Trafficking with the spirit

One day I was driving back from Salt Lake in rush-hour. When I do that I like to put on the directional parameters so that it can only push me towards home. Believe me, you don’t want to get sucked out to Eagle Mountain during rush-hour.

I got a ride from a kid in Lehi right by the hotels. He got in and we started to drive. I was taking him to Orem and normally that would be a pretty quick drive but not during rush hour that is a forever task to get on the freeway and it’s a daunting endeavor all the way down the freeway until you pass Pleasant Grove. That 15 minute ride can easily become a 45 minute ride. I don’t know about everyone else but when I’m driving in that kind of traffic, I’m focused and I feel like I’m doing battle. That day I sure did. Everyone was honking at everyone else and the temperature of the situation seem to be skyrocketing on the freeway.

This young man got in the car, apparently oblivious to the attention needed for the conditions and became very very very chatty. He had a million questions. He hit me with like 25 questions right off the bat covering everything from why I’m driving Uber to where my kids live. I was half paying attention and half trying not to be killed by the other drivers on the road when the spirit slapped me in the face.

I remember distinctly having the impression that said, obviously he’s fine with questions. Why don’t you participate in this and ask him the important ones? I remember thinking that he had been bold and personal with the questions that he had asked me so I could just jump in and be bold with him.

I decided to start with revisiting his first question which was, why are you driving? I’m sure he was expecting to hear something along the lines of “ it’s how I make my living or it’s my side hustle”. Everyone has the mistaken idea that rideshare is a gold mine and they love to talk about that. That’s how I answered him the first time around. This time I jumped in and said, “before you asked me why I was driving. I’m driving because Heavenly Father puts people in my car and I’m supposed to help them”. I said, he gives me the words to say and I say them.

This wasn’t the answer that he had expected but I could tell it was well received. He asked, what do you mean and why am I in your car? The spirit filled my heart with the words to say and I said, you have friends that are members of the church and you love being around them. You love living here in Utah and it just feels right to you. I’m here to ask you what the reasons are that you haven’t accepted baptism yet so I can resolve those questions with you. That way you can tell your friends that you’re ready to be baptized. Heavenly Father thinks it’s time and so do I.

That was very bold considering he looked and felt like a member already and I hadn’t even asked him yet if he was . The only thing I knew about him besides what the spirit told me to say was that he moved here two years ago and the spirit was clearly working in the car.

The word astounded is a word I don’t use much but in this case it’s the most accurate descriptive word I can think of regarding him in this situation. I said, what I need you to do right now is tell me what the are reasons that you have not been baptized.

We were getting right to it. He said, I guess there’s only one way you could’ve known that. It had to be from God.. I believe in signs from God and this has to be one of them. How much time do we have? I said, we have all the time we need and traffic is crawling so let’s go.

He said, first off I’ve already been baptized in my church. Why do I need to be baptized again and what’s so different about this baptism? What was wrong with my last baptism?

He said, I kind of got put on the defensive when they said my first baptism was evil. I don’t think it was evil. I think my parents were trying to do what Jesus taught us to do and I think our priest was a good man. How could it be evil?

I said, many times in trying to draw a distinction between the baptism of Jesus Christ that we have and the baptism done in other churches, we tend to diminish the sacred nature of the offering made in good faith by those people towards God.

I said, I assure you that God was neither offended nor displeased with the efforts of your parents or your priest. They were doing the best they knew how to do. God knows that all we can do is the best that we can do and the best that we know how.

I asked him if his friends had explained to him about Jesus coming to America with regards to baptism . He said, no they just talked about the picture of him with John the Baptist. I said, let’s talk about Jesus here in America.

I said, Jesus descended from heaven after being announced by his father to the people here in America. He descended until he stood on the steps of the temple. They went up and touched the prints of the nails in his hands and his feet and they knew they had their God standing in front of them.

These were people who were members of his church, in many cases they had been baptized and they were waiting for his arrival. That’s why they recognized who he was and were spared by God for that time.

After touching the prints of the nails, they all in one voice asked for salvation. As a direct response to that plea, Jesus Christ called up 12 of them. He gave them the proper authority to baptize and commanded that each one of them be baptized with this new baptism. He gave them the salvation they sought through baptism.

He didn’t spend one second ripping on their former baptism or saying that he didn’t appreciate it. To the contrary, they were saved to meet him and receive further blessings, including this baptism because of the faith they had shown and the things that they had done. Jesus didn’t diminish their previous worship at all, he accepted it and used it as the starting point to provide further instruction.

This was the iteration of his gospel, faith, repentance and baptism were the first three parts of that gospel. He invited them to take a step to a new level of discipleship, to receive a new level of blessings and understanding. He invited them to make that covenant with this new baptism.

That baptism could only be performed by his authority and in the way that he prescribed. That baptism given by Jesus Christ which the people were invited to receive is the same baptism that we do today. That baptism comes with a step up in discipleship and the making of a new higher covenant.

