"Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys"

Last updated on April 28th, 2024 at 06:59 am

General Conference Applied

S3 E1 – Sunday, April 21, 2024 | “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys” by President Russell M. Nelson; April 2024 General Conference

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Podcast Episode Outline

Introduction

Doctrine: Priesthood and Priesthood Keys: “Priesthood keys are given to men to direct God’s kingdom on earth. Through these keys, priesthood holders can be authorized to preach the gospel, administer the ordinances of salvation, and govern the kingdom of God on the earth. All who serve in the Church are called under the direction of one who holds priesthood keys. Thus, they are entitled to the power needed to serve and fulfill the responsibilities of their calling.”

Principle: Priesthood Organization: “There is a difference between being ordained to an office in the priesthood and receiving keys of the priesthood. President Joseph F. Smith taught:

“‘The Priesthood in general is the authority given to man to act for God. Every man ordained to any degree of the Priesthood has this authority delegated to him.

“‘But it is necessary that every act performed under this authority shall be done at the proper time and place, in the proper way, and after the proper order. The power of directing these labors constitutes the keys of the Priesthood. In their fulness, the keys are held by only one person at a time, the prophet and president of the Church. He may delegate any portion of this power to another, in which case that person holds the keys of that particular labor. Thus, the president of a temple, the president of a stake, the bishop of a ward, the president of a mission, the president of a quorum, each holds the keys of the labors performed in that particular body or locality. His Priesthood is not increased by this special appointment; … the president of an elders’ quorum, for example, has no more Priesthood than any member of that quorum. But he holds the power of directing the official labors performed in the … quorum, or in other words, the keys of that division of that work’ (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 141; italics in original).”

Christlike Attribute: Knowledge: “Study the scriptures every day, as well as the words of the living prophets. Through study and prayer, seek help for specific questions, challenges, and opportunities. Look for scripture passages you can use in teaching and in answering questions about the gospel.

“As you study diligently and prayerfully, the Holy Ghost will enlighten your mind. He will teach you and give you understanding. He will help you apply the teachings of the scriptures and latter-day prophets in your life.”

What is the speaker inviting me to do, and how might I consider taking action?

Invitations

1: “I hope you will repeatedly study the messages of this conference throughout the coming months.”

“Repeatedly” means “over and over again; constantly.” Just as prophets have invited us to study The Book of Mormon every day, President Nelson is inviting us to study the most recent General Conference every day.
“Call to the Holy Apostleship“, April 1984 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson: “I have learned not to put question marks but to use exclamation points when calls are issued through inspired channels of priesthood government.”
Mosiah 2:9 – “I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view.”
Create a schedule to study one General Conference address each day. Then, once you’ve studied the 32 addresses, start over and study them again.
“Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear: “Countless people have tracked their habits, but perhaps the most famous was Benjamin Franklin. Beginning at age twenty, Franklin carried a small booklet everywhere he went and used it to track thirteen personal virtues. This list included goals like ‘Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful’ and ‘Avoid trifling conversation.’ At the end of each day, Franklin would open his booklet and record his progress.

“Jerry Seinfeld reportedly uses a habit tracker to stick with his streak of writing jokes. In the documentary Comedian, he explains that his goal is simply to ‘never break the chain’ of writing jokes every day. In other words, he is not focused on how good or bad a particular joke is or how inspired he feels. He is simply focused on showing up and adding to his streak.

“‘Don’t break the chain’ is a powerful mantra. Don’t break the chain of sales calls and you’ll build a successful book of business. Don’t break the chain of workouts and you’ll get fit faster than you’d expect. Don’t break the chain of creating every day and you will end up with an impressive portfolio. Habit tracking is powerful because it leverages multiple Laws of Behavior Change. It simultaneously makes a behavior obvious, attractive, and satisfying.”
How can we engage our children in a study of the General Conference addresses? Perhaps we could listen to / watch a talk each day or each week and find interesting ways to interact – for example, listening for a particular word (such as “consider” or “encourage” or “invite”).

2: “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.’ This significant promise applies to every dedicated temple today. I invite you to ponder what the Lord’s promise means for you personally.”

“Manifest” means “display or show (a quality or feeling) by one’s acts or appearance; demonstrate.”
Why did the Savior manifest Himself to Nephi in 3 Nephi chapter 1? Because despite all obstacles, Nephi demonstrated that he would choose the Savior. What does this look like in our lives?
Doctrine and Covenants 93:1 – “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.”
“Temples and Work Therein“, October 1990 General Conference, Elder David B. Haight: “It is true that some have actually seen the Savior, but when one consults the dictionary, he learns that there are many other meanings of the word see, such as coming to know Him, discerning Him, recognizing Him and His work, perceiving His importance, or coming to understand Him. Such heavenly enlightenment and blessings are available to each of us.”
How do you “ponder”? Is this something you do when you’re alone with a journal? Or do you contemplate something, and then talk about it with a friend, a family member, a significant other, etc.? Is it possible that Jesus Christ manifests Himself to you differently than He manifests Himself to those you know?

3: “Consider how your life would be different if priesthood keys had not been restored to the earth.”

