Doctrine and Covenants 20-22

Doctrine & Covenants 20-22

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BACKGROUND

To give my students an understanding of the background of this section, I might begin my lesson by showing the following picture and asking if anybody knows what significant event in church history took place in this small log home in Fayette, New York. And the answer is that the church was organized or officially established here. On April 6, 1830 about 40-50 people crowded into this small home and held the first official meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. Sometimes with these church history sites, it's fun to take your students on a bit of a virtual tour. and the church has an amazing resource that you can use to help bring some of these sites more alive. I'll put a link in the description below that will send you to a virtual tour of the Whitmer cabin. I might spend a few minutes with my students looking around and showing them some of the rooms and details of the site. It should help them to envision a setting for this significant event in world history. With the Book of Mormon translated and published, the priesthood restored, and a prophet called, the Lord was now ready to reestablish his church once again on the earth. During this meeting, prayers were offered, leadership sustained and ordained, the sacrament administered, and revelation pronounced. Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants represents the first canonized revelation of the officially organized church and was received and prepared by Joseph and Oliver over an extended period a time preceding the Church's first conference held in June of 1830.

https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/360/historic-sites/new-york/fayette/whitmer-cabin-360?lang=eng

ICEBREAKER

Well this revelation has a special nickname. So for an icebreaker, see if you can unscramble this word puzzle to discover what it is. For a hint, read the section heading for section 20. And there you'll see that this is a revelation on Church organization and Government. So what do we sometimes call a document that sets forth the foundational principles of a new organization or government?

The word is Constitution. That's the nickname of this section. It's the constitution of the church. And I'd encourage my students to write that at the top of section 20 to remind them of that. And technically, what is a constitution? It's "a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed". So what we're going to find here are the foundational principles and policies of the newly formed Church of Jesus Christ. The first thing you'll probably notice about section 20 is its size. It's a really big section, as you could imagine, being the Constitution of the Church. It's 84 versus long and has a lot to digest. So, as a teacher, how do you approach a section like this?

SCRIPTURE STUDY SKILL-CUT IT UP

The first thing I would do with my students would be this quick scripture study skill activity that comes in very handy when dealing with large sections. I usually introduce this scripture study skill with the following illustration. I ask them, "How do you eat an airplane?" And they'll give you a really strange look and ask you what you mean. And then I tell them that all they need to do is ask Michael Lotito how to do it. This man ate some rather strange things in his lifetime. Here's a list of his digestive "accomplishments?" He ate:

18 bicycles

15 shopping carts

7 television sets

6 chandeliers

2 beds

1 pair of skis

1 computer

1 Cessna airplane

How on earth did he do that? Actually the bigger question may be Why would anybody want to do that? and I don't know, you'd have to ask him. But the way he did it was to first cut these objects up into small pieces. Then he would eat them little by little. That's the same strategy that I would use to digest section 20 and other large sections like it in the Doctrine and Covenants. Cut it up into smaller pieces first. At the beginning of each section, the section summary basically does this for you and tells you some of the major divisions within a section. I don't always agree with the way that they cut it up, but it's a great start. Here's how I would cut up section 20, and I instruct my students to draw lines between these specific sections.

I would draw lines between the following verses:

Between 16 and 17

36 and 37

37 and 38

69 and 70

and 79 and 80.

Now the different themes and principles of the constitution will more easily stand out to you. One caution in using this strategy. Be sure not to separate the sections too much in your minds, because you might miss some of the insight and truth that can come with examining how the sections relate and lead into each other. Don't completely isolate them from the surrounding text.

SEARCH

But now that we've divided it up, we're better prepared to identify and examine the basic principles and foundations of the church. What are they? An activity I like to do is this word unscramble. I've taken each of the 6 major foundational principles of the church that I see in this section and mixed them up. Thematically this works well, because you're taking something disorganized and putting it into order, which is exactly what Joseph Smith was doing in this section. Organizing a church. Bringing order to the religious chaos of his day. Remember what it was that Joseph asked as a 14-year-old in the sacred grove. He wanted a church to join. He wanted to know which of all the churches were true. And we know the answer he got. But now, God was going to answer that desire. He's going to give Joseph a church that he can join. Also, remember that the Book of Mormon had just been translated and published. Within the Book of Mormon there was a description of what the church was like and how ordinances were performed, and records kept when Christ organized it among the Nephites. Do you remember where that was? The first 6 chapters of Moroni. You'll notice striking similarities between Section 20 and those first 6 chapters. Joseph and Oliver are obviously being influenced by the teachings of the Book of Mormon. They are restoring the same church Christ established back then in both the old and new worlds. So here is the list of scrambled foundational church principles from this constitution. As a class, your job is to organize them into something understandable. To figure these out, I ask my class to work in pairs to answer the following questions and unscramble the words. And for each of the words and foundations, the question should be asked: Why do you think that's such an important foundation for the church?

