"I Bear Record of the Father", part 4

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John 1:1-5 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” This is another witness that Jesus Christ truly is the light that fills everyone, including yourself. His light that shines in you is a witness and a testament to you of the Father because Christ was with the Father in the beginning. In other words, it is one more way that Jesus bears record of the Father. I find it significant that one of Jesus’ titles is “the Word”. When you think of “the Word”, you might think of the scriptures. Jesus is scripture because He will reveal everything about God to you. How do you access this Scripture, this Bread of Life, this Word of God? You can read the word of God (the written scriptures) to learn about the Word of God (Jesus Christ).

In D&C 35:20-21, the Lord gives an interesting explanation of the purpose of scriptures when He says, “the scriptures shall be given, even as they are in mine own bosom, to the salvation of mine own elect; For they will hear my voice, and shall see me, and shall not be asleep, and shall abide the day of my coming; for they shall be purified, even as I am pure.” The scriptures will help save you by teaching you to hear the Lord’s voice. It’s as if the scriptures are a divinely-ordained communication device, akin to a urim and thummim. When used properly, the scriptures will even help you see the Lord and be purified by Him. That is salvation (John 17:3; Ether 3:13). Use the scriptures as they were intended. If you are not learning to hear the Lord’s voice, you might not be using the scriptures correctly.

There is still another source that will help you become acquainted with the Lord.
2 Nephi 32:3 says, “Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.” In D&C 130:5 Joseph Smith taught, “there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it.” That verse teaches that there are more than just immortal angels from heaven. There are mortal angels currently here that “belong” to this earth. The word “angel” means “messenger” and anyone can be God’s messenger. Where are these angels that belong to this earth? You may not even know. Hebrews 13:2 says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” You may have heard stories of people believing they have entertained immortal angels from heaven in disguise. While I don’t doubt that has happened, I believe this also applies to mortal angels on earth. For example, Abinadi spoke the words of Christ and he belonged to this earth. Unfortunately King Noah and his wicked priests were not aware they were entertaining an angel. Be more wise than them. The words of Christ could potentially come from anyone and it’s up to you to recognize those words as they align with the light of Christ that is inside of you (see D&C 50:17-25), even if those words speak things contrary to your current beliefs.

God’s mortal angels are also called prophets. To believe and accept the words of Christ, which prophets speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, is to receive the prophets. In Mosiah 15:11 Abinadi explained how important this is. “Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.” In order to become the seed of the Lord or, in other words, a child of Christ, you must somehow receive the prophets. Among the Nephites at the time of the Lord’s crucifixion, only one specific thing is mentioned that meant the difference between life and death. 3 Nephi 10:12 says, “And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared”. Apparently, receiving the prophets is a very hard thing to do. There is no doubt about that, because a lot of people ended up getting destroyed by the Lord because they did not receive the prophets. The Nephites that ended up getting destroyed thought they knew how to identify prophets. But in Helaman 13:24-29 Samuel the Lamanite rebuked the Nephites.

24 Yea, wo unto this people, because of this time which has arrived, that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity unto them, even as they did of old time.

25 And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.

26 Behold ye are worse than they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.

27 But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.

28 Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him. 

29 O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light?

You can see that time and time again the Nephites continually rejected the prophets that the Lord sent to them. These verses are a stunning indictment, not only for those people, but for you and me as well. Make no mistake; all those Nephites Samuel was speaking to were the equivalent of members of the Church. You can see in the record that every generation or so, most people were converted unto the Lord. That means that the people who were rejecting the prophets were believers. They were not ignorant of the scriptures. If you claim to be a Mormon or any other type of Christian and claim great knowledge of the gospel, the scriptures, and God’s dealings with the children of men, the people that rejected the prophets in the Book of Mormon and the Bible were just like you. Judging by the extremely long list of scriptures that describe believing people who rejected and even killed the prophets, I think it would be very unwise to think that you are somehow exempt from making the same mistakes, or that you are more righteous than the hard-hearted people in the scriptures, or that you are special in any way. If you have never taken seriously the notion that you might be rejecting the Lord’s messengers, that might mean that you are. If so, you have the power to change that.

How do you identify a true messenger of God? The Lord said, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16; 3 Nephi 14:16). What are the fruits of a true messenger of God? A true messenger of God will have a message directly from God. What if there is no message from heaven? What if there is no errand from the Lord? What if there are no revelations being published? Then there are no fruits with which to judge and you can't assume to ascribe the status of a prophet to anyone without such fruits. Knowing what Samuel the Lamanite said, a true messenger will not use flattering words. A true messenger will not tell you that you are already doing the right things. What is the constant message from the Lord? Repentance. Therefore, look for messages that tell you that you are lost and that you need to find the Lord and turn to Him.

Many types have been given in scriptures to help you know how to recognize true messengers and how to know who to ignore. Allow me to bring some of those types to your attention. Remember King Noah, who was the presiding high priest of his people and held the keys of the temple. Remember Abinadi, whom King Noah and his people did not recognize as having any authority. Remember the high priest Eli, who was rejected by the Lord because of his wickedness. Remember the wickedness of the high priests Annas and Caiaphas and remember that the Lord spoke to John the baptist instead of them. Remember that John the baptist, who had no recognized authority to act in God’s name, had an assignment from the Lord to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews in a manner the Jews would not recognize. Remember Samuel the Lamanite, who preached and prophesied unto the people while having no apparent ecclesiastical relationship with Nephi (the record keepers hadn’t even bothered to write down the fulfillment of Samuel’s prophecies and may not have written down his prophecies at all). Remember that Joseph Smith, an obscure boy with no priestly authority whatsoever, had a commission from God. Remember that God ordains out of Heaven by His own voice and by His own will. Remember how the rights of the priesthood are truly activated as set forth in D&C 121. Remember that Jesus Himself had “no beauty that we should desire him”, or rather, had no official standing to teach or give commandments, but was in truth the Son of God.

When Jesus bears record of the Father, His voice is found in many places and people. Find His voice and listen.