Why Your Prayers Aren't Working

I watched this video by Matt Walsh a few days ago (the title of this post is the title of the video). I found his advice on prayer to be quite enlightening. I have not prayed on my knees much lately, except for during sacrament (bread and wine) prayers. Listening to Matt's words, and following his advice did seem to bring me closer to God during my prayers.

Original Testimony of Ian McCormack - Jesus is Real, Heaven and Hell are Real

A friend brought Ian McCormack to my attention around 9 years ago. I looked him up again today, to rehear his experience.

It's one of those "I died" experiences, but not one of those "I saw awesome end-of-the-world things, and now I'm a great prophet because of it," things. I don't know if that has changed. I don't know what he's doing now, but up until about 6 years ago, he was still a humble man, as far as I could tell.

I'm sharing his first (1988) testimony, but before you scroll down to it, I think it's important to read what Ian McCormack said in regards to this first video (the same words are in the description on YouTube under the video). What he said is below, and the video is below that. Enjoy.

Notes on this 1988 video from Ian :

I have spoken my testimony thousands of times and sadly I make mistakes .... but that does not, I believe, take away from the story ... other than the fact that we all can do it ... either accidently or on purpose ... or if you don't want to share all the details you can cut some things out in an attempt to condense the story because of time restraints / energy levels ....

When I first publically shared my testimony in 1988 in New Zealand the people at the meeting wanted to record it ... but I didn't want any one to do it because I felt it was something you shared personally rather than through media { I have since changed my mind on that } ... But one of the people at the meeting had a family member who was dying in a hospital and so they wanted them to hear it as they couldn't come to the meeting in this farmers house.

I found it abit unnerving with a mike & video camera in front of me and because the experience took place in 1982 and so it was now 6 - 7 years later I was reliving it while I spoke. It was very emotional for me ... and realize later that I had made a couple of mistakes while sharing it .... and I knew that when I loaded it up on the web for free along with all the other videos I have put up over the years .

So on the 1988 video I did say that I woke up and they were about to wheel me off to the morgue ... I remember how nervous I was that day and was wondering if anyone would believe me, if I said I had been dead and woke up in the morgue ... so I do remember distinctly trying to tone it down ....

But in reality I had woken up & I was already in the morgue ... They had moved my dead body from the Accident & Emergency when I died to the mortuary section of the hospital ... and it was a completely different doctor that was working on me. He was pricking the base of my foot with a scalpel. And when the nurses saw me wake up & come back to life, they ran in fear .... not exactly something they would do if I had only been in a coma ....

Thoughts on King Benjamin's Sermon

I was studying Mosiah 3:25 - Mosiah 4:1 and received what seemed to me to be tremendous insights. (Remember, there's a disclaimer somewhere on this site that my posts are my own opinions.)

I'm going to put my notes below, then try to clean it up a little so that, hopefully, it will make sense.

If's one's works are evil, that person is consigned (not sure what that means) to an awful view of their own guilt and abominations. Their view, their guilt is the punishment. This view causes them to shrink from God's presence - And they shrink into a state of misery and endless woe - whence they can no more return!

The idea that people can or will somehow advance from a lower kindgom to a higher is shot out of the water here. If they feel guilt - shrinking from God's presence - it's a “no more return” (to God) thing.

And they have drunk damnation to their own souls.

In other words, it was their own doing. They cannot blame others or circumstances no matter how bad they were. Someone growing up in hell, if taught the truth by the Spirit, is just as accountable as someone growing up in righteousness who has been taught by the Spirit.

Thisis drinking out of the cup of the wrath of God, which justice cannot deny! Why can it not deny it? Because YOUknowyou are guilty! It has absolutely nothingto do with “little intelligences” that refuse to allow God to let us advance. There are no little intelligences telling God, “Uh, uh, You held usback.”

No, it is allwithin each soul. Wehave a sense of justice within us. When we are brought to ourselves again, and it is everlastingly too late, weare the ones who cannot deny that justice was done. We know, perfectly well, that we are not worthy, because we rejected mercy when it was extended to us.

We cannot deny God's justice because it is also our justice. We are part of God. We have forgotten that here. We think we can hide from God. We think we can hide our sins. But we cannot. The sins are written in our souls. If we have not repented and taken the Holy Spirit for our guide, wewill know it. And because weknow it, we will shrink from God, feeling excruciating pain at being in His presence - and forever carrying the guilt and torment. It may be allayed somewhat as we move far away from God, but being separated from God is hell. So, then, where are we?

Mercy NEVERhas claim again. Neverforever.You cannot get more plain than that.

Their torment is asa lake of fire and brimstone. There is no realfire, no realbrimstone. The comparison is a figure of speech from something long forgotten, though some scholars claim to know where it came from.

It is a figure of speech, originated by those who sawsuch a lake (or lakes). They sawhow terrible the fire, brimstone, and smoke was.

Now, I understand that the idea was supposed to have originated from a group of evil men who prepared the fires to torment and kill others, but I submit that this idea may be more ancient than that. I submit that this goes to the root of the myths about the violent and angry gods such as Venus, Mercury, Mars, and so forth, those planets that once terrorized the earth.