FOUNDATION 1

This first foundation is a principle that I see throughout the section and I'm just going to give you a list of verses to examine. They don't all contain the same word, but they all revolve around the same idea. See if you can figure it out with the help of the scrambled letters.

:2/:3/:26/:58/:60/:63-67/:73

And if your class needs a bit of a hint on that one, you can tell them that the actual word does appear in verses :58 and :73.

That word is authority. Our church is founded on authority. You can see that theme spread throughout section 20. Verses 2-3 tell us that the general leaders of the church are called of God and ordained to their positions. It's reminiscent of the 5th Article of Faith. Verse 26 teaches that we believe in prophets that are inspired and that speak by the gift of the Holy Ghost with authority. Verse 58 actually uses the word authority to describe duties of the priesthood. In fact, that entire section there talks about the different authorities priesthood holders have. Verses 63 to 67 speaks of licenses and certificates and presiding, and authorization to perform certain duties and then verse 73 actually has our word in it that the person who is called of God and has authority from Jesus Christ is the only person authorized to perform the sacred ordinance of baptism. Now our overarching question. Why do you think that's such an important foundation for the church? Well, I went into great detail on that back in Section 13 and I'll refer you there for my thoughts on the topic. But we believe that the church must be founded on authority.

FOUNDATION 2

Read verses 17-26 and circle all the religious principles that are being taught here.

The reality of God

Creation

Commandments

Atonement

Resurrection

Faith

Repentance

Baptism

The Gift of the Holy Ghost

Prophets

Grace

Scriptures

And if you do that, you'll discover that all of those principles are covered. They should all have circles around them. So take a look at that list. What apparently is one of the most important things our church is founded on? Can you organize the word? It's doctrine. The church is founded on doctrine. Now the question: Why do you think doctrine is such an important foundation?

To me, doctrine provides stability and conviction. The church is founded on specific, unchanging, eternal truths, that we stand by now and always have. Christ's doctrine is a part of that rock that we've been told to build our foundation on. Doctrines don't change, because God doesn't change. Church policies have changed, church organization has changed, gospel understanding has changed and matured, the world around us has changed and we've had to adjust the application of doctrinal principles. But the things you find here in these verses are things that we have believed and stood by as a church from day one. They give us steadiness and reliability. Doctrine also UNITES us as a worldwide church. We may be from different countries, have different traditions, speak different languages, have different ways of life, different cultures, races, or ethnicities, but we all share these same core beliefs. It's comforting to know that wherever I go in the world, if I attend a church sacrament meeting, the doctrines that are taught, will be the same.

FOUNDATION 3

Verses 38-69 are clearly tied together by one word. In this section you'll find a description of the responsibilities of the different offices within the priesthood and the general membership of the church. You have the offices of elder, priest, teacher, deacon and then all members of the church. Now what foundational principle or word unites all these groups? Find the repeated word in each of the following verses and use that to help you organize the scrambled word. What is it?

:38, :46, :53, :55 :68, :81

The word is DUTY. The church is founded on the principle of duty. We are given something to do in the church. Now, why do you think duty is such an important foundation for the church?

I feel that this is one of the principal reasons for why the church has so quickly and successfully grown throughout the years. God gives us all something to do. There is a special kind of genius in having a lay clergy, or unpaid volunteer church leaders. Now, that comes with its own special challenges as well, but we don't just show up at church , get preached to by a professional minister and then go home. We have responsibilities to carry out; we have callings to fulfill; service to render; truth to teach, and fellow members to lead. God's purpose for us is not just to have knowledge and instruction pumped into us. He wants us to become something, and He knows that we become by doing. We do our duty. Duty is defined as: a moral or legal obligation. A task or action that one is required to perform. Did you notice the words obligation and required in that definition? When something is your duty, it's not a suggestion, or an opportunity, or just something nice to do if it's convenient or if you have the time. Your duty is an obligation. And obligations help push us into growth and competence.

