Hey there everybody and welcome out to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood. Scott Durfey here, joined as always by Uncle David. What's up Dave? Hey, Scott on my way over here. I was listening to John Denver sing and I love John Denver's Christmas album, Rocky Mountain Christmas. And I was listening to it and he was singing Aspen Glow. I think that's the name of the song. He had this little saying and I thought, yeah, I can, I can relate to that.
He was saying as the weather gets colder, our hearts grow warmer. And I thought, I just thought about that. Rest the way over here and thought, you know, there's, this really is a special time of the year. I know it can be also a hard time of the year for many people, but I think generally it can be such a special time of the year as the seasons change and the weather gets colder.
It seems that our hearts gets warmer as we get closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that we have to be thankful for such a great time of the year. Yeah, you know, I went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting Saturday and as it gets colder and as we get closer to the holidays, those rooms swell. Really? Yeah. Well, you know, this season brings out the magnifying glass and makes our problems and misalignments. Let's put it that way. Seem even bigger. This is a time typically for family.
It's not uncommon for Alcoholics and addicts and those who suffer from those types of things to have estranged themselves from their families or to not even have a family in a lot of cases. I know that's true. I've been aware of that as a member when I was a bishop. It was such a hard time of the year for members of our ward who were alone or lonely and kind of down and out. It's it does magnify. I think you're right. Magnifies our challenges and problems.
But it also can be such a time to humble ourselves and examine ourselves, which is part of the reason why, you know, more people who who aren't happy with where they're at, they become extremely unhappy with where they're at. So I anyway, I think it's I'm grateful to feel that that line is for the most part true. The weather gets colder, our hearts get warmer and hope it is for all of our listeners.
Scott, I had a thought and I thought I would share it today, even though it's it's not on our topic. We're going to talk about the premortal existence today. Finish our conversation and our lesson on the premoral existence today, which is one of my favorite topics. But I I read this quote and I just really loved it and wanted to share it today. It's actually from a general conference years ago. Sister Joey Jones, primary president of the church, and she she wrote.
If the love we feel for the Savior, we could say love and focus that we feel for the Savior. And what he did for us is greater than the energy we give to weaknesses, self doubts, bad habits or poor circumstances. Then he will help us overcome the things which cause misery in our lives. He saves us from ourselves. Let me reemphasize, she wrote, if the pole of the world is stronger than the faith and trust we have in the Savior, then the pole of the world will prevail every time.
If we choose to focus on our negative thoughts and doubts, our worth or sorry, if we choose to focus on our negative thoughts and doubt our worth, instead of trusting in and relying on the Savior, it becomes more difficult to feel the impressions of the world. Of the Holy Ghost and to feel peace and joy in our life. I just think that's so great. It's so true. I know that's true. It just really spoke to me. So you're right, Scott. It's about what do we choose to focus on?
And if we and it takes energy to focus, whatever you choose to focus on, negative or positive, good or bad, spiritual or worldly, whatever you choose to focus on, it takes energy. Believe it or not, it's a choice. It is a personal, individual choice. If you choose to focus your thoughts on that, it's not a choice. We don't always have a choice what thoughts come into our mind. But if it becomes our focus, that's our choice. What we choose to focus on is a decision that we make.
And sometimes I know unconsciously, subconsciously, we make that choice. So we need to be, I think, more intentional this season of the year and the rest of the year, all year, about what we choose to spend our energy on in focusing on what we choose to focus on. Yeah, say that three times fast. Sorry. I hope that made sense. No, it actually did.
But you know what, David, the really cool thing about all of this is as we start again, restart this lesson today on premortal life, pre-existence, war and heaven, who we are, who's we are, all of that. Understanding those things help us to position our focus in a way that's more positive and can actually create that focus. You said it, you know, sometimes subconsciously our focus begins and that's in large part due to a lot of influences. One is the natural man, for sure.
We do have that to contend with. But the other one has something to do with our habits. If we are in the habit of focusing on negative, then our knee-jerk reactions are going to be towards the negative. We were just talking before we got started here today about a couple of people who are just always happy. The gift of Deb, my wife, has the gift of happiness. Now, she's not in a perfect mood all the time, you know, and she does feel the effects of the fall emotionally and everything else.
But she really does have the gift of happiness. Well, that gift of happiness has been cultivated by her. I love that. She has made the choice. She has made the choice to cultivate and care for that spiritual gift that she has and to make it grow. She's not like that. You know, when you ask Shirley, how are you doing?
