Area Presidency Message
Loving, Serving and Ministering to Others
“When we minister, we help others develop a plan to obtain greater faith in Christ, make covenants with God, and be healed by the grace of Christ.”
The gospel of Mark recounts a tender story of how Jesus Christ cares about and helps the children of our Heavenly Father who act in faith to hear Christ’s teaching and to follow His commandments. Jesus is in the city of Capernaum. When the people hear He is there, they are excited to see Him, and they swarm the house where Jesus Christ is staying. It is so crowded that the scriptures teach, “there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and He preached the word unto them.”1
There was a man who wanted to hear Jesus teach, but he was so sick he had to be carried by his friends on a bed. He was afflicted with palsy, or a form of paralysis. But he really wanted to hear the words of Christ. His friends helped him by carrying him to the house where he could hear and learn from Jesus. Seeing they could not enter the place where Christ was teaching, the friends took him to the top of the building and “uncovered the roof . . . and . . . let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.”2
Christ was impressed with their faith. As you may remember the story, Christ first forgave the sins of the man who suffered from the palsy, and then he healed him physically to show he had the power to heal both spiritually and physically. The scriptures teach, “immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all.”3
There are many truths we can learn from this event in Christ’s ministry. One I want to highlight is how the four friends brought the paralyzed man to the Savior to be healed spiritually and physically.
The paralyzed man needed help to come to the Savior. He could not see Christ or hear Him on his own. His friends carried him and opened the way for him to be healed by Christ’s grace and power. What a wonderful example of ministering. You and I, as ministering brothers and sisters, prayerfully seek to serve as Christ would.4 We are to “visit the house of each member, exhorting them to pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties.”5 We watch over, are with and strengthen them.6
In short, when we minister, we help others develop a plan to obtain greater faith in Christ, make covenants with God, and be healed by the grace of Christ. I have heard Elder Ulisses S. Soares, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, teach that the difference between a minister and a friend is an invitation to act. Let us invite those to whom we minister to act as they progress along the covenant path.
Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of the Prophet Joseph Smith, stated: “We must cherish one another, watch over one another, comfort one another, and gain instruction that we may all sit down in heaven together.”7
To help us understand how to be more effective ministers and become like Him, our Heavenly Father sent us His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to be our example. Christ loves us, knows us, and helps us to grow and repent and change, thus helping us to heal spiritually and physically.
Heavenly Father has also sent angels to provide us examples of how we are to minister to the children of men.8 He has also given us the Apostles to minister to us. Think of how President Russell M. Nelson and the Apostles of our day minister to us with their teachings that guide us to increase our faith in Jesus Christ and to come unto Him.
As we prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we learn from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, “In the last days the Lord will call his ministers and make an everlasting covenant with the people.”9 Isaiah also taught that as ministers, “they helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.”10
As we liken the scriptures to our own lives, we who have made baptismal covenants in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are called to be ministers, helping every one his neighbor.
Just like the four friends who carried the paralyzed man to Christ, who lifted the roof and lowered the paralyzed man down so that Christ could heal him, we are asked to lift and guide our fellow brothers and sisters on the covenant path to Christ.
May we prayerfully seek the guidance of heaven as we seek to minister to those for whom we have responsibility. As we courageously invite them to take the next step on their covenant path, we are preparing to one day sit down together with them in heaven.
Matthew L. Carpenter was named a General Authority Seventy in March 2018. He is married to Michelle (Shelly) Kay Brown; they are the parents of five children.