FOUNDATION 4

Read the following verses and ask yourself what foundational principle they are describing?

:37, :70-79.

You'll find that these verses describe baptism, the blessing of children and the sacrament. What are these things? The word is ORDINANCES. We are a church founded on ordinances. An ordinance is a sacred, formal act performed by the authority of the priesthood. Our question: Why do you think ordinances are such an important foundation for the church?

They give us touchstone moments that are memorable and meaningful. They inspire and teach us. God is a great teacher, and as a teacher myself, I know that the more senses I involve in a lesson, the more memorable it's going to be. If I just straight up teach something, only their ears are engaged, and it's not quite as powerful. But when I use visuals, or object lessons, or physical activities, or even sometimes smells and tastes, they stick in the mind better. It's the same principle with ordinances. Ordinances engage our senses and fix their significance firmly in our minds and hearts. Also, ordinances teach. They teach us through symbolism. They get us thinking and asking questions. Why am I going under the water in this ordinance? What's that supposed to teach me? Why are they placing their hands on my head, what's the significance of that action? Why am I eating this little piece of bread and drinking this tiny cup of water? Each time we ask questions like this, we're giving the Spirit opportunities to teach us.

Now what three ordinances are described in section 20? Baptism, the sacrament, and the blessing of children. Now the blessing of children is not a saving ordinance, but it's still considered an ordinance. And what a special spiritually significant thing we do with innocent children that have not yet reached the age of accountability. We just bless them. It's a beautiful gesture. Just like Jesus did with the children of the Nephites at Bountiful. He took them one by one and blessed them. They're not old enough to make covenants or to understand their significance as they have not yet reached the age of accountability. And verse 71 gives us clarification on what is meant by the age of accountability. It's someone that is capable of repentance. A 3, or 4-, or 5-year-old really isn't capable of understanding and grasping the concept of repentance. Therefore, they can't repent, which is fitting because they can't sin either.

Baptism is a saving ordinance (or an ordinance required for exaltation) and the ordinance of the sacrament renews the covenants that we make at baptism. I could've easily chosen that word to represent this section as well. Covenants are also a foundation of the church tied very closely to ordinances. Covenants are sacred promises between man and God. The only reason I didn't use that word is because blessing of children does not involve a covenant. Not all ordinances do. But covenants are an extremely important part of what we do in the church. We believe in making promises or commitments to our Heavenly Father that we will strive to act in certain ways and do certain things; to perform our duties as we talked about earlier. We take ordinances seriously. And the Lord is going to reveal more of these sacred ceremonies to Joseph as time goes on. Eventually he'll receive the ordinances and covenants of the temple as well.

FOUNDATION 5

This next foundation is one that we simply can't neglect. And this is one found throughout the section. What word or words are repeated in each of these verses?

:1, :2, :4, :9, :29,: 30,:31,:37,:38, :40, :68, :70, :71,:73, :75,:77,:79,:80,:81,

What's the word or words? And if you need to give them a hint, you could always tell them that this is a WHO not a WHAT. The phrase is Jesus Christ. The church is founded on Christ. His name is everywhere in this section and I only chose to focus on the name Jesus Christ in these references. The list would've been much bigger if I had included titles like "the only begotten" or "Lord". Why do you think that's such an important foundation for the church? We can't take Him out of the church. Because it is His church. It bears his name. And I don't need to remind you of how important our current prophet feels this is. One of his very first talks in general conference as prophet was regarding the way we refer to the church. That we must not take his name out of it. We're not Mormons, we're not latter-day Saints. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Like Jesus himself said in 3 Nephi 27:8

8 And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel.

We must all, as his church, be built upon Him and take upon us his name. We covenant and strive to be like Him, to follow his example, and rely on his teachings and atonement.

