FOR THOSE WHO ARE BREAKING FREE OF BABYLON

Here’s a cool clip of captain america to help raise your spirits.

Watch the first 22 seconds before the theme song, then skip to 12:43 through 13:33…Captain America says a Rad little bit.

MORMON RECONCILIATION

On a side note, some amazing gathering of spirits has been occurring. They said the Jews didn’t expect Jesus to come as he did. They were way off and that’s part of why they got him wrong. Well, that’s spot on. After really getting to know that a while back, I recognized that we are most likely way off in what we think Zion is going to be like or how the gathering and establishing are going to occur. So I gave up my idea of how it would occur. Let God and the Spirit guide me. Well, a gathering of spirits has been occurring, it’s beautiful. The ONEness is incredible. All I can do is just happily laugh at how cool it is. I never saw it coming and only see it now as it is happening. There are things I’ve wanted to share in a forum other than the ones I had been using (online, friends, etc). So I will posting things there now.

THE TRUE ORDER OF PRAYER

Prayer, the true order of prayer. Revealers of secrets. They are known, but kept hidden. Who hides them? We hide them from ourselves. As something that is too much. Like someone leaving the cave for the first time and covering their eyes from seeing the fire or when outside, from the brightness of the sun.

Praying after the false order. Asking God to give manipulate reality, to a reality we’d prefer. A reflection of the issue of altering one’s environment…rather than their heart and mind, which would let one truly connect with all, the environment included and thereby changing things, more so changing how they see them. Jesus spoke many time of the first being the last and the last being the first.  It, like His way, was symbolic. So many things for me have been symbolic of this and fulfillment. I didn’t realize it till recently. I thought that the physical were just helpmeets to the spiritual, but then once the spiritual made sense and was understood, then i realized that the physical were more than manifestations of the spirit, they are light as well. We separate and compartmentalize the “spirit” and “body” or the “spiritual” and “physical.” It is all one…truly. I don’t know if that will make any sense until one experiences it. Perhaps it will kindle and interest, spark a flame, recall a truth once valued and lived.

Prayer, was something that I asked God to do for me. I even was taught and accepted that the more specific, the better. If one is specific in detail of what one wants, then the answer will be specific. The need for such a thing rose from the “problem” of God answering prayers in ways that weren’t exactly as I wanted. I remember thinking, “well if I’m not specific, then God will just generally answer my prayer and it won’t be as good.” You see what I did there.

Over the past few months I’ve really been trying a different approach to prayer. I thought I’d gotten it right years ago, because so many prayers were answered, “perfectly” as I thought. But that was off, it was missing, it was mis-understanding, which missing the point which is what sin is. When we get the point, great, you’re there, that’s it. I was telling God, how to run things. I was sitting on the throne, acting as God. I was the being, that I thought the scriptures were referring to the Pope. Of course it is all symbolic and I was symbolically just like the Pope. Most of us find ourselves in that spot…a lot.

So once I started giving up my ideas of prayer, my foundation and believe system on it, things changed. The light started brightening my mind, the windows of heaven, as they always do, were opened and blessings were poured out. The LDS temple endowment started making sense on a whole new level.

As we allow our senses, both spiritual and physical to work, we then lay those before the Spirit and are guided in the moment. Being open, being at peace, being ONE, without setting up any limitations, definitions, standards, God reveals the divine.

My wife and speak about this a lot. One question, was how do we teach that to our children? Right now, the answer came to me. It isn’t something like a parlor trick we can teach to get a special wish done. There isn’t some ritual that helps us divine truth. There is no angry volcano god to appease by throwing a virgin into the lava filled crater and thus have God please with us and what we are doing. Instead, we live it, connect and be ONE with our children and it will be a part of their lives. They will be in the state to know understand the beautiful art of the true order of prayer.

IN THE MOMENT

This flows well into another great revelation, which is living in the moment. I was at an LDS conference where David Bednar spoke about being in the moment. It was awesome. Later that week, I read a bit in a book by Michael Jordan about being in the moment, written years ago. It was the same principle. Yet I’m not sure either of them really understood the eternal nature of the moment. They speak of living today, enjoying right now, not worrying about the past or fretting over the future we cannot control. What about understanding that eternity is now. Going complete macro and bringing it to the smallest imeasurable feeling of the moment and living in it, giving it breath…HA…as the Hawai’ians call it. HA-Wai-i.

An example. When we decided to move to Kentucky, it wasn’t last minute. It was in the moment. We knew for some time that we were going to moving. I even put my two weeks notice in at work, about three weeks actually. Well, my last day at work and we didn’t know where we were going. We didn’t have a u-haul booked or flight tickets or any living accommodations. I wasn’t concerned, we had followed the Spirit in all our decisions that lead up to that point. My last day at work, I received an email response to some jobs I had applied to and sent follow-up emails to. It was the principle of an high school in Kentucky. He wanted to interview me asap. So we Skyped during my lunch on my last day at work, a Friday. I was offered the job right then. Then everything else worked out more marvelously then I could have ever dreamt of sending/asking God in a detailed prayer. My mind didn’t have the foresight nor planning to set this all up, well, at least not on it’s own, isolated like I had been in the past as I prayed. Of course the more I understand and experience, the more these words become symbols and messages for others and less about what I see in the now.

I spoke to my wife about not worrying. It will all work out. It always does. Relax. Breathe. Live. Don’t die, which is what results from the stress we feed on and digest like the sickness of cows raised in American cattle systems.

The housing situation is so incredible it’s ridiculous. I love it. It’s what happens as a result of being in the moment, breathing…I like that. I like the Hawai’ians language and understanding. That is powerful. In case you don’t know *sidenote* Ha-breath of life, wai-living waters, i-represents God.

This isn’t a story of how God blesses us or we are getting blessings for doing what is right, aka, we paid tithing and here is the “blessing.” Which sounds a lot like a reward or a dividend. This is about how we can all be ONE and what occurs as that relationship is accepted and enjoyed.

In fact, my life is basically a constant “prayer.” We hear the phrase pray always. The answer I always heard and gave, was to have a prayer in your heart. Which turned out to be quick, short shout outs to God for thanks and help all the time, like text messages or a twitter account between us. In reality, it can mean to be a way of living. Pray always, is the way we interpret the surroundings and experiences and how we connect with them and God.

KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS

Here there is grass…

Hugh B Nibley, in his story of the Grosellero or in English, the Currant Bush, is a great example of the differences in the way we view God and ourselves. He was in babylon and that is what happens. The bush is being cultivated according to babylon and that is how babylon works. He pruned the bush, thinking it was the best way. He even heard the bush respond to what he was doing. He said that he knew best. He thought it was how God treats us. He misunderstood. Rather than tending, they disfigure and try to better that which is perfect. The bush is perfect. We reveal our signs and tokens in our society. Look at agriculture. Make some symbolic revelations regarding our spiritual ways. Our physical and spiritual characters are one, whether we accept it or not.

