Feasting On His Words

When I was called to be the Stake Sunday School President in our stake in Lehi, Utah, a calling I essentially asked for when our new stake president, whom I had sat by in high council for 5 years, asked if I was ok being released as a high counselor. I told him I was but asked if he would go to the Lord and ask if I could be called as the Stake Sunday School President.  He did and about a month later I was called. For my counselors I selected the previous stake sunday school president, whom I will call Tim, as my first counselor and a man whose older brothers I had known well. I will call him Mike.

Believing the handbook about being the teaching specialists in the stake and by that time having spent many years treasuring up the words of life, I wanted to focus all our efforts on teaching and learning and so our weekly presidency meetings were only teaching and learning experiences. I put together a rather aggressive proposal to also include the Ward SS Presidents and even ward SS teachers whom we invited to attend a monthly meeting designed to teach and be taught the word of God, recognizing that if Christ only taught what His Father commanded Him to teach (John 12:46-50), then as teachers we should do the same. But in order to do so, as teachers, we needed to be armed with the word of God, otherwise we could not teach what the Savior taught.  

Unique to a Stake Sunday School Presidency, is that there is not a lot of 'business' that needs to be taken care of in a Presidency Meeting, and so we were free to spend more time on learning and teaching. My experience with many leadership meetings has been that a disproportionate amount of the time was spent on the 'business' and very little time teaching. So many opportunities, I thought, had been lost when leadership is gathered and no teaching of the word of God takes place or whatever teaching was done was shallow and most often done under the guise of a spiritual thought. But more on this later

In the very first presidency meeting I asked Tim to teach us without first warning him. He did and then Mike and I took a few minutes to teach each other. This became the pattern for our meetings. There were no subject matter assignments. The only criteria was to teach the word of God and to the extent possible follow the admonition in D&C 84:85 to treasure up His words and teach them as moved upon by the Holy Ghost. The pattern became that Mike would begin, then Tim and then I would finish up. We met in a classroom and taught by standing and using the board or other teaching objects as desired. We met every Wednesday evening at 7 pm and only for one hour, making sure that we never took more time. We also invited a ward Sunday School President, and on occasion ward SS teachers on a rotational basis to our weekly presidency meetings.

It didn't take long before I came to realize that these weekly meetings were becoming and would become my favorite meetings of all time. I came home one night and told my wife that it was like going to the candy store, not in the sense of what Elder Holland called a Spiritual Twinkie or that which does not edify and passes for teaching, but in the sense of being able to have so many choices of His words. I looked forward to these meetings and it didn't take long to experience the power of the word of God and how it not only edified and enlightened my understanding, but also how it nourished me.  Alma was right when he taught that the word of God edifies, tastes delicious, swells and sprouts within us and strengthens our faith in Jesus Christ as our minds expand with His words.

We were teaching each other to understand more perfectly His words, His gospel and His doctrines, and I began to understand and experience why the Lord commanded us to "teach one another the doctrines of the kingdom...that ye may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain to the kingdom of God.." (D&C 88:77-78).  Being in my seventies at the time, I had experienced so many meetings where I was not edified and nourished and had not been instructed more perfectly in theory, principle, doctrine and the law of the gospel.  Most of the learning I had done on my own, and so to be able to learn from these two great teachers, more of the word of God, and its effect on our lives, was a testament that there is nothing so sweet, so broad, so deep, so nourishing, so edifying, so enlightening, as the word of God. We did experience the joy of hearing His words, planting them in our hearts, tasting them and exclaiming how delicious they are!

I also learned that by treasuring up His words and seeking first to obtain His words, our teaching was directed by the Holy Ghost, whose purpose it is to bring to remembrance the words of Christ. Each week I was nourished, not only from being taught but from having the opportunity to teach His words. The more I experienced His words and 'heard' them, the more they became part of me, and I began to understand and experience what Alma meant by His words being found in us. The clarity and the brilliance was felt and seen and the light communicated to my intellect from heaven began to change me.

