I was watching this video with my family:
It dawned on me... Here was a boy who exhausted all avenues for getting truth by going to the "experts" on God, heaven, and hell. He was instructed to pray, choose now because his soul was at stake, to not join other sects, to understand the scriptures in focused views, etc. He was given so much instruction and yet could not reconcile that they opposed each other. The work of these experts destroyed any trust one could muster in studying the scriptures or going to church.
During his studies, he came across James 1:5 where he said he was filled from head to toe with the assurance that he needed to pray to ask God which church was true. So, he did. He chose the day and time and did it. IT WORKED! God came and answered his prayer.
Imagine the change of perspective when the scriptures changed from a story book to a 'how to' manual. Suddenly, he can search it out and gain more power and truth. I know I have known this for decades but to have the sudden swap from despondent nothingness to ultimate power and knowledge in the moment of reading something, feeling something that moved you to do it, doing it, and gaining the promised outcome is truly awesome!
I have had this change of perspective but it happened on my mission when I found out I could dream and have visions. I realized I could learn and see and know anything. The scriptures were no longer good moral stories but instructions on how to gain certain things. It created a passion and fire within me that cannot be gained with just a good story. I was invested and involved in becoming more. For instance, I wanted to have the gift of healing because I thought, "Why not?" I studied it out and found that this gift is directly tied to the personal revelation and knowing the course God would have you or the afflicted to travel in order to gain it. Then pronouncing this verbally and through touch and most times through the priesthood upon that person. I practiced it and saw the miracles from it.
Another example is when I wanted to have a stronger testimony and be forgiven of some things that happened years ago that still weighed on me in guilt. I read and studied. Found out the Book of Mormon is a large repentance manual. Wrote an article on it entitled just that. Found out about mighty prayer and tried it out just as it was described. I prayed in my heart and out loud. At times I was inspired on what to say and at other times I was alone it seemed. When I felt alone I pressed forward in prayer until I felt inspired again. I prayed in my heart while I worked and was with people and out loud when I felt it was needed and I was alone. All the day long I did this while fasting. Words to say came to my mind many times. Luckily I was working alone on a home in the middle of nowhere. It seemed the world was working with me at the time to let me do this. At 7pm I decided to quit work and go to the temple. I continued praying while driving and walking. Still no answer but I did feel the spirit from time to time throughout the day. While sitting in the endowment room of the Vernal temple, a voice spoke and said, "Bryce, your sins are forgiven." Immediately I was filled with love and peace and all guilt was gone. Like a nasty wet dog smelling blanket was lifted off of me and a newly washed, soft, downy blanket was placed there and I smelled no more of wet dog at all. It was so thorough! I sat there crying and in awe. My guilt was gone! Nothing there! I still had the memory of what I had done but the pain was no more. I muttered quietly to myself in that room, "How is this possible?" I realized it was the same exclamation from Enos. I then understood for the first time why Enos said this. Feelings like guilt and shame can be removed as easily as an article of clothing. This had never been known to me before. I was so happy. I then thought of Enos and how after he had done this he sought for the same upon his family and friends and people. I then thought of them and hoped they too could know this. IT WORKS!
The scriptures are full of people's stories of figuring out how to gain truth and power. Through the scriptures we can gain powers to see the future and past, to heal the sick, speak languages, command the elements to obey our voice, call down angels to minister to us, gain all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even Adam, have strength beyond our physical capacity, live beyond the years we should, move mountains, shake the earth, etc. There is no power we cannot gain.
It's like the wizards on Lord of the Rings, Sarumon and Gandolf. They sought through books and stories and legends to learn of powers and spells and strengths. They desired to know the future, the past, and understand what to do to gain these powers for themselves or protect themselves from the dangers around them. These books weren't just stories to them, they were manuals.Another movie I loved as a child was Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It's about a lady who was paying a professor of magic for spells and instructions. She was practicing these spells and having success at it.
She was practicing what was written in letters from a teacher and was excited for each new letter that arrived from the professor. She would pay him for each lesson. Then the letters stopped with an explanation that the war (WWII) was making it impossible to continue. She would not have it and traveled to visit him. She found he was a magician who used slight of hand to perform parlor tricks on the street. He was a fraud. He had no magic and knew nothing of what he was sending her or that it even worked. It was a con to help him make more money. She was not hurt or dismayed by this. Why? Because IT WORKS! It didn't matter that she came around to discovering it through a con artist or fraud. It didn't matter that he was just plagiarizing a book and sending them to her in his name. Because it worked, she wanted the book. So he took her to the book in an abandoned mansion. The book was incomplete. They searched for the book and could not find what they needed without going into a book. They gained the spell they needed and used it to conquer the German forces invading their town and saving their friends and families. The book they used and went into was a child's book. It was a good story that the kids loved. To the lady, it was the saving manual for their country and people.
