THe Doctrine of the Priesthood

While studying the discourses from the April 2011 General Conference, I was touched by the following words of President Uchtdorf.

“The holy priesthood of God . . . has an owner’s manual. Let us commit to reading the scriptures and handbooks with more purpose and more focus. Let us begin by rereading sections 20, 84, 107, and 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The more we study the purpose, potential, and practical use of the priesthood, the more we will be amazed by its power, and the Spirit will teach us how to access and use that power to bless our families, our communities, and the Church… I invite you to . . . become experts in the doctrines of the gospel—especially the doctrine of the priesthood… The principles and doctrines of the priesthood are sublime and supernal. The more we study the doctrine and potential and apply the practical purpose of the priesthood, the more our souls will be expanded and our understanding enlarged, and we will see what the Lord has in store for us” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Your Potential, Your Privilege,” Ensign, May 2011, 59).

When serving with Elder Christofferson in a stake conference assignment with the Carmichael California Stake, he invited us to study the doctrine of the priesthood. As a result, I began a study of it then. However, I didn’t make much progress.

Because of President Uchtdorf’s invitation, I have resumed that study today with much greater intensity than previously. I have already collected ten pages of thoughts on the doctrine of the priesthood and am far from finished.

Below is some counsel that I had previously collected on the priesthood in the home. I am grateful to have the chance to share it.

“We have done very well at distributing the authority of the priesthood. We have priesthood authority planted nearly everywhere. We have quorums of elders and high priests worldwide. But distributing the authority of the priesthood has raced, I think, ahead of distributing the power of the priesthood. The priesthood does not have the strength that it should have and will not have until the power of the priesthood is firmly fixed in the families as it should be” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Power of the Priesthood,” Ensign, May 2010, 7).

“The Priesthood is given to men but is shared by wives. The way we treat our wives will determine our faithfulness in magnifying our priesthood callings. The more we love and bless our wives the more power we will have in the priesthood. The more we understand the priesthood the more we will value and love our wives. We need to live and teach this doctrine” (John A. Groberg, Area Training Meeting, Provo, Utah, September 21, 2002, quoted by permission.)

“As I meet with priesthood leaders, I often ask about the priorities of their various responsibilities. Usually they mention their important Church duties to which they have been called. Too few remember their responsibilities at home. Yet priesthood offices, keys, callings, and quorums are meant to exalt families (see D&C 23:3). Priesthood authority has been restored so that families can be sealed eternally. So brethren, your foremost priesthood duty is to nurture your marriage—to care for, respect, honor, and love your wife. Be a blessing to her and your children” (Russell M. Nelson, “Nurturing Marriage,” Ensign, May 2006, 36).

“It was not meant that the woman alone accommodate herself to the priesthood duties of her husband or her sons. She is of course to sustain and support and encourage them.

“Holders of the priesthood, in turn, must accommodate themselves to the needs and responsibilities of the wife and mother. Her physical and emotional and intellectual and cultural well-being and her spiritual development must stand first among his priesthood duties” (Boyd K. Packer, “A Tribute to Women,” Ensign, July 1989, 75).

I pray that all of us who are privileged to hold the priesthood of God will give careful consideration and consistent application to this portion of the doctrine of the priesthood.

The Great Deliverer

In D&C 59: 21 we read, “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.”

I have recently been compiling two lists, which I hope will help to show Heavenly Father how much I appreciate the blessings that I have received. One of the lists is simply called “blessings.” Another list is composed of a very specific kind of blessing—instances in which I have been delivered from difficult and at times seemingly impossible circumstances. I feel badly for not sharing these experiences along the way. Besides being simply negligent, perhaps at times I didn’t even recognize the blessing until weeks, months or even years later. I hope that the occasional sharing I will do will help to make up for these past deficiencies.

While working on the list, it occurred to me that I certainly fit the following statement made by President Thomas S. Monson: “Those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted. The English author Aldous Huxley wrote, ‘Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted’” (“The Divine Gift of Gratitude,” Ensign, Nov 2010, 89). 

The following is the first installment of what will be several more deliverance experiences.

· When about six to eight years old, while visiting my Granmother Koyle, I was helping to bring in the cows to be milked. The cows were in a field that had a lot of sagebrush in it. Some of the brush was three feet tall or more. While running full-speed through the sagebrush, I looked down and saw a rattlesnake coiled up. My right foot was about to come down on top of the rattlesnake. With what I am now certain was heavenly help, I extended my foot beyond the snake and continued on my way—shaken but unhurt.

· When about sixteen years old, some milk cows were being driven into the barn for milking at my uncle, Eldon Koyle’s farm. However, a bull was interfering with the process. In my youthful bravado, I jumped into the corral to drive the bull away. He wasn’t a bit intimidated. Instead, he charged me. Before I could take any evasive action, he had me pinned against one of the corral’s large fence posts, made from a railroad tie. I could have easily been crushed to death. However, my father and brother hit the bull with sticks and he backed off. I just ended up with a bruised breastbone that was sore for a few days. I am certain that another force was at work—sparing me from serious injury and possibly from death.

