Balance, Priority, and Spiritual Gifts

  

        The coming of the new semester for me at BYU promises some unique challenges and, hopefully accomplishments, in regards to balance.  With so many competing pressures in our lives, what is most important to us has a tendency to be drowned out by the things we think are necessary.  For example, it has been a somewhat surprising lesson that there are things that are more important to the Lord than school work.  Intuitively, this seems obvious, but how many of us would consider procrastinating homework to go to the temple or study the scriptures a natural decision?

          The reality is that we did not come to Earth to go to school.  We did not come to Earth to make money, get promoted at work, or participate in recreational activities.  We came to Earth to gain the essential spiritual skills necessary to live the kind of life that God lives and to help others to do the same.

          I believe that one day science, technology, and industry will be obsolete and that much of the knowledge and skills we once had in each of these areas will no longer be useful to us.  Prophets have long since encouraged the Church to gain an education, but never have they suggested that secular knowledge is as important as spiritual knowledge.

          Oftentimes we hear the following passage quoted from the Doctrine and Covenants to support secular learning, "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection," but we forget that the definition of intelligence in the scriptures is a spiritual one, light and truth.  To me that means that an increase in secular learning does not automatically translate to an increase in intelligence, although the two are related.  To be most effective, secular knowledge should be second to and interpreted in light of spiritual knowledge.

          By extension, our efforts to balance competing demands for our time need to be qualified by our faith in God.  That is, we cannot rely solely on societal or personal opinions about what is most important to spend our time on and when, or what is possible to fit into our schedule.   Joseph Smith taught that personal righteousness is a requirement for the power of faith to be active in our lives.  When we know that the course of our lives is pleasing to God's will, we can trust that he will enable us to give each priority its appropriate weight and to execute our plans, even when they go beyond our own ability.

          The way that God enables us is through spiritual gifts.  There are an infinite number of spiritual gifts, just as there are an infinite number of circumstances in which they can be used.  They might include things that are almost not visible, such as the gift of delegation or of determination.  These gifts extend beyond our mental capacity and often expand our intelligence in the spiritual sense.  By praying for these gifts and then developing them, we continue along the path that leads to perfection.  We will be able to balance ever-intensifying pressures while not neglecting the day-to-day spiritual and temporal needs of those around us.

And we will truly be happy.

Salvation: The Apex of Human Experience

          Three fallen men are standing at the bottom of a cliff, with Jesus standing at the top.  Jesus tells the three of them,

          "Come unto Me."

          The first man tells Jesus, "I believe you can bring me to the top of the cliff."  Jesus waves His hand and the man is teleported magically to the top. 

          The second man says, "I will climb up to reach you, but I know on my own I will fall.  Give me a harness and climbing gear and catch me every time I fall."  The Lord does so and he reaches the top of the cliff in safety.

          The third man say, "I know that Thou canst do anything.  Give me strength to climb up to Thee."  Nothing miraculous happens immediately, but as soon as he starts to climb God begins to incrementally strengthen his muscles.  Sometimes the man slips or scrapes an arm and becomes frightened that he will fall.  Sometimes he doubts his own ability to reach the top of the cliff.  However, he remembers that God has prepared the mountainside specifically for him and feels the supernatural strength he receives, and that gives him courage to keep moving.  With time and the man's repentance the Lord heals his scrapes and bruises so he can continue on without falling.  At any time the man could use his agency to give up and let go, but instead he chooses to move on.  However, it is only the strength he receives from God that makes it possible for him to navigate the increasingly difficult cliff face.  With time, he also reaches the top of the cliff.

          When the first man reaches the top he is in a different place but has not changed at all.  The second man made the choice to climb, but only in conditions of complete safety and with little mental or physical growth.  However, when the third man reaches the top of the cliff he is like God.  He is physically perfect because God prepared the mountain to make him that way.  Even more, he has also learned to trust the Lord in the face of impending destruction.  Though seeming to risk life and limb to reach the Lord, he knows that when Christ is involved, there is no such thing as risk.  During the course of the journey, he came to know the Lord, while the other two only knew about Him.  All three men reach the top of the cliff, but only the third was saved.

          All three of these men are real.  The first is the person who deliberately throws his life into the gutter and keeps it there his whole life despite pleading requests from God.  He may believe in God's saving power, but he doesn't act differently because of it.  He is required to suffer for his sins and is saved in the Telestial Kingdom.  He is at the top of the cliff, but his desires and actions are the same.

          The second man is the person who tries to follow God using only the strength and talents God has blessed him with at birth.  These are naturally imperfect and often lead him to shirk his duty or to play it safe rather than do God's will.  His desires may be originally similar or even superior to those of the third man, but without the help of God they never change on the deepest level, and so he does not change.  He chooses to receive the Gospel but is not valiant in the testimony of Jesus.  His righteous choices allow him to be saved in the Terrestrial Kingdom, but still he falls short of his potential.

          The third man also uses his talents and abilities, but he recognizes that they are infinitely less than they need to be for him to be saved.  He knows that he can fall.  But he also has faith in He who is omnipotent and he does His work.

          My friends and associates:  I wish I could tell each of you individually how badly I want you to be the third mountain climber.  I want to tell you how much I want you to reach your potential.  I used to think salvation was easy; in reality it is the hardest thing we will ever do because it encompasses everything that we do in our entire lives.  

