Have You Achieved Holiness?

Have Achieved Holiness - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 18th Sep, 2007 - 5:08pm

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Post Date: 27th Aug, 2007 - 5:50pm / Post ID: #

Have You Achieved Holiness?

Have You Achieved Holiness?

"Holiness is the strength of the soul. It comes by faith and through obedience to God's laws and ordinances. God then purifies the heart by faith, and the heart becomes purged from that which is profane and unworthy. When holiness is achieved by conforming to God's will, one knows intuitively that which is wrong and that which is right before the Lord. Holiness speaks when there is silence, encouraging that which is good or reproving that which is wrong."
(James E. Faust, "Standing in Holy Places," Ensign, May 2005, 62)

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3rd Sep, 2007 - 9:34pm / Post ID: #

Holiness Achieved Have

I am far from reaching holiness, I have way too many weaknesses but as I try to obey the Commandments, I feel closer to Him. I think like perfection, holiness is a process, maybe an eternal one.



Post Date: 4th Sep, 2007 - 2:06pm / Post ID: #

Have You Achieved Holiness?
A Friend

Have You Achieved Holiness? Studies Doctrine Mormon

Sad thing is I know what more I could do to be holy, but sometimes don't want that ... yet? For example, while generally I'd argue there is no harm in violent video games, I can see that engaging in the games does detract from the Spirit.

Post Date: 4th Sep, 2007 - 8:22pm / Post ID: #

Have You Achieved Holiness?
A Friend

Holiness Achieved Have

I'm Far away from holiness but I try my best every day, though submitting your will to the Lords might be hard sometimes, it becomes an eternal Round process smile.gif

11th Sep, 2007 - 5:25pm / Post ID: #

Holiness Achieved Have

When I think of Holiness I think of the first three letters Hol (Whole). I think holiness involves us being whole human beings in the godly sense. The closer we become to being the people that God desires us to be, the Holier we can become. Right now in my life I am not completely whole in the spiritual sense. I am not the Man I want to be. But the closer I pattern my life after the Savior's, the closer I come to achieving holiness.




Post Date: 18th Sep, 2007 - 10:08am / Post ID: #

Have You Achieved Holiness?
A Friend

Have You Achieved Holiness?

QUOTE (tortdog @ 4-Sep 07, 9:06 AM)
Sad thing is I know what more I could do to be holy, but sometimes don't want that ... yet? For example, while generally I'd argue there is no harm in violent video games, I can see that engaging in the games does detract from the Spirit.

I have that same problem. I know that if I never played violent video games or watched horror movies my spirit would feel a lot cleaner and I'd be able to enjoy a deeper and more frequent peace through the Holy Ghost. For this reason, I've cut back almost entirely (I say "almost" because occasionally I end up watching scary programs on TV) on the horror genre, and have a greater calmness because of it. I still play violent video games (well, one violent video game) but I've also cut back on violent music. It's an unending struggle to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, but it's worth the clean, pure spirit it yields. I don't think any of us have achieved holiness (not that I know everyone), but having an attitude and gravitation towards all things holy will one day get us there.

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Post Date: 18th Sep, 2007 - 5:08pm / Post ID: #

Have You Achieved Holiness?
A Friend

Have Achieved Holiness

QUOTE
"When holiness is achieved by conforming to God's will, one knows intuitively that which is wrong and that which is right before the Lord." - (James E. Faust, "Standing in Holy Places," Ensign, May 2005, 62)


This is a wonderful topic! The message I am seeing here is that we can stand in holy places, like church, temples, etc. and still not be Holy. Or we can become Holy and be Holy where ever we stand. The leaders of the church in Christs day judge him because he hung out with the unholy, harlots, tax collectors, lepers, etc. He was Holy and he knew that is was not that which enters into the man but that which comes from a man that defiles him.

Christ said:

QUOTE
"There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man." - Mark 7:15


Paul explained further:

QUOTE
"Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." - Titus 1:15


There comes a point in our progression in which we reach this holiness. Not that we stop progressing, but in which we have a connection with the infinite and thus realize the blessing that the "doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven." - D&C 121:45

It might be good to point out here that holiness and perfection are not the end of progression. Christ as a child was both holy and perfect, and yet he progressed in both knowledge, experience and developed naturally from a child to a man. So, holiness and perfection are states of being which can be achieved in this life even considering our need for eternal progression.

The tricky part is how to achieve Holiness. Faust said we do this by conforming to God's will. What he didn't say here is that there is a vast difference between God's will and God's law. We often try to conform to God's law which is not God's will. For example, the law says to pray. So we pray even when we don't really feel like it. (I am not talking about praying because you don't feel like praying but want to change to have the desire to pray. I am talking about when we pray because we are supposed to, with no other reason.) In doing so often pray with vain repetitions and wonder what we just said after finishing the prayer. (Speaking from experience.) In this example, we obey the law, (we are supposed to pray before every meal, etc.), but we have not really conformed to God's will.

QUOTE
"For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
    For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
    For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.
      And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with areal intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.
      Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will he give a good gift." - Moroni 7:6-10


In the same way, a man being Holy cannot do that which is evil. This is one of those things where we really can't sit on the fence. We can only be on one side or the other at any one time. And so, what we experience is ourselves jumping over the fence back and forth.

If we have the spirit or the Holy Ghost, then we know we are on the Holy side of the fence, "because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples-" Hel. 4:24, " And when we have this spirit with us, we truly do "intuitively that which is wrong and that which is right before the Lord" as Faust said because the spirit which dwell in us will "show us all things what we should do." - 2Ne. 32:5

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LDS_forever: Please use quote tags when appropriate, thanks.


 
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