By sharing these experiences, I do not wish to draw attention to myself. What I wish to do is to lend substance to my firm testimony that the Savior is watching over us. He is "The Great Deliverer". He has assigned angels—both earthly and heavenly—to protect, inspire and guide us. While unseen, they are very real. More often than we know, they come to our aid in time of need. Of this I have absolutely no doubt.

Cultivate Pure Desires

I have been preparing a lesson for next Sunday’s gospel doctrine class. The purpose of the lesson is, “To help class members recognize and avoid hypocrisy and thus strengthen their commitment to Jesus Christ”.

The lesson contains several scriptural examples of hypocrisy. The most glaring example of hypocrisy is that of the Pharisees, in Matthew 23. The Savior said, “They [the Pharisees] say, and do not” (Matt. 23:3). The Pharisees held others to a higher standard than themselves. “They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Matt. 23:4).

In another condemnation, the Savior points out that, “All their works they do for to be seen of men” (Matt. 23:5). In other words, they do some things that are righteous but for selfish motives. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord cautions, “When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward” (Matthew 6:2). In other words, even if we do what is right but do it for impure motives, our reward is less than it would otherwise have been.

It is easy for us all to condemn the Pharisees. They make an easy target. However, we are all subject to the same human weaknesses—even if they aren’t as extreme. What can we do to avoid the trap? Cultivate pure desires.

Elder Oaks’ talk, “Desire,” in the May Ensign (lds.org/ensign/2011/05/desire?lang=eng), gives us some great counsel on cultivating desires that will lead us to do the right thing for the right reason. He said, “I hope each of us will search our hearts to determine what we really desire and how we rank our most important desires. Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming” (Dallin H. Oaks, “Desire,” Ensign, May 2011, 42).

Neal A. Maxwell said, “Actually, everything depends—initially and finally—on our desires. These shape our thought patterns. Our desires thus precede our deeds and lie at the very cores of our souls, tilting us toward or away from God (see D&C 4:3). God can “educate our desires” (see Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine [1939], 297). Others seek to manipulate our desires. But it is we who form the desires, the “thoughts and intents of [our] hearts” (Mosiah 5:13).

“The end rule is “according to [our] desires … shall it be done unto [us]” (D&C 11:17), “for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts” (D&C 137:9; see also Alma 41:5; D&C 6:20, 27). One’s individual will thus remains uniquely his. God will not override it nor overwhelm it. Hence we’d better want the consequences of what we want! (Neal A. Maxwell, “Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father,” Ensign, Nov. 1995.)

My commitment is that I will frequently examine my desires and the priorities that I place on them, lest I fall into the trap to which the Pharisees fell victim.

The Power of the Word

In Alma 31:5, Mormon says, "As the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God". It has long been interesting to me that Mormon chose to compare the power of words to the power of the sword. He said this long before Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 coined the phrase, "The pen [the word] is mightier than the sword".

While considering Mormon's statement, I was interested to find an account in the Book of Mormon in which the word was dramatically more powerful than the sword. In the early chapters of Helaman, the Lamanites won much of the Nephite lands in battle. The Nephites fought hard to win their land back through war. However, they were only able to win back half of what they had lost. Then through some dramatic heavenly manifestations, triggered by the preaching of Nephi and Lehi, sons of the second Helaman, many were converted. Three hundred of those converts joined Nephi and Lehi in teaching the Lamanites. Through their preaching, the lands that had been lost were peacefully returned. This is described in Helaman 5. Indeed the word is more powerful than the sword!

There are many more examples of the power of the word. Below are just a few.

• The Brother of Jared removed Mount Zerin. See Ether 12:30.
• The Savior, under the direction of the Father, created the earth. See John 1:1-3.
• In fact, in John 1:1 Jesus Christ is declared to be "the Word."
  
• Enoch "spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him" (Moses 7:13).
• At the word of Nephi, the heavens were sealed and the rains ceased. "So it was done, according to the words of Nephi. And there was a great famine upon the land" (Helaman 11:5).

The list could be made much longer. Moving mountains and other physical manifestations of the power of the word are impressive. However, the power of God's word to change human hearts is something that has far more lasting and eternal consequences. What does that mean for each of us?

The challenge is to make the word of God a power within each of us to help us resist temptation and to forge a character that is more and more like God's. I love these words of scripture which help to teach this concept:

29Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—
30And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out. (Helaman 3:29-30)

These verses help us to understand a very important key to successfully completing our mortal probation. "Laying hold upon the word of God," will help us to have the power to do all that we have been sent here to do. Studying and applying God's words in our lives--likening them to us (see 1 Nephi 19:23)--is vital to our spiritual growth. As we do so, the words of scripture will become our words. The commandments of the scriptures will become our treasured delight. We will indeed qualify to "sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out"!