Welcome:

Joseph: Welcome everybody; it is great to see everybody again. This is about our fourth conference since we actually organized into an entity, and we have been going through some very good conversations so far. And what is happening right now is, we have been asked to lay out the foundational doctrines. And that is what we have been doing. Including the conferences from before (we organized) as well. Which we do have some good recordings of all of these conferences, so we can keep them forever. This time, we have a very important topic to discuss. So, what we would like is someone who feels inspired to offer us a great opening prayer. Do not be shy, come on. Yes, Bill, that would be great.

Opening Prayer: Bill Berrett

Priesthood:

Now this is not a joke, it is far from it. This is some very serious work, and a person who would like to enter the priesthood really should be considering: Are they willing to dedicate themselves? Are they willing to dedicate themselves this much to the priesthood? Are they actually willing to dedicate themselves so much that they are willing to serve the Lord at all costs? And this is a heavy toll! To get to the Lord, it takes a great deal of dedication. And when I say dedication, I mean that it takes a lot of time, and a lot of effort. And we sacrifice and give up a lot of our daily life, because our hearts are true to the Lord, and that is all we want. And when it is all you want, that means everything! There is nothing else that we want. And this is a very hard criteria to meet, because all of us have family and friends, and we try our very best to balance our family and our devotion to God. Now, being devoted to the Lord does not mean that you are going to lose your family though, because serving God is just like serving each other, and serving each other is just like serving God. So we really have to put God first in our lives. It is all about saving His children and if we put God first, we live according to how the Lord would like us to live. Then, we can actually function now and help him in saving His children.

So anybody who would like to work for the Lord, may. If you have desires to work for the Lord, you are called to the work. But there are some things that we need to know. We need to know what this work is, and this work is called the priesthood. So when the priesthood mantle is placed upon somebody, it makes them a servant of the Lord. It is like they have been hired to do the job of God, which is to actually save people, and help people, to take each other's sins upon us. These things are very important, that we understand what it means to actually become like God. That means the same thing that Yeshua did, that is what we need to do. And so, entering the priesthood is a very solemn and serious obligation, and a person who enters the priesthood devotes their life to the service of God.

A lot of times, when we think of the Lord, and we think when He was on the Earth, we think: What did He do? He actually went around and, one of the most famous things that comes to mind is that, He healed people. And that is one of the things that a person who is in the priesthood needs to learn to do. But also, to preach, and to teach, and to baptise, just like the Lord did. If we remember, not only the Lord did this. Yeshua also gave his power to his apostles, to the disciples that followed Him; and they went out and did the same thing as the Lord did. They learned to serve each other, and serve everybody, and take care of others. They learned to give to others, and never take; but to help others, and never control others. They learned to be the servants. And this was a new thing for them, as well as for anyone who enters into the service of God.

So, anyone can serve God, but the difference between someone who holds the priesthood and someone who does not, is that the person who holds the priesthood is under obligation to serve the Lord, and to serve his fellow man. The person who holds the priesthood is actually of no more worth than the person who does not hold the priesthood, but he is obligated to do as the Lord would have him do. So, we need to understand that the priesthood, or somebody who entered the priesthood, is not a higher value than someone who has not. But, the person who enters the priesthood is a person who is devoted to God and actually wants to continue to serve Him; wants to have a job in the service of God; wants to have a calling. And that person is the person who is devoted to the Lord.

So the path of the priest is actually to help others; is actually to serve others; to love others; to save and exalt others. And a priest should really do this very meekly, mild, very humble, and let others see the result of following the Saviour.

So, the Saviour was the great high priest, and He showed us the exact way of how to actually live our lives, according to this priesthood manner, or this manner of working for God. So we need to kind of grasp this concept, and we need to get rid of this old concept where a priest, or an elder, or a deacon, or a teacher, or whatever, has such a higher standard(status) than everyone else. We have to get rid of that and we have to understand that for the power of the priesthood to flow, the power of God to flow, we have to be the servants, and we have to believe ourselves the servants. We have to humble ourselves and actually be the servants. This is one of the reasons why the power of the lord does not flow through a lot of folk who claim… - Now I am not trying to put anybody down here, and we are all here together, we are all learning, we are all trying to do our best, but we do have to talk a little more boldly about some of these things, and so we want to be very careful. I am not trying to hurt anybody's feelings. But, if you really want to actually have the power of the priesthood, if you really want to enter into the priesthood, we have to understand that it is of service. And so I am going to go through a couple of things here that are not so happy, I guess, with people who believe otherwise. So, let us try this.

