Hear Him Heal
Compassion
Tune in to the latest episode of "Hear Him Heal" where we delve into the profound messages from the recent General Conference. This week, we explore the historical and spiritual significance of the Kirtland Temple as shared by President Nelson. Discover the power and promise of temple worship through a detailed discussion of the dedicatory prayer received by Joseph Smith. Join Kerrie as she introduces a new spiritual practice of the week, and hear David share his transformative experience in the temple. Don’t miss this enriching episode filled with divine insights and uplifting stories. Listen now to deepen your faith and find ways to Hear Him and heal in your own life.
Vist us for more at www.HearHimHeal.com
Tune in to the latest episode of "Hear Him Heal" where we delve into the profound messages from the recent General Conference. This week, we explore the historical and spiritual significance of the Kirtland Temple as shared by President Nelson. Discover the power and promise of temple worship through a detailed discussion of the dedicatory prayer received by Joseph Smith. Join Kerrie as she introduces a new spiritual practice of the week, and hear David share his transformative experience in the temple. Don’t miss this enriching episode filled with divine insights and uplifting stories. Listen now to deepen your faith and find ways to Hear Him and heal in your own life.
Vist us for more at www.HearHimHeal.com
All who worship in the temple will have the power of God and with angels having charge over them.
Speaker 2:On the last episode of Hear Him Heal.
Speaker 3:We are not expected to be perfect. That's why we're on this journey, and I think a lot of people expect themselves to be perfect and then, when they fall, they try and hide it or they're shamed or they feel guilt.
Speaker 4:I'm happy to sing a song. We have that new song about Enos and I was all excited because I thought there'd never been a song about Enos before ever. I was so excited. I uploaded that on Saturday and I'm like no one's ever going to beat my Enos song. And then I went to Sunday school today and the teacher played a song about Enos, Enos.
Speaker 3:He wants you to be free of that feeling. Those feelings are of Satan and he and Satan wants to tie you into those because he knows that you are never going to move forward as long as you are in that shame spiral.
Speaker 4:First thing would be like the recognition that you sinned. So it's a process by which the wrongdoing If I did something wrong I could feel like remorse right. And make amends, and then I would confess to Heavenly Father.
Speaker 3:And to the people that you've afflicted. So true, repentance is a change of heart, but it does mean that you strive. It doesn't mean that you are perfect.
Speaker 6:Welcome to Hear Him. Heal with Kerry and David Mills-O'Neill.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Hear Him. Heal with Kerry and David Mills O'Neill. Welcome to Hear Him. Heal with Kerry and David, where today we're going to be listening to the prophet giving us a message about the purchase of the Kirtland Temple from the recent General Conference.
Speaker 1:Last month, we announced that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has purchased the Kirtland Temple.
Speaker 3:What else are we doing, David? We're going to go over the dedicatory prayer purchased the Kirtland Temple.
Speaker 4:What else are we doing, david? We're going to go over the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple itself that was received by the prophet of the restoration, none other than Joseph Smith. It's an amazing prayer and we're going to dive into it and pick it apart, one by one, and discuss it. That's coming, coming up.
Speaker 3:Also.
Speaker 4:We're going to go through the next attribute of jesus christ and carrie is going to unwrap something she's been working on for a long time.
Speaker 3:That's her new practice of the week and in this week's edition of what god taught me, david will be discussing his experience doing a proxy endowment session for my granddad.
Speaker 4:That's right. That's in what God Taught Me this week. It's a really big episode. It's episode four, and do you know how many downloads we had last week for episode three?
Speaker 3:No idea, tell me Over 300.
Speaker 6:Welcome to Hear Him. Heal with Carrie and David Mills O'Neill. In each episode, we delve into powerful stories of faith, resilience and miracles, sharing insights and experiences that uplift and inspire. Whether you're seeking comfort, strength or a deeper understanding of spiritual healing, you're in the right place.
Speaker 3:Join us as we explore the extraordinary ways in of faith. Whispers of grace in his words. Find your place.
Speaker 7:So our beloved prophet, president Nelson, gave a wonderful talk called Rejoice in the Gift of Priester Keyes during the Sunday afternoon session of this April's General Conference From the Conference Centre in Salt Lake City, utah. This is the Saturday morning session of the 194th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Speaker 3:I love when he said that when he was born there were just six functioning temples.
Speaker 1:When I was born, there were six functioning temples in the church.
Speaker 3:How many are there now?
Speaker 4:David. Well, right now there are 190 temples that have been dedicated. There's 183 in operation, with seven of those under renovation, 51 under construction and 109 temples announced, for a total of 350 temples.
Speaker 3:Wow, 350. So President Nelson is 99 years old, born in September, which is the best month of the year to be born. On the 9th of September Exactly, and now there are 350.
Speaker 4:That's incredible, isn't it?
Speaker 3:He's announced 48% of those 48%.
Speaker 4:Just President Nelson of those 48. Just president nelson, just president nelson. Yeah, he's been the prophet since uh what? 2018 january 14th of 2018, or as you would say, the 14th of january, for some backwards reason hey, don't diss the british 48 of these temples and almost each time in General Conference, he's announced at least 15 at one go.
