Flooding My Life with the Book of Mormon 2.0

2 Nephi 2:12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God. God is intelligent and purposeful. He does not create the stars, galaxies, solar systems, and Earth simply to enjoy the act of creation. Everything has a purpose with God. I may not know all the purposes of God, but when I see His creations working together, they make sense. Nothing is random, accidental, or coincidental with God.  I am most blessed that through the restored gospel and the gift of revelation, I have learned the purpose and reason behind God's magnificently creative work: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children. If all around me does not make sense, it is because I am either ignorant or rebellious. If I am ignorant, I should seek learning; and if I am ...

1 Nephi 19:5 And an account of my making these plates shall be given hereafter; and then, behold, I proceed according to that which I have spoken; and this I do that the more sacred things may be kept for the knowledge of my people. God reveals sacred knowledge to the prophets and then commands them to write and preserve their words so that we may benefit from what the Lord has revealed. This is the purpose of scripture: to give us knowledge. Thus, we do not all have to be prophets to have the knowledge of prophets.  In God's economy, it is more efficient for Him to reveal a truth once and then spread it by the written word among all people than to reveal the same truth a million times to a million individuals, each of whom may receive, interpret, and apply the truth slightly differently. In this way, God doesn't have to start over fresh with each person, but we can build on the learning of others.

1 Nephi 18:3 And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things. Line upon line and precept upon precept--I do not expect God's revelations to be one and done. There is no end to His words. Once I learn the process to open the channel of communication, He constantly reveals knowledge to me. The mount to which Nephi went to communicate with the Lord was his temple. The mount is almost always a synonym for the temple in the scriptures. Just as Nephi went often to the mountains to ask God questions and receive instructions, I should likewise go often to the temple to ask my questions and receive direction directly from God. President Nelson has repeatedly taught that God will teach us directly and personally in the temple, and that we can learn things no man can teach us.

1 Nephi 16:9 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord spake unto my father by night, and commanded him that on the morrow he should take his journey into the wilderness. Different gifts for different people! Lehi's gift was to receive the word of the Lord in dreams. That is not my gift. I have plenty of bizarre dreams, but I cannot recall any that I thought came from the Lord.  Except perhaps one. In my senior year in high school, I experienced a nightmare in which Satan and his minions attacked me and tried to overcome me. Among those wicked servants of the devil were members of a rock band I had recently joined. The message to me was clear: quit the band and stop listening to that kind of music. I told the guys in the band I was quitting with no explanation or reason, and I dumped all my hard rock albums in the trash. But other than that one nightmare, my dreams have not been messages from God. On the other hand, my gift is hearing the word of the Lord in the scriptures. I ...

1 Nephi 15:11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you. President Nelson has said, "God will do His own teaching." If we need to know anything that affects our salvation or our happiness, whether it's about the temple, the scriptures, the church, the gospel, the commandments, or our behavior, God will reveal it to us if we ask with a genuine desire and the intention to act on what we learn.  God does not respond to idle curiosity, but He never leaves a true desire unfulfilled when properly petitioned. He is both a loving Father and a master Teacher. According to His own will, and in His own time and way, He will surely give us what we truly need for our salvation and happiness. 

1 Nephi 15:8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? The key to learning is inquiring. The Lord will not tell us about what we do not ask. Inquiring requires faith, patience, and work. Idle curiosity is not enough. We must want to know with real intent to act on the knowledge we receive. We have to believe God can and will answer in His own due time, and we must be willing to wait on him and not despair if the answer is delayed. We must be willing to forge ahead with our limited knowledge while we wait for further light. God allows problems to crop up in our lives to stretch us and to draw us to Him. He loves action, and He wants us to work on our own, but He also wants to help us. We work to the limit of our abilities, and then we turn to God to increase our limits. If we learn from our problems, they are not roadblocks but stepping stones. Because God is our Lord and Master, we can ask Him anything. And because He is omniscient, He knows the answer. He may not be willing ...

1 Nephi 13:26 And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away. Partial truth is no better than a lie, and partial doctrine is false doctrine. We need the whole truth and the whole doctrine of Christ. Plain (understandable) and precious (valuable) points of doctrine were removed from the scriptures by conspiring and evil people. These truths did not get lost accidentally, nor were they omitted by well-meaning but error-prone scribes. They were intentionally withheld to confuse and confound honest seekers who want to believe.  Joseph Smith restored many of the missing and corrupted points of doctrine through his Inspired Translation of the Bible , but not...

1 Nephi 11:1 For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. Revelation from God feels new and exciting. It puts me on new ground and points me in a new direction. It feels intensely personal. It took Nephi to a place he had never been before, but a place that is obviously very familiar to the Lord.   I am often prepared for revelation by a change, be it temporal or spiritual. To shed my old knowledge and prejudice, I may need to shift to a new location, a new perspective, a new paradigm. I may need to get away from everyday life, as when I go to church or to the temple. Sometimes, I may need an even bigger shift, and the Lord may prepare me through challenges and problems that force m...

1 Nephi 9:3 Nevertheless, I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people. God could have made the plates and handed them to Nephi, just as He made and handed the Liahona to Lehi. But He knew that Nephi could figure out how to manufacture the plates on his own.  Further, God could have engraved the writings He wanted on the plates, just as He wrote words of admonition and instruction on the surface of the Liahona. But Nephi needed the intellectual and spiritual exercise of writing the narrative, so that he could remember and process his experiences and learn to receive revelation about what to write.  In other words, God could have created the Book of Mormon and handed it to us in perfect English, but the making and writing of the book, and the finding and translating of the plates were vital experiences for some of the Lord's greatest prophets to train them...

1 Nephi 5:4 And it had come to pass that my father spake unto her, saying: I know that I am a visionary man; for if I had not seen the things of God in a vision I should not have known the goodness of God, but had tarried at Jerusalem, and had perished with my brethren. Ultimately, I need my own testimony through personal revelation to know God's plan for me. Prophets, scriptures, church, and commandments are all part of the formula, but the answer is personal revelation.

1 Nephi 4:6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. The Holy Ghost leads; he does not push. He is ahead of us, showing us the way to go, rather than behind us, herding us along. Following a leader requires us to attend to his direction, keeping our eyes and ears open, lest he go around a bend in the path and we fail to follow and so fall into a ditch.

1 Nephi 3:20 And also that we may preserve unto them the words which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, which have been delivered unto them by the Spirit and power of God, since the world began, even down unto this present time. God gave Adam a written language from the very beginning so that God's words could be preserved (see Moses 6:5-6) . God speaks to prophets, and they record what they have learned, and this is scripture.  God may also speak to us, and we should likewise write what we learn. Our personal record may not be scripture to the Church, but it becomes scripture to us and our posterity.  The more we write, the more God will give us to write. For this reason, I write as I ponder the scriptures. I want to preserve the thoughts, impressions, and even the words I am given so that my posterity will know what God taught me, that these things may enrich their lives. My writing does not replace their personal responsibility to receive revelation for...

1 Nephi 2:16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers. The mysteries of God are anything God knows that I don't know yet. Much of what God knows is beyond my human comprehension, and so His knowledge remains mysterious to me for the time being. But God can dumb down some of His knowledge to a level that mortals can comprehend, and it is those mysteries that He is willing to share with me.  Such knowledge does not come easily, however. Nephi did not have a mere curiosity or a passing fancy to learn the mysteries of God. He had "great desires." Such desires are powerful motivators that drive my behaviors and take up much of my attention. When ...