One night I picked up a lady just getting off work on Foothill Boulevard. She worked in a nursing facility and I could tell she liked her job. She gave great care to the people and she seemed very happy. That’s important I think, to be happy when you’re taking care of the elderly like that. It seemed like it was very rewarding for her.
We got going and started talking about experiences in the car as far as strange and funny experiences that I’ve had. She asked me if there was a time when I was able to make a difference? I told her that I had seven people that tried to or were about to commit suicide and they let me know riding in my car. I told her that I took the time to stop and help them. I told her one particular story that I wrote in December about a man who wanted to commit suicide and we prayed together. I told her that we drove by the church and I felt impressed to make a promise to him.
I told her that he has followed through and he’s doing really well. As I said this and told the story the spirit impressed upon me that this young lady had been through a lot of things. It impressed upon me that I was guided to this line of discussion and had said the exact right thing. The spirit told me that I needed to continue.
I said a quick prayer and then started listening for the spirit. I asked her if she was religious and she said that she was spiritual not religious. Immediately the spirit told me that she had felt betrayed and damaged by someone who she considered to be a religious figure and a person of trust. I said that to her and she said you’re absolutely right.
I told her about the pain and the stress it caused in her life and the darkness that resulted. These were the words that I felt to say so I said them. She said this is all too weird. How do you know so much about me?
I said I don’t know but the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, has whispered these things to me so God has let me know them. I told her that she had hid these things from the world but that God knew them. I told her she had hid these feelings from people but God knew them and he had revealed these words to me to tell her tonight in the car so that she could know of his love.
She said, yeah but you started out talking about suicide. How did you know that I tried to commit suicide when I was 15? I said, again, I didn’t know that but God knew that and he gave me those words for you so that you could know that he knew of your pain. I promised her that when she was in her pain, when she was in her darkness, God did not abandon her as she had previously thought. I promised her the God stayed with her and that likely he shed tears with her in those moments.
She said, wow. This is really quite an experience I’m having. The feelings I’m feeling are something that I haven’t felt in a long time. I told her that those feelings were the feelings of the spirit. I told her that God loves us and she had a relationship with him. I told her that this feeling was a manifestation of the relationship of God that she enjoys and that he sent his spirit to be in the car with us tonight.
I felt prompted to tell her that many times she drives by the church and every time she does she feels a desire to go but then is bombarded by negativity. I told her that she thinks that everyone there is a hypocrite, that they’re all judging her, that they are all arrogant and hateful. She said that’s exactly right I never thought of it that way. I told her that was Satan and that he was trying to keep her away from that place. I told her that he doesn’t want her to be happy and that he’s a liar. This is why he whispers those things in her ear.
I told her that God gives us free will and evil people are enabled by Satan to use that free will to damage and destroy. They hurt and maim. I told her Satan then tries to get us to blame God. Meanwhile God has given us Jesus Christ that we can turn to. He feels our pain, our sorrows and injustice. He suffered for our sins and made it so that we can live again with our father in Heaven. He made it so that we can live through our pain and suffering and still find joy. God would have us turn to Christ. Satan would have us turn away from God.
I told her more details about the man who was going to commit suicide that I had in my car. I told her the story about how God told me what to say by the spirit. In the end we he and I talked, prayed and we felt the love of God and we felt the presence of our Savior. I told her that it was the exact same thing that we were feeling in the car tonight. Clearly this was not something that she had expected to hear.
She told me, I do feel that spirit. I feel it very powerfully here in the car. I told her that because she’s felt that spirit she knows that the other things I’m telling her are true and she said, I know they’re true. She said, I am a member of your church but I haven’t been in decades. I consider myself to be spiritual not religious. I had convinced myself that the church wasn’t true.
She said, but in this ride I’ve just told you that I know it’s true, I know that to be true and I don’t know how to deal with it. She was very fidgety. I told her she needed to just relax and enjoy the spirit. She said that she would. I told her that her father in heaven really wanted to hear from her. She needed to pray. She needed to talk to him so that she could feel this in her life. She said she would. I reached into my glove box and grabbed a Book of Mormon, one of the copies by sister and brother Secrist.
I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said yes, I have a Bible in my home. The wording of her phrase was not lost on me and I said again, do you have a Book of Mormon in your home. I emphasize the words BOOK OF MORMON that time and she said no. I said I want you to take this book. She hesitated for a second and then took it.
I had her open the front page and showed her the questions of the soul and had her read them. She said many of these are the same questions I have. I told her that the answers she seeks are in this book and that the spirit that she has enjoyed tonight will come through reading this book and praying to her father in heaven. She opened her purse and put the book in
I didn’t feel like I could ask her any further personal questions. but I knew that everything she had believed for over 20 years since she was a little girl had been thrown in the air and swept away.
She had a neatly organized view of how the world was. She had constructed this world to explain why God hadn’t saved her and tonight she found out that he had. He sent his son Jesus Christ and she’s been given the tools where she can accomplish that.
I told her, as you contemplate these things, one thing you always need to remember is that tonight your Heavenly Father who loves you, reached out and gave you a hug. He wants to walk with you and be with you. Reading this book, prayers and going to church are the ways for you to do that. She thanked me and walked away.
She’s got a lot to think about but I know she felt the spirit, I know she knows that what I said is true and I know that she will never be able to forget or deny that. Most of all she knows that her father in heaven loves her and never quit loving her.
I think she finds her way back in the end. Now God has shown her that there is more power in being spiritual and religious.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 