Speaker 4:That's like every six months he's announcing another 15 temples. Wow, I mean 15 announced on Sunday, april 7th, and that marked the sixth time he announced more than 15 temples in one sitting, all since April of 2021 35 temples in one calendar year.
Speaker 3:The work of 2021 35 temples in one calendar year. The work of the lord is moving on. Huh, he wants us to go to the temple.
Speaker 4:Obviously the church believes that and they're building temples. I mean, there's some temples in utah that are one mile away from each other. When we go to phoenix later this year, um well, the arizona area there's going to be like the ability for us to go to three temples in one day yeah, that's how close they are. Five temples in arizona. Arizona is kind of a tiny state, it's not too big wow, they're beautiful as well and there's some without moroni on them, so that'll be weird not too moronized.
Speaker 3:There are never two Moronis right.
Speaker 4:No, For some reason. Last week you thought the San Diego Temple should have a second Moroni on the other spire, but there's only ever one Moroni.
Speaker 8:On the night, the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and told him about an ancient record now called the Book of Mormon. Moroni also quoted numerous scriptures from the Old and New Testaments, including selections from Malachi, isaiah and Acts. Interestingly, moroni also quoted from the Book of Joel and said that it was not yet fulfilled but soon would be.
Speaker 3:So in the prophet's talk he emphasizes some of the many blessings from temple attendants and he quotes Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 109 when he says a temple is a house of prayer a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order.
Speaker 1:A house of order, a house of God.
Speaker 3:He then goes on to say that this list of attributes is much more than a description of a temple. It's a promise about what will happen to those who serve and worship in the house of the Lord. So just some of the blessings and the promises that are available to us is that we can expect to receive answers to prayer, some personal revelation, achieve greater faith, strength, comfort, increased knowledge and increased power. So why aren't we going every single day?
Speaker 4:I wonder, if somebody does go every day, do you think there is Because, you know, at Disneyland, me and my brother in 1986, we went to Disneyland every day for like seven months straight.
Speaker 2:And there is one guy this just might be the happiest guy on Earth let's have some fun. Because for more than 2,000 consecutive days, he's visited the happiest place on Earth Disneyland. So how many days have you been here? Today's 2004. You're crazy. Jeff writes doesn't think he's crazy, but since January 1st 2012, the 44-year-old has been at Disneyland every single day.
Speaker 4:So there's got to be somebody that's gone to the temple every day. I mean, you can't say Moroni, because he's already there, but there could be somebody that goes every day. Any idea what the busiest temple is in the world? Salt Lake. I thought Salt Lake too, but it's actually the Jordan River Temple.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:Jordan River Temple. It's the busiest temple. It was announced in 1978, and just a year after oh God came, came out and it opened in 1981. So just four years before you were born and before the care birth started. So that is the busiest. That is the busiest temple in the world.
Speaker 3:So there you go wow, good fact of the day there. David david's very good at facts of the day, so president nelson also said to us that time in the temple will help you to think celestial.
Speaker 1:They can expect to receive answers to prayer, personal revelation, greater faith, strength, comfort, increased knowledge and increased power.
Speaker 3:And to catch a vision of who you really are, who you can become and the kind of life you can have forever. I think in this day and age, where there are so many distractions and a lot of things speaking louder than the, the spirit and the temple, I think it's so important for us to actually spend time there and to know that who we can become and what kind of life we can have, because we're easily kind of swayed from what the world thinks of us. What the world thinks we can become, but it's very different to what God thinks we can become, isn't it?
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, he's got, you know, he's got an eternal perspective. Number one he's not so fixated on the day-to-day things like you know, we're so concerned about being hungry or tired or how we feel, and he's not really concerned about that.
Speaker 4:He's more like, well, this is what I'm going to call you to do, and I feel like I'm more like oh, but my back hurts today, or this hurts today, or that hurts today, like yesterday I was expecting to watch two people talk and then, after the second speaker, the bishop gets up there and he's like, oh thanks, you know we're gonna sing a song, but brother O'Neill's gonna come up and tell us about his patriarchal blessing. I'm like, where did that come from? Nobody told me that and I, you know, immediately had to get up and and bear my testimony about my patriarchal blessing, which wasn't a burden, burden but if I would have listened to myself, I was like I just want to sit here and like kind of veg out and, like you know, relax after the sacrament. And then all of a sudden I was called to witness the spirit about the patriarchal blessing and it was, you know, two or three minutes. But it's one of those things where, like somebody wanted me to talk about that experience, to help other people maybe to either go read their patriarchal blessing or maybe, if they hadn't got one, to get it, and so that calling to serve even for just two or three minutes it completely made me forget that my back kind of hurt, that I was worried about you and some things that was going on with you, and it just took me out of the world and it put me into that spiritual place where the Spirit could witness through me about the power of the patriarchal blessing.