I wanted to live in an Hispanic nation for the spirit, genuineness and heart. That’s what we have here in Kentucky. It’s really cool. It wasn’t my first choice. I had Costa Rica, Hawaii, then Kentucky on my list. I personally wanted to go somewhere else, but as I discussed, living the true order of prayer, led us down a different path.

THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST AND THE LAST SHALL BE THE FIRST

This has been made known to me in so many things. It really is about us, about so much. It’s really really cool. I guess it is a big part of the windows of heaven being opened and blessings that came from that path/medium. I won’t explain it here. When you seek for it, you will experience it and it will be soooo beautiful. True Art. Everything is so exciting. Truly becoming alive in Christ…I really had very little idea of what that meant before and that is saying a lot, because I was very knowledgeable with the scriptures and wikipedia. Throw me on jeopardy! and I can go toe-to-toe with the best of them on random facts. That’s not bragging, that is evidence of how menial that all is…what fruit that produces. Much like the artificial tomatoes bought in grocery stores and then compared to natural grown ones.

You are beautiful…everyone of you.

Barbossa: Aye… we’re good and lost now.
Elizabeth Swann: Lost?
Barbossa: For sure, you have to be lost to find a place that can’t be found, elseways everyone would know where it was.

I have become lost. It is a good thing. My ideas, my path, wereway off. I think Lehi was lost when he was going through the mists of darkness. His senses weren’t relaying to him in the way he hoped and he was surrounded by the mists. Yes, he held onto the iron rod, but that is figurative, because the rod isn’t something you hold in your hand…it is the word of God. Lehi had no idea what was going on until he got to the tree.

I thought I caught a great idea, a glimpse of some old legend that was fantastic (in every sense of the word). Where I’m at now, I would have never guessed, even though I was open to change.

Go get lost!

If you desire to find truth, you will. So go, seek it. Get lost and find a better dream. Instead of being lost in a dream (noun; a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.), seek a dream (ajective; most desirable; ideal).

So on my journey to a dream I realized I was lost in a dream. The journey wasn’t a dream, but I was dreaming while on the journey and would never have gotten where I hoped unless some miracles happened. They did.

This blog records pretty well some of the journey.

1. Zion, a great city and people. Early Saints worked for it. We covenant for it. I’ll go there and help build.
2. Okay, so Zion was very specific while super open and non-specific. Law of consecration.
3. Tribes? The church as defined by Christ and the scriptures. The non sectarian version of religion as re-introduced through Joseph Smith.
4. Native Americans…aka…The Lamanites…aka…The North American Natives of the Great Lakes. Orson Pratt, Redemption of Zion. 
5. I’m not really an Ephraimite, I’m a Gentile, I have Eprhaim instincts and can accept that.
6. The calling to go the Native Americans, not build the city of Zion, the Lamanites redeem it, I just gather them and head over there to serve them like Ammon.
7. Got to get out of Babylon.
8. Okay, so I got to change who I am, Zion is in the Be-ing. This be-ing is nothing like the act-ing and response-ability.
9. Crap, leaving Babylon isn’t the whole answer. I need to completely change inside. I’ve been re-acting instead of be-ing, dang? No place can do that to me, God can, I have to recognize it.

Just now, on my lunch break I was standing, staring out the window thinking.  Leaving is key, but not for the reasons I ultimately understood. Moses did. He left Egypt. Ended up with Jethro and co. then left them to go and see God face to face. From the movie the Ten Commandments, Moses wants to go up to Sinai, and his future wife, tells him no man can step up on that mountain. He asks if any man has seen God face to face and she tells him no. He asks why and why He won’t free His people. She tells him it is not up to us to question God. He says he won’t stop till he hears the word of God from God himself. Sees God, the commune, he learns.

Jesus even set himself apart from the world for forty days in the desert.

John the Baptist was apart in the wilderness. He wasn’t raised like most. He was a Nazirite. So was Samson. Here’s a cool link that has to do with a tenet of the Nazirite life that is pretty cool.

Getting lost, I lost the illusion, found truth, being, who we are. What we are and the now.

Ha, another example, not scripture, still cool though, even Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, he leaves, he get’s lost according to Ra’s Al Ghul. He then finds himself.

The prodigal son, had a journey where he learned, eventually, “And when he came to himself,” he returned to his father.

There is a key in the setting apart. A change that happens or can happen. Does it happen only when physically set apart? Does that location make a difference? I’m not sure. But I’ve seen that journey for others and it can result in the same as the prodigal son. When we learn who we are. Cause trust me, most have no idea. No, wait, find out for yourself. We created an idea of who God is, but this image/mask is created in the image of man. And we have man figured all wrong.

The world we live in…we are messed up. Our senses are overwhelmed and we use them erroneously. I never understood the initiatory in the LDS temple. I always was very, very intrigued. It felt and seemed very important. Unfortunately the truth was veiled. I have knowledge now of what it is about. The blessing of our senses, for their true purposes. Sin is missing the point in its most ultimate way. You either get the point or you don’t, there in lies the sin. It’s not some nasty, dirty thing. We all do sin. We need to know the point.

From Max Skousen, “there really are NO LITERAL SECRETS in the present endowments. However, the real lesson might be that there are many, many important secrets–great, marvelous truths concealed under the outer meaning of the symbols and allegories. So we might really say that the endowment is truly secret because most members have never discovered what it means. As one church authority stated, “the real meaning is the best kept secret in the Church.”"

Now that I know the point, at least beginning to, this really makes sense.

Much of my life, there have been major influential decisions and there consequences weren’t made known to me until later.

The way is tribal

In tribes, we can care for each other and work together. Like buyes enyuntados. Together the work is magnified and amplified. Some people see a group living a Christ like life as a refining process and sacrifice. Ya, it can be if you are guilted into it, forced or coerced. But if it is a natural result of your desires to follow Christ, then it is a not a negative thing. A big question for me, is how am I to leave my family and go unto the Native Americans? I have started my own family/tribe. I cannot abandon them. But in a larger tribe, we can care for each other and  serving others can be done better and with greater effectiveness. Let’s say I get a stable job where I get two paid weeks leave each year. Okay Spirit, guide me, but I only have two weeks, so make it count. Ya…that will never work. It’s a start, but it has to be all in. I am so excited, I hope it works out. I have been called to serve the Native Americans. Hopefully, by this small means, added with the few others and with the Almighty, once again, the cycle can repeat, miracles can happen, process of Zion will begin. That is not the end all, I hope it happens, but in the meantime, will do all I can to unite with my brothers and sisters of the Great Lakes.

