Receiving the Blessings We Desire Most

For about a week each February, a waterfall in Yosemite National Park turns into a cascade of fire. It's a rare sight that only happens when it's wet enough, warm enough and clear enough to have winter waterfalls and a view of the setting sun. The Yosemite Firefall is, of course, an optical illusion, but people travel from all over the world to see the wonder of Horsetail Fall appearing like a pillar of fire.

We all have things we want to see with our own eyes. For some of us it may be natural wonders; for others, it might be an incredible feat or a rare collectors item or a prayed-for event.

For Martin Harris in March of 1829, the thing he wanted to see most was the gold plates Joseph Smith was translating into what we now call The Book of Mormon. He had invested considerable time and money in the translation and his wife was increasingly upset with his involvement. Lucy Harris thought her husband had been deceived and even filed a legal complaint against Joseph Smith and gathered a number of people willing to testify that he had lied about the plates. She told Martin he would join Joseph in jail if he did not also testify of Joseph Smith's deception and fraud.

Martin believed the plates were real, but he decided to travel from his home in upstate New York to Harmony, Pennsylvania, to ask Joseph if he could see the plates. Perhaps he thought that seeing the plates would justify his involvement with the work of translation and avoid further conflict with Lucy.

When Martin arrived in Pennsylvania, Joseph took Martin's question to the Lord and received a revelation now canonized as Doctrine and Covenants Section 5. In this revelation, the Lord gives two answers to Martin's question. First, he directs Joseph:

And now, behold, this shall you say unto him...: I, the Lord, am God, and have given these things [the plates] unto you, my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and have commanded you that you should stand as a witness of these things; And I have caused you that you should enter into a covenant with me, that you should not show them except to those persons to whom I commanded you; and you have no power over them except I grant it unto you (v. 2-3).

Martin was not allowed to see the plates at that time. Instead, the Lord affirmed that it was Joseph Smith's role to witness the plates were real. Martin would be required to walk by faith a little longer, even and perhaps especially in face of opposition to his belief.

More than 120 years later, President Joseph Fielding Smith shared that he had often observed similar inquiries:

Frequently when [people] … hear the story of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, they ask if the plates are in some museum where they may be seen. Some of them with some scientific training, [suggest] that if the scholars could see and examine the plates and learn to read them, they would then bear witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the veracity of Joseph Smith, and the whole world would then be converted (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:40).

The Lord's ways are not our ways however, and on this occasion there is more to the explanation. The Lord continued the revelation:

If they will not believe my words, they would not believe you, my servant Joseph, if it were possible that you should show them all these things which I have committed unto you... I have reserved those things which I have entrusted unto you, my servant Joseph, for a wise purpose in me, and it shall be made known unto future generations; But this generation shall have my word through you (v. 7, 9-10).

Had Martin Harris, or anyone else, seen the plates; or if we could see the plates in a museum somewhere; he or she or we still may not believe. Certainly those inclined not to believe could dispute the translation and origins even with the plates right before their eyes. So the Lord reserved the plates to emphasize Joseph Smith's unique calling and for "a wise purpose" he didn't immediately elaborate.

Rather than relying on our senses alone, the Lord teaches that it is crucial for each of us, as it was important for Martin Harris, to have a testimony of his gospel and the great work of restoration. A testimony is a divine witness or evidence that is impressed upon our hearts and minds. Its effects are often deeper and more profound than what we learn from our senses.

When we come to really believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to translate the Book of Mormon and restore the priesthood and organization of Christ's church upon the earth, we can know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church upon the earth today. This testimony guides us to the covenant blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ordinances that can be performed by proper authority and ultimately, if we are faithful, salvation from sin and death through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and eternal life in the celestial kingdom of God.

Of course, none of us need take the word of Joseph Smith alone. We have the testimony of the Book of Mormon. We can read it, ponder the words it teaches and ask God if they are true. He has promised that if we "ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost" (Moroni 10:4). Millions of people have had this experience and can add their testimonies to the witness of Joseph Smith.

Among the millions, three men in addition to Joseph Smith were called to be witnesses of the plates themselves. The Lord taught Joseph Smith on that day in March 1829:

And in addition to [the testimony of Joseph Smith], the testimony of three of my servants, whom I shall call and ordain, unto whom I will show these things, and they shall go forth with my words that are given through you. Yea, they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them. I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are; And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation.... And the testimony of three witnesses will I send forth of my word (v. 11-15).

Each copy of the Book of Mormon begins with a title page, introduction and a copy of the written testimony of Three Witnesses, which stands as another evidence of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The Lord continued:

And behold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of me, even of water and of the Spirit... And their testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them (v. 16, 18).

President Ezra Taft Benson taught that "we each need to get our own testimony of the Book of Mormon through the Holy Ghost. Then our testimony, coupled with the Book of Mormon, should be shared with others so that they, too, can know through the Holy Ghost of its truthfulness" (“The Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants,” Ensign, May 1987, 84).

After admonishing Joseph Smith to "walk more uprightly" and "yield to the persuasions of men no more", the Lord provides the second answer to Martin Harris' question:

And now, again, I speak unto you, my servant Joseph, concerning the man that desires the witness-- Behold, I say unto him, he exalts himself and does not humble himself sufficiently before me; but if he will bow down before me, and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see (v. 23-24).

Through a multi-step process, the Lord offered Martin Harris the opportunity to become one of the Three Witnesses. As with the first answer, the Lord provided more explanation of this promise, including an admonition to testify to the world of what he saw and a warning that failure to be sufficiently humble and obedient would result in not seeing the plates and Martin's condemnation and destruction.

