Faith Still Precedes the Miracle ~ Part Two

 Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

this post should take five minutes to eight minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on BYU (Brigham Young University) Devotional in October 2019, and it is called "Faith Still Precedes the Miracle" by Brother Mark Pace. This post is part two, and I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional. 

Brother Pace has mentioned the following; "Pattern Number 1: Following the Lord’s Living Prophet

... Brother Walker was born in England in 1832. ... On Sunday, October 19, 1862, at the end of Sabbath meetings, Charles heard his name read among a list of 250 others who had been called to help settle the “Cotton Country” in southwestern Utah.

Brother Walker wrote in his journal that evening: Obedience [is] a great principle in heaven and on earth. Well, here I have worked for the last 7 years through heat and cold, hunger and adverse circumstances, and at last have got me a home, a lot with fruit trees just beginning to bear [that] look pretty. 

Well, I must leave it and go and do the will of my Father in Heaven, who overrules all for the good of them that love and fear him, and I pray God to give me strength to accomplish that which is required of me in an acceptable manner before him. 

On November 13, only twenty-five days after having received his call, Charles Walker and his wife left Salt Lake City and began their journey to what we now know as St. George. 

In his journal he wrote: This was the hardest trial I ever had, and had it not been for the gospel and those that were placed over me, I should never [have] moved a foot to go on such a trip, but then I came here not to do my will but the will of those that are over me, and I know it will all be right if I do right.

... Charles Walker put his trust in God, and he was blessed. He remained faithful to his call from the prophet all his days. ...The faithfulness of Charles Walker preceded the miracle of a righteous posterity. Your faith in following the living prophet throughout your lives will have the same result. The faith to follow the living prophet still precedes the miracle.

Pattern Number 2: Attending Our Sunday Meetings

To illustrate this pattern of faith, I would like to share the story of the Merchan family from the Barcelona Spain Stake. ... Contemplate the price Brother and Sister Merchan were willing to pay to establish faith and conversion in their lives and in the lives of their children. They exercised their faith and left the miracle in the hands of the Lord.

So what miracles were made possible through their faith?

... Brother and Sister Merchan have remained firm and steadfast in their testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. They hold current temple recommends. Bryan, their son, served a full-time mission. He attends the ward in Granollers and has a calling in the Church and a current temple recommend.

Carol, their daughter, was married in the Madrid temple. She also lives in Granollers and attends the ward there. She also has a current temple recommend. Now it is not likely that you and I will be required to make an eleven-hour sacrifice to attend our Sunday meetings. 

But we might ask ourselves what price we are willing to pay for the conversion of ourselves and our posterity. That blessing will come as we exercise the faith to ­partake of the sacrament weekly. The faith to attend our Sunday meetings still ­precedes the miracle.

"My dear friends, examples of faith are not confined solely
to the scriptures. Great faith was also demonstrated by Saints
early in this dispensation. And it is clearly evident in our fellow
Saints with whom we live day to day."

Pattern Number 3: Participating in Home-Centered Gospel Learning

At the beginning of the October 2018 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson said: The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counter strategies and proactive plans.

Then, approximately twenty-nine hours later, on Sunday afternoon, he closed the conference with this promise: As you diligently work to remodel your home into a ­center of gospel learning, . . . the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease.

How can the attacks of the adversary be increasing exponentially while at the same time the influence of the adversary is actually decreasing? That is the promise and the blessing from the Lord’s living prophet. The Come, Follow Me resource is the Lord’s counter strategy and proactive plan. 

As President Nelson taught, “The new home-centered, Church-supported integrated curriculum has the potential to unleash the power of families.” However, it does and will require our best efforts. We need to follow “through conscientiously and carefully to transform [our] home into a sanctuary of faith.”

In the April 2019 general conference, Elder David A. Bednar said: Making our homes sanctuaries wherein we can “stand in holy places” is essential in these latter days. And as important as home-centered and Church-supported learning is for our spiritual strength and protection today, it will be even more vital in the future.

Studying the scriptures with the Come, Follow Me resource as our guide ... Our act of faith in studying the scriptures daily protects us and our families from the influence of the adversary. The faith to study the gospel in our home still ­precedes the miracle.

Pattern Number 4: Paying Tithes and Offerings

... Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

... We pay our tithing because we have faith, not because we have money. Like all acts of faith, paying tithing leads to miracles. ... The day will come, if it hasn’t come already, when your faith regarding tithing will be tested. Perhaps you will have some financial challenges, and you might wonder if you can pay your tithing and also meet your other financial commitments. 