Me just fantasizing, a 20+ acre lot in a tropical climate, where we can grow all our own food, on a lush side where the vegetation grows by the natural rain and our homes are powered by the water and wind. Then our costs and servitude to Babylon will be minimal ~$150 property taxes/year. A place that has a good heart and where we can help those around us and raise our children learning to be one with the others of community where we try to form a comune-ity. I’ve been hangin around Elder Chantdown too much

I’m not advocating some weird group or anything like that. This is just me sharing what my journey is. For many others it will be different and others something similar.

The laws of attraction and Providence will set it up.

If you read this and have some other ideas, even if you don’t think they are better, please share them.

Jason Scott Lee in a documentary about his life, speaks about living the Hollywood life, nice hotels, money, jets, the whole thing, but when he wanted to leave, people questioned it and he responded, “What is the point if I’m not happy?” In the short video, he explains going Pono.

The more I think about it, it’s key to go back to the basics and the most basic is our relationship with everything. Let’s make it simple. Be one with the Earth, like God says, from the dust we came and to the dust we’ll return. Live in harmony with the Earth. Live in harmony with God and with others. Doing those three things and we’ll be good. think about it…if you succeed in those three things, what more could you ask for or want? Jesus thought so when he taught that all other things were natural results of Loving God and our brothers/sisters. Living in harmony with the Earth will allow us to accept the stage in which we can go out there and live like the Savior. This is really important, especially for those with tribes already started.

He says some good stuff, even more in the full documentary and some things I don’t agree with, like we are servants of the earth. For me, Mormonism is about seeking all truth. Jason is speaking of some truth that most don’t seek and it is important to be complete, to have the whole truth and understanding.

I guess I’m looking for purists.

I’ve come to realize, I’m actually searching for other people who are looking for purists. Those are the right mix with a little go-getter in them

Compare our society to Zion. Noah said it well, ”Your insurance policy isn’t your investment account, but your community.” At least here in the states, we have little to none of that. Even within families, there is virtually none. Our children are put into daycare, raised by others, spend the majority of their hours awake at school, raised by others. Those same children turn into adults who spend most of their daytime away from the family at work. Then the elderly are put into senior homes. Think about it. If we truly invested in our community, in our families, all these other insurances for our well being and safety would be non-existent.

These are part of the reason why we don’t have the freedom to serve missions as the Spirit dictates, why Lucifer is laughing with us chained to him, and instead are guided by the constraints or style of Babylon. The major problem and game plan is to tie us to Babylon, make it so that we are obligated to stay and become part of the system. Some even try to become a successful product in the system. For most they are just prisoners of the system, albeit voluntary prisoners even though they don’t realize they are prisoners nor do they accept that they can break free.

The ideal family in American to many, is one with a nice home, car, clothes, deliciously prepared meals, many times from restaurants, who can spend quality time together during their one week vacation each year as well as a Saturday morning most weeks. That’s the gospel that many follow, but it is not the Gospel of the Carpenter’s Son. Look at the results, when dying people were interviewed, here are their top 5 most common regrets:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard (They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship)

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier

This is the American perspective, imagine third world nations. I’m not even mentioning those with children dying of starvation or the slave trade (sex and labor).

Above is in Somalia where they don’t even have resources for the mental ill, so they chain them to rocks together. The others are from my trip to Honduras. The middle images is from an orphanage. It broke my heart. The kids have some workers who don’t do much…just make sure they survive. The boys around 7 years old would run up to me and hold my hands and call me tio (uncle) and that would make their days. They only want some love and affection. What do we want? What do we desire. It isn’t right what is going on. I want to get a place where I can take all these kids and love them and raise them. Someday, it will happen. There are some other things I’m working on for them, but in the moment, I bought them all ice cream with whip cream and caramel and chocolate syrup. Ice cream is my favorite treat. I doubt most of them had ever tasted it. The best was when I’d ask which syrup they wanted, no one had seen caramel before, so they never wanted it. I begged some kid to try it and she loved it. Then they’d each try it. Then their answers changed from chocolate to both! Sooo precious. Maybe the highlight of my life, no exaggeration. I have my three own boys and I love them so much, but there was a whole orphanage of children that had one good afternoon of delight. The boy on the right, would run out on the highway by his house and beg for money from cars. In hindsight maybe it wasn’t the best to give him money for running in the highway because it will encourage his parents to put him in danger, at the same time, maybe that is their only option as they live in the mountains. Either way, we need to help these people. Could you imagine if your child ended up in one of these circumstances. No way in hell you’d let them stay there. These are all God’s children, our brothers and sisters. Imagine how he feels about them. Not to guilt you into it or compel you, but just to sympathize and hopefully get you to relate and connect with God and his Spirit. Imagine at the judgement day, when God weeps over these children and asks you about them. So now, open your heart, let God connect with you. Don’t wait till later. It will be incredible.

So where are we at?

In our society we cant wait for the weekend. Every day, we can’t wait to get home, then the we check out the calendar for a holiday. We wait all week for the weekend, yet when we get there, we go all out on Saturday or we chill. Then Sunday comes and we drag ourselves to church, how often does anyone go, I’m so excited to go to church! This is who we live our lives? We don’t live in the moment. Yet when we do, how can anyone be satisfied with our lives? What’s the point?

“I also came to realize that it’s very easy to live like you’re in prison. For example, I live in a small apartment. I watch television and movies, I read regularly, I write, I go to the gym…For many people I know, that is about 90% of their lives. Maybe more. I should be careful about living a life that so closely resembles prison. I should hop a flight to Belize. We all should.”

Recognize the illusion and accept that eternity is now.

We all fail. We all live in the illusion so perfectly illustrated in the endowment.

Belief in illusion can never change reality, notwithstanding it can change the appearance of it.  This may be a difficult concept to fully grasp because one needs to get out of the illusion in order to see (perceive) it (the truth) clearly.  That is, the idea of how illusion fills its purpose will be fully grasped only after one fully emerges from it. The illusion is not destroyed.  Nor need it be, since it is unreal (illusion) in the first place.  The illusion will continue to fill a purpose after Adam has emerged from it, but it will be a different one because opposition is not what it is really about.  Moreover, what Adam has been doing after becoming lost in the illusion is the same thing that he will do after he emerges from the Fall: Re-creating himself.  The illusion will not change, but Adam’s knowledge of himself will.

