Enough with this higher power stuff, he is our father. The difference is love and it’s personal

I picked up a guy at a motel on North Temple. Motels on North Temple aren’t notoriously great places to be. He was going down to 72nd south and I debated taking him because when you take people from one drug hotel to the next rundown hotel, it can be a real uncomfortable ride.

He got in and we started to drive. We talked about the usual stuff. Where are you from? How long have you lived here? Those sorts of questions. He just moved here from Pennsylvania but originally he was from here.

He had moved to Pennsylvania to try to keep his wife happy. They had a little boy and he didn’t want to break up the family. The fact is she was going to Pensilvania and that was it. He went back to Pennsylvania and her behavior didn’t get better and they ended up getting a divorce.

He stayed out there a while and his boy was now 10 years old and they were very close. He choked up as he talked about talking to his son on Zoom and how that just wasn’t enough. He said that he wanted to bring him out here.

I started talking to him about Pennsylvania and the spirit told me to get busy talking about families and the family of God.

I told him that family was important and that our church believes families are everything. I told him that we believe that our families are sealed together and are together forever. I told him Heavenly Father wants us to be together as families because he knows how important they are.

I talked to him about his father in heaven, and how his spirit lived with his father in heaven before he was born. He said, I do believe in a higher power. He said that he couldn’t be sure what else he believed though. I asked him what he felt in my car. He said, “I feel a lot of peace. The second I got in your car I could feel peace and with you talking about families and God it’s made me feel that peace even stronger.”

I said, that peace is the Spirit of God. I told him the God shows us truth by giving us his spirit so that we can know that the things we are hearing are true.

I felt a prompting that he was a man who prayed when he was in trouble or stressed. This isn’t very common in my ride stories. Most of the time people haven’t prayed ever or for a long time but I got the distinct impression that he prays when he is down.

I said, it seems to me like you pray a lot. He said, “how do you know? I pray for help all the time”. He said, I very much believe in a higher power. I wasn’t doing very well with his higher power thing, and I said, you mean God, and he just kind of brushed it off.

I went on to talk about our relationship with God and how he loves each of us and that he made a plan so that each of us can come home to him if we want to. The spirit prompted me to tell him that when he was young, he had kind of felt like God wasn’t there, and that many times he blamed him. I told him that even now when he prays sometimes he’s blaming God.

I told him God loves him and he should never doubt that. The spirit was really strong and he said one more time, I’ll never doubt that there’s a higher power.

I stopped the car and I looked at him and I said, you need to quit saying higher power because you know that it is your Heavenly Father. He is your father and you need to treat him with that respect. He loves you and he has given you everything. He has given you your son. You need to show him that love and respect because he’s your father. I told him that his father in heaven had never left him alone and never abandoned him in his life, regardless of how he felt. I told him his spirit knew that and that’s why it always felt to reach out in prayer.

I said, it’s amazing that you pray. I said, think about how much you enjoy those zoom calls with your son. He lit up and he said I enjoy them very much. I said this is how your Heavenly Father feels when you pray. I said, you just can’t pray when you need something or when you’re mad. I told him you have to pray all the time and make God part of your life.

I asked him if he would like it if his son just called him when he was angry or if he wanted his son to make him part of his life. He laughed and said, I want him to make me part of his life. I want to be part of his life as much as I can. I said, that’s how a loving father thinks.

I testified to him that Heavenly Father is his father. He said that he was feeling the spirit more intensely than he had earlier and I told him this means that it’s true.

I told him that God sent the spirit so he could know this and so he could feel that relationship. He said, this is crazy, but I love it.

I told him that God loves all of his children and that he sent his son, Jesus Christ. I told him that Jesus Christ came to America to prove that he loved all of God’s children and that he gave us a new level to attain. I told him that it was like playing a video game. When he came to America, he commanded those people to step up to a new level. I told him about Jesus descending from heaven and the people touching his hands and his feet. The spirit washed over the car. I told him that the people had been waiting for Jesus because the prophets had prophesied that he would come.