Speaker 4:And then afterwards several people said I'm going to go back and read Minor. That was really good. I got inspired to seek Minor. I'm going to ask my son to get his. He hasn't had it yet. Like that was cool. Like I was just sitting there kind of mumbling and murmuring in my mind and all of a sudden that call to service just happened. So I think that's kind of how God sees it, where it's like we might see ourselves one way kind of. At least, I see myself as limited sometimes, but then when I'm called to do something even small like that, it just feels really great to serve, because at some point my complaints and my murmuring disappears and I'm actually having the Spirit speak through me, which I think is really cool.
Speaker 3:I love that. Thanks for sharing. I think sometimes you can go to church just wanting to have that spiritual feeding for yourself and then often in those times, you actually end up helping somebody else, don't you? I think that's really cool. In those times, you actually end up helping somebody else, don't you? I think that's really cool, and that's what that's our responsibility of being active members to be able to, you know, stay clean enough to receive that revelation and that that's holy spirit telling us these little things that we need to do. It's quite easily when we're, when we're overwhelmed, we can often want to stay away from church or just go and sit in the background, but actually actively participating and accepting challenges and callings will lead to a much greater sort of depth of faith for you and blessings for other people as well, from what you've got to say or do.
Speaker 4:Thank you the other day somebody came up to me and said, hey, I understand that you're, you know that, you know, you know about God, you know, you know about God. I said, well, you know, I try. And the guy just wanted to like talk about some issues. And then I said, you know, I kind of felt weird because he was kind of a burly looking kind of big guy and I was just like, well, do you mind if we bow our heads and pray? And he just looked at me and was like, yeah, I want to do that. And so like that was really cool, cause at first he was just kind of talking and complaining. And then I just asked him like you know, do you want to pray?
Speaker 4:And like that didn't feel natural, considering like this gentleman had a lot of tattoos on his face, he looked pretty rough and like probably, you know, most people might shy away from him, but I was like you know, he's a, he's a son of God and I'm just going to pray with him and just ask him and that's exactly what he wanted. So sometimes I think, you know, putting aside my views of how someone's going to look at me or take me, or even my judgments of other people. If I just ask them if they want to engage in prayer, that really helps. So that's my invitation this week is just to see if you see somebody you know. Maybe you don't know a lot about them or maybe they wouldn't be normally someone you'd approach, but if you see someone struggling, maybe just go pray with them what do you think of this?
Speaker 3:so there's another blessing that president nelson said, so all who worship in the temple will have the power of god and angels having charge over them. How does that make you feel?
Speaker 4:like. I like when they say things like angels will minister to you, like that just sounds so cool.
Speaker 4:There's so many times where, like, I'll say a prayer, like I said one this morning about something that needs to be picked up from me in a different country, right, and I sent out two messages about it last week and then I prayed about it this morning and I just kind of said, you know, I'm not going to worry about it anymore, I've given it to God. And then, right before we started this show, both people that I reached out to both got back to me, one at like 940 in the morning, the next one at like 10, so like within 20 minutes, both people I was hadn't heard from for three days got back to me and offered to solve my problem. Like that's pretty cool. Do you know what I mean? That's to me, like an angel taking that over and going like, okay, you go.
Speaker 4:Do you know your podcast? You go, be of service to your fiance and go and work on this. We've got you over here and we're just gonna do it. So that, to me, is like the angels just really taking care of it because I had the faith. Do you know what I mean? That's the way I it. It might be not correct, but that's how I experience it.
Speaker 3:Well, first you put full faith and then you kind of actioned it. You just literally said Heavenly Father, it's in your hands, I can do no more. I think it's recognizing that we are powerless and that he can move mountains and he can make things happen, and just humbling ourselves instead of just trying to fight everything, trying to make everything fit and getting stressed out and letting Satan in so you can get angry and frustrated. You gave it to him and then he was able, through your faith, to bless you in that way and to prompt others to heed the need that you had at that point.
Speaker 1:How much does it increase your confidence to know that, as an endowed woman or man armed with the power of God, you do not have to face life alone?
Speaker 4:The United States right now is the number one place for temples. Do you have any guess where the second area of the world is the largest area for temple?
Speaker 3:building. I want to say either South America or the Philippines.
Speaker 4:Yeah, actually you're right. So South America is number two and the Philippines is number three, like Asia is number three. And then the fourth is strange it's North America, which is basically Canada and parts of Mexico, and then you got Africa, oceania and then only nine in Europe the president Nelson is literally.
Speaker 3:He's literally just enabling those people to have more access so they don't have to sell their houses and their belongings to go travel to the temple. It's wonderful.
Speaker 1:The Kirtland Temple has unusual significance in the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Several events that took place there had been prophesied for millennia and were essential for the Lord's restored church to fulfill its latter-day mission.
Speaker 4:Well, the prophet spoke about the Kirtland Temple in his address to us in the last general conference, which I still don't understand. Maybe somebody out there knows why is the April conference the annual conference and why is the October conference the semi-annual? Because the announcer says annual sometimes and sometimes he says semi-annual from the conference center in Salt Lake City, utah.