But the gathering Spirit has stirred, the veil of indifference that has chained us, doesn’t really exist. It’s like in The Matrix (yes, I’m using a Matrix clip, I know…I know,  but this is pertinent)

“Do not try and bend the spoon — that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you will see it is not the spoon that bends, only yourself.”

There is no chain, there is just an illusion. The illusion doesn’t need to change, it is a lie, we need to realize who we are.
Once individuals accept the truth and recognize the illusion, they will want to move forward, Zion is the desire, even though it may come in different names.

There is an ancient Jain adage, “First you give, then you receive.” If we want to receive and experience the divine aspect of our existence it is first required that we give up (become less attached) to those things that detract our attention from our divine, Pure Soul nature. Much of the time we are convinced that we need all these things to work out or have more things in our life to be fulfilled. Maybe we are trying to fill voids in our life with other things? Like they are saying, letting go and letting things happen without us controlling everything is a good thing too.

Noah, aka the Arkwelder, said it great (in fact I use a lot of good things he has said) when he said that Christ didn’t want us to just help the poor, He wanted us to become One with the poor (I’d redefine it as the rejected of society).

Don’t do it because you feel obligated or guilty. I’ve done that enough in my life. They turned out to be good experiences, but I still say no. Religions teach obedience, while Christ taught that love was the great commandment. Pray for God to change your heart, to change your desires. He will! I promise you that if you ask Him consistently it will happen. It took me about 3 or 4 months to have a major effect. But why not do it out of obligation or because you want to feel good? Because you probably won’t break free of it and you’ll stay there your whole life. It is a comfortable spot that Satan has set up for us. Just like those comfy cheap ass recliner chairs at Fred Meyer. You’ll rationalize that you are doing good but it won’t be what Jesus wanted for us. Obedience in the form of saying, “Well, my bishop told me and I’m going to be humble and follow his counsel,” is actually a cop-out. It takes away our responsibility to make the harder decisions or convince ourselves that we aren’t responsible for anything other than doing what we are told. That’s not how you become a god. We have to follow the Godhead, our own intelligence and connection as part of the universe. For example, I always enjoyed window shopping and going into stores or online for sales to buy stuff, clothes, electronics, dvds, outdoor gear, etc. But then within a short short period, I didn’t even realize it was happening, until one day I examined myself and that past week. I no longer had any desire whatsoever for the goods of Babylon. The absence of old desires is just a complete lack of having those feelings. It’s as if I never had them. The new desires are like when you are hungry or tired and it consumes your whole being, your whole being is affected by those desires.

Making changes and acting on those decisions will definitely be questioned and doubted by others. I was speaking with a friend last night and she brought up the question about being blessed for my decisions and changes I’ve made. I didn’t really compare my old decisions blessings to my new ones. Every law has a blessing attached when lived. So that is a way to figure out if you are on the right path. I have read on some blogs, people saying things like, “are you sure it is the Holy Ghost guiding you and not Satan?” It’s kinda of a quick reaction by people when they hear someone reject their lifestyle and do things differently.

Pray for your desires to change, then you’ll do what’s right because you’ll be moved to do it. That is the only way Zion will be established. That is the way to the Celestial Kingdom. No one is going to be there because they “did what they were supposed to do.” They will be there because they lived a Celestial life in both their actions and desires that mirrored those of the Carpenter’s Son. That is why the New Jerusalem will be different. People get hanged up on how it will work, what the system will be like. Comprised of individuals with changed hearts, everyone will care for everyone. We will treat others as our own spouses and children. We will be one. That is why God will accept it, it will be His people walking in His ways because they will become like Him by following the Spirit, their own minds and hearts with many because they spoke and heard His voice.

Babylon or Zion?

Many of you I’m sure, will give your coat to your wife when she is cold. The same for your kids or your aged parents. Unless of course they refuse to take coats then you bring their coat for them anyways (my solution and it works, hehe). Great, you are ready for Zion. You just have to rewrite what is written on your belief window. You must see everyone as your child, as your parents, as your brother and sisters. My mission president told us that, “Until you realize that God cares as much about that homeless man as he does about any one else, you won’t understand anything.” Or something similar to that. You already have it in your heart. You just need to have a paradigm shift in regards to how you view everyone else.

“You look at your brother man, you gotta see yourself”

“Gotta see the God within him”

Retrospect for Life by Common

This is the beginning of the establishment of Zion.

Can you tell which group you want to be a part of?

It is the fashion in the world to embrace men in their faith, or a fine meeting house, or a genteel congregation, thinking, “O, what perfect order, and how pretty they look; how straight they walk to meeting, and how long their faces are during the services; how pretty that deacon looks under the pulpit; the people are so pretty, the meeting house is so nice, that we want to join such pretty people.” Such feelings will take a people to hell. Embrace a doctrine that will purge sin and iniquity from your hearts, and sanctify you before God, and you are right, no matter how others act. (Brigham Young; JD 4:78)

Do we really want to be a part of Zion or Babylon. I’d say Babylon. That’s what I choose on a daily basis. I have been a very selfish and horrible person. I have been greedy and ungrateful. I have turned my back on my friends. I have had the attitude that Saturdays are MY day off. I take advantage and pretty consistently take my boys outdoors, hiking, the beach, snowboarding, swimming, climbing trees, whatever. There is nothing wrong with those things. They are great things. But I have been complaining about how no one is living a Christ like life and how Sundays suck and are so boring at Church and how I’d rather be helping the homeless, visiting the old folks homes and the orphans, widows and sick. Why the heck haven’t I been doing that on Saturdays? I want to raise my boys in Zion, yet I don’t raise them in a Zionistic way now? Wow. I have been very hypocritical. But no one else is getting off the hook either, we’ve all been pathetic and denied our own heritage as Gods in progress.

So Thursday last week, my wife and I didn’t turn the TV on or watch something on Hulu, we talked with each other. I bugged her and got her to let me read her the recent post on Finding Mormonism. Then we spoke about how we’ve treated the poor and needy. We made plans to go and be with the homeless of Seattle on Saturday. We planned on making some sandwiches, bringing fruit and water bottles, buying some blankets or rain gear. Then we tried to work out the logistics of what we’ll do after hanging out with them and how to go forward if they want to get a job and a place to live. We thought about where to cleaned up and get a shave/haircut and shower and some new clothes, how to get a phone to contact them about jobs. What jobs they can or want to do. We didn’t talk about it, but I thought about living conditions. Until they can afford it, why should I spend my money on things, when it could be used to help shelter my friends? Except I couldn’t even afford to live in the downtown myself. Hmm? Move to the suburbs? Well, it got to the point of we can’t figure all of it out, we’ll just have to follow the Spirit and figure out as we go along.