“Without priesthood keys, you could not be endowed with the power of God. Without priesthood keys, the Church could serve only as a significant teaching and humanitarian organization but not much more. Without priesthood keys, none of us would have access to essential ordinances and covenants that bind us to our loved ones eternally and allow us eventually to live with God.

“Priesthood keys distinguish The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from any other organization on earth. Many other organizations can and do make your life better here in mortality. But no other organization can and will influence your life after death.

“Priesthood keys give us the authority to extend all of the blessings promised to Abraham to every covenant-keeping man and woman. Temple work makes these exquisite blessings available to all of God’s children, regardless of where or when they lived or now live. Let us rejoice that priesthood keys are once again on the earth!”
LeBron James remembers with great satisfaction what it was like to have his own key to the apartment that his mom was finally able to afford.
followHim Podcast – Enos-Words of Mormon – Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat: “The way to make faith unshaken is to focus like a laser on the Holy Spirit testifying to you that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith saw God. The way to have your faith shaken is to allow details of how God unfolds his plan to become more important than God’s plan. People get shaken because I don’t know, I was doing my family history and I saw that my great-great-grandmother, she was married to three different men in her life, when we went to the temple I mean we sealed her to all three of those men, but I mean of course she can’t be married to all three of them in the next life, so which one do you think she’s actually married to? It just seems weird that we don’t really know, but I found her journal and it says that she really loved her second husband more. I think that’s the one.

“We whip ourselves into a frenzy desperately trying to figure out exactly how God is going to make everything right to the point where say on the question of sealings or marriages, people might even lose their testimonies because they can’t figure out how sealings work. And the great tragedy of that is the only reason why you even have a question about who’s married to who in the next life is because Joseph Smith is a prophet. The moment Joseph Smith stops being a prophet, you don’t have to ask that question anymore because the answer is nobody, because marriage doesn’t exist in the next life for any other Christian. Why do we believe it exists? We believe it exists because Joseph Smith’s a prophet. I don’t want to say you don’t want to be inquisitive that you don’t want to ask questions.

“My entire life and career is based upon asking questions and trying to get back to sources, trying to figure out how things happen. Joseph Smith was asking questions. There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘How did this work? I want to know more about this.’ But we have to keep a focus on the fact that the only way you can know anything about God is through the Holy Spirit. That’s it. It’s the only way, and when the Holy Spirit testifies to you that Jesus died for your sins and that this is God’s restored church, okay? I may not know exactly why the Kirtland Safety Society fell. Does that change the fact that Joseph Smith saw Jesus? I don’t know exactly how marriage is going to work in the next life. Does it change the fact that Jesus died for us? Those questions are still good questions, but we can’t allow our questions to dominate the things that the Holy Spirit’s already testified to us.”
Why does President Nelson want you to consider this? To take action on this invitation, it could be as simple as learning more about priesthood keys. Or, it could be an exercise you engage in with someone you love who has stepped away from the covenant path. Perhaps it’s a family home evening lesson with your children. Bottom line: priesthood keys provide a way for us to live forever with our families. Stepping away from the Church is stepping away from your opportunity at having an eternal family.

4: “I invite you to consider carefully the following three statements: 1) The gathering of Israel is evidence that God loves all of His children everywhere. 2) The gospel of Abraham is further evidence that God loves all of His children everywhere. He invites all to come unto Him—’black and white, bond and free, male and female; … all are alike unto God.’ 3) The sealing power is supernal evidence of how much God loves all of His children everywhere and wants each of them to choose to return home to Him.”

I get it – everyone matters. What aren’t we understanding that is leading the Lord’s prophet to ask us to consider these statements again?
“Be One with Christ“, April 2024 General Conference, Elder Quentin L. Cook: “It is significant that all the qualifications for baptism are spiritual. No economic or social attainment is necessary. The poor and the rich have the same spiritual requirements.

“There are no race, gender, or ethnicity requirements. The Book of Mormon makes it clear that all are invited to partake of the Lord’s goodness, ‘black and white, bond and free, male and female; … all are alike unto God.’ ‘All men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.’

“Given our ‘likeness’ before God, it makes little sense to emphasize our differences. Some have wrongly encouraged us ‘to imagine people to be much more different from ourselves and from each other than they actually are. [Some] take real but small differences and magnify them into chasms.'”
“The Invention of Yesterday” by Tamim Ansary: “Scientifically speaking there is no such thing as race. Yes, people inherit characteristics from their parents, and people who regularly intermarry form gene pools that intensify certain traits making one group look distinctly different from another. But, ‘regularly intermarry’ is the key phrase here. This is a pattern enforced by social norms, and reinforced by geography. If any two groups identified as different races were transported to a single island and intermarried randomly for a few generations, there would be no distinguishing one from the other. On this, biologists are virtually unanimous.” (See General Conference Applied S2 E22)
Kirtland: City of Revelation (A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast) Episode 6 – “An Endowment of Power”: “It’s striking that just a year earlier so many men and women who had participated in the services in the Kirtland temple and recorded miraculous visions and spiritual experiences were now in direct opposition to Joseph Smith and the church. Some called him a false or a fallen prophet. Some cited the hard economic times—the lack of constant prosperity—as proof for their claims. Others seem to have let difficult circumstances exacerbate existing doubts. …

“In some ways this dissent in Kirtland represented a stunning turn of events, that so soon after the spiritual manifestations and endowment of power that occurred in the Kirtland temple, the community could descend into such disharmony and disunity. While some remembered and cherished their experiences in the temple to provide strength in challenging times, others discounted or dismissed them when circumstances became difficult.