The first thing she'll always say, and regardless of how she's feeling or what's happening in her life, and she's getting along in yours and she's not perfect in her health by any stretch of the imagination, but I can call her right now. Shirley, how are you doing? Oh, Scott, I'm happy. That will be her response. That's sweet. Yeah. But it's easy to do that when we choose to focus our focus on, jeez, that one needful thing. We talked about that last week. Yeah. That one needful thing.
We need to focus, especially, you know, as we get closer to Christmas, he is the reason for the season. And if he is our focus during this holiday season, as we begin to get closer to it, really, we can have, as President Nelson promised us, we can have joy if Jesus Christ is our focus in any circumstances. Even he in his suffering, he did it for the joy. Hebrews teaches, right? So I don't know. I just think that we have probably more, well, I know, I know I have more, I'll just speak to me.
I know I have more control over my focus than I think I do. I know I don't have perfect control over my thoughts, but I know I have more control than I think I do over my focus. And what you choose to focus on determines your choices, determines your decisions. I just think it's really critical. So just a thought that hopefully we can choose where to spend or invest our energy, our mental capacities and cultivate some of those things in our life.
Pre-mortal existence, Scott, is again one of my favorite topics, and it's become more so later in my life because of experiences I've had with individuals in my own family giving patriarchal blessings than others with the reality of the pre-mortal existence. I've heard stories throughout my life of individuals who have had, you know, glimpses or who have had experiences or, you know, spiritual experiences that have confirmed to them the reality of a pre-mortal existence. And I believe them.
But until you kind of have some of your maybe own personal experiences with it, maybe it doesn't seem quite as real as it could or should in our lives. The prophets we established I think last week, the kind of the scriptural foundation. We talked about the book of Abraham and Alma and doctrine, Covenants section 93 and we could have used many other scriptures.
But today I want to just talk maybe a little bit more about the some details about the pre-mortal existence and some experiences that I've had and maybe you've had that our listeners hopefully can relate to or be inspired by. So let's just talk a little bit. Let's begin by talking a little bit about the war in heaven and what we understand about the war in heaven. It was a crucial part and affected all of us in the pre-mortal existence.
I know that it has been taught and it sometimes still is that when we were in the council of heaven that in Satan's rebellion that he proposed to force us to keep the commandments. I think that is that's been taught in the church and I don't think we have a perfect understanding of the word heaven and I don't think it's necessarily wrong to say that. But I think that there's a more universal proposal that he made that would destroy agency then by just forcing us.
And it's one that I actually learned from brother Matthews Robert J. Matthews who wrote the Bible dictionary and it's interesting that it's in the Bible dictionary and it continues to be in the Bible dictionary in the latest edition of the Bible dictionary. So in the Bible dictionary on page 741 under the subtitle war in heaven the war was primarily over how and in what manner the plan of salvation would be administered to the forthcoming human family upon the earth.
The issues involved such things as agency how to gain salvation and who should be the redeemer. The war broke out because one third of the spirits refused to accept the appointment of Jesus Christ as the savior. Such a refusal was a rebellion against the father's plan of redemption. Notice Scott that it says the father's plan of redemption.
I know that's been well emphasized over the last several years since Saturday's way or popular play and movie and you know idea came out and it looked like it was saviors. The saviors plan it wasn't the saviors plan it wasn't the sons plan it's the father's plan. Everyone knew that Jesus Christ was chosen by the father to be our savior and redeemer and that that he would be the center of the plan of redemption.
And then Satan you know has this other plan and I don't respect him enough to even call it a plan I think it's just an outright rebellion. The Bible dictionary continues it was evident that if given agency some persons would fall short of complete salvation. Lucifer and his followers wanted salvation to come automatically to all who pass through mortality without regard to individual preference agency or voluntary dedication.
One more time the sentence is key Lucifer and his followers wanted salvation to come automatically that meaning we're not going to force you to do anything it's going to come automatically it's going to come unconditionally to everyone who passes through mortality without regard to individual preference agency or volunteer or voluntary dedication.
Well that that is no doubt the most universal effective way to destroy agency is to say it doesn't matter what you choose it doesn't matter what you do go down there and do anything you want party party on it doesn't matter there will be no accountability there will be I will save you will all everyone universal this is the essence of universalism that everyone will be saved.
