Cherished Outcome

I had a very good friend come over yesterday. I hadn’t seen him in a while, so it was a very pleasant 150 minutes together.

We both have daughters that are very gifted, which is a great thing and a very hard thing. We discussed much. Unfortunately, much of it is our private conversation and will most likely not make it here. Fortunately, there are concepts that we discussed that we can talk about here. Well, that along with other life experiences the Savior has “blessed” me with. I say blessed because sometimes while going through what is brought into our lives it doesn’t seem or feel like a blessing. It is later that we look at the big picture and see how it all fits together and that honestly, it was a blessing.

Several months ago a husband and wife came here to “vet” me and what we do. We spent a good two hours together. My impression was they were a really good couple, full of love for each other and their family. She was suffering from an illness. They had told me this before they came and I asked the Savior if she was “appointed unto death.”  The answer was “no.”

“And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed.” (D&C 42:48)

We’ve discussed this before here, but it needs to be mentioned again. The woman texted me asking us to come because she wanted a blessing. Several weeks later we found ourselves at their home. We took two couples to help with the portalcism on their property and home along with what we have come to call a counselor. The counselor has always been a woman that is well versed in what we do. She is there to answer any questions and make sure the family doesn’t bother us while we work. If they are looking out the window and focusing on my sighted friend it messes up her energy and focus.

The morning before we left I asked again if she was appointed unto death and the answer came back in the middle, it was not a “no” this time, but it wasn’t a “yes” either. Praise God I said.

After we had cleared the property and home I explained what the clearing/blessing on her would entail. I told her about asking the Savior if she was appointed unto death and how the answer turned out. My sighted friend said that without the blessing she would transition in two days. I believed that because of how frail the woman looked. She also said that the blessing would give her another two weeks to decide what she wanted to do, stay or go home.

My cherished outcome was the Lord Jesus Christ would heal her, a huge miracle would be declared and she’d live another hundred years with her wonderful husband and children. We’d seen these things before and I just knew. I had laid hands on people’s head before and felt His power surging through my hands. I just knew this would be another time He’d pull through for this family and me.

Did I really know? Not at all. I had a cherished outcome and therefore really couldn’t receive what the Savior wanted me to know because I already knew. In other words, my own desires or will got muddled in my mind and I decided the Lord God would do my will.

Can you believe that? After all this time I still get “muddled” and want my will to be done, forgetting it is always about His will.

This woman transitioned 15 days after the clearing/blessing. I have talked to her and she is happy where she is and is planning to work hard helping her family to get to Him, the Lord Jesus Christ and joining her many mortal years from now. It was her will or desire to transition. What a blessing she is to her husband and children. I pray the Lord Jesus Christ will give them comfort and peace. My sighted friend would later tell me that we did exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ wanted us to do in relation to this woman. Parise God.

Nearly twenty years ago my own daughter lay in the ICU of Primary Children’s Hospital. We were told she would transition within twenty-four hours. I went to back of the hospital to pray. Actually I went there to rail on God about my daughter transitioning. I had my cherished outcome that a miracle would ensue and she’d leave the hospital whole and completely recovered. The stroke that had completely destroyed her left brain would disappear and all the tissue would come back healthy. Just a minor miracle for You Lord I told myself.

She did live, but it has been a hard struggle for her and us ever since. She did come home spiritually sighted. Some days we wondered if spiritual sight was a gift as some call it or a curse. Her “healing” didn’t happen until I let go of my cherished outcome and gave gratitude and praise to my Father in Heaven for her and her life. I gave thanks for her life and then her death, telling Father that it was His will that needed to be done, not mine. I gave thanks for the ten years we had with her. All of this expressed gratitude from the heart opened the door for the Savior to do what His will was, not mine.

Recently, a friend called and asked if I’d help voice a blessing to her husband. I asked and received a yes, so I prepared myself. When I got there another friend that they had called was also there. We chatted for a while and then laid hands on the man’s head and voiced the blessing. The Savior cleared him of all spiritual weapons and entities, plus all else that need to be taken off his body. I don’t remember much else that was said.

After I got home my sighted friend called me and asked about what had happened. She ended up going to the couple’s home and he ended up in the hospital getting the needed medication to take care of the physical side of things.