We were gonna head to downtown Seattle last Saturday but we didn’t make it, and this whole week my boys have been begging to go and give manzanas and sandwiches to the callejeros. I was never raised like that, my family would scold my grandma for giving money to homeless people who would ask us for it. So yesterday we headed downtown with a couple backpacks full of sandwiches my boys and I made, some fruit and H2O. It was great. It wasn’t even hard to do. Like most new things, I got a little tingle in my stomach of nervousness. But it was great and the most fulfilling and productive Saturday morning for our tribe in a long time.

I love Jack Johnson. Look into him. He donates al the money from his concerts to local sustainable businesses. He enjoys his life with his family and the incredible nature of Hawaii. Ya he’s successful in music and surfing but I still feel that he would have been completely happy living the same life he lives now without the public success.  His music is full of scripture as given to us through him.

“GONE”

Curses are meant to be broken. Schisms are meant to be sealed. Reconciliation.

I created this blog to record my journey to the land of Zion. I had desires to live a Christ like life, serving the oppressed as Christ did. Then it connected so well with Zion and after looking very briefly into Zion, it was amazing how important it is. To me, of all the important process and focus of the restoration, Zion is the vehicle to achieve so much of that which we only talk about. The pure in heart, those who repent and come unto Christ to live His teachings seek it. The teachings that are now buried away are so beautiful. So I went into studying and searching it out. I did a lot of thinking and listening to figure it out. It has consumed me and I have been so excited…the gospel has become alive again for me. I no longer feel like the author of Above the Vomit describes. This blog was a record, I hoped that it might be of use to others and also that others might help me figure it out as well. It is easier for God to enlighten us when we have our walls broken down and new lenses put on.

In the past few months, some great things have been happening. I have been shown what my role is in going to Zion. I am a Gentile adopted in Ephraim. As such, I am a gatherer, a missionary. I am to serve and do my part unto Manasseh.

I’ve arrived at a new switchpoint. This new track leads and is with the Native Americans, the true descendants of the Lamanites. I’ll keep this blog going forward with what happens there.

I am going to serve them and do whatever I can to help them. Not my way, but the Lord’s way. By shedding my Babylonian system and mentality, I can reconcile with God and accept my place as an Ephraimite. I think this can be applied to our actions. This might be the key to us shedding the Gentile/Babylon beings that we are and letting God reclaim us and reconcile with Him as Ephraimites. I love this flag of the Haida, it’s of an eagle and a raven united. I think it is an appropriate symbol of what I want to do with my brothers of the First Nations.

There are three major missions of the restoration in the last days and I am going to start with the first of those three…

1)Reconciliation with the descendants of Lehi, the Native Americans.

2)Zion redeemed by the Native Americans and assisted by the Gentiles.

3)Missionaries sent out to gather the other tribes.

Our Gentile way has failed. But I believe we can do it by following the example of Ammon and King Lamoni. All are welcome to do as the Spirit indicates and I encourage you to do so and find your path with God. As for me, I am going to an Indian Reservation this summer. I’m not sure where yet. Right now I feel it will be around the Great Lakes area. I need to follow the Carpenter’s Son, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” It isn’t necessarily just the cost, so I have started looking at issues on the Reservations and amongst Native Americans. I figure the more I know, the easier it will be for the Spirit to direct me as to where to go, who to help and what I can do when I’m there. I plan on doing it according to the word’s of Christ in D&C (ex. 84:78-the end) about no purse nor script nor two coats. On my mission for the LDS church, I had an amazing experience, but this time I am not going to do it according to some correlated structure that restricts my openness to the Spirit. If anyone else wants to go, let me know.

2002

After I finished my two year mission in Chile, I was in Vancouver, BC shopping for clothes before I headed down to college. While driving in the downtown, I was stopped in the right lane waiting for the light to change so I could take a right. On the sidewalk was a very tattered, grubby, homeless and kinda crazy looking man. I don’t remember what I or anyone else said, but we did comment on his appearance and what we thought of him. As I turned into the other lane the homeless guy jumped in front of my car and slammed his palms onto my hood. Then threw one hand backwards to point at the oncoming cars and yelled, “you’re going the wrong way!” I had turned down a one way with cars in all lanes coming very fast and closing in.

I’m not sure what would have happened. Probably wouldn’t have had a head on collision because despite my bumbling I am a good driver. But many other people might have stumbled on and had a serious accident…especially an older person or someone with poor eye sight. But he could not have known that.

I don’t know what went through his head, but he threw himself in front of my car. I slammed the brakes to not run him over. He could have easily been seriously injured or killed. Whether it was a natural reaction or a choice, it was a miracle. He changed my life.  He saved me life.

2006

I was working for an electrical company in Seattle one summer. I was on a job for a few months building a condo. I was a stockman and was in charge of all the supplies for our whole crew. I loved working there. It was a lot of fun working with the electricians and the others on site. I used the elevators a ton every day.

One day, a pair of homeless guys were hired by the outfit running the whole construction project. One of them was in charge of loading supplies and taking garbage on each floor all day. So we ended up in the elevator together many times throughout the day. He was in his mid-twenties. He was getting paid as much and probably more than I was. And he smelled horrendously bad.

I was married with a newborn making ~$13.50/hour. From what I understood he was making ~$15/hour. I had been considering switching over because their trade paid the grunts like he and I better. So in my mind, I would just get frustrated every time he was in the elevator with me. It was a hot summer, all of us sweating and he would stink up the area like pigpen.
 I kept getting fired up because I knew that he could afford to find an apartment or a gym and take a shower. He was making more than me and he was pissing me and everyone else off. He didn’t have any excuse and it would get me all mad every time I was stuck in the elevator with him.

Then one time I was in the elevator with him and God opened my understanding and changed my heart. When I saw that guy, I had a vision that it was 20 years in the future and that he was my son Asher. It was a scenario where I hadn’t seen him in years. My heart was opened fully to him. I went to him and hugged him and kissed and told him how much I loved him and missed him. When I snapped out of that, I loved that man as much as my own son. Yes, as much as my own son. It has been that way ever since. I felt as Moroni,

And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love; wherefore, all children are alike unto me; wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike and partakers of salvation. Moroni 8:17

Unfortunately my values and beliefs aren’t fully the same yet.

Those were the two moments that probably effected my life the most. Of course they were the results of other experiences and all things are connected. Yet those two paradigm shifts changed me and put me on the path that I am on. I’ve learned so much from them, but the biggest points were first, that judging others was wrong and that first man was a better person than I was, which turned my world around, not that I thought I was that special, but ya’ know. The second guy changed my whole belief window about every single person on earth and my feelings and desires towards them.

