Area Leadership Message
A Sure Witness of God’s Marvellous Plan of Happiness
As a young man, I attended a private religious school with a Christian faith tradition. It was a wonderful school, and I saw many examples of Christlike service during my time there. Every week at the school we were required to attend a religious instruction class.
In my final year of high school, the whole first term of that religious instruction class was spent on the topic of “Mormonism” (as termed by the minister who conducted the class). More particularly, the class focussed on why “Mormonism” was wrong.
During the first class, the minister warned everyone about what they should do if they came across “Mormons.” Everyone in the class pointed at me and said, “But Jared’s a Mormon.” After the class, I spoke with the minister, and he offered to get me help.
For the first time in my life, I really needed to know whether the gospel of Jesus Christ was true and if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the Lord’s restored Church on the earth. This was no longer a theoretical question in my life. I had previously felt the presence of the Holy Ghost at my baptism. However, I now felt an overwhelming need to gain a deeper knowledge. A moment of reckoning had come in my life. I needed to know for myself.
For the next few weeks, I devoured all the books I could in relation to the restored gospel. Most importantly, I read the Book of Mormon; and as I read the Book of Mormon, I came to know that it was the word of God and another testament of Jesus Christ. Shortly after, a loving bishop helped my brother and me prepare for the temple and our missions. These decisions have blessed our lives and our families ever since. How grateful I am to that wonderful bishop.
In the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we have the blessing of knowing where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. We know that we are children of God, and through the Atonement of our Saviour Jesus Christ, we can return again to the presence of God.
John 3:16 reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
After Almas was rejected in Ammonihah, an angel appeared to Alma, commanding him to return and preach again to the people in that city. Alma returned.
“As he entered the city he was hungered, and he said to a man: Will ye give to an humble servant of God something to eat?”
That man was Amulek, whom the Lord had prepared to serve with Alma. Together they taught powerfully God’s plan of redemption.
The prophet Lehi similarly taught that it is only “through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” that we can return to dwell in the presence of God.
We access the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ by following His doctrine. As we have faith in Him, offer a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and come to Him through the ordinances of the gospel—making and honouring sacred covenants—we are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and we receive His power in our lives.
Our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, recently taught us of God’s covenant love, hesed. When we receive the ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ and make covenants with God, we become connected to God in a special relationship with access to His covenant love.
Recently, I had the blessing of hosting visitors at the Auckland New Zealand Temple open house. Often, I would ask these visitors how they felt after they entered sacred rooms in the temple. Many spoke of the peace and connection to God that they felt. The Holy Ghost was testifying to these visitors that the temple was the Lord’s house.
As members of the Church, we are able to access the power of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement through regular attendance at the house of the Lord. That power will bless our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren as we stay faithful to the covenants we make.
Each of us must come one day to our own day of reckoning. We are blessed to have a loving God who cleaves to us and who is in relentless pursuit of us. When we ask God with a sincere heart, with real intent, and with faith in Christ, He manifests the truth to us by the power of the Holy Ghost. From that day on we leave neutral ground. Yet the blessings of His covenant love are upon us, and the promises of eternity and eternal life, through God’s plan of happiness, are ahead of us.