The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation

General Conference

Oh how I love General Conference. It fills my sprit and helps give me purpose and direction. This conference seemed even more centered on our Savior, Jesus Christ than in conferences past. And it was filled with messages of FAITH and LOVE. Another theme I haven’t seen recently that I felt repeated several times in conference was that of discipleship. It is something I really want to dive into the next six months and how I can improve my own discipleship. The topic of adversity continued to be common but I also felt an addition of several talks about repentance.

So the BIG themes for me the next six months are:

• Our Savior, Jesus Christ
• Love
• Faith
• Discipleship
• Adversity
• Repentance

President Nelson’s Direction

Our Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, gave a powerful talk focusing on our Savior, as well as temples, covenants, ordinances, and revelation. Here were my highlights:

“It is now time that we each implement extraordinary measures – perhaps measures we have never taken before – to strengthen our personal spiritual foundations. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.

These are the latter days. If you and I are to withstand the forthcoming perils and pressures, it is imperative that we each have a firm spiritual foundation built upon the rock of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

The temple lies at the center of strengthening our faith and spiritual fortitude because the Savior and His doctrine are the very heart of the temple. Everything taught in the temple, through instruction and through the Spirit, increases our understanding of Jesus Christ. His essential ordinances bind us to Him through sacred priesthood covenants. Then, as we keep our covenants, He endows us with His healing, strengthening power. And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead.

The Lord has declared that despite today’s unprecedented challenges, those who build their foundations upon Jesus Christ, and have learned how to draw upon His power, need not succumb to the unique anxieties of this era.

Everything we believe and every promise God has made to His covenant people come together in the temple. In every age, the temple has underscored the precious truth that those who make covenants with God and keep them are children of the covenant.

Ponder these three truths:

• The Restoration is a process, not an event, and will continue until the Lord comes again.
• The ultimate objective of the gathering of Israel is to bring the blessings of the temple to God’s faithful children.
• As we seek how to accomplish that objective more effectively, the Lord reveals more insights. The ongoing Restoration needs ongoing revelation.

[The Lord] is the One who wants you to understand with great clarity exactly what you are making covenants to do. He is the One who wants you to experience fully His sacred ordinances. He wants you to comprehend your privileges, promises, and responsibilities. He wants you to have spiritual insights and awakenings you’ve never had before.

[The Lord] is providing opportunities for each of us to bolster our spiritual foundations more effectively by centering our lives on Him and on the ordinances and covenants of His temple. When you bring your temple recommend, a contrite heart, and a seeking mind to the Lord’s house of learning, He will teach you.

The temple will become a place of safety, solace, and revelation.

To each of you who has made temple covenants, I plead with you to seek – prayerfully and consistently – to understand temple covenants and ordinances. Spiritual doors will open. You will learn how to part the veil between heaven and earth, how to ask for God’s angels to attend you, and how better to receive direction from heaven. Your diligent efforts to do so will reinforce and strengthen your spiritual foundation.

Whenever any kind of upheaval occurs in your life, the safest place to be spiritually is living inside your temple covenants!

When your spiritual foundation is build solidly upon Jesus Christ, you have no need to fear. As you are true to your covenants made in the temple, you will be strengthened by His power. Then, when spiritual earthquakes occur, you will be able to stand strong because your spiritual foundation is solid and immovable.

These truths I know: God, our Heavenly Father, wants you to choose to come home to Him. His plan of eternal progression is not complicated, and it honors your agency. You are free to choose who you will be – and with whom you will be – in the world to come!

God lives! Jesus is the Christ! This is His Church, restored to help you fulfill your divine destiny.“

My Thoughts

Isn’t that so powerful? I am so grateful to live in a time when we have a living prophet on the earth. He makes things clear that the world wants to muddy. I am grateful for his direction.

President Nelson asked two questions in his talk that I want to spend some time really thinking on:

• How firm is your foundation?
• What reinforcements to your testimony and understanding of the gospel are needed?

President Nelson promised that “over time, the temple will become a place of safety, solace, and revelation.” I have felt strongly the last year and a half the pull to be closer to the temple. I hope one day that will be the case. I hope to follow the direction of the Prophet the next six months to put in prayerful and consistent study to “understand temple covenants and ordinances.”

I’ve been thinking of reading and studying two books: The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer and House of Glory: Finding Personal Meaning in the Temple by S. Michael Wilcox. Any other books about the temple you would recommend?

Oh how grateful I am for a living prophet!

Full text of President Russell M. Nelson’s talk can be found HERE.

Other messages from the October 2021 General Conference that I have found particularly impactful:

• The Need for a Church by President Dallin H. Oaks
• The Savior’s Abiding Compassion by Elder Ulisses Soares
• The Greatest Possession by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
• Invite Christ to Author Your Story by Sister Camille N. Johnson
• Daily Restoration by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf