Post # 136 – General Conference --“Build A Fortress of Spirituality and Protection”

Dear Family and Friends

I wanted to make sure you had this information so that you can tune into the Spirit and hear the words of God. It’s important for us to prepare ourselves for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and one of those ways is to hear the voice of warning from God. To hear the counsel from God, as given through His prophets and apostles here on the earth – they are His voice to us. Tey are His voice of warning. His counsel for each one of us.

We are coming upon our semi-annual General Conference on October 5^th and 6^th. You can tune in here to watch or listen to General Conference:

October 2019 Times (MDT)

Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6

   Saturday Morning Session: 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
   Saturday Afternoon Session: 2:00–4:00 p.m.
   General Women's Session: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
   Sunday Morning Session: 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
   Sunday Afternoon Session: 2:00–4:00 p.m.

This information comes right from  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/events/october-2019-general-conference?lang=eng

All members of the Church are invited to participate in the 189th Semiannual General Conference of the Church.

The First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other General Authorities and General Officers of the Church will deliver messages of inspiration and guidance in five sessions:

The women’s session for sisters ages eight and older will be Saturday, October 5, at 6:00 p.m. mountain daylight time.

The general sessions for individuals and families will be Saturday, October 5, and Sunday, October 6, at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Prepare for Conference

Conference provides an opportunity to receive personal revelation as living prophets give counsel and direction. Asking questions can help you prepare for conference, increasing personal revelation while you watch.

Learning more about General Authorities and General Officers can help you prepare to receive their messages. Here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/leaders?lang=eng

Invite Others

Those of other faiths are welcome to participate in general conference. Members are encouraged to invite others in person or using social media.

Here is where I am inviting each one of you to come join us for our General Conference☹ whatever faith you belong to, you can still hear the words of God and gain spiritual protection. You can learn the will of God for you and your family. I promise you will not be sorry that you attended! You will gain so much more that you realized that you could in only a few hours of your time.

 Also, if you are unable to attend you will have the opportunity to read the general conference talks within a few days after the broadcasts. This way you can ponder on your favorite talk then share it with you or family a members and friends. I know there are many other things that you may want to do this weekend and that’s okay. I know that sometimes life can get the better of us.

When the truth be told we should be giving the better of us to the Lord! I’m just saying… I am still trying to work on giving Him my best😊 I am no where near perfect and sometimes I think that I am bouncing close to the edge of the path where I should be walking to get back to my heavenly home to live with my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I do try to do better each day.  

I am not very tech savvy, so I have included these things from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website to help you to find the best option for viewing general conference😊 I usually either go to our local meeting house or I watch it at home on the television. I do hope that these things are helpful to each one of you and that you enjoy general conference with me😊

Live Viewing Options

All sessions will be streamed live on the home page of ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Sessions are also available via the Church satellite system, Latter-day Saints Channel outlets, radio, television, satellite, and other digital channels.

Participate and Share via Social Media

To participate in general conference conversations on Twitter, use #GeneralConference or speakers' recommended hashtags, or simply retweet quotes, videos, and images posted at @ChurchNewsroom. The Apostles’ Facebook pages are another way to see and share their messages.

Post-conference Availability

General conference talks in text, audio, and video formats are provided in multiple channels for studying after conference, including the Gospel Library app, YouTube, the general conference section of ChurchofJesusChrist.org, and Church magazines.

Wow! I can not believe it is October already. I have been so busy with work stuff and trainings for work, taking classes to meet the requirements of our licensing and all that other jazz😊 the whole month of September slid right by me I think☹ I know that it is late and I am not giving you any time to prepare for General Conference, but it is here again😊 can you believe it has been six months since the last one? You know it definitely seems like the older I get the faster time goes by☹ Do any of you feel that way?

Have you ever felt like you needed some kind of protection against the ways of the world? I know there are many dangers in this world of ours. Physical dangers; dangers from predators; dangers from those who would take control of us in one way or another – especially those we know and love and trust☹ I have had personal experience with most of these things that I have mentioned and they are not something that I want to be repeated.

I have tried all my adult life to protect my children from these dangers and now with my grandchildren there are so many more dangers out there in our world. We now have the cyber space to worry about. It can be very good, but it can also be very bad☹ things on the internet can harm our children so we must be their protectors. We must guide them through the safest routes and pray for them daily. Satan is always trying to use the good things in our lives and turn them bad☹

The music we listen to; the television shows we watch; the movies we watch; and even the commercials that have things in them that we should not be seeing☹and all of the billions +++ of things we have at our fingertips and the tips of the fingers of our children and grandchildren. We as parents; grandparents; even great-grandparents, as caregivers and teachers ---

We all have the responsibility to safeguard the children entrusted to us. They are counting on us; they are depending on us!!! We need to step up our game. We need to learn for ourselves how to be protected and how to teach them to protect themselves: We need to trust and rely full upon our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We need to make our homes Christ-centered homes – a place of protection against the wiles of the adversary and his helpers.