Speaker 7:This is the Saturday morning session of the 194th annual general conference.
Speaker 3:I guess it started in April. So April is like the start of the year, which is annually, and I think they included a biannual one later on. I think it was just once a year at first, and then we came twice a year.
Speaker 4:President Nelson did talk about the Kirtland Temple because obviously the church just bought it and it's significant because it's the very first temple. He said how the temple basically stands as a sacred symbol of devotion and spiritual renewal. He spoke about all the sacrifices made by the early saints to construct the temple and not only that but all the blessings, and back then they called these blessings endowments, which is different from the endowment ceremony. The endowment ceremony is to prepare you to get the Lord's blessings by making covenants. But they considered their endowment some of the things that happened at the temple the appearance of Moses, jesus Christ coming.
Speaker 1:The most important of these events occurred on Easter Sunday, april 3rd, 1836. On that day, joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery experienced a series of remarkable visitations. First, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared. The prophet recorded that the Savior's eyes were as the flame of fire, the hair of his head was white like the pure snow, his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters. During this visitation, the Lord affirmed His identity. He said I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain, I am your advocate with the Father. Close quote. Jesus Christ then declared that he had accepted the temple as his house and made this stunning promise I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house.
Speaker 3:So the prophet asked us to study the dedicatory Dedicatory. How do you say that Dedicatory, dedicatory, dedicatory, that dedicatory, dedicatory, dedicatory, dedicatory how do you say that dedicatory? I would say dedicatory. You would say dedicatory wow, okay dedicatory another cultural difference dedicatory.
Speaker 3:Okay, he asked us to study the dedicatory prayer of the kirtland temple. This is found in doctrine and covenants 109 and it says the kirtland temple is a tutorial about how the temple spiritually empowers you and me to meet the challenges of life. In these last days I loved studying this with you, going through the dedicatory prayer. There's a lot in there, isn't there? I mean, how many verses is it? Like 80 something?
Speaker 4:It's 80 verses. Yeah, for the dedicatory prayer. The prayer was actually received by revelation, Like it wasn't just Joseph Smith going up there and saying some really amazing words. The prayer was actually received by revelation. And you know that the term for the name of the temple was actually called the House of the Lord Because they didn't use the word temple back then. So they wouldn't say let's go to the temple, they'd say let's go to the House of the temple was actually called the House of the Lord because they didn't use the word temple back then. So they wouldn't say let's go to the temple, they'd say let's go to the House of the Lord.
Speaker 4:First one had three floors the House of Prayer on the first floor, the House of Learning on the second floor and then the third floor which didn't have a name. The revelation happened on March 27th 1836, and the prayer was specifically given for the dedication of the temple. It was given at a time of great financial difficulty and sacrifice and the prayer asks for sanctification of the temple and for it to be accepted by God. The prayer includes the blessings for the temple, the church and all nations of the earth, and it seeks to have divine presence to dwell in the temple to make it holy, and he called for unity and faith, emphasizing unity among the church members and faithfulness to the gospel, and he asked for protection of evil from evil, from the powers of darkness, and he also asked that the prayer extend out for the spread of the gospel around the world.
Speaker 3:Wow. So let's kind of delve into it a little bit more and pick out ones that we particularly found interesting to us. So I really liked verse 7. Well, 7, 8 and 9. And in 7 it says and as all have not faith, seek ye diligently to teach one another words of wisdom.
Speaker 9:Yea, seek ye out of the best books, words of wisdom, seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
Speaker 3:So he's asking us there to just always study, always learn, always progress. He does not want us to be stagnant, does he? He wants us to continue going forward.
Speaker 4:It's basically to say, you know, to actively pursue wisdom and knowledge recognizes that everyone might not have the same level of faith, but it's important that we have a community support in teaching and learning absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I think it's like accepting people where they are and loving them where they are, but kind of gently, lovingly showing them where they can be as well, isn't it? Verse 8 says organise yourselves, prepare every needful thing and establish a house.
Speaker 9:Even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order. A house of God, house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order a house of God.
Speaker 3:This is literally the crux of everything. This is what he wants us to do to point our tents towards the temple, to aspire to a higher law, to put on our armour of God. This is what he's asking us throughout all of the scriptures is to do this, to just prepare yourself, to work on your own faith. It's not your responsibility to improve my faith, it's mine, isn't it? And the only person that can do that is us. And the closer we stick to Heavenly Father through prayer, through the atonement, through constant learning, reading the scriptures, the better we will be at propelling ourselves forwards.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean it suggests that the temple is not just a place of worship but also a community hub of celebration and divine presence. I mean, that's what I feel when I go to the temple. It's like a. You know, I like to prepare myself, I like to pray beforehand, I like to repent before I walk in, make sure I'm as clean as possible, and it's just. It is the house of the Lord. Like you're entering God's presence. You know it's been dedicated. His spirit is there even stronger than other places. I mean, I remember when I was little they used to be like God's in everything I'm like. Is he in the shower? Yes, he's in this flower. Yes, is he in my hamburger? Yes, god's everywhere.
