It is Given unto Thee

 

 

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Moses 3:17)

 

I am intrigued by that phrase “It is given unto thee,” specifically because of that IT. What does “it” refer to?

 

The meaning that I originally ascribed to that “it” was that it referred to agency, as though it were saying, “thou mayest choose for thyself, for choice is given unto thee.” This reading reinforces the principle that the Lord gives us our agency to choose, even to choose things that He forbids.

 

Another different meaning has come to me in the last year, one that says, “thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for the tree [of knowledge of good and evil] is given unto thee.”  This reading shows us that Heavenly Father provides us with circumstances where both good and evil are present, and He warns us where the evil is so that we can make informed choices that have real consequences. Our God is a God of good gifts, powerful gifts, sometimes dangerous gifts. There is righteousness not just in choosing good, but refraining from the bad.

 

Do you see any additional ways to read it that you can share?

Elder Neal A. Maxwell on Christmas

For some neat perspective on Christmas, here are some great quotes from the Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book:

He before whom a few gifts were laid in that lowly manger has spread so many gifts before us, thereby providing an unending Christmas. In fact, from Him for whom there was no room at the inn there comes to the faithful so many blessings “that there shall not be room enough to receive [them]”! (Malachi 3:10) (The Christmas Scene, p5, as quoted on p45)

God’s gifts, unlike seasonal gifts, are eternal and unperishable, constituting a continuing Christmas which is never over! These infinite gifts are made possible by the “infinite atonement.” (The Christmas Scene, p4, as quoted on p44)

The larger Christmas story is clearly not over. It is not solely about some other time, some other place, and some other people. It is still unfolding, and we are in it!” (The Christmas Scene, p11, as quoted on 45)

Yes, we still wish Christmas were more deeply felt and lasted longer, but the visibly increased goodwill nevertheless reminds us, if only briefly, of what could be everlastingly. For a few days, the first and second commandments are more pondered and observed. (The Christmas Scene, p2, as quoted on p44)

I love that perspective that God's gifts continue like an unending Christmas and that the goodwill and kindness we see in the season shows us a brief picture of heaven.

I recommend reading these to your family at the end of Christmas day.

Gifts from God to us

With the Christmas gift-giving season upon us, I decided to do some scripture study about the gifts that God gives to us.

God gives certain gifts to everyone

7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Ephesians 4:7-8)

Certain gifts God gives to everyone is their agency, the light of Christ so that they know good from evil, coverage of their sins by the atonement of Christ (conditional upon repentance), and unconditional resurrection.

My parents actually followed this principle in their Christmas gift-giving; there were always a few presents that they gave to each of us alike.

And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. (Eccl. 3:13)

When you think of how Heavenly Father designed our brains so that our bodies can feel satisfied when we eat and drink enough, that is a great gift. He could have made us so that didn’t happen. Also, the satisfaction we feel when we have done a good job at something—that is a gift from God too.

God gives many different gifts according to our individuality

10 And again, verily I say unto you, I would that ye should always remember, and always retain in your minds what those gifts are, that are given unto the church.
11 For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.
12 To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby. (D&C 46:10-12)

Think of all the spiritual gifts that the church is blessed with! Prophecy, visions, healing, faith to be healed, revelation, tongues, interpretation of tongues, knowledge, wisdom, discernment, charity, faith, testimony, belief, working miracles, and so much more!

God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now; (D&C 121:26)

What a fascinating gift the gift of the Holy Ghost is! It is such a special thing the Lord wants us to have.  There are things we learn and things we feel through its influence that are so majestic, so awe-inspiring, so wondrous, that words simply fail to express it adequately, and only someone else who has experienced it too can understand.

Every elder, priest, teacher, or deacon is to be ordained according to the gifts and callings of God unto him; and he is to be ordained by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is in the one who ordains him. (D&C 20:60)

This made me think about priesthood ordinations in a different way. I hadn’t thought that they were a gift from God. This verse calls it “the gifts and callings of God unto him” which makes me think that gift and calling may be synonymous to the Lord. Even though I don’t hold the priesthood, I have been given callings, and when I think of how they have blessed my life, I see that my callings are gifts to me. My calling as ward organist and choir pianist is a gift of music and my calling as a cub scout den leader is a gift of working with, associating with, and teaching children. I consider all my callings fun gifts and I'm not ashamed to say that I had to grow into the fun-ness thereof.

Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you… (D&C 78:11)

This phrase occurs so many times in the Doctrine and Covenants. Commandments are a gift too, and in so many ways! They are gifts because

• Learning about them expands and refines our understanding of right and wrong.
• They represent an opportunity for us to exercise our agency.
• They present us with a choice to keep them or not.
• They have blessings attached to them that the Lord wants us to have.
• Inevitably we learn that we can’t keep the commandments on our own and we need the Lord’s help, so we learn to trust in the Lord.
• When we follow them we are kept safe from bad things that tend to happen without them.
• They help us become more like God. Doing them helps us do the things the Lord does.
• Even if we try to ignore them, inevitably we are brought to a recognition of our need for the atonement of Christ and the necessity of repentance, by which we can discover the joy of our redemption. (And then we still get to keep the commandments!)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God. (D&C 14:7)

And all these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God. (D&C 46:26)

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. (2 Cor. 9:15)

Eternal life is the final gift God wants to give us. We have our whole lives to look forward to it and the Holy Ghost as a down payment of it. Surely there are spiritual gifts we must seek now that will help us prepare for this great gift.

What should we want?

Wherefore, beware lest ye are deceived; and that ye may not be deceived seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given; (D&C 46:8, emphasis added)

And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing. (Moroni 10:30, emphasis added)

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (1 Cor. 13:2)

Even if I were to have the best blog in the world and do all I’m asked to do at church.. Even if I were superwoman (which I’m not) and could move mountains, if I don’t have charity, I’m nothing. Hmm. I think I need to pray more for charity.

Things to remember about the gifts God gives us

Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou hast, that thou mayest be a wise steward; for it is the free gift of the Lord thy God, and thou art his steward. (D&C 136:27)

Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. (1 Timothy 4:14)

For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. (D&C 88:33)

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10)

We learn from these scriptures:

• to be diligent in preserving our gifts from God
• to not neglect our gifts from God
• to receive and rejoice in our gifts from God
• and to give to others liberally like God has given us

What other scriptures do you know of that tell of the gifts that God has given us? Will you share them? What gifts from God are you feeling particularly thankful for right now? What is something you are doing to diligently preserve a gift from God?

Alma 19: Spiritual gifts manifested in Lamanite conversion

I found some interesting things in the scriptures recently that I hadn’t noticed before. One was in the story of Ammon teaching the Lamanites. I noticed that when the Lamanites woke up from their Spirit-induced sleep, they immediately manifested spiritual gifts.

When Lamoni wakes up the first time, he says to his wife the queen, “Blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou.” And then he tells her he has seen his Redeemer (the gift of visions) and he prophesies of the redemption of Christ (prophecy). Further, I looked at that statement “Blessed art thou” directed at his wife and I didn’t see how that had anything to do with anything he said afterward. It was puzzling to me, but then this time I realized that he was demonstrating the spiritual gift of discernment, echoing something Ammon had said to her earlier about her blessed state because she believed more than any of the Nephites. Lamoni could not have known his wife’s blessed believing state unless it had been revealed to him through spiritual gifts.

I further have to point out that Lamoni’s wife seems to have demonstrated the spiritual gift of believing the testimony of others. She believed what her servants said about Ammon being “a prophet of a holy God” and she believed Ammon when he said that Lamoni would wake up after another day. Then, it is no surprise that when Lamoni did wake up and then bore powerful testimony to the redemption of Christ on conditions of belief, she believed what her husband said and thus was overpowered by the Spirit.

When Lamoni’s wife awoke from sleeping in God, it says that she “arose and stood upon her feet, and cried with a loud voice, saying: O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell! O blessed God, have mercy on this people! And when she said this, she clasped her hands, being filled with joy, speaking many words which were not understood” (Alma 19:29-30) and then raised King Lamoni up. (I can only conclude that she had a conversion experience similar to Alma the Younger’s.) But I wondered about those words she spoke which were not understood. I struck me just recently that she had to have been speaking in tongues.

Perhaps we could argue that she merely spoke things about the gospel that were not understood because of the spiritual ignorance of her people at that point. Or perhaps we could say that she was slipping back into a more native language and she was an immigrant of some sort.. but those explanations do not fit the intensity of the faith manifested in this story, and we all know that miracles happen in proportion to our faith. A manifestation of the gift of tongues is in perfect harmony with the spiritual climate of this story at this point and in perfect proportion to the faith she manifested.

When Lamoni’s servants awoke, they declared the change they had experienced in their hearts, that they had no more desire to do evil. They also “did declare unto the people that they had seen angels and had conversed with them; and thus they had told them things of God, and of his righteousness.” (Alma 19:34) The servants evidently had gifts of visions.. and angelic visions at that.

In thinking about these wonderful spiritual gifts that Lamoni, Lamoni’s wife, and their servants received in their conversion, I can see that those gifts were the fruits of their desires for the truth, their open-hearted acceptance of what they were told, and their immediate efforts to lay hold on salvation. Their enthusiasm was palpable. I look at my own life and I see that far too often I have held back, I have made only tentative efforts, my heart has been only half-open. Their example has reminded me of the commandment to love the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. It has shown me that to reap the full spiritual blessings of obeying the commandments, I need to give it my best, strongest efforts and my fullest zeal.

Charity and Spiritual Gifts: How Do They Mesh?