Once again it was my cherished outcome that got in the way. I wanted my good friend healed. Wouldn’t you? How about your daughter? Or a woman that is still young and needed by her family? All cherished outcomes.

I have found that God doesn’t do cherished outcomes. It is about His will which is the Father’s will. He sees the big picture and knows what is best for each of us.

Even then I challenged my sighted friend about this. (Some days my soul just needs to be shaken and told how it is, so I challenge.) I told her that if the Savior had been here doing His mortal mission during these events, they’d all have been healed. “Just read the Bible,” I told her, “He healed everybody!”

There are times when I make statements like this that I realize that I’m about to be “schooled” or educated about my false ideas or misconceptions. Especially in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was told that He didn’t heal everyone. There were many He couldn’t heal due to lack of faith. (Didn’t he tell the Nephites this?) Others He couldn’t heal because they had to experience the effects of their causes, or the consequences of their actions. Meaning natural law declared they needed to pay for what they had done. She said my one friend that ended up in the hospital that night was paying physically for the way he had treated his body during his mortal life to that point. The foods he had eaten, the sugar, snacks, the lack of rest or however else he had treated his mortal flesh. Natural law declared a price has to be paid. Since that was the case there was nothing the Savior could do for him at that moment.

My sighted friend went on to explain that when Christ was mortal doing His mission, he met many that were doing the same thing, paying for how they had lived. He would tell them to repent, or change their habits and what to eat to help make their body healthy again. For most of these people He couldn’t do a thing but educate them.

I had just been educated. Do you think if I eat donuts and drink Coke for forty years, thereby developing massive health problems, I can just call on Him to deliver me from my own idiocy and heal me? The law of cause and effect states that for every action there is a reaction or a consequence. Even a cherished outcome on my behalf won’t work! Cherished outcomes don’t work. The effects in our lives will be determined by what we do. If you choose to stay up late playing video games with your children all the while knowing you need to get up early the next morning to get to work, how will your day at work be? Tired, groggy, messed up? You caused that effect/consequence and you will experience it to the fullest effect.

Remembering these experiences made me realize we block the Savior’s will by wanting our own will done, by having cherished outcomes, and by having the law of cause and effect kick in.

It should always be about His will. We have covered this before, but not in concert with cherished outcomes or needing to “suffer” for our choices. If someone calls asking for help, it might be important to ask Him about the situation. Is the person appointed unto death? Do they want to transition? If so, then there is nothing you can do. Do you have any cherished outcomes? If so, will the Lord’s process get muddled up? Is the person suffering for what they brought on themselves and the Lord’s hands are tied, so to speak? Did they come to mortality to have the experience they are now going through? Will you or can you mess it up with your own desires or will? The November 11, 2019 post talked about many of these things in a different light. Might be good to review it. It is called, Is This What PTSD Feels Like?

There is much to consider when we get involved doing His work. Is it important that we get out of the way and do what He wants us to do in the moment for that particular person? I am repenting of cherished outcomes, of thinking the Lord Christ can heal everyone and that nothing can get in His way. Are there times He can supersede natural law? Yes, but that is another discussion.

Part of what my friend and I discussed yesterday was how the Savior sees the “big” picture. He sees all the ramifications and knows what is best for each of us. Might it be important to defer to Him?

All honor, praise, and glory to Him and to our Parents. How this world presents itself to us is amazing, allowing us to learn cause and effect/consequence, learn how important it is to follow Their will and not ours, and to not have cherished outcomes. Doing all of this brings us closer to Them, we become more like Them.

Doing this, putting ourselves in Their shoes, seeing things from the spiritual like They do, helps us to not just understand things, but to comprehend them. Comprehension is so much more valuable than understanding. It’s understanding at a whole new level, don’t you think? Understanding is a male virtue, while the female opposite of understanding is wisdom. Putting these two together in balance brings knowledge or comprehension, which is a much more valuable tool. This helps us become like our Parents and Savior. They walk in balance between understanding and wisdom and therefore comprehend all things. May we do the same. One way to do so is to get rid of our cherished outcomes and view all from Their point of view, spiritually.

God bless.