Often the Lord responds to us the way he responded here to Martin Harris. He doesn't usually give us what we want outright, but he provides a way for us to receive the blessings we desire. We don't usually have to travel the world to find them, but the Lord does require us to pursue our desires with humble and sincere prayers and acts of faith. Along the way, he provides guidance and commandments that protect us from the obstacles, including sometimes those we love, who would take us off the path and lead us another way toward worldly approval and the destruction of our souls.

Three months after the Lord's responses to Martin's question, Martin Harris was one of three men who saw the plates and testified to the world of their reality. Likewise, if we walk the path the Lord lays out for us, he will send the proverbial rain and part the clouds so we can receive the blessings we desire.

Continue in the Things Which Thou Hast Been Assured

Few ministries in the history of the world are as striking as the apostle Paul's. Originally known as Saul of Tarsus, he inherited Roman citizenship from his father and Jewish faith from his mother. Educated at the Harvard of his day, Paul became a pharisee and actively persecuted Christians, who he perceived to be perverting Judaism, until a vision of Christ changed the current of his life. He would go on to become a great missionary, teacher, disciple and apostle who endured a great deal of persecution himself and was ultimately martyred for his testimony of Christ in Rome.

Near the end of his life, Paul was kept in chains in a dungeon that was exposed to the elements. He was a long way from home and had very little contact with friends or family. He knew he was going to die. He decided to write a final letter to his friend Timothy, who was the first ordained bishop in Ephesus. A lesser person might have used this as an opportunity to vent about the grievances of justice he had endured or perhaps to give final instructions regarding his estate. Paul was inspired instead to share one final sermon that would prove more valuable to you and I than to Timothy.

After admonishing Timothy to stay faithful, he prophesied of the perils of the last days, or in other words, the perils of the times in which we now live. The people in the world at that time, he writes, will be self-centered, irreverent, ungrateful, perverse, dishonest, undisciplined, faithless, traitorous, reckless and conceited. They will be people who love pleasure more than God and follow their appetites into all kinds of addictions and sins. All of these things would come because the people would deny the power of God; they would be ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth because they would refuse to consider spiritual evidence or learning from divine sources (2 Tim. 3:1-7).

Certainly this is the state of the world today. As morals fade and faith is increasingly unpopular, it might seem like the philosophies and ways of the world will soon overwhelm the faithful. Church attendance is down worldwide; truths about creation and the sanctity of life have been banished from schools and replaced by worldly philosophies and courses that encourage students to commit moral sins; and those who stand up for religious liberty are often harassed and accused of being bigoted, hateful, fearful, or worse.

Paul concedes that the righteous will be persecuted in our times and that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived," but also prophesies that the folly of the world "shall be manifest unto all men" and overthrown just as the Egyptian priests who resisted Moses (2 Tim. 3:8-9, 13). He reminds Timothy, and all of us by extension, that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7).

While we wait for folly to be overthrown, we may wonder how we "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ" amidst worldly currents of chaos, immorality, deceit, violence, persecution and degrading values (2 Nephi 31:20). Further, how do we keep our faith when some of those worldly philosophies start to make sense or we feel our faith is maybe not as strong as it once was or as we feel it needs to be?

Paul, who had been both persecuted and persecutor, gives a two-part answer based on his experience: "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of," he told Timothy, "knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that...the holy scriptures [are] able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:14-15).

In another letter, this one to the believers in and around Jerusalem, Paul addressed those saints who were beginning to falter because of the difficultly of staying on the gospel path. To these ancient church members who thought testimony, conversion and baptism would put them beyond trouble, Paul counsels, "Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions... Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise" (Hebrews 10:32, 35-36).

Each of us have had sacred experiences that have been and are foundations for our testimony. These experiences are most often times when we knew God was speaking to us. Maybe it was how we felt when we were baptized or when we heard the prophet speak at General Conference. Maybe we were directed to go another way or make a different choice. Or maybe we felt God's love when reading a particularly meaningful passage of scripture, witnessing an answer to our prayers or enjoying the feelings of cleanliness that follow sincere repentance. Whatever those experiences are in our lives, we must not forget them now nor discredit their divine author.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf has taught that we should, "first doubt [our] doubts before [we] doubt [our] faith" (Come, Join with Us, October 2013). "In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, [we must] hold the ground [we] have already won, even if that ground is limited" (Elder Holland, Lord, I Believe, April 2013).

Elder Holland adds, "If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don't give up when the pressure mounts. Certainly don't give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. Face your doubts. Master your fears. 'Cast not away therefore your confidence.' Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you" (Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence, March 1999).

The second part of Paul's response requires that we acknowledge that God has also spoken to us through his prophets. We turn to God and begin our journey back to him through the study of his revealed words. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God," he explains, "and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be [complete], throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

When the world seems to suffocate us, or when we are offended by the evil around us, or when we are tempted to subscribe to worldly philosophies on love or life or anything else, we can find the strength, healing, comfort and answers we need in the Holy Scriptures. Honest study of the scriptures will build our faith, courage, resolve to act upon the truths we learn. We will more often find the inspiration to repent of our misdeeds until, step by step and habit by habit, we become complete and perfect in the sight of God in spite of all that is around us.

This was what Paul experienced as he sat in a Roman dungeon through heat and cold and storms and wind. He had given status and riches to be there. He had lost every worldly thing and would soon give his life. But he had also heard Christ's voice. He had felt God's assurance carry him through his most desperate hours. He knew it was true. He knew death was not the end. He knew he would see his family again and rejoice in the presence of God. And he knew it was possible for us as well, if we would hear God's words and stay on the path that leads back to him.

And so, instead of complaints or regrets, Paul writes to Timothy in the confidence of his God: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:6-8).