Episode #194: The Endowment Of Power W/David Nielsen

0:26 The. You're listening to the Mormon Renegade podcast. Well, Dave #2 man, you're back. Yep. How's things been going? Really good, just staying busy and taking care of family, all that so. I hear you. I got to tell you we we had a great reviews off the last one we did, so I'm super excited for this one too. It was such a good conversation and I've been really looking forward to this one since you brought this up last week. I'm like, Oh yeah, 'cause that's, dude, that's one thing that like, unless you're willing to do some deep digging, this subject, the endowment of power, it's one of those things that I like, I don't care what part of Mormonism you're from.

1:21 I don't feel like people have a real good handle on it. Yeah. Well, and, and one of the things about it is that we're so used to the term endowment, You know, it's in our temple. We, we, we all understand what that is, or at least if you're a studier of Mormonism, you should. But this, this subject is just a little different. And we, it plays a part in the temple and all that. And it's, it's very important. But but this endowment of power, this is something just a little different. And we're if we can, maybe we'll go through this kind of start you on a story. This is I'm gonna, I'm gonna relay a story for you the same that it was for me. And it might resonate with some people. So, so this, this kind of started as I was reading the Joseph Smith story in the Pearl grape price and there was just a quote.

2:23 So in that, in that section, when when the Angel Maronite comes to Joseph on September 21st, 18201823, you know, we've always heard over and over, oh, he gave that quote from Malachi, right, And changed the wording. And this is the foundation for our temples and the word for the dead. And I think that's exactly right. That is what that is. But that's not the only scripture he quoted, and it caught my eye when he quotes another scripture, he says, you know, he quoted this from Malachi. He quoted this, this other verse different. And then he says in addition to these, he quoted some other chapters, some other chapters, 11 chapter of Isaiah, saying it was about to be full.

3:10 He also quoted the 3rd chapter of Acts, 22nd, 23rd verses precisely as they stand in the New Testament. But then he also quoted from the Old Testament prophet Joel and he actually quotes this this exact or he says exactly what verses it was. He quoted from the 2nd chapter of Joel from the 28th verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled but was soon to be. And he further stated the fullness of the Gentiles was soon to come in and other scriptures, which I wish he would have laid out all the scriptures because I think Merle and I knew what he was doing.

3:52 He came he was revealing the scriptures needed to lay a foundation for what Joseph's work was. But I read this and I thought, what is the 2nd chapter of Joel, the 28th verse to the last. So it's it's not very long and I'll just read it real quick. 28th Verse Second chapter of Joel. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days will I pour out my spirit. And then he talks about some of the end times, you know, show wonders in the heavens and the earth. Sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon into blood. And we've heard all these things. But then at the end it says it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.

4:53 For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant who the Lord shall. Call. There's a lot there to unpack, just just in that one little verse. There is a lot, but it's just interesting that this isn't the only time that these verses specifically end up in our scriptures. There was another time where these same verses were quoted, and it was on the day of Pentecost. Interesting and see that was that was one of those things that that I had thought of when you were first reading it. I'm like, you know, all these people having these miraculous the fruits, you know, experiencing the fruits of the Spirit, right?

5:44 Kind of reminded me of Pentecost a little bit. Yeah, well, and that's so Day of Pentecost. And they have all these people speaking in tongues. And, you know, we know the story while Peter was there and the people all gathered were all amazed. Are not these all that speak Galileans? And how can we hear them in our own tongue? And and they were amazed and in doubt, and some said some were mocking. And they said, well, these men are full of new wine. I just want, I just want to take that and pin it because we're going to come back to that quote later. But Peter standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken unto my words. For these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing as it at the third hour of the day.

6:34 I mean, it's 9:00 in the morning and they says, but this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel. Boom. He starts quoting it right there. So, you know, and I started putting that together and I thought this is interesting because the Lord is laying out a Pentecostal experience, you know, at least the foundation for it, for Joseph to say this, this experience of the last of the last days that will come where he will pour out his spirit upon all flesh. And then I started to think, what's the what happened at Pentecost? Why was that such a big deal, right? Because, you know, they had this happen and there was all these gifts manifested and, you know, people were converted. There was quite a few of them.

7:31 And the ministry really began right after that where the apostles begin to go forth. And then I was reminded of a quote that the Savior gave right before he leaves. So this is I mean, this is not long before the day of Pentecost, a few days, if I'm not mistaken, maybe maybe a little more. And right before the Savior goes up in Luke 2449, he says, and behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high.

8:12 OK, so he tells them you're going to be in doubt that that's in do and Dao is is the same word. It's received this gift from power from on high. They stay in Jerusalem, it's for the Passover, it's the Passover time, and then they're at the temple or close to, and that's when they received this blessing. And afterwards the gospel starts going out to the world. Gotcha. So let me ask you this question. If I'm if, if, if this is something we're going to cover later, just tell me. Tell me so and we'll stop. But like, I find it interesting that the Lord says, do not start your ministry until you have this right very clearly.

8:58 And then we see it right? The day of Pentecost happens and that's when they leave, right? Like it, it seems like it paints a picture that there's no doubt that they knew that, OK, this has happened, we're good now. So my question is, is before we go preach the gospel, should we be exhibiting some of these things? Well, let's this is, I mean, you're not wrong. We're going to go into this and pretty deep because this, this exact same process is repeated in Joseph's day. OK. So we'll go back to the story just so that you now you have an understanding at least what caught my attention with this.

9:43 Joseph receives the Angel Moroni. He gives them this foundation. They go forward. They do the Book of Mormon, which he says the power to translate the Book of Mormon was a gift. But they move on to the organization of the church, as we all know, April 6th, 1830 and the church starts moving forward. They, they start gathering people. But there's a promise given that they should not go preach until you until they are in doubt. But that kind of comes a little bit later. But they so December of 1830. So this is a few months later, Joseph receives so 6 about 6-8 months later, Joseph receives Revelation DNC 38. It's actually the same one we talked about in the law of consecration 'cause they're tied together and he says gather to the Ohio.

10:42 This is 38, verse 32. Wherefore for this, 'cause I give you unto you the commandment that you should go to the Ohio. So all of her calories come through. Just a bit of back story. He's been preaching the gospel along the way and he preaches to a bunch of people in Ohio and Kirtland area. And this is where Sidney Rigdon and the Morleys, Edward Partridge, they're all from there. So the Lord tells Joseph we need to go to the Ohio, and he's already talked about the New Jerusalem. They're gonna go there too. But go to the Ohio, where I will give you my law, which was Section 42, the laws of the Church and the law of consecration.

11:27 But then he says something else. And there in the Ohio you shall be endowed with power from on high. And from thence whosoever I will shove a fourth among all nations, and it shall be told them what they shall do. For I have a great work laid up in store. For Israel shall be saved, and I will lead them whithersoever I will, and no power shall stay my hand. Repeats that same pattern over again. And you know, for for a lot of years in the LDS Church, I think the that the common understanding of this was This is why missionaries got endowed before they went out into the field, right? But here it can't be talking about the endowment proper because Joseph hasn't received at least all of that yet. I do think he was probably working on a portion of it, but he hadn't received the ordinance in full yet, so it can't be that.

12:28 Right. And then for the purposes of this conversation, we should separate this. We should say the, the, the endowment is, you know, proper, as you say, the endowment ceremony, We should call that the ordinances of the endowment because that's what they are. And the endowment of power is the spiritual gift and blessings that come from proper adherence to, to law. And even the ordinances of the endowment, they're tied in. And we're going to go into how this process grew because there's more. So he tells Joseph later on, you know, in that same revelation, verse 38, he says when men are endowed with power from on high and sent forth, all these things shall be gathered unto the bosom of the church.

13:21 And he's talked about gifts and blessings and all these things. So another, the next revelation, DNC 39 verse 15 says I have kept in store a blessing such as not known among the children of men, and it shall be poured forth upon their heads and from fence men shall go forth into all nations. So it's very clear you receive your endowment, you go out to the nations and I say why? This ties into, you know, the church. Now you receive your endowment, you get sent on a mission. You see the ordinances of the endowment, you can send on your mission.

