Thursday, March 17, 2011

Everyone that speaks the Lord's message is given the Lord's words

D.C. 68 is given to four apostles, but the Lord is careful to specifically mention that his promise here applies to everyone.

2And, behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth—

3And this is the aensample unto them, that they shall bspeak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.

4And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by theaHoly Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the bpower of God unto salvation.

5Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.

6Wherefore, be of good acheer, and do not bfear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I cwas, that I am, and that I am to come.

There are so many times we may not know what to say, but if we're appointed to preach the gospel (which all members are), we'll be blessed with the Holy Ghost to tell us what to say, it will be the Lord's words, and it will have power to move people to salvation.

I have seen this happen. I remember we had a lesson once in which we taught a lady with some members. After we asked her to be baptized, she said No because she'd already been baptized and probably also said, "because God should not be played with" - Dios es no jugete. Then one of the members said, "but did you get the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands?" "No" was the response. Then the sister said, "Elders, tell her what she was missing." So I explained about the need to have the laying on of hands according to D.C. 35 and Acts 19:

1And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper acoasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

2He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

3And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto aJohn’s baptism.

4Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism ofarepentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

5When they heard this, they were abaptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with atongues, and prophesied.

Focus on verse 6.

So, after the explanation she said, "yes, I'll be baptized." Lest you think this was some false promise, we set a date for 5 weeks from then, and she was baptized that day. 6 months later she was in the Relief Society presidency. A year and a half later she was on a mission in Panama. The church is better because she's in it, and for some reason, there was great power in what we said that day. And great job by the members. I wouldn't have been as aggressive but they were tremendous. I love them.

We're lucky to get to do some of the work of the Lord. He blesses us as we do with his words and also with his presence. That's a large promise indeed.

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