Hey there everybody welcome out to another episode of Redeem Through His Blood. Scott Durfey here joined as always by David Durfey Good to see you Scott. Good to see you too. I owe you a bottle of peanut M&Ms. Yeah, well that's not why we do have a bottle of peanut M&Ms here for David but I owe you one to take home because of what happened last week Dave. So we're doing a re-record today because we had a little technical issue last week.
Actually I think that I owe you being a blessing because we played Deb's episode I think for the second time and every time we do. In fact I got a text yesterday from one of my old missionary companions, Len Yardley texted me yesterday and he said thanks for playing Deb's episode yesterday. Oh cool. Yeah it was really great.
So I don't know you know maybe sometimes things like that happen for a reason but you know as we've been going through everything that we've been going through this season we just wrapped up prior to the last episode where we brought Deb's back but prior to that we just wrapped up the events of the Atonement of Jesus Christ which is great. That's one of my favorite parts of talking about this as we get into the effects and so on.
Now we will expand our discussion as we move into a very important topic, the topic of faith Dave. Yeah Scott and by the way I just I wonder if how often individuals you and me all of us how often we really even think about the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our life.
I think probably most of us not not all of us but probably most of us think about it when we pray we try to express gratitude for that and I've heard lots of prayers that where it's never mentioned but I imagine most people who pray think about the gift of God's son and not just the gift of his son but the gifts that flow into our life because of the son's sacrifice atonement.
I just since we're talking about faith today I mean to build faith one has to really be focused on our Heavenly Father gifts that flow into our lives from him his creations the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it affects us not only every day but every moment of every day. And I just wonder I'm just sitting here wondering how often do we even you know really think about it.
That's a great question you know and something it's interesting you'd bring that up because this is something that I've actually thought about over the last several weeks myself fact we talked about it in Institute a couple of times over the last couple of weeks you know how often do we really notice and feel or acknowledge that we're noticing and feeling the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and I think that I think Dave you know if
we if we just put that in our mind then we through intention you know if we're more intentional and we just decide okay I'm going to start noticing those things that we do. I woke up yesterday morning actually the other morning Monday morning I woke up Monday morning and I was being fully reminded of the fall of Scott Durfee you know just my physical body.
I had some health issues yeah and I had to call our friend your nephew my rheumatologist and say hey this is what's going on and they took care of it for me and I felt better almost instantly and I immediately gave thanks for the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ because you know that's where one of the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ takes care of our physical fall.
You know and I don't know I mean you know you think you brought it up how often do we think about it well we have reason to think about it every day as our bodies rejuvenate and as our you know life's changing in different ways so. I listen to another I don't I can't remember I listen to a lot of things whether it was a podcast or a TED talk or whatever but you know it was a man that's highly respected and has a great reputation as far as I know he's a good person.
Anyway he said he said if you want to change your life you can do that with two words and you must use them at least twice a day. Thank you.
Gratitude huh yeah and when he was talking about this and he said so how many of you how many of you would like to change your life and every hand went up and he said how many of you want to change your life enough to to say thank you tonight before you go to bed and most of the hands went up and then he said how many of you think that you could wake up in the morning and remember to say thank you in the morning again most of the
hands went up and he said within three days within three days only half of you will be doing it and within a week only a few of you will be doing it right but he said if you want to change your life you can do it with two words. Thank you. Just say thank you every night before you go to bed and say thank you every morning when you wake up. Wow yeah. Now and you know it's kind of profound really.
Yeah. And and I I have I have done that recently but I don't know if I'll be doing that a week from now. Well you know you know how that goes. I do. Human nature. And maybe I can help hold you accountable. There you go. Okay. But but when I say it I think of the atonement. Right. I don't know this this man that was speaking was Jewish. Okay. And and even then it will change your life no matter what religion you are. Right.
No matter if you have faith or no faith agnostics or or atheists can say thank you and feel gratitude. Yeah. And the power that can flow into your life through the gratitude that you have for Jesus Christ and the effects and blessings and gifts of the atonement that flow into our life every moment of our life Scott can can totally be life changing. It can transform us. It can if we let it you know and there's a there's a lot of reason for that.
