Spiritual Gifts

3/22 class with Laurel Lawrence 

Grace in the scriptures means “Help From Heaven”

1 Corinthians 12, D & C 46, & Moroni all explain and name gifts of the Holy Ghost.

At a Mission President’s seminar Elder Nelson told the mission presidents the reason that the age of missionaries was changed to 18. It wasn’t to increase the number of missionaries in order to increase baptisms and “hasten the work”. The real reason the age was changed was to SAVE THE RISING GENERATION by putting them under covenant. 

After the increase of number of missionaries in the field, the number of baptisms did not go up. Nelson said that baptisms would increase when the people truly repent. The problem was that the missionaries were too timid to call the people to repentance. The missionaries need to understand repentance. They need to have experienced the miracle of repentance in their lives so they can teach people the peace and joy that comes from knowing that your sins are forgiven and forgotten. When they have experienced repentance and the joy of forgiveness, they can better understand and be grateful for the atonement. Then they can teach from experience the need for and joy of repentance.

Too many times we make repentance sound too difficult. There really are only 3 steps to repentance:

1.      Feel sorry – not that we got caught, but for what we did wrong, sorry that we disappointed our Father in Heaven.

2.      Say sorry – to the person we offended or hurt, to our Bishop if it is a serious sin, and always we need to say sorry to our Father in Heaven. Sometimes saying sorry includes replacing what we took.

3.      Change and do better. We need to learn from our mistakes and forsake them.

We need to feel the good that comes from repentance and understand GRACE. Grace is mentioned 100 times in the scriptures but most people don’t understand what it is.  Then we can teach the joy of repentance.

At every General Conference, other religious leaders are always invited to attend. They are given  special seating, and invited to lunch with general authorities afterwards where they can have any questions answered.

Read: Ted Calister's book, “The Infinite Atonement” that teaches about grace.

One way that we are different from other churches is that we understand grace and understand that we also need to have all of our ordinances, and the Doctrine of Christ: The doctrine of Christ includes Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and enduring to the end.

Parallel story: Imagine that a billionaire gifts to you $10 million. How would you feel towards him? Would you love him? How long would you love him? Forever? Would you ever forget what he did for you? Would you try to be like him and be a generous person? When we understand the atonement of Jesus Christ and His grace, we will feel that way towards him.

Grace can be understood by comparing a worldly bank with a Heavenly Bank

Worldly Bank                                                                        Heavenly Bank

Cash/checks                                                              unlimited debit card

Limited funds; can’t go over limit                           unlimited and always sufficient funds

Only accessibly when bank is open                         God never sleeps/bank is always open

The bank can crash                                                  Always stable, never failing

As long as you are worthy when you partake of the Sacrament, you have access to the Heavenly Bank. You have a debit card

Moses 27: 5 Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support, in all cases save it were in sickness

We are paid in GRACE (Heavenly help). And we are given spiritual gifts as part of the currency.
There is no end to gifts of the spirit.

Read the Gift of Grace by President Uchdorf: here

Some examples of spiritual gifts are musical talent, inspirational singing, discernment, faith, understanding scriptures, time management, organization, patience, testimony, teaching, understanding other’s teaching, exhortation (public speaking), personal revelation, gift of tongues, understanding tongues, prophesy, healing, to be healed, knowledge, creative ideas, dreams, peacemaking, beholding angels & ministering spirits, gift of cheerfulness, gift of recall, gift of making friends, gift of courage, integrity, leadership, compassion, grateful heart, endurance, sensitivity, invention, courage, recognition, spirituality, forgiving heart, generosity.

All gifts are given to build the kingdom and to help us grow spiritually.

As you read the scriptures, ask for the gift of recall.

Some gifts are mentioned in our patriarchal blessings. Those are starter gifts given to us without asking. We are told to ask for spiritual gifts.

Read: “why not ask” – BYU devotional 2017 by Larry Lawrence http://www.byui.edu/devotionals/elder-larry-r-lawrence-spring-2017

God is happy when we ask for specific spiritual gifts. The worldly bank doesn’t give us anything except what we put in; the Spiritual bank has unlimited resources that it wants to give us if we just ask.

Hebrews: “Come boldly before the throne of Grace” means to ask for spiritual gifts boldly, not fearing.

“Ask and ye shall receive” is one of the most repeated phrases in the scriptures. We know we can 

ASK. God wants us to ASK.

George Q Cannon counseled young mothers to ask for the gift of governing young children. ASK FOR WHATEVER YOU NEED. The spiritual bank never runs out. The only requirement is that we ask and use it for good.

Solomon was made king at 19 years old. He was told to ask for whatever he wanted and he asked for wisdom. Because he asked for a good thing, God gave him everything he didn’t ask for: riches, long life, etc.

“If any of you lack wisdom” promises that God gives LIBERALLY AND DOESN’T HOLD BACK.

Read: Brad Wilcox, “His Grace (heavenly help) is Sufficient” Sept 2013. here. He gave the comparison of Christ paying for our sins and what He expects from us to a parent paying for piano lessons and what they expect from the child. They purchase the piano, provide a place to practice and pay for lessons. They expect the child to practice and use the talent for good.

The D & C talks about grace for grace: when you help someone, God will help you. We help others with the things they can’t do for themselves, then God will help us with what we can’t do for ourselves. Examples: a mother caring for a baby, doing proxy work in the temple, teaching in Church. Whenever we do a service, we are earning credits in the Spiritual Bank and Christ will do something for us that we can’t do alone.

Remember the meaning of GRACE when reading scriptures: Moroni 9:26 – Mormon wrote to his son, “may grace (Heaven’s help) always be with you”.

Shari Dew wrote a book called “Amazed by Grace” where she said that the scripture that says we are “saved by grace after all we can do” doesn’t mean we can’t have/receive grace (Heaven’s help) until after all we can do. We can receive grace before, during and after all we can do. Grace (heaven’s help) can help us do all we can do.

Marvin J Ashton wrote a book called Spiritual Gifts.

Our gifts are connected to our spiritual progress. We can ask “What Lack I Yet?” to know what spiritual gifts we should/can ask for. The spiritual gifts are not just for this life but help us become what we need to be in the next life.