14:04 Well, I look at it this way. If you're going to be an effective missionary, wouldn't you want to know for yourself? Like the most effective missionaries I've ever met are ones who have a firm footing in their own testimony. And this gift of power is in them because men are not the ones preaching here. It's right, they preach by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. You know, when it's come to missionary work and I, I think this will tie in, I'm sure later on. I, I've always had a thought in mind, which was Jesus in the Holy Ghost, they can do their own work, right?

14:48 We weren't, we're not probably going to convince anybody, right? I'm just not that smart. No one's going to be that impressed, but I do think that our role as missionaries is we should be kind of like appointment setters, right? Point them to the Savior and let him do his work and he can get that done and then be there to help out along the way. But I think you can only do that if you are in touch with the Spirit, right, 'cause you are going to have to say something that's going to to ignite that fire. Yeah. Well, what are you bearing testimony of that your parents taught you the truth? Is that all you can bear testimony of? Or can you bear testimony that I have received for myself the gift and power of God.

15:39 I know for myself that the Holy Ghost works among the children of men, and I am willing to help you in that process. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's why you need an endowment of power. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and I think these scriptures also help to dispel another common myth. And I've heard it a lot all across Mormonism. It's not unique to the LDS Church. But when someone does a mission, especially some of the younger guys, they'll come back and say, well, I really had my conversion on my mission. And I'm like, well, I'm not sad that that happened, right. I'm glad that that happened. But ma'am, what else could you have gotten done had you been converted before you left? Yeah.

16:25 And we will start to see this, this principle preparation become very clear in the next few years of the Prophet Joseph's life because they received this, this promise, go to the Ohio and there you'll be in doubt. Well, they go to the Ohio. Five days later Joseph received Section 42 and they consider, oh, we received the law. It won't be long before we're endowed with this power in another revelation which isn't contained in the in the Doctrine Covenants, but it was to Ezra Thayer and it's in the words of Joseph papers, Joseph's paper project.

17:08 What am I saying? Joseph Smith paper project and it's revelation 15th of May 1831. So this is later and the Lord tells Joseph, let my servant Ezra humble himself and at the conference meeting he shall be ordained unto power from on high, and he shall go from thence, if he'll be obedient, proclaim my gospel unto the western regions with my servants. So and then he says, and it will be given unto you, Joseph, to know what you shall do at the conference. So he's commanded in a prior revelation. They're, they need to hold a conference in Ohio, in Kirtland and Ezra should be ordained from power on to power from on high and he's going to go out and preach.

17:52 Well in June they hold this conference. June 3rd, June 4th, I think it was like maybe 2 days the best I can tell. But June 3rd seems pretty consistent. First part of June they hold a conference and it's the day that they ordained high priests, the first time in the church. OK. And what's interesting about that is that just a few months prior, Joseph has been translating the Bible, and he translates what is now knows, I think JST chapter 14 of Genesis, which talks about Melchizedek, Melchizedek being ordained a great high priest after the order of the Son of God.

18:40 And then Joseph does this conference and he ordains a bunch of men. Well, Joseph only ordains a few, but he ordains Lyman White and Lyman White a few others. They ordained a whole bunch of maybe 40 something man high priests. And Joseph says this is the high priesthood. They've established the high priesthood now and they considered it an endowment there because some saw visions and there was great manifestations. At this meeting we have 6 or 7 accounts of of the devil taking over Harvey Whitlock and a few others.

19:20 And the prophet cast him out right. And you know, even Hiram's like this is not of God. We need to fix this problem. But there are others, Lyman White included that he said that he saw the he saw the Father in heaven. And Joseph said that he saw the Father and the Son, and that was at Isaac Morley's farm. And so this seems to be this endowment at the time. I mean, we have, well, I can't remember his name, a journal, a journal entry from a man who said he considered this fulfillment of Section 38, which was that they received this endowment from on high, endowed with power because they had been ordained. There had been, you know, visions and. And other manifestations of the spirit and other things which they they mention but don't really talk about. So it seems like there was this great spiritual outpour. But it also seems that after this is done, Joseph is greatly relieved for what they did, but he isn't satisfied. He does I it comes across in some of his letters that he felt that this wasn't the full endowment that was promised, but it was a stat.

20:41 So what's the next thing he does? He receives revelations later on that year to build a house in Kirtland, House of learning, the Section 88, House of prayer, House of fasting, you know, all those things that we have. And the other thing he does is within a short amount of time, maybe a year or two, he sets up the school, the prophets. And I think what he's, and y'all just just me, spoke of David, if you will, putting this together. I think he realizes that in order for men to truly receive the full endowment of power, they need to be prepared. And you can't just just expect men to to be there. You've got to work with them.

21:31 You've got to help prepare them. So he sets up the school, the prophets, they start building the House of the Lord. They they do Zions Camp 12 or chosen. You know, all this is happening and I don't think it's all in connection with this, but it it's moving in this direction. This is. A big deal. I was going to say. It is fascinating that all these things that, that really the church starts to take on a form that like, it's my contention as Mormons today, it would have been hard for us to really recognize the church in the Kirtland era, right? Because it was, it was a little different. It was a little abstract.

22:13 Still Joseph still, you know, he's figuring stuff out too. And so it's not till Nauvoo. However, we, we, we can't just brush Kirtland off, right? Kirtland's a huge step in this, and I do find it fascinating that all the things that we talk about that are kind of distinctly Mormon within our within our framework, the Quorum of the 12 Temples, that sort of thing, that it gets its first incarnation right after the Lord starts talking about this, this endowment of power. Right. And even even to give you a little teaser, we get our presentation of the endowment or the endowment ordinances, I think due in a large part to Joseph's translation of the Book of Abraham.

22:59 Right. Which he does in the upper rooms in the Kirtland Temple. Right. Yep. So Yep. So this is all leading to something. And here Joseph is working with the brethren. He's recognizing that they need this school, the prophets well before you can really start to teach people, you know, you got to teach him the basics and he starts teaching them how to read and write and and this so that they are, you know, prepared prepared to do the work that's devolving upon them. And as they move forward with the temple, these there's several other things that Joseph says that that that revelations he's received and no doubt light that is coming to them, that there's a way to receive this endowment of power.

23:55 And they're going to call it a solemn assembly. This is what the Lord calls it, that there's a Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit where the gifts are manifest, where you know for yourself. And there's so the solemn assembly start tying in to this and download power in some way, but it's rituals in the temple, the first ones, you know, And so, but I want to read something from well, as we get into the solemn assembly, I think it's important to recognize what some of those are. So this this quote from Joel, you know where he talks about this at the very beginning, he says the first one that I read first.

24:42 First he says, and it shall come to pass afterward. OK, that's where the Angel starts with Joseph. But in the scriptures there's already a bunch of story before the Lord is laying out to Joel what he needs to do. And he says, he says therefore also now all this is, but he tells him in verse or in chapter 1, he says, OK, Joel, gird yourselves and lament the priests, how he ministers the altar. Come lie all night in sackcloth and repent. He ministers of my God, and sanctify ye a fast all, a solemn assembly.

25:27 Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. Alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand. And as destruction from the Almighty, it shall come. And then in chapter 2 he says, He says therefore also now say to the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart, and not your garments, which is, I think, a key. He's talking about something inside. And turn again unto the Lord your God, and it. Sounds a lot like a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

26:10 It is and he's telling Joel and Joel lived in this time where he's restoring some things to the people and then verse 15 of chapter 2, blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation. This is key. So he's so Joseph is following this moment. He's gathering the people through knowledge, through ordinance, through all these things. He's sanctifying the congregation and assembling the elders. Gather the children. Let the bridegroom go forth out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet, just saying, get them all there.

26:51 Let the priest, the ministers, weep before the Lord, the porch and the altar, and say, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen shall rule over them. Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people, And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed. Essentially what he's talking about is this ancient covenant that Moses tried to get the people to establish that we will be his people and he will be our God.

27:34 That was verse 27. The next verse, And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. There it is. So, so I'm, I'm reading this and I'm like, OK, gather the people, sanctify the people, teach them knowledge, all them all together. And if they come with a proper motivation, rend their hearts, not just their garments, and prove to me by covenant that I will be thy, I will be their God and they will be my people. I will pour out my spirit upon them. I thought that just makes a lot of sense to me. And I think this is what Joseph was trying to do in Kirtland. Something to this effect?

