Week 36 is scheduled for study September 2-8, 2024. Note the common theme throughout this week’s lessons. All of the topics involve the need to deliberately remember God and His blessings.
Day 1
Helaman 7-11 – Prophets reveal the will of God to the People.
We might be tempted to believe that we are nothing like those called as prophets. Somehow we can’t comprehend or tune into the workings of the Spirit like they can. If that were true then they wouldn’t be human like the rest of us, and we know that is not true. Prophets are born and raised among us just as we are born and raised among us. So why are they prophets and we are not?
Let’s consider for a moment the nature of revelation. All forms of spiritual knowledge are gifts from God. The mortal mind cannot conceive of godly things, only mortal things. It is when we seek our Father in Heaven in prayer, with the commitment in our heart to change our behavior to align with His will that He opens the windows of heaven and begins to enlighten our mind and change the feelings and intents of our heart in ways that bring us greater joy and happiness in life. It is because of these bits and pieces of enlightenment that we begin to comprehend the eternities and the scope of our existence as eternal beings. We become more comfortable in our belief that God not only is real, but that He loves us and is mindful of what happens in our life.
The reality of God being real and ever present, as well as being a supreme being increases over time. The more experience we have with the Spirit guiding us and directing our efforts to draw closer to God, the more real and present He becomes in our life. This is where people like the prophets differentiate themselves from the rest of us. They continue on in that path, pursuing greater knowledge, practicing deliberate obedience in the privacy of their personal life, and learning to experience joy in the service of others and in His name. We on the other hand too often become lax in our efforts, forgetting to pray or doing so without much intent to change and become better today than we were yesterday. The difference is in the amount of deliberate effort made to align ourselves with the will of God. Those God calls as prophets are more intent on being like Him than we often are.
Example
When Nephi was on his garden tower lamenting over the condition of his people he became engaged in a conversation with some who had been gathered by those overhearing his mourning. I invite you to read the following verses and consider something as you read them. Note how plainly Nephi speaks to the people. This is not as I tend to speak to my neighbors, nor I dare say how you might speak to your neighbors. He is speaking with the same open and caring concern for their welfare that God has for us. Note his language and his plainness about the state of their souls and the impending destruction that awaits them if they do not repent. He sees them as eternal beings who are placing themselves in dire circumstances. There is no malice, no lording anything over them, nor anger in his tone. He loves these people and is concerned for their very lives. Far more in fact than they are themselves. This is Helaman 7:13-18.
13 And it came to pass that he opened his mouth and said unto them: Behold, have ye gathered yourselves together? That I may tell you of your iniquities?
14 Yea, because I have got upon my tower that I might pour out my soul unto my God, because of the exceeding sorrow of my heart, which is because of your iniquities!
15 And because of my and lamentation ye have gathered yourselves together, and do marvel; yea, and ye have great need to marvel; yea, ye ought to marvel because ye are given away that the devil has got so great hold upon your hearts.
16 Yea, how could you have given way to the enticing of him who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to misery and endless wo?
17 O repent ye, repent ye! will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. Why has he forsaken you?
18 It is because you have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not unto the voice of the ; yea, ye have him to anger against you.
Can you hear our Father in Heaven speaking these same words to the people? Nephi thinks of them like God thinks of them. He speaks to them as God would speak to them. He has so aligned himself with the thinking and feelings of God that they are, as the saying goes, one. If Christ were there instead of Nephi, can you see him speaking anything other than what Nephi said? This is the difference between a prophet and me. I am trying, but he has tried much harder and practiced far more than me. Both of us are able to achieve the same result, but we must both have the same desires of the heart to do so. I’m still working on the desires of my heart. So when you hear a prophet be plain in his reproach or blunt in his warnings, this is why. He sees the truth about what is going to happen to us where we do not. He is the warning voice sent to us from our Father in Heaven.
It is the day after these scriptures that the Lord gives Nephi his promise of eternal life. Why? These verses give us the answer (Helaman 10:4-6).
4 art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine , but hast sought my , and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that things shall be unto thee according to thy , for thou shalt ask that which is contrary to my will.
