Still fighting Baal after all these years

In my story of the prodigal son I drove that young man to and from the ankle bracelet monitoring people. Because of their criminal penalties some offenders have to pay these people to monitor their whereabouts and our prodigal son had to do that for several months. I had another such experience.

I got a call to pick up a young lady in southwest Provo. I didn’t know where we were going but we started driving up past the MTC, onto University Avenue and turning up on Center Street in Orem towards the place where you pay those people to monitor you. When we were driving from Provo to the Center Street intersection on University Avenue we talked about life and exchanged stories. I have lots of stories, crazy stories from my car and they’ are entertaining. They make people laugh. Happy people tip!

We were driving up the road and I’m telling awesome stories. We got to the intersection to turn onto Center Street in Orem and the spirit just overwhelmed me. Right there in the middle of the intersection, in the middle of my turn I just started saying the words the Lord put into my heart. At this point I didn’t know we were taking her to the monitor people or that she had legal trouble. I only thought she was a young lady looking for a ride.

But in that intersection the Lord showed once again that he knows each one of us, he knows our hearts and our minds. I interrupted my story and said, I’ve received a prompting that I need to tell you that the Lord loves you and even though you’ve doubted his existence he loves you. When you felt lost, you weren’t lost to him. When you were abused, he was the strength that pulled you through even though you didn’t know where that strength came from. He sees your heart and your desire to help people and bless the lives of others. He is reaching out to you and wants you to let him in.

Silence followed by sniffles ensued. She said how could you possibly know that?

She asked me if she could trust me. I said yes. She went on to tell me an abbreviated story of her life. She was baptized when she was 8. She ran away from home at 16, she did drugs, she had been a prostitute and had struggled in her 23-year-old life with making good choices. She asked how I knew these things. I told her that it was the Spirit of God and I had the gift of the Holy Ghost and it had whispered to me those things to say. I told her that I had no knowledge of her life or anything she had done but that God knew and he wanted her to know that he loved her very much.

I told her that he had sent me to give her this message so that she could know that she’s not alone and that she was never alone. I told her that I was there to help her come to God and ask for his power so that she could change her life. The spirit was very strong in the car, it tends to be there when the Lord is revealing things to your heart! She was feeling it and I was feeling it. I asked her what she felt and she described it as love and total acceptance and lack of fear. She said she hadn’t felt that for as long as she could remember.

I told her it was the spirit of her father in heaven and that’s how she felt when she was with him. I told her that his spirit was in the car with us and that her spirit was basking in the glow. And there she was basking in the backseat. She didn’t want to leave. We pulled up to the place where she was supposed to get out and she refuse to get out. We sat there for 15 minutes talking about how much our father in heaven loves her. We talked about her life and the choices she needed to make.

Finally she got out of the car and told me that this had been a life-changing ride. She told me that for sure she would look into what I said. I told her that she better because I was going to be giving her a ride again and I needed an update. I don’t know why I said that because you hardly ever give people repeat rides but I said it.

The next week I’m down by East Bay and sure enough there she is needing a ride. When I pulled up she had a smile on her face and said, well, looks like we need to continue our conversation. So we did!

It turns out that in trying to improve her life before she had turned to all kinds of pagan sources. She was particularly fond of Wicca. Wicca is a white Witchcraft kind of approach to life. She used their buzzwords and their phraseology. She talked to me about the power that she had felt through Wicca and the empowerment it gave her. I felt to ask her that if this is all true, why did she still feel empty inside. She was silent.

I talked to her about gifts of the spirit and how Satan tries to replicate the gifts of the spirit. I told her that wanting to use spiritual gifts to bless other people is not a bad thing but understanding the power that God gives us and how to use it is really important. I said in the end Wicca will never protect you! Wicca can never save you! That only happens through Jesus Christ. Accessing his power makes you truly powerful.

She mentioned to me that she was really tired. I asked her why? She said that there had been a lot of weird noises in the house and that she couldn’t sleep. I told her that she needed to pray to God. She said that she had been praying to the universe. I told her that praying to God is how we access his power. I asked her to commit to me that she would pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ . She said that she would. I also told her that I would pray for her. She asked if I would pray for her right then in the car and I said yes. Again the spirit was very strong during that prayer. As she went to get out of the car I knew that I would see her again so I said, I want you to pray every day and I want you to report back to me next time I see you. She said she would.

The following week I got a call to pick her up again. She came bounding out of the house and she told me she had prayed and that she had been able to sleep. I told her that God blessed her and that he loved her and he wanted to bless her more. I asked her if she had anyone in her life that was close that could give her a blessing? She said yes her grandfather lived in Salt Lake. I told her to call him and have him come give her a blessing.

I also asked her if she had a Book of Mormon. She said no so I gave her one. It was one of the special marked book of Mormon’s by Sister Secrist. I told her to read in that book everyday. I told her that book is powerful and that it will transfer that power to your life and make you more capable of dealing with life stress and problems. I told her about my friend Abrahm who I taught to read, out the Book of Mormon. I told her that 25 schools had told him he would never learn to read but that in four months he learned to read out of the Book of Mormon. One day he told me that the reason why he learned to read was there was a power in that book. I told her that indeed there is a power in this book and it will give you the ability to change your life

The following week I picked her up again and her grandfather had given her a blessing and she was doing really well. She was reading the Book of Mormon.

She was in the middle of changing jobs and asked me what I thought. I told her I thought she should go to church! I asked her when was the last time she’s been to church and she said it seemed like forever. I told her if she continued to pray and she went to church that God would help her make the decision she needed to make.

I told her she need to go and talk to the bishop and have him help her so that she could fully function with the spirit. I told her that by developing a relationship with God and the Holy Ghost she would be able to have the power she needed to help people as she desired.

Finally one day I got a call and I picked her up. She was going to pay for her last installment and have the monitor taken off of her ankle. She was excited, she had gone to church, she attended with her boyfriend‘s family and they were very excited. She had met the bishop and I believe she was on her way back.

As she left the car I told her that all the things she liked to do and all the power from spiritual gifts that she’d need to have would come to her as a natural result of her seeking to follow God and serve his children. She talked about how on that first day I had seen into her soul and when I didn’t recoil in horror rather embraced her and helped her it let her know that I was truly sent from God to bring that message.

She is making progress and doing things the right way. Even though I don’t drive her anymore I know that she is looking to put God in the drivers seat.