A GLIMPSE UPWARD

I have carried with me a sense of powerlessness my whole adult life. I know I did not bring this with me from my pre-existance because I know instinctly this is not who I am. I am not a powerless person yet the sense of powerlessness has been the bane of my life and has held me back from my fullest potential and greater success in this life.  I consider my spiritual life well developed but anything of temporal nature has been a struggle for me and fulfillment in many ways has eluded me. This sense of powerlessness has damaged my self-esteem and robbed me of self-belief to the point that I have many times felt I have been a failure in my life. Recently the frustration of this noose around my neck reached its peak.

I have known for some time that this weakness had come to me from many generations of my family who were poor oppressed European peasants, that had existed from the time of the feudal system to socialism, and who believed they could never rise above their station in life. I had seen this powerlessness perpetrated in my family throughout my childhood and early adulthood in Europe. I have known my family's thoughts, their false beliefs and their words of affirmations that invited suffering into the lives of my immediate family. From the time that I have received the Gospel in my life, I have not been able to understand why I was born into this lineage. I am the different one, the one that seeks and knows and loves God. The one that has largely departed from my roots. My recent sense of frustration over my life sent me to my knees where through bitter tears I spat out to God that I hated my family and all the generations I have come from; that I hated who they were and what they have saddled me with. I had never expressed such venomous thoughts before, to myself or to others, let alone to God. I begged to understand why I was sent into this family and why I carried their burden.  Within half an hour of my prayer, my heart and mind were flooded with immense understanding.

When the Saviour said  'my sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27) he was referring to those who are so spiritually advanced that they  recognise and wholeheartedly embrace the truth when it is presented to them. Bruce R. McConkie taught it is a spiritual gift that was developed in pre-existance. I was 16 when I sought and immediately accepted the Gospel into my life. I count myself as one of His sheep. What has all this got to do with my ancestors? It was given to me to understand that those who are His sheep are often sent to families who need a spiritual shepherd to help them with their unbelief. I came to understand that the sense of powerlessness in generations of my family had blinded them to a 'hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal' (Moroni 7:41); that what once was a temporal has now become a spiritual stumbling block.  I came to understand that no amount of saving ordinances which I can do here in the temple can do anything for them unless this sense of powerlessness was removed  so they can believe that they can rise to godhood.  I came to understand that my long held desire to bring souls unto Christ had more to do with generations of my family than with any other people I can yield influence over living here during my life time. I came to  understand that it is up to me to eliminate this feeling of powerlessness in my life and therefore eliminate it from generations past and generations to come. This made me understand that what we do and overcome in this life reverberates throughout generations that have been and the generations that are yet to come; that it reverberates through the genetic cord which binds us and unites us in a collective effort to rise to our potential; that what we achieve and overcome here in mortality echoes throughout eternity. I came to understand that we are one and that the power to lift one another to higher ground that we might all become co-heirs with Christ is one of the greatest tender mercies of the Lord.

Living by faith is a hard road. Glimpses into heaven such as these however make the journey bearable and the road illuminated. They propel us upward and above the world. They open our hearts to the witness of the plan of salvation and the reality of our real home. They make us know who we are; that we belong to Him who has loved us and made us free, to Him who has prepared heavenly mansions for our eternal abode; Him who has spiritually begotten us as His sons and daughters; Him who has made the immortality and eternal life of man possible; the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Everlasting Father, the Almighty God, the Son of Righteousness, the Great I Am, the Lord of Glory, the King of Kings, the Stone of Israel. All glory be His forever.

"Hast thou not known?

Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God,

the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

fainteth not, neither is weary? 

There is no fathoming of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint;

and to them that have no might 

he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, 

and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles;

they shall run, and not be weary;

and they shall walk,

and not faint."

