Earning God’s Companionship
Young Women’s Manual 1, Living as a Daughter of God, 4: Seeking the Companionship of the Holy Ghost, Objective 13; “Remind the young women that their ability to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost depends on their faithfulness to the Lord’s commandments. If they listen to the Holy Ghost, his promptings can be their greatest source of comfort and guidance, a constant companion. We need never be alone when we are worthy to receive the Holy Ghost.”
John 14:13, 16-18; “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
1 Corinthians 3:16; “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
1 Corinthians 6:19; “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
Luke 11:11; “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?”
When we accept the Lord into our heart, the Holy Spirit comes immediately and takes up residence inside of us. Now according to what Jesus told the disciples in the gospel of John, He isn’t going to pack up and leave anytime soon and we also know He’ll give to us what we ask for.
So if we sin and ask for forgiveness God is merciful and grants us forgiveness – 1 Jn 1:1-2. The Bible teaches the exact opposite of what the LDS Church.
The Bible says nothing about needing to ask the Holy Spirit to “visit us” over and over again. When you ask Him into your heart, He takes up residence inside you the believer and stays there. He doesn’t leave, He doesn’t desert you, and He’s there for you 24/7.
I’ll keep saying this over and over again until the Church denounces these false teachings and so people will know the truth!
You can’t do enough or earn enough brownie points with God for Him to decide that He can hang with you! He’s already aware of your behavior. He knows your strengths and your weaknesses and He’s there because He loves you. The Bible says we love Him because He loved us first – 1 John 4:19. We’re only worthy enough to be with Him and He in us because He paid the ultimate price for our sin.
If God was a malevolent God we wouldn’t be able to stand before Him. People throughout history have known this as we see their concern about it in His word –
Nahum 1:6 – who can stand before His indignation
Psalm 130:3 – if the Lord marks my iniquities, who could stand
Malachi 3:2 – who can endure the day of His coming and stand when He appears
The answer is that we can never do this on our own but because of what Jesus did for us we can! Paul says in Romans 5:1-2;
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
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