1 Nephi 11-15 Lesson

Things to cover: 1. Nephi's vision helps us nd comfort in the knowledge that the

Lord will remember His covenants with His Saints. You can assure them that despite threats from the devil and those in his kingdom, God is in control and will strengthen His faithful followers as they participate in His work.
2.

Nephi's vision can be seen as a pattern of how we receive revelation and learn about God, especially in the temple.

Nephi's vision as a guide to receiving revelations and understanding the meaning of the temple:
Scripture 1 Nephi 10:17: Element Application to us Where/how do we gain this desire? How do we instill this desire into our children so that they will want to seek? How do we teach in our families so that they will use this desire to seek for what is right?

I,

Nephi, was ddesirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the eHoly Ghost

Have the desire

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Scripture 1 Nephi 11:1 1For Element use this desire to seek for what is right? Application to us

it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me,

Have the desire

1 Nephi 11:1 as

I sat apondering in mine heart

How do we take time to be holy? Observing prayer. Think of yourself getting ready to pray. Where are you? what posture do you assume? Where do you look (even if your eyes are closed)? Where do you imagine God? What do you imagine him doing? (Ulrich, Wendy. The Temple Experience, pl. 15, CFI.)

Pondering, thinking, discussing, having it occupy our minds, asking questions--asking the right questions

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Scripture Element Application to us

I was bcaught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high cmountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot.
1 Nephi 11:1

The Lord takes us to a holy place (or we take ourselves to a holy place to meet the Lord): temples, by our bedside in prayer, at church, the burning bush, the Sacred Grove. The place can also be a state of being or frame of mind, not necessarily a physical place, as long as it is a sanctied place, i.e., the recesses of our thoughts, holding a child we love, a wink with our spouse

How do we create experiences that allow us to be "caught away in the Spirit of the Lord"?

And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what adesirest thou? And I said: I desire to behold the things which my father asaw.
1 Nephi 11:2-3

How do we discover what the "right" question is?

The Lord wants us to frame the question and as a result.

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Scripture Element Application to us How is this faith developed when it looks like we are stepping into a dark abyss? How do we teach others to learn this principle? The Lord expects us to do our part--to have faith and take the rst step

And the Spirit said unto me: aBelievest thou that thy father saw the btree of which he hath spoken? And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I abelieve all the words of my father.
1 Nephi 11:4-5

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Scripture Element Application to us

And when I had spoken these words, the Spirit cried with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the aearth, yea, even above all. And blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou bbelievest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired.
1 Nephi 11:6

It pleases and makes our Heavenly Father happy when we turn to him for our problems and questions, knowing that we trust Him to answer our Identify times which you questions. have been inspired or understand something in In return, he will bless us. your life. Sometimes these blessings come not in the What are times when you form of the "thing" that we have felt close to Heavenly asked for, but rather, in Father? How would you expanding our horizons to describe these feelings? see the big picture so that we understand our challenges and how those will help us become who we desire to be.

And behold this thing shall be given unto thee for a asign
1 Nephi 11:7

In the spiritual world, we learn via symbols, signs, ordinances.

What are symbols and signs that we do in our daily lives that lead us closer to the Spirit?*

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Scripture
The Symbol of Our Faith Following the renovation of the Mesa Arizona Temple some years ago, clergy of other religions were invited to tour it on the rst day of the open house period. Hundreds responded. In speaking to them, I said we would be pleased to answer any queries they might have. Among these was one from a Protestant minister. Said he: Ive been all through this building, this temple which carries on its face the name of Jesus Christ, but nowhere have I seen any representation of the cross, the symbol of Christianity. I have noted your buildings elsewhere and likewise nd an absence of the cross. Why is this when you say you believe in Jesus Christ? I responded: I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian colleagues who use the cross on the steeples of their cathedrals and at the altars of their chapels, who wear it on their vestments, and imprint it on their books and other literature. But for us, the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the Living Christ. He then asked: If you do not use the cross, what is the symbol of your religion? I replied that the lives of our people must become the most meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship.

