Hey there everybody and welcome out to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood.
Scott Durfey here, joined as always by Uncle David.
What's up Dave?
Hey, Scott on my way over here.
I was listening to John Denver sing and I love John Denver's Christmas album, Rocky Mountain
Christmas.
And I was listening to it and he was singing Aspen Glow.
I think that's the name of the song.
He had this little saying and I thought, yeah, I can, I can relate to that.
He was saying as the weather gets colder, our hearts grow warmer.
And I thought, I just thought about that.
Rest the way over here and thought, you know, there's, this really is a special time of
the year.
I know it can be also a hard time of the year for many people, but I think generally it
can be such a special time of the year as the seasons change and the weather gets colder.
It seems that our hearts gets warmer as we get closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas and
all that we have to be thankful for such a great time of the year.
Yeah, you know, I went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting Saturday and as it gets colder and
as we get closer to the holidays, those rooms swell.
Really?
Yeah.
Well, you know, this season brings out the magnifying glass and makes our problems and
misalignments.
Let's put it that way.
Seem even bigger.
This is a time typically for family.
It's not uncommon for Alcoholics and addicts and those who suffer from those types of things
to have estranged themselves from their families or to not even have a family in a lot of cases.
I know that's true.
I've been aware of that as a member when I was a bishop.
It was such a hard time of the year for members of our ward who were alone or lonely and kind
of down and out.
It's it does magnify.
I think you're right.
Magnifies our challenges and problems.
But it also can be such a time to humble ourselves and examine ourselves, which is part of the
reason why, you know, more people who who aren't happy with where they're at, they become
extremely unhappy with where they're at.
So I anyway, I think it's I'm grateful to feel that that line is for the most part true.
The weather gets colder, our hearts get warmer and hope it is for all of our listeners.
Scott, I had a thought and I thought I would share it today, even though it's it's not
on our topic.
We're going to talk about the premortal existence today.
Finish our conversation and our lesson on the premoral existence today, which is one
of my favorite topics.
But I I read this quote and I just really loved it and wanted to share it today.
It's actually from a general conference years ago.
Sister Joey Jones, primary president of the church, and she she wrote.
If the love we feel for the Savior, we could say love and focus that we feel for the Savior.
And what he did for us is greater than the energy we give to weaknesses, self doubts,
bad habits or poor circumstances.
Then he will help us overcome the things which cause misery in our lives.
He saves us from ourselves.
Let me reemphasize, she wrote, if the pole of the world is stronger than the faith and
trust we have in the Savior, then the pole of the world will prevail every time.
If we choose to focus on our negative thoughts and doubts, our worth or sorry, if we choose
to focus on our negative thoughts and doubt our worth, instead of trusting in and relying
on the Savior, it becomes more difficult to feel the impressions of the world.
Of the Holy Ghost and to feel peace and joy in our life.
I just think that's so great.
It's so true.
I know that's true.
It just really spoke to me.
So you're right, Scott.
It's about what do we choose to focus on?
And if we and it takes energy to focus, whatever you choose to focus on, negative or positive,
good or bad, spiritual or worldly, whatever you choose to focus on, it takes energy.
Believe it or not, it's a choice.
It is a personal, individual choice.
If you choose to focus your thoughts on that, it's not a choice.
We don't always have a choice what thoughts come into our mind.
But if it becomes our focus, that's our choice.
What we choose to focus on is a decision that we make.
And sometimes I know unconsciously, subconsciously, we make that choice.
So we need to be, I think, more intentional this season of the year and the rest of the
year, all year, about what we choose to spend our energy on in focusing on what we choose
to focus on.
Yeah, say that three times fast.
Sorry.
I hope that made sense.
No, it actually did.
But you know what, David, the really cool thing about all of this is as we start again,
restart this lesson today on premortal life, pre-existence, war and heaven, who we are,
who's we are, all of that.
Understanding those things help us to position our focus in a way that's more positive and
can actually create that focus.
You said it, you know, sometimes subconsciously our focus begins and that's in large part due
to a lot of influences.
One is the natural man, for sure.
We do have that to contend with.
But the other one has something to do with our habits.
If we are in the habit of focusing on negative, then our knee-jerk reactions are going to
be towards the negative.
We were just talking before we got started here today about a couple of people who are
just always happy.
The gift of Deb, my wife, has the gift of happiness.
Now, she's not in a perfect mood all the time, you know, and she does feel the effects of
the fall emotionally and everything else.
But she really does have the gift of happiness.
Well, that gift of happiness has been cultivated by her.
I love that.
She has made the choice.
She has made the choice to cultivate and care for that spiritual gift that she has and to
make it grow.
She's not like that.