The adversary will tempt you to put off the payment of tithing. That will be the moment when you show the Lord, and yourself, who you really are. ... The blessings promised by Malachi in the Old Testament are still received today. We can show our faith by always being current in the payment of our tithes and offerings. 

The faith to pay our tithes and offerings still precedes the miracle.

Pattern Number 5: Attending the Temple

During the same general conference in which he warned of the exponential increase in the assaults of the adversary, President Russell M. Nelson shared an additional counter strategy and proactive plan to protect us: spending more time in the temple: Our time in the temple is crucial to our salvation and exaltation and to that of our families.

... Each one of us needs the ongoing spiritual strengthening and tutoring that is possible only in the house of the Lord. ... Our need to be in the temple on a regular basis has never been greater. I plead with you to take a prayerful look at how you spend your time. Invest time in your future and in that of your family. 

If you have reasonable access to a temple, I urge you to find a way to make an appointment regularly with the Lord to be in His holy house then keep that appointment with exactness and joy. I promise you that the Lord will bring the miracles He knows you need as you make sacrifices to serve and worship in His temples.

... Now I am not suggesting that the Lord expects you to attend the temple every week, nor am I saying that doing so will mean you will be blessed with more children. What I am saying is that miracles come only after we exercise faith. I am saying that a love for the temple and sensitivity to the Spirit there comes from being in the temple.

These blessings do not come by reading about the temple or thinking about the temple. They come from being in the temple. As you exercise your faith to, in President Nelson’s words, “make an appointment regularly with the Lord to be in His holy house then keep that appointment with exactness and joy,” you will discover similar miracles in your lives. The faith to attend the temple still precedes the miracle.

A Great Strength to the Lord’s Work

My dear brothers and sisters, I commend you for the goodness of your lives and your devotion to the Savior and His gospel. How noble you are and how valuable is your contribution. You are and will continue to be a great strength to the Lord’s work.

I encourage you to establish now these patterns of faith that will bring miracles and blessings to you and your posterity:

1. Following the Lord’s living prophet 2. Attending our Sunday meetings

3. Participating in home-centered gospel learning

4. Paying tithes and offerings

5. Attending the temple

I pray the Lord’s blessings upon you. May you establish patterns of faith now that will precede the miracles you need in your life, because faith still precedes the miracle."

If you would like to read the whole Devotional either now or in your own time, here is the link below.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/mark-l-pace/faith-still-precedes-miracle/

Stay tuned until next time.

Faith Still Precedes the Miracle ~ Part One

 Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

this post should take three minutes to five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on BYU (Brigham Young University) Devotional in October 2019, and it is called "Faith Still Precedes the Miracle" by Brother Mark Pace. This post is part one, and I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional. 

Brother Pace has mentioned the following; "... So I share with you that request from the prophet of God and thank you for your personal efforts this year in reading the New Testament. You may not realize this, but by accepting and acting on the prophet’s invitation, you are strengthening the Church. How? 

As you study the scriptures throughout the week, you welcome the Holy Ghost into your life. This increased influence of the Holy Ghost builds your faith in the Savior Jesus Christ and deepens your conversion. The collective strength of the conversion of each member is, in a very real way, the strength of the Church. ... The promptings of the Spirit have led me to talk of the importance of acting in faith and to remind you that faith still precedes the miracle.

Inspiring Discourses on Faith

In the Book of Mormon there is an absolute jewel in Ether 12. ... We learn from Moroni’s abridged record how the Jaredites were brought to the American continent and became a great civilization, with periods of righteousness and prosperity as well as periods of wickedness, war, and apostasy.

In Ether 12, Moroni recorded the continued slide of the Jaredites. They rejected the prophets, and the blessings of heaven were withdrawn. One prophet in particular, Ether, prophesied “great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.”

And with that phrase “they did not believe, because they saw them not” - Moroni suddenly paused his historical narrative and launched into an inspiring discourse on faith. It was as if Moroni had just realized that faith could have been the antidote to the wickedness that led to the destruction of the Jaredite nation. 

If only they had been able to believe before seeing, maybe they would have repented and been spared. Of course Moroni knew that it was too late for the Jaredites, but he wasn’t writing to the Jaredites. He was writing to each of us, and it is not too late for us. Moroni wanted us to know that faith is the antidote to the wickedness of the world in which we live. 

"FAITH requires work." - Marcos A. Aidukaitis.

So Moroni took the opportunity to teach us that “by faith all things are fulfilled.” “faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” 

“if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them.” “neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith.” In other words, Moroni taught that faith precedes the miracle. He gave multiple examples in support of this truth. 

When Alma and Amulek were in prison and the walls tumbled to the earth, that miracle was preceded by their faith. When Ammon and Nephi and Lehi converted thousands of Lamanites, those miracles were preceded by faith. Even the appearance of Christ among the people could not have happened “until after they had faith in him.”