28:25 You know, that is, that is fascinating because now I'm like racking my brain thinking of a time where either a covenant with that exact wording or a similar covenant was made maybe prior to the dedication of the temple or something like that. Because I think, boy, if the pattern's going to repeat, it'd sure be nice if it was there, you know what I mean? Yeah, and we, I don't know if we'll have time to dive into that much death, but there's some interesting things in Kirtland. But there was another time I found where this pattern was also copied, and it didn't have anything to do with Joseph. And this was King Benjamin.

29:07 Oh yeah. I could see that that's yes, that's. Fascinating King Benjamin gathers the people and he preaches them the truth that's given to him by the Angel and the Spirit comes on them. There was a mighty change in their hearts and they all covenanted that they would obey God, you know, and. Interesting. Oh, sorry, Dave. No, go ahead. The other interesting thing is there's a temple in that too, right? Which way were they supposed to point their tents towards the temple? That is fascinating. And again, something similar happens at the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon at the Temple.

29:52 Yeah, the Lord comes. He preaches them the the truths they received this knowledge and the people have this outpouring of the spirit that convinces them of the truth. Now, maybe it's not the same, it's the endowment of power, but there is some interesting similarities. And also you have the I mean, Sermon on the mountain, the Sermon of the temple. Those two are are a temple text. Yes, absolutely so. So, you know, I just thought there's, there's a few of these times. And then if you want to go back to Moses, what does he do? Yeah, there's the people. They he's preparing them according to the word of the Lord in Exodus to come up the mountain and see the face of God themselves.

30:43 And 70 of the elders were able to do this. I think the rest are kind of like it's a little much. But the 70 are they become the Sanhedrin. They become the judges and Moses stands at their head. Well, I think this is supposed to be consistent. I think the Lord wants to have his people who are touched by his spirit. But we see this same pattern over and over. And I'm, I mean, I only had a little bit of time in my spare time to dive in. Some, some scholars are probably going to go in and say, well, this happens all the time. This is consistent.

31:24 Right. Regardless, I I can't think of a time where where this subject's been talked about about in in with these kind of connections, Dave. I have a strange mind, let's just put that. You and me both. You and me both, but I guarantee your mind's a lot better. Mine usually revolves around sprucing up my fantasy football team for the next season. So. Yeah, I haven't gotten to that, but anyway, so we'll go back to what Joseph is trying to do again. He he there's several of these quotes and I'll read 1 from there's excerpts from the teaching of the prophet because it's so good and it's so misunderstood. But first, section 95 you know he's and the Lord says that just exactly what we're talking about for the preparation verse 95 verse or Chapman 95 verse 4 for the preparation wherewith I designed to prepare mine apostles to prune my vineyard for the last time that I may pass my strange act. He says that I may pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And so then he tells them, Call your solemn assembly almost the same as as Job in verse 7 of that chapter. Call your solemn assembly, that your fastings and your mourning might come up to the years of the Lord of Saboeth, which is by interpretation the Creator.

32:58 And then he says, I give unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in which house I designed to endow those whom I have chosen the power from on high. Boy, this and it and some of the verses you read, it's almost, it's more than the Lord just asking. It almost feels like he's pleading at times. Please come, please come here, please gather up. I want you to have this right. Like trying to get us to to focus in here. This is something that I don't know why, but it feels like that it's almost a plea from from God himself to his children on this. Yeah, and Joseph understood the importance. And I think as it gets closer to the curtain temple being finished, more light is being given to him. You know what what this is and they so he starts giving words of advice.

33:56 This is from page 95 of teaching to the Prophet Joseph. And it's been used to in the, in the idea of the temple. And it's, it fits very well because it's about the endowment. But in the context what we're talking about, Joseph doesn't know about the ordinances of the endowment the way they are now. Yet he knows about this promise. So he says, page 95 the endowment you are so anxious about, you cannot comprehend now, nor could Gabriel explain it to the understanding of your dark minds. But strive to be prepared in your heart, be faithful in all things that when we meet in the solemn assembly, that is when such as God shall name out of all the official members shall meet, we must be clean every whit.

34:54 And so he's laying out again, be prepared, be faithful, be clean. And there's a whole podcast you can do on what it takes to be cleaned. Absolutely. You know, And it's interesting because then we're getting right up to Kirtland. Joseph's been doing this preparation work. The temple's nearing completion and the dedication is coming up. But what does Joseph do in January? The salt, the dedication happens in March. What does he do in January? Takes the brethren form of the 12 and other leading members of the church. Takes them into the temple and washes her feet. Or no.

35:40 Anoints their head with water and pronounces them clean. And a few days later he anoints their head with oil and pronounces holy blessings upon them, starting with his Father. And so there's this preparation point. Now our temple has a washing and anointing and what are we told in the Washington 19? And maybe this, this doesn't go too far to say because I know what we're not supposed to reveal. But one of the things that's promised is that we are washed to become clean from the Bradenson's of this generation. And we are anointed to rule as kings and priests or to become kings and priests, I should say so, so that washing is to become clean.

36:29 And I think that that has something to do with this commandment. Be clean every whip. And you want it to be real, like Joseph was preparing his people so that it could be real, not just OK, we're going to pronounce everyone clean so we can comply. We're just going to run everyone through the ordinances of the endowment so that you comply with the law. But it's like the Lord wants us to rend our heart, not just our garments. Right, right. You're, you should have the outward there, but the N word is just as important, right? If, if and, and it's funny, you should bring that up because I was just having a conversation with a guy about this that yes, the ordinances are of the utmost important. You can't get where you want to go without them. Having said that, the Lord is aiming for something deeper, right?

37:27 It's, it's not like if we're just going to go through and just like check boxes, well, you're not, you're only going to get out of it what you put into it, right? And if you're not going to internalize some of that stuff and make the effort to walk up to those things and not just walk up to them, but understand them, right? I think you're doing yourself a disservice. And you may even be taking the things of God and treating them somewhat lightly if you're just going to check boxes. Yeah. And technically one of the 10 commandments is to not take the Lord, the name of the Lord in vain. And when when we make covenants without understanding them, or rather with no intention of keeping them, we are taking the name of the Lord in vain.

38:14 And also that that ties into sacrament, that ties into the temple. So and unless somebody so kind of get back to this, unless somebody recognizes or thinks because they could say that quote I just read from page 95. Well, he could mean the temple that the endowment we're talking about. Well, let's read on and see what he says. He says we must be clean every whit. Let us be faithful and silent. Brethren, that's interesting. And if God gives you a manifestation, keep it to yourselves, be watchful and prayerful, and ye shall have a prelude of those joys that God will pour out on that day. Do not watch for iniquity in each other. If you do, you will not get an endowment, for God will not bestow it such.

39:08 So this is a blessing. This is a blessing of the Spirit. But if we are faithful and live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God, I will venture to prophecy that we shall get a blessing that will be worth remembering. And if we should live as long as John the Revelator, our blessings will be such as we have not realized before, nor received in this generation. The order of the House of God has been. This is the key. The order of the House of God has been and ever will be the same. Even after Christ comes and after the termination of the 1000 years, it will be the same and we shall finally enter into the celestial Kingdom of God and enjoy it forever.

39:58 That's a that is a lot, right? Because now I'm trying to put it all into perspective here a little bit like there's, pardon me, it's like this needs to be done. You need to have some some of these experiences before you probably ever set foot in the temple. Well, it should be. There should be the desire and the ability to prepare yourself at least. And because we see in the events that happened in Kirtland, they go through this washing and anointing in January, in March, they're going to dedicate the building and they wash the feet of everyone that's there. There's elders and members and high priests and 70s and apostles.

40:44 There's, there's a bunch of people there and they wash all their feet. I think Joseph in the First Presidency washes the feet of the 12 and the seven presidents, the 70s who wash the feet of the elders, who wash the feet of the members. And this happens. And then Joseph dedicates the building. They're clean. They're prepared through ordinance and this work that the Lord has and Joseph has been doing with the people through the help of the Lord, they're prepared. And what happens is we get this Pentecostal experience, we get this the rushing of wind. You know, George A Smith is up talking and they get this manifestation and and it's like they said the house was like it was on fire. You know, as you, as we all know, the story, this is the part of the story that's that we all have heard. Angels were on the rooftops and the house was filled with His glory.