- Isaiah 40:28-31

THE PRODIGALS

In my 40 odd years in the Church I have sat in many Sunday School lessons and heard the Parable of the Prodigal Son as found in Luke 15 rehashed many times. I have seen it looked at from the good son's perspective, from the Father's perspective and from the prodigal's perspective but all the views have missed the bigger picture which helps us to understand more fully what this parable is really about - Christ and His redemptive power. To me this parable highlights the intellectual genius of the Saviour more than any other because in it He covertly speaks about himself. The parable tells of a father who had two sons. The younger son grew restless and pleaded with the Father to grant him his inheritance so he could make his own way in the world away from his family. The father complied and gave him the monetary value that equaled his share of the assets he would have inherited upon his father's death. The son made some very unwise decisions and spent his inheritance on riotous living until he had nothing left and was reduced to living with swine and sharing their husks to assuage his hunger. Upon much reflection, he made a smart decision for once, to return to his father and beg a position as his servant knowing full well he could not receive another inheritance. However, his father welcomed him back into the family with compassion and joy and reinstated him as his son. When the older brother saw the celebration upon his brother's return he was outraged because he immediately assumed he would have to share his inheritance with his erring brother. The father however, assured him that his inheritance was intact and all that the father had belonged to him.

The father of this parable can in every way be symbolic of our Father in Heaven who respects our free agency and welcomes back anyone who returns to him with compassion, forgiveness and immense joy. The younger son represents us, the prodigals. We are on daily basis, bit by bit,  spending our inheritance through the sins of mortality and some of us will in the end, stubbornly, spend it all. The oldest and good son at first glance represents the penitent, covenant children who remain faithful and will inherit all the Father has.  However, the good son was also the first son so in a wider sense he represents the First Born of the Father, the Saviour himself, but with a huge difference. Whereas the parable's good son was reluctant and fearful he would have to share his inheritance with his brother, the Saviour, from the beginning, propagated and promoted His willingness to share the inheritance with his erring younger siblings. But the loving kindness did not end there. He offered His power to bring us back to the Father as well. The parable's good son never sought him who was lost, despite the kinship, despite the brotherhood, despite the Father's sorrow over his loss. What does this tell us about Christ and His willingness to lay down His life so He can bring us back through His atoning blood? Because of his perfect nature and the purity of His love, meaning there was no motive for self-advancement within Him, He was able to say: I will not only make it possible for them to come back, I will also share with them all that I have.

I have been spiritually faithful all my life, carefully guarding my inheritance, and whilst recognising that I, like everybody else am not free from sin, I had not fully resonated with the prodigal son until I realised that I, like him have made unwise decisions in my life, not exercising the power of foresight when I made them. Because every decision carries with it consequences and repercussions I have suffered much over the years because of them. For more years than I care to admit, these decisions had exhausted my feelings of self-respect and damaged my self-esteem perpetuating my lack of self-forgiveness. But the Atonement is infinite. It covers all sin and all foibles of mortality and its ensuing suffering, even that of bad decisions. And where there is repentance, there is forgiveness. Our sins have already been suffered for and forgiveness extended, in advance, so that we would not suffer beyond our repentance. Our repentance must include self-forgiveness because if it doesn't, we are in essence affirming that we do not fully believe what Christ can do and we do not fully accept the gifts of His Atonement. The Atonement is not only cleansing but also consoling (See "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R Callister, p 205). Like a salve to a wound, it relieves the pain and heals the once broken, the once torn, the once damaged, the once suffering. To this I testify. Its' restorative power makes us whole and justifies us when we are judged according to our mortality. To be spiritually justified means to be once again aligned with God. It means all our sins, our bad choices and our unwise decisions can be swept away. It means the prodigals can return. It means they can once again be safe, be loved and never be lost again.

