👻 Holy Spirit's Promptings¶
Estimated time to read: 2 minutes
When leadership in the LDS church has been asked "how do I know if that's the spirit or just me?" the response that seems to be repeatedly stated is "If it inspires you to do good and to follow the gospel then it is of God." This is problematic for a variety of reasons. Among them is the idea that the reverse is implicitly true: anything that comes to mind that isn't explicitly following church leadership must be of Satan.
You are never the source of good. Only God can be good. Another way to ensure you always feel downtrodden and dependent on the church organization. Your thoughts to be a good person are always separate from your own free will and mind, you are evil always and forever.
Its just another hollow promise. You are not being taught from on high if the only way you can be sure is to then filter it through what the Q15 are saying. In other words, they teach that you can be taught by the Holy Ghost but then insist the only way to know if your impulsive thoughts promptings are from God is if those promptings exactly toe the line that mortal men are telling you. If you were being actually inspired by divinity you wouldn't need to consult them.
More importantly... That's it? There's no special way to know for sure? I can't help but think if God himself, the omnipotent and His special spooky guy are unable to make themselves known separate from impulsive thoughts or "the devil" then God is simply unqualified for the job. If there was truly some special divine voice I don't think there would be this sort of inconclusive instruction. We have instructions for how to identify a heavenly messenger in case "it be the devil as an angel of light", but no solid guideline for pedestrian, everyday promptings from the Holy Ghost? Why not?