And what do we teach each other today? We teach about the three degrees of glory and how most people will go to a degree of glory. Any torment before reaching one of those is glossed over or ignored. Few of us will be consigned to actual hell, we say. And some few even teach that there is progression from kingdom to kingdom. Others teach that all those in outer darkness, whether with a body or without, will have a total dissolution into intelligences and have another go at becoming Gods.

Some teach that we keep coming back to this life over and over again until we either give up or get it right. They claim that this is notreincarnation. But this view is refuted in the Book of Mormon. Thislife(not some past or future lives) is the day in which to repent and produce fruit. Besides that, our tendency to act in a certain way will remain - whether we are totally dismantled and put together again or whether we come back to this life six hundred times. How we act will not change. One life is enough to show who and what we really are. And that is the purpose of this life after all: To show us what and who we really are when we are wearing blinders.

“There is no hell.” “There is no devil.” And thus he whispereth in their ears and draws them down to hell with his flaxen cords that have turned into chains of iron.

I don't think we take the opportunities offered is in this life seriously enough. We think we'll get another chance in the spirit world. We think we'll magically want what we either did not want or actively fought against here - so we blithely assume, suppose, and hope that unhearing or antagonistic loved ones (or even ourselves) will magically transform once they are dead. Some truths, apparently, are too hard for people to bear.

I had an experience that showed me this truth (that we do not change once we hit the spirit world).

I was working for a man who had - oh, I'm thinking it was Musser, but I'm not sure - anyway this person's journal (on small floppy disks), who was a leader in what eventually became the FLDS church. When I worked for the man, he was blind and could not do his own typing, so he hired me to help him. He wanted me to type the journals for him.

As I typed, I came across something I could not decipher. I didn't know what to do, so I asked the man who wrote the journals to tell me what the words said. I thought, living in the spirit world and having his eyes opened, he would have a different view of polygamy and all that. He did not. He was very eager to tell me what the words were that I could not read. In fact, he was very eager for me to understand where he was coming from. He was very enthusiastic as I typed the journal. He was pleased that it was being done, even though it would not further his purposes. He never tormented my dreams or anything. He was respectful of me, but I could sense the eagernesswith which he shared the missing words.

I promise you: We do not change simply because we have died.

Back to my notes: Benjamin has finished telling the people what the angel told him to say to them. He looks at the people and sees they have fallen to the earth. They have understood his words. They have understood that they don't get to come back over and over again (whether from scratch, as an intelligence, or as a spirit being). They have understood that theywill be the condemner of themselves. And so on.

They know full well what they are. They can and do clearlysee their own fallen state. They are carnal. They are sensual. They are devilish. They see the natural tendency to deny justice and concentrate on mercy - receiving mercy without following the laws that lead to mercy. They are less than the dust of the earth, because the dust of the earth obeys God willingly, never putting it off, never refusing, never complaining.

Dowe realize this stuff? Do I realize this? Am Iguilty of any of these things (being carnal, sensual, devilish, unwilling to always obey every single thing God tells me to do)?Of course I am. I admit it freely. But my desire is to change until I am not guilty. I amchanging. I can feel it, and I can see it.

This book (the Book of Mormon) was written for us, those who read it and those believe it. It was written for me. It is a warning to us so that we will not lift up our eyes in hell, being in torment. It is a handbook to teach us how to come to Christ, until we are redeemed from the fall and brought back into God's presence. That means wehad better scrupulously study this book. Ihad better do so.

It was written to help us escape from hell. How was that again? [This is referring to previous parts of Benjamin's sermon.]

Believe in Jesus Christ. Understand that He lived and what He did. Understand your need to repent. Understand that little children and the ignorant are covered by the atonement. Understand that it is youwho are the catalyst for the power of the atonement in your life. Understand that youare the marker and the judge and you cannotdeceive yourself at the last day, let alone deceive God.

Understand that the punishment and torment is real. Don't minimize it. Don't ignore it. Understand that God sends holy prophets (and they may not be who you expect them to be) to warn us and to teach us. But, ultimately, it is between us and God, not between us an anyman.

Understand that Jesus is the onlyway. It is in yoursoul that justice will be satisfied. Youwill judge yourself. What about all the other judges? 12 original apostles, 12 disciples, etc. I think there is more to that information than meets the casual eye. They will not condemn us. Neither will Christ. We will. We are less subservient than we think.

[Note: if you want scripture references for what I've written that is not in Benjamin's speech, search the Book of Mormon; it's in there.]

Things on Earth Mirror Things in Heaven

So, according the the Doctrine and Covenants, the telestial kingdom (the lowest one) is under the Holy Spirit:

And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is that of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon in the firmament. These are they who receive not of his fulness in the eternal world, but of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of the terrestrial (Doctrine and Covenants 76:81, 86)

The terrestrial kingdom (the middle one) is under Jesus Christ:

These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:77)

The telestial kingdom is under the Father (and the Son):

These shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:62)

This is not to say the Holy Spirit/Ghost or Jesus live in those lower kingdoms. That is not what the scriptures say, but the people in those kingdoms have proven faithful to experience either the Holy Spirit or both the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ.