Here are some verses which have puzzled me for quite a while.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13)

I get the part about charity being the greatest, but I always wondered what was meant by the statement that prophecies would fail, tongues would cease, and knowledge would vanish. What is this about knowing in part, prophesying in part, and then doing away that which is in part when perfection comes? It seems to be saying that other spiritual gifts are only part of something and that they will cease. It seems to say that spiritual gifts are the childish things and charity is becoming like an adult. It seems to say that spiritual gifts are like seeing through a glass darkly, but charity is seeing face to face. How is this the case?

After some wrestling, the idea that I finally came to was that every spiritual gift possessed by man is a piece of the ultimate spiritual gift of charity. Like maybe if you put together all the spiritual gifts in one person, the gifts run into each other until you can’t distinguish where one ends and another starts and the whole together is charity.

[W]hen that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away – If we think of charity as just another spiritual gift we might tend to think that if we don’t have it then it’s just not our particular gift. But if we think of all the other spiritual gifts as parts of charity, then we have greater motivation to acquire more spiritual gifts so that we can be a greater blessing to those around us, knowing that it will bring us closer to the perfection of charity. Certainly charity is the bond of perfectness and peace. The parts are done away in the whole.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face – When you think about it, it is true that we have a hard time seeing each other for who we really are. Spiritual gifts help us get a little better view of each other as precious children of God, but charity has to be the pinnacle of heavenly vision.

So if all the spiritual gifts together are charity, maybe that’s why it is said that the church is the body of Christ with all the members needed, each with their spiritual gifts. Maybe that’s why we are given the church organization so that we can all come to the perfect man and the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And what are the spiritual gifts except special ways of showing love and being of service?

Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. (1 Corinthians 14:12)

The whole purpose of the gifts is to edify and benefit the church. Charity!

11 For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.
12 To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.
13 To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world.
14 To others it is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful.
15 And again, to some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know the differences of administration, as it will be pleasing unto the same Lord, according as the Lord will, suiting his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men.
16 And again, it is given by the Holy Ghost to some to know the diversities of operations, whether they be of God, that the manifestations of the Spirit may be given to every man to profit withal.
17 And again, verily I say unto you, to some is given, by the Spirit of God, the word of wisdom.
18 To another is given the word of knowledge, that all may be taught to be wise and to have knowledge.
19 And again, to some it is given to have faith to be healed;
20 And to others it is given to have faith to heal.
21 And again, to some is given the working of miracles;
22 And to others it is given to prophesy;
23 And to others the discerning of spirits.
24 And again, it is given to some to speak with tongues;
25 And to another is given the interpretation of tongues.
26 And all these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God. (Doctrine & Covenants 46:11-26, emphasis added)

Do you see how all of these gifts can be used to benefit others? And if all have not every gift given to them, it means some gifts have to be worked for and prayed for. And we are encouraged to seek after spiritual gifts to help others and not to consume it on our lusts.

30 He that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh.
31 And again, I say unto you, all things must be done in the name of Christ, whatsoever you do in the Spirit; (Doctrine & Covenants 46:30-31)

The Necessity of Real Intent

6 For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
7 For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
8 For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.
9 And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such. (Moroni 7:6-9)

One of the things that strikes me in these scriptures is where the focus is in these scriptures. We are used to thinking that people who do good things are good. We are used to thinking that a person who prays is religious. These verses seem to point out that it is the real intent behind the acts that indicate whether we are good or evil.

Real intent is a very tricky thing. We can’t read each others’ minds so we can’t really say for sure what anyone intends. (That’s something that God has to judge.) How do we really know when someone is offering future help just to be polite or offering help because they sincerely hope that we will take them up on it? We don't. We often assume they are just being polite. And I think we sometimes try to put on a show for each other, pretending we have good intentions when we don’t really.

Why is having real intent so important? “[E]xcept he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing”. Having real intent is beneficial to us and does something for our own souls at the same time that our good acts help others. The Lord wants that benefit for us, because it brings us a little bit closer to Him.

I’m really glad that I ran across this scripture as the Christmas season starts. Christmas is certainly the season of giving, so I want to be able to give and have it be as good for me as it is for the people I gift.

What sacred gifts might we be refusing?

And it came to pass that in the same year that the people of Nephi had peace restored unto them, that Nephihah, the second chief judge, died, having filled the judgment-seat with perfect uprightness before God.
Nevertheless, he had refused Alma to take possession of those records and those things which were esteemed by Alma and his fathers to be most sacred; therefore Alma had conferred them upon his son, Helaman. (Alma 50:37-38)

Nephihah, because he was a perfectly upright man and an excellent chief judge, seemed like the perfect candidate to receive the most sacred things—the records and translators and the sword of Laban.

But he refused.

He refused!

WHY?!!

Although he was perfectly upright and a just judge, somehow he still didn’t want to take upon himself the most sacred things with their privileges and responsibilities.

What sacred gifts from the Lord might we be refusing?