Transcription
I can only find one reference in the scriptures where someone saw God the father, and that was Stephen. He saw God the [Music] Father. Seeing God the father is different than seeing God the son as Jehovah. So very few people have seen God the Father. Uh, well, I guess as a relative statement, because John 14:21-23, he talks about people who are good. If you're good enough, that he and his father will come and make their abode with you, and that's a literal meeting. They will literally come to you. That's the second comforter; that's basically your calling and election made sure where th you are secured to go into the Celestial Kingdom. And you don't know how many people have had that happened to them because you don't need to be a super religious Minister; you can just be a very religious person that no one ever thinks about. Because quite often it's the small and little things that are the great, and he says it's through small and simple things that he will overturn the proud. And so you don't know how many people out there have had God in Christ come to them and make their Abode with them, like it says in John. And so to sit and say no one has seen him, you can't say that because you don't know. But we do know; we do know two that did, and that was Stephen before he died, and that was Joseph Smith in the sacred grove. He saw God and Christ together. And otherwise, like at the baptism, you hear the voice from Heaven as he's being baptized, and the Holy Ghost descends on you. And the mountain Transfiguration, you hear the father say, "This is my beloved Son." And again in the new world when he was visiting the new world, God announced him there in the same way.
So some people say, "Well, God splits apart," and he can do that, and I'm I'm thinking that that's kind of deceptive in my opinion. Because if he's this super powerful hero God, what's the point of breaking into three people? There's just no reason for that. All he has to do is come and say, "Hi, I'm God. This is the way it is, folks. Listen to me." He doesn't need to go through these antics of being three people. He he says, "I I I I'm doing the will of my father," in other words, I'm doing my own will. And he says, "Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?" And you're saying, "Why did I forsake myself?" I and it doesn't make any sense, you know. If you if you were if if you were that way in this this world today, uh, I I looked up what multiple personalities are, and we would call him crazy. Because it says that that is called did, and that's called a disassociative identity disorder, and they multiplicities plurality uh pois. Why would a god do that? That's kind of deceptive; it's crazy to me. Now and then, if he can just twang everybody saved, why did he build the world, stick us down here, and make us suffer like this? What's the point of that? And what's the point of him coming down and suffering and dying for us? Why can't he just say, "Hey, you're here; you're going to live forever; you're not going to die at all." Uh, and but if you die, I can twing you alive. I don't need to go down there and be tortured to death. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. My the God I know that I got to see, cuz I saw all three of them in my experience. I saw the Holy Ghost, Christ, and God the father in the same place at the same time, so I could see them separately. So when I was walking with the Savior and and he smiled at me, God did. I mean, there they are, and the Holy Ghost was somewhere here. And uh, it just it is so logical to think that way. And if you go to this nyine Creed, if they really knew about God and could understand the scriptures, why did it take so long? I mean, it's over actually about 125 years they're working on all this uh different Assemblies of people. Now, how long did it take Stephen? He looks into heaven and he sees God and Christ standing on his right hand. How long did it take him to know what they looked like? About 2 seconds or one second. How long would it take you to know if you see him? When when uh Moses got to see God face to face as a man speaketh to his friend, he's not talking to a smoke screen; he's not talking to this ether; he's talking to an a a a body that looks like a man because we're Made In His Image. We're Made In His Image, and we're not smoke and we're not ether; we have arms and legs, and so does he. And how long so how long would it take Moses to figure that out? Half a second.
