Author: Shane

I am a family man of God first and foremost. I love my wife, two sons and daughter very much. After this, my life pretty much revolves around technology, music, writing, poetry, drums, dancing, singing, building up, and unifying others. I love learning, pro-actively gaining experience through what I've learned, then sharing the joy of my experience with others. My life is dedicated to loving and serving my Lord, through helping and blessing others.

40 Years

Penitence

The other day I was talking with my Dad and Mom, discussing the church’s curriculum for this week for, Come, Follow Me. This we sometimes do at my Mom’s and Dad’s house, which I really enjoy very much. We talked about how the Lord told the children of Israel they couldn’t enter into the promised land, because Moses had asked God to spare them when He was going to destroy them for their abominations? It was because Moses had not provided them with the proper view of the sanctity of the Lord by doing so. Here is the verse in Numbers 20 explaining this.

12 ¶ And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

One day of sin for them was to be counted for a year of wandering in the wilderness for the children of Israel, because of the severity of their abominations. 40 years in the wilderness for forty days. We also know that one thousand years our time, is a day unto the Lord, so in this regard, the Lord was being fair, time wise. Plus, the fact that they only lived so long, lines up perfectly with the divine plan of our Father in Heaven, for there is nothing random. As always, I love this kind of thinking, and I hope it’s also edifying for you.

So the Israelites may have been spared, but oh for such a time to repent in the wilderness, a total period of 40 years for the 40 days they misbehaved. 40 years of grueling penitence, for what time they may have enjoyed in the goodly land God had promised to give them for their posterity. Although their repentance may have made their 3rd estate (post mortal life) better, I would have liked to have avoided such a consequence in the first place! The things we do here count, and in a big way!

It ultimately comes down to a simple application of the gospel plan. Like my Dad and brother said, trust in the Lord, and obey His commandments.

Shane

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The Animals Entered 2 by 2

Listen to the Lord

It was the Lord who individually chose, and spoke to each animal chosen to enter into the ark. However, Noah, the Great Steward of Refuge in the First Provocation, was to speak unto them as the conduit from the Lord, to the animals He so chose. The animals did so in obedience, to the command given unto them through Noah, the Great Patriarch.

It was the animal’s tendency towards being obedient and docile, that they were chosen, among other aspects. It was by prayerful righteousness, and the spirit of discernment, that Noah and his sons, the sons of righteousness, were able to go out among the species in their natural habitat, and bring them aboard from abroad.

For in those days, the earth was filled with violence, among men and also among the animals, which also had to be destroyed, but the righteousness were sparred.

Shane

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The Beguiling Serpent

And he and all they that followed him were cast out

So, when Lucifer was cast down with all his devils, where did the others go, when he came and tempted Adam and Eve? Consider this verse from Moses 4:6. For clarification, the brackets denote my input, and the parentheses are an actual part of the scripture verse therein.

6 And Satan put it [his evil spirits] into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world.

Remember, if Satan can take over the heart, and the serpent was already the best candidate for this. See Moses 4:5 below, than he can control the whole creature.

5 And now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which I, the Lord God, had made.

So, with the evil spirits dwelling in the heart of the serpent, Satan could then command it, as he does his followers, and with them, he spoke to Eve, through the body of the serpent.

Shane

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Natural Man & Woman vs. Spiritual Man & Woman

You Decide Which Side Presides

The Father of Nations, Bearer of the Abrahamic Covenant for the House of Israel, Sealer of the Promised Land

Question: Mosiah 3:19 tells us we are “natural men” and “women” from the fall, and that we can only “becometh a saint” through the Holy Spirit and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Watch the above video, and listen to the audio below, and explain what these things mean to you in the comments, and what the process is as you have experienced it. Also, what stories can you find from the Holy Bible or Book of Mormon which exemplify this process?

A Mighty Change of Heart
by: Spencer J. Condie
Of the First Quorum of the Seventy
October 1993

Listen to the above audio talk from Elder Spencer J. Condie, and then answer the question for yourself in the comments section. Then you can read my answer below as well. See how yours compares.

Answer: Being a natural man or woman means that we are failing life, or living life through our body’s natural senses. We are thinking with our fallen physical brain, seeing with our fallen physical eyes, and feeling with our fallen physical hearts, for our body has these functions, even as our spirits do, but fallen.

To be a spiritually minded, hearted, and seeing Saint, we must use our spirits as our consciousness, rather than our bodies. We need to have an awakening from the word of God in our souls, where the Holy Spirit can, and has quickened our understanding. We do this as we utilize the atonement administered therein. Through the Holy Spirit we can have power over our bodies.