My Mission 

A few weeks before my years in Chile ended, my mission president had his final week.  He had a one-on-one meeting with every missionary in the mission. When we got into his office he had a chair set up where he would shine our shoes. I got into the chair and placed my feet on the rests. As he shined my shoes we talked about life, the mission and everything that we felt like. It was amazing. He was a very open man and loved and exemplified liberty and growth. He thought differently than anyone else I had known. I asked him what was the most important thing he had learned on his mission. He told me, that he knew before that God loved His children, but he never knew truly how much  He loved and cared for us. He knew it because he felt it vicariously as a medium for God to the missionaries. That is the same lesson that I hold most sacred and special from my experiences. I knew in a small measure how much God’s heart was broken when we make bad decisions and when we hurt and hurt others. He literally cries with and for us. I also felt going through me God’s love and happiness when we are doing the right things and making good decisions. One time God let me feel very powerfully His emotion. There was a girl that was so special. We had been teaching her and her family. They lived in El Pueblo Sin Ley, the City without Law. It was on the outskirts of town and was very dangerous, poor and sad. At one point we had several other families that were amazing and were super strong but needed our help to move forward towards making covenants. The special girl’s family would no longer give us the time of day and it wasn’t going to be very realistic for her to make it to church through the dangerous area and others weren’t strong enough to go and carry her burdern with her. It wasn’t possible to help everyone. I look back now, and with my knowledge and understanding gained since then, I think I might have been able to make things work, but back then I wasn’t prepared to do so. It wasn’t for lack of desire or work. This is not to make excuses, but to help reveal my desperation. We went one day to tell her we couldn’t make it anymore. When we told her we couldn’t make it anymore, my soul was broken. The sadness and heartbreak I felt from God was different. It was more raw and real than ever before and was a special connection to the Almighty. He let me share this one experience that was so powerful, I don’t believe here on earth, we could handle it for very long and not for much more than a moment.

Ghandi and Mormon Funerals

When I’ve had the opportunity to go to funerals or see the span or end result of people’s lives, I’ve seen a spectrum of lifestyles and results. I was never satisfied with what their lives were. There were many good people who had been very nice, responsible citizens, decent parents and nice members of the community. But they never felt or seemed to have lived a Christ like life. Many had people trying to convince others at the funeral that they were in heaven or there with us visiting from “paradise” on the other side.

A few years ago, I had an understanding and feeling that wouldn’t go away. None of these Christians or Mormons had lived anything as close to what The Carpenter’s Son taught and lived or even asked of us. Yet Ghandi was the best example I could and can think of for a Christian. Now Ghandi achieved great things and I don’t expect everyone or even many to do such. But no one I have known personally has lived a Christ like life. Now that I think about it, no one I have known has lived a celestial level life for any extended (many years) period of time. I have not been satisfied with living what we consider a “Good Christian” or “Good Mormon” or “Good Person” life. I want more…the desires within me won’t relent and I have a hollow part within me that won’t be filled unto I do so.

A Christ Like Life

About two or three years ago, I decided I wanted to live the rest of my life as a humanitarian. It was what my desires had needed and still lead me to. Completely devoted to rescuing and saving the most deprived and rejected of peoples. I wanted it for myself and equally if not greater, I wanted to raise my sons to know of a life of serving others. No one I know personally has been raised that way. Yet that is the Savior’s call and that is the way this life is supposed to be. It has also become my greatest desire. I want my sons to know who they are, who our brothers and sisters are and their needs and desperations and what brings them joy and happiness. I want my sons to be truly happy and I want to do as I know Heavenly Father and Mother would do if they were raising our boys.

Zion

When I started thinking seriously about the temple and how to improve myself, I looked at my 5 temple covenants. The laws of Obedience, The Gospel, Sacrifice, Chastity and Consecration. But the thing I realized was that I had totally ignored the law of consecration. In my head I thought that someone would never be okay with sleeping around and violating the law of chastity. But everyone seems to be okay or at least accept that we are all breaking the law of consecration. How does that work? I asked my friends and everyone’s responses were along the lines of “it’s no longer required, but someday it will be.” Some people would throw in, “they didn’t live the higher law and were given tithing as a lower law.” I even asked that same question to the 2nd councilor in the SLC temple presidency. He said that the law was done away or taken away. I asked him where and he said he, “I don’t know…I’m not a historian.” Huh? This didn’t fly with me at all. In D&C I found my answers. I put a lot of it into my third post.

Through providence, I have been lead to learning about Zion. It’s ironic, because Zion is everywhere and the focus of so much in early Mormonism for nearly a century. The scriptures are full of it, especially D&C. But like nearly everyone else, I didn’t think or study or search for Zion. Zion was the missing piece that connected everything and I understood. This is what Zion is all about. We want to raise our boys in Zion. I know that there, united, there will be a force unequaled in the world that will be able to bring about so much good. That is what got me thinking about Zion. Since then I have found out so much about it and more. That was the whole ideal of Mormonism. Mormonism without Zion is like an apple tree without apples…it’s just another leafy tree. What does that mean? If I cannot be around for the building, but can still raise my boys in gathering and preparing the way for Zion, then I will do that. But I believe that Zion’s time is soon. If we do what we can, Zion can be established again and within a short time. Within our lives and perhaps within the adolescence of our children.

I have been led to the next step, which is reconciliation with the Native Americans, those that are from Lehi. I will go and serve them. My wife and boys and I will do what we can to serve the tribe of Manasseh and help unite us and make Joseph whole.

First one I did was “Zion.”

My last post should have been titled something along the lines of The Society of Zion. It is not my place or people that will be the leaders and designers of the City of Zion. It is the Lamanites, the Native Americans that will build it. I can only assist in the building of Zion.The remnant of Lehi will have the knowledge and receive revelations to accomplish it. This was taught and shared by the early members of the church, but has been virtually forgotten.

Now, a great many, without reading these things, have flattered themselves that we are the ones who are going to do all this work. It is not so; we have got to be helpers, we have got to be those who cooperate with the remnants of Joseph in accomplishing this great work; for the Lord will have respect unto them, because they are of the blood of Israel, and the promises of their fathers extend to them, and they will have the privilege of building that city, according to the pattern that the Lord shall give. -Orson Pratt

Whoa, whoa, whoa! How come I never heard about this before Arkwelder posted it on puremormonism? Ya, it’s in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Orson Pratt spoke about it a lot…but how come this was a big surprise to me and to anyone else I’ve spoken with about it? Like I keep saying, my ignorance is my fault. But this is should be something that every Mormon should know about. We hear about Zion but hardly talk about building the physical city other than in the back of our minds or the occasional side reference. We know it has to be done before the Savior’s 2^nd coming or we are screwed.