6 Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, and shall smite the earth with , and with pestilence, and destruction, according to the wickedness of this people. (Emphasis added)
These are three of the most powerful verses in all the scriptures. What God is promising to Nephi He can promise in essence to all of us when we are as faithful to Him as Nephi was. Everything I underlined above can be said to us when we demonstrate the same kind of faithful service to our Father as Nephi did. When Nephi talks to the people, who currently don’t believe in God, he speaks with absolute surety of knowledge. He knows God lives and is in control. He knows they all will answer to Him for their behavior and choices. His whole heart yearns for them to choose God over their worldly ways so they can find the happiness he knows exists only in the pursuit of God. There is an absoluteness about his approach to the existence of God that is needed to convince these people. Nephi can speak this way, because he has personally experienced God himself many times.
Prophets are prophets precisely because they have made the same kind of choices in life that Nephi made. They have served God with unwearyingness and complete faithfulness. They have chosen to seek out the influence of the Spirit in their life and have found joy in His company. Prophets have learned to love their fellow man with the same open love that God demonstrates to us. This is what sets them apart. We can do the same.
Note that Nephi doesn’t worry about his own agenda. He isn’t concerned with his own schedule, convenience, or his personal wants. Nephi doesn’t complain when he doesn’t get time off or a leave of absence to go on vacation to do the things he wants to do. He has devoted himself to God and is willing to do anything asked of him, no matter the cost. This is a celestial mindset. Can you imagine living in a society where all everyone is concerned about is their neighbor’s well being? They aren’t concerned about how they look in public, what others think of them, or how they appear on social media. They only care what God thinks of them and how they might serve more faithfully. This is a Christlike way to think, feel, and behave.
We won’t necessarily be called to be a prophet in the church, but there is nothing that can prevent us from being as worthy as a prophet. In fact, this is exactly what God wants us to do. He would be thrilled to have a whole generation of His children live as worthily as his prophets do. The blessings would be the same for us as they are for the prophets.
Day 2
Helaman 9: 10:1, 12-15 – My faith in Jesus Christ must be built on more than signs and miracles.
The manual makes the great point that signs and miracles, as wonderful as they may be, aren’t able to produce a lasting conversion. For someone who is not already converted, miracles are like a flash in the pan – exciting, novel, but not convincing enough to change one’s life. This is why the prophets always avoid providing such things with the intent of converting anyone. They know that course doesn’t work. Belief. Chosen belief. Deliberate belief is what converts the soul. When we choose to accept Christ’s gospel then exercise that belief by living it, faith is born and we change. The reward for that faith is the occasional miracle to confirm our faith. Miracles are meant for the righteous and repentant, not for the unbeliever.
Did you notice in the lesson that the people, as a whole, didn’t believe Nephi was a prophet when he showed them miracles? A few did, but not the body of the population. But when they were starving to death and were dying by the thousands, suddenly choosing to believe in a prophet sounded more reasonable, and they changed their lives to conform to his instructions, for they repented in sackcloth. It was then that the Lord provided another miracle that they now rejoiced in, He gave them rain. It was a simple miracle, just water in its season, but it was life saving. This time the majority of the population now chose to revere Nephi as a prophet. Miracles follow the believers.
Day 3
Helaman 10:1-12 – The Lord gives power to people who seek His will and strive to keep His commandments.
The contents of today’s lesson are all talked about in Day 1. Can you imagine God giving His ultimate power, in any amount, to someone He couldn’t trust to use that power wisely or righteously? Can we really expect such blessings if our concern is still about elevating ourself or fulfilling our own desires rather than to bless the life of someone else? That attitude goes against all that God stands for. Nephi was given power, great power, specifically because God knew that he was completely trustworthy to use it to bless the lives of the people and not for his own ends.
It is true that Nephi used his power to begin a famine that would kill thousands, but his intent was to save even more thousands from dying needlessly by the sword before they had the chance to repent. By stretching out their time in mortality and by making them very uncomfortable in the meantime he was able to affect an attitude change that brought them to the Lord in a humble manner so He could bless them.