That was the false philosophy that other mccunkey teaches that this was a philosophy of Satan and others his followers that was impossible what he couldn't pull it off because he wasn't going to overthrow God God was sovereign he's not going to overthrow God or God's laws but in essence he that's what he was saying he was he was over he was seeking to overthrow God by destroying law and accountability and if you do that Scott if there's no commandments
think about it if there's no commandments and there's no accountability and it doesn't matter what I do you destroy agency agency is doesn't matter anymore it's gone so that I believe is what saint proposed and and to really to really believe that to really nail that down look at the culture that we're living in right now I mean the war continues we're still in the war the prophets have taught that the war in heaven has been just transferred
from the premortal existence to this earth and here in mortality we see that alright so no doubt communism and other dictatorships force people and they destroy agency and I actually believe Scott that when the rise of communism is where this teaching of forcing people that kind of became the model communism and and forcing governments that would force other people I think that's where the whole idea that maybe that was part of the war in
heaven and that Satan's plan or sorry Satan's rebellion was to force us and that's how he was going to destroy agency as I've studied it as you go back and and there were some absolute comparisons made to communism and what happened in the war in heaven so I think that's kind of where that is really emphasized that that the war in heaven was about force and I believe that it is definitely more universal to do a more universal effort to destroy agency
a more effective way to destroy agency is by saying it doesn't matter go to the church of what's happening now just go down and do anything you want good bad evil it doesn't matter I'll save you I'll get the credit that's what Satan proposed well we see here right we see here in mortality that's pretty hard to say no to obviously right people are wow just pro-choice and I'm not I'm not saying that in terms of one one decision or choice
in you know people here pro-choice saying anything of abortion I'm saying that his whole thing was hey just go choose anything you want that's how you destroy agency is by destroying law by destroying commandments and destroying accountability if there's no accountability then there's no need for a savior there's no need for an entomment this gets back to the very center of the anti-christ in the book of Mormon knee or in in Alma chapter one you know where he proposes hey we don't
need a savior well you don't need a redeemer because there is no sin core or there's no crime there's no crime it's just dog eat dog survival of the fittest you know that's what was proposed in the pre-mortal existence so when you think about that and and that's what I believe it really does affect how you see what's going on in this life and maybe even in my own life and in your own life is that wow I need to be I need to be careful
I need to not just be drifting with the culture here I need to stand up I need to make some choices and decisions in my life because that's what decisions choices accountability to those decisions and choices right and wrong things are not relative there is absolute truth and there's absolute right and wrong good and evil righteousness and wickedness but same proposed that there wouldn't be any of that they just do what you just do what you want
do what feels good and I'll save you no wonder one third followed him isn't that amazing that one third of the host brother Matthews used to always say that the reason he believes that it wasn't about force because he says nobody likes to be forced to do anything he says I can't believe that a Satan would have said I am going to force you to keep the commandments that no way would he have gotten one third to follow him but the reason he got so many
to follow him the reason that was so attractive and popular was because they were worried the one third that did end up following him they were they doubted their ability to either choose the right or they didn't want to rely on a savior or redeemer they they felt like they could be totally independent do their own thing and it would free them up and they would be free liberated no wonder one third of the host of heaven wanted to follow him
and no wonder Scott there's so many we see in our culture throughout the world really no many no wonder so many here are attracted to that philosophy it's pretty attractive yeah there's no doubt well and there's a couple of reasons for that I love some of the points that you made all of the points that you made but there's a few of the points that you made I think that are especially poignant or relative to the things that we talk about in this podcast
one of the one of the things that you said you know you bring up knee-hoor you know this whole knee-hoor principle yeah I'll see it yeah the the the whole knee-hoor principle you'll find that throughout the entire Book of Mormon you'll find it through other scripture you'll find it in our culture you'll find it in our in our own lives all around us even within the church to a degree I mean you know it's a bit of a stretch but we can even find
it there but the whole idea behind that is is you know everything's okay you're okay I'm okay everything's just okay you're right yeah there's no big deals there's no problem with what you're doing just go ahead whatever your thing whatever makes you feel good yeah right and I there's a couple of things here you read from the Bible dictionary and just another part that I'm going to read here this is also under the war of heaven it says the warfare is continued in mortality
and the conflict between right and wrong between the gospel and the false principles etc the same contestants and the same issues are doing battle and the same salvation is at stake yeah I love that Scott thanks for reading it I think it's so cool how it's true how he puts that because it is true you know we talk about this war in heaven like it was and it was you know there we had some some experience in it in a past part of our lives part of our spiritual existence right
