STREET LIGHTS AND THE STARRY SKY

The buzz and noise of this world is like street lights on a clear night–they show you what's right in front of your nose, but make you unable to behold the starry splendor of God's creation. 

For you to see farther, you need to travel some distance in the dark. Then, your whole being adjusts to the lack of man-made light and is able to take in what God has already given you, thousands of lightyears ago.

AND THEY WERE HEALED EVERY ONE - the works of real believers

(This post is kind of a continuation of the side note found at the end of the last post "The Components
of Faith".)

Staying clear of deception is a tricky aspect of our mortal probation. Early on, the name of the luciferian game was called out as lying, deceiving, blinding and leading men captive (see Moses 4:4). This is the spiritual reality which we must be aware of.

Because of this, I must recommend D. Christian Markham's books "There are save two churches only", vol. I and II, found here. I will share this little teaser from the introduction: 

"Gray only exists from a distance. The closer one looks, the more one scrutinizes, the easier it is to clearly observe that which is truly white and truly black within every shade of gray."

In order to help us avoid deception, the Lord counseled us to

"seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given; For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they may consume it upon their lusts. And again, verily I say unto you, I would that ye should always remember, and always retain in your minds what those gifts are, that are given unto the church." (D&C 46:8-10)

These gift are given to those who love the Lord and those who, at least seeks to, keep all his commandments. Do we really seek to keep all his commandments? Or are we cherry-picking and changing those commandments to better suit us? These are important questions, for if we don't even seek to be obedient, these gifts won't be given to us.

One of these gifts is the gift of healing. We read:

"To another [is given by the Spirit of God], the gifts of healing." (Moroni 10:11) 

"And to others it is given to have faith to heal." (D&C 46:20) 

"To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit." (1 Cor. 12:9)

These are gifts given to those who believes in, loves and seeks to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. From the New Testament we learn that Jesus healed many people. The same thing is true with regards to the Savior's ministry among the Nephites. His works were great. Nevertheless, he said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do;" (Joh. 14:12)

I find this fascinating. Here we have the Only Begotten Son of God, the embodiment of the love and power of God, and he says that his disciples will do greater works than he did? Talk about raising the bar...

After the day of Pentecost, Peter was a new man. Gone was the fisherman and denier. In his place stood the stalwart apostle and mighty servant of Christ. We read:

"And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one." (Acts 5:12-16)

No believer in the scriptures deny that Peter, and his associates, were real apostles. The reason for this is that we read their testimony of the risen Lord and we read about their "greater" works. They were real believers.

How is it today? What would happen today, if members from around the US or the world would bring their sick, those that were vexed with unclean spirits, lame, blind, deaf, cancer stricken people to the doors of the Church Office Building? What would happen if Temple Square was to become a field hospital were healing by the gift of God was expected? Would we see the fifteen "apostles" go around, healing every one like Peter and his associates, whose successors they claim to be? I have my doubts. 

How about you? What do you believe in this regard, and why?

THE COMPONENTS OF FAITH - and on having faith "not to be healed"

As I'm rereading the Book of Mormon from a different angle, I rediscover a great deal of verses. They seem to have become more powerful and more interesting, since the last, or first time I noticed them.

Some of these verses are found in 1 Ne. 10. They read: 

17 And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God—and the Son of God was the Messiah who should come—I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men. 

18 For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him. 

19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.

Below, I've parted the concepts, color coded them and also put in a bonus verse from 1 Ne. 2.

And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost,  

he received [the power of the Holy Ghost] by faith on the Son of God—and the Son of God was the Messiah who should come— 

I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost,  

[the power of the Holy Ghost] is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him,  

as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men. For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.  

For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost,  

as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round. (1 Ne. 10:17-19) 

Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart. (1 Ne. 2:19)

I guess many things can be learned from these verses. What stands out to me is how we are given a definition of fatih. In short:

Faith = to seek Jesus diligently with lowliness of heart

To the poor zoramites, Alma said:

And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. (Alma 32:21)

I'd like to paraphrase it this way:

Faith is not a result, but the intent of your heart and mind, for if you, with hope, focus your mind and heart on Jesus, the veracity of Him will be shown you.

Or from the Lectures on Faith: 

[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. (1:9)

Faith is the combination of your belief, hope/desire and action. You believe that you will reap as a consequence of sowing, with the hope of reaping a benefit from sacrificing seeds for sowing (seeds which you could have consumed) you perform the actual sowing and then look forward to the reward with the eye of faith (that is, the combined effect of your belief, hope and action). Remove either of the ingredients in faith, and it's barren and unfruitful. Therefore, it's not weird that James will show his faith through his works (James 2:18). He understood that without works, there is no faith, but mere belief.

For faith to be fruitful and yield dividend, it has to be focused on something that is true. Faith can be had and expressed in relation to agricultural practices (evidence of this are abundant), or in summoning evil spirits (ample evidence of this could be given from users of ouija boards), or in God and Jesus Christ (until you experience God yourself, even though there's a lot o, it's anecdotal).

Nephi is a great showcase of faith. We read:

For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. (1 Ne. 11:1)

Nephi believed the Lord was able to make it all known unto him, he desired it (that is, he hoped that he would be the beneficiary of the Lord using this power of concealing the mysteries of God) and he did the work (in this case, pondering; I guess Nephi previously had filled his mind with things to ponder about).

How can faith become more of a principle of power in my life? What traditions and unbelief must I shed before this can happen? Lord, have mercy and grant me real faith!

____________

A side note: David Bednar taught that we should have "faith not to be healed". I guess that is an idea he got from D&C 42: "And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath faithin me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed." This talks about dying, and that when God has decreed that someone's time is up, it's up! This doesn't talk about being healed when you're sick, it talks about trying to postpone your "expiration date". God won't allow that!

But, this doesn't say that God won't let you be healed or that he has a purpose with you being sick. The biggest purpose of giving us sickness has to be to grow our faith, and what would grow it more than being healed by it?

Clinging to this erroneous idea and also believing that God won't heal you even though you have true faith in him can easily become an excuse and a way to justify and explain away your lack of faith and unbelief. We give ourselves the opportunity to say that God wants us to learn something that we haven't learned and we will never have to own up to how far away we are from having real faith.

I'm far from having this kind of faith, but the ability to see a want is a good beginning (sometimes, it's more soothing and comforting to get a correct diagnosis than to be actually healed!).