Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Insanely great blessings to those who fear and serve the Lord


5 For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.
6 Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.
7 And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.
8 Yea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations.
9 And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught.
10 For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man. (D&C 76:5-10)

I love these verses. I get the sense that Heavenly Father aches for us to know just how much He can bless us if we will serve Him in righteousness to the end.

He promises mercy, grace (enabling power), and honor from God (not necessarily honors of men), and great revelations, even about things to come. 

When you look carefully, four of those verses are spent just talking about the revelations God promises:
--all mysteries
--hidden mysteries of God’s kingdom from days of old and for ages to come
--the good pleasure of God’s will about all the things of God’s kingdom
--wonders of eternity
--things to come
--things of many generations
--great wisdom
--understanding even heaven itself
--enlightenment by the Spirit
--secrets of God’s will
--things no one has seen, heard, or conceived

The rest of D& 76 is an example of this because of how it reveals the principle of the three degrees of glory and explains the status of those who inherit the various degrees.

I get the sense that if we were to be blessed how v7-10 were described  it would probably be pretty evident that it wasn’t the kind of thing we could go blabbing around.  We’d have to keep it to ourselves.  Thus, you probably wouldn’t hear anything about other Saints being blessed this way either.  So if we were blessed, we would simply have to have faith that there were others that had those blessings too, rather than thinking we were the only ones. (That “I’m the special one” attitude gets us in trouble eventually.)

I have faith that it doesn’t matter what office a Saint holds in the church or how lowly their station. God is no respecter of persons, so if any of us are faithful, those blessing can be ours, whether we’re in leadership or not.

What do you think it means when it says, “before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught”?

2 comments:

aaronrf said...

I believe that it is speaking of those that think they are wise and learned. Look at all the theories of man that are meant to destroy faith in God. However, when you possess that type of knowledge all of those theories come to naught.

Michaela Stephens said...

So you think it is those who THINK they are wise and learned. But theories meant to destroy faith in God is something else besides that and could overlap, but not necessarily. Yet you use it as an example. Could you explain a bit more?