This makes sense to me. Perhaps it is just my upbringing. My mom was way into Native American folklore, art, culture and people. Being from Seattle also had a big effect as people are really into the First Nations culture. One of my best friends from high school is from some Tribe in Northern California. There are lots of reservations around Seattle and Washington state. To me, this makes sense. For all that I tried to understand and know what the structure of Zion is going to be like, I just couldn’t find anything on it or know it.

I don’t mention it in this post but the Lamanites are not what most believe to be including all the people of Central and South America. Here’s a post at puremormonism about it. The Lamanites as taught by Joseph Smith were those in the borders of the 19^th Century USA. In the old Northwest, the great lakes region.

It’s funny because as I was reading the Book of Mormon yesterday before work, in Helaman it talks about geography and with my new perspective as I read it, it made perfect sense and I could visualize pretty accurately what it was talking about. This makes sense when you study about the promises and role the Lamanites are to play. It then makes sense why Zion has not yet been built. That will have to be for another post.

Orson Pratt shared what he knew about Zion at a meeting back in 1875. It’s long but if you want to read the whole thing, follow this link. Orson shared some great information about Zion. He also shared a lot of his own views. I can’t blame him for it. It’s hard not to try and figure it out and hope the Lord reveals something as we search. Especially something as necessary as Zion. There are many issues that we can look back and say, ya that was definitely a product of his culture and society that formed that view.

I’m going to share paragraphs from it and put my comments in italics. The biggest surprise and essential piece is the role the Native Americans will play. Actually, it’s the role we, for the most part the current members of the church will play…assisting. Go ahead and read. It’s awesome.

Here we go…

This is what we must look for—these are the things that must be fulfilled, and for which we must seek and pray in an understanding manner. Not asking God to redeem Zion before he has redeemed a portion of the remnants of Joseph; not asking God to establish this people upon their inheritances in Jackson County, until the other things are fulfilled in their order, and in their times and seasons. First, a remnant will be converted; second, Zion will be redeemed, and all among the Gentiles who believe will assist this remnant of Jacob in building the New Jerusalem; third, a vast number of missionaries will be sent throughout the length and breadth of this great continent, to gather all the dispersed of his people in unto the New Jerusalem; fourth, the power of heaven will be made manifest in the midst of this people, and the Lord also will be in their midst, in the character of a shepherd, and he will lead Joseph as a flock, and he will instruct and counsel them personally as he did their ancient fathers in the days of their righteousness.

1)Lamanites converted: The Native Americans

2)Zion redeemed by Lamanites (Native Americans) and assisted by the Gentiles (us).

3)Missionaries sent out to gather, gather, aka gather. 

Perhaps some may inquire—“Have you any idea, brother Pratt, how we will be redeemed when we have accomplished this work you have spoken of?” Not much, I do not pretend to have a great deal of understanding upon the subject; but there are some few things revealed, some of which I read to you at the commencement of my remarks. Speaking of the redemption of this people, the Lord says—“Behold I will raise up a man like unto Moses.” This did not mean Joseph Smith, he was already raised up and was among us. He was the one who received that revelation; he was the one who brought to light the Book of Mormon, and translated it by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But the Lord, who understands the end from the beginning, saw that when his work was completed, he would be taken away, and that another would be raised up. “Behold I say unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power, therefore I will raise up unto my people a man who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel, for ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, with an outstretched arm, and as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be.”

Moses was an Israelite. One of the minority that was ruled and oppressed by the nation of Egypt. To me, if one is to be raised like Moses, it would be a Native American.

It may be that we shall yet be in bondage like the Israelites in the land of Egypt; for the Lord has said that, when this man should be raised up, he would redeem his people by power out of bondage, and they should be led as their fathers were led at the first.

But when we have two Mormons running for president and one with a decent chance and the head of the Senate a Mormon, then we are not the oppressed, we are the oppressors. “But we are oppressed, we have a massive PR campaign to help fix that…” Ya us and everyone else too. We all can paint ourselves the victims. Go and visit the Rez, then tell me who is oppressed. Of course we are in Spiritual Bondage in the chains of Babylon, but like I’ve stated in other posts, it doesn’t look like the leadership in the LDS church will be leaving Babylon any time soon. If anything, the Mormons are in the role of the Egyptians with the rest of the US and the Lamanites/Israel are in the role of Israel (funny how that works out). The Natives have been fighting the oppression for so long. They can only remember the good old days before. Just like Israel in Egypt. There may be a few individuals go to prepare the way, to purchase a little more land and get things in orders; but when that is accomplished, this people as a body will return to that land, the Lord going with them.

Notice he said “a few individuals,” not the first presidency or church. They are on some other track: “In 1978, for example, when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased over 4,000 acres of land across the river in Clay County, many Mormons concluded that this was somehow a sign of the temple’s immediate construction. Church leaders stressed that the purchase was for investment purposes only.” [Church News 16 Dec 1978] (My emphasis in bold)

Investment purposes? That’s not Zion, that’s Babylon. 

This people—the Latter-day Saints, before they can ever return to build up the waste places of Zion and receive their inheritances in Jackson County, Missouri, have got to exert themselves to bring the remnants of Joseph to a knowledge of the truth. We have not made any very great exertions in this direction unto the present time.

Things haven’t gotten any better in the past 136 years since Orson opined that they hadn’t made any great exertions.

Another thing mentioned in prophecy is that they, “the Gentiles,” shall assist my people, the house of Israel, the remnant of Jacob, and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem; and then shall they assist my people, who are scattered upon all the face of the land, that may be gathered in unto the New Jerusalem; and then shall the power of heaven come down and be in the midst of this people, and I also will be in their midst. And then shall the work of the Father commence, at that day, even when this Gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, in that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people.”

The lost tribes cannot be gathered until Zion, the New Jerusalem is built. So for all our missionary efforts, we’re doing it out of order. It’s like wiping before you poop. “And then shall the work of the Father commence, at that day, even when this Gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people.” 

I’m looking for anyway that I can help. Those missions of bringing the Lamanites back, I can do that. That is what Ephraimites do, we are gatherers (missionaries).

What I wish to call your special attention to now, so far as these sayings are concerned, is this—the Latter-day Saints in these mountains never can have the privilege of going back to Jackson County and building that city which is to be called the New Jerusalem, upon the spot that was appointed by revelation through the Prophet Joseph, until quite a large portion of the remnants of Joseph go back with us. Now then, here is a work for us, and we have no need to pray the Father to return us to Jackson County until that work is done. We can pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, to convert these Indian tribes around us, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth, that they may fulfill the things contained in the Book of Mormon.