He gave them baptism, he taught them repentance, and he taught them how to come back to his father. I told him that all of these prophecies and the visit of Jesus Christ were included in the Book of Mormon. He said, you mean another testament of Christ? I said, yes! How did you know that? He told me that the missionaries had told him that.

Right then the spirit told me that he was being a little coy. I knew that he was a member of the church. I said, why didn’t you tell me that you were a member of the church? He said, because I don’t consider myself to be a member of the church. I haven’t been to church forever. How did you know that I’m a member of the church? How did you know all the things that you said about me?

I asked him, well, are they true? He said yes, but how did you know? I told him that the Spirit of God revealed it to me because God knows those things, and he whispered them to me so that I could say them. He did this so that he would know that the things I was saying were true.

I told him that God was reaching out to him. I told him that even though he prayed and tried to help other people, he was very proud. He was not a person who was known for being humble. I told him that Heavenly Father needs him to humble himself and accept the love of God in his heart. I told him that he needs to accept the church and the covenants he’s made and I told him that he needs to accept a challenge to turn his life around.

I told him that the pride he felt was a stumbling block and it was put there by Satan. I felt to tell him that his father had been a bad example but that he can’t go on trying to punish his father by ruining his own life. He said, there’s no way you could’ve known that.

He said, my father was a member of the reorganized LDS church. He later joined the Mormon church and now he’s a miserable, horrible person. He’s probably going to go to jail for tax evasion.

He said, I don’t get along with him very well. I said, that’s too bad but you shouldn’t allow that to determine whether or not you’re going to obey your father in heaven. I told him that God put him in my car today so that he could feel the spirit and know what it’s like to have a father that loves you unconditionally even though you don’t do the right thing sometimes.

He asked me in a joking way if someone from his family had called me. He said, I truly believe that God sent you. This ride and the these things you said are filling my heart. I need to change and I promise you I will. I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and said no. He said he hadn’t been to church in over 20 years.

I gave him one of my Book of Mormons, prepared by the Secrists and asked him to read the questions of the soul. He read those and said these are the questions that there really aren’t any good answers for. I told him, those answers are in the book. Those answers are marked by the tabs in the book.

I told him that the Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God. I told him that it was the words of the prophets who had lived in America. I told him that Joseph Smith received these engravings and translated them, and when I bore my testimony of that the spirit was strong.

I told him that Joseph Smith went to the sacred grove. He knelt and prayed, and his father in heaven appeared to him. I told him that he had a relationship with his father in heaven, just like Joseph Smith did. I told him that Joseph Smith had studied and prayed to develop that relationship with his father, and that he needed to do the same.

I told him that if you would read, his heart would fill with the spirit and he would find peace and contentment in his life like he found peace and contentment in the car.

He said, I promise you that I’ll read this book.

I said, who do you know that could go to church with you? He said, what? I said, you’re thinking about someone right now to go to church with you. Who is it? A smile came across his face, he shook his head, and he said, it’s my brother-in-law. I said, send him a text right now and ask him if you can go to church with him or if he can go to church with you on Sunday. He said I will but I don’t know where I am supposed to go to church.

I looked up his meeting house and time and it was like a block and a half away. I gave it to him and said, Sunday morning you know at 11 o’clock where are you going to be. He said, I’ll be at this church with my brother-in-law. He let me watch him send the text.

He said, the spirit I felt in the car is something I’ve not felt in a long time, and the understanding in my relationship with Heavenly Father is something that I hadn’t thought of for a very long time. I asked him if he would commit to pray to his Heavenly Father. I asked him if he would commit to use the words, Heavenly Father, and not higher power.

He said, I don’t know why I started that and I see now that I need to address my father in heaven properly. He said, I promise I will do that. I said, while you’re reading the Book of Mormon, make sure you pray and talk to your Heavenly Father about it. I told him, you know, he’d like to hear what you have to think about that. Just like with your son, you like to hear from him. He had a tear in his eye, and he said I will do this. I promise you, I will do this.

He said, I need a new life! I need to change my life! He said, this is what I need. He shook my hand and thanked me. I knew he wasn’t thanking me in so much as he was very grateful for what he felt and the understanding that came to his soul there in the car. The light came on, and if he keeps feeding it, it will be bright and glorious.