The prophets spoke to God, and they describe how powerful yet friendly the exchange was! They testified that they spoke to God face to face, the same way we speak to each other. These prophets encourage us to do the same.

No one brought God down to our level than Jesus Christ. The Son of God walked among us, and taught that us we knew him, we would know the Father. (John 14:7). He let us know we can have the same quality of relationship with God that He has. (Romans 8:17).

The notion that God has said all is going to say or will ever say to us does not square with His open-ended invitation to ask, seek and knock--in any generation.

We are created in God's image, male and female. He is our Father. And He is anxious for you to renew your fellowship with Him. He can do the same things in our day that He did in days of old. He lives, and does His Son, Jesus Christ!

God wants to bless you. Jesus has encouraged us to ask, seek, and knock. God is not stuck in the past, he is as able to answer you today as he was in days of old. God has spoken in the past, he is speaking, and he will speak to you if you approach him. He is liberal in his answers, as a father treats his child.

In this podcast, the presenter describes recent blessing given to his brother, and shares some of the specifics of that experience, to illustrate and help you understand how much love God has for you, too.

One of the ways our Heavenly Father speaks to us is through prayer. Learn how to pray and approach him. Finally, as God's boots on the ground, we need to pray that Heavenly Father will protect our children and those around us from abuse, that we can be God's eyes and ears and help those who are praying to be rescued.

Many people have seen God and Jesus Christ in their spiritual glory. Visions, out-of-body and near-death experiences can be found in scripture, journals, books, and other recorded accounts. While such spiritual events occur, Satan is raging to suppress knowledge of the very existence of God--deceiving many. From the time that old serpent, the Devil, appeared in the Garden of Eden, God has promised Adam and Eve--and their posterity--that through Christ, we have had the power to crush his head. With any spiritual experience or insight, we should expect that the Devil is given the opportunity to test and to try us, to see if we are true and faithful to those experiences and the abilities we acquire to bless others. Satan is trying to stop our effectiveness in blessing our families and others.

The power of the Devil is real. He wanted to force righteousness on all of God's children who inherently have the power of free will. Because Satan's plans of "exaltation for all" was rejected in favor of the eternal plan of agency and accountability, he became our bitter enemy, and we are at war. In the end, Satan can only offer hopelessness, fear, despair and suffering. However, we can reach out to Jesus Christ and his redeeming power for our salvation, his arms always remain stretched out to embrace and receive us.

In this episode, the presenter reviews portions of the visions of Alfred Douglas Young, a Mormon Pioneer, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Moses--to establish a pattern of the Devil, who tries to prevent these individuals or persuade them to deny their spiritual encounters with Deity. Through these experiences, we learn that spiritual warfare is going on, and that we can and will win. But we must prepare to endure the buffetings of Satan and cast him out of our lives, as often as necessary. While we may not have the same lofty spiritual experiences of others, we can expect to be tried and tested to the degree that we advance spiritually. We have all the spiritual armor and weapons that we need to overcome and defeat Satan, finding light, peace, and joy.

The last three episodes described Zion or Heaven on Earth, and the power that can be generated by a group or city of righteous people, and the power, protection and the joy that comes from this collective righteousness: God protects his people. In this episode, return to the fundamental principles and ordinances that are central to how we, individually, get to that point. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple, and consists of faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost--nothing more, nothing less. Faith is the moving cause of all temporal and spiritual action. Through repentance, we can get rid of the effects of sin and become truly free to act in accordance with God's will. Baptism is how we demonstrate our commitment to Jesus Christ, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost, we can know the truth of all things (John 14:26; John 15:26). Personal examples of these principles in practice are shared.

According to Methodist Scholar Margaret Barker, and others, the accounts of Enoch and Melchizedek were scrubbed from the post-exilic Jewish scriptural compilations. Why? Were their miraculous stories and incredible successes too fantastic to believe in a modern world? 1 Enoch also speaks about an end-times Messiah--was it too much to believe? Although today's Bible barely mentions them, Enoch and Melchizedek were known to the ancients, and there is clear evidence that the book of 1 Enoch was read and quoted by the apostles and familiar to Jewish society. In this podcast, we learn that similar acts of protection may be necessary to protect the righteous, give Mother Earth a rest, and reestablish Zion once again upon the earth, a place or places where the righteous can dwell in peace and safety while the world rages against them and against one another.

Are the Church and Kingdom of God the same thing? Initially the two enjoy a symbiotic relationship, as a mother and child. But they become separate entities with separate functions. The Kingdom of God is destined to become a secular organization. Within its structure, a plurality of religions and religious beliefs will be protected and permitted to exercise freedom of conscience. Has the Kingdom of God been born yet, as described in Revelation 12, or is it still waiting to be born?

The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had a disturbing dream that only the exiled Jewish prophet, Daniel, could interpret: the stone cut out of a mountain, without hands, filling the whole earth, crushing every remaining kingdom set up by man. This was the kingdom of heaven, and it's still coming. Flashes of this kingdom have been set up upon the earth in the past. We'll explore in some detail the church and kingdom that Peter and the apostles established following 40 days of instruction from the resurrected Lord (Acts 1:1-3). The love of God is what makes heaven on earth possible. Meanwhile, Satan attempts to set up his coercive plans of external force, threats and economic control to try and establish his kingdom. The kingdom of God leads to unconditional sharing, crimeless, and classless societies where miracles, knowledge and riches abound, while the latter leads to misery, crime, poverty, and destruction. Which kingdom will we choose?

Trials of faith are more valuable than gold. 1 Peter 1:7. We won't receive an affirmation of our faith, or witness, until we are tried first. In this life, we face opposition in all things. For every good thing we receive, we can expect opposition from the adversary. Expect it and be aware of it. But there is no comparison to the joy we can feel versus the opposition we will have to endure.

Instead of focusing on the obstacles that the adversary is putting in our way, we need to remain focused on the Lord's plan to bring about heaven on earth--through us (boots on the ground).

While we prepare for heaven on earth, we will be gathered to safe places. The Lord will watch over and protect his flock.

What does it mean to be born again? Who can be born again? In this episode, I talk briefly about my approach to Bible study before beginning an examination of the Savior's doctrine that we must be born again as set forth in John chapter 3. We study the examples of the Day of Pentecost, Saul's conversion, Alma the Younger, and personal experiences of witnessing the Holy Spirit speaking to and converting others. Also, what do we do after we have been born again? Is it a guarantee that we will stay on the path of righteousness? In the end times, we will be tried and tested for our commitment to Jesus--but that path of discipleship is a joyful path, in spite of its challenges. If we keep on the path we will participate in building the kingdom of God on the earth.

In this podcast, I explain what faith is, as I have come to understand it, through scripture, scriptural examples, personal experience, and the testimony of others. There is no greater force that will change the world than your exercise of faith in Jesus Christ.