And then what I think is interesting is when they met for at the at NAA, here's a group of people that say that Revelation ceased; there's no more prophets, no more Revelation. Well, that's a contradiction in a way; I can talk about that in a minute. But by saying that, what they are saying is we are not being Guided by the God; we're thinking it up on our own by reading this book. What about power and authority? Like Paul, he says he was ordained a minister and ordained an apostle. Who ordained him? Well, the other Apostles did. Who ordained them? Christ did. Now, Christ didn't come back and ordained Paul; the other Apostles did. Who ordained Miah uh Maas and and B Bartholomew? The apostles did. Christ didn't come back and do it; he had given them the power. Now they have it. And when he here's one thing, when he's on the Mount of transfiguration, two people showed up with him; that was Moses and Elijah. Why were they there? Why do he need them there to transfigure? What's that? Why is that important? Because they were translated. Why were they translated? So they could have a physical body. So why did they have to come back being translated with a physical body? Says they held keys of something. And and when God gives it to these people on Earth, he he keeps that chain of authority going; he doesn't break in and change it. So we have the Gathering of Israel, and that's what's going on now. They had the scattering of Israel; now we have the Gathering of Israel. So he's Gathering Israel, and that's what Moses did. He gave Peter, James, and John the keys of the Gathering of Israel. What about genealogy? Uh, we need to know that; turn the hearts of the father to the children, children to the father. At least the whole world, you know, is useless basically. And so Elijah gave Peter, James, and John the keys of the sealing power so that you can be sealed to your family. And that's what temples are for, to go in there and be sealed as a family so that if you're living right, you can all be husband and wife and kids in the spirit world and forever. And so uh that's why they came. God doesn't waste his time; he doesn't do things that are silly; everything is necessary. And that's why in the restoration when Joseph Smith saw God in Christ, they did not ordain him; they got they told him what to do; they got him going. He started translating the plates years later, and he's learning about the gospel; he's doing that; he's reading the Bible; they're reading about baptism. And who comes to give them the authority to baptize? John the Baptist. He's resurrected now so he can ordain it on them, the same or ordination system that was used in the Bible. How did they get their mezic priesthood? The same priesthood Christ had because it says he was ordained a high priest after the order of mdic. What do you need that for? He's the son of God, but he's Immortal now; he needs this ordained on him. In his case, his father ordained him because the meic priesthood wasn't there, and he had and his father had to do it because his father had the keys of of being a redeemer and and a savior, and nobody on the earth had that, so it had to be his dad. And so who comes back to to ordain the power of the of cealing and the mezic priesthood? Peter, James, and John. They're the ones that had it last before everybody's all killed off. They were the priest presiding three of the of the Apostles; they were the presidency. So they came back and brought it. But anyway, that's kind of diverting a little bit, but still related to the godhead. The godhead is a working team; they each have their reasons to be. Now, God the father is the Supreme kind of overseer of everything, and through his son who is their Savior and Redeemer, he makes the planet because that's what a mediator does; he's the mediator. And one of his assignments is to build worlds and uh because that's a mediation thing between God and man. And so he builds the world, and then he we come here, and then he supplies the information through prophets and through the Holy Ghost. And this is one thing I was going to refer to a little bit when I was talking about the Ning Creed. You cannot say Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. And what's that called? That's called Revelation. You have personal revelation to know that Jesus is the Christ, and that gives you the testimony of Jesus. And then John in Revelations tells you that the the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy. So when you have the testimony of Jesus, you're a prophet in your own right, not for the whole world, but uh how prophets work is through Revelation from the Holy Ghost. And how you have a prayer answered, how you have anything happen between you and God is the Holy Ghost. So you cannot say, "I know the Bible's true; I know God Lives; I know holy I know uh Christ is the savior," without admitting and agreeing to Revelation because that's what that is. And if you cannot say Jesus is the Lord, then you haven't had Revelation, but you can't say it without Revelation. So modern-day Revelation has been going on forever, you know, from Adam even, and it's only been a few people like through the Dark Ages from the time the apostles died until Joseph Smith got to restore it; it was in in process. A lot of people had it like, you