          I bear you my witness that Jesus Christ can save you in every sense of the word.  Salvation is not what you do or where you go but who you are.  Christ taught the souls in spirit prison yet He remained a celestial person.  He drunk a bitter cup without becoming bitter.  Even now He has a plan for you that takes into account every sin you have or will ever commit that, if followed, would make you like Him.  Even now that plan is in effect in your life.  If I could tell you just one thing with such power that it would cause every fiber of your being to tremble and shake, it would be this:

          No matter where you are or what you're going through,

Never.  Let.  Go.

Spiritual Impossibilities

          I was struck with the undeniable impression this week that I should interrupt my existing plan of posting installments of Miracle Girl to specifically address  the topic of spiritual impossibilities.  I hope that whoever in my small audience this is intended for will feel the Father's love for them and His desire to share with them some of the important truths of His Kingdom.

          When we think of things that are spiritually impossible, we are inclined to focus on states of being that are contradictions in terms, such as "happiness in wickedness,"  or "receiving a witness before the trial of one's faith."  These spiritual situations can never exist because they come into direct conflict with divine law.  However, there are other spiritual accomplishments that are impossible for us to reach simply because we do not have enough power to complete them on our own.  For example, King Benjamin asserted:  "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord..."

                Here King Benjamin declares that the only way we can ever put off the natural man is by yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit.  Why?  Because we become a saint through the Atonement of Christ, not through our own efforts.  The Savior illuminated another impossibility in Mathew 19:  "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.  When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?  But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

          In other words, it is impossible for a man who has riches to have the spiritual willpower, of his own volition, to sacrifice them so that he can enter the Kingdom of God.  Only God can lift such a man to such a high plane of thought and spiritual power so as to be able to make a decision of that caliber.  If he tries to do so without divine aid, he will fail.

          I believe that there are many, many other things that are impossible to do without grace from God that is far above what we deserve.  For example, loving our enemies, forgiving those who have committed atrocities, serving out of pure selflessness, having faith to call down miracles, overcoming ways of thinking that stretch as deep as the marrow of our souls, being worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us always, and permanently changing the nature of who we are, are all things that are impossible for us to do without the Atonement of Christ.  So often we think "I have to change myself, and then Christ will forgive me of my sins," or "I have to make X amount of progress, and then God will help me change that weakness."  In reality, true change and progress of great magnitude is spiritually impossible for a lone person.

          "And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them." (Moroni 7:24)

          The phrase "no good thing" seems pretty inclusive.  To me this means that even our righteous desires, efforts, and decisions could not exist without the Atonement.  It helps me understand why those who chose Lucifer's plan have fallen to the point that their only desire is to make others miserable like unto themselves.  They utterly rejected Christ's plan and Atonement, and the consequence is that it is impossible for them to be or do good things.

          "And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us. And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; (D&C 93:11-13)"

          Elder Bednar has said that the word "grace" in the scriptures can often be replaced with the phrase "enabling power."  In other words, for Christ to become perfect and live a perfect life, He required help from a power greater than His own.  Even with a perfectly innocent conscience, more was required for Him to reach perfection the way God the Father defines it.  If even Jesus Christ could not progress without help, why do we so often assume that we can do so?

          What, then, is our purpose?  What is the role of works in our eternal progression?  The answer is that although God can transform us into a perfect being without the slightest effort on our part, and although He is the only being who can do so, He will not do so against our own agency.  Works are important because they are the means by which we align our agency, our wills, and the talents and capacities we have been blessed with through the Atonement, with the will of God.  It is then by our exercise of faith in the omnipotence and love of God that we pull down power from heaven to rise toward Him.  When He sees our faith in His power demonstrated through our works, He reaches down and makes the true change. 

          In other words, it is by using the good that God has already given us to the best of our abilities that we qualify for the greatest possible endowment of enabling grace.  This means that while failures and mistakes are to be expected, if we repent and exercise faith God will quickly lift us above them through the covenants we have made with Him that bind us to Christ's Atonement.  That lifting is performed through a gift of the Spirit.  President George Q Cannon once said, "If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. … No man ought to say, ‘Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.’ He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them."

                There is a reason why Paul said of the Savior, "...that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus... By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith (Romans 3:26-27)."   Although works are required, they have limited power to change us directly.  Rather, it is by faith in the power of Christ that we are transformed.  Our works are both confirmations that our faith is genuine and opportunities to use our agency, but they are often not the principle means by which we are changed.  Faith without works is dead, but works without faith in Christ is also dead.

          I know that as we have true faith in Jesus Christ and pull down the power of the Atonement upon ourselves, we will be empowered beyond what is humanly possible.  We will perform feats that were previously beyond our abilities and marvel and the strange, miraculous person that the Lord has made us.  Give yourself to the Lord; your thoughts, decisions, and desires.  Give Him your love, time, and attention.  Give them to Him in your heart, even if He never requires them in the flesh, so that if He were to ask anything of you you could say, "Of course.  My (time, attention, desire, ambition) is already Thine to do with what Thou wantest because I already gave it to you in my heart long ago."  I promise that as you do so, God will make more of you than you could possibly make of yourself.  You will never regret any decision to give yourself to the Lord.  I never have.

          Listen for God's voice whispering to you these divine truths in my future blog posts, as well as in all areas of your life, and you will hear them.