Helaman 13–16
Helaman 13:7 says behold, an angel of the Lord has declared it unto me, and he did bring glad tidings to my soul. And behold, I was sent to you to declare it to you also, he might have glad tidings; but behold you would not receive me.
What are these glad tidings? Is it another way of describing knowledge that is gained when you understand the gospel? Is it another way of describing the joy that comes into your life when you Live the gospel?
When Christ was born in Bethlehem, the scriptures say that Angels appeared to shepherds watching their flocks nearby and “declared them Glad tidings of great joy”. I didn’t make this connection when I first read this verse in helaman. Amazing. How could Joseph Smith had made that connection when riding this book if it was not translated by the gift and power of God? It’s small connections like these strengthen my faith.
The lord gives warnings through his prophets
In Helaman 13: 1 – 5; the phrase” speaking the words of the Lord which he puts into my heart” is used four times. A reminder that god can inspire us through the spirit to say and speak ideas that are not ours. I have felt this before when addressing congregations including my BYU class. When I have the spirit or some would say when I am in the flow. I feel ideas come into my heart and I speak them in real time.
What did samuel teach about repentance?
He warned the people that they will be destroyed if they do not repent. He taught that Christ who will eventually come Will suffer for all. Taught that if you don’t repent he will withdraw his spirit from you and he will no longer protect you from your enemies in other words your trials Will be yours to bear and you will not be shielded from the brutality that the trials of life Bring. Even the weather will change and you will be smitten with famine and pestilence if you do not repent all of this is to help humble people to turn their heart back to God and living in an unselfish way. Those that repent are blessed. When you don’t repent curse will come upon the land for the people sake. They will lose their wealth.
What did samuel teach about humility and wealth?
Wealthy people have a hard time turning their hearts to God. They want to hold onto what they have and that will cause them to lose what they have. Because they stop listening to Christ and the gospel. People that are wealthy stop thinking the Lord for them and they stop having their heart drawn unto the Lord but they swell with great pride! They boast, they have envyings, strives, malice, persecutions, murders, and all manner of iniquities. Unless you’re humble there will be a curse that comes upon the land and upon your riches because of your iniquities. This is a warning to those that are wealthy. Stay humble stay righteous or else you’re riches will be taken away.
What did samuel teach about seeking happiness and “doing iniquity”?
Samuel taught that it is contrary to the nature to God to find happiness in doing iniquity.
God invites me to repent.
Samuel teaches that the only thing that can really save anyone is faith in Christ and that faith leads to repenting or another words aligning your heart with God’s will every day. When you don’t align your heart with God when you become a hardhearted you lose his spirit. His spirit withdraws from you. You lose his strength that is not a position I want to be in and every day there’s a choice. Do I have a hard heart? Or do I walk with his spirit today?
I believe from these verses in Helaman 13–15 that Samuel wanted to teach us that repentances a matter of the heart. Perhaps this is why President Nelson teaches that we should repent every day. It doesn’t mean we have sorrow every day and are sad and kneel down and confess sins and feel bad every day. What he is saying is that every day we should turn our heart to God and walk with his spirit we know we have a repented repent full heart we feel the spirit we know. We don’t when we we have a hard heart.
President Nelson taught this in his talk entitled we can do better and be better:
We Can Do Better and Be Better
By President Russell M. Nelson
Make your focus on daily repentance so integral to your life that you can exercise the priesthood with greater power than ever before.
My dear brethren, it is inspiring to look out over this vast congregation of the Lord’s battalion of priesthood bearers. What a mighty force for good you are! We love you. We pray for you. And we are most grateful for you.
Recently I have found myself drawn to the Lord’s instruction given through the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Say nothing but repentance unto this generation.” This declaration is often repeated throughout scripture. It prompts an obvious question: “Does everyone need to repent?” The answer is yes.
Too many people consider repentance as punishment—something to be avoided except in the most serious circumstances. But this feeling of being penalized is engendered by Satan. He tries to block us from looking to Jesus Christ, who stands with open arms, hoping and willing to heal, forgive, cleanse, strengthen, purify, and sanctify us.
The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo. The prefix meta- means “change.” The suffix -noeo is related to Greek words that mean “mind,” “knowledge,” “spirit,” and “breath.”
Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to “repent,” He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.
Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind. When coupled with faith, repentance opens our access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Whether you are diligently moving along the covenant path, have slipped or stepped from the covenant path, or can’t even see the path from where you are now, I plead with you to repent. Experience the strengthening power of daily repentance—of doing and being a little better each day.
When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy—the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become more like Jesus Christ!
Brethren, we need to do better and be better because we are in a battle. The battle with sin is real. The adversary is quadrupling his efforts to disrupt testimonies and impede the work of the Lord. He is arming his minions with potent weapons to keep us from partaking of the joy and love of the Lord.
Repentance is the key to avoiding misery inflicted by traps of the adversary. The Lord does not expect perfection from us at this point in our eternal progression. But He does expect us to become increasingly pure. Daily repentance is the pathway to purity, and purity brings power. Personal purity can make us powerful tools in the hands of God. Our repentance—our purity—will empower us to help in the gathering of Israel.
The Lord taught the Prophet Joseph Smith “that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.”
We know what will give us greater access to the powers of heaven. We also know what will hinder our progress—what we need to stop doing to increase our access to the powers of heaven. Brethren, prayerfully seek to understand what stands in the way of your repentance. Identify what stops you from repenting. And then, change! Repent! All of us can do better and be better than ever before.
There are specific ways in which we can likely improve. One is in the way we treat our bodies. I stand in awe of the miracle of the human body. It is a magnificent creation, essential to our gradual ascent toward our ultimate divine potential. We cannot progress without it. In giving us the gift of a body, God has allowed us to take a vital step toward becoming more like Him.
Satan understands this. He chafes at the fact that his premortal apostasy permanently disqualifies him from this privilege, leaving him in a constant state of jealousy and resentment. Thus many, if not most, of the temptations he puts in our path cause us to abuse our bodies or the bodies of others. Because Satan is miserable without a body, he wants us to be miserable because of ours.
Your body is your personal temple, created to house your eternal spirit. Your care of that temple is important. Now, I ask you, brethren, are you more interested in dressing and grooming your body to appeal to the world than to please God? Your answer to this question sends a direct message to Him about your feelings regarding His transcendent gift to you. In this reverence for our bodies, brethren, I think we can do better and be better.
Another way we can also do better and be better is how we honor the women in our lives, beginning with our wives and daughters, our mothers and sisters.
Months ago, I received a heartbreaking letter from a dear sister. She wrote: “[My daughters and I] feel we are in fierce competition for our husbands’ and sons’ undivided attention, with 24/7 sports updates, video games, stock market updates, [and] endless analyzing and watching of games of every [conceivable] sport. It feels like we’re losing our front-row seats with our husbands and sons because of their permanent front-row seats with [sports and games].”
Brethren, your first and foremost duty as a bearer of the priesthood is to love and care for your wife. Become one with her. Be her partner. Make it easy for her to want to be yours. No other interest in life should take priority over building an eternal relationship with her. Nothing on TV, a mobile device, or a computer is more important than her well-being. Take an inventory of how you spend your time and where you devote your energy. That will tell you where your heart is. Pray to have your heart attuned to your wife’s heart. Seek to bring her joy. Seek her counsel, and listen. Her input will improve your output.
If you have a need to repent because of the way you have treated the women closest to you, begin now. And remember that it is your responsibility to help the women in your life receive the blessings that derive from living the Lord’s law of chastity. Never be the reason that a woman is unable to receive her temple blessings.
Brethren, we all need to repent. We need to get up off the couch, put down the remote, and wake up from our spiritual slumber. It is time to put on the full armor of God so we can engage in the most important work on earth. It is time to “thrust in [our] sickles, and reap with all [our] might, mind, and strength.” The forces of evil have never raged more forcefully than they do today. As servants of the Lord, we cannot be asleep while this battle rages.
Your family needs your leadership and love. Your quorum and those in your ward or branch need your strength. And all who meet you need to know what a true disciple of the Lord looks like and acts like.
My dear brethren, you were chosen by our Father to come to earth at this crucial time because of your premortal spiritual valor. You are among the finest, most valiant men who have ever come to the earth. Satan knows who you are and who you were premortally, and he understands the work that must be done before the Savior returns. And after millennia of practicing his cunning arts, the adversary is experienced and incorrigible.