Living as a spiritual man or woman, our spirits think more quickly, and our bodies are strengthened through the Spirit’s manifestation. Our hearts become purer with the Holy Spirit’s essence and presence, and we are living the life God is living in us. This is what is known as living with the Gift of the Holy Ghost. To do so, one must have been baptized and confirmed with the power and authority of God, and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, under the direction of one who holds the priesthood keys to do so on earth. Our hearts, minds, bodies, and every facet of the members of our body are then elevated and strengthened in Christ.

Many people do not realize this, but to the natural man or woman, the so called, “subconscious” part of our existence, is really our spirits, thoughts (mind), feelings (heart), etc. If you are a natural man or woman, the veil, or our bodies rather, make it so we can’t be as aware of this part of our spiritual self, but it is still in us, because it is us.

Depending on how we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, or the Gift of the Holy Ghost, as we are obedient to the commandments of God, the effectiveness with which we utilize our spiritual man or women self is lessened or increased. For we truly are our spirits, and that which we pick up “subconsciously” by our spirits, doesn’t miss a thing, and still does affect us in the things we do. We do need to allow our spirits in Christ to have control over our fallen flesh body, rather than the opposite.

Now, after the resurrection, our bodies will be united with us, in a way in which they will actually a part of our literal identity. We will then be a “complete” soul.

Shane

Polls

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The Good in the Bad

Seek ye the better part

I will now teach you from the education gained from my life’s suffering experiences, the purposes of why we face such trying difficulties in life. For they who are the righteous are the willing, and are called upon to help bear their share of the ill “by-product,” from the weight of mankind’s sinful experiences. This, to help off-set the negative effects from the deeds we all commit, for we are all connected, and we all sin.

Every choice we make affects one another. We cannot separate this reality. Those who do bad can still be blessed by the good actions of others, if they will allow it. Likewise, the good can be tried and blessed, by choosing to act appropriately, in the face of the negative choices of others who error.

We do this by making good use of the Lord’s atoning power, who does take all things upon himself, and who also does carry the bulk of the rest of the residual effects of the sins of mankind. Yet, if we don’t repent, we cannot stop the negative motions of our choices, but by the grace of Jesus Christ, and others, who by using the atonement of Jesus Christ, can act appropriately, and turn the tide, thus stopping the negative cycle in that regard. In this blessed gift is the spiritual gift known as becoming a peacemaker. We all must repent, to do our part to help all the human family of God.

Life is this way, because God needs and wants each of us to grow, and if when we repent, all of the effects of our sins were completely swallowed up without any consequence, no one would ever learn, change or grow. We do need to forgive, repent, forgive and repent, and all throughout our lives, become like our Savior and Heavenly Father, eventually gaining that which we came here to acquire. The absolute necessary experiences of our own, to progress on toward the next phase of our life, even past the portals of death.

While we do our best, and very best to lift, no matter where we stand, we can then bless all others by choosing the better part. We need to choose to use the trials we’ve been given in this divinely designed infrastructure, to aid in stopping the negative ripple effects of the collective whole, not allowing them to overcome us, nor to pass on to others, nor future generations. We do need to support each other as the children of God we are, and with this time of test and probation, we, who are the noble, are called upon to take the surplus of the extenuating circumstances of sin, for those whom we are truly responsible for, even all our dear brothers and sisters, for we are indeed their keepers.

Every time we act or react in a situation, this causes an equal positive or negative effect, and we get to choose for ourselves, what types of actions we will take, good or bad. In the face of this divinely ordained, God given model, we can do good even in the smallest manner, even unobserved by another human being, such as reading the scriptures, and this will be sent out into mankind, in very real and substantial ways, through the positive vibes and ripples it creates in the lives of others, affecting all for good.

Yes, every story matters, and every life accounts. You are well beloved and known. You are important and irreplaceable. Your actions of good matter. You are so desperately needed. Whatever we are not able to bear in patience, in this divine framework and design, the Lord will carry, and He will always be with us!

Shane

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My Thoughts on the Sacrament and Ongoing Restoration

First the water (blood), and then the bread (body)

Just as was in the order of the offered atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:

First, His blood was shed for us in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the which he suffered for all our heartaches, pains and infirmities, as well as all abuses suffered, and even things albeit, inflicted by God Himself, for our own growth in His purposes.