but I think it that sometimes it's not as obvious or it's less likely for us to see or to think about that same thing going on here that same philosophical debate debate the knee-hoor principle in Alma one you know that I mean that was many many many centuries after the war in heaven and here we are many many many centuries after that and nothing's changed right so we have it right but so the but the point here is okay so this is great and this is important doctrine I can see that but how and
why does that help me with my relationship with the atonement of Jesus Christ and and I think that I can answer that in part and I want to hear what you have to say about it too but I one of the things that I think about when I ask myself that question okay how does that relate to what's going on here if I had that relationship there if I really knew him there and and that's what we're talking about here if we knew him we voted with our with our devotion with our with our commitment to him
to to follow his plan heavenly father's plan that would be carried out by the Savior well well by knowing him and having had that experience and and we know we knew him and we know which way we fell on these issues that's evidenced by our being here in mortal form well here we are in mortal form and if we can have and tap into those remembrances that memory of somehow what it was like there why was it so important for me then and those things we'll pull forward
we'll be able to pull those spiritual memories those spiritual remembrances from that time Dave you get the experiences probably more than most people in the church because of your experiences with the patriarchal blessings but we can pull those experiences forward tap in again to who we really are and through that fill the relief from the effects of the fall of adam and eve through Christ power as is afforded to us through his atonement yeah that's that's awesome Scott the the
three a's and really are the center of this doctrine and and to really understand what happened in the premortal existence and what the war in heaven was all about it was about the three a's our agency accountability and atonement there was there was a years ago a great conference talk given that was the title of the talk by elder boyd k packer there have been byu devotionals that have used that title and i invite our listeners to look up all of them and read them and understand
that the war in heaven and the war that we fight now is really centered in those three a's agency which is there is no agency if there's no accountability and accountability would never matter if there were not an atonement of jesus christ that all three of those are dependent upon the upon the i mean those are the those are the essence those three a's make up the essence of the of the father's plan of salvation and his plan of redemption that agency has to be honored
it has to be protected at all cost we read we read the verse last the passage of scripture in revelations 12 last week about the war in heaven just briefly and how we how we conquered satan right and the three ways that we conquered him was through the blood of the lamb that the atonement of jesus christ had power had effect on us even in the premortal existence we progressed there there based not upon our own strength or genius but we progressed in the premortal existence
based on the atonement of jesus christ it was retroactive if the atonement of jesus christ was retroactive to adam to alma to all of those before jesus even carried out the atonement then it's retroactive all the way back into our premortal existence and it is that's what we believe that the atonement of jesus christ had power and influence and strength in our life we had faith in jesus christ god before we were ever born i always just get a little twinge when i hear
that in the premortal existence i actually taught this in the missionary discussions back in the seventies the rainbow lessons we actually used to teach that we in the premore existence we walked by sight but in this life we walk by faith well there's some truth to that but it's mostly wrong because we walked by faith we fought in faith our power and our strength even in the premortal existence god was based on our faith in and our testimony of jesus christ our elder brother there
as our savior and redeemer this whole war was accomplished in the premortal existence by faith in jesus christ and it's how it will be conquered and how will overcome satan in this life but back to revelation 12 verse 11 it says we overcame satan in the premortal existence by the blood of the lamb second by the word of our testimony and third that we were willing to give our lives to our lives under the death that's how we overcame it there that's the only way we can overcome it
here so i i just think understanding the war in heaven and our role in that and how that has that has transferred to us here is just a really important part of our identity and who we are and scott once you know who you are i mean if we could get a glimpse of how valiant we were in the war how how ferociously we fought in the war in heaven to defend jesus christ as our savior and redeemer and the father's plan of salvation and redemption wow if you can get a
glimpse of that it changes you and it changes you immediately and forever and i say what you want before i share a story about that well i i was just going to say i know you have a couple of stories about well sorry i'm talking well no no no that are going to help us with all of that but but david this is one of the things that you think about it you know if let's go back to c.s. louis and warmwood and you know in the dead devil's uh understudies and so forth and if you
had an understudy and you were the devil um and and you were trying to thwart or throw barriers in front of heavenly father's plan i believe this might be the first place you would start yeah i i think if you could confuse us about who we are that would be all we would really really i that's probably all it would really need to be done really and then mission accomplished because that it's that confusion around who we really are david that i in my opinion and and you know i have some