You know, when you ask Shirley, how are you doing?
The first thing she'll always say, and regardless of how she's feeling or what's happening in
her life, and she's getting along in yours and she's not perfect in her health by any
stretch of the imagination, but I can call her right now.
Shirley, how are you doing?
Oh, Scott, I'm happy.
That will be her response.
That's sweet.
Yeah.
But it's easy to do that when we choose to focus our focus on, jeez, that one needful
thing.
We talked about that last week.
Yeah.
That one needful thing.
We need to focus, especially, you know, as we get closer to Christmas, he is the reason
for the season.
And if he is our focus during this holiday season, as we begin to get closer to it, really,
we can have, as President Nelson promised us, we can have joy if Jesus Christ is our
focus in any circumstances.
Even he in his suffering, he did it for the joy.
Hebrews teaches, right?
So I don't know.
I just think that we have probably more, well, I know, I know I have more, I'll just speak
to me.
I know I have more control over my focus than I think I do.
I know I don't have perfect control over my thoughts, but I know I have more control
than I think I do over my focus.
And what you choose to focus on determines your choices, determines your decisions.
I just think it's really critical.
So just a thought that hopefully we can choose where to spend or invest our energy, our mental
capacities and cultivate some of those things in our life.
Pre-mortal existence, Scott, is again one of my favorite topics, and it's become more
so later in my life because of experiences I've had with individuals in my own family
giving patriarchal blessings than others with the reality of the pre-mortal existence.
I've heard stories throughout my life of individuals who have had, you know, glimpses or who have
had experiences or, you know, spiritual experiences that have confirmed to them the reality of
a pre-mortal existence.
And I believe them.
But until you kind of have some of your maybe own personal experiences with it, maybe it
doesn't seem quite as real as it could or should in our lives.
The prophets we established I think last week, the kind of the scriptural foundation.
We talked about the book of Abraham and Alma and doctrine, Covenants section 93 and we
could have used many other scriptures.
But today I want to just talk maybe a little bit more about the some details about the
pre-mortal existence and some experiences that I've had and maybe you've had that our
listeners hopefully can relate to or be inspired by.
So let's just talk a little bit.
Let's begin by talking a little bit about the war in heaven and what we understand about
the war in heaven.
It was a crucial part and affected all of us in the pre-mortal existence.
I know that it has been taught and it sometimes still is that when we were in the council
of heaven that in Satan's rebellion that he proposed to force us to keep the commandments.
I think that is that's been taught in the church and I don't think we have a perfect
understanding of the word heaven and I don't think it's necessarily wrong to say that.
But I think that there's a more universal proposal that he made that would destroy agency
then by just forcing us.
And it's one that I actually learned from brother Matthews Robert J. Matthews who wrote
the Bible dictionary and it's interesting that it's in the Bible dictionary and it continues
to be in the Bible dictionary in the latest edition of the Bible dictionary.
So in the Bible dictionary on page 741 under the subtitle war in heaven the war was primarily
over how and in what manner the plan of salvation would be administered to the forthcoming human
family upon the earth.
The issues involved such things as agency how to gain salvation and who should be the
redeemer.
The war broke out because one third of the spirits refused to accept the appointment
of Jesus Christ as the savior.
Such a refusal was a rebellion against the father's plan of redemption.
Notice Scott that it says the father's plan of redemption.
I know that's been well emphasized over the last several years since Saturday's way or
popular play and movie and you know idea came out and it looked like it was saviors.
The saviors plan it wasn't the saviors plan it wasn't the sons plan it's the father's
plan.
Everyone knew that Jesus Christ was chosen by the father to be our savior and redeemer
and that that he would be the center of the plan of redemption.
And then Satan you know has this other plan and I don't respect him enough to even call
it a plan I think it's just an outright rebellion.
The Bible dictionary continues it was evident that if given agency some persons would fall
short of complete salvation.
Lucifer and his followers wanted salvation to come automatically to all who pass through
mortality without regard to individual preference agency or voluntary dedication.
One more time the sentence is key Lucifer and his followers wanted salvation to come
automatically that meaning we're not going to force you to do anything it's going to
come automatically it's going to come unconditionally to everyone who passes through mortality without
regard to individual preference agency or volunteer or voluntary dedication.
Well that that is no doubt the most universal effective way to destroy agency is to say
it doesn't matter what you choose it doesn't matter what you do go down there and do anything
you want party party on it doesn't matter there will be no accountability there will
be I will save you will all everyone universal this is the essence of universalism that everyone
will be saved.
