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Lesson: A Home Where the Spirit of the Lord Dwells by Henry B. Eyring
On this date in 1830, Joseph Smith organized the Church under the direction of the Lord. It was done in the Whitmer family home near Fayette, New York. There were six members and about 50 other interested people there that day.
Although I don’t know what the Prophet Joseph said or how he looked when he stood before that little group, I know what those people with faith in Jesus Christ felt. They felt the Holy Ghost, and they felt that they were in a holy place. They surely felt that they were united as one.
That miraculous feeling is what we all want in our homes. It is a feeling that comes from being, as Paul described, “spiritually minded.”
What does it mean to be spiritually minded?
My purpose today is to teach what I know of how we can qualify for that feeling more often and invite it to last longer in our families. As you know from experience, that is not easy to do. Contention, pride, and sin have to be kept at bay. The pure love of Christ must come into the hearts of those in our family.
Adam and Eve, Lehi and Sariah, and other parents we know from scripture found that to be a hard challenge. Yet there are encouraging examples of sustained felicity in families and homes to reassure us. And those examples let us see the way it can happen for us and our families. You remember the account from 4 Nephi 1:15-18:
“And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
“And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.
“There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.
“And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passed away, and there was no contention in all the land.”
The account in 4 Nephi describes the eventual symptoms of spiritual decline among a group of good people. It is a pattern that has appeared over the ages in entire peoples, in congregations, and, most sadly, in families. By studying that pattern, we can see how we might protect and even increase the feelings of love in our family.
Here is the pattern of decline that appeared after 200 years of living in the perfect peace the gospel brings:
– Pride crept in.
– The people stopped sharing what they had with each other.
– They began to see themselves in classes above or below each other.
– They began to diminish in their faith in Jesus Christ.
– They began to hate.
– They began to commit all kinds of sin.
So building faith in Jesus Christ is the beginning of reversing spiritual decline in your family and in your home. That faith is more likely to bring repentance than your preaching against each symptom of spiritual decline.
You will best lead by example. Family members and others must see you growing in your own faith in Jesus Christ and in His gospel. You have recently been provided great help. Parents in the Church have been blessed with an inspired curriculum for families and individuals. As you use it, you will build your faith and the faith of your children in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Your faith in Jesus Christ grew. But like a new plant, such faith in Jesus Christ will wither unless you find continued resolve to ponder and pray to increase it.
For me, the old saying “The family that prays together stays together” could be expanded to “The family that prays together is together, even when they are far apart.”
You will find some of your greatest joys in your efforts to make your home a place of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a place that is permeated with love, the pure love of Christ.
The other day my wife woke me up at 2:00 am to change a diaper or something like that. I noticed that my daughter, who was at girls camp, texted me wanting to know what a particular scripture meant. I took the time to explain the meaning and then tried to go back to bed. Unfortunately, the spirit had other plans, and so I spent the next 2 and half hours learning and recording what I was learning. Later, I realized that I had been fasting that whole day for specific things and here at 2:00 am came the answer to my fast.
I had not planned on sharing this in my lesson, but as I prepared I felt that it was important to share. So, the following graph is the culmination of my learning.
Google defines it as: the state of being awake and aware of one’s surroundings.
- the awareness or perception of something by a person.
- the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.
With that definition in mind let me now quote Chauncey Riddle as he talks about mind training:
“The goal of mind training is to have an eye single to the Glory of God. The eye in question is the mind’s eye, the eye of our understanding and intentions. It is God’s purpose to teach us how to look upon our surroundings in this world and see things as they really are(as opposed to believing the lies of the adversary). To do this we must test every bit of information we receive by the Holy Spirit, to see if how we are seeing, hearing, sensing and believing is true. This is difficult at first, but as we practice doing this it can become almost automatic. We are training ourselves to look upon all things with the help of God, to see things as he sees them. By this means we come to understand truly what is going on around us in order to to diagnose the problems at hand correctly.
