The mysteries of God don't need to remain mysteries. (D&C 41-44)

41:1

The gospel of Jesus Christ is taught in its most complete form in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have modern day prophets who reveal God’s will and teach correct doctrine. The Spirit will testify of the truthfulness of this gospel.

Those who are humble and open and teachable enough will receive blessings in this life and have greater opportunity to become a person who will comfortably abide with God in eternity. What a blessing it is to know about this restored gospel.

“Hearken and hear, O ye my people, saith the Lord and your God, ye whom I delight to bless with the greatest of all blessings, ye that hear me…” Through the scriptures that were revealed after the restoration and through our living prophets, we are able to hear revelation. We are able to more clearly hear Him.

Those who, for whatever reason, reject the truthfulness of the gospel are cursing their own progression. They are missing out on opportunities to develop further. “…and ye that hear me not will I curse, that have professed my name, with the heaviest of all cursings.” Those who claim to be Christ’s disciples yet will not hearken to his voice when they hear it are on the wrong track indeed.

This is especially true with those who have been a part of this church and have left. They are rebelling. Their rebelliousness is the same type that the third of the hosts of heaven displayed in the war in heaven. They have pushed down or pushed aside their already-formed testimony because of some personal issue with the church. Their issue may be a historical or policy issue. They may claim that the church is not true because something doesn’t align with their personal logic. This rejection of the Lord’s true church is shaping their narcissistic characters and may damn their progress in this life and the next.

41:3

I was talking with someone this week about how they investigated the church a little and didn’t like all of the rules. They said that they were a free spirit and didn’t like restrictions. The challenge with this thinking is how she’s looking at commandments from God. “And by the prayer of your faith ye shall receive my law, that ye may know how to govern my church and have all things right before me.”

We should think of commandments as our road map. It is our list of instructions. I wrote about this last week. We should welcome a set of instructions to this life. If we reject the map, we retard our growth and progression.

41:5

I was listening to a show this morning and a college student was debating with Charlie Kirk about abortion. One of the points that she made was that Christ said not to judge and so we shouldn’t judge those who want an abortion. She was quoting the Bible and claiming that she was a Christian.

We cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ and NOT follow his commandments. “He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple, and shall be cast out from among you.” She must realize that, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you must strive to be obedient. One cannot be a disciple of Christ without doing what Christ said. It doesn’t work that way.

In fact, it is a litmus test of discipleship. If one claims to be a disciple of Christ but hates his enemy and looks upon women in lust and doesn’t help the needy, that person is not a disciple. It’s just not how discipleship works.

41:12

“These words are given unto you, and they are pure before me; wherefore, beware how you hold them, for they are to be answered upon your souls in the day of judgment. Even so. Amen.” The gospel is true. Revelations are from God. The scriptures are true. What our prophets and apostles teach us is correct. We’re receiving pure instruction. That’s not the question.

What is the question is how we receive those words. Do we:

• Toss them aside?

• Put them in a box never to be seen again?

• Purposefully ignore them?

• Rationalize them away?

• Argue against them?

• Try to poke holes in them?

What we do with the inspired words that we are given is the definition of our discipleship.

42:4

“Behold, verily I say unto you, I give unto you this first commandment, that ye shall go forth in my name, every one of you, excepting my servants Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon.” This commandment is still in place. Preaching the gospel to others is one of our biggest responsibilities that most of us almost entirely ignore.

42:14

“And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.” This is an interesting verse. It almost sounds like you should pray for the Spirit but if you’re not feeling it, you shouldn’t teach. That’s a misinterpretation of it.

It’s a recipe about how to teach. Yes, we are supposed to teach with the Spirit. This verse teaches us how to receive the Spirit before we teach. What must we do? “And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith…” The process is clear, to receive the Spirit as we teach, we must ask for it and have faith.

We don’t need a large manifestation of the Spirit to make it obvious that we have it before we start a lesson. This verse is simply asking us to pray in faith for the Spirit. We must remember that the very best outlined lesson will land with a thud if we don’t have the Spirit. Your fancy wording isn’t going to change hearts. You actually aren’t the one doing the teaching - the Spirit is. But, to receive it, we must prayerfully ask for it in faith.

42:16-17

“And as ye shall lift up your voices by the Comforter, ye shall speak and prophesy as seemeth me good. For, behold, the Comforter knoweth all things, and beareth record of the Father and of the Son.“ I’ve learned this relatively recently about the Spirit in our teaching. If we are open to promptings of the Spirit when we teach, the Spirit is officially invited and will assist us as we teach others.

As I’ve written, I’ve been guilty of over-preparing which can often close off those promptings because I’m attempting to get to all of the marvelous material I’ve prepared. If I just turn it over to the Spirit, what we teach doesn’t closely resemble what was prepared.

That last line about the “Comforter knowing all things and bearing record of the Father and the Son” is important. Of all of the topics that we can teach, there should always be a direct line to Jesus and God. If you want to invite the Spirit into any lesson, start testifying about Jesus. The Spirit will whoosh into the room faster than any other thing you can do. Testifying of Christ is a special responsibility of the Spirit.