know, Martin Luther and Wesley and them who were kind of seeing that there was something different uh but it wasn't here continuously, and the world wasn't ready to have it set. And then finally, it got to a point where it could survive for the last dispensation as Paul talked about and and so but there's order in this thing, and God's the he's the supreme Supreme head, and he has his son doing all this stuff. But now we need somebody else to testify, and it's a special way of doing it, so he has to be a spirit body, the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Ghost then can come and dwell in you; he can come and testify to you in ways that the Father and Son cannot do it. And and so he testifies to us that God and Christ are real and live and Christ is our Savior. And and if you read in the scriptures, you have all these sins you can do. What a sin is is basically Disobedience to an eternal law, and he says, you know, you can blaspheme God, you can blaspheme Christ, and you can be forgiven, and even murder can be forgiven, and all these sins can be forgiven, but it says but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven. So what is that? That is when the Holy Ghost is witnessed to you and you know absolutely true that God is real, Holy G that the Jesus is real, the the Bible and scriptures are real and they're true, and then you go against it. You know that's kind of like those who crucified Christ, the ones that arrested him at night; they knew what was going on and they went against it because they didn't didn't want to lose their power. And so that's the non-for forgivable sin. Why? Because the the spirit of the Holy Ghost as a spirit can dwell in you literally, and he can testify to you in ways that Christ even can't do it. And when when you're with Christ like I was and you have this fantastic feeling from him, guess who's facilitating that feeling? It's not Christ; it's the Holy Ghost. Because Christ is a state of a person that if he allowed his energy to show up to you, it'd kill you. For one thing, of course, I was already dead, but it's pretty powerful. But the Holy Ghost is the testator, and he's the one that facilitates all information between God and and Christ to us, and he buffers it to whatever we need, and he and he gives it to us in the way that our personality will take it. They each have their role, but they're one; they're one because they do everything together; everything they they do is the same; they're following the same set of laws; they don't have a new set of law, new set of Law and another set of laws; they have one set of laws, and they follow them perfectly; they follow them. So they're one. We use we use the term in sports all the time; they talk about a the best team isn't the one with the best athletes; the best team is the team that works as one. And uh recently I saw a show called The Boys in a boat, and it's about a rowing team from college; it goes over to the Olympics and and wins. And they're they're rowing, and they're kind of a nobody's, and but they win. Why? Because they worked as a team; they moved perfectly in their rowing, and they didn't fight each other; the paddles hit the hit the water exactly the same time and the same pressures, and they could really move. And so yeah, we talk about it all the time, and then we go off and say, "Well, because God said he's he's you know they're one that they're all one person going WM together," like the nyine Creed says. Well, that doesn't make any sense; think about it; look it up yourself. I mean, I I found so many when I was specifically looking for these things for this, even though I've read it all a lot uh you you miss things here and there, and that's why you can read the scriptures over and over and learn because your your level of understanding increases, so then your understanding of what you're reading increases. I knew that people had seen God before, but I didn't realize there was that many there. I mean, like I told you, I found 18, and I know there's more uh and so it was exciting to find all these things to see how much people had actually seen God, of course that was Jehovah. And so anyway, I saw them in three PE places; they're three people. I didn't get to talk to God the Father; I didn't get to hug him or do anything, but I did get to hug Christ; I did get to talk to him; I talked to the Holy Ghost; I didn't hug him, but I talked to him. And they're different people; they have a different personality. And when I watched God in the past because I got to see the history, I could see his personality was different than the than Christ, just like we have different personalities, but they still followed the same laws, and it was it was fun to watch. So when we you know when we get there, he says that we can be coars with Christ in Revelations; he says we we'll see him as he is because we will be like him. That means that we have lived righteous lives and become a Celestial body uh be even before we're resurrected, at least enough that we can be like him. You're not going to be all the same robots walking around; everybody's going to have their own personality, kind of like you do now. It's you talk to people, and they have a different way of speaking, and that is kind of fun. I had someone tell me years ago, "Well, if you're