The priesthood is not the power to control people, it is not something that gives us glory, or honour, or high position, or more importance. The priesthood is not a right to change doctrines, it is not a right to break the commandments. The priesthood is not a right to do our own will. In fact, the Lord said if we every use it to do our own will, that it ends; the priesthood stops. The priesthood is not something that is for us; it is for us to serve. Now, we cannot really get anything from the priesthood other than we have the right to serve; we have the right to take care of people.

The people should not be taking care of us, so the priesthood is not, like the people who hold it, the priest is not to be supported by the people. In other words, he is not there to get money, he is not there to earn a living, he is not there to get rich, or anything else. The priest is actually there to help the people, and that is all. So, if he is there to get money, he is not looking out for the welfare of Zion, then he is really not a good priest, and that turns it from priesthood into priestcraft. Craft is where you use something to actually earn money. Like carpentry would be a craft. But priests should not use that to be earning money. There should be no priestcraft. So priestcraft is strictly forbidden of the Lord.

Priesthood means to serve and to take care of other and those who hold the priesthood are those who have authority to act in the name of God, like what the Lord did. For example, the authority with nature; making the storm stop; I suppose, walking on water, I have not been able to do that unless it has been frozen. They have authority with the heavens; they have authority to help people. They have the right to ask for help in their duties in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

So the priesthood never means that we are actually to control the souls of men. In fact, we have scripture today that says that no power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood. This is a very, very important that this is not misunderstood. So, I would like to say it again, that no power, no influence can be maintained, no power or influence should be maintained by virtue of the priesthood. The priesthood is not there to have power or influence over anyone. The priesthood is there to serve. The path of the priest is to help other, to serve others, to love others, to save and exalt others. A priest should, meekly of course, show the way, and humbly let other people see the results of following the Saviour, following that path of the great high priest.

So, these are some very serious and difficult topics to address, and so we are going to actually get in a little bit more, a little deeper, and try a little harder to go through some of these misconceptions, and then, some of the things that we should be focusing on. So the next part is, of course: What is the priesthood for? And what is this, this power of the priesthood, or the authority of the priesthood? So if the priesthood is not to hold authority over other people, then really, what is it for, right? So we need to kind of address this a little bit, because with all of us going forward, we need to know exactly what it is that we are doing so that the power of the priesthood can flow through us that we may actually help God in his work.

So, the authority of the priesthood is to do things, like ordinances, like baptism, to teach by the Spirit, to give the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, to do the works of the Saviour. This is what this duty is for, this work is for, to actually help people; help them repent of their sins; help them turn towards God; help them become a new person, a new creation. Help them gain that new heart, the heart of the Saviour. That is the duty of the priesthood; of the folks who hold the priesthood.

So for Heaven though - and here, we are going to get into some more difficult topics - for Heaven to actually recognize a baptism, then it has to be done by the authority of Heaven. For Heaven to actually recognize other ordinances, it has to be done, licensed, from Heaven. There has to be two things that make a priesthood work. One of them is it does have to be a legal priesthood, so it does have to actually have it's source from heaven. Because, a lot of people do actually claim to hold a priesthood of some sort and they do try to do work in that priesthood. A lot of times though, they do not have the results that the scriptures say we are supposed to have. Often times, it is because they do not have a priesthood from a legal source from heaven. And the other half of the time it is because they are not following the rules that govern that priesthood.

So it is just like, say, having a driver's license, right? I have children that go and turn 16, and they want to go and get their driver's license. And off they go, and they study, and they get their learner's permit, and they practice, and they get their driver's license. And once they get that little card, they think, yay, I have my driver's license; I am a legal driver now. But just because you are a legal driver does not mean that you have the right to drive however you like. You still need to follow the rules of the road. Now some people do not, and they get into trouble sooner or later. But, it does cause a lot of problems; it could cause serious accidents; it could cause serious loss of life. Just because it is legal, does not mean you have a right to do whatever you want. This is the same thing with the priesthood. Anybody who decides to enter into the priesthood, must have both legal right to it, and must follow it lawfully, follow the rules that govern it. This is very important to understand, and one of the main reasons why people do not have that power of God flow.

So, we do know that it is very difficult and hurtful to somebody's pride when they find these things out, because they have invested a lot of time and effort, and a lot of dedication into their various religions and ways of thinking. But in the bottom line though; what is really the bottom line? And I know it is a little harsh, but it says: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Now we all know many times when there are these types of experiences, but this should be common place. And it should not be very rare; it should be all the time.