Speaker 4:But like I really do feel, no, they used to tell me that I'm like is he in my hand? They're like God's in your hand. I'm like whoa, okay, god is everywhere. That your verse 9, that your incomings may be in the name of the Lord and your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord.
Speaker 3:That all your salutations may be in the Basically, we are just dust and we need to humble ourselves and recognise that we are but dust, for dust thou art and dust thou shalt return, just recognising that he gives us everything. So why are we withholding tithing from him? He gives us our talents. Why are we not using them for to help bring people to god? And our gifts and our um, our intelligence, you know, like he's given us these things, let's use it for him. So there is a section from verse 24 to 30 and you know it's about the people that persecute us and and bully us and put us down for our faith. You know, there's a lot of people that don't understand the decisions we make, the choices we make, the way that we are, and here in these verses it kind of gives us that courage to carry on.
Speaker 4:We ask the Holy Father to establish the people that shall worship and honorably hold a name and standing in this thy house to all generations, for all eternity, that no weapon formed against them shall prosper. That he who diggeth a pit for them shall fall into the same himself.
Speaker 3:That no combination of wickedness shall have power to rise up and prevail over thy people, upon whom thy name shall be put in this house. And if any people shall rise against this people, that thine anger be kindled against them.
Speaker 4:And if they shall smite this people, thou will smite them. Thou will fight for thy people, as thou didst in the day of battle, and they will be delivered from the hands of their enemy. We ask this Holy Father to confound and astonish, and to bring shame and confusion all those who have spread lying reports abroad over the world against thy servant or servants.
Speaker 3:If they will not repent when the everlasting gospel shall be brought to naught and be swept away by the hail and by the judgments which thou wilt send upon them in thine anger. That there may be an end to the lyings and slanders against thy people.
Speaker 4:To the lyings and slanders against thy people. I love when they say whoever dig at the pit will fall into the same pit yourself. And it's so true. When I choose to not like someone, I have to wake up, be my happy self. Then I have to see the person, then I have to go oh yeah, I don't like that person. Then I have to kind of change my insides to feel bad and then really, the pit I'm trying to dig for that person. I've just dug myself into it and thrown myself in because now I've got a dislike or even hate that person which completely takes me away from God. So I can see in myself, like digging a pit for somebody, I fall into that same pit myself.
Speaker 3:It takes a lot more energy to be angry with someone, doesn't it, than to love someone you know. So I'm sure many of you listening have been persecuted for your faith. Maybe you're a convert and the only member in your family. Like me, it's hard when your family members do not understand your celestial thinking, your choices, and constantly think you're making wrong choices. Or maybe you were the Alma, the Younger, or the son of Mosiah, who had a bit of a past and made some mistakes, and when you had a mighty change of heart, you were persecuted because of your past.
Speaker 3:Some people do not believe people can change. Others are scared of change, but we know that change is possible because of Jesus Christ and his atonement and through attending the temple and keeping the covenants we make there. We are promised that we are not alone, that goodness will prevail, that we can have an eternal view and will be blessed for our trials and our persecutions, and they also can repent. You know the people that are against us, the persecutors, the people that want to hurt us. They too are children of God and they can change their ways. They can repent. And we it's our responsibility as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to look at them as if they are children of God and to love them even though they hurt us choice to use their agency.
Speaker 4:No matter how how wicked they've been, no matter how many things they've brought against someone or how many lives they've spread or how many times they've hurt somebody, they always have the ability to repent, which is, I think, sometimes too.
Speaker 4:When I think like, oh, this is too far gone, I'm not, you know, I've done something really bad or I've done this.
Speaker 4:Sometimes satan will coax me into thinking like, yeah, you've done too much, you might as well just keep going, you might as well just leave it no one's going to ever trust you again anyway when the real answer is to repent right. Then, as soon as I know that, okay, I just said the wrong thing, I just did the wrong thing, I just had the wrong feelings, I just thought the wrong thing, instead of keeping going down the path, I can just repent right there and I know that jesus will forgive me right away. And then I'll just beat myself up and not forgive myself for days. And then you'll be like, why are you still doing that? Aren't you forgiven? Yeah, well, why don't you forgive yourself now? I don't know. And then you're like, well, do it now, and then I'll feel better, because you'll have to kind of remind me do it now, and then I'll feel better, because you'll have to kind of remind me, especially, especially, about your toothbrush.
Speaker 3:Um, there's a quote from Jeffrey R Holland here about that. It says however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel like you have made, or talents you think you don't have, or however far from home, I love him. That's really good. No, he's good.
Speaker 4:Well, I've got one from the prophet too. He says true, repentance is not an event, it's a never-ending privilege and it's fundamental for our progression and having peace of mind, comfort and joy.
Speaker 3:Beautiful.
Speaker 4:And then I've got one other one from a book and I've got one other one from a book. It says God would not have commanded us to forgive 70 times seven if he were not prepared to extend the same mathematical generosity. Talking about that's a chapter in Matthew, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I remember that I've probably read Matthew more than any chapter in my entire life, although I'm having a feeling we're probably going to read Mosiah more than that when we're married.
