Post # 109 --- Build a Fortress of Spirituality and Protection

Dear Family and Friends

I have been thinking a lot about how I can help my family to increase their spiritual strength. As I have said before, all of my children are inactive members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My worry for each of them and their children is that I was not a good enough teacher for them while they were living at home. It seems as if I have only just in these past few years learned so much about the gospel of Jesus Christ and just how important knowing it and living it truly is in our lives.

I don’t know if it is because I am truly a very slow learner or if I just didn’t get it until now☹ in either case I would like to share a talk with you that might spare you and those you love the worry and anxiety I have experienced over the possible lack of the proper teaching and preparation spiritually in my home. Maybe there is something that I have shared or will share with you in my blogs that will help each one of you in this area of your lives.

Since I have been a member of the church, I have tried to share with my family the things that I learned each week in my home with my family. I don’t believe that we ever really had a proper family home evening. My oldest daughter was very learned in the scriptures and the gospel at a young age – well we didn’t join the church until after she was nine, but she was very interested, and she was a quick learner, I think. She loved going to primary and she was encouraged by her teachers.

It wasn’t until she became pregnant at sixteen and was pretty much shunned by her teachers and told that she could no longer be in the young women’s program that she refused to come to church any more☹ I don’t believe she has attended church since that time. I had wished that they would have talked to me about it before hand, so I might have prepared her a little bit for what was coming, but that wasn’t how it happened. I will be ever grateful to her for having the desire to talk the lessons from the missionaries that led the two of us to our baptism😊

The talk I want to share with you all today is on building a fortress of spiritual protection. I know that there will come a day in the not to far off future when we will --- each one of us, need that spiritual fortress for our protection from the evils that are continually bombarding us and our children. Satan and his followers are real, and they are determined to drag us down with them. They want each one of u to be as miserable as they are. I am dory for rambling on so … let’s get on to the talk:

Build a Fortress of Spirituality and Protection

By Elder Ronald A. Rasband Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

When we live the gospel of Jesus Christ, when we draw upon the Savior’s Atonement and press forward with faith, we are fortified against the adversary.

My dear brothers and sisters, as this conference comes to a close, I give thanks to our Father in Heaven for the counsel, truths, and revelation shared at this pulpit during the past two days. We have been taught by servants of God called to speak His holy words. The Lord has reminded us in latter-day revelation, “Whether by mine own voice or … the voice of my servants, it is the same.”

Looking over this vast congregation of Saints and picturing members watching general conference all over the world, I think of the gathering in the Book of Mormon when Jesus Christ appeared to the Nephites following His Crucifixion. He taught them the gospel and then encouraged, “Go ye unto your homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand.”

It is so important for us to take the time to stop and truly think about – or ponder—what we have been taught during each general conference. After all, these are the words of the Lord coming to us through our prophets, seers, and revelators, here on the earth. They are here to give us the counsel that the Lord wants us to have at this time in our lives.

“Go ye unto your homes, and ponder” is the next step in taking to heart the words of prophets and Church leaders spoken in this sacred setting. Christ-centered homes are fortresses for the kingdom of God on earth in a day when, as prophesied, the devil “rage[s] in the hearts of the children of men, and stir[s] them up to anger against that which is good.”

People have built fortresses throughout history to keep the enemy outside. Often those fortresses included a guard tower where watchmen—like prophets—warned of menacing forces and coming attacks.

 

In early Utah pioneer times, my great-grandfather Thomas Rasband and his family were some of the first settlers to enter the Heber Valley in the beautiful Wasatch Mountains of Utah.

In 1859, Thomas helped construct the Heber fort, built for their protection. It was a simple structure of cottonwood logs positioned one next to the other, forming the perimeter of the fort. Log cabins were built inside the fortress using that common wall. The structure provided both security and safety for those pioneer families as they put down roots and worshipped the Lord.

So it is with us. Our homes are fortresses against the evils of the world. In our homes we come unto Christ by learning to follow His commandments, by studying the scriptures and praying together, and by helping one another stay on the covenant path. The new emphasis on personal and family study in the home through the curriculum Come, Follow Me is designed “to deepen our conversion and help us become more like Jesus Christ.”⁴ In so doing we will become what Paul called “new creature[s]”⁵ with our hearts and souls in tune with God. We need that strength to face and deflect the assaults of the adversary.

So, the question I have asked myself: is my home a fortress against the evils of the world? Right at this moment in time I would have to honestly say “no!’ but this does not mean that I can not learn about what I can do to get my home in better condition, so that it can eventually become a fortress against the evils of this world. This is one reason I have chosen to share my lessons with each one of you, so that you too can prepare yourselves and your families, and your homes to become a fortress against the evils of this world which are becoming at us from all channels in our lives.

As we live with devotion born of faith in Jesus Christ, we will feel the peaceful presence of the Holy Ghost, who guides us to truth, inspires us to live worthy of the Lord’s blessings, and bears witness that God lives and loves us. All this within the fortress of our own homes. But remember, our homes are only as powerful as the spiritual strength of each one of us within the walls.