Element

Application to us

And so, because our Savior lives, we do not use the symbol of His death as the symbol of our faith. But what shall we use? No sign, no work of art, no representation of form is adequate to express the glory and the wonder of the Living Christ. He told us what that symbol should be when He said, If ye love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15). As His followers, we cannot do a mean or shoddy or ungracious thing without tarnishing His image. Nor can we do a good and gracious and generous act without burnishing more brightly the symbol of Him whose name we have taken upon ourselves. And so our lives must become a meaningful expression, the symbol of our declaration of our testimony of the Living Christ, the Eternal Son of the Living God.

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Scripture
A Symbol of Total Union

Element

Application to us

Second, may I suggest that human intimacy, that sacred, physical union ordained of God for a married couple, deals with a symbol that demands special sanctity. Such an act of love between a man and a woman is--or certainly was ordained to be--a symbol of total union: union of their hearts, their hopes, their lives, their love, their family, their future, their everything. It is a symbol that we try to suggest in the temple with a word like seal. The Prophet Joseph Smith once said we perhaps ought to render such a sacred bond as "welding"--that those united in matrimony and eternal families are "welded" together, inseparable if you will, to withstand the temptations of the adversary and the afflictions of mortality. (See D&C 128:18.) But such a total, virtually unbreakable union, such an unyielding commitment between a man and a woman, can only come with the proximity and permanence afforded in a marriage covenant, with the union of all that they possess--their very hearts and minds, all their days and all their dreams. They work together, they cry together, they enjoy Brahms and Beethoven and breakfast together, they sacrice and save and live together for all the abundance that such a totally intimate life provides such a couple. And the external symbol of that union, the physical manifestation of what is a far deeper spiritual and metaphysical bonding, is the physical blending that is part of--indeed, a most beautiful and gratifying expression of--that larger, more complete union of eternal purpose and promise. As delicate as it is to mention in such a setting, I nevertheless trust your maturity to understand that physiologically we are created as men and women to t together in such a union. In this ultimate physical expression of one man and one woman they are as nearly and as literally "one" as two separate physical bodies can ever be. It is in that act of ultimate physical intimacy we most nearly fulll the commandment of the Lord given to Adam and Eve, living symbols for all married couples, when he invited them to cleave unto one another only, and thus become "one esh" (Genesis 2:24). Obviously, such a commandment to these two, the rst husband and wife of the human family, has unlimited implications--social, cultural, and religious as well as physical--but that is exactly my point. As all couples come to that moment of bonding in mortality, it is to be just such a complete union. That commandment cannot be fullled, and that symbolism of "one esh" cannot be preserved, if we hastily and guiltily and surreptitiously share intimacy in a darkened corner of a darkened hour, then just as hastily and guiltily and surreptitiously retreat to our separate worlds--not to eat or live or cry or laugh together, not to do the laundry and the dishes and the homework, not to manage a budget and pay the bills and tend the children and plan together for the future. No, we cannot do that until we are truly one--united, bound, linked, tied, welded, sealed, married. Can you see then the moral schizophrenia that comes from pretending we are one, sharing the physical symbols and physical intimacy of our union, but then eeing, retreating, severing all such other aspects--and symbols--of what was meant to be a total obligation, only to unite again furtively some other night or, worse yet, furtively unite (and you can tell how cynically I use that word) with some other partner who is no more bound to us, no more one with us than the last was or than the one that will come next week or next month or next year or anytime before the binding commitments of marriage?

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Scripture Element Application to us

