Below is a draft of something I wrote a few weeks ago... part of it got lost, like sometimes happens when writing . . . a section gets erased through user error or whatever, which kind of demoralized me for a moment-- ..... But I figure I shall just put it up as was, what was left of the writing.
I'm not going to even proofread it right now (as I usually do, because I'm a self-directed "grammar nzi" :) ... I don't like typos, and DO like do clarify intent, sloppy phrasing--what I was trying to say... etc.
So, with that in mind.... this (see below) is from a little while ago, in the midst of daily life forging on scenarios. I WILL come back and re-read it and correct if needed . . . but for now, just figure I intended to, and shall nonetheless, just get it expressed . . . raw as it basically was....
GOD BLESS and THANK YOU!--I treasure this space and special relationships among certain Believers! I appreciate your support, thoughts and prayers and fellowship! (If I DID manage to get it posted before, perhaps it bears repeating.... if not, forgive me:)
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"Heads up... here comes (hopefully not my last will and testament, lol!) I just meant to write about how The Holy Spirit is not so much understood and appreciated and marginalized a bit . . . but ended up giving my testimony and a bunch of pertinent but tangential personal reminiscences about the whole path of seeking the truth, meaning of this life. . . . And, this is in the midst of all the sad, treacherous, foreboding, ongoing worldly machinations intensifying . . . and, dealing with one of our beloved dogs, "Dude" who had to have a pretty serious surgery last Monday, which has been more intense than expected . . . lots of cleaning up blood, cones, staying up with him every night, watching over him, hour-to-hour . . . can't get back to work, because there is also Bruce to watch and console, and just have to take care of and keep an eye on him constantly so that the healing doesn't go backwards. . . . And then, I, like so many who see and feel and commiserate what is going on with the suffering people, pets, animals, creatures at the behest of these evil, Godless wanna-be globalist overlords, targeting towns, families, groups, areas . . . for their imagined final brutal enforcement of worldwide anti-Christ Satanic totalitarianism.
I (like you I suspect) know so many now who are struggling, suffering, taking losses, deaths. . . . There are those who have "taken the ticket" . . . sold out and are doing better than ever (spooky)
. . . the unSeeing unHearing . . . tend to hate and fight and find ways to attack The Trinity. This isn't the whole of their hatred of Truth . . . but a big obvious sign of their character and assault . . . is that they do not comprehend THE TRINITY . . . (and Paul).
Because they hate God's grace (because THEY want to get credit for themselves and THEIR OWN works/effort/ego) . . . AND, since they have not been GRACED with The Holy Spirit WHO REVEALS THE TRUTH . . . they hate those who have (been graced with being given/chosen to be indwelt by GOD, by THE HOLY SPIRIT, The Comforter, God's Spirit, The Spirit of Truth.)
It is such . . . and it is Written . . . that GOD is a Trinity. The Trinity is a mystery to our mortal minds, but The Spirit of Truth will and does convey it. And you will die on that cross, if you are blessed to Know it. He is ONE GOD, THE GOD OF ALL--three distinct persons with ONE ESSENCE, ONE BEING, THE ALPHA AND OMEGA, all in ONE. It defies mere human understanding, and the truth of it--Him/God exasperates the fallen and the born rebels--for they want to create a god in THEIR own image, or some other fanciful image . . . but . . . and since The Truth is God is The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, they will naturally hate and despise that Trinitarian Truth, for they are of their father, the father of lies. Thank God for the gift of The Holy Spirit! Who, in the days since the meridian of time, is given to us, within, since God in the flesh ascended to His throne. SUCH that we shall not yet be left alone.
Well, and the Hindus/yogis have their own (similar, but false) version of a trinity ("Trimurti") Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva . . . and then they have their "saints" and "avatars" . . . various variations thereof. (Sidenote, I've well studied early on in life the whole "eastern philosophy" angle deeply--I was a "sannyasin"(renunciate) of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh/Osho . . . later a dedicated Vaishnava/Hare Krishna . . . armature but fair scholar of Vivekananda, Shankara, Ramakrishna, Krishnamurti, Yogananda, and also included serious forays into studying, practicing, testing the similar Buddhist/Zen/Taoist areas--Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, D.T. Suzuki, also checked out Sufiism, read the Koran, gnosticism; and seriously analyzed, sussed out (but never practiced) Gurdjieff/Ouspensky . . . Blavatsky, Castanada, E. Cayce, Alice Bailey, Swedenborg, The Urantia Book . . . and a bunch more . . . And then including . . . taking the "missionary lessons" of the Mormon Church and becoming a "deacon" and a "priest" and near-went on a Mormon mission; and, of course also studied the Greco/Roman philosophers, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. . . . AND, so as not to leave out what the nihilists/existentialists were up to . . . Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Camus etc. Aye yi-yi! That's about the half of it and I still have all their books in my library, which also includes a wide variety of Catholic writers (Augustine, Aquinas, A'Kempis ie.,) . . . Native American "Great Spirit" "spirituality" . . . well, and tangentially martial arts' "spiritual" disciplines I've studied and practiced (several different Kung Fu and Japanese disciplines--Hung Gar, Wing Chun, Tai Chi, Karate, Akido). That is a rough list of the "spiritual/religious" studies and practices. . . . Don't get me started on my ancient historical delvings (which DO actually connect, inform and relate .... such as Xenophon, Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Plutarch--my favorites--plus, lol I just love history, from ancient through Biblical, "middle ages", medieval, reformation era, Revolutionary, American western/Indian, communism/socialism, 20th century, 21st century . . . etc.)