Speaker 3:Mosiah. We always read Luke around Christmas time as well, so Luke's one that I particularly read every year. And 3rd Nephi. We're going to read a lot. Basically, we're going to read all of it.
Speaker 4:The atonement of Jesus Christ does not provide a way to clean up messes. It provides the purpose and desire to avoid making more messes. The atonement doesn't allow us to ignore our appetites and pretend they don't matter, but to educate and elevate them, which I thought was pretty good.
Speaker 3:I love that. That's a really nice perspective, isn't it? Okay? So my practice of the week this week? So I was a bit sick the other day, wasn't I Remember? I was feeling a bit sick and I had to lie down for a while and while I was lying there I was thinking of all the things I had to do the washing, the food shopping, the sorting out the garden, the dealing with a request from a patient, etc. There were loads of things going on in my mind and I felt guilt for doing nothing. I felt guilty for just lying there because I had all these things to do Even though I was feeling sick, and I started to tell myself that I'm useless, rubbish and worthless and lazy, and that led me to be feeling quite sad. So I ended up doing some editing work for some clinical photos for a dental patient that I've just done a smile makeover on, and I wasn't rested and I hadn't kind of recovered and I ended up going to bed early and then that reduced the quality time with you, um, and when I was praying that night, I just realized that I didn't have compassion for myself. I was thinking that I had to be all of these things and I didn't just let myself rest and recover when I wasn't feeling very well, and this is kind of against what the Saviour wants for us.
Speaker 3:He showed in his examples throughout the scriptures that compassion for other people is quite evident in his life and what he's done. But he also showed compassion for himself, and rest is a massive part of that. Like he rested himself before he he did anything. So he rested before he went to the garden of Gethsemane. He rested and prayed for for 40 days. He spent a lot of time resting in between things. He often said to his disciples, resting in between things. He often said to his disciples I'm just going over here for a while, like, wait with me, but leave me to just have some time. Um, before he did a long kind of walk to a different place, like he would rest before. So he understood that he had to give himself rest as well.
Speaker 3:Um, we need to do that and it's so, so hard for us to do, as I don't know about your culture, but British people we are quite like hard on ourselves. We don't go to the doctors, we don't kind of, um, look after ourselves, we will just burn ourselves out. Do everything for everyone else, take on more, never say no, like stiff upper lip, and we'll just be like exhausted and burnt out and then we'll have to take rest because we're not looking after ourself. So this week I want to have some compassion on myself. So I'm gonna take rests and I'm going to be kind to myself, especially in the way that I'm talking to myself.
Speaker 3:In my mind, I would never talk to any of my friends like that. I would never talk to my worst enemies like that. Why am I talking to myself like this, you know? So compassion is something that I'm going to work on. I'm going to start being kind to myself and my thoughts and my deeds and give myself what I need so that I can be prepared to help other people, as Heavenly Father wants me to.
Speaker 4:That's amazing. There's something that's said in the scriptures that compassion literally means to suffer with. It also means to show sympathy, pity or mercy for one another or one's selves. I think you talked about this the other day. There's a scripture that says a certain Samaritan had compassion on him, from Luke 10.33. Christ is filled with compassion towards the children of men, mosiah 15.9. And Joseph Smith prayed for the Lord's compassion in Doctrine and Covenants 121, 3 through 5. So compassion is a big part of the scriptures. And then Jeffrey R Holland said may we live by faith, hold fast to hope and show compassion to ourselves and one another. So it is a commandment in a way really to do that and it's definitely a good practice of the week.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It's also our Jesus attribute of the week too.
Speaker 4:Second attribute of Jesus Christ right.
Speaker 3:It is indeed compassion. He showed compassion to everyone. Can you think of any examples in the scriptures where he showed compassion?
Speaker 4:uh, matthew 936, uh, because. But when he saw the multitudes he was moved, the compassion on them, because they fainted and they were scattered about as sheep having no shepherd. This was all about Jesus showing empathy towards the crowds that have followed him and he was really moved by their lost and weary state and he just really kind of displayed his compassion for humanity that way.
Speaker 3:With the Good Samaritan. Jesus in this parable is helping us to understand that we can be kind and compassionate to others as well, even if they're different. Um. So in Luke we find that um, jesus is replying to to him on when he's sort of like asking about the law and how does he inherit eternal life. And Jesus is saying to him the parable of the good Samaritan when he says um, a man was going down from Jerusalem, jericho, when he was attacked by robbers.
Speaker 3:They striped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest passed him and walked on the other side and then the Levite passed him, um, and again just walked by. But the Samaritan and the Samaritans weren't good with the Jews, they didn't like each other, they just absolutely were rivals. But as he saw the man, he took pity on him and he bandaged his wounds and poured oil and wine, and then he put the man on his donkey, brought him to an inn and paid the innkeeper to look after him. And he's teaching us here that, you know, we don't have to be the same as some people, we don't have to like them, but he's asking us to have compassion on them because it's the second great commandment, right what?