So, when the Saviour was upon the Earth, even the Saviour Himself, the Son of God Himself, went to John the Baptist, you know his cousin John, went over there. John was of the Levitical line; John was by rights a Levite. And John was by rights a priest, and John was baptising. And even the Saviour, of course, recognised the authority that John held. And even though there were several other Levitical people at the time, they were not following the rules of that priesthood. So the Lord went to John, who was both a legal and a lawful participant in the priesthood order. And the Lord humbled himself and was baptised by John.

The Saviour entered the priesthood and taught and baptised and healed many people. The Saviour also gave the power of that priesthood to His apostles. And when his apostles entered into that priesthood, they did the same things that Yeshua did; they taught many people, they baptised many, they healed many. After the Saviour was resurrected and ascended to heaven, you have to remember that he came back as well. He came back, the first fruits, and the gift of the Holy Ghost came down upon the apostles, and they really were able to then continue with that, and give that gift to other people as well. So, the power of the priesthood that the Lord gave, or that authority that the Lord gave to these people who entered the priesthood was very specific, and there is no doubt as we read the scriptures that this was correct, and this is what happened, and this was the result of this pattern of life, of living this priesthood way.

Now after the apostles were martyred, of course, - I am just kind of skimming through little bits of history here, - but after they were martyred, the way of the priesthood changed. And soon enough the power did not flow anymore, and the world plunged into the dark ages. This lasted for many, many years. And yet, religion continued, and the false doctrine continued. Priests became exalted again, higher than other people. And this was a very horrible time in history. But then, in May of 1829, we have John the Baptist who comes and appears as an angel of light to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and he gives the authority that he had to baptise. The same authority used to baptise the Saviour, John gives this to authority to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowder. And it is a very interesting time in history. And so this means that that same heavenly authority that baptised the Lord, was restored to Earth, which allows our baptisms to be recognized by Heavenly Father as correct and proper baptisms, as long as we do it correctly, because we still have to follow the rules that govern that.

So then, soon after though, within a year or so, we are told that Peter, James, and John come, and they were the main or the head apostles of the Lord, and they appeared as well. And they gave the authority, that the Lord gave to them, they also passed on. So now we have that authority as well. And that authority is, of course, to do things like give the gift of the Holy Ghost, and all the other ordinances and spiritual blessings of the church. And this is a very important thing to understand, and this still does not give anyone who holds this priesthood any type of right or magnification above anyone. It is definitely all about service. And so we are going to stick with this concept of service, and we are going to get in a little bit more tender area here.

Now, myself, I would really like to show something that is very difficult and very tender. And again, since a lot of folks here are very new, I do not want to hurt anybody's feelings, but we are going to have to present something, and it is going to be presented after my own experience, and after other folks' experiences, that I am aware of. And so I am going to get into this a little bit here.

After Joseph Smith was killed, people again began to change this priesthood. They changed it from the power of God to help people, into an authority to rule and reign over people. Okay, they really started to change the way the scriptures were interpreted, and change it into a right to rule and govern and apply laws to people. So this is a difficult thing to address, but we are going to give it a try here.

So the power of the priesthood after Joseph Smith died began to fade because the people changed it. They had a legal priesthood, but they were not following the rules that govern that priesthood. All priesthood comes with an oath and covenant, in other words, it can be a legal thing, but you still have to apply it lawfully, it still has to follow the rules that govern it. If it does not follow the rules that govern it, there is a loss there, the priesthood stops, and the power stops flowing; Heaven does not back up those ordinances.

So I am going to give a little bit of my own background here. Now many people have heard me tell these things before, and I am going to put it together in a little bit different way this time, in the hopes that I can show how it works.

So when I entered the priesthood, I approached Heavenly Father with… My main question was: How? How do we have the power of the priesthood flow through us today like the Saviour did, and like the apostles did? How do we do that? And how can we actually help people? This was my question of the Lord. Now for me, my desire was to try and help people. I loved the concept of being able to help somebody. I loved the concept of being able to heal somebody. I loved the concept of having the power of God flow, to be able to give the word of God to someone, to change their life. The best part would be when their heart would change, and they would become a new person, and they would turn their whole heart to the Lord, and everything would flow. They felt so much love.