And you know we talk about in this podcast how gratitude is the beginning of desire. You know just that just that being grateful will give us a deeper desire and that deeper desire desire will lend impetus to us following him more closely more effectively etc. So you know in in Alcoholics Anonymous and in fact I think it's probably true in all recovery groups. Gratitude is one of those things is super important. You know we we we have gratitude lists.
We say the same thing you know in the morning get up and ask for help and thanks for the night before and then at night thanks for getting me through the day sober you know and so much much more. But yeah a lot of power. Well I think it is the beginning of of desire and I think most of our listeners would agree that desire is maybe the beginning of faith. I mean if you don't have any desire to have faith you're not going to to seek to have faith or to even grow your faith.
So again we're kind of starting with that but let's let's jump into the to the subject of faith and to begin with it really introduce it. Scott I think that the the greatest misconception maybe among students who I taught for many many years is that repentance is what changes people's lives. Then I know that repentance is change and I know what President Nelson has taught about repentance but I just want to say this up front to introduce it there is no power in repentance.
Repentance does not change us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the power behind repentance and it is the power faith in Jesus Christ that changes us.
Faith is the power when Elder Anderson asked me to summarize the course that I had kind of designed and taught at UVU and give him kind of the three or four most important points of the entire course I wrote him a long email and this is one of those three or four major points that one must get across in this course and so we can't emphasize this subject strong enough is that faith is the transformative faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement is
the transformative power behind repentance and behind change and behind becoming a saint.
It's faith it is President Nelson said it is the greatest power of God available to us is the gift of faith and it is a gift and it is not something that you can just acquire on your own or obtain by your own good works or efforts it's a gift of the spirit faith is I think it's maybe the first gift of the spirit listed in the scriptures faith is a gift that comes to us through the gift and power of the Holy Ghost you cannot have real
the power of faith and when we speak of faith Scott there are many levels there's there's the level of belief or hope in in faith and then there's knowledge and then there's power so there's this this kind of this continuing going upward it's kind of really like a helix as Elder Bednar taught it years ago and it progresses based upon we get we get a belief of something and then we obtain the knowledge by our experience and confirmation of the
spirit and it goes up and it just becomes it becomes greater and greater until we have the power of faith in our lives and we'll talk more about that and use some scriptural examples but it it's it is the power behind all of the good things that we receive in fact Scott in defining it I used to ask my students does God have faith and I would say more than half of them would say no because he knows all things you know there's there's
those scriptures that we kind of wrestle with in the in Ether chapter three and other places that because once you know it you don't need faith well when you come to know it you you're on a different level of faith and your faith is replaced by by a greater power but faith is something that God has to have faith is the power that he was able to create the world now I know I know there's power in his priesthood in his keys and all of that as well but faith
is what that's what Paul said that it was through faith that God created the worlds so faith is the power of godliness faith is the power behind God's actions and behaviors and faith is the power be behind everything that we do which will lead us hopefully to salvation and exaltation I remember president Nelson I working or press sorry elder Anderson and I working on the book and honestly it's impossible to write a chapter strong enough
on this topic of faith because it is so key faith in Jesus Christ in his atonement is the absolute key to not only starting the process of repentance but continuing in that process and eventually receiving the miracle of forgiveness the greatest miracle of all and I there was a story told many years ago by Todd Bridge in the enzyme magazine and it really affected me I think I was a branch president missionary training center at the
time and when I read it I thought wow that's that is my problem too he was a bishop of a student ward that they called him back then be a young single adult ward today and being a bishop of a student ward or today if you were a bishop of a young adult ward you you are trying to help young folks repent that's what that's the major part of your calling right is trying to help them to get connected to the Savior and to be forgiven of their
sins well he was hearing a lot of confessions just like I was at the time being at the MTC I mean I spent most my time at the MTC listening to our confessions and I'll share a few of those stories later in future podcasts but he kept he was really frustrated one day because he kept hearing the same confessions from the same people over and over and over again and he thought wow he thought he was a failure he felt like he was a failure what