I did want to share one last conference talk from this past April General Conference. This talk is from Elder Ronald A. Rasband -- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and it is titled “Build A Fortress of Spirituality and Protection” I love this quote from his talk:

“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.”

“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.” 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.

This is the scripture study we have been working on since January and I have been sharing with you as often as I have been able. The lessons in the Come, Follow Me this year have been focused on studying the New Testament. I do hope you have been learning a lot and that my posts have been a little bit helpful in your learning process😊

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.”⁶ 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.”⁷ The Spirit can leave us. “And thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.”⁸

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.⁹

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.”¹⁰ We each have to learn by the experiences of life how to do that.

I have to say that I agree whole heartedly with this statement! The experiences of life are great teachers and we can learn just how we can tell Satan to ‘get out of our face’ it does work. You have to be able to recognize that it is Satan and not take his responsibility upon yourselves☹ he is a very sneaky one. We need to trust in the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I have said right out loud for Satan to get away from me. You can learn to do this as well😊

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.”¹¹ Moroni “was firm in the faith of Christ”¹² and was faithful “in keeping the commandments of God … and resisting iniquity.”¹³

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.”¹⁴ 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.

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”?¹⁵ 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.”¹⁶ 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.”¹⁷

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,”¹⁸ is what the Lord asks of us.

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.”¹⁹ Joshua trusted those words and counseled the people, “Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”²⁰ The Lord parted the waters of the Jordan, and the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness ended.

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.”²¹ He then, with faith deep within him, proclaimed, “O God, receive my soul,”²² and Abinadi “suffered death by fire.”²³

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].”²⁴ 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”²⁵ 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.”²⁶

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.”²⁷

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”²⁸ 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.”²⁹ 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.”³⁰ And, like pioneers protected by a fortress, we are safely encircled in the arms of the Savior’s love.

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.”³¹

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”³² 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.

Well, here we are at the end of this talk and the end of my post for today. I truly hope that each one of you will take advantage of this opportunity to hear the words of the Lord through His chosen prophets, seers, and revelators, who are here on the earth at this time. They are the watch men on the tower look in our for our welfare and keeping a diligent watch for the enemy.

They are doing all that the Spirit prompts them to do – the will of God. They are special witnesses of Jesus Christ. They share the messages that God wants us to know. If we are faithful and always Remember Jesus Christ as our Savior, He is the Christ that they were seeking back in Jerusalem and the other places around the region where Jesus walked. Where He taught the people. Where He healed those, who were afflicted with all manner of diseases. He even raised people from the dead! We can learn so much from His example😊

We each need to make the commitment to follow Him, to do as He would do if He were here. We must be His hands, and His feet! I know this to be true through my life experiences – when I am helping others I feel at my best. I want to help others, not for any recognition, but simply to help them out. I am not the best person to speak about service, but I do know that it is something we should be doing, we should help others whenever we can.

In all my ramblings today, I hope, and I pray that each one of you have been inspired by what I have shared. That you will join me at the Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I hope you come with any questions that you may have. You may find the answers that you are seeking right there during the conference. You may be surprised 😊 I know that I have.

Sometimes I feel like the speaker is speaking directly to me! The Lord knows our needs and He will send us the answers we are seeking and sometimes He sends the answers to the questions we didn’t know that we needed answered! I hope this makes some sense to each of you😊 if this is not enough incentive for you to join us, I pray that you can find some incentive somewhere and join us😊

As always, keep studying your scriptures with us, I will have more posts on our New Testament studies. Let’s find out together what the rest of the books in the New Testament have to teach us! Keep praying and studying your scriptures with your family as well. Share with your family members and friends what you are learning.

Remember who you are!! You are each a child of God. You each are amazing, and you have so much potential! The Lord sees this in you, and you should see it in yourselves as well. Trust in your Heavenly Father. Always remember Jesus Christ. Keep Him in your thoughts every hour, every minute of every day! Keep a prayer in your heart always. Until my next post, please make it a spectacular week.

If you are looking for a local meeting house or ward to go to and listen to general conference you can find one near you here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/meetinghouses/@0.000000,0.000000,2&lang=eng

If you want to watch it on television, you can check your cable company for the BYU channel in your area. Mine is found on channel 374. And if you would like to listen to general conference on your phone, iPad, kindle, or computer, you can go here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/general-conference/live-viewing-times-and-options?lang=eng