Quick note. I think it's important to recognize that if we are founded on Christ, we are therefore founded on God the Father as well. I think it's significant that Jesus always points to and gives credit to the Father. In our zeal to follow and believe in and love Jesus Christ, we must not forget or neglect our devotion and worship of the Father as well. If you want to see some examples of that dynamic in this section, take a closer look at verses :17, :21, :24, and :29

Foundation #6

The final foundation I want to point out is more general in nature. The actual word itself only appears once in the entire section, but the idea is everywhere. I would argue that it is THE theme of the section, the major thrust or essence of the entire Constitution of the Church. That word is found in verse 68. Can you find it?

The word is order. The church is founded on order and this entire section speaks to that truth. Now why do you think order is such an important foundation for the church?

To me, I'm so grateful that God is a God of order. Just look at the universe he created. There is order in physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology and all his creations that surround us speak to and testify of that order. Doesn't it make sense then, that his religion, his theology, his church, would be one of order as well? I have studied and I respect all of the major religions of this world and there is truth in all of them. However, I have never been able to find a more ordered, straightforward, logical gospel structure than in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as found in his latter-day church. The doctrines of the plan of salvation, the structure and authority of priesthood authority, the clear progression of ordinances and covenants moving us closer to heaven. I once remember reading a discussion thread online where somebody was arguing against our beliefs, and a number of individuals were seeking to clarify and explain and defend our beliefs. This person, obviously frustrated that he wasn't getting "the upper hand" as he was expecting, hammered out "Well, you Mormons just have an answer for everything don't you! And my thought was, "And that's a bad thing?". Now, it's not true, we don't have an answer for everything, but I'm grateful that we do indeed have a lot of answers. I'm often comforted by just how pragmatic the gospel is. It just makes sense. It makes sense to me that there is a God, that we have a purpose in this life, that he would provide us with an organization to help us understand eternal truth, that he would give us scripture, and prophets, and the gift of the Holy Ghost to help us on our way, etc. etc. etc. The church, thank heavens, is founded on order.

TRUTH

If we take all these principles and combine them into one statement, we could highlight the truth that:

The Church is founded on Authority, Doctrine, Duty, Ordinances, Jesus Christ, and Order.

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

And a great discussion question you could ask:

Which one of those foundations are you most grateful for and why?

CONCLUSION

Recently there has been a lot of criticism leveled at what we refer to as "organized religion". And there are many in the rising generation who have taken the stance that they are spiritual but not religious. They don't feel like they need the foundation or structure of a church to worship God or feel close to Christ. They feel like they can live the gospel, live moral principles, and not worry about things like church meetings, callings, ordinances, duties, and standards. And my response to that would be: You know what, you probably could live a very moral, kind, and prosperous life without the foundation and framework of church. But what has that got to do with anything? It's not all about us. We are all needed in that order and structure, to bless each other, to help each other, to strengthen each other, to offer our unique spiritual gifts in the building up of God's kingdom. I'm afraid that if we disconnect ourselves from the order and organization of Zion, then we will ever find ourselves being pulled more and more into Babylon. I'm grateful for organized religion, how firm a foundation has been laid for each of our lives in the Church of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful men and women who have taught me and served me and led me and helped me. I'm grateful for all those primary teachers, young men's leaders, bishops, seminary teachers, Elders quorum presidencies, apostles and prophets who have brought light and faith and happiness into my life. I'm grateful for all the opportunities that I've been given to serve, and lead, and teach others. That has also brought me joy, and growth, and faith. I just really don't know where I would be without the order of THE CHURCH.

WORK GREAT WORKS-Doctrine and Covenants 20

ICEBREAKER

Within section 20 you could have a deeper discussion on any number of the foundations that we pointed out. Let me give you an idea on just one of them.

I want to zero in on this section on the duties of the priesthood. For an icebreaker, I would do a quick object lesson. I pull out a gyroscope. You can buy a simple one on Amazon for about 10$ and I'll put a link in the video description if you're interested. (https://amzn.to/3seylgj) But do you know how these work? They're kind of like a glorified top and what you do is wrap a string around the center bar and pull hard, which gets it spinning super-fast. You can then balance it on a piece of string and lo and behold it stays up. But what is going to happen as soon as it slows down and stops spinning? It's going to fall. As long as it's moving, it won't.

TRANSITION

I like that as an illustration of the importance of doing something in the church. Of working. Of staying active in the church. As long as we stay active and doing things, we won't fall. And to help us to know what to do, he gives us duties.