That was the false philosophy that other mccunkey teaches that this was a philosophy of Satan
and others his followers that was impossible what he couldn't pull it off because he wasn't
going to overthrow God God was sovereign he's not going to overthrow God or God's laws but
in essence he that's what he was saying he was he was over he was seeking to overthrow
God by destroying law and accountability and if you do that Scott if there's no commandments
think about it if there's no commandments and there's no accountability and it doesn't
matter what I do you destroy agency agency is doesn't matter anymore it's gone so that
I believe is what saint proposed and and to really to really believe that to really nail
that down look at the culture that we're living in right now I mean the war continues we're
still in the war the prophets have taught that the war in heaven has been just transferred
from the premortal existence to this earth and here in mortality we see that alright
so no doubt communism and other dictatorships force people and they destroy agency and I
actually believe Scott that when the rise of communism is where this teaching of forcing
people that kind of became the model communism and and forcing governments that would force
other people I think that's where the whole idea that maybe that was part of the war in
heaven and that Satan's plan or sorry Satan's rebellion was to force us and that's how he
was going to destroy agency as I've studied it as you go back and and there were some
absolute comparisons made to communism and what happened in the war in heaven so I think
that's kind of where that is really emphasized that that the war in heaven was about force
and I believe that it is definitely more universal to do a more universal effort to destroy agency
a more effective way to destroy agency is by saying it doesn't matter go to the church
of what's happening now just go down and do anything you want good bad evil it doesn't
matter I'll save you I'll get the credit that's what Satan proposed well we see here right
we see here in mortality that's pretty hard to say no to obviously right people are wow
just pro-choice and I'm not I'm not saying that in terms of one one decision or choice
in you know people here pro-choice saying anything of abortion I'm saying that his whole thing
was hey just go choose anything you want that's how you destroy agency is by destroying law
by destroying commandments and destroying accountability if there's no accountability then there's no
need for a savior there's no need for an entomment this gets back to the very center of the anti-christ
in the book of Mormon knee or in in Alma chapter one you know where he proposes hey we don't
need a savior well you don't need a redeemer because there is no sin core or there's no
crime there's no crime it's just dog eat dog survival of the fittest you know that's what
was proposed in the pre-mortal existence so when you think about that and and that's
what I believe it really does affect how you see what's going on in this life and maybe
even in my own life and in your own life is that wow I need to be I need to be careful
I need to not just be drifting with the culture here I need to stand up I need to make some
choices and decisions in my life because that's what decisions choices accountability to those
decisions and choices right and wrong things are not relative there is absolute truth and
there's absolute right and wrong good and evil righteousness and wickedness but same
proposed that there wouldn't be any of that they just do what you just do what you want
do what feels good and I'll save you no wonder one third followed him isn't that amazing
that one third of the host brother Matthews used to always say that the reason he believes
that it wasn't about force because he says nobody likes to be forced to do anything he
says I can't believe that a Satan would have said I am going to force you to keep the commandments
that no way would he have gotten one third to follow him but the reason he got so many
to follow him the reason that was so attractive and popular was because they were worried
the one third that did end up following him they were they doubted their ability to either
choose the right or they didn't want to rely on a savior or redeemer they they felt like
they could be totally independent do their own thing and it would free them up and they
would be free liberated no wonder one third of the host of heaven wanted to follow him
and no wonder Scott there's so many we see in our culture throughout the world really
no many no wonder so many here are attracted to that philosophy it's pretty attractive
yeah there's no doubt well and there's a couple of reasons for that I love some of the points
that you made all of the points that you made but there's a few of the points that you made
I think that are especially poignant or relative to the things that we talk about in this podcast
one of the one of the things that you said you know you bring up knee-hoor you know this
whole knee-hoor principle yeah I'll see it yeah the the the whole knee-hoor principle
you'll find that throughout the entire Book of Mormon you'll find it through other scripture
you'll find it in our culture you'll find it in our in our own lives all around us even
within the church to a degree I mean you know it's a bit of a stretch but we can even find
it there but the whole idea behind that is is you know everything's okay you're okay I'm okay
everything's just okay you're right yeah there's no big deals there's no problem with what you're
doing just go ahead whatever your thing whatever makes you feel good yeah right and I there's a
couple of things here you read from the Bible dictionary and just another part that I'm going
to read here this is also under the war of heaven it says the warfare is continued in mortality
and the conflict between right and wrong between the gospel and the false principles etc the same
contestants and the same issues are doing battle and the same salvation is at stake yeah I love
that Scott thanks for reading it I think it's so cool how it's true how he puts that because it is
true you know we talk about this war in heaven like it was and it was you know there we had some
some experience in it in a past part of our lives part of our spiritual existence right