From the forgiving heart of Joseph Smith:
"At one point Oliver Cowdery had disassociated himself from the Church. Joseph was anxious that he repent and return. He instructed his clerk: 'I wish you would write to Oliver Cowdery and ask him if he hasn't eaten husks long enough'." (Smith, "Doctrines of Salvation", 1:227)

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE

There is much talk today about the Universe among the modern day philosophers who seek to promote the law of attraction. One of their theories is that you should not ask for anything because that sends the message to 'the Universe' that you are lacking and putting out the message of lack attracts lack. In other words, whatever you say and think attracts the like because the Universe 'seeks' to match the vibrations which you send it which suggests that the Universe is mindless. They argue that words like 'want' and 'hope' should be eradicated from our vocabulary because they contribute to the lack mentality. Rather, they reason, when in need of something you should think and speak as if you already have it. Whereas imagining and saying that we already have what we want is a great way to exercise faith, it should in reality be the method employed after we ask and not a method that replaces asking. Consider the story of Lehi who said "I have obtained a land of promise" (1 Nephi 5:5) after God had revealed it to him and before he set foot on the American continent.

Whereas laws have been placed in the Universe that allow us to receive according to our actions and obedience (D&C 130:20,21), there is a huge flaw with the world's theory of the 'mindless Universe'. The law of attraction largely surpasses God in the equation because it eliminates the action of asking encouraging us to believe we will get it no matter what. It suggests the Universe is an entity devoid of the mind of God. It also surpasses and denies the mediator in whose name we have the right to approach God and place our petitions before Him. These two factors combine to perpetrate a gross violation of the spiritual law to love God and glorify Him through His Son. The world tells us we do not need to believe in God so we are led to have faith in His creation rather than Him. Because the Universe can be seen and there is scientific proof of it, it is easier to worship it and ignore the very first commandment, to love God.

Jesus said to His disciples: "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13). By asking in Christ's name we acknowledge Him and His supreme role in our lives as our Creator and our Saviour. By acknowledging Christ, we acknowledge the Father and glorify His name (John 14:9,10).

I know there are many pragmatic people in the world who prefer to have faith in practicality of life and their own capabilities rather than exercise faith in a being who they cannot see and do not understand the workings of.  How can we comprehend God and his ability to be mindful of all His children and attend to so many of us at the same time? There is an interesting scripture that could offer an explanation for this. When Moses saw God face to face, God gave him a vision of the earth and every living soul that belonged to it and 'their numbers were great, even numberless as the sand upon the sea shore' (Moses 1:27-8). The interesting part is this: The scripture says 'there was NOT A SOUL which he beheld not' (v 28). it does not say that he saw masses of people but that he saw souls. Now how could Moses see numberless people, individually, in such a short time, perhaps even all at once? The scripture goes on to say that he discerned them by the spirit of God. This gives us somewhat of a glimpse into the mind of God and how it works, because it is clear that God's spirit allowed Moses to see things the way God sees them. This would suggest that God is able to entertain multiple thoughts simultaneously. He does not think one thought at the time like we do. If He can think multiple thoughts at once, that means He can have more than one child on his mind at any given time too and know their thoughts and hear their prayers all at once. This could also explain how Christ, being God, could atone for infinite number of people at one time without losing individual focus (see "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister)

We of the finite minds and finite world do not understand what it means to be a God and the power and capabilities that lie within godhood. Beyond the realm of our finite limitation lies faith. Without that limitation we would be as gods, understanding as they do and knowing as they know. This is our goal and our destination, but for now it is our responsibility to recognise the path that will get us there and in the process to glorify the Father through His Son who has proclaimed: "This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). We cannot bypass the reverence that He so fully deserves. This is the path and there is no other; this is the way and there is none else; He is the way, the truth, the life....