I'm not helping these people I'm not helping these young people they just keep making the same mistakes committing the same sins confessing over and over and over again well he he made that a matter of prayer and and one day he happened to just serendipity dip it asleep reading the articles of faith and he read he read the fourth article of faith you know we believe that the first four principles in the gospel are and he said the next few
lines just kind of pulsated off the page first faith in the Lord Jesus Christ second repentance and he hit you know oh he knew immediately what his problem was he said that every time they came in to confess sins he would talk about repentance probably the steps of repentance as most people like to teach it or speak of it and he said I never talked about faith with his you know members that were trying to repent he said that we always I always
gave them such great information and would fill them with inspiring thoughts on repentance but they never really were able to do it and Scott based on that experience my own experience and many many many students who I have spoken to and in the ecclesiastical positions that I've been I know this this is a truth this is a fact this is the reality that when you're spinning your wheels when you seem like you just can't change when you feel like you just
keep making the same mistakes committing the same sins over and over and over again without exception I can tell you why it's probably not because you're not repenting the reason why is because you do not have sufficient faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement maybe you believe in him but you just don't believe him and this is this honestly this subject this podcast and our next podcast on faith is is kind of the the hinge of that
swings the door of repentance and forgiveness it's kind of the fulcrum on which you can go you know either way this is it this is faith is the power to receive the miracles blessings gifts and that includes forgiveness so I hope that as we as we speak of it today and in our next podcast that individuals will take it upon themselves to make it a study I mean until you really understand what faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement
means to try to repent without knowing that it may become a somewhat of a frustrating or futile experience so I hope that I hope that we can do it justice and I hope our listeners can can be motivated to make it a personal study in a quest to increase wherever they're at wherever they're at in their faith and I know everyone has faith faith is every human being I believe has some faith in something and some level at some level I mean election
on faith in essence say that and I believe that so I hope their listeners will make it a quest wherever they're at in their faith to to increase their faith their faith especially in Jesus Christ and his atonement I think that oftentimes I'm asses I know you have been over the years too but it and I've asked it myself I've wondered it myself but how do I access the blessings the benefits the effects of the atonement of Jesus Christ especially
those conditional ones you know those conditional benefits those conditional blessings effects that come to us as a result of the atonement of Jesus Christ it has occurred to me that they are most available to us based on the level of our faith Dave and and you know that for me this has been one that has been a a wrestle if you will I don't know if I'd call it a struggle maybe you would well I think wrestles a positive word yeah well it's definitely
been a wrestle you know because it's been something that I have I have definitely had to ingest I have had to look at where in my life would it be better if my faith was stronger where in my life is it is a lack of faith holding me back and lack of faith in what you know and so just determining all of those things where faith should be what it's about how it should be working in my life I have a scripture here this has been really helpful for me and
this is an old scripture mastery from I did book Mormon my ninth grade year of seminary and I still remember this as being part of this well it's it's power of seminary I like that yeah but it's and it's an important scripture now as I said this is Alma 3221 now as I said concerning faith faith isn't to have a perfect knowledge of things therefore if you have faith you hope for things which are not seen which are true and for me that
has just been an important thing you hope for things which are not seen but they're true and you know I think through an eye of faith those things that are not seen become through that eye of faith sometimes can be seen to us as well so yeah well and we're going to talk about that scripture yeah 3221 skype because I think that is the beginning of faith that's the beginning that's the I don't want to say lowest level because it's
it's a it's an important level that we must all go through in order to have faith is that we have this hope in things we can't see which are true that that's the level of faith that Alma was trying to teach the Zoramites who are apostates as they were coming back into the faith and that's where missionaries start when they're teaching non-members they teach by teaching that faith is something that you believe in that you can see that is true okay
so I love that definition of faith but that's where someone begins that's the that's the lowest level of faith there's to believe in something that you can't see which is true but eventually you have to get beyond that and obtain the eye of faith where I believe it and I see it through an eye of faith through the eye of faith I see it yeah that's that's a higher level of faith and we'll we'll talk about that but you use the word wrestle the wrestle and so I
immediately thought of enus right and enus says in the book of Mormon I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God before I received a remission of my sins and then then he talks about this wrestle how his soul hunger now think about this in terms of faith he hungered he really hungered for it and he knelt down before his maker and he cried unto him in mighty prayer these are all all ways to increase our faith and then he hears eventually in in his