experience with this uh with my own life and with the lives of many many many many many others that i have an opportunity to be around and serve with and and serve uh but if but if we can forget who we are if we can be confused about our spiritual identity we have such identity crisis in our world today as it is around gender and so many other things right uh that that's just an expansion of of what satan's trying to do if he can confuse us about who we are then he wins yeah absolutely
scott absolutely and it just seems to me that uh in the premoral existence and in this life that he he makes he really confuses the line between right and wrong yeah he almost has erased in our culture the line between good and evil and it it's a it's a fulfillment of isaias prophecy that in the latter days that people would call evil good and good evil and there's just so much confusion about that here in our world and that that is the war that's what the war in heaven was
all about so i i've had um a couple of experiences with this as a as a patriarch you know really almost every sunday i haven't experienced with this to some degree or another in in bestowing patriarchal blessings upon individuals and and honestly with an eye of faith and and i take no credit for this god i it's a it's a it's a gift from heavenly father it's not not from me none of these blessings come from me i know that i could give lots of examples and experiences i've had
that have taught me that some sometimes hard lessons to learn that i'm nobody but it's true acting as an instrument to be able to kind of see them the way god sees them many patriarchal blessings talk about hell not just how chosen and elect they were in the premoral existence and how they were preserved to come forth in these latter days based upon their premoral existence which is taught that we are added upon in this life depending upon what we did in the premoral
existence and will be added upon in the next life depending upon how we live this life but you know i've i've had a few times when you get a glimpse and you you see them in the premoral existence and it's over it's overcoming really it's it's uh so touching to be overcome by the spirit and to kind of see them and i had that experience it's been a few years ago now and we've shared this in our previous seasons there was a there was a young woman who called me up and
asked if she could set up a time to have a patriarchal blessing to receive a blessing and i could just kind of tell by her voice that she was a little bit older and i i always ask those who you know request a blessing a little bit about themselves so as i inquired about her she told me that she had not been to church in 16 years that she had just recently started to go back to church and the reason she was going back to church was because she had an eight-year-old
daughter she had actually two children she told me she had two children she had never been married and this eight-year-old daughter she wanted her to be baptized and so she'd start to go back to church for her daughters this sunday in which she called me she called me on a sunday evening and she said i went to church today and after sacramene the bishop came down to me and said he wanted to talk to me in the office and we went in his office for a minute and we got acquainted he wanted to
know a little bit about me and he he said i feel impressed to ask you do you have a patriarchal blessing and she said no and he said well i feel impressed you should get one so he gave me a recommend and wanted me to call you and set up a time so we set up a time and she came over a few weeks later probably three weeks later and i remember opening the door and there's this beautiful young woman 32 years old with with dreadlocks and tattoos piercings and you could tell that you
know she'd had had a hard life we we welcomed her in we went in the office she she'd come alone and we visited got got better-coined and i knew that the lord had a blessing for her and this was the day for her to receive it so after saying a little prayer i laid my hands on her head after i asked her to say a prayer and it was very sweet short prayer and then i laid my hands on her head and scott i was really overcome by the spirit of the lord and the love of her heavenly father for her
and i i could see her as a as a young girl i could see the white dress she wore i mean this was i don't again how literal this was i don't know whether in the body or out of the body is paul kind of describes i don't know but i i could see her in in my mind's eye i could see her and uh i she was just so fun so much energy so playful and then i got just a glimpse of her heavenly parents look watching her and smiling at her and i was trying to describe this in her blessing and i
kept using the word delight how they delighted in her as their as their spirit spirit daughter and uh anyway i'm trying to describe all this in a paragraph and then i knew there were two things i had to say and i've never said i'd never said them before i've never said them a sense in any blessing but i knew him this came from heavenly father and he knew she needed to hear this and i said your heavenly father wants you to know that you are one of his favorites
i remember when i said that sky thought no is that is is that really docturally accurate it you know my my thoughts went is that doctrinal uh and i thought well we're all his favorites you know but she needs to know that she's one of his favorites that you know god loves us all i like what nief i said that he was highly favored he knew he was highly favored of the lord anyway i remember some of those thoughts going through my mind when i said that
and uh so i said he wants you to know that you're one of his favorites and then this sentence and this really affected her and me i said and he wants you to know he's never been mad at you well i remember her head falling into her lap and my hands were suspended in midair and i just nothing was said we just there was a moment of silence and she wept for a moment and then she she sat back up and continued to kind of cry and but in that in that moment when her head was in her
lap and the the blessing had had this pause i remember thinking wow wow the love of god for his children how he loved his children in the premortal existence how he loves them here i remember thinking wow if he if he if he's never been mad at her he's never been mad at any of my kids if he's never been mad at any of my kids he's never been mad at me if he's never been mad at me he's never i know he's never been mad at my wife i just remember thinking wow the love of god