The Lord says—“They,” the Gentiles, who believe in the Book of Mormon, “shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem.”

Now, a great many, without reading these things, have flattered themselves that we are the ones who are going to do all this work. It is not so; we have got to be helpers, we have got to be those who cooperate with the remnants of Joseph in accomplishing this great work; for the Lord will have respect unto them, because they are of the blood of Israel, and the promises of their fathers extend to them, and they will have the privilege of building that city, according to the pattern that the Lord shall give. Do not misunderstand me, do not think that all the Lamanite tribes are going to be converted and receive this great degree of education and civilization before we can return to Jackson County. Do not think this for a moment, it will only be a remnant; for when we have laid the foundation of that city and have built a portion of it, and have built a Temple therein, there is another work which we have got to do in connection with these remnants of Jacob whom we shall assist in building the city. What is it? We have got to be sent forth as missionaries to all parts of this American continent. Not to the Gentiles, for their times will be fulfilled; but we must go to all those tribes that roam through the cold regions of the north—British America, to all the tribes that dwell in the Territories of the United States, also to all those who are scattered through Mexico, and Central and South America, and the object of our going will be to declare the principles of the Gospel unto them, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. “Then shall they assist my people who are scattered on all the face of the land, that they may be gathered in to the New Jerusalem.”

This is my opinion but it has to contribute to the extremely low retention of South American converts. It was down to around 1% in many missions down there. Maybe it’s because they are to be gathered physically to Zion. Since that is not happening, a vital piece of the Spirit of the Lord’s work is missing. Things have fallen apart. Zion is the glue, the cause, that if missing, nothing will hold together and we end up in apostasy.

How important is Orson’s message! I think of Jack Sparrow’s compass in the The Pirates of the Caribbean. It worked according to their greatest desire. The main characters realize that what their mind wanted wasn’t what their heart wanted. How can we desire the right thing if we don’t know about it? If we aren’t desiring the right thing or the right order, then where the heck have we been going for the past 150 years? What has happened?

On another site, going over the history of Zion in Indepnedence, the author aptly describes the current state of the LDS church’s Zion.

“The glossy brochures, the young missionary women, the beautiful grounds do nothing to the Spirit of Zion in Missouri than reiterate the fact that these monuments are the gravestones of Zion.” link

So you’ve heard these things. Now what are you going to do? We can’t stick our heads in the ground, we have to follow the Lord or reject Zion. To me, this is exciting, it’s like finding a major clue in a treasure map. Are you a Lamanite, a lost tribe or a Gentile? Know who you are and what your role is. If this gospel is true. If the Book of Mormon is true. If Joseph Smith was a true prophet. No amount of FHE, mutual night activities or trunk or treats will accomplish any of this. It’s time to go big or go home. This is the gospel of action. If we aren’t actively engage in the process, it doesn’t really matter what else we are engaged in. I know what I am going to do.

1)Lamanites converted (The Native Americans)

2)Zion redeemed by Lamanites (Natives) & assisted by the Gentiles (us). 

3)Missionaries sent out to gather, gather, aka gather. 

I won’t say what the structure is, because it is without structure (from a certain point of view). In trying to structure it, I would recreate the whole world that Zion is the opposite of. The individual and family decisions to follow the Spirit and revelation is the structure of Zion. There is the Spirit of Zion which is what each individual must posses. That will assure that Zion will survive.

But some might say without blah blah blah and gov’t stuff, it will get shut down. I already talked about that earlier. In Zion everyone will do what they can and it will work. People will use the knowledge they have and abilities to help in areas they know and those they don’t. The thing is, it won’t be all sunshine and plenty. Some might think things are off because it isn’t going to be perfect and there might be times of hunger and suffering. There is always probation.

People might teach that when Christ was here He built His church and organized it. Where do they get that from? The scriptures? The scriptures teach that He called and ordained people to positions to share the Gospel and perform ordinances. That’s it. He never did anything like correlation or the humongous charts required to show the organization of callings and positions in a single “stake” of the LDS Church.

Zion is like Happiness. We don’t make it, we live our lives in a way so that we recieve it.

As soon as we start making all these rules about how Zion should be goverend or organized or maintained, Zion will end. Denver Snuffer said it really well in explaining if we tried to build the city of Zion with our Babylonian mindset:

Our “Zion” would be a commercial enterprise, with private ownership and capitalist competition to form an economic basis from which to build a strictly regimented and highly controlled people.  Something so foreign to what Zion was meant to be that I rather think it would draw tornadoes in a proportion greater than trailer parks currently do in Mississippi.

So in Zion how will we be organized and what sort of system will there be? There won’t. Everyone will be following the Saviors example of putting others first and loving them. The inhabitants of Zion will be full of Charity. Charity will be the structure. That is it. That is what will make it work. When there is a need, people will step in and fulfill it. Why? Because they will want to do it. It will be a place where we are supporting each other and achieve the ideal relationship of friends.

DC 93:45 Verily, I say unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., or in other words, I will call you friends, for you are my friends, and ye shall have an inheritance with me

DC84:77 And again I say unto you, my friends, for from henceforth I shall call you friends, it is expedient that I give unto you this commandment, that ye become even as my friends in days when I was with them, traveling to preach the gospel in my power

Proverbs 27:10 Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off.

Proverbs 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than abrother.

All will be equal. Everyone will recognize that the earth and all it’s possession are that of the Lord. We will understand that our inheritance is a stewardship over the Lord’s land. We will rejoice in the chance to truly fulfill the measure of our creation and raise our children in righteousness.

Moroni 8:17 And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love; wherefore, all children are alike unto me; wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike and partakers of salvation.

Does he differentiate between children? Everyone will work together and there will be no differences between us.

In summation, what is the structure of Zion? Zion is of one heart, one mind, no unrighteousness and no poor among them. They share the principles and ordinances of the gospel of faith, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. They are friends. They are bonded with Charity. The Lord will be their God and He will guide them. That’s it.

That’s the structure of Zion. ya, not a lot to it. It’s simple and basic just like Jesus’ teachings and lifestyle.

We are not going to just save ourselves, but to be able to save all others. Perfect love.

At one point in reading that about charity and what friendships is, the roots of Babylon’s spirit within you probably whispered or shouted, “That’s stupid. That will never work. There is no structure in that. It will fail. Such a thing will fail.”

Now to understand Zion truly is to understand why it is Israel, the ones who rejected Jesus are the same ones who today repudiate Zion for the exact same reason. It is the lifestyle and structure that is so foreign to what we are comfortable with. If we reject it, as not true or ignore it, then it helps silence our conscience and the Holy Ghost.