but I think it that sometimes it's not as obvious or it's less likely for us to see or to think about
that same thing going on here that same philosophical debate debate the knee-hoor principle in Alma one
you know that I mean that was many many many centuries after the war in heaven and here we are
many many many centuries after that and nothing's changed right so we have it right but so the but
the point here is okay so this is great and this is important doctrine I can see that but how and
why does that help me with my relationship with the atonement of Jesus Christ and and I think that
I can answer that in part and I want to hear what you have to say about it too but I one of the things
that I think about when I ask myself that question okay how does that relate to what's going on here
if I had that relationship there if I really knew him there and and that's what we're talking about
here if we knew him we voted with our with our devotion with our with our commitment to him
to to follow his plan heavenly father's plan that would be carried out by the Savior well
well by knowing him and having had that experience and and we know we knew him and we know which way
we fell on these issues that's evidenced by our being here in mortal form well here we are in
mortal form and if we can have and tap into those remembrances that memory of somehow
what it was like there why was it so important for me then and those things we'll pull forward
we'll be able to pull those spiritual memories those spiritual remembrances from that time Dave
you get the experiences probably more than most people in the church because of your experiences
with the patriarchal blessings but we can pull those experiences forward tap in again to who we
really are and through that fill the relief from the effects of the fall of adam and eve through
Christ power as is afforded to us through his atonement yeah that's that's awesome Scott the the
three a's and really are the center of this doctrine and and to really understand what happened
in the premortal existence and what the war in heaven was all about it was about the three a's
our agency accountability and atonement there was there was a years ago a great conference talk given
that was the title of the talk by elder boyd k packer there have been byu devotionals that have
used that title and i invite our listeners to look up all of them and read them and understand
that the war in heaven and the war that we fight now is really centered in those three a's agency
which is there is no agency if there's no accountability and accountability would never
matter if there were not an atonement of jesus christ that all three of those are dependent upon the
upon the i mean those are the those are the essence those three a's make up the essence
of the of the father's plan of salvation and his plan of redemption that agency has to be honored
it has to be protected at all cost we read we read the verse last the passage of scripture
in revelations 12 last week about the war in heaven just briefly and how we how we conquered satan
right and the three ways that we conquered him was through the blood of the lamb that the atonement
of jesus christ had power had effect on us even in the premortal existence we progressed there
there based not upon our own strength or genius but we progressed in the premortal existence
based on the atonement of jesus christ it was retroactive if the atonement of jesus christ
was retroactive to adam to alma to all of those before jesus even carried out the atonement
then it's retroactive all the way back into our premortal existence and it is that's what we
believe that the atonement of jesus christ had power and influence and strength in our life we
had faith in jesus christ god before we were ever born i always just get a little twinge when i hear
that in the premortal existence i actually taught this in the missionary discussions back in the
seventies the rainbow lessons we actually used to teach that we in the premore existence we walked
by sight but in this life we walk by faith well there's some truth to that but it's mostly wrong
because we walked by faith we fought in faith our power and our strength even in the premortal
existence god was based on our faith in and our testimony of jesus christ our elder brother there
as our savior and redeemer this whole war was accomplished in the premortal existence by faith
in jesus christ and it's how it will be conquered and how will overcome satan in this life but
back to revelation 12 verse 11 it says we overcame satan in the premortal existence by the blood of
the lamb second by the word of our testimony and third that we were willing to give our lives
to our lives under the death that's how we overcame it there that's the only way we can overcome it
here so i i just think understanding the war in heaven and our role in that and how that has
that has transferred to us here is just a really important part of our identity
and who we are and scott once you know who you are i mean if we could get a glimpse of how
valiant we were in the war how how ferociously we fought in the war in heaven to defend jesus christ
as our savior and redeemer and the father's plan of salvation and redemption wow if you can get a
glimpse of that it changes you and it changes you immediately and forever and i say what you want
before i share a story about that well i i was just going to say i know you have a
couple of stories about well sorry i'm talking well no no no that are going to help us with all of that
but but david this is one of the things that you think about it you know if let's go back to
c.s. louis and warmwood and you know in the dead devil's uh understudies and so forth and if you
had an understudy and you were the devil um and and you were trying to thwart or throw barriers in
front of heavenly father's plan i believe this might be the first place you would start yeah i i think
if you could confuse us about who we are that would be all we would really really i that's
probably all it would really need to be done really and then mission accomplished because that
it's that confusion around who we really are david that i in my opinion and and you know i have some
experience with this uh with my own life and with the lives of many many many many many others
that i have an opportunity to be around and serve with and and serve uh but if but if we can forget