Sorry... I'm carried away albeit thinking of some of my multitudinous searching avenues, and side-interests off the top of my head that I've read, studied and practiced since a boy....
I could go on into other areas ... BUT MY MAIN POINT IS . . . that I've been seeking, searching, testing, pleading, praying for, meditating and practicing on FINDING THE TRUTH, above all!--The meaning and purpose of life! I always believed, felt and through rational observation of reality early determined there had to be A MEANING AND PURPOSE TO LIFE!
If I were to put a date on it, it was April 16th, 2004 when I had "the great dressing down" as I've called it--a 4 hour vision of God--JESUS Himself . . . where . . . I was shown many things, for hours--mostly about myself and my spiritual hypocrisy, sinful fallen nature, and I was shown (I believe) the 2nd heaven--that realm where the "prince of the power" is still riding dirty--oh the things I saw! AND even in that betwixt realm, it was MORE REAL than this realm. I became a (albeit newborn) Believer in The Bible and Jesus as The Way, The Truth and The Life that night, for He came and chastised and revealed to me my naked self . . . and did it with gentle love, yet strict, unyielding purpose to show and rescue. . . .
On that morning, when it was finally over . . . I got up, went to the kitchen (I was working in a house, painting in St. George, UT, alone, back on my way home from working on a different project in Palos Verdes, California). And there, at about 7am ... found some paper and thought to write everything I had just seen and been shown, all the details. . . . But, it felt too fresh and important and precious to try to roughly incapsulate it--because it was a direct personal message. I would have to test it through remembrance of the foundational import and message, and then, if God granted, I would remember the most important parts to relate/convey.
Bottom line was (regarding my lifelong search): "The Truth is Jesus! I am a wretch. Thank God for The Savior." . . . . which revelation I DID tell my wife when I got home, and carried on telling, sharing thereafter. SHE got born again about 2 years later, and my sons also (I believe, although GOD is the ultimate judge of that) fairly soon thereafter.
There was also a follow up vision a few months later, after "the great dressing down", which sealed the deal for me. At the time, I was following the "Vaishnava" Hindu religion focused on Krishna.
As I then delved more deeply into The Word (although, interestingly . . . all along these other pathways I NEVER rejected The Bible or Jesus, and, regardless of various spiritual and philosophical exploring, I ALWAYS found myself praying to God The Father In Jesus' Name) . . . I eventually found myself what is called "reformed" so-to-speak, --although all-in-all I think it's just Biblical revelation and understanding--AND being ever more comfortable and acquainted with and Shown the Trinitarian God.
AND . . . (back to the subject at hand) I believe, and experience to this day THE HOLY SPIRIT guiding, sustaining, comforting, teaching . . . all along the way.
AND, just noting, that The Holy Spirit is too often (I believe) not acknowledged for the critical, foundational role He plays in the day-to-day sustenance and source of Truth sussing in this life since AD, AND especially in such dark and wicked times, where chaos and distraction and tricks and Noah-days tech with appurtenant temptations abound! (I thank God I don't have a problem with that!)
Hence, being found a friend of, and a fan of, and a discerner of, here I (HOPEFULLY FINALLY GET TO THE POINT LOL!) a little bit of shout out TO THE HOLY SPIRIT!!!
GRACIOUS,GIFTED SPIRIT OF GOD, GRANTED, PRAISE GOD!!!
[Well, and, since I keep from not carrying on.......... I shall carry on, and keep checking my grammar and hope to get a message over the stormy bow....] Soooo... re the Trinity (where Holy Spirit oft too much gets short shrift)]
The Muslims . . . have, basically a concept of God THE FATHER... but that is it. There is NO other portion or deviation or sharing with that absolute concept, as they conceive it--ALLAH.
The Mormons, also , for instance, do not understand or believe in The Trinity, as Biblically stated. Joseph Smith said we are all gods in potential--kind of like the Hindus, there are "many gods". YOU can be a god! Like most the new-agey people have said, and then now, tik-tok-y girls and fey boys say . . . we are all gods. . . . "You are a god" ........ 👎
[By the way, regarding LDS theology, it is obvious that Joseph Smith developed "the church"--as they call it here in "the new Zion", Mormon country]. . . .
As he (Joe) carried on . . . meanwhile, he was taking other men's wives, young girls, stealing money, empire building and being a new (albeit typical) cult leader.... He found a very convenient "secret doctrine" that confirmed the demonic whisperings he was seduced by and went with (just like Muhammed did similarly) found some "secret knowledge" that he came across (and had already heard about) when he eventually got invited into the ongoing Masonic/"Illuminated" teachings in the area............. which are/were infested with a mishmash of mystical Islamic/Jesuit/Sabbatian/occult teachings.... At the time it was an exotic 'secret knowledge' that ie., Templars/masonic perverts and such had already gotten involved with and, of course, it involved banking, geo-politics, tantric-sex faux spirituality, and on and on. A mish-mash of Kabbalistic "new age" cobbledygook) . . . . .
And, well, yeah , ... ol' Joe Smith got too big for his britches and didn't realize that the Masonic oaths he took were serious and he shouldn't share but for penalty of death ... but he had a "new" expanding following and dare to ... BUT .. they made him pay with his life at the Carthage Jail.]
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Ok... well . . . . I need to end this last missive. I could on and on . . . . . . But for now, I think I better just post. Tomorrow is not promised, praise God."