Speaker 4:the what are the first two great commandments? Well, the first one is to love god and the second one is to love thy neighbor.
Speaker 3:Exactly how many times have we heard this over the last two weeks?
Speaker 4:I don't know like. I heard it yesterday in my church and then you heard it in your um your services too, in your ward.
Speaker 3:I heard it four times yesterday four times okay and then the week before we had state conference and it was all about love, and then I heard it like three times then. So it's been like constantly first and second great commandments.
Speaker 4:So they're obviously really important and compassion is a massive part of that right well, there's just repetition sometimes in the scriptures, like sometimes even like within the same chapter of a book, in scriptures, like they will tell you like the same thing 16 times and you're like, why are they saying it again and again? It's like, well, they really want you to know that exactly, he's really, he's really wants you to get this, this thing.
Speaker 4:So sometimes it just, or maybe like even the spirit kind of witnesses us that I really want you to pay attention to this, like maybe it comes up more than often than we know, but for whatever reason, the spirit wants to witness this to us right now. Maybe it's something that we need to have for ourselves or to help someone, um, or both what do you think about this?
Speaker 3:our ability to follow jesus christ depends on our ability to keep the first two great commandments yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4:If you don't love god, then, and you don't love others, how are you going to take his name on? How are you gonna, you know, put your garments on and take his name on if you don't love him or people around you and you can't just love him and not love the others, and you can't love the others. You know, like we talked about last week, we would just be obsessed with them acting a certain way and we wouldn't give them any grace because we don't know what it's like to follow God. Because, just because we love God, he doesn't give us what we want. He gives us what we need. And there's a difference because, like your lover or your you know friend or people that you're around, you usually want them to give you what you want and when they don't, you're not happy with them usually.
Speaker 4:But Jesus doesn't always give us what we want, but he does give us what we need and sometimes what we need, like in my case, was to go to prison and become humbled and have everything taken away. Where I'm just excited to on the phone, like I found the toilet roll and I ate some bread out of the trash and I was happy to eat. I was really happy to find that bread, and so I didn't. You know, I wouldn't want that for anybody or myself, but it's what I needed in order to come unto him. So I think it's so important to have those first two commandments and to realize that love is sometimes getting what you need and not what you want, because sometimes what you want is from the God of this world, which is the adversary.
Speaker 3:I also really love the story of the woman that was brought in adultery. I also really love the story of the woman that was brought in adultery. You know, she was brought, she was about to get stoned by all the Jews that were around her and they brought her to Jesus Christ. And he looked at her and kind of knelt down and was kind of playing with the sand a little bit, wondering what to say to these people who were really trying to test him, really trying to make him make a mistake at this point. And he looked at her and had compassion on her, um, and he didn't. He didn't just forgive her, didn't just tell her that all was well, but he, he understood her, he understood her past and her life and her, the whole of her, her whole heart, her whole reasons, her whole everything. And he had compassion on her and there he said to the people you know, those without sin cast the first stone, um, and then he asked her to go and sin no more. He feels everything that we've been through.
Speaker 3:I know we talked about this in a previous episode, but we don't just instantly sin. We're not born to be dangerous or horrible people. We have had influences and things happen in our past that have kind of influenced us that way to make bad decisions and ultimately that leads to sin. So if somebody can love us and have compassion on us and understand us in that aspect, that love can really change a person's heart and really change the whole projected future that they could have. It can literally change a life just by having compassion and love for that one person. I think that's why you and I want to do a lot of charity work. We want to help these people that have that, don't have that outlook in life and that haven't had the opportunity to have those people around them that love them and support them. So we want to be that for them, don't we? So that we can help shape their futures.
Speaker 4:I always wondered, like when Jesus told her to go away and sin no more, like, what did she do after that? And so the Joseph Smith translation actually makes it clear that the woman did follow the Savior's counsel and she reformed her life. In the Joseph Smith translation in John 8, 11, it says and the woman glorified God from that hour and believed on his name. And so we find out that actually she did go out and took the Savior's advice and, like how cool would it be to be this you know person that's sinning, and the Savior himself comes down and tells you don't do it anymore. And you're like, okay, I won't. And she actually, you know, cleaned up her life that's my practice is compassion, having compassion on myself.
Speaker 3:so I'm going to talk positively in my mind, I'm going to remember to say my gratitudes each day, and I'm actually going to do something that I used to do a long time ago, but I've kind of stopped doing, and I advise everybody that comes into contact with me to do this, and I don't do it myself. So I invite and I started inviting you as well, didn't I? So I am going to look in the mirror and say three positive things about myself each day. That's really hard to do sometimes, and it can be physical things, it can be personality traits or behaviors or emotional states. It can be anything but three positive things to give myself love and compassion each day perfect.