who we are if we can be confused about our spiritual identity we have such identity crisis in our
world today as it is around gender and so many other things right uh that that's just an expansion
of of what satan's trying to do if he can confuse us about who we are then he wins yeah absolutely
scott absolutely and it just seems to me that uh in the premoral existence and in this life that he
he makes he really confuses the line between right and wrong yeah he almost has erased in our
culture the line between good and evil and it it's a it's a fulfillment of isaias prophecy
that in the latter days that people would call evil good and good evil and there's just so much
confusion about that here in our world and that that is the war that's what the war in heaven was
all about so i i've had um a couple of experiences with this as a as a patriarch you know really
almost every sunday i haven't experienced with this to some degree or another in in bestowing
patriarchal blessings upon individuals and and honestly with an eye of faith and and i take no
credit for this god i it's a it's a it's a gift from heavenly father it's not not from me none of
these blessings come from me i know that i could give lots of examples and experiences i've had
that have taught me that some sometimes hard lessons to learn that i'm nobody but it's true
acting as an instrument to be able to kind of see them the way god sees them many patriarchal
blessings talk about hell not just how chosen and elect they were in the premoral existence
and how they were preserved to come forth in these latter days based upon their premoral existence
which is taught that we are added upon in this life depending upon what we did in the premoral
existence and will be added upon in the next life depending upon how we live this life but
you know i've i've had a few times when you get a glimpse and you you see them in the premoral
existence and it's over it's overcoming really it's it's uh so touching to be overcome by the
spirit and to kind of see them and i had that experience it's been a few years ago now and
we've shared this in our previous seasons there was a there was a young woman who called me up and
asked if she could set up a time to have a patriarchal blessing to receive a blessing
and i could just kind of tell by her voice that she was a little bit older and i i always ask those
who you know request a blessing a little bit about themselves so as i inquired about her she
told me that she had not been to church in 16 years that she had just recently started to go
back to church and the reason she was going back to church was because she had an eight-year-old
daughter she had actually two children she told me she had two children she had never been married
and this eight-year-old daughter she wanted her to be baptized and so she'd start to go back to
church for her daughters this sunday in which she called me she called me on a sunday evening and
she said i went to church today and after sacramene the bishop came down to me and said he wanted to
talk to me in the office and we went in his office for a minute and we got acquainted he wanted to
know a little bit about me and he he said i feel impressed to ask you do you have a patriarchal
blessing and she said no and he said well i feel impressed you should get one so he gave me a
recommend and wanted me to call you and set up a time so we set up a time and she came over a
few weeks later probably three weeks later and i remember opening the door and there's this beautiful
young woman 32 years old with with dreadlocks and tattoos piercings and you could tell that you
know she'd had had a hard life we we welcomed her in we went in the office she she'd come alone and
we visited got got better-coined and i knew that the lord had a blessing for her and this was the
day for her to receive it so after saying a little prayer i laid my hands on her head after i asked
her to say a prayer and it was very sweet short prayer and then i laid my hands on her head and
scott i was really overcome by the spirit of the lord and the love of her heavenly father for her
and i i could see her as a as a young girl i could see the white dress she wore i mean this was i
don't again how literal this was i don't know whether in the body or out of the body is paul kind
of describes i don't know but i i could see her in in my mind's eye i could see her and uh i she
was just so fun so much energy so playful and then i got just a glimpse of her heavenly parents
look watching her and smiling at her and i was trying to describe this in her blessing and i
kept using the word delight how they delighted in her as their as their spirit spirit daughter
and uh anyway i'm trying to describe all this in a paragraph and then i knew there were two things
i had to say and i've never said i'd never said them before i've never said them a sense in any
blessing but i knew him this came from heavenly father and he knew she needed to hear this
and i said your heavenly father wants you to know that you are one of his favorites
i remember when i said that sky thought no is that is is that really docturally accurate
it you know my my thoughts went is that doctrinal uh and i thought well we're all his favorites you
know but she needs to know that she's one of his favorites that you know god loves us all
i like what nief i said that he was highly favored he knew he was highly favored of the lord
anyway i remember some of those thoughts going through my mind when i said that
and uh so i said he wants you to know that you're one of his favorites and then this sentence and
this really affected her and me i said and he wants you to know he's never been mad at you
well i remember her head falling into her lap and my hands were suspended in midair and i just
nothing was said we just there was a moment of silence and she wept for a moment and then she
she sat back up and continued to kind of cry and but in that in that moment when her head was in her
lap and the the blessing had had this pause i remember thinking wow wow the love of god for his
children how he loved his children in the premortal existence how he loves them here i remember
thinking wow if he if he if he's never been mad at her he's never been mad at any of my kids
if he's never been mad at any of my kids he's never been mad at me if he's never been mad at me