“Many Latter-day Saints lamented the effect this had on their ability to worship alongside their neighbors. Mary Fielding wrote in a letter to her sister that the disunity prevented the partaking of the sacrament as regularly as they were able to do so before.”
With temples being built throughout the earth, and with the Lord’s promise that He will manifest Himself to His people, let us not forget those in Kirtland who forgot those powerful spiritual experiences, embracing instead disharmony and disunity.
Creating Communities of Unity and Belonging Void of Contention, Discrimination or Division:
- “We invite families to counsel together in family councils and home evenings about the importance of being one in Christ, of treating all people around us with kindness, and the blessings of doing so. Teach your children not to exclude anyone, and make specific family plans about handling bullying over race or differences of appearance, language, or ability. Discuss how to stand for truth and right, exhibit charity, and speak out for those who are bullied or treated unkindly. Invite your children to embrace the commitment of: ‘It stops here, it stops now, it stops with me.'”
- “We invite all organizations, classes, quorums, ward and stake councils to study the prophetic calls to love God and our neighbor better, aimed explicitly at welcoming all into our congregations, classes, schools, and communities. Teach members and leaders not to exclude or overlook anyone. Discuss specific actions to end all forms of racism at school, Church, or wherever we may be. Invite members to embrace the commitment of: ‘It stops here, it stops now, it stops with me.'”

5: “Joseph Smith’s dedicatory prayer of 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 encourage you to study that prayer, recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 109.”

Study Doctrine and Covenants section 109 like we’ve never studied it before.
Read section 109 specifically looking for ways, and then making a list, that the temple empowers us to meet the challenges of life in these last days. Do this either individually or in a group.
Listen to the followHim and Unshaken Saints podcast episodes about this section. We could also study the institute and Come, Follow Me manuals.
“The Power of the Book of Mormon“, April 2017 General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson: “If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so. … My dear associates in the work of the Lord, I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day.”
“The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It?“, October 2017 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson: “Something powerful happens when a child of God seeks to know more about Him and His Beloved Son. Nowhere are those truths taught more clearly and powerfully than in the Book of Mormon.

“Since President Monson’s challenge six months ago, I have tried to follow his counsel. Among other things, I’ve made lists of what the Book of Mormon is, what it affirms, what it refutes, what it fulfills, what it clarifies, and what it reveals. Looking at the Book of Mormon through these lenses has been an insightful and inspiring exercise! I recommend it to each of you.

“During these six months, I have invited various groups—including my Brethren in the Quorum of the Twelve, missionaries in Chile, and mission presidents and their wives gathered in Argentina—to consider three related questions that I urge you to think about today:

“First, what would your life be like without the Book of Mormon? Second, what would you not know? And third, what would you not have?”
“The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell: Social epidemics spread when a bunch of small groups take action.

6: “We are also promised that in the temple we may ‘receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost.’ Imagine what that promise means in terms of having the heavens open for each earnest seeker of eternal truth.”

From the Doctrine and Covenants teacher’s manual: “Explain that to ‘receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost’ (D&C 109:15) means to receive ‘the promise … of eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom’ (D&C 88:4; see also D. Todd Christofferson, ‘The Power of Covenants,’ Ensign or Liahona, May 2009, 23, note 5).”
“The Power of Covenants”, April 2009 General Conference, Elder D. Todd Christofferson: “It is the Holy Ghost that bears witness of your words when you teach and testify. It is the Holy Ghost that, as you speak in hostile venues, puts into your heart what you should say and fulfills the Lord’s promise that ‘you shall not be confounded before men’ (D&C 100:5). It is the Holy Ghost that reveals how you may clear the next seemingly insurmountable hurdle. It is by the Holy Ghost in you that others may feel the pure love of Christ and receive strength to press forward. It is also the Holy Ghost, in His character as the Holy Spirit of Promise, that confirms the validity and efficacy of your covenants and seals God’s promises upon you.

“Divine covenants make strong Christians. I urge each one to qualify for and receive all the priesthood ordinances you can and then faithfully keep the promises you have made by covenant. In times of distress, let your covenants be paramount and let your obedience be exact. Then you can ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and God will answer. He will sustain you as you work and watch. In His own time and way He will stretch forth his hand to you, saying, ‘Here am I.'”
It seems to me as though this invitation has two parts: 1) Understand what it means to ‘receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost’ and 2) consider what you can learn as you ‘receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost’ and become an ‘earnest seeker of eternal truth.’
To become an earnest seeker of eternal truth: develop faith-enhancing questions and get to work on answering them. Especially seek for answers that will allow you to bless others’ lives.