Secondly, Christ’s bodily harm. This, because we need Christ’s forgiveness from all our sins. His scourging, and placement of plaited thorns, as well as nails pierced in sacred place, being hung in shame, and spear thrusted through His sacred side. He partook of our sins, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He partook of the bitter cup of the effects of all our sins, handed to Him by Satan, with the punishments that accompany them, into/onto his body, organs and flesh. And with His goodness, He neutralized them with His own sacred blood and body, letting them pour out through his pores, in the which His beloved heart also burst inside his beloved chest.

Later, He took on the punishments of our sins through His torn back, pierced hands, wrists, feet, head, and side. He died, thus having overcome all our sins, for He had taken them all into and upon Himself, and it brought Him to the death He offered us, to bring us all to life in Him, even eternal life, as we transform our eyes, to see the beauty of his agony, and the wonder of his love and life He obediently gave.

He was not killed, even after all this, for He willed Himself to live, even at the cost of having His Father’s sustaining help removed from Him for a time, wherein He had to sustain Himself, under all that pressure. Then, when it was done, He voluntarily commended His Spirit unto God His awaiting Father, who could not wait to embrace His faithful and beloved Son.

The significance is this, we all need love, before we can repent. This is why Christ suffered our afflictions in the Garden of Gethsemane first, wherein He took our pains, infirmities, suffered abuses and so forth, infusing into them metabolically, the true essence of His love (charity), wherein the bad blood was neutralized, when met with the good in Him.

Afterwards then, came the scourging, mocked crowning, carrying “our” cross, and excruciating crucifixion, all to the point of bringing into his soul, through the Father’s holy will, the punishments for all our sins and transgressions.

My thoughts on this are thus, as the Lord prepares His Saints to become more worthy and ready for more blessings, He will then restore the proper order of the Sacrament, even as the Lord replaced the Law of Moses with the Sacrament in the first place. This will mean, partaking of the water first, and then the bread. For He first loved us, before we could love Him. We need to be loved, before we can repent. Thus the blood, and then the body, or, the water, and then the bread.

There will be no other changes to the sacrament, prayers or otherwise. Also to remember, that the Priests are not blessing the tokens of His flesh and blood, but we are asking God the Eternal Father Himself to do so, as is stated in the Sacrament Prayer.

However, our receipt of these blessings is upon our faithful repentance and obedience. We must do as the sacramental covenants require and promise.

Note: These are my thoughts only, and not coming from the heads of the church, meaning, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Shane

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Improving Family Relationships through Communication and Forgiveness

Families Can Be Together Forever

I recently had a crucial conversation with my Mother. It started out with her just checking in on me to see how I was doing, her knowing I’d just received my second dose of vaccination for COVID 19, in my line of work.

After we’d finished discussing this topic, she asked me if there was anything else I wanted to say to her. At first, I hesitated inside, but in this case, my heart and spirit won out, and I carefully and bravely began to share some things I’ve had issues with family members for many years.

I went on to express and share openly, telling her how I felt. She listened, and when I was done, she spoke, and I listened. Together we were able to learn from each other, and see more of the picture of the puzzle to these painful and unsolved matters.

As we spoke truth in love one to another, as illuminated by honesty and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the very real and impassible barriers of emotional and mental turmoil were opened, and I could finally begin to choose my pathway home, of healed and repaired relationships.

My spiritually relatable thoughts on this are as follows:

Relationships are based on love, love is built on trust, and trust is built on communication. If we stop communicating, we stop trusting, and thus loving.

Being away from someone to get some space to learn and grow is fine. In fact, this is the best choice in many cases. However, in the Lord’s good timing, a window will be opened, and the Spirit will direct when it’s good, and how to reach out to make amends and forgive. Many times, people who’ve really been hurt, close off their hearts to protect themselves from getting hurt again. While this serves its purposes, there also comes a time when strength in vulnerability has a place.

Life is so precious. So are relationships and salvation. They go hand in hand. We need each other. Don’t let pride, fear, jealously, past fights, selfishness, arguments or anything else win the war over you and your family line, both past, present or future. Your division effects not only you and your individual disputes. They effect both before and beyond, and sadly, into the eternities, where it will be harder to resolve such tragedies. Trust me, you will want to be more proactive in your building of family ties, if you knew what you’d be losing, and the glories you could’ve gained and enjoyed.

Shane

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The Tyler Wilkinson Vision

Be Mindful of What You Ask For

There was a time in my life, when I had been tried on different medications, none of which had worked. I had been unstable, and piled upon with much abuse, torment and emotional and mental strain. Even having experienced ritualistic abuse, and an injection of a poisonous drug, which gave me the severest of mental illnesses, and also brain damage. Even such, that I had unspeakable mental and emotional baggage, increased demonic torturing, because of having a thinner spiritual veil (giving them a more direct access to me), and an all around life damage, which only God could undo and correct, and over a much longer period of time in my life than I could have ever known or anticipated at the time.

One night however, while I was still fresh in the beginning of my recovery, having finally been tried on a new medication that actually started to work, I had been watching an inspirational video on tape (VHS). This video portrayed a young man who in high school back in the ‘80’s had been a phenomenal athlete.

He was and is a Latter-Day Saint, and starred in baseball, wrestling and football. He had many great things going for him, including scholarships, which he was very excited about, and was planning to utilize, and even marrying his high school sweetheart. One night however, when he was driving to see her at her dance competition in Springville, UT, he was very tired, and fell asleep at the wheel. When he woke, he was facing an oncoming semi-truck, and Tyler over-corrected his vehicle to miss the collision, but in doing so he rolled his vehicle several times.

Tyler was left a survivor, and a quadriplegic. Instead of letting his new life take him and his ambitions down, and love for excelling in life, he did not relent, but became and did other things, which surpassed many others in a similar predicament.

He pushed and pushed himself into and throughout his recovery and rehabilitation, in very rigorous and devoted ways. He wanted the blessings!

After watching this video of him, entitled, Tyler, A Real Hero, narrated by Steve Young, I was powerfully moved upon. It was later in that same evening, while walking through the living room area of my parent’s home in California, that I said into the wide expanse above, “Tyler, I want to meet you.”

Later that night, I then said my prayers, and went to bed. Then, in my disheveled dreams, I was among the unhealthy individuals I associated with, in my not too far distant past, playing football with them. Then, Tyler appeared there, and he was on my team. He was with me, giving me confidence and advice, and soon we conquered and walked away from the game.

Somehow I found myself in the living room with him, where he was standing in the very place I had cried out my heart’s desire to meet him.

He began to talk with me. “So, I understand that you are going through a hard time right now.” he said.

And then he told me how he had also been through some very difficult things. He exhorted me to start going forward again, and that things which were holding me back for so long were gone. He advised me to make good of my situation.

I began complaining saying, “But you don’t know what I’ve been through, what it’s like. You can’t possibly understand.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he stated, “but you can still do as I’ve done, and overcome.”

Then I continued complaining to him, saying, how hard it was, and that he had no idea. I then said, “This isn’t real, how is this even possible anyway!? You’re alive somewhere else, and I’m here!”

He then said, “We have our ways.”

To which I said, I can’t do this, and you can’t help me!”

To which he replied, “Then why did you ask me here?”

And he was slowly gone…

I then walked over to the family stereo, touched it, and inspected it, then looked around, and went back to my bedroom, got under my blankets, and went to sleep.

Shane

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The Marvelous Plan of Reconciliation – Part: One

The Grand Plan

Jesus Christ saves us from our sins, not in them. In that regard, we are to make goodly choices, and acts of righteousness, to become more like our Father in Heaven, and Savior Jesus Christ. However, this is only possible through the power in Jesus Christ and His atonement, with His grace in the first place, in which we have the power to do so.

Further, our very existence, both spiritually and physically, are also dependent on our Lord’s atonement offering, for we would have ceased to be as Spirit embodiment, if the atonement were not already prepared, and set to be carried forth, for because of sin and transgression, no man can self exist.

Time was something God created as a protection, so that we could learn by faith, to accept the Lord’s atonement, and not be obliterated. It’s something similar to dreaming during sleep, yet still having control over our actions. It’s a state that we can be judged for, but not eternally condemned. We may not understanding how the Lord’s atonement works both before and beyond its act of being wrought, but still it does, because it is an eternal act, and God is not subject at all to time. All things are present before our Father in Heaven, and all things proceed before Him through A Sea of Glass, as one eternal round.

Every act of love and goodness, comes from Christ, through what he so lovingly wrought, as he suffered with us and for us, in His experience of creating the sacred atoning sacrifice experience on our behalf.

In addition, because Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, resulting in the fall, they were then physically able to have children, this because the fruit from this tree, was created with seed already in itself, which abilities to reproduce were passed into Adam and Eve, once they partook of it, whereas, the other fruits from every other tree in the garden did not yet produce seeds, until the Lord did curse the earth for their sakes.