41:40 And this went on for several days. And they're this, they considered this in part the fulfillment of the endowment, but there was other parts too, as we know, they met again. Well, I'm trying to get the dates right. It was a little bit later, I think it was in April. And that's when the Savior came, and that's when Moses and Elias and Elijah came to Joseph and Oliver and bestowed upon them what we we say is the passing of the keys or the fulfillment of the keys. And I think that's all part of the endowment, if you will, this endowment of power, which is a combination of ordinance, spiritual blessings, promises, and ultimately authorities.

42:33 You know, I, I want to go back to something real quick and then, and then I also want to comment on something you just said, but back there where Joseph was saying if you look for iniquity and if you look for iniquity in your brethren, you will not get this. The more there's been some things lately I've read from Joseph Smith that I've read for all ever since I've been a Mormon that are now starting to jump off the page at me. That's one of them. The other one is the one where he says, you know, if you don't accuse me, I won't accuse you and we'll go into the celestial Kingdom together, right? I think that's hugely important.

43:15 Now, it's a it's a tricky thing, right? Because we need to stand for truth. We need to stand for principles, right? But you got to do it without automatically assuming the worst of who you're contending with, right? And, and so this idea of charity and not assuming the worst of each other, I think it is a huge thing. And quite frankly, I mean, Mormonism's history is, is 1 of fracture, unfortunately, right? Like if we can buck the trend, that's a different thing than than we've seen for quite a while. And I think that I, I think that is, is a key right there is, is throwing over ourselves and over our brethren that cloak of charity.

44:02 I think that's hugely important. I mean, if if repentance is honored by the Lord the way he says it is, then why aren't we quick to forgive as well or not assume the worst of our brethren? Well, I'll just tell you one thing about watch Looking for iniquity. Like he says, if do not watch for iniquity in each other because the person who's watching for iniquity in each other is because almost always they have something to. Hide. Yep. And they they are not worthy to receive an endowment. And and also you're tearing down, just like you're saying, the fundamentalist people, Mormonism as a whole has been this continual fracturing because the devil knows us too well. And this, this blessing, this endowment of power as Joseph is trying to achieve it here was not done individually. This was done collectively in Joel's day. It was done collectively in King Benjamin's day. It was done collectively and even in Moses's day. So jealous is trying to collectively bring people together to receive these blessings as a whole. And if you are watching for iniquity in each other amongst your brethren, you are not going

45:34 to have the confidence in the faith necessary with each other to go and approach the Lord. Not only that, but almost always when you're watching for iniquity in others, it's so that you can talk about it to others, which further spreads, spreads the dissension, starts to fracture the people even more, and then we all come together deeply mistrusting each other's motives. And there's no faith. The devil knows what he's doing. He's not dumb, right? I think, I think we all wish that he was a little bit dumb, but he's not right. And, and you know, the, the other thing that that popped out at me that I read from Joseph recently was he, he asked the question, brethren, why have we not established Zion? It's because we haven't been able to hang together long enough to get it done right.

46:29 And I'm kind of paraphrasing there, but that's kind of the gist of, of what he's saying. And I'm not saying that we should have unity for unity's sake either, right? You got to, you got to be able to be unified around correct principles. But if someone's got a different viewpoint than yours, I, I guess overall, I'd be like, you may want to pump the brakes before you assign malice in that or assign ill will, right? He just came up with a different answer was all. And, and I think if we want these things, I the more I read from Joseph, the more I see that that cloak of charity and not accusing one another or looking for inequity in our brethren becomes a bigger and bigger piece of that. Yeah, and if somebody does have a different answer than you, well, maybe a conversation's in order. Are we not?

47:21 Are we not, brethren? You know, we're we claim to be to be handling priesthood, which is supposed to function as a brotherhood before God. Didn't we go and find out the truth for ourselves? Didn't we like have these conversations, get these perspectives and try to mend the cracks that appear rather than say, well, I was new to that guy was kind of weird. So we're going to finish the cracking process and make sure he's away. Because if we if we remove everybody who has problems, maybe we'll get down to just a few people that we all think the same. But is that?

48:05 Yeah. And, and look, one of the things I love about, about the founding of the country, it's a great book called Miracle in Philadelphia. And the reason they called it a miracle was because it should just not have worked, right? All those men were too strong willed. And it, it just, there's no reason it should have worked, right. But out of that, I don't want to say, well, I'll just use the word right. I think there was a lot of contention there. There was argument going back and forth, but yet they hung together, right. And look, it's my opinion that the reason the, the, this constitution has lasted as long as it has was because of the contention, right? They had to strive for it together. And those guys sometimes that you think are, are or perceive that are your enemy, they're only trying to get you to see a different point sometimes, right, A different point of view.

48:56 And that strengthens things if it can be done without fracturing. For sure as opposed. To weaken it. Well, anybody, whether you're in the church, whether you are in any of any other group or any church organization, if you've had to work in a quorum, you know, the differences exist. I mean, those of us that have worked on the job know we have to learn to handle difficulties. But this this idea when we come to the gospel and being unified is not separating out everyone that doesn't agree, but coming and together on the things we can agree with and getting the will of the Lord because, you know, he's consistent.

49:43 He, he has, he has his mind and it's based on law. Our mind is often based on whatever we want. Tradition, you know, what we ate last night or you know, the list goes on and on and on. Sometimes we're right, sometimes we're just not. And that's hard to that's hard to figure out, but but this is where this endowment could be useful. And I don't know that you could do this collectively across all Normanton, But if individual groups and communities and people would come together, then we might find ourselves drawing together as a whole if we could approach the Lord and start bearing the fruit, if you will, in the vineyard. And I think good, you could start to see good all the way around.

50:36 So I mean, and that's maybe a little bit of a dream of mine. But nonetheless, Joseph carries on with why we need this endowment. So we talked about some of these other things that why, you know, you know what, what you can do to not get it like, say, causing dissension among the people. But he goes on a little deeper and he tells the brethren, he says you need an endowment, brethren, in order that you may be prepared and able to overcome all things. And those that reject your testimony will be damned, because it's based on the truth, right? Right. Prophet Joseph kills on the sick will be healed. The lane made to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see through your instrumentality.

51:26 But let me tell you that you will not have power after the endowment to heal those that have no faith nor to benefit them. For you might as well expect to benefit a devil and hell that you're possessed of his spirit. So. But when you are endowed and prepared to preach the gospel to all nations kindred and tongues in their own languages, you must faithfully warn all bind up the testimony and spill up the law and the destroying Angel will follow close at your heels. But this part that I keep thinking more and more you need an endowment, brethren, in order that you may be prepared to overcome all things like if there was anything that we needed in our day.

52:10 It's that strength and how do we get it? Well, we're, we're in our day and I don't know, but what what happens with Joseph after this is, is interesting because they go through the Kirtland temple experience, right? They have this wonderful manifestation and they have these the angels come and they have all this wonderful experiences. And how long is it before the church fractures and falls apart? Not long. Do you remember months? Right, Right. Like 6 months and the Kirtland Safety Society fails. All this starts happening that we kind of talked about last time and it just resets the work. This had to have had an effect on Joseph and he starts to say, what can we do to help prepare even further? We did the school, the prophets as the Lord commanded. We washed and anointed these brethren. We taught them, we washed their feet, and so many of them fell away.

53:23 And then he gets the papyrus, and he starts translating the book of Abraham, and he sees that not only do these things come by covenant or by ordinance, but by covenant. OK. Each person makes an individual covenant to be obedient to the laws of God, and that comes with consequences if you if you don't keep them. And we know what they are. So they start working Now Kirtland is done. They go to Missouri. Of course, all that happens, they have no opportunity.

