Chapter Two- God Gives His Children Access to His Power

God the Father has the power, desire, and authority to save, bless, redeem, and exalt mankind. It is His purpose, His work, and His glory. (1) We are what He does. We are what He cares about. To have us back in our heavenly home, developed and tested, immortally-embodied, and cleansed by His Son, is His objective.            

Elder Quentin L. Cook has taught, “The purpose of all that the Father has revealed, commanded, and initiated for the inhabitants of earth is to help us come to know Him, emulate Him, and become like Him so we can return to His holy presence.” (2) This purpose is the overarching objective of every single thing that God the Father does. The purpose of every Godly action is to exalt mankind.           

God the Father’s master plan is called The Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Everlasting Covenant, and The Covenant Path. (3) Safely within God’s Plan, our history is beautiful and our future is magnificent beyond our comprehension.

The Beautiful Plan of God the Father

In the first place, matter was ordered and Intelligence organized (4) by the God of the Universe and we became, us-- made from pure, refined, (5) eternal elements. (6) We lived in His presence and had the benefits of His association, along with other great and noble ones (7). We lived in light and were taught truth (8). We had free will and used agency (9) to chart an individual, premortal path. (10) 

But, the spirit world was not our destiny. Heavenly Father intended to exalt His spirit children. “In order that we should advance and eventually gain the goal of perfection” (11), Heavenly Father purposefully would provide us with all of the experiences and opportunities we would need. God’s eternal plan included a beautiful dwelling place, bodies created by earthly parents, families and angels to support us in our process and progress, ordinances that would bind us to commandments and promises, experiences of growth and development, the Holy Ghost to guide us, and prayer to link us home. 

We understood that along with the joy that this next chapter would bring, we would learn by mistakes and uncomfortable seasons. We also knew that our marvelous bodies would cause us some grief and eventually would fail us. But there was no problem with any of that. None. Because, called and prepared from the foundations of the earth (12), God would send His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ to save in every, single impediment of our experience. 

We were taught this beautiful doctrine, "And He will take upon Him death, that He may loose the bands of death which bind His people; and He will take upon him their infirmities...that He may know...how to succor His people...that He might take upon him the sins of his people, that He might blot out their transgressions..." (13) 

So, because Jesus would go “forth suffering afflictions", He would know how to succor, or comfort, to strengthen, and enable. So that even away from God, we would never be alone. Then, Christ's victory over death through His resurrection would break “the bands" for us, too. We would know immortality in resurrected bodies of perfect form and proper frame. (14) And finally, the Savior would take our sins upon Himself so that our transgressions "might be blotted out". So that we could repent and be clean. So that scarlet, would be white. So that we “...could learn from our experience without being condemned by it.” (15) 

Isaiah called the Savior, “The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths..” (16) Where there is a washout, He repairs. Where there is a breakdown, He restores. Where there are obstacles, hazards, and stumbling blocks, He is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Intercessor, and our advocate with the Father. He compensates and pleads our cause. Because of Him and partnered with Him, we would be able to return to Heavenly Father. Proven. (17) And clean. We trusted that plan! We believed in Christ! 

Now, Lucifer, in his pride and greed, somehow made it seem like Christ’s execution of the Father’s Plan was a risk. (18) He convinced a third part (19) of the hosts of heaven that they should be frightened of God’s plan, and he taught that there could be another plan. But, there wasn’t, and, we didn’t buy that argument. John the Revelator says, that we overcame this antagonist “...by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of (our) testimon(ies)...” (20) We believed Christ. We had faith and trust in His mission and in His ability to complete it. We exercised our faith in Jesus Christ. (21) 

And as anticipated and prophesied and in the meridian of time, He did it. He finished His infinite, eternal, and saving work. (22) "Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows... he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities...and with his stripes, we are healed." (23) Isaiah shows us Heavenly Father's heart for us, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; (God) shall see the travail of (Christ’s) soul, and shall be satisfied..." (24) Why is He pleased with Christ’s travail? Because it saves us. The Atonement of Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the central, mandatory, perfect Plan of Salvation, makes possible the exaltation of God’s children. 

During mortality, we are disqualified and separated from God and access to His power by sin and weakness, thus we are dependent on our Savior, Jesus Christ. “The Savior would… provide an atonement to pay the price for all to be cleansed from sin on the conditions He prescribed. Those conditions included faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and other ordinances…” (25)           

Alma taught that, premortally, we began to talk with great joy (26) and thanksgiving about this plan of redemption that would be efficacious on conditions of our “faith and repentance and...holy works.” (27) Certainly, “holy works” has reference to the ordinances of the gospel and covenant-keeping.           

In this life, we must exercise faith in Christ and repent of sins. (28) At baptism, we present ourselves to one of the Lord’s representatives and declare our intentions to walk in Christ’s path of promises and to repent when we fall short of His perfect standard. We are baptized as a sign that these are our intentions. (29) We can receive a remission of sin through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and then, another most amazing gift-- the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands as a constant protector, assistant, and powerline. (30) With the companionship of the Spirit, we have access to God the Father’s power. Mormon taught his son that the way was prepared for mankind to be worthy of the Holy Ghost and that way was Jesus Christ. “…God prepareth the way that… men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts.” (31)           

By receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, we are given generous access (on conditions of righteousness that is enabled by Christ) to God the Father’s total priesthood power and authority. President Nelson confirmed that “Every woman and every man who makes covenants with God and keeps those covenants, and who participates worthily in priesthood ordinances, has direct access to the power of God.” (32) 

Nephi taught that it is because of Christ and His sacrifice for mankind that God is able to give us the Spirit. “…the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me (Jesus); and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of men, because of me (Christ’s Atonement).” (33) 

Nephi’s life was a living illustration of dependence on Christ and thus, the availability of the Holy Ghost’s influence. His fifty-five chapters in the Book of Mormon are filled with courageous trust and witness of Jesus Christ and the Savior’s Atonement-mission. He understood his personal dependence on Christ for any righteousness that he might produce. (34)           

Nephi was so generous with his readers in revealing the ways that the Holy Ghost was working in his life. He saw visions of his father’s Tree of Life, and beautiful scenes from the life of Jesus. He was directed to places unknown to him inside the walls of Jerusalem, towards the brass plates, and the promised land. He had words of encouragement and chastisement given to him, and authority to speak them to his brothers. At times he was given physical strength beyond his natural ability (35), like when he escaped the bands in which he was bound.  Nephi was able to speak of the future, which is prophecy. He was given instructions on how to build a boat (36) and where to find the resources to make a bow (37) when he had no prior knowledge of how to do so. And on and on and on. This was a man who understood the workings of the Holy Ghost in his life and was worthy, through Christ, to be magnified by God the Father.           

I am fascinated by Nephi’s last words to his readers in the Book of Mormon. (38) Nephi finished his earthly ministry by sharing the things that he had learned over a lifetime of dependence on God and inspiration from the Spirit. He said, “…the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost… then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.” (39) Nephi is describing the miracles that being clean through Christ enables— the inspiration from and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. 

It is generous and loving of our Father in Heaven to allow men and women access to His power. This is possible through continual, penitent, repentant cleansing through the Atonement of Christ, and then by a magnifying of our capacity through the Gift of the Holy Ghost. For all those who are willing to make and keep covenants and perform ordinances, there is capacity and power available from the God of the Universe. (40)