Post by BagleyDarwin » August 17th, 2014, 3:50 pm

Bananikka wrote: This thread makes me sad and comfused. And not because I don't appreciate and respect the point of view of everybody here. (I do!)

But I who am just beginning to realize the beautiful world of clearly (not perhaps, or months later.. But clearly understood and almost immediate, albeit not every time..) answered prayers just brought this to The Lord in yes I think I can say mighty (very sincere) prayer.

I specifically asked about julie rowe. I got an amazingly wonderful feeling yes like the burning of my bosom only almost filling my entire body. I apologized for being "new and ignorant" and then asked (to test myself?) about something else (something that I was ironically hoping (and totally expecting!) to hear a yes about). Nothing at all. As I am new with his whole mighty prayer thing I went on to apologize for wearying Him but that I truly wanted to learn to recognize His voice, and asked about four more times. As I said, the answer I got for the question that id hoped for. Yes was absolutely nothing. And every single time I asked about julie rowe I was absolutely filled with this amazing burning overwhelming feeling of peace. Wow! A miracle! I went to share this with my daughter who is journeying spiritually with me. I was so excited! Could silly

ImmAture sinful insignificant little me actually be heard by the heavens and then even answered???

I was so joyful and said many tearful grateful thank yous and then crawled Into bed, surprised about to apparent "no" to my other question but amazed and overjoyed about this one.

And then I come on here, my guilty nightly pleasure. And I see this thread.

Please don't take this like I take myself as some sort of prophet or special person. I am far from special. But, as I assume we all (or atleat most of us, original poster here included for sure!) love and pray to the same God and are comforted by the same Comforter, how can we receive witnesses that contradict eachother?

I am just discouraged at the idea really and while I feel on the one hand "don't doubt His answer to you that He graciously offered not once but four times", on the other hand I feel like my goodness is somebody here being deceived?

Can we be deceived while in mighty (or deep and sincere) prayer? And if so how can we tell? Can a loving perfect God tell two of His children. Different things?

And please, forgive my ignorance here. I'm a work I progress!! And I am truly asking for thoughts here, with no desire at all to put down the original poster or upset anybody at all.

You are getting right to the heart of something that has bothered me for decades.You see, every Television Evangelist is preaching Christ. Every pastor and father in every Christian Church is preaching Christ. Every false prophet is preaching Christ. Yet, when you get right down to it, none of them are preaching the same thing. Even the version of Jesus that they preach is different from one denomination to another. It creates a great deal of confusion.Is Christ divided, or is there some kind of order in His house that we simply cannot see? How can we tell the true prophets from the false prophets? Or are all the prophets false prophets?Ephesians 4: 5: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.This scripture tells us that there is only One Jesus, not custom made Jesuses for each Christian denomination.This scripture tells us that there is only one faith, or one true religion, or only one Church of Jesus Christ that is Christ's Own Church.This scripture tells us that there is only one baptism that God the Father will recognize. There is only one Church of Jesus Christ that we can be baptized into and have that baptism accepted by the Father. There is only one baptism that is efficacious.During much confusion, pondering, and prayer, I came to a realization. Since every prophet, true or false, preaches Christ and tries to lead us to Christ, there must be found some other way to distinguish the true prophets from the false prophets.Do you know what I came up with?First of all, a true prophet of God will lead you to the Church of Jesus Christ, and a false prophet will not. It's a very simple, but a very powerful concept. A true prophet of God, no matter how imperfect the individual might be, will be striving to lead every one of us to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A true prophet of God will be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whether formally called as such or not.Second of all, a true prophet of God will point you to Christ's Apostles and tell you to listen to Christ's Living Apostles. A false prophet will not. Why is this important? It's because the Apostles of God will point you to baptism and confirmation in the Church of Jesus Christ. The Apostles of God will point you to Temple Ordinances and Temple Covenants. The Apostles of God will have the Keys of the Priesthood and will have received a commission to administer the Covenants and Ordinances of the Gospel. What the Apostles of God do is binding on the Lord, because they are His authorized representatives here on this earth.Third, a true prophet of God will preach of Christ and point us to Christ, which is something that all the prophets try to do, whether they are true prophets or false prophets.Ephesians 4: 11-14:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.So that we could avoid being deceived by the cunning craftiness of men, Jesus Christ gave us Apostles.Jesus Christ sees Himself and His Church as being one and the same thing. He calls His Church the Body of Christ.The purpose of Christ's Apostles is to bring us to a unity of the faith, to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to a completeness or Gospel Fulness. The purpose of the Apostles is to keep the Doctrine of Christ pure and unpolluted.So, a true prophet of God will not only lead us to Jesus Christ but he will also lead us to Christ's Apostles and to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If a prophet is not doing these three things, then the prophet is not a true prophet of God, no matter how appealing the message might be.