54:03 But Joseph goes through tremendous hardship in this time where he approaches the Lord, I think in absolute humility and begins to formulate what this is going to be. And then he realizes the the Nauvoo Temple isn't going to be done, goes to the upper room in the red brick store and enters men into covenant covenants pertaining to the patriarchal priesthood. He enters them into the law of patriarchal and plural marriage. He is preparing them completely, not just for to receive the endowment of power, if you will, but so that they can hang on to it, so they can become the kind of man that are able to sustain this fraternization with God, that they might be able to see his face.

54:59 And it's all a very interested story as I start going through. You know, there's there's with what you just said there. I want to go back to that thing about, you know, these are these things are that you that you can overcome all things, right? Like I look back at Joseph during that that in Kirtland, Missouri period. And then I think about him sitting in Liberty Jail and he's a stronger man than I am, right, Because I would have been down there really complaining. Like, what do you want? I've done all this for you and my, you know, my people, your people, Lord, are out there strewn on the planes in the winter, and who knows what condition I'm sitting in here in prison.

55:55 What do you want? But I, I, I wonder, you know, how much of the experiences they had at Kirtland sustained him in those moments. You bet. I think that's huge. Well, and just some of those, some of that that he received in there which I know we've read that so many times, but but there's something he says where the Lord, the Lord comes to him after you know, he gives this prayer in not Kirtland in Liberty Jail. He gives this prayer, as we know, DNC 121 and the Lord answers them. My son, peace be unto thy soul.

56:36 Thine affliction and thine adversity shall be for a moment, and then if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high, and thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. And then he tells him, you know thou not, thou art not yet his job, and all these things that that haven't happened, but that may happened. And then at the very end there's one little thing he says that I just because he, he goes on and says that, Oh, where is that one? Where he says the Son of man hath to stand to blow all things. Art thou greater than he, You know, And I just think there's, there's a key here where those things were made for Joseph, Liberty Jail was made for him to be able to be strong enough. And not everyone, not everyone gets to go to Liberty Jail. But we all have our own trial.

57:39 We all have our own thing that prepares us for the blessings that God has in store for us. And a good a good leader will put forward the necessary opportunities, if you will, for the people to be able to grow. And really, it comes from getting in touch with the Lord themselves. Well, and you hit it right there and you hit it once before when, when we were talking before I, I started to talk, which was you'd said it like Joseph was trying to figure out how to make it stick this time, right. Long enough for, for the people that have an encounter with deity.

58:24 And that reminded me of something that that I picked up on about four or five years ago. If you were to boil down Joseph's thrust, right, what is he after? What does he want? I think it can be as simple as Joseph saying I've had my experience with deity, now let me show you how you can have yours right? He's wanting to bring people up, not stay above them with a heavy hand. Yeah. No, I think that's right. And, and there's even some talks and I think Don Bradley goes into this maybe a little bit, some of his work with the First Vision, that Joseph in the First Vision that fits all the requirements of an endowment.

59:13 And that we don't know what station Joseph had. We don't know all the things that he needed to go through. I mean, he's 14 years old, but he receives this blessing. And I wonder, it's just my wonderment, if there wasn't more to that experience then he told or was permitted to tell. Interesting. But that's just speculation, but nonetheless, Joseph has this experience and then he has this experience with Merle and I like we talked about in the beginning, and all of these things start happening and he starts bringing up the people to where they can have their own, where they can know God for themselves.

59:55 That was it's always been in the plan, even far back as the you know, we have as early as Moses and even before where. To come up into the presence of the Lord, you know, the brother of Jared is able to do this through his faith. And so I'm not I and I do want to couple back with this because we mentioned that this is meant to do this solemn assembly is meant to do as a group. But if an individual can do it, the Lord will honor that. If you have Nephi, the father of Nephi that knew the Savior and the Lord gives him a great blessing on the road and he goes out and starts preaching again, starts doing the work. In fact, some of it's the same work he was doing before he was prepared for the blessing.

1:00:49 And we have to understand that, that in our life, our job is to prepare ourselves for the blessings that the Lord has. Now, if we receive a blessing we're not qualified for, it may not make as big a difference in our life as we hoped. I mean, we've been, we participated in ordinances, right? We have in temple ordinances and all this. And I, I don't know if you've noticed this, but I've noticed that there are people who, when they receive their ordinances, seem to be radically transformed. And there are other people who don't. And I chalk that up to the level of preparation and the closeness of the relationship and their their closeness to God. And it seems to affect some people in a different way and they become changed and you can tell that there's been a physical not just order and then sub the endowment that's taken place, but a physical endowment that has been working in their life.

1:02:02 And the ordinances enter them into covenant to qualify them to activate some of this preparation. And I think that's where we are today is, you know, we received the priests of I Olson government. And Section 88 says through the ordinances, the powers of godliness are manifest. What is godliness other than righteousness? And we want to see people take steps in their life to become righteous and then also to receive this endowment of power. The spiritual knowledge, if you will, not just acting on faith alone, but the spiritual knowledge that can prepare us whether we go out to preach the nation to the nations or whether we're called to preach at home.

1:02:57 There will be bishops and there will be presidents. There will be missionaries, and there's a whole organization that is designed to bless the Saints of God. Do any of them need the endowment of power or any less than the missionaries that go out? Not if they're going to be effective. They need it as much as anybody else. Yeah. And I think this is not the end result of everything that's important. You know, I don't think the endowment of power is meant to be the finality. And I want to harken back to something that Nephi says. Second Nephi Chapter 31, he says, I just want to make sure I pull it up so I get it right.

1:03:42 It's so important and he's in reference to the baptism of fire, which is a whole nother part which we could talk about too because it's connected. Yeah, I think we should. I think it would be. I I feel like it'd be a little incomplete if we didn't. Yeah. And so there seems to be a connection, and I'll say it this way, from in my brain, this is so again, Bucka David, there seems to be a connection. Baptism of water, baptism of fire, ordinances of the endowment, endowment of power, you know, the sealing ceremony, sealing of the Holy Spirit of promise. Second anointings, making your column election. Sure, there's all these connections and they're the same.

1:04:29 There's an ordinance and there's what we can do to comply with the law for us. And then there's the grace of God that fulfills the other side. You know, you know what's fascinating because I love that you pointed out that there's all these connections. Your episode, this episode will drop a week from this Saturday. And this week I'm going to drop a podcast with with a guy named Eleor who laid out a beautiful case for what the doctrine of Christ really is. And what I'm seeing is, is that there is a lot that it that is tying between that conversation and this conversation just almost seamlessly as it's coming together. It's it's fascinating to watch.

1:05:14 Wow, that's amazing and LER does a good job so So anyway, second Nephi 3rd D1 and this is just I think we can learn a great deal from this. Nephi says that he says, the Lord said to him, The voice of the Son came unto me, he that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost like unto me, Wherefore follow me and do the things which you've seen me do. And then he gives a whole bunch of you know this is intense. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if he shall follow the Son with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy, interception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that you're willing to take upon you the name of Christ by baptism. Yeah, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water according to His word, behold, then ye shall receive the Holy Ghost.

1:06:18 Yeah. Then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost. Then can you speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel? Yeah, there it is. I mean, we've heard this. I know we've heard this a great deal, but I keep thinking there's a connection here. Also. You can speak with the tongue of angels, which is another place in the Scripture. Say angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost. And here's Peter in the day of Pentecost doing this very same thing, this, this, and even says woven tongues of fire, as it were. There's a connection here with the baptism of fire and the endowment of power.

1:07:00 And maybe they're not so removed after all, but but nonetheless, to be able to speak by the power of the Holy Ghost. And regardless of what tongue it is, it can be understood. Yeah. Sometimes, even in English, we probably need the gift and power of the Holy Ghost to be understood. Absolutely. I, I think, well, it, it's funny you should say that, right? Because another idea I've had rolling around in my Dome for the last, I don't know, a year, maybe a little over is that let's look at Lehman and Lemuel. How many times did they see miracles? They saw an Angel, right?

1:07:43 They saw an Angel who basically came down and, and corrected them for, for beating up Nephi, right? And then you see the the miraculous things that happen on the ship, you see before that Nephi getting the vision to build the ship, right? You would have thought that some of this would have stuck somewhere, right? And I think the real trick here is are you in a position where you can feel the spirit that are associated with those signs and wonders, Right, 'cause look, the human memory, it's a weird thing, right? Like I have seen way too often where someone says, no, I know, I know, I know because I read it here and blah, blah, blah. Well, you turn to it and if you haven't looked it up in a couple of years, it you could remember in a way that changes the meaning entirely.