With the fall, the atonement, which grants an extension of life, and our probationary state, making salvation and exaltation possible, we can now, because of our Father’s marvelous plan of reconciliation, gain the knowledge, wisdom and experience necessary, to have the foundation to become like Him, and receive all the blessings of inheritance He has, just as a child can grow up to eventually be as their parents can.

The atonement and fall, and our eternal progression, are necessary, and absolutely needed to happen. It was indeed a foreordained and sanctified plan in the heavens, to take place upon our earth, and Praise the Lord, through all of us and Them, it has!

Shane

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The Marvelous Plan of Reconciliation – Part: Two

Let Love Win!

The Lord’s atonement is for all of God’s children, to take effect on all, in the way that it can, for because Jesus Christ descended below ALL, even Lucifer and his devils, who chose to not follow Jesus Christ, and put themselves in a position where they cannot, and will not do anything good, at least benefit from it in the form of staying alive as to their spirits, to not disassemble and cease to exist, as beings in their current state of progressed experience.

But as for access to the light as comes from the Lord Himself, which is the light of Christ, a special gift given to all those born into mortality, Satan cannot have, nor can he comprehend. For he rejected this, and placed himself and his followers in a state, where again, they cannot, and will not do anything good.

The condition of Satan and his followers, of not being able to do works of righteousness at all (no agency), having denied themselves that privilege when they denied Jesus Christ, is a mercy in their own predicament. For because they cannot do anything good, they are at least afforded the ability to have existent life through Jesus Christ, who descended below all, allowing them to have the opportunity to carry out their own oppositional missions.

But make no mistake, after this life they too will be judged, according to their actions, and they will eventually be burned and purged clean in the realms of hell, known as outer darkness, where there shall be brimstone and burning, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Further, Adam and Eve would have also died in the very day they would have partaken of the fruit, both spiritually and physically, literally. However, because of the pre-interposed atonement, their days were lengthened, and their probationary state granted.

We all needed the fall, and the atonement, as a one package deal, so that we could be born into mortality, and have the opportunity to repent, learn, grow, and progress towards God, as we move forward on our life’s covenant path and mission, and onward into death, as it pertains to the physical body.

There will then be restored unto us, the full measure of what we meted while on the earth, to receive our reward of that which we have chosen and desired, for earth life provides the necessary opportunities we need, and could not have obtained in our pre-earthly heavenly realm.

In the suffered atonement experience, the Savior took all ill and evil for all of God’s children, including the ones who chose to lose their agency, or the ability to do good, introducing them to earth to tempt us, even the adversary, because they rejected the Savior. They will have to suffer for their own sins, even as they are now influencing us to do evil. Jesus Christ is the undergirding principle of life for all, because of who He is, what He did, and all He continues to do.

Then, while the righteous are enjoying eternal life (God’s lifestyle), those who originally followed Satan, including the sons of perdition, will be cast out into outer darkness, where they will be burned and purged clean, not by their own choice, but by force, into the lake of fire and brimstone. They will stay there for all of their “3rd estate,” during which time we will be enjoying ours in glory, in the kingdom in which we have attained through Jesus Christ’s aid in love, grace, repentance, forgiveness and obedience.

Then, after finally becoming clean, the adversary will then come to themselves, and to their senses, and begin to make their long, arduous, and difficult trek home, up until the Great Morning of Reconciliation, wherein all things that which were lost, even the ultimate prodigals, shall be found and return. “For he was dead, and is alive again.”

For God is a perfect God, with perfect love, and a perfect plan, and He will not lose any of His children, nor our Mother(s) in Heaven.

Once we are all through with our third estate, we will all be called up again, unto another next higher, greater and better 1st, 2nd and 3rd estate, wherein we will all begin again, with another pre-mortal, mortal and post mortal life, with a greater eternal prospect and circumstance. For it has been done before, and will be done again, all thought out eternal lives.

Lucifer, and our other brothers and sisters who followed him too, will then finally also be called up, and able to re-join us, having become again children of God by suffrage, with the divine penitence of children, in this next eternal life, having completely played out their roles of helping us grow to achieve our exalted status, wherein all things will have been forgiven and forgotten, and life for us all will move forward, and on into this next eternal life. For even the adversary, who needed to progress, needed this experience of complete and utter rebellion, to be able to move on to his next steps and lessons.

Everyone will always have a different role to play throughout the eternities, and they will each change with every eternal life we experience, all in the context and concourse of our growth in the eternities, and eternal lives.

Shane

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