President Russell M. Nelson has taught, “In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.” As the Lord’s living prophet, seer, and revelator in this day, the watchman on the tower of our fortress, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he sees the advances of the enemy.

Brothers and sisters, we are at war with Satan for the souls of men. The battle lines were drawn in our pre-earth life. Satan and a third of our Father in Heaven’s children turned away from His promises of exaltation. Since that time, the adversary’s minions have been fighting the faithful who choose the Father’s plan.

Satan knows his days are numbered and that time is growing shorter. As crafty and cunning as he is, he will not win. However, his battle for each one of our souls rages on.

For our safety, we must build a fortress of spirituality and protection for our very souls, a fortress that will not be penetrated by the evil one.

Satan is a subtle snake, sneaking into our minds and hearts when we have let our guard down, faced a disappointment, or lost hope. He entices us with flattery, a promise of ease, comfort, or a temporary high when we are low. He justifies pride, unkindness, dishonesty, discontent, and immorality, and in time we can be “past feeling.” The Spirit can leave us. “And thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.”

In contrast, we often feel the Spirit so powerfully as we sing praises to God with words like these:

A mighty fortress is our God,

A tower of strength ne’er failing.

A helper mighty is our God,

O’er ills of life prevailing.

When we build a fortress of spiritual strength, we can shun the advances of the adversary, turn our backs on him, and feel the peace of the Spirit. We can follow the example of our Lord and Savior, who, when tempted in the wilderness, said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” We each have to learn by the experiences of life how to do that.

It has been my experience that when we recognize that Satan has his hand in our lives that we too can call him out and tell him to get out of our face. After having done this on many occasions I know that it works. Jesus Christ is our Savior and had already paid the price for our sims. Heavenly Father loves us, and He is there for us. He will help us when we call on His name😊

It is important for us to be willing to ask, to reach up for His hand. We should not ever feel that we are not good enough or undeserving of His help. I know it is sometimes hard to get past these feelings, but His love is unconditional and eternal. He loves us no matter where we are in our temporal and spiritual journey in this life. Just as a parent would feel heartbreak and sadness when a child makes poor choices, so does our Heavenly Father.

Such righteous purpose is well described in the Book of Mormon when Captain Moroni prepared the Nephites to face attacks from a deceitful, bloodthirsty, power-hungry Amalickiah. Moroni constructed fortresses to protect the Nephites “that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of Christians.” Moroni “was firm in the faith of Christ” and was faithful “in keeping the commandments of God … and resisting iniquity.”\

When the Lamanites came to battle, they were astonished by the Nephites’ preparation, and they were defeated. The Nephites thanked “the Lord their God, because of his matchless power in delivering them from the hands of their enemies.” They had built fortresses for protection on the outside, and they had built faith in the Lord Jesus Christ on the inside—deep in their souls.

It is so very important for each one of us to have a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ deep sown in our souls. To hold onto that faith no matter what situation our life choices may bring us to. Our faith can carry us through some tough situations. We must have faith that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ our lives can be made better, so much better. Only He can give us the peace we need in this turbulent world and in our most dire situations in this life.

What are some ways we can fortify ourselves in troubled times, that we may be “instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work”? Let’s look to the scriptures.

We are obedient. The Lord commanded Father Lehi to send his sons back to Jerusalem to “seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness.” Lehi didn’t question; he didn’t wonder why or how. Nor did Nephi, who responded, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded.”

Do we act with the willing obedience of Nephi? Or are we more inclined to question God’s commands as did Nephi’s brothers, whose lack of faith eventually turned them away from the Lord? Obedience, exercised with “holiness of heart,” is what the Lord asks of us.

We must each ask ourselves if we are obedient to the Lord and His servants just as Nephi and his father Lehi were – without question they did as the Lord bid them to do, whatever it was that He asked of them. Or are we more inclined to question the whys and wherefores of what is asked of us? Do we sometimes drag our feet as we are obeying or do we simply obey?

We trust the Lord, who said to Joshua as he prepared to lead the Israelites into the promised land, “Be strong and of … good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua trusted those words and counseled the people, “Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” The Lord parted the waters of the Jordan, and the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness ended.

Do we put all our trust in the Lord without questioning His reasons? So we realize that His love for us will never change? That He will love us no matter what choices we make or where we are at spiritually – our savior will meet us wherever we are at. He will take our hand when we reach out for His. He will lead and guide us along our way.

We stand for the truth, as did the prophet Abinadi in the Book of Mormon. Arrested, brought before King Noah and his wicked priests, Abinadi taught the Ten Commandments and preached powerfully that Christ would “come down among the children of men, and … redeem his people.” He then, with faith deep within him, proclaimed, “O God, receive my soul,” and Abinadi “suffered death by fire.