There is a verse back in section 18 that I skipped last week because I feel it's a great lead into this section on duties. It's in 18:44 which says:

44 And by your hands I will work a marvelous work among the children of men, unto the convincing of many of their sins, that they may come unto repentance, and that they may come unto the kingdom of my Father.

Here he says I will work a marvelous work among the children of men. So it's his work and he is going to accomplish it. But how is HE going to do HIS work. By YOUR hands, I will work a marvelous work. He is going to use us to do it. Moses is one of the best examples of this dynamic. From the burning bush, God says to Moses " 7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land.

So there, he's using that same kind of language. I have seen their suffering, and I am going to deliver them. And I can just hear Moses saying. " Great Lord, what a wonderful idea. It's about time that you do something about this problem. I'm very relieved to hear it. But then look at the next words out of God's mouth:

10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

And then Moses kind of does a double take there, and says:

11 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

Umm, I wasn't expecting that. You do it. You're God, you're all powerful. Why are you getting me involved? But God reassures him:

12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee;

Well, it's the same with us. It is God's work, but we are given the privilege and opportunity to assist him in that work. He accomplishes his work through us. Isn't that great. Remember he's trying to make God's out of us. How can become like Him, if he doesn't give us the chance to do the kinds of things he does.

I also love in that verse the two different ways he uses the word work. You have work the verb and work the noun. The first work is the verb, he will WORK a marvelous work. It's the effort part of the equation. The second work, is work the noun, like we might talk about a work of art, Something that's created. In a sense the gospel is a work of art. But like any great work of art it requires work to create it. Great works take work. Like the Sistine Chapel or the David, these works took great work to create. By our hands, God enlists us in his marvelous works.

SEARCH

With that as a backdrop, let's go back to section 20 and look at the section on duties. A great marking activity is to just go through verses 38 -59 and mark every duty verb that you can see. Back in section 10 we looked for Vile Verbs, here we're going to look for Virtuous Verbs. What are all the things that priesthood holders and members work. What is it that they do? And I'm not going to get too specific about which office does what, but let's just take a look at all these things as a whole. And I would not exclude women from the duties on this list just because we're talking about priesthood offices. Besides a small number of them like ordaining, all members of the church should be engaged with these verbs. Let me show you what your page will look like if you do this activity. If I were in a classroom, I would invite students to come and write the words they find on the board until we had collectively found all of them. You could also do this in a piece of paper in a smaller setting.

But if you were to chart them out and mark every time they were used (because many of the words are repeated) you would get something like this:

Ordain

Administer

Confirm

Teach

Expound

Exhort

Baptize

Watch over

Take the lead

conduct

Preach

Visit

Attend to

Assist

Be with

Strengthen

See

Meet

Warn

Invite

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

That's quite an impressive list of verbs, isn't it? Now with that, you could have a really fun discussion about what those duties mean to your students. Why does God want us to do those particular things? Each one of those verbs has a world of meaning behind them and we could talk deeply about each one. We're not going to do that. But I would just ask my class a simple question.

Ask them: What's your favorite Virtuous Verb and why do you think God's wants us to do that?

TRUTH

The truth we're taught here: God works(verb) great works (noun) through us. So get to work!

CONCLUSION

I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father that is willing to let us be a part of his marvelous work. We are privileged to be instruments in his hands. And just like Moses, He will accomplish great things through us. And as long as we're working on the great work of art, that masterpiece that is Zion, we will not fall.

SECTION 21-FOLLOW THE PROPHET

ICEBREAKER

For section 21, I like to relate this little story once told by Joseph B. Wirthlin in general conference. In his words:

On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, creating a deadly tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. It was a terrible tragedy. In one day, millions of lives were forever changed.

But there was one group of people who, although their village was destroyed, did not suffer a single casualty.

The reason?

They knew a tsunami was coming.

The Moken people live in villages on islands off the coast of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). A society of fishermen, their lives depend on the sea. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, their ancestors have studied the ocean, and they have passed their knowledge down from father to son.

One thing in particular they were careful to teach was what to do when the ocean receded. According to their traditions, when that happened, the “Laboon”—a wave that eats people—would arrive soon after.

When the elders of the village saw the dreaded signs, they shouted to everyone to run to high ground.

Not everyone listened.

