Letting Go

[Admin]

How important is your name?

And would you give it up?

A messenger approached me and asked me; how important was my name to me, and if I would give it up.

I hesitated for a moment, knowing very well that the question was not so shallow. The word "name" carried the deeper connotation of identity. At first I thought I wouldn't give up my name, my identity, that's who I really was, but that thought was fleeting. With absolute determination and conviction I looked directly at him and said, if my eternal salvation depended on it, I would easily give up my name.

The truth is, our eternal salvation does depend on it. We must be willing to completely give up the things of this world, in order to progress toward God.

How many people have I known to pray for further light and knowledge, then rejected it when it came? Rejected the Lord's gift! Just because it didn't come in the package they thought it should come in. Or because it didn't come from the person they thought it should come from. And of course, because the further light and knowledge just didn't fit with their well established longstanding traditions.
So many times we hold to our beliefs, to our traditions, when our eternal salvation is on the line. Why are we as mortals so willing to give up our eternal salvation just to maintain a name, a label? Why are we so willing to trade our eternal salvation just so that we can stubbornly hold to a worldly care, or tradition, or heritage?

To give up who I am, to give up my identity, to give up what makes me, me. How often have I held so tightly to things, that I wouldn't let go of one thing in order to grasp ahold of something better?

In order to move on, to progress, we must be willing to let go, to move out of our comfort zone, to move ahead on the next step of the principle, the next step on the path to God.

We need to be humble, meek, submissive, adaptable as a child. As the scripture says; "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." ~ Mark 10:15

If a person prays for further light and knowledge, then that person should be prepared to accept and follow the directions the Lord sends.

How long will the Lord keep answering those who reject His gifts?

"Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same." ~ D&C 132:3

The principle taught in this scripture clearly shows that we should not take the Lord's answer lightly, no matter what that answer should be.

What would you do if you prayed for further light and knowledge, and a messenger from God arrives to ask you if you are willing to do what it takes?

* I post some of these experiences to show what is possible for those who follow the Lord's way of doing things. The Administrations of Angels is possible for all those who follow the Lord's Way.

[Admin]

I know that I have posted some of these experiences before, but I would like to discuss them a little.

I have found that the way to get to the Lord is, to let go of all our previous notions, and to progress. Even when our previous lessons brought us to the place we are in our lives, this does not mean that we have completed our progression toward Godhood. There is always more to learn. Accordingly, we can always continue to let go of past lessons for the future lessons the Lord would like to give us.

Interestingly, as a point of pride, humans do not often like to accept messages from those who are just like them, human. And therefore, they tend to ignore the lesson, saying instead that they have a much better way. But it is not the human to which we are to listen. We are to develop the gift of the Holy Ghost so clearly, that we can pray and ask what Heavenly Father thinks of this message, and if we ask in the Name of the Son of God, then Heavenly Father will send the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, to teach us if this message is from Him or not. Then we are not really listening to the Human messenger only, we are listening to the Father, through the Holy Ghost.

[gemdoctor]

A timely message for me. These have been the subject of my prayers and actions this week.

[Amy]

This seems like the story in the Bible, in Matthew 19:20-23:

20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The young man seems to be very attached to his possessions. Suppose we switch the word 'possessions' for 'name'? His name was obviously a 'good' name if he kept the commandments, but his pride was too much and, without charity, he had no anchor, no reason to keep going.

[123vjrs]

Seems that everything leads back to the heart. There must be nothing between us and God. Luke 14 says this....

26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

I personally had never heard this verse quoted as this is in the kjv but I think we can all get the point. If He isn’t first, everything else will take over and become Lord in our lives. Therefore blocking us from him.

[Chris]

Seems to me that we need to continue to evaluate where our heart lies. What is our heart holding on to. Where are our treasures?

3 Nephi V:12
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The light of the body is the eye, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 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."

If our heart is holding on to something that dies or ends then we are standing on a sandy foundation. We need to recognize what our heart is holding on to that dies or ends so we can let go.

Pride is what prevents us from being able to recognize the things we need to let go of. Pride is blindness. Blindness is darkness. We need to let go of pride in order to see.

Once we let go of pride we will recognize where we stand. Now seeing where we stand, seeing where our heart lies, we can have a change of heart. Changing our treasures to be those that are in heaven. Having a heart full of charity.

Let us let go. Let us become as a little child, being meek and humble. Let us let go and live.

[Admin]

This story always reminds me of Saul on the road to Damascus, when the Lord appeared to him and asked Saul to become Paul.

Paul gave up far more than his name. He gave up his birthright, his culture, his religion, everything!

In the story written above, it was not the Saviour who asked directly, but an angel. Still, I knew that this question meant giving up, not only my name, but my culture and heritage as well. An affirmative answer would result in an entirely new creation!

I post some of these experiences to show what is possible for those who follow the Lord's way of doing things. The Administrations of Angels is possible for all those who follow the Lord's Way. And at the risk of being too bold, if we are not getting the Administration of Angels, then we are not doing things the Lord's Way. This means we need to go through ourselves and find everything that is out of place, and bring it into alignment with the Lord's way, then we will have the results the Lord has promised!