MINISTERING

Have you ever wondered why the two greatest commandments are to first to love God and second to love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40)? It is obvious that we need to love God so that this love would motivate us to obey his commandments and thus set ourselves on the course to eternal life. It is equally obvious that we need to love others so that we could become like Christ, once again to set us on the course to eternal life. There is a good reason however why these two commandments stand side by side. Consider President Benson's take on this: "The world largely ignores the first and great commandment - to love God - but talks a lot about loving their brother....But only those who know and love God can best love and serve his children, for only God fully understands his children and knows what is best for their welfare. Therefore, one needs to be in tune with God to best help his children...If you desire to help your fellowmen the most, then you must put the first commandment first. When we fail to put the love of God first, we are easily deceived by crafty men who profess a great love of humanity" (Ezra Taft Benson, CR Oct 1967, p 35)

We live in a world of political correctness where the philosophy of kindness has replaced the importance of religion and a God centered life. One such example is the teachings of Dalai Lama whose popularity and influence has grown exponentially over the recent years:
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." (Dalai Lama)
It is not my wish to disparage any religion here but rather to elevate the importance of placing God in our lives first so that we can better serve and love one another. Kindness is well and good and obviously necessary but it is not the tool by which we can help change lives and alleviate someone's suffering by bringing them to the fountain of all healing which is Christ. Kindness is just the beginning.

I noticed through my years of being a single mother that I and the other single mothers I have known have had a different response to the same situation we found ourselves in. Why is that? Because we are all unique with different capabilities, understanding and strengths of character. Well did Dr Seus say that 'there is no one youer than you'. From this period of my life I have concluded that nobody can support and sustain me better than God Himself. And here is the important part of this. God the Father understands and knows us best not only because He knew us long before we were embodied in mortality but because of the Atonement of His Son who has felt, experienced and gained first hand insight into every being that has ever lived and ever will walk the face of this earth. I had a priesthood blessing recently in which I was told that the Father knew all that I was experiencing in my present situation because the Saviour Himself has told Him so. This is a pretty powerful foundation for one's faith in God and his watchful providence.

If we want to be under-shepherds ministering to one another as the Saviour himself would do, we need to pay close attention to what He has to tell us about those that we serve. For one simple reason: there is no depths of pain that He hasn't suffered; there is no extent of sorrow that He hasn't felt; there is no degree of difficulty that He hasn't experienced. The depths of all human suffering is known to Him and Him alone. He is the Healer, He is the Rescuer, He is the Balm of Gilead.

WHOM DO YE SAY THAT I AM?

The Sermon on the Mount offers us an interesting lesson besides the obvious one by which Jesus declared He was the Bread of Life. The Gospel of Matthew records that 5,000 men plus women and children (Matthew 14:21) had followed Christ to the mount to hear His words. When the evening drew nigh and the time of departure had come (JST Mark 6:36) all three gospels record that the Twelve came to Jesus and told Him to send the crowds away to go and buy victuals and feed themselves (Luke 9:12). However, John's version differs slightly. John recorded that Jesus said to Philip, one of the Twelve, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do." (John 6:5,6). It's almost as if He was saying: Ask me to feed this people out of nothing; Ask me to perform a miracle; Ask me to show you that I am the Christ. Could it be that the miracle of feeding 5,000+ was as much for the benefit of his disciples' conviction of His divinity as it was for His declaration of being the Bread of Life? If Philip's conviction was iron clad his answer would have been: "You are the Christ, You can feed these people because you can do all things". Philip answered instead that even two hundred pennyworth of bread was not enough to feed them so the problem remained unsolved, until the Saviour offered a solution.

Luke records immediately after the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus asked the Twelve the crucial question: "Whom say the people that I am?" (Luke 9:18)  They came back with various answers according to people's opinions. Then Jesus asked a more personal and direct question: "But whom say YE that I am?" And Peter straightway answered: "The Christ of God", Christ being the title of Greek translation of "The Anointed One". Thus Peter's answer was: "Thou art the Anointed One of God" (Luke 9:20).