1:08:34 But I don't think you have quite the same level of forgetfulness when it's communication by the spirit that tends to leave a different mark, that tends to leave a different testimony than just seeing with our natural lives. And so when you talk about needing the spirit, even as we we talk about these things in English, I think it's hugely important, right? How can we comprehend these things if we don't have the Spirit and likewise if we have the spirit going back to this idea of not just assuming somebody has I'll intent when they disagree with you, that that can go quite a ways, right? That can aid quite a bit understanding, which I think is really super important because the older I get, the more I realize not all the time, but in a lot of cases you're actually saying the same thing.

1:09:30 It's just you're saying it in a way that causes somebody else to react a different way, and I wonder how much of that could be soothed by speaking with that spirit. Oh yeah, well, that Doctrine Covenants go so far to say that the elders should not even teach unless they have the spirit on them. Right. Well, there's, there's a strict commandment and the reason why we forget things like scriptures and we forget like exactly what was said or certain situations is our memories are far better most of the time at remembering how we feel rather than what was actually done. But even in that we have to be careful because our memories can fade even with a strong experience if we don't write them down in the moment, which is, you know, another topic. Journaling is very important.

1:10:28 And so we need to write things down. We need to write our spiritual experiences down, right of the things that God has done. That's good for us because in a few years we may forget. And we have a, we have an excellent letter from Alma in Alma chapter 5. And he's speaking to the people, some of the people who were at King Benjamin's sermon. And he says, have you ever felt to sing the song of redeeming love? And if you have, could you say that you feel? So now he's reminding them of something that happened in the past. Because we forget.

1:11:09 We forget when we get out of touch and and we actually go Into Darkness, which is another thing that Nephi says, you know, he says, if you receive this baptism of fire, you receive this gift and then deny it. It would have been better for you that you had not known me. So there's a responsibility that comes with these gifts. As we're talking about the endowment of power, we're talking about the baptism of fire and all of our spiritual experiences. There is a responsibility we have to act and not put them on the back burner, not forget about them or deny them. That would be very serious. Yeah.

1:11:50 I'm reminded of a quote from Wilfred Woodruff, and I'm just going to paraphrase it 'cause I have no way to look it up right now. And he says I have seen angels, I have had vision, I have seen all these wonderful gifts of God. But the thing that is most precious to me is the still, small voice. And we all have access to that, or we should, if we can align ourselves properly with God, You know, get baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And I believe that's a commandment to the individual to go and receive this gift. And it will guide you and lead you in your life.

1:12:33 And that's the most precious that comes from the testimony of a man who had far greater experiences than I've ever had. And the thing that I hold dear was the same thing he holds dear. We ought to treasure our experiences. We ought to write them down, but one of the things I was thinking and because this ties into another another part that I think would be good to talk about. Sometimes in our life we get super faithful. We we're on the track right? You know the feeling we're in a good place and we received some things from the Lord and we go that feels good.

1:13:21 I love that. And then we fall. We fall off the wagon, so to speak. We start picking up our bad habits again. Or maybe we have a bad couple of days and we we forget the effort that it took and we we cannot forget or rather rest our future successes on our past experiences. Those were valuable and they can help us moving forward. But like Nephi tells us, he says, he says, and now, my beloved brethren, verse 19, chapter 31 And now, my beloved brethren, after you've gotten into this straight and narrow path, I would ask, is all done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, for you have not come thus far, save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in Him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to say, Wherefore you must press forward with the steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and all men.

1:14:31 Wherefore if you will press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, Thus say is the Father, you shall have eternal life. He's saying, don't give up when you receive these blessings that transform your life. There is more, and Christ will reveal unto you the next steps, and the next steps and the greater things. Here's Joseph back to our story. Had Joseph been satisfied with what some of the brethren viewed as the endowment of power in June of 1831 and not pushed for a more sure word, had the brethren been satisfied, that's all we would have known of Mormonism and it would have been a little smudge in the history of Christianity. Yep, Yep, 100%.

1:15:21 You know, there's something else here. And in this idea of not giving up and staying steadfast. I was having a conversation with a buddy couple days ago. He had mentioned, man, do you ever wake up and just feel like you don't want to go to church, right? Do you ever feel like you just want to stay home, stay in your, your, your sweats, hang out with the family and just shut it down? I was like all the time, all the time. And he goes, he goes, what keeps you going? I was like, honestly, I know that without it, I'm going to do some stupid stuff, right? That's first and foremost. But I did rehearse to him something that that had popped out at me not too terribly long ago. I'd watched 2 series back-to-back. One of them was called The Last Dance, which was primarily about Michael Jordan.

1:16:20 Then I watched another one called Man in the In the Arena, which was about Tom Brady. And both things that I walked away from with that is that those guys were a little bit different, right, in terms of they had a goal in mind and they weren't going to be turned away. There was a mental, there was a mental discipline there that I think the vast majority of people have yet to master have to get down. But if we look at the term disciple, right, which is I think we're all striving to be disciples of Christ, right? Or at least if you are a disciple of Christ, a better disciple of Christ. And, and look, that root word is discipline, right? And that doesn't sound like a fun word because it's kind of isn't, right.

1:17:09 And so, you know, as I look at both anybody, whether it was those two guys I named or anybody that ever achieves anything great, there is a level of discipline there that carries you forward. Motivation is fickle. Motivation comes and it goes, right? Discipline is a different animal. And discipline, I think is, is, is one of the things I think the Lord is trying to impart here is that like, look, you're not always going to feel like it, right? But you do have an end goal in mind. Now. How bad do you want it? Are you ready to pick yourself back up and do this again? Because we're all going to fall. We're all going to fall at some point. We all fall off the wagon at some point. And it's a matter of just getting back up and dusting yourself off.

1:17:57 But take, make no doubt about it, it takes discipline. Because sometimes you would sure feel nice just to sit where you are, right? Take a rest. But that's not what we're here for. We're here to to keep pushing and obtain the prize, and that takes this one. Yeah, no, my dad told me many years ago, you don't have to want to do it, you just have to do it. Exactly. And I like that's. Perfect. I might like. I might have my wife turn that into one of those cutesy little Relief Society signs. That's pretty cool. Nice. So as, as we're kind of getting to the end of this, because how much more can you go? And we can talk about all kinds of things, but this endowment of power has a purpose and and it must be fulfilled. And I think we're all looking at it and it's more than just going through the rituals.

1:18:57 It's more than going to church, even though absolutely, I mean, you're going to fare better like you say, going to church than not like go to church, but don't just go to church prepare. You know, you might, you might not have anything to say. You might not be the one to get called on or might not be the Bishop or whoever. But if you go prepared with the Spirit of God, you will get more and those around you will feel it, and it won't be long before the Lord will put responsibility on your shoulders and you get to learn how to put that in action under stress. But for now, start doing it.

1:19:37 Start including, you know, get yourself prepared when you go to meetings, when you go to work, when you go, I mean, every day. Do we believe in a Sunday religion or do we believe in a religion that's designed to magnify a person to become like the Son of God that he's supposed to be, right, which is everyday. Absolutely. Let me ask you this question, right? I think we've talked a little bit about, you know, we need to be prepared. That's part of this process. But let's talk about that, right? Because look, it's too easy for us sometimes, I think, to just fall into the. The thing of, well, we're just going to get up and go to church because that's what we do now.

1:20:22 That's great for discipline, right? And that's, that's the tool to get you there. But hopefully at some point you start to extract a little more than than just I'm checking the box and I'm here and I'm disciplined, right? So So how do you prepare for something as simple as church? Let's start there. What kind of preparations do you make? So because I'm a believer that every meeting that that we have in Mormonism should be an opportunity for revelation, right? Yeah. How do you get yourself in that mindset? How do you get prepared to go to? Church, well, it always starts with a good prayer.