So, one time I was praying for a friend. And I was praying for my friend, and I had often,… would pray for my friends any time they were going through difficulty; I would approach the Lord and pray, and I would ask His advice. At this time in my life, I was very good at hearing the voice of the Lord, by this time. And so I could carry on conversations, not just in my mind or in my heart, but conversations with an audible voice. What happened was that while I was praying, - like I have said, - my room lit up very bright, the curtain of light was in front of me. It looked like the northern lights, only pure white, and within that light was the Lord. And it was like this veil of light was there. But it was very bright. And of course, I could see the Lord quite clearly, He was right there within the light. Now, the Lord started to talk to me, but what he talked about was helping my friend. And this taught me something, - that that Lord was very interested in helping people. And I talked to the Lord. And I talked to him about my friend, and what I should be doing, and how to help him; and the Lord talked back to me.

Now this being the very first time that I had seen the Lord with my own eyes, I was kind of surprised, because I did not really know that this kind of thing would happen again. And would happen now! And I was not going after it, I was not chasing after seeing the Lord so I could tell everybody I saw the Lord. I was chasing after helping people, and chasing after how to help people. And so the Lord continued to come, day after day, and continued to come and teach me. And teach me how to actually align myself with the proper principles, the proper rules of the priesthood, the rules of the road; how to actually drive correctly so that the power of God flows. And this made all the difference in the world to me; because, now I was able to try. And the more I actually learned these principles, and applied them in my life, and changed my whole life, then every once in a while, I would receive a visit and be taught a little bit more. And I would be taught, but I was not given too much at each time. I had to actually apply, and live, what I was given before the next lesson came.

So it is kind of a hard thing, but if a person does not follow the rules of the priesthood, then the priesthood does not work. And really, that makes the priesthood a moot point; right? Who cares if you have a driver's license, if you refuse to drive properly? You just get pulled over by the police, and find yourself in jail for the weekend. It is not a good plan. So a person who does not follow the rules of the priesthood, does not honour that priesthood, and does not honour God. The person who just claims to have a legal right to the priesthood, and does not actually follow the rules of the priesthood; who actually tries to do something like excuse himself for his behaviour; give reasons for why he behaves this way or that; give reasons for why he does not keep the commandments; and make all kinds of excuses, hiding his sins; like the scripture says, a person who seeks to cover their sin, the priesthood is ended - amen to the priesthood. A person who seeks to actually rule over someone else - amen to their priesthood. We need to be very careful about this. Those people who have entered into the priesthood, we are duty bound to actually live according to the rules the Lord has set out. That is our job, that is the only reason we entered into the priesthood to begin with.

Now, we have to have this, so, I will just recap a little bit, we have to have the legal right to it. And that may not be what you think either, because a legal right has to be ratified by God. Just because, let us say, just because Joseph Smith put his hands on someone and conferred the priesthood upon that person, and that person entered the priesthood, just because that happened does not mean that that person has the power of that priesthood. The person does have to actually live according to the priesthood rules in order to have that power ratified by Heaven. Ratified means that it actually works, that Heaven backs it up. And so, this is very important to understand, and I would like to tell another story, another experience.

So, people who go after the priesthood for signs and things like that, it does not work. I have to tell some story of where I failed. One time I had a friend, and the friend was looking for the Lord and wanted so much to serve the Lord, and I was so excited because he was such a good friend of mine, that I wanted to prove to him that it was real, that the priesthood was real, that God was real, and I wanted to show him. This is a very sad experience for me because, I knew; the Spirit whispered in my heart, said no, it is not time. But I decided to do something anyways; I decided I would give it a try, and I called to the wind to blow. Now I had done this many times before, but now, I was doing it for the reason of trying to convince someone - And the Lord knew better than me if his heart was in it or not. - But the wind would not blow. And I could not figure it out; no matter what I did, the wind refused to blow. The Spirit whispered to me that it was an inappropriate use of the priesthood for signs, and to try and prove to someone; and I failed! My friend went a different direction; and I failed. I lost my friend, because I refused to follow the rules of the priesthood.

This is a very horrible thing for me. For me, it hurt me deeply. But I learned my lesson, and I never do that again. So the priesthood really should only be used according the Lord's will. And those who embark on the quest to serve God, to be a servant to the Lord, to serve His children, must always be open to the Lord's will, and must always follow it. So, this is one of those times.

