Have you ever heard of a spiritual awakening? What does it mean to be spiritual awaken? I like to think of it this way; if a man is physically asleep he is unaware of the world that is going on around him. He is, in a sense, in his own world. His mind could be in Hawaii resting on a warm beach with his toes in the sand enjoying the sun while his body is in a sleeping bag in the canyon or in a small apartment in England. His mind is closed off to itself, unknowing of the world around it. But the tricky part of it all is that he is unaware of it. He goes on his merry way in a dream world that seems reality, oblivious to anything that may be happening around him physically. That is, until he is awaken.
My religious/spiritual awakening is something a little different than many others that have been told, though I would argue that each path is in itself very different. Nonetheless, it is not the cliché. I did not convert from one religious sect to another to another; nor was I raised in a household where God’s teachings were absent, where there was not a Bible to be read. No, that’s not my story. Very much the opposite in fact, I grew up in a house where prayer as a family was a regular thing, where scripture study was encouraged. So how can a person with such an upbringing have a spiritual awakening you ask? Simple. Everyone must, we are all God’s children and have our own special relationship with him.
Another thing that you need to know about me; I grew up a bit of a rebel… and maybe still am. If you were to tell me that I HAD to take out the garbage, guess what? That garbage would sit. On the flip side, if I were to walk past the garbage and notice that it was full, most times I would take it out. I like to do things because I want to do them. I have free will, and dang it, I’m going to use it. And so it was with religion.
In my late teen years I began to really question what in the world I was doing here and what my purpose was. I started looking at the different churches with more interest than before, including the religion that my parents belonged to and that I regularly attended. I had always felt that when I prayed, someone was listening and more than once I felt that those prayers were answered, and I never doubted that there was a God. I guess I owe much of that to said upbringing.
As I studied the bible it became very apparent to me that God was not a liar, and did not take pleasure in teasing his children. He’s got a lot to do, why waste time with a magnifying glass on an ant pile? What he said went, and was true. So why so many churches? I figured they all, for the most part, had good intent, but why confuse us? John 3 tells us that something such as baptism is required to get into heaven, could there be multiple ways to do that? Would God not be true and fair? As I took a look at the different religions I realized that for a church to even call itself the true church of God (as so many do), it needed to have real authority, something more than just a good interpretation of the bible. It needed to have a divine foundation, or in other words, be setup by God.
There are only a handful of churches that actually claim that. As luck would have it, the religion that I had attended my whole life was one of them. You might say that I had been asleep.
Multiple times the word of God teaches that those who seek with a pure heart and real intent shall find and that those who knock shall have it opened unto them. James chapter one says that if any man should lack wisdom, or have a question that he can ask of God. It goes on to say that God will answer those that ask in faith. So let me get this straight, if I have a question, I can ask God? That seems too simple… for countless years men have pondered on the divinity of the Creator. Books, movies, plays, TV shows, and arguments have been centered on the meaning of life. Is it truly that easy, ask of God? Yes, well, no actually. The principle is that easy, but the actual deed may not be. The bible says “seek and ye shall find”, the key word in the sentence being SEEK. There is action implied. The Lord does not reward laziness, to find the answer that I was looking for I would have to do my part. So I prayed, I fasted, I studied and I attended religious meetings. Then I put the advice given by James into action, I knelt down and prayed. I woke up.
I realized that what I had known all along was true, God lives, Jesus Christ is my Redeemer and he died for me. The dream I had been living in dispersed and I began to see the world for what it really is. I was spiritually awakened. And the church that the Lord led me to? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the only church that claims Jesus Christ to be the head of the church, to have prophets and 12 apostles, and to have the true priesthood of the Master.
Ask and ye shall receive. No words have ever been uttered that have more truth than those. I am a witness that God lives, that he is our Father and that he answers prayers. I felt so strong about those convictions that I sacrificed two years of my life to share that message. I served as a missionary for the LDS church in Houston, and even learned the Spanish language so that I could teach more people. Jesus Christ is the Savior, I know that. I have had prayers answered, and have been awakened. I share that with all that will listen.
You might think that I shout from the rooftops, “Believe me! Believe me!”, I don’t. In fact, don’t believe me. Take what James taught and use it, don’t believe me, rather, ask God. Do your part, put forth the effort and ask God. Who knows, you might be living in a dream.