42:22

“Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.” The important part of this verse is the word “love.” In this case, “love” is a verb and not a noun. Often I hear people talk about falling out of love. Or that they just don’t feel love for their spouse. They are obviously considering love as a noun. They consider love as a feeling only. When we consider love as a verb, it helps us think about what we can DO to love someone.

With Marci, I love her both as a noun and a verb. I truly love her. My noun-love couldn’t be greater. Every single day I see things about her that grow the amount of love I have for her. You could say that I am completely smitten. I am fanatically in love with her. In addition, I DO things that love her. My interactions with her are always respectful and show my admiration for her. I imagine how I can make her life a little easier to day. I am aware that I am not an amazing prize and focus on being a better husband. I am more kind to her than I am to any of you. I review my past actions and put myself in her place and consider how it would be to be married to me. I set goals about how to be better. I can definitely be better.

Because I show my love by loving her daily, my love grows and grows. It’s hard to believe that I will love her more in ten years than I do now but I will. That’s how it works when you love (noun) and love (verb). I am very grateful that my path eventually led me to Marci.

42:29

That leads into this next verse. “If thou lovest me thou shalt serve me and keep all my commandments.” If we love (noun) God, we will also love (verb) him. How do we do that? By serving him and keeping his commandments. Those who believe that “our works don’t matter” don’t understand this principle.

If we want to love (noun) God more (which all of us do), we just need to love (verb) him. As we do, just as with our spouse, our love for him will grow and grow.

42:32, 38, 40

“…every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property…” This is an important principle to consider when deciding what to do with “our” money. Our money is not actually our money. It is given to us temporarily. We have temporary responsibility for it. We will be accountable about how we will use it. If we have excess and use it entirely on ourselves, that’s going to be a problem I think. We will be asked why we didn’t use it to help others.

He gives further instruction in verse 38. “For inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me.” We should be using our money to help those in need. It is what Jesus would do if he were here and we are his hands for the time being.

“And again, thou shalt not be proud in thy heart; let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hands.” I’m not sure Marci and I are following this one… It does indicate that we should be focusing on helping others rather than adorning ourselves. The last line of this suggests that our beauty should be more about what we do rather than what we wear.

42:46-47

“And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them. And they that die not in me, wo unto them, for their death is bitter.” Why is it that when we die “in Christ” that our death will be sweet? And why is it that those who do not die in Christ have a death that is “bitter?”

I think it is sweet for those who die with faith in Christ because their spirit world experience will be productive and joyful and filled with peace. They will be reunited with their ancestors. They will feel the joy and peace of knowing that they are on the right path. They will experience satisfaction as they teach and help others come unto Christ. Their lives will be full of contentment.

For those who do not die in Christ, the death experience will be different. The next life may be filled with regret and shame. They may not feel that they have a purpose. Their ability to overcome the weaknesses and bad habits that they developed in mortality will be lessened. The character that they formed in mortality will stay with them and it’ll be harder to change it and progress. The spirit world may be a dark and frustrating place for them.

42:53

“Thou shalt stand in the place of thy stewardship.” All of us have stewardship over something. Whether it is our church calling or our responsibilities as parents or our relationships with our neighbors, friends, family and coworkers. We are all in unique situations where the Lord expects us to act as his hands.

Some of us are waiting until we are called as the Bishop or the Stake President or as a General Authority before we feel the weight of a stewardship. As Elder Uchtdorf said years ago, we should lift where we stand. Every one reading this post has a stewardship. It doesn’t matter what that specific stewardship is, it only matters if we are taking it seriously and doing our best.

42:61

“If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” What a great promise! Receiving progressively more revelation and knowledge is a great blessing.

Revelation and knowledge about what? “Mysteries and peaceable things.” What are those? I’m not sure but what do they bring? “Joy and life eternal.” What are some examples of what this could be? Let’s think about a few possible examples:

• We are God’s children with unlimited potential. Heaven won’t be about eternal singing and harp playing. We will actually progress for eternity - becoming like our Heavenly Father. Understanding our eternal potential gives us the perspective to handle the various trials and afflictions that all of us will face.

• People will have the opportunity to progress in the spirit world. That means those who never accepted the gospel will get the opportunity then. Those who never heard of Jesus Christ will have the chance to learn about him and worship him. This means repentance can happen in the spirit world - although it is more difficult because most of the world’s temptations won’t exist there.

• We are saved by grace but that doesn’t mean God will force us to progress. We have to do that ourselves. Understanding this helps us realize how reliant we are on Christ and his atonement YET understand that we have a responsibility to work out our exaltation. On one hand, it isn’t all on us - we are yoked with Jesus Christ who can save us through HIS merit. On the other hand, becoming like Christ and God will ultimately come down to our agency and willingness to become like them.