Gratefully, the priesthood we hold is far stronger than are the wiles of the adversary. I plead with you to be the men and young men the Lord needs you to be. Make your focus on daily repentance so integral to your life that you can exercise the priesthood with greater power than ever before. This is the only way you will keep yourself and your family spiritually safe in the challenging days ahead.
The Lord needs selfless men who put the welfare of others ahead of their own. He needs men who intentionally work to hear the voice of the Spirit with clarity. He needs men of the covenant who keep their covenants with integrity. He needs men who are determined to keep themselves sexually pure—worthy men who can be called upon at a moment’s notice to give blessings with pure hearts, clean minds, and willing hands. The Lord needs men eager to repent—men with a zeal to serve and be part of the Lord’s battalion of worthy priesthood bearers.
I bless you to become those men. I bless you with the courage to repent daily and learn how to exercise full priesthood power. I bless you to communicate the love of the Savior to your wife and children and to all who know you. I bless you to do better and be better. And I bless you that as you make these efforts, you will experience miracles in your life.
We are engaged in the work of Almighty God. Jesus is the Christ. We are Their servants. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
—President Nelson is asking me to have my heart tune to my wife’s heart. To have my focus on her joy . to see her counsel and to listen to her often. He says “her input will improve your output“
He teaches us that my family needs my leadership and love and so does the Ward. he says “and all who meet you need to know what a true disciple the Lord looks like and acts like.“
He’s asking me to be selfless and put the welfare of others ahead of my own. He reminds me to work every day to hear the voice of the spirit with clarity. Reminds me to keep my covenants with integrity, to have pure heart, a clean mind, and willing hands.
He blesses me to have the courage to repent daily.
I believe that this act of having a sacred Grove of my own, or reading, scriptures, taking notes and meditating through prayer is how I repent every day. President Nelson reminds us that the word repentance comes from a Greek word that means to change our mind, knowledge, spirit, and breath. To repent means to change our minds, our knowledge, our spirit – even the way we breathe! to repent daily is to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.
Repenting is a good thing. Something that I should seek daily. By exercising daily, I am repenting. By reading the scriptures daily I am repenting. By praying daily I am repenting. By reading and gaining knowledge that is true I am repenting. By doing things that invite the spirit so that my heart is not hard didn’t and my mind is clear clear and the spirit resides in my heart and mind. I am repenting. I take the sacrament so the spirit will always be with me – other words so that I can repent daily.
Repenting is liberating, it’s ennobling, it’s crucial to my individual progression! Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind.
God sent signs and wonders to testify of the saviors birth and death.
The sign set for his birth was the star in heaven. Great lights in heaven with no darkness one day and a night and a day. Which is symbolic of light and Spring light into our lives
When he died, there was darkness for three days because the light of the world had been extinguished.
What personal and dramatic science can help me believe on the saviors name? What is has he done to strengthen my belief in him? He’s giving me peace still small voice
One of my favorite verses is alma 30: 44
44 But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.
The scripture is used by Elder Maxwell on my mission directed devotional with images of planets and the universe behind him I see it now here I’m in Hawaii and I see he’s beautiful mountains Spirit to me that there is a God.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell once explained: “None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings ‘coincidence.’ This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but … by ‘divine design.’”
Dear Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin spoke of an occasion when President Thomas S. Monson said to him: “There is a guiding hand above all things. Often when things happen, it’s not by accident. One day, when we look back at the seeming coincidences of our lives, we will realize that perhaps they weren’t so coincidental after all.”
Elder Rasband talk about divine design is a reminder of how God is in the details of our lives. People we meet, people were led to, coincidences are not coincidences that’s part of God chessboard. Allow god to make more of myself than I can on my own. Treasure his involvement seek for it. Pray for it. Changes in our plans not. They are”Steps to being on the Lord”
When you feel his spirit an act upon those prompting,the scripture that says “I will go before your face I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my spirit shall be in your hearts, and my angels round about you, to bury you up.” Are fulfilled.
88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.
Recently, we had a problem with our IOP board at Alan-1. I was led by “divine design”To call someone named Jeff. He then introduced me to someone name Artie. And within 10 days Artie solved the problem just this morning! which is going to save us hundreds of thousands of dollars in warranty repairs by fixing it before the game ship. This is an example of about Elder Rasband is talking about!
Chastening from the Lord is a sign of his love