I have one more experience to share, to try to really cement this point. One time, I had a certain priesthood placed upon me, and I tried very hard to live up to all the rules that govern that priesthood. And I did it, but it took a long time; and it took a lot of learning, and a lot of time. But when I had the priesthood placed upon me, I went before the Lord and I lived up to everything I was instructed to do, to the point where the Lord came again and placed his hands upon me, and confirmed that upon me. So that was then, therefore, ratified. And as I went about to serve in that capacity, the blessings of God always flowed. They never failed to flow; they always flowed. And so we cannot think just because somebody has called us to the priesthood, that we are presenting ourselves properly before the Lord. There is more to it than just having a legal card that says you are a priest; you have to actually live according to the priesthood, to have it ratified, to have it sealed upon you by God, so that you can therefore go out and work, and help the Lord save people. So we help by bringing people to the Lord. That way the Lord can take them to the Father. That is our only job; and that is what we are doing.

And so, now we can go forth; now that the priesthood has been restored, with the proper rules of how to enter that priesthood, how to live it, how to use it; now we can go forth and fulfil the command of God and build up the church. Now we can go forth and teach and baptise, and people can be forgiven of their sins, and find their way to the Saviour. We can present them at the veil. The Lord can then take them to the Father. This is very important to understand: If we are not doing this, we really are failing in our calling.

So I have two quotes that I would like to end with here. This first one, actually, was a revelation to a man named John Taylor, who lived at the time of Joseph Smith as well. And it says, "I call upon my priesthood,” this is a revelation from the Lord,

“I call upon My Priesthood and upon all of my people, to repent of all their sins and shortcomings, of their covetousness and pride and self-will, and of all their iniquities wherein they sin against me; and to seek with all humility to fulfill my law, as my priesthood, my Saints, my people; I call upon the heads of families to put their houses in order according to the Law of God, and attend to the various duties and responsibilities associated therewith, and to purify themselves before me, and to purge out iniquity from their households."

“And I will bless and be with you, saith the Lord, and ye shall gather together in your holy places wherein ye assemble to call upon me, and ye shall ask for such things as are right, and I will hear your prayers and my spirit and power shall be with you and my blessings shall rest upon you, and upon your families, your dwellings and your households, upon your flocks and herds and fields, your orchards and vineyards, and upon all that pertains to you; and you shall be my people and I will be your God; and your enemies shall not have dominion over you, for I will preserve you and confound them, saith the Lord, and they shall not have power nor dominion over you; for my words shall go forth, and my work shall be accomplished, and my Zion shall be established, and my rule and my power and my dominion shall prevail among my people, and all nations shall yet acknowledge me. Even so, Amen.” (~ Gospel Kingdom, p. 390.)

Now this is a long quote I know, but this tells us that we need to actually live the appropriate rules in order to have these blessings flow. If we do not live the proper way, then we are dishonouring our calling from God. So I would like one more quote here, and then I will pass the time over to Will.

So the next quote is,

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means, it shall flow unto thee forever and ever." (~ D&C 121:45-46)

Okay, so I know this is a little bit sensitive of a topic for many people, but if we truly want to serve God, if we really do love Him, if we really do love His children, love our fellow men, then it is incumbent upon us to actually be the priest, to be the apostle, to be the saviour, and to actually do what the Saviour would do if the Saviour were here. And the Saviour gave up His life. Every day of His life, He gave up His life, right to the very end where they actually shed His blood. He gave up everything, and lived for us, and died for us, and then resurrected for us as well; and He can bring all people, resurrect all people. So, let us be following His example. And let us understand the truth of how it is that we should actually behave, so that we can actually help Him in His work. We need to seek out that correct priesthood, and we need to live it properly, and we can actually be found as good stewards at the last day.

Priesthood Lifestyle:

Will: Hello everyone. Today, I was going to be reading, or talking mostly about a man called Fools Crow. He was a Native American, Lakota holy man. He is very recent, he only died 1989, but he believed and the religion that he practiced was that the Native American gods, the three chief gods, were the same as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He spoke to a, another preacher who wrote down a lot of his thoughts, and the preacher wrote a couple of books, one about his life, and the one that I have been reading quotes from is called Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power

So, in the way he describes it, is that Wakan Tanka is the Father, and Tunkashila is the Son, and the Powers and Grandmother Earth are like the Holy Spirit. Now it is very much the same because they are two separate people, but because they think, act, and watch over us as one, so there is only one god. It is exactly the same as Christianity. It is very interesting.

Fools Crow, as a holy man, was very much a priest, he had the priesthood and he followed it. So a holy man is someone who dedicates their entire life to serving God, to serving Wakan Tanka. To him, miracles were the norm of life in the world and Wakan Tanka having promised them, the true miracles would have been if what He said didn't happen, because the Lord always keeps His promises and therefore, if the Lord promises something, then what do we have to worry about.