  
  

  

  
  

If I thought hard enough, there are a hundred of these mysteries and peaceable things. Why are they mysteries? Because most of the world doesn’t know them. If you drive down to the local Evangelical church and ask the pastor what we will do in heaven for eternity, you’ll likely get some version of “we’ll sing praises to God forever.” Honestly, that sounds really boring after a week - I wouldn’t want to do that forever. I just don’t enjoy singing that much. Knowing what eternity is about gives me joy in this world and will bless me in eternity. It gives me perspective to navigate this tricky mortal experience. This gives me peace. However, this truth remains a mystery to most of the population on earth.

Understanding that people can repent and progress in the spirit world gives me peace when I consider those who died in sin or died without knowledge. I don’t know someone who has committed suicide but I imagine that, if I thought that they were automatically assigned to hell for that choice, it would be terrible. If I really cared about that person, I may not feel peace again. Yet, a lot of religions actually teach this. I’m so glad that this isn’t a mystery to me. It is a source of joy to know the truth.

Knowing the relationship between grace and justice is a wonderful blessing that brings me peace of mind and joy. If I thought that my entrance into heaven was based solely on my performance, I would feel a lot of heartburn because I’m not perfect enough. Yet, if I thought that it was entirely on Christ’s shoulders, I may not live up to my potential and feel the desire to make good choices. In both cases, my progress would be slowed significantly. Knowing that grace and my choices both count in my eternal progression gives me peace and motivation. Again, most of the Christian world doesn’t know how grace and agency work together. It remains a mystery. Listen to any preacher speak about grace and you’ll learn how the only choice that matters is whether you will have faith in Christ. In a way, of course, this is true but it isn’t the whole picture. I’m so grateful that it has been revealed to modern day prophets and revealed in my own soul what the truth is. This “mystery” brings me peace and joy and I am so grateful for it. I’m not special - just lucky.

43:3, 5

In the first part of this chapter explains how only Joseph Smith is the single prophet of the church with the responsibility of receiving revelations for the church. The Lord clarifies that “there is non other appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations until he be taken, if he abide in me.” In other words, there is only person authorized to exercise all priesthood keys at one time. An apostle cannot suddenly usurp that authority and claim to be leading the church.

Or anyone else for that matter. “And this shall be a law unto you, that ye receive not the teachings of any that shall come before you as revelations or commandments.” We are not to listen to any other random dude or woman who suggests that they are receiving revelations for the church. I get the feeling that this is going to be an issue in the near future. We are going to see men who are able to perform amazing miracles and suggest that they are sent from God to lead the church. We are not to believe them.

43:8

We learn that “when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given.” We are meant to teach each other and strengthen each other as members of this church. This church is not meant to be an organization with a singular pastor or preacher leading the church. We are meant to strengthen each other.

We all may not be as refined as a professional pastor - but we all, as a whole, progress more quickly in this volunteer system of worship.

43:16

Just now, Marci was explaining to me that she was making efforts to become more sanctified. She is taking steps to remove anything from her life that would limit her ability to be so. After she was done explaining this to me, the next verse I read was this verse: “And ye are to be taught from on high. Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken.”

What in your life could change to make you more sanctified?

43:21-22, 25

If someone rejects calls to repent from prophets, what will happen when they hear the voice of the Lord say the exact message about repentance? “For if I, who am a man, do lift up my voice and call upon you to repent, and ye hate me, what will ye say when the day cometh when the thunders shall utter their voices from the ends of the earth, speaking to the ears of all that live, saying—Repent, and prepare for the great day of the Lord? Yea, and again, when the lightnings shall streak forth from the east unto the west, and shall utter forth their voices unto all that live, and make the ears of all tingle that hear, saying these words—Repent ye, for the great day of the Lord is come?” Will the people be more or less likely to actually repent? Or, will their hearts be hardened because of their past rejection of this call to repent?

I personally think that those who have rejected the calls for repentance from prophets will be less likely to change even when the call comes from a thundering voice from heaven. They will have already rationalized why they don’t need to repent. That same rationalization will hold true in that day.

“How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not!”

Too many of us believe that we will finally repent when our backs are against the wall. When we get the message firsthand from Jesus, then we will repent. When we reach the spirit world, then we will repent. When the veil is lifted, then we will repent. I think the sad truth is that we generally won’t. We will have already set a pattern and formed a character that rejects calls to repentance - no matter the source or situation.

44:6

“Behold, I say unto you, that ye must visit the poor and the needy and administer to their relief, that they may be kept until all things may be done according to my law which ye have received. Amen.” As Marci and I are progressing in our new callings to promote the JustServe program in our stake, we are seeing more and more opportunities to serve in the community.

We don’t serve the poor and the needy enough to be considered true disciples of Christ. How much time have you or I spent in the last month helping the poor and needy? Is it 10% of our time? Is it 1%? Is it more like 0%? For me, it’s really, really close to 0%. That shouldn’t be the case as a disciple of Christ. I am repenting of this and hope to say soon that a significant percentage of my time is spent helping those who aren’t as fortunate as I.