You must wait--you must wait until you can give everything, and you cannot give everything until you are at least legally and, for Latter-day Saint purposes, eternally pronounced as one. To give illicitly that which is not yours to give (remember--"you are not your own") and to give only part of that which cannot be followed with the gift of your whole heart and your whole life and your whole self is its own form of emotional Russian roulette. If you persist in sharing part without the whole, in pursuing satisfaction devoid of symbolism, in giving parts and pieces and inamed fragments only, you run the terrible risk of such spiritual, psychic damage that you may undermine both your physical intimacy and your wholehearted devotion to a truer, later love. You may come to that moment of real love, of total union, only to discover to your horror that what you should have saved has been spent, and--mark my words--only God's grace can recover that piecemeal dissipation of your virtue. That leads me to my last reason, a third effort to say why. After soul and symbol, the word is sacrament, a term closely related to the other two. Sexual intimacy is not only a symbolic union between a man and a woman--the uniting of their very souls--but it is also symbolic of a union between mortals and deity, between otherwise ordinary and fallible humans uniting for a rare and special moment with God himself and all the powers by which he gives life in this wide universe of ours. In this latter sense, human intimacy is a sacrament, a very special kind of symbol. For our purpose here today, a sacrament could be any one of a number of gestures or acts or ordinances that unite us with God and his limitless powers. We are imperfect and mortal; he is perfect and immortal. But from time to time--indeed, as often as is possible and appropriate--we nd ways and go to places and create circumstances where we can unite symbolically with him, and in so doing gain access to his power. Those special moments of union with God are sacramental moments--such as kneeling at a marriage altar, or blessing a newborn baby, or partaking of the emblems of the Lord's supper. This latter ordinance is the one we in the Church have come to associate most traditionally with the word sacrament, though it is technically only one of many such moments when we formally take the hand of God and feel his divine power. These are moments when we quite literally unite our will with God's will, our spirit with his spirit, where communion through the veil becomes very real. At such moments we not only acknowledge his divinity, but we quite literally take something of that divinity to ourselves. Such are the holy sacraments. But I wish to stress with you this morning, as my third of three reasons to be clean, that sexual union is also, in its own profound way, a very real sacrament of the highest order, a union not only of a man and a woman but very much the union of that man and woman with God. Indeed, if our denition of sacrament is that act of claiming and sharing and exercising God's own inestimable power, then I know of virtually no other divine privilege so routinely given to us all--women or men, ordained or unordained, Latter-day Saint or non-Latter-day Saint--than the miraculous and majestic power of transmitting life, the unspeakable, unfathomable, unbroken power of procreation. There are those special moments in your lives when the other, more formal ordinances of the gospel--the sacraments, if you will--allow you to feel the grace and grandeur of God's power. Many are one-time experiences (such as our own conrmation or our own marriage), and some are repeatable (such as administering to the sick or doing ordinance work for others in the temple). But I know of nothing so earth-shatteringly powerful and yet so universally and unstintingly given to us as the God-given power available in every one of us from our early teen years on to create a human body, that wonder of all wonders, a genetically and spiritually unique being never seen before in the history of the world and never to be duplicated again in all the ages of eternity--a child, your child--with eyes and ears and ngers and toes and a future of unspeakable grandeur. (Holland, Jeffrey. "Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments," BYU Devotional 1989.)

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Scripture 1 Nephi 11:7 thou Element Application to us When do we receive instructions and how do we act upon them?

shalt also behold a man descending out of heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bbear record that it is the Son of God. And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked
1 Nephi 11:8

Once we are given access to understand the Lord's will for us, then we are How do we bear witness given instructions to witness and also to comply and testify of Christ in our with an action. Usually the daily routines? action is related to manifestation of our testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Messiah.

Guidance/Direction Action

What are things in our vision that the Lord wants us to see?

And it came to pass after I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit: I behold thou hast shown unto me the tree which is aprecious above all.
1 Nephi 11:9

Actions we can take that respond to what we understand: journal Our reiteration to the Spirit/ writing, discussion, etc. Heavenly Father, of what we observe is an important process of receiving revelation.

And he said unto me: What desirest thou?

1 Nephi 11:10

We see a situation and then the Lord needs to know that we want to interpret the situation.

Putting us into a third person/an observer, helps to take us outside of the events and situations and be a more impartial observer.

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Scripture Element Application to us We each need to learn to distinguish the voice of the Lord from our own voices.

And I said unto him: To know the ainterpretation thereoffor I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the bform of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.
1 Nephi 11:11

It seems important to Nephi that explain that the Spirit is not an alien being but familiar, though Celestial and extra terrestrial being.