I experienced an increase in faith in Jesus Christ and knew that what Paul said about faith coming by hearing, and hearing by the word of God was true. I understood how faith increased as ministering angels taught the words of God to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Joseph Smith, and then to us through the records that they kept. Like Alma writing down all the words of Abinadi and teaching them to others, I could do the same and  experience the light of His words, not only in the enlightening of my understanding, but in seeing myself and the need for repentance. I further experienced my own lost and fallen state and my personal need for Christ and His atonement. I experienced His spirit in His words and understood that His words are His spirit. It soon became clear that we only teach by the spirit when we teach His words.

When I was set apart as the Stake Sunday School President, the Stake President admonished me to learn all that I could about how the Savior taught. I did and through that experience it became clear that it was more about 'what' the Savior taught, than about how He taught. He only taught what His Father commanded Him to teach, and therefore spoke and taught the word of God. But equally important was 'why' He taught the word of God, and why He sent the Holy Ghost to bring to remembrance the words which He taught, and why we have been commanded to teach the word of God. Through His words I learned that to repent means to turn to Him and rely wholly upon His merits and not our own. For in order to obtain His mercy we must repent. His words helped me see myself as I really am and awoke in me the desire to continually turn to Him and rely upon His merits. His words caused me to feel joy in His great plan and to share it with others.

While we may have been the ones standing and talking, we were actually being taught and being instructed by our Father and His words were becoming our words. Isaiah asks the questions "Whom shall he (the Lord) teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?" (Isaiah 28:9). This was becoming my experience. The more I treasured up His words, the more instruction I received from Him, and since we were each treasuring up His words and sharing them with each other, He was teaching us knowledge and making us to understand His gospel and doctrine. Since a mystery was anything we did not know, He began to reveal His mysteries to us through His words. I cannot overstate the importance or experiencing His words as light, spirit and even His spirit.

I also experienced the Spirit of Revelation and the Spirit of Prophecy as He revealed the truthfulness of His words and the testimony of His Son Jesus. His words are always accompanied by the prophecies concerning Christ and His work in these last days. The Book of Mormon is a book of prophecy and helps us to see the events which are yet to take place as the Lord will soon take His gospel to the House of Israel--the Jews, the 10 Tribes and Lehi's descendants. My views of that which is to come became greater and clearer. 

It became clear why Book of Mormon prophet writers would exclaim the greatness of God and His plan--how they could shout for joy and sing the song of redeeming love.

I also experienced the following:

I was humbled because of the word (Alma 32).

I heard his voice in His words (D&C 18).

I was nourished and edified (Moroni 6:4).

I experienced light, truth, spirit, even spirit of Jesus Christ (D&C 84:45).

I treasured up his words (D&C 84:85) and never prepared a talk or lesson again.

His words became my words (Abinadi and Alma Sr)

I experienced planting His words in my heart, and experienced the word growing, tasting delicious to me and enlightening my understanding ( Alma 32).

I came to understand the Parable of the Sower and how it is the story of each of us in relation to either receiving or not receiving His words.

I experienced that by believing His words, I believed Christ and by believing Christ, I believed his words.

I experienced that His kingdom is hidden to us and that while we have heard of it, we must search it out through His words.

I experienced that in God and Christ are found all treasures.

I experienced more of His love in me and a desire, no, a fire to share His words with others so they too could know as I know and tasted as I tasted.

There are many other experiences, but one  more I would like to mention is that by teaching each other the word of God, my love for Tim and Mike increased and they were in fact my brothers. I experienced His love for them and was filled with His love, and my desire to repent or turn to Him and rely on His merits alone, became what I really wanted, not only for me, but for Mike and Tim, and my desire to teach others of His goodness and mercy increased, as I received more of His words and love. I knew I would be redeemed because of His righteousness and certainly not my own.