Let This Desire Work In You (Alma 32:27)
-Part 2
Step Six: Became humble enough to yield our hearts and our lives to Christ for His sanctification and purification, relying wholly upon His merits, acknowledging even our own best efforts as unprofitable. (Helaman 3:35; 2 Nephi 31:19; Mosiah 2:20-21)
Principle Six: Only a mighty change in my heart, a complete change of disposition, of desire, will ensure any genuine change in my behavior.
GOD CAN ONLY OFFER YOU HIS WORD
“You’ll have to take my word for it.” We’ve all heard that phrase before. All too often, however, we want more than another person’s word for something; we want proof. And so it is in our attitude toward God and His word. We resist His word to us, wanting proof before we trust Him, thus resisting the eternal process of the seed of faith becoming the tree of knowledge.
Through modern revelation we are taught that while it is absolutely true that God has all power both in time and eternity, He will wield that power only in obedience to the principles of righteousness. He cannot force more light and knowledge on us than we are willing and spiritually ready to receive. Thus His word, either written in scripture or whispered directly to your heart and mind through the Holy Spirit, is all He can rightfully offer you. In no way can He righteously “control” you. He revealed this truth to us when He allowed these words to be penned:
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering. (D&C 121:41; emphasis added)
If we had a heart to understand the true character of God, we would hear in these words the admission of a gentle, tender, loving, patient Father-that He suffers for our choices and sorrows at our rejection of Him. If we were wise, we would realize that He has just shown us one of His limitations-maybe His only one. He cannot force another.
For they cannot be redeemed from their spiritual fall, because they repent not. (D&C 29:44; emphasis added)
Even when He “commands” the tiny intelligences which modern prophets have taught us give life and motive to the atomic structure of earth and air, He must wait upon their obedience. He does not have to wait long, however, for they obey Him immediately (Helaman 12:7-13). Why? Because they love and trust Him explicitly-in all things. It is this same kind of absolute letting go and trusting of God in all things, going to any length to obey His word, that marks the mighty change of heart we must all experience.
And so He speaks to us through his prophets, through men and women who have gone before us into certainty, who call back to us, inviting us, even as He invites us, to come and partake. He speaks to us directly through the Light of Christ, and if we are willing to receive it, through the gift of the Holy Ghost. But He only whispers. His communication is still and small, so easily ignored or disbelieved. Listen to Alma’s words:
Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts… (Alma 32:28; emphasis added)
In a powerful Sunday school manual, Teach Them Correct Principles, on page 24, we find these words under the heading “The Heart of the Matter”:
A person, and especially one who has been commanded to receive the Holy Ghost, must actively resist the promptings of the Spirit in order not to have the Spirit strive with him. (John 13:2, 26-30; Alma 3:26, D&C 11:25; emphasis added)
We must acknowledge the truth that we are all “hearing” the “voice” of the Spirit all the time, either through the Light of Christ, which is our “conscience” and which has been with us since we entered into this world; or through the magnified and enhanced Gift of the Holy Ghost. If we do not hear it, it is not because we cannot, but because we will not. We are even as these people:
But there were many among them who would not hear his words; therefore they went their way. (Alma 19:32; emphasis added)
It is our own vanity or unbelief in God’s mercy and goodness-that it should include even us-that causes us to resist turning to Him, and to instead go our own way. In our prideful, willful hearts, we are so vain as to imagine ourselves more powerful to mess up than God is to make right; we imagine ourselves somehow beyond the power of Christ’s atonement. Thus, no matter what we profess with our lips, claiming belief in Christ, we deny Him in the single most personal way we can-for ourselves.
But if we will finally give up this perverse form of pride and prejudice, if we will finally give place in our hearts to receive the word of God-especially directly-then we can trust that what Alma promises will happen:
And when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves-It must be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me. (Alma 32:28)
Conclusion: Only When We’re Ready
When Lehi clung to the rod of iron, which represented the word of God, he was eventually led to the tree of life, which represented the love of God, and once tasting it, he exclaimed that it was “sweet, above all that [he] ever before tasted” (1 Nephi 8:11). There is nothing as sweet and delicious to the experience of man than this coming to God. No amount of food, money to spend, or physical demonstration of desire or affection from another mortal can even hint at it (1 Corinthians 2:9).
When something is “delicious” to people, that means they have acquired a “taste” for it. Their likes, their desires, have changed. They have become entirely ready to be different.
Only when we are ready can God begin His work with us.
Preparation for discussion of principle seven: “AND NEVER, UNTIL I DID CRY OUT” (Alma 38:8)
Step 7: Humbly cried unto the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts for a remission of sins that through His mercy and His grace we might experience a mighty change of heart, lose all disposition to do evil, and thus be encircled about in the arms of safety because of His great and last sacrifice. (Alma 36:18; Alma 38:8; Moroni 10:32; Mosiah 5:2; Alma 34:15-16)
Day 1:_ 1 Nephi 14:1-2–“He shall manifest himself unto them…in power…unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks.” If we will turn to the Lamb of God and not harden our hearts against Him, He will manifest Himself unto us by using His infinite and yet gentle power to remove our stumbling blocks. Nothing has been more of a stumbling block to me over the years than my tendency to feel sorry for myself and think I have to take out my “weapons” (anger, sarcasm) to defend myself. I have witnessed God cleansing me of this tendency more in the last three years than I was ever able to accomplish on my own in the previous 25 years. Write a letter to your Heavenly Father or the Savior, expressing your desire to be healed by Him rather than by your own efforts.
Day 2:_ Mosiah 4:10-Sometimes we pray for forgiveness, but the sincerity isn’t totally there. Write about a prayer in your past that you realize now wasn’t totally sincere, even though you went through the motions of offering it to God.
Day 3:_ Mosiah 4:21-This verse tells us that God will grant unto us whatsoever we ask that is right. Is it right to ask God to change our hearts? Is it necessary? (See Mosiah 5:2 and Alma 5:7.)
Day 4:_ 3 Nephi 27:28-29-In whose name must we ask for this great change? Why?
Day 5:_ Alma 36:18–Who will cleanse us? Does it bother you to think of approaching Christ directly for this blessing of healing as Alma did? Write about your feelings as you ponder this need to literally “come unto Christ.”
Day 6:_ D&C 10:21-According to this verse, what often stops people from asking God for what they need? Knowing (or thinking) that our deeds are, or have been evil, stops us from approaching the Lord-yet who needs Him more? Write about how much you need Him today, and whether guilt is keeping you from reaching out to Him.
Day 7:_ Mosiah 7:33-Once we have asked to be healed (cleansed), whose timetable must we be willing to trust? What do you think the Lord’s “own good will and pleasure” is? (See Moses 1:39 for a clue.) Can you think of some reasons why His timetable is usually so slow and patient, while ours is so “quick fix” and impatient?
He Did Deliver Me from Bondage can be found at most LDS bookstores or purchased online at www.rosehavenpublishing.com