I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come Follow Me Enos–Words of Mormon. (If you missed last week’s insights for Come Follow Me Jacob 5-7 click here). Save this pin to read later.
Personal Revelation
“Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.”
Enos 1:3
When we step out of the world and experience a stillness that the world refuses to allow, we are able to reflect, ponder and invite revelation. Enos experienced this.
Anyone who has hunted before knows you’re as quiet as humanly possible. During this stillness, it allowed Enos to receive the promptings of the Spirit. Not only did he ponder but he acted. He knelt down and prayed before God, not only did he pray, he prayed with his whole heart and the Lord answered him.
Enos sets a pattern for us to follow in gaining personal revelation. He stepped out of the normal day to day minutia and in peace and quiet pondered upon the Gospel and sought the Lord.
If our lives are too loud, we won’t hear the still small voice of the Spirit. Ask yourself. Do I have times of stillness? If not, create them like Enos! It does not need to be extreme. We can create stillness in a multitude of ways. Whether it is a walk in a park or some early morning yoga. Perhaps a temple visit. Or maybe it is turning off your music at the gym or the radio on the car drive. Or turning off the iPod on the walk home from school. Maybe it is just a moment in the bathroom that you can find the peace to hear your own thoughts.
It does not matter where you find that you can create stillness, but create it. Wake up a little earlier than normal tomorrow, when there is stillness in the house. Hold a personal prayer where you can commune with God. And don’t just speak, listen. Moments of peace and quiet, are moments of revelation.
Boyd K. Packer
Faith To Be Healed?
“And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith.”
Enos 1:12
We often talk about faith, do you have faith to move a mountain? Do you have faith to produce miracles? I had someone call me in tears talking about faith to be healed, saying “I have the faith to be healed, why have I not been healed?”
This quote came to my mind, as it poses the question I asked her:
“I know you have the faith to be healed, but do you have the faith not to be healed?”
David A. Bednar
For some people, miraculous healing is in the plan, for others faithfully enduring is. My father-in-law who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer bore his testimony on this topic to the family two weeks ago when he told us, “I want to be healed, I hope to be healed, but if not, I want to be an example of faith and living the gospel.”
Believing God can take away our pains and sorrows is faith. But believing in His plan when he does not, is a noble form of faith that I call trust. So do you have enough faith in God and His plans?
Jarom’s Story.
Whenever I read the book of Jarom my heart starts to melt a little bit as I miss my nephew. But then I rejoice in the plan, I would like to share his story with you: Jarom’s Story.
It was just after New Years’ 2004, that’s when we got the bad news. I did not fully understand what was going on, I was not even 14, but my parents rushed to the hospital and left us, kids, at home.
A few hours passed and my mom came back to the house and gathered the kids together and told us we were going to the hospital, and that she would explain along the way. As we drove she told us that we were now aunts and uncles. Our sister-in-law had her baby boy, Jarom. Then she explained Jarom was born months early, and when he was born the doctors said there was no chance for him to survive. (He lived just long enough for my brother and dad to give him a name and a blessing, and to be released from this life).
We went to the hospital and saw my brother holding his first child, now lifeless in his arms. He then asked if we wanted to hold our nephew? I don’t know why I did, but I said yes. I sat there in the Provo hospital holding a small lifeless child in my arms, I did not know the impact this event would have in my life at the time, but it would never be the same.
I gained a personal conviction that all life is sacred in that hospital room, as I watched my brother mourn over the loss of his son I gained a greater understanding of how Heavenly Father felt to watch His Son come to earth and to watch His Son die.
But the story does not end there. My sister went on a mission later that year. On her mission she had a dream where a man approached her and introduced himself as Jarom, he told her that he wanted to let her know that everything was ok and that he was very busy teaching. He then told my sister, “Tell Grandma that there are a lot of people here who needed their temple work done.”
When Jarom passed away our family history was at a couple of hundred names, not bad for a family of converts! But my sister told my mom about her dream. And within 2 years of Jarom’s death, our family history went from a couple hundred to over 10,000 names.
Jarom taught me that the work on the other side is real. Because of Jarom, I have memories of going often to the Mount Timpanogos Temple and doing baptisms for the dead, one time doing almost 100 baptisms in a single day!
So when I think of heaven, when it feels far away I think about this memory. I think of Jarom, and I am amazed by the impact on my life that a little baby who lived less than 1 hour had on my life.
Not only did he teach me to love the temple, I now know he has already made it to the Celestial Kingdom, but Jarom also provides motivation when times get hard. He’s already there, and I want to see him again. Because families can be together forever!
The Righteous.
“Wherefore, the Lord did visit them in great judgment; nevertheless, he did spare the righteous that they should not perish, but did deliver them out of the hands of their enemies.”
Omni 1:7
Far too often when we talk about the calamities of the last day’s members will say things like “oh that could never happen here!” Well, we live in a world that is more wicked than the times of Noah. The judgments of God can only be stayed for so long. Some people think that because of the righteous we will not have any suffering, that we will be insulated from the storm.
That is NOT what the Prophets and Apostles have taught. Were the early saints insulated from the storm? NO! They were driven from state to state and eventually out of the country. The people in our day are not any better. There is a coming storm, have we listened to the warnings of the Prophets to awake and prepare? If so, we will be delivered not from the whole storm, but the worst parts.
Loving the sinner, but hating the sin.
“And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people.”
Words of Mormon 1:8
What is your prayer to God? Is it for wealth? Success? Protection? Or like Mormon do you pray for those around you? It is important to remember how wicked the people were in the days of Mormon. When we read Words of Mormon it’s in a happy part of the Book of Mormon, right before King Benjamin.
But Words of Mormon is basically an editor’s note, he wrote it hundreds of years later, when the Nephites and Lamanites are in the middle of a bloody war, where both sides were wicked and committing crimes against God. He loved his fellow men and prayed for them.
Mormon also put his mouth where his prayers were. He cried repentance. Russell M. Nelson speaks of this type of love, the love that will cause you to love the sinner but hate the sin.
Russell M. Nelson