Scripture Blog

This weblog is my personal online scripture journal. I try to read the scriptures each morning as I exercise on my cross-trainer. It has a great impact on my life and my testimony of the Savior and his restored church. The journal is really for my own benefit but I have set it up as a web log in hopes to benefit anyone else that may be interested. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." 1 Nephi 10:19

Thursday, September 26, 2013

D&C 136

As the prophet, Brigham Young, received a revelation concerning the "Camp of Israel" in their "journeyings to the West", he provided some profound doctrine and promises being -

"Let every man use all his influence and property to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a stake of Zion.
11 And if ye do this with a pure heart, in all faithfulness, ye shall be blessed; you shall be blessed in your flocks, and in your herds, and in your fields, and in your houses, and in your families."   (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 136:10 - 11)

For -

"My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom."  (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 136:31)

And then he states -

"For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite..."  (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 136:33)

This doctrine that the Spirit enlightens the humble and contrite ties into a revelation that was received by the Prophet Joseph Smith where years earlier, the Prophet testifies -

"THE heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell."  (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 137:1)

This "whether in the body or out" is interesting concept.  The Prophet would teach -

“All things whatsoever God in his infinite wisdom has seen fit and proper to reveal to us, while we are dwelling in mortality, in regard to our mortal bodies, are revealed to us in the abstract, and independent of affinity of this mortal tabernacle, but are revealed to our spirits precisely as though we had no bodies at all; and those revelations which will save our spirits will save our bodies. God reveals them to us in view of no eternal dissolution of the body, or tabernacle” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 355)

In other words, when the Lord speaks -

"...I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart."  (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 8:2)

...He is teaching that He is speaking by the Holy Ghost to our Spirit.