Now this book, I would recommend anyone who wants to learn more, would read it, because, honestly, in the just the first few chapters, I can quote pretty much everything that my dad just said in his talk. The first few chapters cover nearly all of that in various quotes, and precisely the same thing.

And so, he was a holy man, and the way he saw the priesthood is as one of his quotes is,

"The power and ways, Fools Crow said, are given to us to be passed on to others. To think or do anything else, is pure selfishness. We only keep them and get more, by giving them away, and if we do not give them away, we lose them."

This is very similar to the parable of the talents, if are given these talents, these gifts and everything, if we do not use them and give them away to others, to help everyone else around us, then it will be taken from us and given to someone else.

Another thing he said is that,

“The survival of the world depends upon our sharing what we have and working together. If we don't, the whole world will die, first the planet, and next the people.”

This is very similar to lots of places where he says that unity and everything, but something that I thought of was where two or three are gathered in My name, there I will be also. So this is not a one person show, to have the priesthood is to work together, to share it with each other, to build one another up. He says that the ones who complain, and talk the most about giving away the secrets of the priesthood are always the ones who know the least. I thought that was rather true, because anyone who wants to be a priest, who wants the priesthood, who wants to serve God, needs to share their gifts with everyone around them, to always work together. When people don't work together, they become puffed up with pride, they think that they are the special ones, that they are the only ones who can speak to the Lord or anything else, and this is not true. It says:

"I cured with the power that came through me. Of course it was not I who cured, it was the power from the heavens. And the visions and ceremonies had only made me like a hole through which the power could come to the rest of the people. If I thought I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power would come through, then everything I could do would be foolish."

This is also well written in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 121:

"… the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man."

So, the same thing that my dad just said in his talk, as soon as we think that we are the special ones, that anything that we do is of ourselves, we lose all authority of the priesthood.

Something that Fools Crow liked to say is that he was a hollow bone that the powers flowed through to God's children. The only thing that he could do was to make himself clean. He says that the cleaner the bone, the more water you can pour though it, the faster it will run. It is this way with us and power, the holy person is the one who becomes the cleanest of all. This is the difference between a holy man and other people. It is not that they are special or anything else. It is that they clean themselves so that they can be a better conductor, a better servant to the rest of God's people. He also says that:

"The important thing is that I reflect Wakan Tanka and the Helpers to them. I am not them, but people see what they are like in me, and in the life I have lived."

This is how you clean yourself out, to become a hollow bone, to receive His image in your countenance, to quote a song. It is very much true.

And again, just as in Doctrine and Covenants 121, he says that:

"the power we receive is for curing, healing, prophesying, solving problems, and finding lost people or objects. It is also for spreading love, transforming, and assuring peace and fertility. It is not to give us power over others, because the source of power is not ourselves. It comes to use, and moves through us as hollow bones, but it belongs to Wakan Tanka and the Helpers. They are the source, and all thanks should go to them."

It is very much important to keep your humility, to make sure that you understand that the only thing that you can do is become that hollow bone, to help things flow through you.

Here is another quote: "To become a clean hollow bone, you must first live as I have. If you have not done this already, you must begin to do it. You must love everyone, put others first, be moral, keep your life in order, do not do anything criminal, and have a good character. If you do not do these things, you will be easily tricked, and will become a hollow bone for the powers of evil."

Something I noticed is that the things that he lists in this quote, are identical to the sacred circle, to have faith, love everyone, have wisdom, to have selflessness, everything is all right there.

He also gives some advice for, once you have become a hollow bone, and once you have started to progress and gain and learn in the priesthood. He gave the advice to those who already were called to the priesthood,

"They must aim at the heavens, and set themselves standards and goals that in the beginning, will seem beyond reach, but they should enjoy the challenges this brings. They should not look for perfection, one day, they might get close to it. If, on the other hand, they aim low, that is where they will always be. Even failures make a positive contribution, they keep us humble and they help us find and fix our mistakes. Failures also tell us to practice more until we are better."

I find that is a very good instruction, particularly the, “they should enjoy the challenges this brings.” As long as we are continually aiming to be like Heavenly Father, like Christ, then we will always be going a little further up. And we should enjoy this, we should enjoy moving forwards, progressing, to every time we get a little bit better, it should be a happy occasion. It is very much a happy thing to progress. He mentions that he likes being happy, he likes to laugh, because it breaks tension and laughter can be a good medicine to help other people as well.

Earlier on, I mentioned that: ‘if you do not get your life in order and live like this, then you could become a hollow bone for the powers of evil.’

