As far as we know from the scriptures, the priesthood had not been upon the earth among mortal man for some 1400 years since Moroni had lived upon the earth. Due to sin and apostasy, the priesthood was withdrawn from mankind. The saving ordinances of the gospel were not available to those living in mortality. The fulness of the gospel was lost, and mankind wandered in darkness for hundreds of years.
Fortunately, we live in a time when the fullness of the gospel, and the priesthood power is once again had among mankind. Ours is a unique dispensation in which we live. All other dispensations throughout the history of the world would one-day end in apostasy, and the loss of priesthood power. Many of these previous dispensations were limited to a certain geographic area as well. Their peoples would eventually dwindle in unbelief, until a new dispensation of the gospel would be established in the earth.
Dispensation of the Fullness of Times
Our dispensation, the dispensation of the fulness of times, will not end in apostasy and unbelief. The mission of this dispensation is to the entire earth, not a limited geographic area. The priesthood is intended to be shared with all worthy males, as long as they are willing to enter into the covenants required to receive it. In this dispensation , the gospel will last until the time when the Savior returns to the earth, and ushers in the Millennial Dispensation, when Christ will rule personally upon the earth.
For those of us who have been blessed to be members of the church, and to receive the blessings of the priesthood, the only way these blessings will be lost will be through personal apostasy, rather than a general apostasy as before. The church will be here until the end of the earth. The priesthood will never again be taken from the earth.
Through other heavenly visitors, Joseph Smith received all the keys of the priesthood that have ever been given to mankind. Today President Gordon B. Hinckley holds authority for every restored key held by all those who have received a dispensation at any time from the beginning of the creation.
Quorums
When a man or young man is ordained to an office in the Priesthood, he becomes a member of a quorum. This is true for the Prophet, all the way down to the newest Deacon in the Church. The prophet, and his two counselors comprise the quorum of the First Presidency. The newest deacon becomes a member of his local deacons quorum.
Being a member of a quorum is a great blessing. In the quorum we can learn our duties, have opportunities for service, and develop friendships. It is a great blessing as members of the church to be able to travel around the world, or move into a new ward anywhere, and there find the brotherhood of a priesthood quorum. Instant friends, instant support in times of need, and eventually love and brotherhood to help one another through life's journey.
Being a member of a quorum is a great thing, but the responsibility to develop our own power in the priesthood is personal. Elder Russell M. Nelson said:
Only as an individual can you develop a firm faith in God and a passion for personal prayer. Only as an individual can you keep the commandments of God. Only as an individual can you repent. Only as an individual can you qualify for the ordinances of salvation and exaltation. And when your wife is sealed to you, her power and potential will increase yours. (Russell M. Nelson, Personal Priesthood Responsibility, Ensign, Nov. 2003, 44)
I am reminded of a story I once heard regarding the parable of the 10 Virgins. An individual thought that it was selfish of the wise virgins who had filled their lamps with oil to not share their oil with the foolish virgins, who were not prepared. However Robert L. Millet, a BYU Religion professor explains it this way:
I am reminded of a story I once heard regarding the parable of the 10 Virgins. An individual thought that it was selfish of the wise virgins who had filled their lamps with oil to not share their oil with the foolish virgins, who were not prepared. However Robert L. Millet, a BYU Religion professor explains it this way:
For years I wrestled with the meaning of the parable of the ten virgins, as contained in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. The scene seemed so wrong, the message so counter to all that the Master taught. Why couldn't the wise virgins just break down and share their oil? If each one just contributed a little, I reasoned, perhaps everyone, or at least some of the "foolish" ones, could make it to the wedding to meet the Bridegroom. And then an experience taught me the answer to my query. While I was serving as a priesthood leader, a husband and wife came to see me. They were both distressed about the state of their marriage and family; things seemed to be coming apart in their lives. "How can I help?" I asked. "We need more spirituality in our home," the wife answered. I asked a few questions. "How often do you pray as a family?" They answered that their schedules precluded any kind of family prayer. "Have you been able to hold family home evening?" "Bill and I bowl on Monday nights," was the response. "Do you ever take occasion to read the scriptures as a family or as individuals?" The answer from the husband: "Reading hurts my eyes." "Well, then, how can I help you?" I asked. Again came the reply: "We want the Spirit in our lives."