A long time ago I heard this poignant saying: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence?" This question of course highlights the importance of us living Christian lives. But anybody can perform acts  of Christian values out of the goodness of their hearts. Of us as members of the elect House of Israel we should ask this question: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, is there enough evidence that you know Christ?" Our lives should reflect our deep knowledge and conviction of His character and attributes which has been manifest through our faith in Him and all He can do. Have we enough proof in our personal lives that He forgives sins; that He heals our hearts; that He performs miracles; that He provides and watches over us; that He is a lamp unto our feet; that the power of His Atonement has wrought a change in our hearts; that we are encircled about in the arms of His love? If we were tested as Philip was, we should be able to answer: "You are God, you can do all things".

When the Saviour comes again, He might ask each one of us "Who do you say that I am?" and we will not be able to rely on other people's knowledge of Him. Our own conviction will need to be such that we will be able to say:

Thou art the Christ and there is none else.....

Thou art the Redeemer and there is none else...

Thou art the Saviour and there is none else.....

Thou art the Lord and there is none else....

Thou art the Anointed One and there is none else.....

Thou art  God and there is none else.....

(Isaiah 45)

A WOMAN'S WORTH

There is a story in the Old Testament that would no doubt enrage the feminists of our day. It is the story of Esther. This story unfolds in Babylon around 478 B.C. under the rule of Persian King Ahasuerus, known in history as  Xerxes (Greek form of his name). After showing off the wealth of his kingdom to all the princes and nobles of Persia and Media in the third year of his reign, King Xerxes made a seven day feast for everyone that was found in Shushan palace, both great and small (Esther 1:5). After seven days of limitless drinking  (Esther 1:8), the King commanded that Queen Vashti present herself and show her beauty to all present. The Queen did the unthinkable, and for some unknown reason, refused. Perhaps she felt it was beneath her to parade herself in front of a bunch of unruly drunkards or maybe the feminists among us would suggest she did not support objectifying  of women. There could be another side to this story however. This King was obscenely rich, so much so that it took him 180 days to show off the riches of his kingdom (Esther 1:4). It could very well be that he valued his queen above all that he had and saved the best for last. In his mind he was probably paying her a compliment by showing her off and maybe even feeling proud that he could have a wife such as this.

Vashti's stuborness did not do her any favours. What followed next could by today's standards be deemed the worst case of suppression of women. The story goes on to say that seven princes, which sat first in the kingdom, realised that if the queen refused to obey her husband, that all the women in the kingdom would follow suit so they decided to make an example of Vashti and convinced the king to do away with her (Esther 1:15-22). By one act of assertion she became a whole new threat to the patriarchal order of life. Once the Queen was done away with and the King came to his senses he realised he no longer had a queen. His servants however, came up with a solution. They suggested that all the 'fair young virgins' be paraded before him to select another queen. Here is another case of objectifying of women, because they were chosen for their beauty. Could it be however that it was considered that a man's value increased by being married to a beautiful and pure woman? Certainly purity in women, once highly valued, is something greatly missing from our liberated society. When we read the scriptures, it is plain to see that men's worth was calculated by how many children he had, sons in particular who could carry on the paternal lineage. Would it not make sense that mothers of those children were equally valued as were the wives of those sons who could not continue the family line without them?

As we know a Jewish girl by the name of Esther was chosen for her outstanding beauty to marry King Xerxes. I doubt very much that she had any say in whether she wanted to marry this man but I dare say this opportunity would have been considered a stroke of fortune in the ancient world. Which would have been better? Being a Jewish captive in a foreign land or the queen of that land? Now here's the interesting thing....Esther was marrying outside the covenant which was a big no no for Jews. There is a heart wrenching story in Ezra 10 about the exiles who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and who started inter-marrying with the heathen women of the land. When Ezra got there with the second party of returning exiles and discovered this he was so horrified he pulled the hair out of his head and wept and cast himself before the temple Ezra 9:3, 10:1). Why was he so distraught? Because men that married outside of their faith followed the religious convictions of their wives and Ezra knew this would lead his people back to idolatry and the God of Israel would not be pleased..... So strongly did Ezra fear this that he convinced these men to give up their heathen wives and even the children they had by them (Ezra 10). In my opinion this is one of the saddest stories of the Old Testament. Even King Solomon was not exempt from this weakness and succumbed to his wives' idol worship in his old age (1 Kings 11:1-10).