wrestle he hears the words of the Lord say enus calls him by name enus thy sins are forgiven me and thou shalt be blessed and he knows that God cannot lie because he knows he attributes and perfections of God and we'll talk about that in a minute and then he says how is it done he cries out how is it done and he hears the words of the Lord because of thy faith in Christ that's it Scott how is it done because of thy faith in Christ there is no other answer
that the Lord that even the Lord can give how how is it that I'm forgiven how how is it that I'm I'm clean that I've become purified how is that possible there's only one answer because of thy faith in Christ who now has never before heard nor seen well that's that's the importance of of faith Scott and I faith is is the power behind all the good things that we do in fact I used to tell my my students why did you get out of bed this morning why'd you
get out of bed well because I had to well you didn't have to right why did you get out of bed this morning and if you really if you really get down to it Scott is because they had hope that something that something something good was going to happen or or maybe even something bad was going to happen if they didn't right but but they had some idea that they needed to get out of and they had faith that it would and so they every in the lectures on faith again the the definition and
really the lowest level of faith is that faith is a principle of action everything that we do do every act that we commit we we do it because of of faith in something now you can have you can have true faith and you can have false faith but you you believe something's going to happen and therefore you do it that's faith is a principle of action that's a definition of faith in the lectures on faith lecture one faith is also a principle of power
or that's a higher level that's that's a level where you know Jacob we read we read Alma's description or his definition in Alma 30 to 21 but let's read Jacob's definition of faith and as an example of faith and what it is in Jacob chapter six I think it's verse four Scott so in Jacob chapter six verse four Jacob gives us this description of faith and listen carefully to how he obtained this level of faith Jacob six verse four
wherefore we search the prophets and we have many revelations all right so so listen right off the bat what do they do that we're searching the prophets it it takes extreme work and study to search the prophets god it's it's not just I'm going to read verse a day it's they searched yeah that's a much different experience they searched they didn't just read they searched okay they they they were seekers in order to obtain great faith you must be a seeker okay what else okay
wherefore we search the prophets and we have many revelations there what else got many revelations you can't receive faith without the revelation without revelation and the spirit of prophecy which is a testimony of Christ right all right that's the definition of prophecy given to us in the book of revelation I think it's 1910 the prophecy is a testimony of Jesus and what else and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope and our faith becomes unshaken okay so
they get these witnesses they search they they receive revelation and now they have all of these witnesses uh in which which they which they know to be true by revelation and they what their faith has become unshaken they have hope and this hope is not just a wish it's an assurance they have they begin to have knowledge and assurance and their faith then becomes unshakable yeah and what do they do what's the notice the example of the power of faith here in so much
that we truly can command the name in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us or the mountains or the waves of the sea wow then the next you just read the next verse for a part nevertheless the Lord God showeth us his weak showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace and his great condescensions unto the children of men that we have power to do these things so where's the where does he give all the credit to to Jesus it's grace yeah his grace
his condescension the effect he knows it's not because of anything he did to have that kind of faith I think that maybe one of the beginning points of faith Scott going back to Alma chapter 32 verse 21 is it takes great humility and meekness I mean we've talked about gratitude being the beginning of desire and you have to have desire to have faith but somewhere right there with desire you have to have humility and meekness I love what Alma is trying to teach these people on the
hill of Oneida as they come to him and they've been cast out of their homes cast out of their city and he says well you know it would have been better if you would have become humble because of the word but it's great that you're here now and that you have been compelled to be humble it's it's verses 15 through 17 Scott you are you there Alma 32 yep 15 through 17 yeah he that truly humbled with himself and repentant of his sins and in dearth to the end the same shall be blessed
yeah much more blessed than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding poverty therefore blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble or rather in other words blessed is he that believeth in the word of God and is baptized without stubbornness of heart yeah without being brought to know the word or even compelled to know before they will believe yeah there are many who do say if thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven then we shall