Now something he says is that the strongest protection against evil is our pipe. And I also thought about this cause there was some pictures of the pipe, and it is very much a right angle, which, if you have ever used the priesthood, the sign of the square, then it is very much the same. He says that:

“It represents the fellowship we have with Wakan Tanka and the Helpers. When we have the pipe in our hands and use it in ceremonies, it is the same as the Christian, if he could hold Jesus Christ in his hands while he prays.”

This is backed up in 1st John, chapter 4: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God:"

Well, you can see you should always hold Christ in our minds whenever we do things in the priesthood. We should always have Yeshua in our minds simply because that is how we will tell whether we are doing things good or not.

Now, I know this is very different, well, this can be very different for some people who are learning of the gospel, that to learn that the Native Americans already knew a lot of this stuff, and some of my phrasing doesn't quite match up with some things that you may believe or may have been taught. Fools Crow also mentions that some of the other native tribes have slightly different beliefs, for instance, they believe that the sacred circle, that the four directions would be in the four half directions, like NW and SE, that sort of thing. He says that Wakan Tanka taught each tribe to believe in ways that work best for them, it depended on where they lived and the way they were taught about spiritual things. This is backed up in 2nd Nephi, chapter 31, verse 3:

"For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for He speaketh unto men according to their language, and according to their understanding."

I am not quite sure how to keep going with that, so I think I will leave you with one more thought, one more quote. Fools Crow, when asked about, if it was difficult for him to give up all these worldly things, about, if it was difficult for him to live the right way and give up all the worldly things that so many people desire, he says that:

"This life has been very happy and a full one. I don't know how it could have been better. Wakan Tanka did not tell me to forego the things that I just mentioned, I just came to know that I would have a better life without them."

It is very much that he became happier, he realized that all these things, all the worldly desires simply held him back and he didn't need them.

So, I believe I am finished, so I would like to turn the meeting over to Kevin for his talk.

Not Procrastinating The Day Of Your Repentance:

Kevin: Thank you Will. I love technology but I'm not very good at computers. And I could not get my image to come up here. I apologize for that. Just pretend that you are listening to the radio now because you're not going to see me talking. It is very good to be with you all tonight. It's a pretty special time of year. We are celebrating Passover, we are celebrating the atonement of the Savior, and His resurrection. And that's a great thing. It is a time that gives us the opportunity to kind of look at our lives, and gives us some food for contemplation of some very significant things. And we might also think of this time that we are spending right now, and throughout this weekend, as a time to realign ourselves with our Heavenly Father's mind and will concerning us. And put ourself as if we are on the right frequency with Him both to transmit, and to receive the spirit and thoughts, and have actions that match what our beliefs are. So I would like to share with you tonight some scriptures. I'll be reading from them.

The first is from the Book of Mormon prophet, Alma, the younger. And he is, to lay the background for this, he has given up the seat of government, as it were, he was the head of government of the ancient Nephites. And he also, at the same time, was the head of the church anciently in the western hemisphere. And he asks the members of the church as he goes about to teach them and to preach to them a very important question, and it applies to us as well, and this is one of the great things about reading scripture in general is that the passages that we read, we should apply all of those things to ourself, and ask those same questions of ourself that he's asking of the people anciently. And so the prophet Alma says this, he says:

"And now behold I ask of you my brethren of the church have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received His image in your countenance? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" (Alma 5:14)

Interesting choice of words; "received His image in your countenance;" what does he mean by that? What is the mighty change that he's referring to actually talking about? And so this is something that we should be asking ourself as we read through these.

And he asks the people: "Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem His people from their sins?" (Alma 5:27)

That is a pretty powerful statement, the question that he asks. Do we consider ourself blameless before God at this time? Are we ready to meet our maker?

He continues: "Behold are you stripped of pride?" Pride's a big one. "I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the Kingdom of Heaven is soon at hand, and such an one hath not eternal life. Behold, I say, is there one among you who is not stripped of envy? I say unto to you that such an one is not prepared; and I would that he should prepare quickly, for the hour is close at hand, and he knoweth not when the time shall come; for such an one is not found guiltless." (Alma 5:27-29)

Envy is an interesting thing. It is one of those Commandments that we're told to avoid and if we do not keep it in check it leads to breaking of other commandments. It can lead to the breaking of the commandment: Thou shalt not steal. You can covet what your neighbor has; if you are envious of your neighbor, and your neighbor of course can be anybody. Your neighbor could be somebody that you see on TV or that you think is a pretty neat guy or gal. It can cause people to steal, if you are envious of something that somebody else has.