But in Esther's case, the roles were reversed. She was a God fearing woman and the man in her situation was the heathen. Esther did not seem to be at risk of abandoning her faith. She kept her religion and continued to worship the God of heaven. She did not adopt her husband's religious practices. I am not saying here that men are weak and highly impressionable and that women are stronger than them. What I am saying is this....When God gave a commandment in the beginning that a man should leave his mother and father and 'cleave unto his wife' (Genesis 2:24) I believe that somehow this became a very literal mandate for men, with women being given the advantage and privilege of influence.....as was proven by Esther who saved her entire nation from annihilation (Esther 8). And now here is the greatest lesson for us women....did Esther rely on her beauty and her womanly wiles to convince King Xerxes not to kill her people? She could have done that. The King was clearly smitten by her to the point that he would have granted her every wish and given her even half of his kingdom (Esther 5:3,6; 7:2). Instead of relying on her womanhood, Esther employed God's assistance in her influence over the king. She designated a three day fast for all the Jews in the kingdom and offered two banquets to the King and his right hand man Haman who was intent on Jewish annihilation. The 24 hours in between those two banquets was crucial because during that time the King had a sudden desire to read the records which threw a light on the situation at hand. This desire was obviously inspired from above (Esther 6). The fasting of Esther and her people brought the Lord into the situation. It's a rather lengthy story but a highly entertaining one. The whole event is celebrated even today among the Jews through the Feast of Purim all because of the power of a righteous woman.

We are enjoying freedoms today never before known to women. With this comes a great responsibility.  Our influence knows no bounds. We can tear down or build up. We can inspire or degrade. We can soften men's hearts or lead them to destruction. We can lead them away from truth or bring them to God. Such is the power of women. Mordecai, a relative who raised Esther, suggested to her that she was probably raised up at that time to save her people, that she was foreordained for such 'a time as this' (Esther 4:14). Esther in Persian tongue means 'a star'.   She honoured her name well for she was no doubt there when 'the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy' (Job 38:7). We, noble women of the covenant were there too, foreordained for such a time as this, to lift humanity to higher ground, to prepare for the great day of the Lord when He shall come in His glory to save His people Israel. We were the morning stars sent to support, love and influence our husbands, our sons and our brothers to be the sons of  God now and forever.

IT IS UP TO US

Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem

by Rembrandt

The biggest heroes of the scriptures are the ones that make things happen. They are workers who understand that God's will is up to His children to put into effect. When we read scriptural prophecies we tend to think that God will miraculously make things happen or that someone else will suddenly appear to fulfil the promises God has made.