I said, when we talk about having the fullness of the gospel it means that we have the covenants and ordinances that other people in the world don’t have. It’s our job to bring them these covenants and help them take that step up to a new level of discipleship.

I said, when they invite you to be baptized, it is that same invitation that Jesus extended to the people here in America only this time it’s personalized and directed to you. God is inviting you to take that step up to that new level.

With regards to your previous baptism, it was a demonstration of faith by you, your parents and all involved. It was a demonstration of your love for him and your willingness to follow him. That’s neither evil nor worthless. It was doing the best you knew how to do but now you’ve been invited to take that next step to receive more blessings for you and your family.

Next, as if he hadn’t totally connected the dots on what I had said, he asked, what’s wrong with my church? In the end aren’t we all going to the same place? I said, the good people of the Earth who tried to follow Christ will be in a kingdom of glory. God isn’t going to send anyone to hell that tries to follow Jesus Christ. The thing is, to be in the presence of God you need to be on that higher level. You need to make those covenants and you need to take that step up. I said, I guess the best way I could put it is that each church has some truth and teaches some good things, but they don’t all have the authority of God to perform his baptism and do the things necessary to allow us to take that step up and enter his presence.

He said, that sounds a lot better than the way it sounded in my head when I heard it before. I said, you have to realize that with God it’s always about love. You have to realize that with God he looks at each one of us as his child and he wants us to be rescued and come home to live with him.

I said, that’s why we do baptisms for the dead. He said, oh, my friends told me about that. I said, each person that ever lived will have a baptism performed for them and they will get a chance to accept it so that they can enter the presence of God. He said, that’s a more complete picture for sure. I like that answer. I always wondered what would happen to all those people that died who didn’t hear the gospel in their lifetime. This is the only answer I’ve ever heard that makes sense. Hearing what you’ve told me today, it makes even more sense than it did before.

Next, he said that it was a little bit vain, but he wanted to be different. He said, it’s a little bit egotistical but he thought that being a little bit different made him special. He was afraid that once he was a member of the church everyone would drop him and move on to the next person. He wanted to make sure that everything was on the up and up and genuine with his relationships.

I told him that when we teach people in the church, we teach from our heart. I told him that this connection and the love developed through that service most likely would not allow abandonment by his friends. I said, when you teach someone the gospel, you create a life bond and even though you may lose contact, there is always a special feeling between those people. I promised him he would never lose that and furthermore, I told him, that if he would share the gospel, he would feel that love and make other people feel special just like he had felt. I said, sharing the gospel is one of the most amazing loving things you can do. You bring the spirit of God to someone and that transforms all of the people involved and binds them together. He said, that’s what I want to do! That sounds right, that sounds awesome!

He said, probably the last issue I have is my pride. If I decide to get baptized, it’s like I am admitting I was wrong. That’s a pride thing. I asked him what God taught us about pride and he said it was one of the deadly sins. I said, when Jesus suffered on the cross , he experienced complete and total humiliation in the eyes of men. When he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane he suffered our complete humiliation. Due to this, he has the ability to lift us through whatever personal pride issues or humiliation that we may suffer. He can fill us with his love and bless us with his atonement so that we can hold our head up in the presence of others even as we humble ourselves before him. It’s OK to be wrong, it’s OK to make mistakes, but it’s divine to humble ourselves before God and correct our circumstance.

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he said that he did. He said that he had received a Book of Mormon from his friend and that they studied it together. He said that his friend had been such a good friend that he couldn’t ask him these personal questions. I told him that this is why God put him in my car so that he could get over that hump. He said that he recognized that.

I said, the other thing I need to talk to you about is the spirit of God. It’s been in the car today with us. He said, yes, I felt it. I asked him what it felt like, and he said that it felt like light shooting out from every part of his body. I said, that’s the spirit of God.

I asked him why it would be here with us today. He said, because we’ve talked about God. I said, yes, that’s true but it’s more than that. God sends us his spirit to confirm the truth of the things that are being taught and the things that are being said. I asked him, what do you think the message was that God confirmed to you today? He said, that the church is true. I asked, what about baptism, did the spirit confirm to you that you needed to be baptized? He bowed his head, then lifted his eyes slightly and said, yes, yes it did. I asked him what that meant he was going to do. He said, I guess it means I need to get baptized.

I said, that’s exactly the message I would derive from that. We chuckled. I asked him when he was going to see his friend again and he said that night. I asked him what he was going to tell his friend. He thought about it for a second and said, well I think I need to tell him that we had this ride and I’ve had my questions answered. I asked him if he was going to tell his friend that he wanted to be baptized? He said, I need to do that, don’t I? I said yes you do!

He laughed and said, that’s what I’ll do. Tonight I’ll tell my friend that I’m ready to be baptized.

I said, once you’ve had the spirit testify to you that the church is true and that you need to be baptized, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, you can repent of your sins and be baptized. When you do this, you will be cleansed and pure. You’ll be ready to stand before God and have his spirit be with you. He said, that’s a step up! I said, yes it is.

Remember that 15 minute ride? It took me 35 minutes but we needed every one of them. It was awesome.