1:21:03 And if I was going to ask the Lord anything in in honesty, like a real prayer, I would say help me do the most important thing at the most important time. And if that is waking up Sunday morning and making sure your kids get bowl of scrambled eggs before they head out to church or whatever your thing is, be doing your duty, whatever that is, and you will find yourself in possession of the necessary words, actions, deeds that you need to do to fulfill your mission. Because let's face it, we don't live in a vacuum. If you go to church, and even if you don't say the prayer and you don't do the sacrament, you don't get asked to speak. You're going to interact with people. Your spirit's going to affect people. I'm reminded of a story of King David when King Saul kept sending his soldiers out to kill him because he was scared he was going to take his Kingdom because he was. And Saul sends the sends these servants out and they just kept not coming back while they were going. And David was preaching and singing with the snuff of the spirit on him that these soldiers and servants begin to be converted there.

1:22:28 And finally, Saul himself comes, and when he hears the words and his heart is pricked, he casts himself down and repents right there. And I go. Those are the kind of people we want to be. So preparation for church. My goodness. First thing to do is get out of bed, you know, say your prayers, start the day off right and go do your duty, whatever it is. And it starts before Sunday morning, you know, if you've got the sacrament coming up and you know, you got to make a covenant with God that Sunday, that you are going to remember the commandments and to take upon yourself the name of Christ.

1:23:10 You probably ought to start preparing before 15 minutes before you sit down in a seat, you know, or, or as the as the priest is walking up to you, you know, maybe go Oh yeah, it's supposed to be thinking about Christ. Well, let's start this process a little before. Let's make measurable difference between every Sunday. Say, what can I do before next Sunday to make myself better and more in line with with the Lord because these things do not happen in massive jumps. It's the slow, consistent relationship that gets built because of our continual faithful acts. And you know, this is a lot for me to say. This is this is the exact work that I do with myself regularly is what do I need to be doing consistently? How do I manage my affairs better? How do I remember the Lord?

1:24:08 I mean, remember is a tough word because we made the covenant, the sacrament that we'd remember him always not remember him on Sunday or remember him when it's icy on the roads and we need him to take the wheat. You know, you know, it's bigger than. And if we're going to be possessors of the gifts and blessings of the spirit, of the endowments, of all the things we've been talking about this whole day, we have got to make God our focus, not the things of this world. And I don't mean that we can't, you know, take her kids camping and do, I mean, like, we have lives to live, but in everything we do.

1:24:54 And I think King Benjamin says this in his address, you know, believe in God, believe that he is and that he has power to save you. And when you believe all these things, see that you do them right. And I think that's the key that we live a life that is worthy of the spirit because in a moment of weakness, and this has been my experience in a moment of weakness where we get asked to perform an ordinance or maybe we have a talk to give or something that we're supposed to do of a religious nature. We can get on our knees and and we can become beggars before the Lord and say, you know, Oh, I to to bless other people.

1:25:36 I really need your help. And he may choose to bless us and we might feel pretty good about ourselves, but that does not continue forever. We don't get to be beggars every time. Eventually he will say, you're not getting it. I'm not going to help you this time because you need to learn that you're supposed to be bettering yourself. And through my grace, I can help you. But you've got to start to live up to your responsibilities. You've got to start living up to the words that you've received from me, the blessings that you've received. These things speak against you when you don't act. If you've received something from the Lord, you ought to take it serious.

1:26:23 Write it down, read it often. We have the scriptures, study the scriptures. You don't. You don't get to understand doctrine of any kind without reading the scriptures and pondering their meanings, truly asking the Lord, what does this mean? You know, if you have access to a temple and you're endowed with the ordinances, go and listen to what is happening. You have opportunity to go, go, listen, try to learn, study these things out. Because in the Scriptures and the words of God, which I consider the temple a continuation, a revelation of the word of God, there in there you will find the patterns that indicate which is a law of God and which is a commandment of men.

1:27:17 You will learn the difference by studying the laws of God. And the laws of God are the things that make us better. It's the things that he's governed by. And the law in one sense is is even greater than God, because you can't. Disobey it right? Where else he seems to be God. Right. And so we're trying to bring ourselves into compliance with the law. Now, this is all very big and grandiose, but I really think if every person would wake up tomorrow morning and say today I'm going to do the most important thing at the most important time, we would see the world revolutionized, I think. So I really think that that would be, that's a good starting place, at least for me.

1:28:08 I think so. You know, I had a had a wise, a wise high Councilman once old school guy when I first came into the church name was Don and Don used to say something that really stuck with me. Two things about getting ready for for a sacrament. You always used to say, you know, you shouldn't treat this as not right, like it's too easy to fall into routine, right. And routine can be a very helpful thing and it can also be one of those things that that gets in the way sometimes of us extracting the deepest meaning we could possibly get. And he said your Saturday evening should be a time for you to sit down and review the prior weeks wins and losses, so to speak, right where you screwed up. Be cognizant of that and figure out, be intentional. How are you going to do better next time? And as you go to partake of the sacrament, remember that. Focus on that.

1:29:11 The other thing that he had said that has stuck with me was he made a couple of comparisons for the sacrament table. That really stuck with me. And maybe it's because I'm a history guy and I love history, but he said you want an Old Testament comparison to the to the sacrament. Well, it's pretty simple. That table is probably more of an altar, right? And the men standing there and officiating in that are acting as the priests in Israel. Now, our job as as members back in those days was to bring a sacrifice. Well, what sacrifice are you bringing? Are you bringing the contrite heart, the, the broken heart and the contrite spirit, right, The rending of the heart, as we talked about earlier?

1:30:03 Are we doing that? And if that doesn't work, just understand that those men up there at the sacrament table are sitting in the same seat the Savior was when he first put the ordinance. I'm not saying that they are worthy of our worship or anything like that, but understand it's a sacred ordinance that we are, we are engaging in. And it requires a sacred mind to extract it not only its deepest meaning. But look, some, some of the best revelation I've ever received personally has come in sacrament meetings, right where on those weeks I had done, I'd done what I needed to do to prepare. And when I got there, I could just bask in that spirit and allow revelation to flow. But if, if, if our sacrament meetings have become anything other than a revelatory meeting, I think we're missing the mark a little bit.

1:30:54 Yeah. And I think that they ought to be where if you get asked to speak in a sacrament meeting or, or a general meeting or whatever, whatever you call them, you should be prepared and get up and speak the things of the Lord. And if you do that consistently, your meetings would be better. Everyone would love to. Who doesn't love to go to a good spiritual meeting? They're my favorite, you know, and if everyone's prepared and people are that are going, are prepared with the spirit and the people that are there speaking are prepared, we would see massive shifts in the direction of many of the churches because they'd be moving towards God. And this is universal.

1:31:38 This isn't just for even Mormons really, but, but because that's what we are, we just say, if we would do this, we would see the Lord beginning to bring his vineyard together in a way. I mean, we're, we're literally on the cusp of the second coming. And I don't know if that means 50 years, 100 years, I don't know. But I know that it's, it's closer to us than it was to Joseph. And he felt like it was immediate, right. So we have work to do and there are prophecies that need to be fulfilled. There are work that that rests upon our shoulders and it starts right here with us. It starts with our daily works.

1:32:21 It starts with our families. It starts with our responsibilities. We have to get ourselves in a position where we we make this as Paul the apostle says, you know, he says Christ is the great profession of our faith like this is this should be our primary purpose. And I'll get so caught up. Come out of her, O ye, my people, bless you. Be partakers of her plates. I don't mean go run off in the middle of the desert. No offense to anybody who's done that. That's fine. That's what you're supposed to do. But many of us are called to be where we're called to be. Do our work, but don't partake of her internally. Don't become one with the world.

1:33:07 Remember, we have a responsibility to bless. And we're Joseph. Many of us are Joseph, and Joseph's job was to bless the other tribes of Israel. And that's that's the responsibility that lays on us. But we have to be prepared. Joseph Smith knew he had to prepare the people in his day. He had to give them the experience. And the Lord showed him that he had to go through his own kind of trials and experiences like we talked. So when we have our trials and our experiences, do we blame God or do we take Him for what they are? An opportunity to repent, an opportunity to see the truths about ourselves?

