This is my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ as restored by the prophet Joseph Smith, and where I see things with the restoration begun through Joseph and the LDS church currently.

For much of my life I have had an insatiable desire to study the gospel of Jesus Christ, and since 2006 I have done so with every spare moment available.

I have asked the Lord to open my eyes to what He wanted me to know, to give me further light and knowledge as we’re taught and challenged to seek in the LDS temple.

And He has blessed me many times with the knowledge I have sought, and continue to seek.

The summer and fall of 2014 I felt a very strong prompting to put everything I could to the side and seek after heavens direction regarding my life and future, so I did.

During this time the veil of heaven was thin and I had many spiritual manifestations.

The first week of September I was told by the Lord to read some very specific things “exclusively” until I received the answer I was seeking. This I also did.

On morning of September 30^th 2014 the Lord said to me, among other things, the following.

“…Behold, this is pleasing unto your Lord, and the angels rejoice over you; the alms of your prayers have come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded in the book of the names of the sanctified, even them of the celestial world…”

I can testify, that the gospel of Jesus Christ, as restored by the prophet Joseph Smith, is true!

The Book of Mormon is true!

Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, the redeemer of the world, and the only way and name by which man can be saved and return to the father!

Repenting, in humility and real intent, I went to the Lord with a truly broken heart, a contrite spirit and was blessed to know where I stood before Him, and received from Him, to me, the most beautiful of promises!

These are truly the last days, and Gods hand is again at work. These times are exciting, challenging, but they’re also heart breaking!

Now I need to share some things that will be hard to hear for many, and what I have lost many nights of sleep over, but know to be true.

The restoration the Lord started through Joseph Smith was left incomplete at his death and is in jeopardy of failing. The lord is now in the process of starting that work once again.

However, there was a price to be paid for not finishing the Nauvoo temple as the Lord required, and the killing of Joseph and Hyrum, that has lasted the generations since their deaths.

This is what the Lord said regarding this and the Nauvoo temple in October of 1838.

D&C 124:28-32, 44-48

“For there is not a place found on earth that he may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood.

For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead—

For this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build a house unto me.

But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me; and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me.”

But behold, at the end of this appointment your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God.

If ye labor with all your might, I will consecrate that spot that it shall be made holy.

And if my people will hearken unto my voice, and unto the voice of my servants whom I have appointed to lead my people, behold, verily I say unto you, they shall not be moved out of their place.

But if they will not hearken to my voice, nor unto the voice of these men whom I have appointed, they shall not be blest, because they pollute mine holy grounds, and mine holy ordinances, and charters, and my holy words which I give unto them.

And it shall come to pass that if you build a house unto my name, and do not do the things that I say, I will not perform the oath which I make unto you, neither fulfil the promises which ye expect at my hands, saith the Lord.

For instead of blessings, ye, by your own works, bring cursings, wrath, indignation, and judgments upon your own heads, by your follies, and by all your abominations, which you practice before me, saith the Lord.”

By June of 1844 the temple wasn’t finished, the Lord did not come and restore the fulness of the priesthood, Joseph and Hyrum were killed and taken from among them, and they WERE shortly thereafter moved out of their place.

When Joseph and Hyrum were taken from the saints, so also was the higher priesthood and what was being offered by the Lord through Joseph.

Similarly this is what happened when the children of Israel also rejected what God was offering them through Moses and took him and the higher priesthood from them, but left the lessor priesthood.

D&C 84:21-26

“And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh;

For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.

Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God;

But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory.

Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also;

And the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel;”

This again happened when Joseph and Hyrum were taken. Just as with the children of Israel, the LDS people were depending on Joseph to talk with God not themselves, just as we are now with the brethren.

Exodus 20:18-21

ҦAnd all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces that ye sin not.

And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”

The leaders of the LDS church have promoted these beliefs and placed themselves between the Lord and its members, they are asking us, and those seeking baptism, to “follow the prophet” and bid allegiance to the “brethren” minimizing the need for each of us to see God and know Him.

The commandments of men, are being taught as doctrine. Church activity and culture have become what we honor and the brethren our idols, and in them we “think” we will find salvation.

Mark 7:6, 7

“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

Forgiveness and salvation comes only from the worship of God the father through following Jesus Christ; not men, regardless of how impressive they may be, or what keys they profess to hold.

Joseph Smith said the following.

“President Joseph Smith read the 14th chapter of Ezekiel–said the Lord had declared by the Prophet, that the people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church –that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls–applied it to the present state of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter­ day Saints–said if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall–that they were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds, in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves.”

(TPJS pg. 237-8)

Nephi said.

 II Nephi 4:34

“O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.”

Jacob said.

II Nephi 9:41

“O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.”

Christ needs to be who we worship, He needs to be the foundation of our testimonies and the focus of our hearts and minds, not appearance, health codes, church activity, programs or leaders.

Helaman 5:12

 “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

Jesus Christ has asked us to come follow Him!

JST, Matthew 16:25

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”

To love and seek after Him! Salvation and forgiveness comes only through Him! We need to know Him to gain salvation! Too many of our people are placing their spiritual welfare and salvation upon “the church” its leaders and upon ordinances we don’t understand, not the testimony of Jesus that salvation requires. (II Nephi 9:41, D&C 76:51)

John 17:3

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

It is impossible to give honor or devotion to men when you know the Lord.

We need to measure ourselves with the Savior, not our neighbor, and repent of our sins and ignorance accordingly.

We have erred in many ways and become as the Jews and Nephites, steeped in culture and the traditions of our fathers prior to destruction.

D&C 112:23-26

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face.

Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord.

And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;

First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.”

We as an LDS people and our leaders, have placed our trust in business acumen, in leadership skills, buildings and wealth, science and education; the arm of flesh and the things of this world; not in the Lord. We have become a part of Babylon, the enemy of Zion!

We have “replaced” the scriptures and the guidance of the Holy Spirit with handbooks, traditions and the “philosophies of men, mingled with scripture”. (D&C 84:52-58) This is Mormon talking about our very day.

Mormon 8:38

“O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies—because of the praise of the world?”

This does not mean there aren’t righteous members and leaders who receive inspiration for themselves, families and congregations, of course they have, can and do. God loves the Latter Day Saints, we are His people, but so also were the Jews and the Nephites, they also had the priesthood and a temple!

The LDS church has and teaches more truth than any other organized religion on earth. It’s the only church that teaches the restoration and the Book of Mormon throughout the world.

However the Lord said.

D&C 84:54-58

 “And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received—

Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.

And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.

And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written—

That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father’s kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion.”

 TO BE CONTINUED