It was as though they were saying to me, "Brother Millet, could you reach down into your heart and loan us five years of daily prayer, ten years of regular scripture study, and fifteen years of family spiritual activities?" I couldn't do it. I realized dramatically that there are simply some things that we cannot share. I also came to appreciate that, like the small oil lamps of the Middle East that require a careful and methodical and slow effort to fill, so in our own lives we need to build our reservoirs of faith and spiritual experience gradually and consistently. Consistent gospel growth that was the answer. A colleague of mine drew my attention to these words of President Spencer W. Kimball: "The foolish asked the others to share their oil, but spiritual preparedness cannot be shared in an instant. . . . This was not selfishness or unkindness. The kind of oil that is needed to illuminate the way and light up the darkness is not shareable. . . . In our lives the oil of preparedness is accumulated drop by drop in righteous living." (Robert L. Millet, Selected Writings of Robert L. Millet:
Gospel Scholars Series, 377.)
Only we can do it
Throughout our lives will have many callings, and opportunities to serve in a wide variety of callings and assignments. Many of these callings are temporary, and we will be released one-day. However there are responsibilities that we have from which we will never be released: responsibilities to live so that we can grow and develop in priesthood power, and responsibilities to our families will never end in a release.
When we are ordained to the priesthood, we are granted authority, but power in the priesthood comes from exercising that authority in righteousness.
Responsibility to the Lord
Now is the time for us to prepare for that ultimate interview. Elder Nelson suggests that we ask ourselves these questions:
- Do I pay tithing with a willing heart?
- Do I obey the Word of Wisdom?
- Is my language free from obscenities and swearing?
- Am I morally righteous?
- Am I truly grateful for the Atonement that makes my resurrection a reality and eternal life a possibility?
- Do I honor temple covenants that seal loved ones to me forever?
If you can honestly say yes, you are developing power in the priesthood.
The gift of the Holy Ghost can add to that power. Scriptures tell of people who had received the Holy Ghost but did not know it. don't let that happen to you.
If our experiences with the Spirit happen only occasionally, and sometimes are even indiscernible, then we need to be doing more things in our lives to invite the spirit to be a constantrather than only an occasional companion.
King Benjamin asks the following piercing question:
For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart? (Mosiah 5:13)
Are our thoughts Christ-centered, or self-centered. Are we focused on building the kingdom of God, or in acquiring the things and praise of the world?
For every man and boy as he turns twelve years of age, there is the responsibility to receive the priesthood and to magnify our callings. This is according to the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. As we receive the priesthood, and truly magnify our callings and priesthood responsibilities, God, in turn, has given us His oath that he will give unto us all things that he has.
Magnifying Your Calling in the Aaronic Priesthood
So, as an Aaronic Priesthood Holder, what can you do to magnify your calling? Each week in priesthood meeting, the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood are recited. They are:
- Become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and live by its teachings.
- Serve faithfully in priesthood callings, and fulfill the responsibilities of priesthood offices.
- Give meaningful service.
- Prepare and live worthily to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and temple ordinances.
- Prepare to serve an honorable full-time mission.
- Obtain as much education as possible
- Prepare to become a worthy husband and father
- Give proper respect to women, girls, and children.
Fulfilling these objectives is how you can magnify your priesthood as an Aaronic Priesthood holder. These are great objectives, and will help build a firm foundation for the rest of your lives. These purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood will prepare you for a mission, for the temple, for a wife and family. They will prepare you for a life, and prepare you for that ultimate interview with the Savior, when we will have to give an accounting for how we used His Priesthood.
I mention these purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood so that mothers, sisters and the Young Women can also know of what things the young men are striving for. Im sure that the young men would appreciate any support you can give to them in helping them to attain these goals. What mother would not be proud of a son who obtained these goals? What young woman would not want to one-day marry a young man who has focused his life around these goals and has truly magnified his calling in the Aaronic Priesthood.
Magnifying Your calling in the Melchizedek Priesthood
In order to qualify for the highest degree in the Celestial Kingdom, the scriptures teach that a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it. (D&C 131: 2-3)
Elder Russell M. Nelson said:
The marriage covenant is honored when you honor your wife. A husbands foremost priority should be the care of his wife. Be true to her. don't ever allow your eyes to gaze upon pornography or let your language be lewd. The very choices made by reason of agency limit ones agency in the future. You cannot exercise agency and escape accountability and responsibility for each choice.
