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do."

On December 16th 2014 Elder Curtis and I began something that we call "The 40 day fast".

We fasted from food and water for 24 hours. And in that spirit of fasting and prayer we made lists. Lists of things, habits, speech, actions, thoughts, anything -- that could drive away the Spirit. We then began a 40 day fast from all of those things.

I have this posted up above the desk:

40 day fast

December 16^th, 2014  -  January 26^th, 2015

I will fast from:

1.      All slang

2.      Knuckle cracking

3.      Dozing off or not paying attention

4.      Calling people not by their names “Elder” or “Sister”

5.      Messiness

6.      Not smiling

7.      Doing things “later”

8.      Insincere prayers

9.      Comparing

10.  Sarcasm

11.  Hearing without listening

12.  Distractions (Ex. TVs, advertisements, thoughts about home, unproductive conversations, etc.)

Why?

“Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”(Joshua 3:5)

The Lord has said, “Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power.” (D&C 43:16) The Lord is ready to work miracles, and He has only asked “that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things.”(Alma 39:9) As I “cross myself” the Holy Ghost will become my companion and I will come to know that in a very real sense, I am a servant of the Lord speaking in His behalf. I will find a different response from those I teach. As I do so by the Spirit, my investigators will respond under the influence of the same Spirit.

We found this to be really hard. Figuratively slapping ourselves every time we'd call each other dude. I'll be honest, the knuckle cracking was probably the hardest.

I'll reference D&C 130: 20-23;

20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—

 21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

 22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.

 23 A man may receive the Holy Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not tarry with him.

The Holy Ghost may descend upon someone, and not tarry with him. What does that mean? That means we do, say, or think something that is not in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in consequence, we lose the companionship of the Holy Ghost. We figured that as we consecrate ourselves we will have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion.

At first this was all really hard, and involved a lot of daily repentance, but as the days went by I found all of these things began to fade away.

Beginning on Sunday, I have had the most Spirit-filled week of my life. I began the week by having a powerful spiritual experience, and the Spirit has followed since. Yesterday was especially different. I don't know how to explain it. We speak in the name of Christ extremely often. We are bold. We've been running into many Christians recently, to which I say to them, "If Jesus Christ himself came down and established a Church on the Earth, then came and called you to go with Him to His Church, would you go?" We get varied responses to this, but we testify each time, "I am a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has established His Church on the Earth and has sent us to bring you to Him. Will you go?"

We testify more than we teach. And I feel like I'm beginning to understand the commandment "And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God."

Elder Curtis and I find ourselves speaking of spiritual things, speaking of the scriptures and the Spirit. We don't talk about home, music, sports, or even before or after the mission. We are focused on right now and the Lord is pouring out blessings.

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Today Sister Yok passed her baptismal interview! She's been working very hard to build up her faith to this point. And just a few days ago she called our member helper and said that she felt it and wants to be baptized this Sunday. She's already brought one friend and she'll be bringing another tomorrow.

Elder Osborn