Home » Calling and Election Made Sure » How You Received Your Calling and Election Made Sure » My Very Brief Story (How I got the Promise)
| Re: My Very Brief Story [message #715 is a reply to message #691] |
Thu, 26 July 2012 00:32   |
bishop
Messages: 144
Registered: July 2010
Location: USA
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In the Jewish prophetic tradition 144,000 is a representation of a perfect number. It does not necessarily mean that there are 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes. It means that it is a perfect work by the tribes. After naming the 12,000 from each tribe, in verses 4 to 8, it appears that John sees the results of the missionary work which was done:
Revelation 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and , and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
This implies to me that the work will snowball from the original 144,000 until "a great multitude, which no man could number" is gathered into the Church of the First Born. Therefor it is a great and perfect work. So my point is that it may be that there have been and will be many who are called to this work of bringing the faithful into the Church of the First Born, even on both sides of the veil. It may not be so definitive [like we think as non-Jews] as to say that the missionary force is limited to 12,000 from each tribe.
JulesGP asked concerning state of Amonhi in reference to the promises and descriptions in D&C 76. Hopefully the following comments will help to crystallize her understanding.
One of the "big let downs" of those who receive their CE is to realize that just as they learned "line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little" as they progressed after their conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints, they must struggle, ponder and continue to learn after CE. They do have a much faster learning ability which they have mostly developed and refined in their progression to CE. But they still have to work for virtually every crumb of new knowledge and growth they obtain. They have access to angels, Gods, and the Holy Spirit, but they must learn how to use this access [but isn't it true that any member of the LDS Church has this access?]. They have potential for much greater spiritual gifts than before, but they must develop their gifts just as they developed their ability to use the gift of the Holy Ghost. The point is that they have these tremendous blessings pronounced upon them as listed in the D&C, but it is a process to receive and develop them. There is no free lunch. There is a much bigger lunch, but it actually costs more  . We just have a greater ability to pay for that more expensive lunch. It goes along with what President Heber J. Grant stated [paraphrased], "The more we do a task, the easier it becomes; not that the task gets easier, but that our ability to do it increases." This observation describes the learning ability of a CEer to a "t." I am convinced that he was referring to this very phenomenon when he made this statement. It turns out that as we learn to receive revelation, at some point, we reach a spiritual level that requires that we receive our CE. Just as the Lord told the brother of Jared that he could not withhold his presence from the Brother of Jared, we cannot be withheld from receiving CE when we have reached a certain level of spirituality.
What is spirituality? I believe that a good definition of "spirituality" is: The ability to communicate with righteous [spiritual] beings on both sides of the veil, facilitated by one's spirit learning to subdue one's body. So as we develop our ability to communicate with righteous beings on both sides of the veil, at some point, it is imperative that we receive our CE.
I am hoping that this is helpful in explaining the question that JulesGP asked about Amonhi and his condition in relation to the promises in the D&C concerning celestial beings. It is always a work in progress, not a static state of being.
Bishop
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