He is just a copy cat and a knock off artist

I picked up a guy that worked in a mall in the south central part of the valley. I was taking him first to his apartment and then to another place, I didn’t know where. I talked about where he worked and he said he really liked it. He worked in the clothing store and there were lots of girls there and so he thought that was a really good thing.

A couple of impressions that I had about this young man right off the top were that he was a member of the church but he had struggled considerably. I felt like he wasn’t an active member of the church and I was pretty sure that he would say he didn’t affiliate with any religion.

We talked about how good it is to work and how a lot of people don’t appreciate that until they lose it and they realize that they needed it. He told me he needed it more than most because he had some substance-abuse issues that he was dealing with.

When he said that I asked him if it would be OK if I talked about my religiously based belief on substance abuse and how it works. He said, “yes I’d love to hear that”. I asked him if he had a religion and he said no, he was more spiritual. I went over my belief that our soul is born with a space in it intended to be filled by the Spirit of God. The spirit of God is intended to be the very center of our souls in the very center of our lives.

When we come to earth some people lose that or don’t have contact with the spirit of God. Satan tries to fill that space with substances that counterfeit the feeling of the presence of God. I told him of how some missionaries I had interviewed had told me as we identified the spirit and I asked them what that felt like they told me that it felt like they were high.

I told him that this is what clued me in to the whole dynamic of Satan counterfeiting the spirit and presence of God with substances. I also told him that Satan drives you to those substances to cover for the pain and suffering from abuse and injustice in your life rather than rely on the atonement and Jesus Christ which is what God would have us do to heal, it not try to just temporarily cover it up.

The spirit testified powerfully to both of us about the power of the atonement and I could feel emotions welling up in this young man who had to this point not shown much emotion.

I the spirit prompted me to tell him that in his life when he was still quite young he had been horribly betrayed, abused. He was treated horribly by people he trusted and that God didn’t condone it, in fact he was angry about it. I asked him what he would feel like if someone was abusing one of his children, he said, angry. I said that’s how God felt and it hurts him but he sent his son who, in the garden of Gethsemane suffered all the pain, the humiliation, torment and the injustice you felt so that if you look to him you won’t have to suffer it. It can heal your heart and soul and make it so that you can look forward with trust in God and not back.

I told him that Satan‘s big trick was to get people to not look to Christ and to take his cheap little imitations that waste away like fluff in the wind. I told him the analogy of eating potato chips when he’s gone a couple days without eating. I asked him how good that would be for his body. He said it would be horrible and I said that’s right.

I told him that when we use the atonement of Christ it’s like we rub that medicine on the injustice, pain and the suffering. It alleviates and lifts our pains and burdens so that we can move forward with a greater relationship to Christ who we depend on instead of drugs in substances. He said I believe in God

He said I didn’t used to believe in God but I have a story to tell you. He told me that his older brothers had passed away, one of suicide and the other of a drug overdose many years ago. He told me that he had been addicted and in recovery and he relapsed and when he relapsed he OD’d. When he was unconscious being, worked on he was walking down the hallway that was white and he saw his brothers and felt amazing with them, better than it ever had been on earth. He said there was another presence there that he was so good. He was given the choice to stay or go and he chose to come back and do things better and live his life.

He said, he woke up with a smile on his face, ear to ear with the most amazing feeling of love and joy.

I asked him to feel right now and tell me how he felt in the car. He said I feel love, I said it’s pretty strong but is it similar to what you felt in your dream? He said yes, it’s exactly like I felt. I told him that this was the spirit of God and this is what was supposed to fill his soul.

I asked him if while feeling this he would ever take drugs and he said no. It would be no need. I told him that when people have the spirit with them, they can combat the physical addiction of drugs because the spiritual need is filled and they only have to fight the battle on one front. He says that makes sense. I told him it was an amazing experience that he’d had.

I told him that it was clear that heavenly father loved him regardless of his imperfections and that I believe that heavenly father put him in my car that night to get this message, that our father loves him and that he wants him to pray. I asked him when was the last time he prayed and he said he couldn’t remember, it had been so long.

I told him he needed to pray, he needed to talk to his father in heaven and feel that love so that he could be lifted.

I asked him how long it had been since he had been to church and he said is it been a long time. I asked what religion do you belong to and he said really not any. I said I believe you’ve been baptized a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that you’re a member of the church are you not? He whispered, yes.

I told him that I felt by the spirit that he thought about going to church recently and he said yeah, he had a friend that was also in treatment. His friend had wanted to go to church and he thought about going with him. I asked him to commit to going to church and he said he would this Sunday with that friend.

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he said yes. I asked him “how long has it been since he read from that book”. He said that he didn’t think he had ever read in it. I promised him that if he would read the Book of Mormon, say his prayers and go to church, in the name of Jesus Christ that he would feel the power of God come into his life.

I told him that I believed I was supposed to give him this roadmap so that God could help him. I had the impression to tell him that earlier right before I picked him up he had been jonesing for a hit (craving and looking for drugs), and he was wavering. God sent me to lift him with his spirit of his so that he wouldn’t make that mistake.

The spirit was extremely strong in the car and I asked him if he could feel that. There was stone silence in the back for a while then he said yes! I asked him if it surprised him that I knew these things and he said yes, very much so. There’s no way you could know that, no one knows. I said God knows that he wanted to reach out to you tonight. I told him that he needed to get strong, he needed to get the power of God so that he could fight this. I told him that we can’t let Satan win. He said he would and then he said, no, I promise I will. He reiterated his promise to me that he would read the Book of Mormon, go to church and pray.

I told him that when he thought about going to church he would feel like people would judge him and because of that he had wanted to stay away. I felt by the spirit that he had already had this experience and told him, “you’ve already had these thoughts”

I told him that they came from Satan and that he is a liar because everyone judges. Everyone judges everyone. Some people sin by smoking and other sin by judging and we need to be just as tolerant and loving of those whose sin is judging as we are the other sinners. I also mentioned to him that people don’t have time to sit around and think about him very often so if he thinks people are judging him all the time that’s probably not the case. He laughed. I told him Satan is a liar and those terrible things he whispers in your ear are not true. No one is harshly judging you and if they are they need your help not your hate. I told him to walk up to them and love them and in the face of that they would change.

I bore my testimony to him with all the power I could muster, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true, and that if he would read it and pray, that he would be filled with the spirit just like he felt in the car. He said this has been amazing I love feeling like this. That’s what I’ll do and I believe him. There was a firm resolution in his words.

I can’t imagine how hard it would be to work through this addiction thing without the atonement and without the spirit of God. I might be the only one but during this ride, it dawned on me most profoundly that drugs are not only the devils counterfeit for the spiritual experience but they are also his counterfeit and crutch to make us look away from the atonement and look away from Christ and trust in his evil substitutes.