Wednesday, November 13, 2019 0 comments

Preliminaries for Confirming or Ordaining


And [Jesus] called them by name, saying: Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have power that to him upon whom ye shall lay your hands, ye shall give the Holy Ghost; and in my name shall ye give it, for thus do mine apostles. (Moroni 2:2)

2 After they had prayed unto the Father in the name of Christ, they laid their hands upon them, and said:
3 In the name of Jesus Christ I ordain you to be a priest (or if he be a teacher, I ordain you to be a teacher) to preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ, by the endurance of faith on his name to the end. Amen. (Moroni 3:2-3)

I notice these both say that priesthood holders were to prepare for exercising the priesthood of God by praying first. We see that Jesus instructed His disciples to do this, advising “mighty prayer,” promising that then they would have power.

What is the principle behind Jesus’s commandments to pray mightily first? I think it is this: A man must prepare spiritually and put himself in harmony with the Lord in order to speak for the Lord to one of God’s children. Obedience and submission through prayer is the first step, and praying as commanded does that. Secondly, putting oneself in communication with the Father is necessary before one can have confidence to speak for Him, and prayer is the way that we align our will with His.

Do priesthood holders do this today? I haven’t seen it, but then it may go on in the heart, which I can’t see. But I am sure that if those scriptural practices are followed, greater blessings will result while the priesthood is being used.


Thursday, November 7, 2019 0 comments

The Fountain of All Righteousness


 
Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness. (Ether 12:28)

This verse struck me as profound for some reason today, but I’m not sure I can quite articulate why. (But I’ll try.) The idea that faith, hope, and charity brings or leads us eventually to Christ is wonderful. It means you just have to follow the threads of faith, hope, and charity that you find in your life and among the people you meet, and you’ll eventually find Christ and His true church.

Also, I love the Christ calls Himself “the fountain of all righteousness.” It’s a beautiful image—a fountain perpetually springing up with good works, a fountain that never runs dry, a fountain that is the source of ALL righteousness in the world. If a person find a stream of righteousness anywhere, they can follow it back, and it would eventually lead them to Christ.

If suppose if we want to be like Him, then we must similarly become fountains of righteousness as well. Today, let’s try to be a fountain of faith, hope, and charity.