“To train our intentions is to work with ourselves until we desire nothing but the glory of God. This is intense mental effort, for we must be ever scrutinizing our intent and motives, being guided by our conscience whether our motives are pure and selfless or not. When the work of God becomes the only thing we really care about, then we can begin to work for the glory of God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.”
There you have it, there is no better way to be “awake and aware of one’s surroundings” than to see our surroundings “as they really are,” which is how God sees them, who is the one that created them in the first place. If we saw everyone like God sees them, would we not have perfect love for them? Remember, that is how that perfect peace was brought about in 4 Nephi, because of the love of God which dwelt in their hearts.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:67–68
67 And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.
68 Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.
Eye single to the glory of God = Filled with light = Comprehend all things (Perfect consciousness)
Now, how do we gather more light unto us?
Doctrine and Covenants 50:24
That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
And how do we receive light, we obey it as it is given to us. So, if we continue to obey the light that is given to us, we will receive even greater light, and as we obey that light, we are given even greater light, and we will grow brighter and brighter until the perfect day which is the day that we have proven by our obedience to all previous levels of light that we will obey, obey, and obey. Thus, the Lord can perfectly trust us like he did Nephi, and would give unto us the same power that He gave unto Nephi.
Light + Obedience = Power
Helaman 10:4–7
4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.
6 Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, and shall smite the earth with famine, and with pestilence, and destruction, according to the wickedness of this people.
7 Behold, I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people.
Nephi’s actions or in other words obedience to light given, proved over and over again that the Lord could trust him, to the extent that he would “not ask that which is contrary to my will.” This level of trust includes but also goes beyond just obeying a command when given, he was able to increase his level of consciousness through the light given him so that his eye was single to the glory of God and he began to know the will of God and had aligned his will to that of the Lord. His character had been changed by the light given him and he desired and loved those things that the Lord desired and loved. What amazing trust, but this change didn’t happen overnight, rather it happened through his life as he listened, obeyed, and sought after greater light, until his perfect day.
This brings me to my next point and that is of faith. We are told that we overcome by faith, so let’s try to understand the connection between faith and obedience.
D&C 76:50-60
50 And again we bear record—for we saw and heard, and this is the testimony of the gospel of Christ concerning them who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just—
51 They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given—
52 That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power;
53 And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true.
54 They are they who are the church of the Firstborn.
55 They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things—
56 They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory;
57 And are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son.
58 Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God—
59 Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
60 And they shall overcome all things.
So, there is a powerful connection between our actions, or in other words our obedience, and our faith. If we overcome by faith, then that means that our obedience is the indicator of, witness of, testifier of, or the proof of our faith. Our faith in Christ is the driving force that leads to our actions or obedience, and it is our faith that seeks out greater and greater light as we obey that light along the way.
Joseph Smith in the Lectures on Faith explains that our faith leads to action:
7. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews, in the eleventh chapter of that epistle and first verse, gives the following definition of the word faith:
8. “Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
9. From this we learn that faith is the assurance which men have of the existence of things which they have not seen, and the principle of action in all intelligent beings.
10. If men were duly to consider themselves, and turn their thought and reflections to the operations of their own minds, they would readily discover that it is faith, and faith only, which is the moving cause of all action in them; that without it both mind and body would be in a state of inactivity, and all their exertions would cease, both physical and mental.”
The Holy Spirit of promise is the Holy Ghost acting in His role as the Holy Spirit of promise is the one that seals an individual up unto eternal life in this life or in the life to come. Basically, the Holy Ghost knows perfectly our obedience which testifies or proves the faith of that individual, and thus that individual overcome by faith, and in the process “received light, [obeyed that light] and continued in God, received more light [with continued obedience]; and that light grew brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (Changes are mine). Then the Holy Spirit of promise sealed him up unto eternal life, and his calling and election was made sure. At this point, the Lord could trust this individual and he/she became like unto Nephi because he/she would “not ask that which is contrary to [God’s] will.” This individual is then given power and authority like unto Nephi, “I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Changes are mine).
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