Day 4
Helaman 10:2-4 – Pondering the word of God invites revelation.
In one of the earlier lessons I mentioned that the words used in the scriptures are not special, nor are they imbued with a power that is above and beyond their ordinary usage. What the scriptures have is the Spirit. God has declared that those who read His word are entitled to the influence of the Holy Spirit in their life. The same is true when we read His word and ponder their meaning. Such pondering means we are looking for answers and seeking understanding. This is where the Spirit comes in, for this is His role in the Godhead, to teach us and open the eyes of our understanding to spiritual things and eternal truths.
Pondering as a practice is a powerful way to engage our entire intellect and soul. It is in our nature that when we ponder anything, scriptural or otherwise, our mind goes to work seeking answers and direction. So when we combine this power with the power native to God’s word, we can expect our life to change in some dramatic ways. Pondering is like a super pill to wake us up and help us see more clearly. When the Spirit comes and opens our eyes to the wonders of the eternities, because we are pondering the word of God, expect to find joy in places you never thought it could exist.
Day 5
Helaman 12 – The Lord wants me to remember Him.
I went back and reread Helaman 12. When I got to these two verses I had to stop and think about what I was reading. Here are verses 3-4.
3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not him.
4 O how , and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their upon the vain things of the world!
When I read verse three my first thought was, “How cruel.” The Lord visits those He loves with “death and with terror, and with famine.” But then I re-evaluated that thought when I hit the next couple of verses. The reason for such punishments rests solely on the shoulders of the people and their inability to remember Christ, as we are told to do in the sacrament prayer. Would God really need to go to such drastic measures to save us from us plunging ourselves into oblivion if we were faithful about remembering Christ and repenting faithfully each day? I don’t think so.
The act of remembering Christ means we are evaluating our behavior against his stated commandments each day. It means we are striving to repent or turn to him and embrace his way of living in order to find the happiness he promises to those who are obedient. Happiness comes at a cost. That cost is obedience and a willingness to accept Christ’s direction in our life. We are only miserable and bring upon ourselves such things as death and terror when we tend or list to obey Satan and those in the world who don’t care about our happiness.
So no, God is not cruel. He punishes the wicked in the hopes they will turn to Christ and remember his sacrifice for them and find joy in his commandments. This is not a bid for control on God’s part, but an effort to prepare us for the eternities in the best possible place we can be. We all know this life is a proving ground, a test of obedience to God’s will, even when He is not visibly present in our life. Nothing that happens in this life will negatively impact our eternal life, as long as we turn to God while we can. He promises over and over again that to the obedient everything that happens to us in this life will be turned for our good in the end. That is the blessing reserved only for the obedient. If we will just remember Christ every day of our life, and make sure we do the pondering we talked about in yesterday’s lesson, all will be well with our soul when we leave mortality and return home to report on our experience.
Personal Study
The unsteadiness of men
Today’s title reminds me of an eye surgery I once had. I was having parts of my eyes burned off with a laser to change my vision. They had me focus my attention on a red dot. Over and over again they told me to keep my eyes steady and focused on the dot. But try as I might, after a few seconds of trying to hold my eyes steady on the dot, my eyes would relax and start to wander. I totally messed up my own surgery, and my own eyesight.
We are often like that when it comes to being consistent with the commandments of God. We try and try, but for how long? Pretty soon we realize we have forgotten to do what we were supposed to do. I suppose because “life” in mortality got in the way and we forgot to go to church, or read our scriptures, or say our prayers, or whatever we were wanting to do.
God knows how fickle we are. We are unsteady in our resolve to be consistent in our obedience. That is why the prophet tells us that repentance is an everyday thing. We need to be turning to God and remembering Christ daily. That is the only behavior that will prevent us from wandering off completely. The danger for us is to think or believe that repentance is a one-time event for only a specific wrong done. No, repentance needs to be a daily ongoing effort to turn to Christ and seek his approval. That is the only behavior that will help us become consistent in our resolve to do and be good all the time.
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