To Moroni’s list we could add another example. In Mosiah 24 we read of the great faith of the people of Alma, who were, at that time, in bondage to the Lamanites. The Lamanites persecuted them, forced them into hard labor, “and put task-masters over them.”

... And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage. Note again that the Lord did not say how He would deliver them, just that it would happen “on the morrow.” 

But that was enough for Alma and his people. They spent all night gathering “their flocks together,” preparing for their promised deliverance. And in the morning the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon the Lamanites, yea, and all their task-masters were in a profound sleep. And Alma and his people departed into the wilderness.

It was a miracle, and it came after the people of Alma had submitted cheerfully and with patience, preparing all night long without knowing how the miracle would happen, only that God had promised that it would. You see, they didn’t need to see the miracle before they would believe it. That is faith, and faith still precedes the miracle.

Patterns of Faith

My dear friends, examples of faith are not confined solely to the scriptures. Great faith was also demonstrated by Saints early in this dispensation. And it is clearly evident among our fellow Saints with whom we live day to day. Your lives are full of such faith and devotion. I wish I could talk to each of you and hear about the patterns of faith that have brought you to this point in your life. Even though that isn’t possible, you can rest assured that your Father in Heaven knows of your faith and is blessing you accordingly.

I would like to suggest five patterns of faith that you can make a part of your day-to-day lives to demonstrate your faith in Jesus Christ and qualify you for the miracles that God has prepared for you:

1. Following the Lord’s living prophet 2. Attending our Sunday meetings

3. Participating in home-centered gospel learning

4. Paying tithes and offerings

5. Attending the temple"

Stay Tuned until next time.

How Can God Grant Us Faith?

Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

this post should take four minutes to seven minutes to read from start to finish. 

What are some ways that you can think of that God has grant us faith? What does "Faith" means to you? 

What does "Faith" means to a immediate relative? What does "Faith" means to a friend?

I know that Heavenly Father has shown me some ways of how he has grant me faith. I have been able to learn about what is faith, and how to apply faith in life. I can think of some great ways of how Heavenly Father grant me faith and those ways are the following;

Applying faith to believe in Heavenly Father, applying faith to trust in Heavenly Father, applying faith to trust in Heavenly Father's timing, applying faith for having trust into everything will work out even when some things does not work out straight away but continue to have faith for those things to work out eventually, and so forth. 

Anyways, this post focuses on a October 1983 General Conference talk, and it is called "God Grant Us Faith" by Elder Gordon B. Hinckley. I hope you would be able to learn something new while reading this post. 

Elder Hinckley has mentioned the following; 

"... I see the fruits of your faith, and I am grateful. I thank you for the energy you put into this work. I know that at times it feels burdensome. Some of it may appear unnecessary. But out of effort and labor comes strength, and out of service comes gladness. I thank you for your faith in the payment of your tithes and offerings. 

You are making possible the growth and strengthening of this work across the world. But you do not need thanks. Every man and woman who pays his or her honest tithing has a testimony of the blessings that come therefrom. He or she can bear witness that the Lord opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessings as he has promised. (See Mal. 3:10.)

I give you the assurance, my brothers and sisters, that the work is moving forward. Wherever it is established in more than eighty nations, it is growing in strength. The faith of the people is increasing, as reflected in their increased activity. The missionary work continues to flourish.

Our young men and women continue to leave their homes to go into the world to bear witness of the Savior and of the restoration of his eternal gospel in this the dispensation of the fulness of times. (See D&C 124:41.) The work of salvation for the dead, through the vast genealogical program of the Church and the selfless labor of love that goes on in the temples, is moving at a pace never previously known.

Our people are more faithful in attendance at their meetings, and since our last conference a very substantial number of them have had opportunity to demonstrate their love for neighbor as well as for God. ... Despite the increased needs to meet such disasters, as well as aggravated problems incident to the present economy, fast offering contributions have kept pace. Thank you for this marvelous expression of faith as you have gone without meals yourselves to help those in distress.

... In August we were in Samoa and Tonga for temple dedications. Again our hearts were lifted by the outpouring of the Christlike love we experienced and witnessed among the wonderful Saints of Polynesia. Through ancient prophets the Lord promised that in the latter days he would remember his people upon the isles of the sea. 

We have witnessed a marvelous fulfillment of these promises where today, among these loving and gracious people, we have scores of congregations, strong and flourishing schools to bless them with the benefits of education, and now beautiful temples of the Lord in which they may receive blessings to be found nowhere else.