And it came to pass that I saw the aheavens open; and an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou?
1 Nephi 11:14

Who are our tour guides and how do they show us the sights? An angel replaces the Spirit as a tour guide for Nephi

1 Nephi 11-15 Lesson

Scripture Element The Lord teaches us through a series of questions and answers. As we answer our His questions, we nd within us the capacity to answer the questions we were seeking. FAVORITE SCRIPTURE! How can we build on what we know to understand the things we don't yet comprehend? Application to us

And he said unto me: Knowest thou the acondescension of God?

1 Nephi 11:16

17And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
1 Nephi 11:17

The Lord builds on what we already know.

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Scripture Element Application to us Our visionary experiences are no less moments of inspiration and light. What are effective ways of interpreting these dening moments when God is speaking to us?

And the angel said unto me: Behold the aLamb of God, yea, even the bSon of the Eternal cFather! Knowest thou the meaning of the dtree which thy father saw? 22And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the alove of God, which bsheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the cmost desirable above all things.
1 Nephi 11:21-22

As Nephi immerses himself in the visionary experience, the mysteries unfold and he is able to see for himself the meaning of the symbols and interpret them.

And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most ajoyous to the soul.
1 Nephi 11:23

The Spirit adds to Nephi's knowledge of what he understands.

The Spirit has shown Nephi the panorama of the important things that will happen in the history of the world. It shows the big picture. How do we understand the big picture in our lives?

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Scripture Element Application to us How do we learn to apply the big picture to our own worlds? Now the Lord shows Nephi his own microcosmic world.

And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Look, and behold thy seed, and also the seed of thy brethren.
1 Nephi 12:1

And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld many nations and kingdoms. 2And the angel said unto me: What beholdest thou? And I said: I behold many anations and kingdoms.
1 Nephi 13:1-2

Our sphere of inuence, as with others having the ability to affect our environment reaches beyond our own little circle. As the angel continues with the vision, Nephi is now shown others and eventually it will come back to show how others affect Nephi's own people.

We are all intersecting links--whether we think we are or not.

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Scripture Element Application to us "Temple ceremonies [personal revelations] ultimately claim their meaning within the sacred connes of the spiritually prepared human heart...Like the parables of Jesus, temple ordinances [personal revelations] house both broad, universal truths and the potential for private discovery...While the temle's "meaning" resides in a private relationship between us and the Lord, that meaning must be engaged and cultivated if it is to bear fruit in our lives, and others' perspectives can be useful as we clarigy our own. There is no need for concern if the sweetest fruits are on branches "way over our head." As we continue to grow, our reach will be extended. Meanwhile, patience is called for, along with gratitude for blessings and understanding we already grasp." (Ulrich, p. 13)

And behold, I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard; wherefore the things which I have written sufficeth me; and I have written but a small part of the things which I saw.
1 Nephi 14:28

Just as there are layers of understanding, Heavenly Father knows not to give us more than what we are ready for.

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Scripture Element Application to us

And I bear record that I saw the things which my afather saw, and the angel of the Lord did make them known unto me. 30And now I make an end of speaking concerning the things which I saw while I was acarried away in the spirit; and if all the things which I saw are not written, the things which I have written are btrue. And thus it is. Amen.
1 Nephi 14:29-30

Bearing testimony is an important part of the revelation process because it afrms what we have seen, interpreted, and understand.

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Scripture Element Application to us How do we bring our heavenly experiences to our earthly duties?

And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been carried away in the spirit, and seen all these things, I returned to the tent of my father. 2And it came to pass that I beheld my brethren, and they were disputing one with another concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them.
1 Nephi 15:1-2, 4

Returning from an experience with God is always a bit of a disappointment since everyday life is so different from spending time with a Heavenly Being that uplifts us. Or is it?

And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men.

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Scripture Element Application to us

And it came to pass that after I had received astrength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations.
1 Nephi 15:6

Nephi recovers from the Spirit, as well as now starts to pull what he has learned into his daily everyday life. He uses the compassion and draws upon the strength of what he has seen to deal with the everyday problems.

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