7/7/2017 - Section 46: follow-up

July 7, 2017

Section 46 follow-up

Gifts of the Spirit, Spiritual Gifts, Spiritual Gifts How to Obtain, Ask Seek Knock, Progress, Perfection Road To,

Sometimes, in my scripture studies, I find when I finish reading and pondering and writing my thoughts about the scriptures I have read that day, that my time is up and I have to close my scriptures and my study guide and get on with my day’s demands. That is what happened at the end of section 46. We were moving to our second house in Bend and there was much demanding work to be done. We are now mostly settled, and I realized I didn’t complete the study manual on section 46. There is a section in that manual on page 101 that is too good to leave behind:  “The gifts of the Spirit are available to all who pay the price, which includes entering into a covenant relationship with the Lord [our first covenant was baptism], obeying the commandments, and seeking perfection with all one’s heart. [Note that is seeking perfection—not achieving perfection—for the journey to perfection is one of those line upon line, precept upon precept things]. The gifts will be the greatest to those who seek most earnestly, but they are available to all: to the missionary who needs help in learning a foreign language, to the person whose temper frequently flares, to parents who seek help in rearing their children. President George Q Cannon wrote: ‘How many of you…are seeking for these gifts that God has promised to bestow? How many of you, when you bow before your Heavenly Father in your family circle or in your secret places contend for these gifts to be bestowed upon you? How many of you ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to manifest Himself to you through these powers and these gifts? Or do you go along day by day like a door turning on its hinges, without having any feeling upon the subject, without exercising any faith whatever; content to be baptized and be members of the Church, and to rest there, thinking that your salvation is secure because you have done this?....If any of us are imperfect, [and who isn’t] it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. [I would say—it is our duty to pray for the gift that will take us another step closer to perfection] Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind. Am I an envious man? It is my duty to seek for charity, which envieth not. So with all the gifts of the Gospel. They are intended for this purpose. No man ought to say, ‘Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.’ He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives these gifts, and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order that they may be a perfect people upon the face of the earth, notwithstanding their many weaknesses, because God has promised to give the gifts that are necessary for their perfection.” (Millennial Star, Apr 1894, pp260-61)   The Lord has outlined the way one receives these gifts in the closing verses of section 46:

1.     Read verse 28. What must one do to receive these gifts? Should a person ask for specific gifts?

2.     Read verse 30. How must a person ask? (see also Helaman 10:5) [v 4 too]

3.     Read verse 31. In whose name and by what power do these gifts come?

4.     Read verse 32. What must a person constantly remember to do?

5.     Read verse 33. What must we practice in our daily life?”