Becoming Like Him

 

"I lived in heaven a long time ago, it is true; Lived there and loved there with people I know. So did you. Then Heav’nly Father presented a beautiful plan, All about earth and eternal salvation for man." (I Lived in Heaven)

When we lived in heaven, I imagine we were full of love and many, if not all, godly traits; we did live with God [Heavenly Father] after all. We had Him to emulate. But that wasn't good enough. God wanted us to have those traits engrained in every aspect of our beings, as He does, so they [the godly traits] would shine through in the hardest circumstances. So He sent us to earth to get a body, which was completely new to us, and we would be tried and tested to see if we could either keep those godly traits and characteristics or re-find them if we lost them.

As we know, God our Father chose Jehovah, who was born as Jesus, to be a perfect example that we could both emulate here on earth and receive power from, to strengthen our ability to regain the godly traits we once possessed and refine them. If we regain them through the power of Christ and His cleansing atonement, we can return to live with Him and receive the glory we had with Him before we were born, even the glory of the stars, and live in a manner similar but better than how we live now as members of His church here on earth, able to have the Holy Ghost with us constantly. But if we can use the power of Christ beyond regaining what we had before, and refine those traits even in the furnace of affliction, like Christ did, then we can have the hope of a better resurrection, even a terrestrial resurrection where we are unified in ways we haven't attained to yet here on earth, or better yet, a celestial resurrection where we are as valiant as the prophets who grew from grace to grace as Christ did, using the power of God to overcome all things even while we are here on earth.

We don't just want the promise of a glorious resurrection, all the righteous will get that; even those who wait till the last minute at the end of the millennium to repent and rely on Christ's atonement to cleanse them through vicarious baptism, will get that. But we want a better resurrection and that requires making and keeping sacred covenants now, while the temples are mostly closed. The people of Limhi made covenants with God and they weren't even baptized yet, let alone going to the temple, although they had one [I think] they couldn't use. (Mosiah 21:31-35, 2 Nephi 5:16, Mosiah 7:17)

Nephi knew that God doesn't give us commandments without the means and power to accomplish them and when He commands us to be like His Son, that's no joke. Some people say, 'I'll never make it.' Never say that. I've heard others say, 'I'll never be perfect.' By saying that, you are denying the power of Christ and His redemption. If you're a member of this church, I want you to put that out of your head. Never say that again and when you're tempted to think that, pray for forgiveness and hope. If Christ still had hope and love in the deepest, darkest furnace of affliction, in Gethsemane, then so can we in our deep, dark furnaces of our afflictions, sicknesses, sins, and infirmities.

The means that God provided for us is faith in Christ, which includes repentance, which includes immersion in the fire of the Holy Ghost. If we don't fully understand how liberating repentance is, as I'm sure I don't yet, we need to make a more earnest and diligent effort. I'm going to share one way our living prophet has taught us to do this, but first let's talk about what we're capable of.

In the camp of Israel in Moses' day, seventy men were called by God. [At this point I recounted the portion of the story of Numbers 11:16-28 regarding the seventy in my own words] "My lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!" (Numbers 11:28-29) This isn't saying, 'all the Lord's sons,' or 'all the Lord's adult children.' It says God wants all the Lord's people to be prophets. That includes you.

Isn't this what President Nelson is asking us to become when he says:

Brothers and sisters, how can we become the men and women—the Christlike servants—the Lord needs us to be? How can we find answers to questions that perplex us? If Joseph Smith’s transcendent experience in the Sacred Grove teaches us anything, it is that the heavens are open and that God speaks to His children.

The Prophet Joseph Smith set a pattern for us to follow in resolving our questions. Drawn to the promise of James that if we lack wisdom we may ask of God, the boy Joseph took his question directly to Heavenly Father. He sought personal revelation, and his seeking opened this last dispensation.

In like manner, what will your seeking open for you? What wisdom do you lack? What do you feel an urgent need to know or understand? Follow the example of the Prophet Joseph. Find a quiet place where you can regularly go. Humble yourself before God. Pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father. Turn to Him for answers and for comfort.

Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.” (Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives)

He invites us to become like Christ by learning directly from the strongest witness of Him, which is the Holy Ghost. He is teaching us how to become prophets in our own homes so we can become like the greatest prophet of all time, the Living Christ. I said, 'prophets in our own homes' and that's where we need to start, but God doesn't just want us to be prophets in our own homes.

[In the past,] I had assumed that Lehi was already a prophet before 1 Nephi 1:1, but I think that Lehi was following this same pattern as an ordinary man. His prayer in 1 Nephi 1:5 was, 'Pouring out his heart to his Heavenly Father. Turning to Him for answers and for comfort. Praying about his concerns and fears, and the very longings of his heart.' He heard the prophecies of his living prophet, Jeremiah, and was afraid of his home town being destroyed. If you heard the Austin area was going to be destroyed wouldn't you get down on your knees and pray like Lehi? [It was after this prayer and because he was likely already a prophet in his own home, I believe that Lehi was called to be a prophet to the people of Jerusalem.]

President Monson used to share story after story about how he followed this same pattern and acted. Just like each of us, I'm sure he started when he wasn't sure whether it was his own thoughts or the Spirit. [I referenced Samuel the prophet when he was a boy and couldn't distinguish between the voice of God and another voice.] But he probably saw the wisdom in Mormon's words when he said, "that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." (Moroni 7:13)

I'm sure if we open our hearts to a break in our routines to do a spontaneous act of kindness, our hearts will change and our characters will become more godly and we will be able to follow Christ more perfectly.

[At this point I bore my testimony including our need to learn the language of the Spirit referencing an experience on my mission. I also talked about how Christ was able to love and be kind even in His worst circumstances and I think I mentioned that we need to learn to do the same.]

Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.

"Then wake up and do something more, Than dream of your mansion above." (Have I Done Any Good?)

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

*I was invited to give a talk about becoming like Christ and was directed to use the talk by Elder Scott D Whiting titled "Becoming like Him." While I did read and listen to this talk 2-3 times before writing this talk, I didn't end up quoting from it at all. To be honest there wasn't much that stuck out to me from the talk that I wanted to quote except near the beginning where he said, "What level of effort would we be willing to give to invite His miraculous power into our lives so that we can change our very nature?" I was reminded of President Henry B Eyring's talk Mountains to Climb that is one of my all time favorites.

Here are some brief thought that I chose not to include in the talk:

Do you think Jesus is happy? I don't think we can imagine how happy he is right now. Do you think he was happy when he lived on Earth? Do you think he was happy when he was suffering?

We don't overcome mountains by only thinking about them.

Those who will go to hell for eternity [outer darkness] go there because they have no power. (D&C 29:29)

We members of the church are in a telestial state here on earth, the 1st level of godliness. Some have speculated that the telestial state is a wicked state, a worldly state, that simply isn't true and not supported by scripture. God doesn't give glory to the wicked.