In keeping the commandments, and fulfilling our priesthood responsibilities we cannot truly magnify our callings in the priesthood, unless we are treating our wives and children with respect and kindness. Remember to serve them with gentleness, long-suffering, kindness, meekness, love unfeigned, pure knowledge, and charity toward all (D&C 121: 41-42)
I would suspect that much of our final interview with the Savior, will involve how well we treated our wives and our families. As Melchizedek Priesthood holders, one of the chief responsibilities we have is in providing for, teaching, building and nurturing our wives and children. This often times can require great sacrifice on our part. We frequently will have to forego some of our own selfish desires for the betterment and blessing of those most close to us. We must give our lives to our wives and families, as Christ gave his life to the church.
How do you treat your wife?
Your role as a priesthood leader in the home involves how well you treat your wife.
Your children are very observant. If you treat your wife with love, and kindness, with gentleness and respect, your children will in turn have respect for you.
However, if you speak unkindly, or are abusive to your wife in any way, your children will resent you.
Whats worse, the same cycle of abuse may continue when your sons becomes husbands as well.
President David O McKay said: The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
The amount of peace and security that comes to a child from a loving relationship between husband and wife cannot be underestimated.
This is one of the great gifts that I received from my father. He was always a peaceable man. Rarely did I ever hear any sharp words between my mother and father.
I never realized what a great blessing this was, until after I left home. Many of my roommates in college, and missionary companions were not blessed with such homes. This had a detrimental impact on their spiritual development, as well as their own feelings of self worth and self confidence.
Much of the decline we see in the fabric of our society today stems from men who do not treat the women in their lives with the proper love, honor, and respect they deserve.
How do you treat your children?
How do you interact with your children. Are we spending so much of our time correcting and directing them, that we don't take time to compliment them and build them up.
Too many of us are like the father of the little boy who cried: You always tell me when you're disappointed in me. Why don't you ever tell me when you're appointed in me?
As a patriarch in the home, it is your duty to see that your children live in a nurturing environment, where each child feels loved and valued.
Take time to pay them compliments. Let them know that you are proud of their accomplishments. Actions speak louder than words pay attention to what they are doing. Make every attempt to attend special events that they participate in, such as musical programs, recitals, athletic events, talks that they may give, etc. Make sure that they know you are interested in them, and in their lives.
Set a good example for your children in all that you do. If your actions are not consistent with your teachings, they will not believe your words.
If you have a kind and loving relationship with your children, they will be more likely to listen to your teachings, because they will know of your love and concern for them. Your ability to influence your children will be much greater if your children know of your love and concern for them.
The power of your teachings
Do not underestimate the power of your teachings. Do not be weary in pursuing your righteous goals to have daily scripture study, family prayers, and weekly Home Evenings. Even if your kids are squirming and seeming to not pay attention, your words and efforts are being recorded in their minds.
You never know when the day may come when they will need to know the things you have taught them.
One of the duties if the Holy Ghost, is to bring all things to our remembrance, which have been taught unto us.
My favorite example of this is from the life of Alma the younger. Alma had been taught well by his father, Alma. When the Angel appeared to Alma the Younger, he was struck down, and was wracked with the memory of his many sins.
17 . . .I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! (Alma 36:17-20.)
You never know when your teachings will be brought to remembrance in the minds of your children, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Like, Alma, it might be in a moment of extreme need. It might be in a moment when their eternal destiny might hinge on a single decision. The words of truth and testimony that you teach your children, may be just the thing that pulls them through, during the fiery trials of their lives. The Holy Ghost will bring those crucial teachings to their mind in that critical hour of decision.
Conclusion: Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts
Essentially, what we have been discussing today can all be summed up by reading D&C 121: 34-46. The rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven. When we behave with any degree of unrighteousness, or unrighteous dominion, our power in the priesthood is diminished. The priesthood is not a license for dictatorship. We are to proceed . . . only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, . . . without hypocrisy, and without guile
And Finally:
45. Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, (including your own household) and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
46. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever. (D&C 121:45-46)
As we do these things, our power in the priesthood will grow, until we one day will have confidence to stand in the presence of the Lord, and give a worthy accounting unto him of our lives of priesthood service. And in return, the blessings of the Lord, and the blessings of our families, will flow unto us forever and ever.
1 comment:
Great entry, thanks for the time spent posting
Post a Comment