Are we like Abinadi who stood for truth even though it meant his death? The Lord may not be requiring us to give our lives for truth – but would we? We should stand for the truth always, being an example for others to see and follow. Are we keeping the commandments of the Lord.

We make and renew our covenants by partaking of the sacrament and by worshipping in the temple. The sacrament is the centerpiece of our Sunday worship, where we are receiving the promise to “always have his Spirit to be with [us].” With that sacred ordinance we commit to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, to follow Him, and to shoulder our responsibilities in this divine work as He did. 





In the temple we can “lay aside the things of this world” and feel the Lord’s presence and His transcendent peace. We can focus on our ancestors, our families, and eternal life in the presence of the Father. No wonder President Nelson stated recently in Rome, “The good that will emanate from this temple is incalculably great.”

Reading this section has reminded me that I need to get to the temple more often. My question to each of you is gave you made promises to the Lord. Are you keeping them? In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we make promises or covenants with our Heavenly Father and He makes promises or covenants with us. When we keep our end of the bargain then we can be assured that our Heavenly Father will keep His end as well.

We should have integrity in all that we do. We should develop discernment and discipline so that we do not have to continually determine what is right and what is wrong. We should take to heart the words of Peter, the early Church Apostle, who cautioned, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

Do we have integrity in all that we do? Are we being honest, trustworthy, righteous, and having food morals and good character, good values in all that we do and say? Have we already decided what our decision will be when faced with temptations from the adversary? Are those decisions planted firmly and securely in our being so that we wont waiver when the temptations come our way in this life?

As we diligently strengthen our fortifications, we become like Jesus Christ, as His true disciples, with our very souls in His protection.

Your testimony of Jesus Christ is your personal fortress, the security for your soul. When my great-grandfather and his fellow pioneers built the Heber fort, they put up one log at a time until the fort was “fitly framed together” and they were protected. So it is with testimony. One by one we gain a witness from the Holy Spirit as He speaks to our own spirit, teaching “truth in the inward parts.” When we live the gospel of Jesus Christ, when we draw upon the Savior’s Atonement and press forward with faith, not fear, we are fortified against the wiles of the adversary. Our testimonies connect us to the heavens, and we are blessed with “the truth of all things.” And, like pioneers protected by a fortress, we are safely encircled in the arms of the Savior’s love.

How strong is your testimony of Jesus Christ? What can you do to strengthen your testimony each day? Our testimony like our faith is our personal fortress. I think without faith we would not have a testimony. Let’s each strengthen our testimony each day in what we do – through our personal prayer, our family prayers, our daily scripture study (individually as well as with our family), and are we having family home evening each week.

The prophet Ether taught, “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.”

My dear brothers and sisters, I leave you with my blessing to go forth with confidence in the Lord and in His gospel. Put your arms around those who stumble and, with the strength of the Spirit within you, lead them lovingly back to the fortress of spirituality and protection. Seek “to be like Jesus” in all that you do; shun evil and temptations; repent, as we were admonished yesterday by our dear prophet; be honest in heart; be upright and pure; show compassion and charity; and love the Lord your God with the devotion of a true disciple.

Our testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our homes, our families, and our membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be our personal fortresses of protection surrounding us and shielding us from the power of the evil one. Of this I bear my solemn witness in the name of our Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ, amen.

What are some things we have learned from this talk about ways we can fortify ourselves for troubled times? These are a few of the things that I have learned, you may have found more things, but this will be a good start:

We are obedient to the Lord. The Lord asks us to exercise obedience with “holiness of heart.”

We trust the Lord. He is with us always. He loves each one of us unconditionally. With His help we can become what He knows we can be😊

We stand for truth. Wherever we may find ourselves. At all times.

We make and renew our covenants as we take the sacrament each week and attend the temple as often as we can. We make the sacrament the most important thing that we do each week.

We should have integrity in all that we do. We must develop Christlike attributes.

We must strengthen our testimony – keep nurturing it, keep it growing.

I hope and I pray that in some small way I have helped you to have a desire to fortify yourselves spiritually so that you and your family can be protected from the adversary. To build your fortress so that Satan cannot penetrate it, thus providing protection for yourselves and your family.

That each one of you – and me too, will -- Seek “to be like Jesus” in all that you [and I] do; [that we will] shun evil and temptations; [that we will]  repent, as we were admonished yesterday by our dear prophet; [that we will]  be honest in heart; [that we will]  be upright and pure; [that we will] show compassion and charity; and [that we will]  love the Lord your God with the devotion of a true disciple. May we each truly strive to be like Jesus in all we do and say😊

Well my dear Family and Friends here we are again at the end of this post and or talk. I so hope that you have learned as much from this talk as I have. I hope and pray that you will each have a desire to strengthen your testimonies of Jesus Christ. As always, please do remember who you are, keep studying the New Testament with me, keep praying, and until my next post keep smiling and make it a good week😊