all going to go there and be the same, that's going to be boring because everybody's going to be exactly the same," you know, like a like robots. No, no, that's not how it works; we all have our own personality. And I told you that Christ has a great sense of humor; his sense of humor is different than God's uh his is a little more obvious uh the Holy Ghost has a terrific sense of humor uh and his personality has is so vibrant; he's so energetic; it's just a real joyous experience to be near him, and I never wanted him to leave. Uh this is so cool to be with you; you can't go anywhere; you you got to stay right here. Of course, he can't, but uh when you're given the Holy Ghost um after being baptized and have the priesthood give you the Holy Ghost so you have that gift as a constant companion, then you can have that with you as long as you are worthy of it and live so that you can feel it. It's it's always there; you know God's always always talking to us; he never stops um he's always communicating something to us; it's just if we're tuned in or not. And of course, when we're asking for specific things, we need something, then he'll give us specific information. But the the calmness and the peace and the joy that that Christ lives and feels that can come to you all the time, it's up to you cuz he sent it. You know, you can go to the radio and turn it on, and there it is, but you weren't listening to it before because you weren't turned down. Then you got to turn the channel to get the what you want, so you got to have your your TV your radio turned on, and then you have it tuned to the right channel, the celestial channel of the Holy Ghost, and then you can get it 24/7. That's up to you, and God's willing, waiting, wanting to give it to us uh can't wait to. But I know that there is a godhead; I got to see him, but that's not how I know. I know because the Holy Ghost bore witness to me that they are real and true; that's how I know Jesus is the Christ, not because I met him but because the Holy Ghost told me so. And I knew that before I died; I knew that years before I had this experience; I I've known it a lot longer than I was aware; I knew it; I didn't realize I knew it till I was 16, but I had known it before that and didn't realize it. And many of you might be that way; a lot of times people have a testimony of of these things but don't know they have it. I didn't know I had it. I when I prayed and asked him about it specifically about you know is the Joseph Smith the prophet is the Book of Mormon true is God Jesus the Christ is God the Father real, you know, are are you real dad? And and when I was asking these things, that's when the Holy Ghost said, "Don't waste your time in Mine by asking something you already know; ask me something you don't know." And I thought, "Oh, okay, I guess I already knew it," and I was embarrassed, very embarrassed that I had done that, but that's what I needed to do to get that through my my thick head. And now that I have it through my thick head, it's fun. And so and I don't believe I would have got to see everything I did if I didn't already know it. What he was doing was allowing me to see it so that I could be an eyewitness testimony and not just a testimony. Just a testimony is just not a good way to put it because any testimony given by the Holy Ghost is is really wonderful. So I know these things are true because the Holy Ghost told me so, and I have studied them; I prayed about him; I have worked with him; I've fasted; I've done a lot of things to increase my testimony, and and now I have one that these things are true, and I don't sit here and tell you fables. I can show you scriptural references to back up everything I say, so it's not my word I'm giving you; I'm giving you the words of Christ because as Holy Ghost speaks the words of Christ, and the words of Christ tell you all things that you should do. Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, so they speak the words of Christ, and so if you're speaking the words of Christ, you're also speaking the words of God the father because they're the same; they'll say tell you the same words, tell you the same truths. So I know through the authority and Power power of the Holy Ghost that what I'm telling you is true, that what I was witnessing is true; what I got to
See and experience is true; it's real. We do have a Father. We do have a Savior. We do have the Holy Ghost. We do have a place to go after this life. This matters; what you do while you're here. And Christ has—facilitated—the way for us to overcome our weaknesses, to get back to our Father in Heaven. And through His grace, we are saved, after all we can do.
And I'm glad that I know these things, and I pray that I will never lose it, because you can, if you don't feed it right. So I—I plan to feed my testimony throughout my life, so I won't lose it. Trials can try to take it away, but I don't want it to, and I hope you don't either. But these things are true, and I'm glad I can share them with you.
I am excited about being an eyewitness of Christ—what I never thought I would be—so that I could bear witness as an eyewitness to you that Jesus lived, saw His life, and I saw Him. And these are true, and I bear this witness to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [Music]