One elderly fisherman said, “None of the kids believed me.” In fact, his own daughter called him a liar. But the old fisherman would not relent until all had left the village and climbed to higher ground.1

The Moken people were fortunate in that they had someone with conviction who warned them of what would follow. The villagers were fortunate because they listened. Had they not, they may have perished.

Joseph B. Wirthlin (Conference Report, October 2005)

TRANSITION

With that in mind, let's go to section 21. The date of this revelation is what sticks out most to me. When and where was this revelation received? On April 6, 1830 in the Peter Whitmer home in Fayette, New York. We know that's significant because it's the day the church was organized. And on the day the church was organized, God only gave one commandment. Of all the truths or duties or instructions that he could have given on that day, what was the one commandment he wanted to emphasize. And he even gives it in the language of a commandment. Can you find the "thou shalt" in section 21?

The first commandment of the organized Church of Christ?

Did you find it? It's in verse 4. What is it?

4 Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me;

Continue with verse 5

5 For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.

In a nutshell, the first commandment given in the new church was to "Follow the prophet". Just like the old fisherman of the Moken village, God has sent us wise men with understanding that know and can see the dangers around us. With love, they call out their warnings and we would do well to give heed to them. This section, section 21, is chock full of great truths about prophets.

SEARCH

Since the section isn't really that long. I like to give my students about 5-10 minutes to study the entire section with this chart in hand, looking for examples of the following categories.

One, find all the different titles that prophets have:

Two, find all the instructions we're given as far as prophets are concerned:

And Three: Find all the promised blessings for following the prophets:

For each of these categories, there is a personal "Liken the Scriptures" question for them to answer.

First, the titles. What are they:

We have Seer, translator, prophet, Apostle of Jesus Christ, and Elder. All of those are found in verse 1. But you could also add the title given to Oliver Cowdery in the last verse of the section. He's called the first preacher of the church.

What I like to do here, is put up this list of definitions, and allow them to just look over what each of those words suggest about the brethren. And then I ask them to share their answer to the "liken the scriptures" question. "Which one of the titles stands out most to you and how have you seen our latter-day prophets fulfill that role?" I've also added the term revelator which is a title that we usually associate with prophets. It's not in section 21, but it is found later in the Doctrine and Covenants in section 124:125

A few of my own thoughts. Seers. A seer is one who sees. Someone who runs is a runner, someone who swims is a swimmer, someone who sees is a Seeer. But you can't have 3 e's in a word, so they just shorten it to seer. Prophets can see things that we can't, so we've got to learn to trust their vision. A recent example of seership? In the year before the pandemic, what major change did Russell M. Nelson and the leaders of the church implement? Home-centered, church-supported instruction. Now I'm not suggesting that President Nelson actually had a vision of the pandemic and knew exactly what was coming and decided to make that change to prepare for it. But God did, and inspired him to make that change. Therefore, when COVID hit, we were much better prepared for it as a church and people because of that seership. Also, in a more particular sense. Prophets give us warnings of coming problems, and promises of coming blessings based on our actions. They warn us of the dangers of dishonesty, pride, pornography, and alcohol, because they see the future calamities these things bring. They encourage us to pray, study the scriptures, serve one another, and follow Christ's example because they see the future peace and happiness these things bring. We've got to trust the seers, like the old fisherman of the Moken village. Listen to them.

Translator. I think that can mean more than just taking something from one language and putting it into another. Certainly Joseph Smith held that role. But what else could it mean. A translator is also someone who expresses things in more comprehensible terms. What a great description. And they do, don't they?! Sometimes the language of scripture is hard to understand, but the prophets speak in our language, according to our time, and thus they become translators of difficult principles and gospel truths.

Now I'm not going to do all of these, but each definition is ripe with significance. I love the fact that in the official definition of an apostle that I looked up online it said, "one of a Mormon administrative council of 12 men". The church is actually mentioned in the official definition of the word. I don't see any other specific church's mentioned. We are truly blessed to be led by apostles of Jesus Christ.

I also love one of the definitions of preacher. "one who urges acceptance or abandonment of an idea or course of action" . Our latter-day prophets plainly do this. They give us counsel and direction. They ask us to accept certain things and abandon others. And we would do well to follow them.

Which leads us to our next category. What should we do?