it was it was quite a moment scott to feel that i know she felt that i i never i've always felt bad after that blessing i never asked her if she sought to i kind of wondered if she had seen it but as i tried to describe that i know that the premortal existence became so real to me and i hope that it has to her and i haven't seen her since but i know that that changed her life it will change her life it has and it will and and and it has mine so i just i just want to testify to all
of our listeners that i know the premortal existence is real and that we are literal spirit sons and daughters of heavenly parents and how pleased they were with us and how much they loved us and how sad they were that one third i think about this sometimes when i think of the way we're children who leave the teachings of their parents and who rebel and wander for a while think how hard it was for our heavenly parents to lose one third and scott not just to lose them for a little while
but for them to be so rebellious and really hateful towards their savior redeemer the the firstborn son of our heavenly parents and he only begun in the flesh jesus christ to be so hateful towards him and so rebellious towards their father that they would become known as perdition and choose to follow satan instead of following the father's plan i i think about how hard that must have been for those heavenly parents so i just uh the premortal
existences is is real to me and uh and i know that we existed before this life and i know that that how we lived there and the choices that we made there definitely have direct effect not just on us having physical bodies here but what we are here to accomplish what we are here to do and when one gets some sort of a glimpse or an idea or belief that they existed before this life and there's more to this life than just this life that their life here was influenced by
their life before this life that they came here for a foreordained purpose or mission that when people feel that believe it get a glimpse of it wow scott it changes it changes them forever it changes changes all their decisions and choices in their life after that i think one of the biggest things i love so much about that story and i've heard that story several times now uh about the patriarchal blessing and it changes i think this time one of the things that i love
so much about that is heavenly father's never been mad at you i don't know um but i think i i i think i do know i think that if we have a real concept a real living concept of what it was like to be in a pre-mortal life with loving parents with a with a with a redeemer with a savior who would come down and satisfy the laws of justice in our behalf so that we could have free agencies so that we could be like unto him unto them in all ways but especially and first in that
way i just heavenly father knew the end from the beginning he knew all the things that we would go through it makes sense that he wouldn't be mad at any of us scott i've i've i've kind of made this a study yeah you know in the old testament it talks a lot about his anger and his wrath right then i've made a study this and i was so grateful that elder christopherson confirmed this because i'd come to the same conclusion that his anger and wrath as it's described is not an emotion
God has no wrathful emotion when he talks about his wrath that is not an emotion that he has i mean i'm sure he could be but he is not he there's no contention their anger or wrath it is it describes his actions it describes his the consequences for breaking laws or commandments it describes what he does scott not what he feels when you talk about the wrath of God you're talking about the outcomes or his actions wrath does not describe his emotions
for his children yeah yeah and i i know i have felt like God's been angry with me i know the the students in our institute class that we see every wednesday night have expressed that to me i know my kids have felt that some still do i know members so i think this is a problem you know that we must overcome and one of the great ways the best way i know to overcome this is through a relationship with our heavenly father the holy ghost jesus christ because of his atonement but again going back to
an understanding who we were from the very beginning really kind of helps me to line that all out and true and understanding who god is yeah helps us to know who we are yeah and when you know when you know that god is a loving father yeah and that our relationship to him is child to father father to child right and that he is he's never going to to hate us he's never going to be mad at us now again there are laws and there will be consequences but there is accountability
but the law but the consequences aren't because of god's anger towards us exactly the consequences are because of the the the law of justice and mercy yeah exactly so i think it's really just critical that we see god for for who he is now i know he is a god of emotions i know he has emotions absolutely but his emotions are always appropriate and perfect and i know he cries i know he feels sorrow i know that he i i think angry is a word that can mean take on a lot of i know he feels
he never feels contention i'm sure he feels disappointment i'm sure he feels a lot of the things that a loving parent watching their children struggle would feel but he also has the ability to see the end from the beginning and he sees the beginning and he remembers us in ways that we can't necessarily remember because of the veil and it affects his feelings for us if we had that same blessing and benefit to get a glimpse there's a veil for a reason
and one of the other reasons there's a bell so that we won't be too accountable you know it's not just to test us that's one reason that there's a bell that we can be tested but another reason is is that we he out of his love for us he doesn't want us to be overly accountable to be able to see perfectly who we were there and what we were for today and do accomplish so i i just know that our belief what we believe what we choose to believe what we understand
