Knowing good from evil
I was just reading an article in the church news about the new mission presidents seminar that happened back in June of this year. President Packer spoke to the new mission presidents and their wives and it sounds like it was an amazing meeting. He shared with them a very powerful truism, when you think about it's implications when believed. He said, quoting the prophet Joseph Smith "All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not." (Teaching of Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 181)
(painting by Carl Bloch, Casting out Satan)
How true that is! Yet how easily we (I) forget that sometimes. Sometimes in the moment of temptation, I feel I am bound by that temptation and must fall to it-forgetting their is power with me more than there is against me. (2 Kings 6:16)
This draws my mind to the experience Joseph (Smith) had when he initially went to the grove to pray and was 'seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me'. (Joseph Smith-History 1:15) He used the description of 'thick darkness' to explain how he felt when being surrounded by this evil. Then he did something that teaches us what we should do when faced with temptation, in its many forms, CALL ON GOD. "Exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which seized upon me." (JS-H 1:16) 'All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not.' We have the power of God on our side to deliver us from evil. We can learn a great many lessons from this experience of Joseph Smith and all that transpired following this event, that he saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. He could have let the power of temptation swallow him whole, but he didn't. He called upon God, and from that experience the entire world has been blessed with a deeper understanding of the plain and precious truths.
We have come to better understand plain and precious truths, such that God knows us each individually and that He hears and answers our prayers. With Him, we can be delivered from the powers of darkness and temptation-however great they may seem and however ugly they may seem.
Going back to President Packer's counsel to the new mission presidents, he continued: "The adversary only has power over those that permit him to." He continued, "There are things that are ensnared within our lives and it seems so hopeless, but remember: "Men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil." 2 Nephi 2:5
(painting by Carl Bloch, Casting out Satan)How true that is! Yet how easily we (I) forget that sometimes. Sometimes in the moment of temptation, I feel I am bound by that temptation and must fall to it-forgetting their is power with me more than there is against me. (2 Kings 6:16)
This draws my mind to the experience Joseph (Smith) had when he initially went to the grove to pray and was 'seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me'. (Joseph Smith-History 1:15) He used the description of 'thick darkness' to explain how he felt when being surrounded by this evil. Then he did something that teaches us what we should do when faced with temptation, in its many forms, CALL ON GOD. "Exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which seized upon me." (JS-H 1:16) 'All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not.' We have the power of God on our side to deliver us from evil. We can learn a great many lessons from this experience of Joseph Smith and all that transpired following this event, that he saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. He could have let the power of temptation swallow him whole, but he didn't. He called upon God, and from that experience the entire world has been blessed with a deeper understanding of the plain and precious truths.
We have come to better understand plain and precious truths, such that God knows us each individually and that He hears and answers our prayers. With Him, we can be delivered from the powers of darkness and temptation-however great they may seem and however ugly they may seem.
Going back to President Packer's counsel to the new mission presidents, he continued: "The adversary only has power over those that permit him to." He continued, "There are things that are ensnared within our lives and it seems so hopeless, but remember: "Men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil." 2 Nephi 2:5
posted by Lynette at
11:34 AM
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