Daniel of the Old Testament is a good example of making things happen. As we know he lived in Babylonian captivity in service to heathen kings for most of his life. He was very much devoted to the God of Israel and had Israel's welfare at heart. He eagerly hung onto the Lord's promise that Israel's captivity would last only 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10). It is suggested by historians that when Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered Babylon that he found Daniel there in his governmental capacity,  and that Daniel  pointed out to him the prophecy of Isaiah that was given 140 years before the fall of Jerusalem, that the Lord would raise up a mighty king who would free the Jewish captives in Babylon and allow them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the holy city. Isaiah even named Cyrus by name.....210 years before he even appeared in Babylon. Astonishing isn't it? It certainly was to Cyrus because he freed the Jews and allowed 50,000 of them to return to Jerusalem. The rest chose to stay until Ezra's second party of 17,000 some years later after the construction project was completed. It is significant here to note that Daniel who so loved his homeland and his heritage did not choose to return to Jerusalem but chose to remain in Babylon to continue to serve God in a foreign land. The point is this. Daniel in all likelihood played a huge part in this historical event. This theory can be supported by another example of Daniel's doing.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the temple, they encountered bitter opposition from Samaritans who reasoned that they should be involved in the project. Because Samaritans were not pure Israelites and had practised a variant religion of Jehovah worship heavily intermingled with pagan and other unauthorised religious practices, the Jews refused. In retaliation the Samaritans influenced the Persian kings who succeeded Cyrus to halt the rebuilding project for 17 years. In steps Daniel again. In the first year of King Darius, Daniel again petitioned the Lord about Jeremiah's prophecy. Daniel 9:17-19 shows Daniel's prayerful concern for the unfinished temple and the city of Jerusalem. The Lord answered Daniel and raised two prophets in Jerusalem: Haggai and Zechariah. You might wonder how prophets could finish construction of anything, right?? You might wonder why God didn't send someone with political clout, negotiation expertise or even military power....but instead he sent two of his servants to finish the job....and finish they did....Haggai alone showed the Jews exactly why they were not able to finish the project. He taught them that all temporal problems arise out of spiritual weakness and that if they would put God first, they would extricate themselves from abject poverty they were in which was their main problem.  It makes for compelling reading. These two prophets instructed the governor Zerubbabel, the high priest Jeshua and the Jewish people how to complete the temple in spite of persecution, poverty and governmental red tape (Haggai 1:1-5, 12-14; Zechariah 4:9, Ezra 6:14). Even though these two prophets got the job done, in reality, this began with Daniel and was his doing.

President Kimball prayed and petitioned the Lord repeatedly regarding the priesthood for the black members of the Church. I am sure President Nelson did the same regarding the many changes he has brought in since his calling. They didn't sit back and think things will happen out of thin air. The state of Christ's Kingdom when we present it to Him upon His coming will depend on us. The Church as an administrative body takes care of the physical entity of the Kingdom but we, its' member body take care of its spiritual condition. We must consider this our responsibility because we will be the ones to usher in the Millenium. The scriptures state that at the beginning of the Millenium Satan will be bound and will have no power for 1,000 years. This loss of power will not be because God will bind him in chains and throw him in a dungeon but because we, God's saints and disciples of Christ, will be so spiritually strong that he will simply have no power over us and will therefore no longer have a role to play. We will simply make him irrelevant.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild, the first thing they built was the altar of the temple, even before the foundation of the temple was laid (Ezra 3:1-6). They knew that the altar was the heart of the temple and the temple was the heart of the Jewish religious life.  Our temples today dot the earth, and all without much sacrifice from us. Our temples set us apart from other religions, they make us a 'peculiar people' to the world and a 'peculiar treasure' to the Lord (Exodus 19:5). They provide us with spiritual backbone through our obedience to its covenants. It is in the temples of our God that we will be armed with His power to bind Satan and to become a holy people (D&C 109:22); and it is in the temples that we will find refuge from the storm that is yet to come upon the saints of God in the last days. Consider Elder Featherstone's words:

"Before the Saviour comes the world will darken. There will come a period of time where even the elect will lose hope if they do not come to the temples. The world will be so filled with evil that the righteous will only feel secure within its walls. The saints will come here not only to do vicarious work but to find a haven of peace. The covenants and ordinances will fill us with faith as a living fire. In a day of desolating sickness, scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction and death, we as a people will rest in the shade of trees, we will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm; we will mount up as on eagles' wings; we will be lifted out of an insane and evil world. We will be as fair as the sun ad clear as the moon. When the Saviour comes He will honour His people. Those who are spared and prepared will be a temple-loving people. They will know Him. Our children will bow down at His feet and worship Him as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. They will bathe His feet with their tears and He will weep, and bless them for having suffered through the greatest trials known to man. Let us prepare them with the faith to surmount every trial and every condition. We will do it in these holy, sacred temples." (Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, Manti Temple, April 1987)

May we worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in our hearts, in our homes and in our temples that we may possess God's power and ever remember that "we have a labour to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay to conquor the enemy of all righteousness." (Moroni 9:6)