about the premoral existence scott it definitely affects our daily life here so another another experience scott that i've had that's personal with with me my family is uh with my with my son devin i know not not every person has this uh blessing and by the way i've given i don't know 300 and something patriarchal blessings and i haven't seen everyone in their premoral existence in detail the way i saw that that particular daughter of heavenly father
but i i've got had a glimpse of a few and uh before i was ever a patriarch i was encouraging my son to get his patriarchal blessing he had uh in minnesota when we lived in minnesota for 14 years where he was basically raised uh as a child and teenager and had such great success as a basketball player and captain of his basketball team and and uh all city conference this is a big deal some great basketball players in the minneapolis st paul metro area and he was
all conference point guard and and went on played little college basketball became captain of his college basketball team he saw himself as a basketball player that was his identity scott and i had a hard time really to get him to be fully functionable uh he was always a great kid always a good kid i think he he tried really hard to live the standards and keep the commandments and he was such a respectful son to his parents earthly parents and and uh anyway lots of lots
of sweet things about him but he he just didn't feel really connected to the church or sees himself so much as maybe a latter-day saint and uh it was while he was playing college basketball that i had that i had uh got up there for the weekend picked him up brought him home enjoyed a few days with him and then i was driving him back to his college dorms where he lived with basketball players and i was saying hey debon how you doing good son are you going to church once in a while he said i
i'm going once in a while dad i'm going once in a while i said son are you still thinking about going on a mission because you know i that was a conversation we'd had throughout his teenage years and this was a little bit heartbreaking he said to me dad i'm not a missionary and i'm never going to go on a mission and please don't bring up the m word again and uh wow that that was a little shocking surprising and a little hurtful and uh i think we wrote in silence for a while after that
and uh so i told my sweetheart when i got home and that night we prayed again that he might be able to go on a mission uh we continued to pray for that and he had a non-member girlfriend and i was concerned about that and anyway he we got invited to move to utah i think the year after that and he was kind of finishing up his college uh he was 22 years old at the time and i called him up one day and i said son we've been asked moved to utah then i hope that you'll come with us
because i wasn't sure he would i thought maybe just stay in minnesota because his connections there and uh i said i'm hoping that you'll come with us and uh he said dad i i actually think i need a change i i'd like to do that and i'd like to maybe move out there before you move out there so i think it was in april or may that i moved him out to before we didn't we didn't move till august i think i moved him out there in april to utah from minnesota to utah and uh he's he got introduced to
a to a sweet girl a little lds girl and they started to date i know that he had kind of changed his cell phone number and had kind of broken things off with his girlfriend in minnesota and and uh by the time we moved out to utah he he had he really liked this girl and they were really close a few months after we had moved out there yeah they came to us in our home and i think it was october november and and they said hey we wanted you to be the first to know that uh
we're gonna get married in the spring you know he's 22 she's 21 and i said wow that's great that's awesome congratulations and i asked in the temple and he said he he put up his hand but we're gonna work towards that dad we're gonna work towards that i said oh man that would be awesome debon debon before you get married get your patriarchal blessing please get your patriarchal blessing so about two weeks later after the big announcement
uh i get a call from debon and i'm i'm actually driving home from work it's about six o'clock at night he says hey dad where's the patriarch live and i said hey son this is my favorite part of this story hey son you can't just show up bud you you got to see your bishop you got to get a recommend you got to be you got to be worthy it's something that you got to prepare for and there was maybe silence for a moment and he said hey dad i've seen my bishop i have a recommend
i'm worthy enough i have an appointment at and seven o'clock tonight and i've been fasting all day will you just tell me where he lives oh man uh this is such a good boy but uh wow well he was 22 dad i know i know that was bad dadmanship on my part hey you know anyway he was he had been fasting and praying all day he said and i said oh son that's so great and then i thought well we're gonna come right and so i said we're are we invited or mom and i invited no no if it's okay
dad i just want this to be between me and the patriarch and the lord and i said oh that's that sweet son and then i thought all about britney's going and so i said is britney going because i in my mind you're thinking if she's going i'm going exactly yeah and he said actually actually no no dad she's not in fact i asked her if she'd come over to the house and visit with you guys while i get my blessing and so is that okay if she comes over to the house tonight while i get my
blessing and i said sure son that's that's awesome uh that'll be great i have you all i'll see you after your blessing so anyway uh she came over to house about seven he went to get a his patriarchal blessing uh from a wonderful staked patriarch and about eight o'clock he he drives up i remember him driving up and this is my favorite part of the story when he opens the door to come in the house he doesn't let go of the door knob he never let go of the door knob he opened the house
or he opened the door into the house holding the door knob and with his left hand he waves to britney hey britney i gotta see you outside for a minute and he looks kind of white he kind of looks peeking like you know and i'm thinking oh no what happened you know i've been through quite a bit with him and i'm thinking oh is something wrong yeah and and uh she gets up kind of shrugs her shoulders and looks at us and walks outside and i'm thinking oh man what's what's going on so i ran