know of assurity then we shall believe so what do you get out of that yeah in regards to well and let me read 18 now I ask is this faith behold I say unto you nay for a man knoweth the thing he has no cause to believe it for he knows it I mean meaning meaning really meaning not so again this is a little bit problematic because people say well if I know it then I don't need faith well I think what Alma is really saying here when you think you know it you don't need any faith when
you think you know everything when you think you're the man you can do everything on your you don't need faith which is knowing and believe well yeah in Christ you know I I think he's kind of using that a little bit tongue-in-cheek yeah maybe you know but but I think that knowing it does still still requires faith you know and again that'll get into the next level of faith as we talk about that because knowing it it still requires faith for it to take place for it to come to pass in
many cases and around many things so you know faith and knowing it don't necessarily preclude themselves well knowing it as long as that knowledge has come from God right yep because of your own great genius yeah because you think you know everything right if the knowledge is is accompanied with this deep humility and meekness which he's describing there and this dependence upon God for that knowledge then then yeah absolutely but you know sometimes we think we
know it all when we think we know it all well then we're not even going to seek for faith so faith faith begins really with not just desire which which Alma by the way talks about it I think it's verse 27 scott find the word desire in verse 27 right there it begins with desire but you know planting the seed before you plant the seed you know which is the word right the seed is not faith right and in his great analogy or metaphor here of planting a seed the seed is the word
and before you you you're going to take the action plant the word in your heart there has to be desire but even before that he says you have to have the humility and it's best if you're not compelled to be humble so many people we talk about rock bottom right you tell you talk about that in the dictionary recovery rooms yep is great glad you're here because you hit rock bottom it doesn't matter why you're here but we're glad you're here because you were compelled to be humble yep it
would have been better if you would have become humble without hitting rock bottom because of God or the power of the word right absolutely yeah absolutely you know and it's that rock bottom that brings with it so much of the fallenness or brings to light the fallenness of our situation right physically emotionally mentally even spiritually you know that fallenness that that rock bottom puts us in and there is a great deal of faith required for sure but to have that experience
without having to be compelled totally different experience I mean but everybody in alcoholics anonymous I'm you know and I could probably say this without fear of successful contradiction everybody there has you know hit that rock bottom I mean because of the decisions and so forth that we've made yeah well so anyway humility is really key to the to the obtaining of faith and then comes this desire he talks about desire Scott do you want to read that yeah this is 32 I'm
a 32 verse 27 but behold if you will awaken arouse your faculties even to an experiment on my word and exercise a particle of faith yay even if you can no more than desire to believe yay even if you can no more desire to believe let this desire work in you even to until you believe in a manner that you can give place for a portion of my words so I desire so so important in the obtaining and the the building of our faith and then and then he talks about again the
planning of that seed and how will how will we know that it's a good seed by the swelling and the enlightening and the edifying and the enlarging it will be enlarging and delicious to me which all spells seed which is I think so interesting right verse 28 and then it seed is the word and if you plant that word in your heart and it begins to grow and he gives us the signs or evidences of its growth then you have the beginnings of faith and it may be a little
seedling so again think of the levels of faith here there's a little seedling of faith and it grows up and it becomes a young plant and then it grows up and it becomes a little tree and eventually it becomes this great tree that bears fruit and that fruit would be of course I think much like the tree in Lehi's dream it becomes the love of God the atonement of Jesus Christ it becomes all of the blessings and ordinances of the gospel administered into our life the fruits
of the gospel of Jesus Christ and eventually the greatest gift of all the tree and the fruit represent eternal life that that's kind of an essence Alma chapter chapter 32 Paul talks about how to obtain faith in much the same way much much more brief here in Alma or in Romans chapter 10 uh he says this is Romans 10 verse 17 so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God I I really just love that simple definition of faith and how to obtain it faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God the first thing in uh President Nelson's great monumental I think talk a classic on the faith to move mountains which he gave along with his witness of Christ in April of uh 2021 I think that was maybe Easter Sunday if I remember anyway he bears his testimony of Christ then talks of faith the very first thing which he mentions is that it requires great study again that searching right it it's the searching that's how it it begins