1:33:52 Absolutely. Let me ask you this question. I know, I know, we're getting towards the end here. You said we were, but I had one other question, which was what do you think keeps us from being able to access this endowment of power? I think that, like King Benjamin said in his address, I cannot weigh the diverse ways in which we could sin, but there are a multiplicity of ways that we cut ourselves off from the blessings that can be ours if we were just to be faithful. So again, I would ask, I would ask this question to myself. And this ties into something Jordan Peterson said. And I just think it's so, you know, Jordan Peterson, the psychologist, he he said something one of his podcasts that I just think about all the time, what thing am I not doing today that I know I should be doing? Isolate that thing and start because it seems like a daunting task to say, well, we don't have a Joseph Smith. We don't have a person who stands at the head receiving revelations for us, who's guiding us through every step of our life.

1:35:15 And yet so, so we can convince ourselves and say, well, I guess it's not possible for us to receive this endowment of power. Maybe if we had a Joseph, we could. And I go, we still have a Joseph. Let's just remember Him and our fathers and our faithful progenitors, they're all over there working for us. I guarantee the reason we haven't received is something here. It isn't something there. And if we would come up to the place where the Lord, he tells us in the Scriptures that He can't withhold himself from someone who fulfills the requirements.

1:36:01 If we're not receiving the endowment of power, if we're not receiving the baptism of fire, if we're not receiving these spiritual gifts, there's probably something we need to work on. That something might be of a temporal nature or an emotional nature or spiritual nature. There might be something in the way. And if we need help, boy, This is why the Lord gave us these helpers, these bishops and, and other men that are supposed to have kind of figured this out in some ways. And we go find a good counselor and say, what can I do? One thing they may ask you, well, how's your prayers?

1:36:42 I might say, not good. So well, let's start there, you know, and let the Lord start to guide you. And I think that if people would recognize how good the Lord has been to them, they wouldn't help but feel this broken heart, contrary spirit, so the goodness of God for them. And you know, I don't have all the answers. I couldn't give it to somebody unless I was inspired. Somebody came to me and said, what should I be doing? Well, I if I'm not in that place, I couldn't give them the answer. But I know people have given the answer to me and it has varied based on what my needs were.

1:37:26 Yeah. You know, I, I appreciate what you said there about the prayers, right? So often I think we look at, at the great men in, in Mormonism, right? And maybe it's just me, but I'm like, OK, what separates them from me? And as you get little glimpses into their daily lives, right, You don't get them very often, but sometimes in the record you can, you can spot patterns, right? And usually what it is, David, is it, it's not something massive, right? It's usually the small things. It's usually those little things. And it reminds me of something. It reminds me of two things.

1:38:07 First, something my grandmother used to tell me, I used to watch her sweep out, sweep the floors, right? And she would always start in the corners. And I was, I was always like, just sweep up the stuff in the middle. That's the stuff everyone can see anyway. Just get rid of that, right? And I asked her one day, why do you do that that way? And she said something that was interesting. She said if you take care of the corners, the center will take care of itself. And I said, well, explain that to me. She's like, well, the corners are the ones that don't get attended to very often, but the one stuff in the middle, that's obvious. So if we take care of the corners, of course we're going to get the stuff that's visible, and I think it's that.

1:38:50 Way in our spiritual life. Right, Is that we got to take care of the corners, right? And the corners typically are smaller or what we would deem as smaller things, right? It is the consistency in prayer. It is the consistency, consistency of Scripture study. It quite frankly, it's the consistency of repentance, right? I think, I think those kind of things there are really what separates the spiritual giants from the rest of us because they've somehow managed to, to, to put that in into context, it reminds me of the story of Naman, right? Naman goes to, to Israel because he's got leprosy, goes to the prophet. The prophet doesn't even talk to him. He just sends out an emissary and he says, yeah, just go bathe in the Jordan 7 times and you'll be healed. And he's irritated, right?

1:39:43 Because he's like, oh, I've sharpened my Spears. I got my my Shields, man. I'm ready to go to war for you guys. What can I go do? Right? And so often I think as human beings, we start to look around and go, OK, what's the big thing I can do, Lord? If, if, if, if it's something you need done, you let me know what needs to be done and I will go do that. No, he's not going to ask you for something like that if you can't take care of your scripture study, right? I mean, he's not going to not going to go down that rabbit hole. I'm not that rabbit hole, but go that direction to give you something massive to do when he can't trust you not to get on your knees every night and just talk to him for a few minutes.

1:40:23 And so I do think it's the little things that separate us and probably the little things that you kind of brought up there that keep us from from these kind of blessings and these kind of encounters with the divine. Well, it's because when the Lord gives us light and understanding, we have a responsibility to act. And until we do, those things stand as a witness against us. And I'm, I'm, I'm going to get real vulnerable. But I had AI had an experience where I was asking a big question. I had fasted and I'd done all the things, you know, I was a big question. What am I supposed to do? I think it was, you know, what am I, where am I supposed to move to or something like that?

1:41:05 I felt like I was supposed to move and I wanted the Lord to give me this wonderful answer that I could really, if I was to be honest, that I could tell everyone. Yeah, I know because I got this from the Lord and that was an egotistical thing, but that I had to learn. But I but the answer I got was really interesting. It was you need to, you need to work on yourself to get your habits and your desires with entertainment under control. You get your habits and your desires with food under control, and you need to teach your family. And I was like, yeah, I know about all that stuff, Lord, but what I'm asking is this question. I don't think you heard my questions. I got this question. The same answer comes again.

1:41:48 And it wasn't until I began to put effort. I didn't even have to be good at those things. Once I started putting effort into them, I got my answer. And I think the Lord desperately wants us to become like Him, but He knows where we are far better than we are. 100% you hit on something else there. Sometimes we can look at things and then we get like analysis paralysis, right? We don't, we don't go and do anything, right? And we've seen this before, right, Where everyone's standing around like, well, what are we going to do?

1:42:32 And then we don't do anything because we're afraid we're going to offend the Lord right? Now, as I've looked around and I've thought about that for a while and seen it, sometimes I think the Lord is waiting for us to just do something. Like you said, you don't even have to be very good at it, right? Sometimes you just got to do something. Even if you mess up, that's OK. So right, you and the Lord will make corrections together to work it out to be better. But do something because so often I get the feeling as as, as I converse with the Lord and I, I stop and I analyze my feelings about, you know, the prayer I just uttered or, or whatever I'm facing.

1:43:18 Some, a lot of the times for me, it's like just do something, just do something and then the Lord can work with you. But if you're, if you're so scared of making a mistake that you do nothing at all, well, it's kind of like the parable of the talents, right? You're just kind of burying stuff and not really working with anything. Yeah, well, I'll give you another parable. Why it's important to move. Who can change directions on their car without moving? Right. If you're if you're face the wrong direction, you kind of have to get movement even if you move a little in the wrong direction to start to turn, because it's pretty hard to turn around a car if it's not movement.

1:43:58 Absolutely. So yeah, I guess, I guess for me as as we come to the close of this, that would that that would be The thing is just take care of the small things, know the doctor, know the laws, do the little things and just do something. And I think, I think that'll at least get you on the path. But yeah. I'll read this, I'll read this last two verses from Second Nephi 31 because it talks about just what we're talking about. I read it once before, but I'll just, or I read the one part, I'll read the rest of it. Wherefore he must press forward with the steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God in all men.

1:44:38 Wherefore if he shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and a dirt to the end, Behold, thus saith the Father, ye shall have eternal life. And now behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way. And there is none other way nor name given under heaven, whereby men can be saved in the Kingdom of God. And behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is 1 God without end. Amen. There you go. Perfect. It's the way. Absolutely, absolutely. Dave, that was great stuff. Is there anything else you wanted to bring up before we shut this down?

1:45:24 Oh, I'm sure when I get a little bit down the road I'll be like, oh, we shouldn't have talked about this, but I think it's good. If we got two weeks, if you want to jump back on, we can do that. So we we got, we got the time when we have the technology. Yeah, true. Well. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it. And and as always, you can cross something like this again. Give me a call. I love these conversations. I value you as a friend and a brother. Man, I appreciate it. Thank you, me too. All right, stick around for 5 minutes. Bye everybody.

1:46:27 You're listening to the Mormon Renegade podcast.