I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me for Doctrine and Covenants 94-97, If you missed last week’s insight, for Doctrine and Covenants 93 click here for it. Please share this with your friends or use this picture to save this pin to read later:
Personal Revelation, when we have to act.
“And now I give unto you no more at this time. Amen.”
Doctrine and Covenants 94:17
In Doctrine and Covenants 94, the Lord gave Joseph Smith instructions on establishing the city of Kirtland. I love how the Lord ends this section! After He gives them very detailed instructions of what to do The Lord more or less tells them “that’s it for now, go do it!”
Oftentimes in our lives, we want the Lord to tell us EVERYTHING. But that is not how it is done. He will give us instructions, sometimes they will be very detailed like in Doctrine and Covenants 94, but sometimes it is just “go and do good.” We just need to have faith and move forward doing the best we can, knowing that the Lord will tell us if He needs us to do something and warn us of danger.
Elder Hartman Rector, Jr. taught that “sometimes young people get upset because they do not know what profession to follow. They feel it is so vital that they must have a revelation from the Lord, so they will know what to do with their lives. Generally speaking, I’m not sure that the Lord really cares what we choose as a vocation–whether we are a plumber or a librarian–so long as we keep the commandments of God.”
For more about personal revelation see 7 Principles Of Personal Revelation Every Latter-day Saint Needs To Know!
The Will of a Loving God.
“Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you”
Doctrine and Covenants 95:1
We often think love means that God will make life easy, but that is not the case. In this verse, the Lord says whom He loves He chastises so their sins can be forgiven. God wants to help us become gods! Therefore, He must cut out that which is holding us back.
When we realize and accept God’s love, He will be able to love us enough to “cut us down” as President Brown would put it. We must understand when we love God and trust God, He, as the master Gardner will prune our lives of all that keeps us from celestial glory.
We will NOT always understand it at the time, but the promise is sure, one day we will thank Him for loving us enough to prune our lives of all that would keep us from Him.
“someday . . . when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’” President Hugh B. Brown
Strength ing the Stakes of Zion
“Behold, I say unto you, here is wisdom, whereby ye may know how to act concerning this matter, for it is expedient in me that this stake that I have set for the strength of Zion should be made strong.”
Doctrine and Covenants 96:1
The First Presidency Message for January 1991 contained a message by President Ezra Taft Benson where he outlined 10 responsibilities that Stakehood brought upon each member of the Church. These 10 things can be viewed as our individual ways to ensure we are strengthening our stake so that Zion can be made strong. They are:
- We must be a “light” of the gospel of Jesus Christ to others. The Savior commanded, “What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.” (3 Ne. 27:27.)
- We must seek for opportunities to share the gospel message with others. Member-missionary work is the key to the future growth of the Church, and it is one of the great keys to the individual growth of our members.
- We should do all we can to help prepare our sons and grandsons to serve missions. Each boy should have a mission savings account.
- Our homes should be places of refuge, love, and harmony. Under the direction of the father, each family should have prayers, gospel study, and family home evenings.
- We should seek for the blessings and ordinances of the temple. This means that we are keeping the commandments of the Lord—honesty, integrity, personal chastity—and sustaining the Lord’s priesthood leadership. This also means that the brethren are worthy to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood.
- We have an obligation to do temple work for our kindred dead. This means that we will do the necessary research in order for their names to be sent to the temples. We cannot be exalted without being eternally linked to our ancestors.
- As families we should strive to be self-reliant. Since 1936, members of the Church have been instructed to have in storage a one-year supply of food, clothing, and, where possible, fuel. This enables us to survive loss of employment, loss of income, or even calamity, as spoken of in the revelations.
- Priesthood holders need to provide watchcare over quorum members and their families through organized home teaching. We should have an interest in every fellow member of the Church to whom we may be assigned and who does not fully participate in Church activity.
- We should participate in the programs and activities of the Church—keep the Sabbath as a holy day, attend our meetings, accept callings extended to us, and magnify those callings. Give service willingly; I promise you will have great joy.
- Every adult member should be a full-tithe payer and contribute a generous fast offering.
The Laws of Sacrfice and Consecration lead us to our Calling and Election being made Sure.
“Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me.”
In the temple, we make many covenants. Two covenants, in particular, are that we will obey the law of sacrifice, and the law of consecration. These two laws are intertwined. Sacrifice is the basis of consecration. In this verse of Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord specifically tells the people that if they keep their covenants by sacrifice (IE they are willing to sacrifice their time, talents, and very lives in concreating their all to building the kingdom), then they are accepted of the Lord.
The doctrine behind this verse is explained by the Prophet Joseph Smith who taught that “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.” We must have the faith to willingly sacrifice everything. But, it is not the only time Joseph talked about sacrifice leading us to our calling and election being made sure. Joseph Smith also taught:
“From the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth’s sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will not seek his face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life.”
Lectures on Faith, 6:58; see also D&C 98:11–15 and Teachings, p. 322.
Also see Accepted of the Lord: The Doctrine of Making Your Calling and Election Sure