you you have to eventually for whatever however you come to humility whether it's hitting rock bottom being compelled to be humble or whether it's uh by your you're reading your scriptures daily or by it's some some event in your life President Nelson says the five suggestions to help us to develop faith and trust in God number one is study become an engaged learner immerse yourself in the scriptures to better understand not just in the scriptures generally but immerse yourself in the scriptures
to understand better Christ's mission and ministry or in other words his atonement so uh he talks about studying the life of Christ study uh how how can we come to know Jesus because eventually to have faith in Jesus you must know the character attributes and perfections of his of his uh of his life and who he is and and that kind of goes back to the lectures on faith Scott the lectures on faith lectures really two through five talk about the importance of knowing in order to obtain the faith
the faith of power you have to know the character attributes and perfections of God and of Christ so if we want to have that kind of faith we have to come to know God we have to come to know Jesus Christ and their and their attributes um President Nelson writes or in his conference talk he said the more you learn about the savior the easier it will be to trust in his mercy his infinite love his strengthening healing and redeeming power the savior is never closer to you than when you
are facing or climbing a mountain with faith so uh the more we come to know the savior the more we not only will have believe in him but the more we will be able to believe him to trust him to believe what he says uh I think so many people uh Scott get kind of held up by just kind of seeing Jesus as some sort of a spiritual coach or as a positive role model or as something which is that's one level of faith but to really have the faith of power to experience the miracle of
forgiveness in our life one is going to have to know Jesus Christ and who he is as their savior and their redeemer that is critical in the faith in Jesus Christ to be able to work out our repentance there's so much benefit to that to to to the knowing him you know John 17 3 this life eternal right to know the the only true God in Jesus Christ who now has sent we know that we've talked about that that very thing in this podcast on multiple multiple occasions but think about that
you know to to really come to know him and for me Dave and this is the helix component that you're talking about of faith the more I know him the deeper my faith grows or the more power in that faith I receive uh but but that but that knowing him requires an investment on my part I I can't just read words on the page I can't just go to and listen to Sunday school lessons or even quorum meetings or release society lessons our podcasts or whatever to know him I really have
to know him and to know him I have to spend time there you know I I've got to just spend a significant important meaningful time with the savior so that I can begin to fill that as president Nelson puts it as I can then begin to have that level of faith in my life where the effects of the atonement of Jesus Christ are seen by me for sure but maybe even witnessed by others as well in my life Dave that that requires I think Scott a lot of focus
a lot of intention it has to be intentional some planning I mean it oh yeah he usually doesn't just happen by chance it can't happen by it requires a great deal of effort there's work definite work that's required by us in order to to have that relationship built on our knowing him not actually having that relationship with him well president Nelson after talking about studying and and the the effort to really study to come to know Jesus the second
the second step in obtaining faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement is to choose his keyword to choose to believe in Jesus Christ to choose to believe him you know elder Anderson years ago talked about faith is a choice it is a choice it is not something that we just dawns on us or it's not something that just you know comes upon us it it is a one must make the choice and I just think that's such an important part and one must stop this is as president
Nelson stop increasing your doubts by rehearsing them with other doubters allow the Lord to lead you on your spiritual journey in other words choose to to believe and and focus on your faith then not choose to uh who said that president new dwarf don't doubt your doubts uh uh doubt your doubts it was elder holland doubt your doubts yeah I don't know anyway yeah choose choose that I think it was elder holland but yeah it was if you're gonna doubt doubt your
doubts right but but it's a choice Scott yeah faith is a choice and if that's the case if it is a choice and it but it does require effort on our part then then I think that investment that it requires of us making the choice spending time with him we'll spending time with him is a manifestation for example of our choice but making that choice in all the manifestations that come with that choice are really what's going to propel us into that faith Dave the third step
president elton gives us is to act in faith faith requires action you know faith without works is dead and I would say work without faith is also dead but he says here think about it that that would require some focus and action right think about it he even says write about it don't just study it write about it maybe as you receive thoughts and inspiration about how to increase your faith or how to uh righteously exercise your faith write it then receive more faith by doing something
that requires more faith I think that's an awesome sentence receive more faith by doing something that requires more faith can you can you think of an example of that Scott that our listeners can maybe relate to examples of someone who receives more faith who chooses to receive more faith by doing something that requires more faith I think a Joseph Smith for example you know he had a little bit of faith he read a if any of you lack wisdom he knew he did he felt like well I can go