he's never i know he's never been mad at my wife i just remember thinking wow the love of god
it was it was quite a moment scott to feel that i know she felt that i i never i've always felt
bad after that blessing i never asked her if she sought to i kind of wondered if she had seen it
but as i tried to describe that i know that the premortal existence became so real to me and i hope
that it has to her and i haven't seen her since but i know that that changed her life it will
change her life it has and it will and and and it has mine so i just i just want to testify to all
of our listeners that i know the premortal existence is real and that we are literal spirit sons and
daughters of heavenly parents and how pleased they were with us and how much they loved us and how
sad they were that one third i think about this sometimes when i think of the way we're children
who leave the teachings of their parents and who rebel and wander for a while think how hard it
was for our heavenly parents to lose one third and scott not just to lose them for a little while
but for them to be so rebellious and really hateful towards their savior redeemer the
the firstborn son of our heavenly parents and he only begun in the flesh jesus christ
to be so hateful towards him and so rebellious towards their father that they would become
known as perdition and choose to follow satan instead of following the father's plan i i think
about how hard that must have been for those heavenly parents so i just uh the premortal
existences is is real to me and uh and i know that we existed before this life and i know that
that how we lived there and the choices that we made there definitely have direct effect
not just on us having physical bodies here but what we are here to accomplish what we are here
to do and when one gets some sort of a glimpse or an idea or belief that they existed before
this life and there's more to this life than just this life that their life here was influenced by
their life before this life that they came here for a foreordained purpose or mission
that when people feel that believe it get a glimpse of it wow scott it changes it changes them
forever it changes changes all their decisions and choices in their life after that i think one of
the biggest things i love so much about that story and i've heard that story several times now
uh about the patriarchal blessing and it changes i think this time one of the things that i love
so much about that is heavenly father's never been mad at you i don't know um but i think i i
i think i do know i think that if we have a real concept a real living concept of what it was like
to be in a pre-mortal life with loving parents with a with a with a redeemer with a savior
who would come down and satisfy the laws of justice in our behalf so that we could have free
agencies so that we could be like unto him unto them in all ways but especially and first in that
way i just heavenly father knew the end from the beginning he knew all the things that we would go
through it makes sense that he wouldn't be mad at any of us scott i've i've i've kind of made this
a study yeah you know in the old testament it talks a lot about his anger and his wrath right
then i've made a study this and i was so grateful that elder christopherson confirmed this because
i'd come to the same conclusion that his anger and wrath as it's described is not an emotion
God has no wrathful emotion when he talks about his wrath that is not an emotion that he has
i mean i'm sure he could be but he is not he there's no contention their anger or wrath
it is it describes his actions it describes his the consequences for breaking laws or commandments
it describes what he does scott not what he feels when you talk about the wrath of God
you're talking about the outcomes or his actions wrath does not describe his emotions
for his children yeah yeah and i i know i have felt like God's been angry with me i know the the
students in our institute class that we see every wednesday night have expressed that to me i know my
kids have felt that some still do i know members so i think this is a problem you know that we must
overcome and one of the great ways the best way i know to overcome this is through a relationship
with our heavenly father the holy ghost jesus christ because of his atonement but again going back to
an understanding who we were from the very beginning really kind of helps me to line that all out
and true and understanding who god is yeah helps us to know who we are yeah and when you know when
you know that god is a loving father yeah and that our relationship to him is child to father
father to child right and that he is he's never going to to hate us he's never going to be mad
at us now again there are laws and there will be consequences but there is accountability
but the law but the consequences aren't because of god's anger towards us exactly the consequences
are because of the the the law of justice and mercy yeah exactly so i think it's really just
critical that we see god for for who he is now i know he is a god of emotions i know he has emotions
absolutely but his emotions are always appropriate and perfect and i know he cries i know he feels
sorrow i know that he i i think angry is a word that can mean take on a lot of i know he feels
he never feels contention i'm sure he feels disappointment i'm sure he feels a lot of the
things that a loving parent watching their children struggle would feel but he also has
the ability to see the end from the beginning and he sees the beginning and he remembers us
in ways that we can't necessarily remember because of the veil and it affects his feelings for us
if we had that same blessing and benefit to get a glimpse there's a veil for a reason
and one of the other reasons there's a bell so that we won't be too accountable
you know it's not just to test us that's one reason that there's a bell that we can be tested
but another reason is is that we he out of his love for us he doesn't want us to be overly accountable
to be able to see perfectly who we were there and what we were for today and do accomplish
so i i just know that our belief what we believe what we choose to believe what we understand
about the premoral existence scott it definitely affects our daily life here