The scriptures can be the same for us if we turn to them and do the things we are inspired to do. One of the most powerful and most liberating truths I found in them was that of Obedience and Faith. Within these two principles lay all the powers of heaven and hell. Nothing can stop a person from becoming like God if they understand these two principles and follow them. It is the core of how every prophet ever became a prophet and gained any power or blessing they sought for. It is the core of the teachings of the scriptures and it is all based on the laws God has placed upon us, this earth, this cosmos, before this plan of redemption through Christ was presented.
Before I go into explaining my understanding of these two principles, I must calm any doubt to the person who thinks God doesn't speak to them. Revelation is not limited to specific DNA, bloodlines, or a select few persons. Joseph Smith taught that the Holy Ghost is a revelator and one cannot receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelation (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.328). Paul was so direct when he said:
There is no person on earth who cannot know through revelation that God is real, the Book of Mormon is true, the bible is true, that Christ died for us, or anything for that matter.
Obedience and Faith are actually the same thing. They cannot be separate things because Faith requires obedience to be faith at all and obedience requires faith to be obedience at all. I didn't know this at first and when I began to understand how to gain blessings through obedience to God's laws, I thought it was just obedience I was studying. I called it the True Order of Obedience. The ingredients were knowledge of something you want sometimes called a hope for something, then personal revelation on what to do to gain it, and then doing it. That is it. It is simple and powerful. You can gain anything with this process. Seems simple but most don't think about what they are doing. For instance, tithing or keeping the sabbath day holy are things we have been asked to do that have blessings tied to them. Have you asked God how He wants you to be obedient to them? If not, you are probably following your best understanding of them but guaranteed you are not being obedient to God, you are being obedient to your own idea of God. This is the exact definition of 'the philosophies of men mingled with scripture." You are being obedient to your own understanding of it. Before anyone gets defensive and cries out, "How is this bad? God knows I am trying and will bless me for it." ask yourself this, "What blessings am I not getting because I don't know how God wants me to do this?" The scriptures are chuck full of examples of instructions from God on how to do things that are so adverse to common sense or wisdom and yet they worked. The end result of true obedience has always been evidence that God is there. If obedience has led anyone away from Joseph Smith, the Church, or their covenants and priesthood blessings, they were not obedient to God, they were never understanding of God's will but did their own will and called it obedience to God. The result was sub-par blessings and unsatisfactory evidence in God's power in their lives.
Faith was the same lesson but a little different wording. Hebrews 11 was the catalyst for this. Faith is the [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The word 'assurance' is the correct translation of the Greek word 'hupostasis' originally used and a search in the other translations of the bible correct 'substance' to 'assurance.' The word 'substance' is meant to convey a supporting foundation, or claim of validity. A legal term, not a reference to matter.
So... faith is some validity or assurance in something you want or hope for. Where does this validity or assurance come from? God! Faith requires personal revelation of some sort, be it a feeling from head to toe, inspiration, vision, dream, visitation from angels or God, or anything that the person who hopes for can gain spiritual confirmation that their hope or desire will 'come to pass'. Then they act. They don't just go and do anything or even what they want to do. They do as they were inspired and shown to do. When it is done, they gain the blessing they hoped for. Hebrews chapter 11 is story after story of this very 'how to' instruction. It is the same definition of the 'true order of obedience' I discovered earlier. It is faith. Moroni taught that faith without miracles is dead. Meaning, if a miracle does not come after your works in faith, your works are not works in faith. This also means, your works are not obedience to God. God's will is what we should seek after. Hope for anything and pray for it. You will get God's approval sometimes immediately and sometimes over the course of decades. But you will gain that assurance and then you work for it.
I hope you see the power in this. Suddenly the scriptures become manuals on how to do anything and gain anything. You can do it. God is no respecter of persons and will grant to the least as much as the greatest so long as they ask and do. The scriptures WORK! The prophets WORK! They Spirit of God WORKS! They all work to our benefit and instruction. You can get that job, gain that knowledge, prove anything for your benefit. You can bless and heal and all within the instruction of God and in so doing, you will learn how to communicate with God and build the best relationship ever with Him and Heaven and all the Hosts there. It is not fake or just a good story, it is real!