exercise some faith in that and he did and look what happened I mean his faith became a sure knowledge um I had so many others too Dave what have you gotten on top of your head there well you know I I'm thinking of my sweetheart you know she never felt like she could really call upon God for forgiveness until she had worked it all out for herself you know how many of us have felt that saved by grace after all we can do after all we can do she thought she had to do it all before she
could even approach before she could even ask yeah and it kept her from taking the next step yeah which was to ask I mean I just think that's such a simple um a simple thing to do but it requires great faith really to ask God to forgive me requires great faith sometimes we as Latter-day Saints sometimes Scott we we're hitting all around it but we never get to the point where we cry out we'll talk about that when we talk about repentance where we cry out and we ask God to save us
man I we we almost become defensive about that we you know I mean really we think we really do I don't I don't want to be evangelical Christian yeah I mean I heaven forbid yeah and so we never get around to taking that action to crying out asking God to forgive us to save us I think that would be a really positive thing for most of us to to have the faith enough to actually take the next step and which would be to do to take that action yeah cry out yeah
what and there are so many other examples there there's practical examples of individuals who who I you know to to be able to take the faith to go offer someone your forgiveness right that requires a lot of faith to forgive others yeah requires great faith there's a lot of faith required in service you know I went to minister right I went to a missionary farewell of our dear little niece 80 the other day and you know that the level of faith that is being required
by her to go and do what she's being asked to do on a mission that's why yeah and her parents you know yeah Darryl and Laurie require great faith in order for them to experience what they're experiencing there as well so we should talk more about this later but one of the one of the steps of to really obtain great faith in the lectures on faith is in lecture six and it requires great sacrifice so one of the actions that we should all consider what can we do to increase
our faith is what's what sacrifice can I make what sacrifice am I not making maybe it maybe it would be to go to the temple more often may it may be the sacrifice of of time to do certain things or or a sacrifice of maybe getting up early in the morning to study the scriptures before we go to work or the sacrifice of paying our tithes and our our offerings and to to do all of those things and ultimately the sacrifice of of King Lamoni that we would give King Lamoni's
father sorry the that we would offer all of our sins as a sacrifice to the Lord to the Lord to put to put our our sins on the altar and ultimately the sacrifice of our will to put our will on the altar those are all actions that should be considered that we should consider and the fourth by President Nelson to increase our faith the faith to move mountains is to partake of sacred ordinances right worthily and he says ordinances unlock the power of God for your life I think
of Dr. incumbent section 84 it's in the ordinances thereof speaking of the temple in the ordinances thereof are the power is the power of godliness manifest I know that power is the atonement of Jesus Christ in our life but it's also the power of faith in our life so participating more in the ordinances including the sacrament including all of the saving ordinances of the gospel will unlock the power of God or faith in our life and the fifth and final step of President
Nelson in his talk faith to move mountains ask your heavenly father in the name of Jesus Christ for help faith takes work and receiving revelation takes work so I think what he's saying there is we need revelation it needs to we need to receive it as a gift but in order to receive that gift we have to qualify for it and qualifying for it takes some effort on our part asking for it asking for God's help in our development of faith asking for revelation asking for confirmation
that all requires great effort and ultimately it comes faith comes as we receive revelation and through the Holy Ghost so those are the five steps how to increase our faith in President Nelson's and I encourage everyone to maybe go back and review that talk if they want to increase their faith that's April 2021 well Dave great day I mean as we start talking about and moving into repentance you know we've kind of set the stage you know we talked about over the last
several weeks why the atonement's important to how it answers the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve and how it effect answers the effects of our own personal falls we've also talked about how understanding and really knowing the events of the atonement of Jesus Christ will give us a deeper gratitude a deeper desire a deeper desire to have that faith to know him to come to him to have the blessings bestowed on us or to qualify for the blessings that come to us both the conditional
and the unconditional blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ and to have faith in that will dispel fear and I think that that's one of the great benefits that we will all experience as we embark on this journey of obtaining and gaining and exercising and growing in faith from faith in Jesus Christ to even a faith of power so hey gang thanks so much for being with us today as we talk about these things we hope that you feel the spirit we know that we do hear we pray that you do
that you do there as well until we can be together again next week be well