so another another experience scott that i've had that's personal with with me my family is
uh with my with my son devin i know not not every person has this uh blessing and by the way i've
given i don't know 300 and something patriarchal blessings and i haven't seen everyone in their
premoral existence in detail the way i saw that that particular daughter of heavenly father
but i i've got had a glimpse of a few and uh before i was ever a patriarch
i was encouraging my son to get his patriarchal blessing he had uh in minnesota when we lived
in minnesota for 14 years where he was basically raised uh as a child and teenager and had such
great success as a basketball player and captain of his basketball team and and uh all city conference
this is a big deal some great basketball players in the minneapolis st paul metro area and he was
all conference point guard and and went on played little college basketball became captain of his
college basketball team he saw himself as a basketball player that was his identity scott
and i had a hard time really to get him to be fully functionable uh he was always a great kid
always a good kid i think he he tried really hard to live the standards and keep the commandments
and he was such a respectful son to his parents earthly parents and and uh anyway lots of lots
of sweet things about him but he he just didn't feel really connected to the church or sees himself
so much as maybe a latter-day saint and uh it was while he was playing college basketball that i had
that i had uh got up there for the weekend picked him up brought him home enjoyed a few days with
him and then i was driving him back to his college dorms where he lived with basketball players and
i was saying hey debon how you doing good son are you going to church once in a while he said i
i'm going once in a while dad i'm going once in a while i said son are you still thinking about
going on a mission because you know i that was a conversation we'd had throughout his teenage years
and this was a little bit heartbreaking he said to me dad i'm not a missionary and i'm never going
to go on a mission and please don't bring up the m word again and uh wow that that was a little
shocking surprising and a little hurtful and uh i think we wrote in silence for a while after that
and uh so i told my sweetheart when i got home and that night we prayed again that he might be
able to go on a mission uh we continued to pray for that and he had a non-member girlfriend and
i was concerned about that and anyway he we got invited to move to utah i think the year after that
and he was kind of finishing up his college uh he was 22 years old at the time and i called him
up one day and i said son we've been asked moved to utah then i hope that you'll come with us
because i wasn't sure he would i thought maybe just stay in minnesota because his connections there
and uh i said i'm hoping that you'll come with us and uh he said dad i i actually think i need a
change i i'd like to do that and i'd like to maybe move out there before you move out there so i
think it was in april or may that i moved him out to before we didn't we didn't move till august i
think i moved him out there in april to utah from minnesota to utah and uh he's he got introduced to
a to a sweet girl a little lds girl and they started to date i know that he had kind of changed
his cell phone number and had kind of broken things off with his girlfriend in minnesota and
and uh by the time we moved out to utah he he had he really liked this girl and they were really
close a few months after we had moved out there yeah they came to us in our home and i think it
was october november and and they said hey we wanted you to be the first to know that uh
we're gonna get married in the spring you know he's 22 she's 21 and i said wow that's great
that's awesome congratulations and i asked in the temple
and he said he he put up his hand but we're gonna work towards that dad we're gonna work
towards that i said oh man that would be awesome debon debon before you get married get your patriarchal
blessing please get your patriarchal blessing so about two weeks later after the big announcement
uh i get a call from debon and i'm i'm actually driving home from work it's about six o'clock at
night he says hey dad where's the patriarch live and i said hey son this is my favorite part of
this story hey son you can't just show up bud you you got to see your bishop you got to get a recommend
you got to be you got to be worthy it's something that you got to prepare for
and there was maybe silence for a moment and he said hey dad i've seen my bishop i have a recommend
i'm worthy enough i have an appointment at and seven o'clock tonight and i've been fasting all day
will you just tell me where he lives oh man uh this is such a good boy but uh wow well he was
22 dad i know i know that was bad dadmanship on my part hey you know anyway he was he had been
fasting and praying all day he said and i said oh son that's so great and then i thought well
we're gonna come right and so i said we're are we invited or mom and i invited no no if it's okay
dad i just want this to be between me and the patriarch and the lord and i said oh that's that
sweet son and then i thought all about britney's going and so i said is britney going because i
in my mind you're thinking if she's going i'm going exactly yeah and he said actually actually
no no dad she's not in fact i asked her if she'd come over to the house and visit with you guys
while i get my blessing and so is that okay if she comes over to the house tonight while i get my
blessing and i said sure son that's that's awesome uh that'll be great i have you all i'll see you
after your blessing so anyway uh she came over to house about seven he went to get a his patriarchal
blessing uh from a wonderful staked patriarch and about eight o'clock he he drives up i remember him
driving up and this is my favorite part of the story when he opens the door to come in the house
he doesn't let go of the door knob he never let go of the door knob he opened the house
or he opened the door into the house holding the door knob and with his left hand he waves to
britney hey britney i gotta see you outside for a minute and he looks kind of white he kind of looks
peeking like you know and i'm thinking oh no what happened you know i've been through quite a bit