Speaker 4:I love it. And I like when you gave me a little printout one time of your face, asking me what the three things I liked about myself was. And I remember one time I was really sad and you're like, what are the three things you like? I'm like nothing, I don't like anything. And you're like what are the three things you like? And I'm like okay, and then, like, you got me out of my sadness, it does, it does work pretty well. All right, it's now it's time for me to talk about what God taught me this week. So this week I went into the temple for my second endowment session, but it was the first. One was for me, and this time it was for your grandfather, who unfortunately was murdered a few years ago. What happened?
Speaker 3:on the 11th of may 2002. Um, my granddad lived in a block of flats and there's a guy that lived in the flats as well and he was always known to go out late at night and leave his keys. Um, this guy unfortunately used to take a lot of drugs and he'd get high and and had a lot of alcohol and things and he would come back and ring on the the buzzer. There was like a buzzer for each of the flats and he would ring on every single one until somebody came and let him in. Now this has happened a few times and, um, my granddad this night went down to let him in and unfortunately the guy killed him by asphyxiation, so strangled him, and that was 22 years ago and we're just kind of doing his work now years ago and we're just kind of doing his work now now, unfortunately.
Speaker 3:So this is where you know like you make a mistake and you hope that somebody learns from it, but unfortunately, the end of the story goes that that man that did that to him actually died in prison by an overdose, which is a really sad story because when one of my uncles phoned me to tell me that, like, I was really sad because I hoped that my granddad's death might have led to some sort of like repentance, some sort of change of life and positivity, like we were just talking about with the woman in adultery.
Speaker 3:I really, really hoped that, something like that, like he hadn't died in vain. And that was really hard for me to get over the fact that he didn't change his life and he still made those choices and ultimately that led to his death. Um, but luckily for me and you know, every single member of our church we know that death is not the end and that we will be together with our family again through the veil. And I know that my granddad is on the other side of the veil and he is working hard and he is teaching and he is a powerful leader and a wonderful, wonderful man.
Speaker 4:That's really good. It was really a nice honor to be able to do his work for him and to be able to, you know, take him through the endowment session. And I think what God had taught me on this trip through was more about covenants and about keeping covenants, because I really learned that I kind of imagined each of my covenants, each of the five covenants that I make in the temple, being like a green circle and like as long as I'm within the green circle, keeping each of those covenants, you know, then I've got the armor of God, I've got protection, I've got the potential for blessings, right. But on the outside of that circle is the God of this world adversary. And I thought for a minute, like, well, if I step out of the circle and I just go a little bit on the outside of the circle, like I just sin a little bit, like I'm still keeping my covenant mostly, but I don't have to worry too much. But literally it was impressed upon me that as soon as I step out of that circle I am in the power of the adversary, like immediately, like if I'm inside the circle, all good, I'm keeping covenants, because a covenant is a two-way promise between God and us right, and so as long as I keep my promise, he keeps his promise.
Speaker 4:But the flip side of that is, if I don't keep the promise, god is bound by his covenant to me to give me not a blessing but a punishment. Because it's just like if you tell the kids, hey, if you eat that cookie before dinner, I'm not going to give you an extra one or whatever the punishment is going to be, and if you don't follow through on it, they won't believe you next time. So your covenant with the children is to actually keep the punishment that you say. Even though you might not want to give it to them, you've already covenant with them. If you want to teach them, and if God wants to teach us, he has to give us the punishment. So as soon as I get outside of that green circle, I am in the God of this world, I'm in the adversary's world and I'm in his control, because that's exactly where he wants me to be outside of that green circle, if I'm in there he can't hurt me.
Speaker 4:But as soon as I step out, even if I'm like, oh, it's just a little bit, I'm just going to have a couple of red vines, I'm just going to have a couple of these little sweet tardy things that I've already broken my covenant that I just made to everybody on the show that I wouldn't have any more of those, and so we're going to have to look at my DoorDash history and make sure that I don't do it. But that's literally what God taught me this week.
Speaker 3:Do you know, like with that? There was in the Relief Society lesson this week. There was a really good kind of visual that went along with that. So the teacher had a walking stick and she put it down on the floor and she asked somebody to come and pick it up. So someone came and picked it up and she said can you read what it says on that side? And the word was choices. And then can you read what it says on the other side and that is consequences. And she said you can't make choices without having consequences. You just picked up a choice, but you can't have that without the consequence that goes with it. Now, whether that is a good consequence or a bad consequence depends on your choice. So you stepping out of that circle, there's going to be negative consequences, isn't there of satan getting you in some kind of way?
Speaker 4:but you choosing to stay in the circle, then cleaving onto that iron rod, you're going to have positive consequences it's such an armor like that armor is so important because this is the world of satan, this is the great, abominable church, and if we're not inside the circle we are not safe. And it's literally black and white like that, like that's, I think, something that's both scary and also reassuring at the same time, because you can be sure that satan is always there, always waiting. He's always there, always waiting, he's always there.
Speaker 3:He promised that to us, didn't he?
Speaker 4:He did. He said he'll always be there if you break one of your covenants and not keep it to the exact letter. And that's literally what it is. Well, that's it for this week's edition of.
Speaker 3:Hear Him Heal.
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