Lesson 40 is about the dedication of the Kirtland temple and the bestowal of priesthood keys needed for the Restoration.
The nature of praying by the Spirit
A few years ago I wrote an article about how to have more meaningful prayer. Before continuing in your studies of sections 109 and 110 I recommend you read this article to understand better what follows.
How Can I Have More Meaningful Prayer?
Assuming you are picking up this paragraph after having read the above article, I ask this question: As you read the Kirtland dedicatory prayer, did you notice how much of the prayer was asked in the form of a petition for the Lord’s blessings? Joseph Smith specifically stated that this prayer was given to him by way of revelation. So why ask for blessings if the Spirit told you that is what God wanted you to say?
This is a very important point. Much of what God is able to give us or must deny us comes from asking the right questions or not asking the right questions. As I mentioned in the linked article, when the Spirit tells us what to say in our prayer that which we say is what the Lord wants us to acknowledge or ask for. When we ask for what is good and right, what is best for our salvation, He is able to grant those requests, and will do so gladly. It is when we ask amiss, and not with wisdom that He must deny us our petitions. If He grants us that which we ask, but it isn’t going to save us then it condemns us in the day of judgment.
The nature of prayer is to learn anew how to commune with God successfully. Now that we have bodies, and we have been cut off from His presence, we must seek Him out and learn to speak to Him in such a way that we are able to ask for what is best for us, and not to satisfy our earthly lusts and desires which will condemn us in the end. Successful prayer is a process of learning, growing, and practicing. There is a reason sometimes people refer to praying as a wrestle in the spirit.
As you read the Kirtland dedicatory prayer, remember that it is because the Spirit told Joseph to ask for these blessings that is precisely what the Lord wants to give the Saints in the way of blessings. They may be in print as questions or requests, but because the Spirit told the prophet to ask for these things, we can read these petitions as promises from God’s lips to our ears He has every intention of fulfilling.
I suggest you reread Doctrine and Covenants 109 again and with the perspective of God telling the Saints hearing this prayer that these are His promises to them. As you read this prayer, note how many statements are about the Saints being able and willing to praise the Lord for His goodness to them, His protection from their enemies, and to praise His holiness and name. How many times does the prayer petition for the Saints their ability to experience gratitude for all of God’s blessings? How is that coming along in your own life? Can you currently feel happy and desirous to feel and say great things about your God for all He has done in your life?
It is so easy for life to “get away from us.” We feel lost in the confusion or overwhelmed by the demands or hardships of being mortal. Much of this dedicatory prayer offers us hope that whatever the world may throw at us in the latter days, the Lord is promising us that their plans and designs to destroy the good that we embrace will fail in amazing and spectacular ways. We have every reason to feel confidence and courage in moving forward in faith, for we have the Lord’s words, in the form of promises, to strengthen us and bolster our confidence in our chosen course of action. Again, this prayer is not just a series of questions or petitions, but the correct requests to get an affirmative response from God, for it was a member of the Godhead who told the prophet to ask these specific questions and make these specific requests from God. All of them will be fulfilled, for the Spirit cannot lie.
The blessing of keys
When you read section 110, have you ever wondered why all these keys? I understand that keys are the rights of administration (my term). But why have the responsibilities of administering God’s plan for our salvation been carved up into so many smaller units of responsibilities? And some of the people who were given keys held those keys for events that wouldn’t happen for literally thousands of years in the future.
God made the decisions as to whom received which keys, when those people would live, and when in the course of earth’s life those keys would come to bear on the unfolding of His work for future generations. So despite my questions, I need to trust that His wisdom reigns supreme and just, and accept that His choices are always the correct ones. After all, I have no idea what those prophets have been doing and what He has tasked them with during their long stay in the spirit world. I only know they haven’t been languishing with nothing to do. The work moves along unabated on both sides of the veil. The ancient prophets have always been working hard for the salvation of God’s children. I just don’t know in what capacity.
The important point about this revelation is that at long last the keys have been gathered into one place and into the hands of one prophet. For many centuries the Lord’s work was unfolding piecemeal, but with the promise that in the latter days all would be consolidated into one powerful movement to bring to pass the salvation of mankind. This is not the kind of thing that happens all at once. What we do in the temples, and all these keys have to do with temple worship, is but the beginning of the Lord’s work that will come to fruition during His thousand year reign in the millennium.
Manifesting Christ
One of the many promises Christ gives us is that he will manifest himself to the righteous who come to his house. In the scriptures he actually says we will see his face. Well I don’t see that happening any time soon for me, but there is more than one way in which Jesus can manifest himself to those of us who are not yet ready for an actual face to face meeting.
To manifest something is to make it visible or understandable. The intent of the word is to convey comprehension of something. When we go to the temple with a prayer in our heart, answers begin to flow. We may have promptings that seem to come from nowhere in particular. There may be urges to do certain things when we leave the temple. We may have thoughts that clarify doctrines that were confusing or troubling before.
Spending time worshiping in the temple creates opportunities for the Lord to display his ability to bless us in so many ways both in and out of the temple boundaries. As we sit in quiet contemplation the Spirit can help us see or understand things about Christ and his role in our life that may not have been apparent before, or may not have seemed as important to us. Over time, and with repeated exposure to this sacred and holy time in the quiet of the temple, we will come to see God’s hand in our life in more open and remarkable ways. Answers to silently asked questions will come to us. We will see that we have more reasons to feel blessed and grateful than we did a month before. Our testimony of Christ’s atoning sacrifice will deepen. So many possibilities are there for the Lord to teach us and help us connect to the Spirit, and all because we are in the right place and doing the right things as often as we can.
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