Like we started out with, we need to give heed unto all his words and commandments. Let's dissect that sentence a little. To give heed is "to pay careful attention to". What do we need to pay careful attention to? His words and commandments. Why those two? Do they mean the same thing? I think there's a difference between a prophet's words and his commandments. Sometimes the prophets give us commandments. Policy changes, specific definitions of worthiness, official statements of belief or instruction. On the other hand, often times they give us their words. They offer counsel, guidance, advice, insight that isn't couched in the language of a commandment. We need to give heed to those words as well. The word of wisdom in section 89 is a good example of that principle. When it was first given it was introduced with the phrase "not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom". Now eventually it has become a commandment. But sometimes that's the kind of wisdom the prophets give us. They give us their words of wisdom. They encourage and invite us to do certain things. Hopefully we don't get the attitude of "Well, it's not like it's a commandment, it's just his advice". And it is their advice. Advice inspired directly from the all-knowing God, so why wouldn't we want to follow it. It's just that God doesn't want to command us in all things. But hopefully we are wise enough to give heed to both their words and commandments. A quick illustration. You may remember President Hinckley warning the members of the church about the dangers of excessive debt. I know of a man that said he was in attendance on the night the prophet said that. He said that that night, he had enough assets that he could have gone home and paid off all his debts including his home. Then the financial troubles of 2007 and 2008 hit. Then he said, now I'll be lucky if I even get to even keep my home. The counsel of paying down our debt was not given in the language of commandment, but words. We will be blessed if we give heed to both.

We need to walk in all holiness

We need to receive their words as if from God's own mouth. Doctrine and Covenants 1:38 comes to mind as a cross reference there.

And we need to receive their words in all patience and faith. Those are two great words. Why do we need patience and faith? Because like we mentioned with the word seer, we can't always see what they do. Sometimes the problem or the consequence or the challenge is so far off in the future that we may begin to doubt what they say they see. They're like the watchmen in the tower, but we're down on the ground and we look out and we can't see what the issue is. That's when patience and faith are required. This is incredibly critical for the youth of the church in particular to understand. When they read the standards in the first the strength of youth pamphlet, there are warnings in there. And sometimes they look out and they say "I don't see what the problem is. I don't see why that's a rule. I don't see why this is such a big deal." And I just want to answer back, you're right, you don't see. That's the problem. That's why you have to have patience and faith in the vision of the seers.

You could also add to this list, labor in his vineyard, and believe on his words.

The personal question here. What is a specific counsel of the prophets that you are grateful for?

The third category. The blessings. Here's the promises for giving heed to the prophets.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against you. The Lord will disperse the powers of darkness from before you. And caused the heavens to shake for your good and his name is glory. What glorious promises. I'm intrigued by the fact that it says the gates of hell shall not prevail against you and that the powers of darkness will disperse from before us. And in the imagery, who is on the offensive and who is on the defensive. We are on the offensive, we are the ones attacking hell and darkness. Remember the imagery of the sword. We are taking this fight to Satan. We're knocking down the gates of hell, and fighting the power of darkness. What gives us the upper hand in the battle with Babylon? Following the prophet. And God will cause the heavens to overflow for our good. That's what the word shake means in this instance. It's means to overflow with goodness and glory. Following the prophets will do this for us.

And in verse nine he promises us a mighty blessing.

The personal Liken the Scriptures question here: What mighty blessings have you received for following the prophets?

TRUTH

Our overall truth from this section:

If we give heed to the prophets words and commandments in patience and faith, we will be given strength against evil and receive a mighty blessing.

CONCLUSION

I would like to conclude with my personal witness of the power of prophets. I testify that these men are inspired by God. I've actually met President Nelson in person before. He came to our home when my mother had cancer and gave her a blessing. As I stood in the circle with him and heard him speak those words of blessing, I could sense and feel his connection with heaven, the brightness of his Spirit, and the warmth of his faith. There is no doubt in my mind that Russell M. Nelson is a good man. A man of God. A man who is a prophet, a revelator, a translator, a seer, an elder, an apostle, and a preacher called of God. We are so fortunate to have the incredible leadership of men like him and Dallin H. Oaks, and Henry B. Eyring, and Russell M. Ballard, and Jeffrey R. Holland, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and all the rest of living prophets. I pray that we'll give heed to ALL their words and commandments. The tsunami's and darkness of the world will never overpower us as long as we follow the prophets with patience and faith.