I'm thinking that mortal life reflects eternity, bearing witness to us if we have eyes to see. In other words, these scriptures could be telling us something about our own states here, in this life.

If we hear and feel the Holy Ghost and are led by Him, we are a step up from outer darkness. We see much "outer darkness" in this world. We see it in murderers, child rapists, uncontrollable anger, and so forth. If we hear, feel, are led by the Holy Ghost in this life, we are in the telestial arena. I believe many good people are in this arena, including most honestly believing saints in Jesus' own church.

If we are in the darkness, many of us search for light. We are not comfortable being in the darkness of pain, anger, and evil. According to prophesies and history, there usually reaches a point in societies where the majority of the people feel comfortable in outer darkness and refuse the light, becoming violently angry with it. Unfortunately, this slide into darkness is all too visible in our society today.

But we are going to go up, not down, in this post.

If we listen to the Holy Spirit, He brings us to truth. He brings us to Jesus' own church. Imperfect as it is, it was authorized by Jesus himself. It holds the keys it needs to have to perform its functions. It has the authority to perform ordinances that are vital for exaltation, for returning to the Father. The leaders in the general leadership have the right to inspiration and revelation from God for the benefit of the church as a whole, as a body. None of us peons have that right. It was not given to us by God and it won't be, because God's house is a house of order. Even if Jesus raises up a prophet to warn us of impending destruction if we don't repent, he (the prophet) will never presume to take authority out of the hands of the authorized leaders (i.e. "The Prophet"); he (the prophet) will speak mildly, without coercion, and with no desire to gain a following; he (the prophet) will simply point us toward Christ, as a fellow human, no better than us.

So, we accept those ordinances with a humble heart, in meekness. We obey the voice of God wherever it may be found (personal revelation, which verifies all truth whether that truth comes through ecclesiastical leaders; scriptures; inspired men, women, and/or children; dreams, visions, prayer, and so forth). Eventually, if we remain faithful and hunger after all truth, thirsting after righteousness, we are brought to a point of seeing Jesus face to face, of having our faith turned into absolute knowledge. When we reach that point, we have literally advanced from the telestial kingdom to the terrestrial kingdom – in this life.

The next step, about which I know nothing because practically nothing has been written in scripture (other than that Christ brings us to the Father), is for Jesus to bring us face to face with the Father, completing the redemption from the fall and bringing us into the celestial arena, up to the celestial level – in this life.

It's incredible, really.

The Culture of Heaven

So, what is the culture of Heaven? I think if we were suddenly immersed in it, we would have a major culture shock.

Some of what we can be pretty sure of is that people don't go around hurting each other, stealing from each other, or cussing at each other. But we are so far removed from Heaven that we really haven't a clue about anything else.

If we were living exactly as God would have us live, borrowing His culture, what would our culture be like? Would we be coercing each other to wear a certain style of clothing? Would we be concerned with one's jewelry and how that person attached that jewelry to one's body?

If we were so close in culture to the culture of heaven, what sort of clothing would we wear? Would it be woven from animal hair or plants or would it be a substance of light?^[1]  What would we live in? How would we think? How would it be to live in a society with no need for a police force, an army, locksmiths, lawyers, hospitals, doctors? How would our babies be born? How would we raise our children? What would it be like to live where no one makes laws or creates rules and regulations, but trusts that we have the brains to make our own decisions?

If we had buildings, how would we build them? What would celebrations be like? Would we have them? What would we do all day?

You know, I don't really know enough about what I'm asking to ask the questions I want to ask. These questions I've written all fall short, but I don't know exactly how or why.

What is the culture of heaven? Are we not supposed to find out? Are we not supposed to be having angels of God appearing to us? Are we not supposed to be having dreams and visions? Are we not supposed to see healing of every kind, instead of limping to healers of the mortal persuasion (medical doctors, natural doctors, etc.)?

I want to know. I want to know how I should think if I'm to approach the culture of heaven without culture shock. I want to know how I'm supposed to act, how I'm supposed to think. I believe scriptures, especially a careful and prayerful and open study of the Book of Mormon will give answers to the behavior parts, and even to the thinking parts, to a degree, but I believe that the deepness I'm seeking can only come by direct communication with heaven.

Sometimes I have dreams from God. Sometimes I immediately know the meaning as I'm waking up. Other times I know it's from God but I have to study on what it is I'm supposed to get from it.

I want the culture of heaven. I want the understanding of heaven. I want all who are willing, to be part of this culture of heaven. I don't want one soul to walk in darkness or pain (causing it or being victimized by it). I want to become and once I have become, I want to shout to the skies to bring others that they may also become.

^[1] And it shall come to pass that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God, and to arrange by lot the inheritances of the saints whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children, enrolled in the book of the law of God

(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 85:7)