with him and i'm thinking oh is something wrong yeah and and uh she gets up kind of shrugs her
shoulders and looks at us and walks outside and i'm thinking oh man what's what's going on so i ran
upstairs to look out my bedroom window through the blinds of our bedroom window like any good yeah
absolutely and uh i could see him leaning out on his car uh weeping she's wiping his tears and
he's wiping hers and pretty soon they come to walk back into the house and i ran downstairs to
sit back in the couch before they could so they made it look like nothing they're all calm and
serene been sitting here the whole time guys and uh he says uh hey mom and dad we're gonna leave and
i just wanted you to to know that we're taking off and i'll let you know uh i'll talk to you tomorrow
oh man that was a long night i didn't i didn't sleep i actually heard him come home but i i wanted to
honor what he had said and then he came home late that night i eventually got a few hours
sleep but i i got up early like five o'clock because i knew he had to go to work really early
and when he came up to the kitchen around six o'clock i said son please please can you tell me
what happened and this is a boy scott i've never heard publicly bear his testimony he said to me
dad i had a vision i said what what do you mean son what do you mean you had a vision
and he said i i got a glimpse i got a glimpse of myself in the pre-mortal existence last night
when the patriarch laid his hands on my head to give me my blessing i could see myself
in the pre-mortal existence and this is a quote i was very influential in helping others follow
jesus christ and not follow saint and then he said and dad if i did that there i have to do that here
i'm gonna go on a mission and the engagements off wow scott i i was speechless i i didn't know
what to say i it was such a tender sweet moment the spirit so strong and i knew that he'd had an
experience something of an epiphany and he had he he knew who he was he knew his purpose and it
changed immediately that this is what this was such a miracle because in one blinding moment
his life immediately completely changed when he had that experience with the patriarch the night
before i mean he opened the door and wouldn't let go of the door enough if that would have been me i
think i might have come in and talked and wondered what to do about it all you know i maybe would
have thought what am i going to do about this he knew immediately what he had to do about that
and it completely changed the course and direction of his life and britney's and britney's and their
families so he put two two weeks later he's put in his papers and a few weeks after that he gets his
call then he's called to go to florida on his mission goes in the mtc on his 23rd birthday
the 23rd birthday he enters the mtc and it changed his life forever he was a
a tremendous effective missionary and i'm happy to say that britney waited she had her own experiences
and she and she waited thankfully and they were married in the temple three weeks after he got home
they were married in the temple and have four beautiful children you know honestly the the
observing that and the lesson that i've learned scott from that experience and patriarchal blessings
is that once we know and i invite all of our listeners to restudy their patriarchal blessings
and maybe maybe maybe their premortal existence isn't really mentioned in their their patriarchal
blessing but if they read it in faith if they really kind of read between the lines i think
they can get a glimpse to see themselves the way god sees them and to kind of know they'll get a
better idea of who they are uh and once we do that once we see that with an eye of faith then it's in
our hearts scott it changes us forever so i just invite our listeners to kind of re-examine their
patriarchal blessings to study them to ponder who they are their their gifts that they need to cultivate
uh their talents that they brought with them here from the premortal existence their purpose and
and who they are and once they know who they are um their lives will be forever changed and uh
blessed and uh i just bear witness of the truth of those experiences and and those truths scott so
thank you the uh the the whole thing that i love the most about the story about the young lady who
was one of heavenly father's favorites and the story about and and this story is not just devin's
story this is devin and britney's story this last story really right because because of their eternal
union and and all of that now the the cool thing about all of this is is these these experiences
or some like it that heavenly father has in store for us heavenly father wants us to all all to know
these things he wants me to know from whence i come right he he wants me to know of my spiritual
dna right and he wants all of us to know that he wants all of us to know that because knowing who
we are when life does throw things at us which it will if we can go back so for throughout devin's
life he will be able to go back if he chooses and tap into that same night that he and britney held
each other leaning against his car wiping tears from each other because of one of the most poignant
experiences that was life changing for them we all have that we all have that ability we all
have the promise from heavenly father that he will help us to know who we are so that we can
through that memory through that remember ring also remember his son yeah brothers and sisters it
is only through the effects of jesus christ through his atonement that we have the ability to overcome
any and all of the effects of the fall of adam and eve which is mortality and we're talking
about mortality today and it is only it is only through his atonement that we overcame satan in
the premortal existence yep and it's because of that we did that there we have to do that here
that's right and it's through the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimonies and
and loving not our license to us and to the death to the death that we will overcome satan and his
followers here may god bless us so to do throughout this week is our prayer and we pray that for each
and every one of us gang don't don't hesitate to send us your questions he redeems us at gmail.com
god be with you all until we meet again we look forward to being with you again next week until
then be well