... For those of us favored to attend these dedicatory services, there has come a great refreshing of our faith and an increased affection for our brethren and sisters who love the Lord and walk with loyalty to him and his commandments.

... The history of this Church is a history of the expression of such faith. It began with a farm boy in the year 1820 when he read that great promise set forth in the Epistle of James: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

"FAITH is a real power not just an
expression of belief." 
- Boyd K. Packer.

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” (James 1:5–6.) It was faith, the simple faith of a fourteen-year-old boy, that took him into the woods that spring morning. It was faith that took him to his knees in pleading for understanding. 

The marvelous fruit of that faith was a vision glorious and beautiful, of which this great work is but the extended shadow. It was by faith that he kept himself worthy of the remarkable manifestations which followed in bringing to the earth the keys, the authority, the power to reestablish the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days. 

It was by faith that this marvelous record of ancient peoples, this testament which we call the Book of Mormon, was brought forth by the gift and power of God “to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ.” 

It was by faith that a small band of early converts, notwithstanding the very powers of hell brought against them, strengthened and sustained one another, left home and family to spread the word, ... in their search for peace and freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience.

... With the conviction that faith without works is dead, they drained that swampland, they plotted a city, they built substantial homes and houses for worship and education and, crowning all, a magnificent temple, then the finest building in all of Illinois.

Again came persecution, with profane and murderous mobs. Their prophet was killed. Their dreams were shattered. Again it was by faith that they pulled themselves together under the pattern he had previously drawn and organized themselves for another exodus.

... It was by faith that Brigham Young looked over this valley, then hot and barren, and declared, “This is the place.” Again by faith, four days later, he touched his cane to the ground a few hundred feet east of where I stand and said, “Here will be the temple of our God.” 

The magnificent and sacred house of the Lord to the east of this Tabernacle is a testimony of faith, not only of the faith of those who built it but of the faith of those who now use it in a great selfless labor of love. Wrote Paul to the Hebrews, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1.) 

All of the great accomplishments of which I have spoken were once only “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” But with vision, with labor, and with confidence in the power of God working through them, they brought their faith to reality. Behind us is a glorious history. 

... It is the product of faith. Before us is a great future. It begins today. We cannot pause. We cannot slow down. We cannot slacken our pace or shorten our stride. ... Said they: “Our motives are not selfish; our purposes not petty and earth-bound; we contemplate the human race past, present, and yet to come as immortal beings, for whose salvation it is our mission to labor; and to this work, broad as eternity and deep as the love of God, we devote ourselves, now, and forever.” (The First Presidency, 26 March 1907.)

With faith we must go forward toward the fulfillment of that commitment. We must ever keep before us the big picture, while not neglecting the details. That large picture is a portrayal of the whole broad mission of the Church; but it is painted one brush stroke at a time through the lives of all members, the composite of whose activities becomes the Church at work.

Each of us, therefore, is important. Each is a brush stroke, as it were, on the mural of this vast panorama of the kingdom of God. If there are blanks, if there are distortions, if there are off-color areas, then the picture is defective to all who look upon it. Shall any of us say that with faith we cannot do better than we are now doing?

There is no obstacle too great, no challenge too difficult, that we cannot meet with faith. We live in a world where the standards of the gospel are challenged, where they are ridiculed, where sacred things are mocked. Shall we compromise? ...

In a more troubled day, the Lord said to Thomas B. Marsh: “Be patient in afflictions, revile not against those that revile. Govern your house in meekness, and be steadfast. … “Go your way whithersoever I will, and it shall be given you by the Comforter what you shall do and whither you shall go. …

“Be faithful unto the end, and lo, I am with you. These words are not of man nor of men, but of me, even Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, by the will of the Father.” (D&C 31:9, 11, 13.) Said the Savior to his disciples, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48.)

This is the commandment which is before us. Regrettably we have not reached perfection. We have a great distance to go. We must cultivate the faith to reform our lives, commencing where we are weak and moving on from there in our work of self-correction, thus gradually and consistently growing in strength to live more nearly as we should.

With faith we can rise above those negative elements in our lives which constantly pull us down. With effort we can develop the capacity to subdue those impulses which lead to degrading and evil actions. With faith we can school our appetites. We can reach out to those whose faith has grown cold and warm them by our own faith.

Let us never forget, my brethren and sisters, that each of us is a part of the whole and that what we do mars or beautifies the magnificent panorama of the kingdom of God. As our fathers labored in faith with a moving vision of the destiny of this work, even so can we. There is so much to be done, so much improvement to be made, but we can do it, walking in faith. ..."

If you would like to read the whole talk either now or in your own time, here is the link below.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1983/10/god-grant-us-faith

Stay Tuned until next time.