upstairs to look out my bedroom window through the blinds of our bedroom window like any good yeah absolutely and uh i could see him leaning out on his car uh weeping she's wiping his tears and he's wiping hers and pretty soon they come to walk back into the house and i ran downstairs to sit back in the couch before they could so they made it look like nothing they're all calm and serene been sitting here the whole time guys and uh he says uh hey mom and dad we're gonna leave and
i just wanted you to to know that we're taking off and i'll let you know uh i'll talk to you tomorrow oh man that was a long night i didn't i didn't sleep i actually heard him come home but i i wanted to honor what he had said and then he came home late that night i eventually got a few hours sleep but i i got up early like five o'clock because i knew he had to go to work really early and when he came up to the kitchen around six o'clock i said son please please can you tell me
what happened and this is a boy scott i've never heard publicly bear his testimony he said to me dad i had a vision i said what what do you mean son what do you mean you had a vision and he said i i got a glimpse i got a glimpse of myself in the pre-mortal existence last night when the patriarch laid his hands on my head to give me my blessing i could see myself in the pre-mortal existence and this is a quote i was very influential in helping others follow
jesus christ and not follow saint and then he said and dad if i did that there i have to do that here i'm gonna go on a mission and the engagements off wow scott i i was speechless i i didn't know what to say i it was such a tender sweet moment the spirit so strong and i knew that he'd had an experience something of an epiphany and he had he he knew who he was he knew his purpose and it changed immediately that this is what this was such a miracle because in one blinding moment
his life immediately completely changed when he had that experience with the patriarch the night before i mean he opened the door and wouldn't let go of the door enough if that would have been me i think i might have come in and talked and wondered what to do about it all you know i maybe would have thought what am i going to do about this he knew immediately what he had to do about that and it completely changed the course and direction of his life and britney's and britney's and their
families so he put two two weeks later he's put in his papers and a few weeks after that he gets his call then he's called to go to florida on his mission goes in the mtc on his 23rd birthday the 23rd birthday he enters the mtc and it changed his life forever he was a a tremendous effective missionary and i'm happy to say that britney waited she had her own experiences and she and she waited thankfully and they were married in the temple three weeks after he got home
they were married in the temple and have four beautiful children you know honestly the the observing that and the lesson that i've learned scott from that experience and patriarchal blessings is that once we know and i invite all of our listeners to restudy their patriarchal blessings and maybe maybe maybe their premortal existence isn't really mentioned in their their patriarchal blessing but if they read it in faith if they really kind of read between the lines i think
they can get a glimpse to see themselves the way god sees them and to kind of know they'll get a better idea of who they are uh and once we do that once we see that with an eye of faith then it's in our hearts scott it changes us forever so i just invite our listeners to kind of re-examine their patriarchal blessings to study them to ponder who they are their their gifts that they need to cultivate uh their talents that they brought with them here from the premortal existence their purpose and
and who they are and once they know who they are um their lives will be forever changed and uh blessed and uh i just bear witness of the truth of those experiences and and those truths scott so thank you the uh the the whole thing that i love the most about the story about the young lady who was one of heavenly father's favorites and the story about and and this story is not just devin's story this is devin and britney's story this last story really right because because of their eternal
union and and all of that now the the cool thing about all of this is is these these experiences or some like it that heavenly father has in store for us heavenly father wants us to all all to know these things he wants me to know from whence i come right he he wants me to know of my spiritual dna right and he wants all of us to know that he wants all of us to know that because knowing who we are when life does throw things at us which it will if we can go back so for throughout devin's
life he will be able to go back if he chooses and tap into that same night that he and britney held each other leaning against his car wiping tears from each other because of one of the most poignant experiences that was life changing for them we all have that we all have that ability we all have the promise from heavenly father that he will help us to know who we are so that we can through that memory through that remember ring also remember his son yeah brothers and sisters it
is only through the effects of jesus christ through his atonement that we have the ability to overcome any and all of the effects of the fall of adam and eve which is mortality and we're talking about mortality today and it is only it is only through his atonement that we overcame satan in the premortal existence yep and it's because of that we did that there we have to do that here that's right and it's through the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimonies and
and loving not our license to us and to the death to the death that we will overcome satan and his followers here may god bless us so to do throughout this week is our prayer and we pray that for each and every one of us gang don't don't hesitate to send us your questions he redeems us at gmail.com god be with you all until we meet again we look forward to being with you again next week until then be well