And then perhaps the very worst cases, it can actually lead somebody to taking the life of another. He tells the people that they should prepare, get rid of this and to do it quickly, he says for the hour is close at hand and he knoweth not when the time shall come for such an one is not found guiltless. And he continues:

"And again I say unto you is there one among you that doth make a mock of his brother, or that heapeth upon him persecutions?" (Alma 5:30)

What does it mean to be mocking of other individuals? We could include a number of different things in there, but maybe one of the most common things would be gossiping among people. But it covers a whole host of sins and persecutions. And that's been going on since the gospel has been on the earth since the time of father Adam. He says unto them:

"Woe unto such an one, for he is not prepared, and the time is at hand that he must repent or he cannot be saved." (Alma 5:31)

Well those are really direct words from Alma to the people of the church.

Now I would suppose that most of us at some time or another in our life, have had a tendency to think that our lives are going to go on for a really long time. We particularly think this when we're young, when we are in our teenage years, and our twenties and our thirties, and that we have plenty of time to repent of our sins. We think that we will always have tomorrow. Just look at you know the X Games which are crazy athletes that do crazy, crazy stunts, and the only reason that I can think of that they would do some of the phenomenal things that they do is that they do believe that they're going to live for a long time. We think that we're going to have next week, or next month, or next year to repent.

And to a degree I used to feel that way myself. I confess that to you. However, one year ago, today, I was admitted to the hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, and was put into a medically-induced coma. And I was on a ventilator for life support. I was diagnosed with covid-19 pneumonia as well as MRSA pneumonia and for those of you that might not be familiar with MRSA it's highly antibiotic resistant form of bacterial staph. And so I had Covid-19 and MRSA pneumonia simultaneously. The doctors were not at all optimistic that I would live. I have two daughters that are nurses. One of them was in contact with my doctor every single day. She worked in an intensive care unit of a large Hospital in Salt Lake City. She understood the medical terminology. She understood the treatment processes. I spent just over three weeks in the hospital before I was finally released. I lost fifty pounds, I needed oxygen to get up and to attempt to walk anywhere. When I came out of the coma after eight days, I needed oxygen just to be able to breath which they continued to give me, and they wouldn't allow me to leave the hospital without being on oxygen. I live at 6,000 feet elevation. We live in the mountains, and there just isn't as much oxygen here as where Bill lives. He is 3,000 or 3,500 feet lower in elevation, and I could really tell the difference when that daughter, that would talk to the doctor, came down to Arizona, flew down, rented a car. She picked me up and brought me back. I lost fifty pounds, I needed a walker. I felt like I was a hundred years old brothers and sisters.

I took, before I felt like I was a hundred percent again, ten and a half to eleven months in recovery after being released from the hospital. So I'm really just kind of getting back to where I was before I started. But I am fifty pounds lighter then I was. I felt like I was a hundred years old, up until just a few months ago, and I can tell you that it's through the many, many prayers of others that the Lord was merciful to me any He did spare my life. And I can tell you that the day before I went into that hospital, I didn't even have a clue how close I came to death. I didn't even find out how close I came to death, until I had been home for six months, and my oldest daughter began rehearsing to me the conversations that she had with the doctors, as they didn't think I was going to live. The point being is that we just don't know. We don't know how long we have. I don't know if I will be around tomorrow. I hope I am. But I know that it is important for me to think about living my life in such a way that regardless of when I leave it; that I am prepared when I go. I look at the turmoil that is going on in the world today.

Often times I think people have what is referred to as normalcy bias, meaning that we think everything is it going to continue in our life on an even keel. That things are not going to change. But things can change, and they can change rapidly. Today I thank my Heavenly Father every single morning in my prayers. And I don't take any day, that I open my eyes up, for granted. I no longer think that I have years, or months, or days to repent. I'm trying to live each as if it's my last, and one day it's going to be my last day. And I try to align my will with that of Heavenly Father's will. I have come to know and to understand in a real and a personal way that life can be very fleeting and it can end in an instant, what we consider Earth life.

So the prophet, Alma, continues. He said: "For behold this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." (Alma 34:32)

And when I say men I am including woman in that, it includes women as well as men. He says: "And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given unto us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein their can be no labor performed." (Alma 34:33)

Now, that is a pretty significant statement.

"Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time you go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world." (Alma 34:34)

So if you have a problem with any type of an addiction regardless of what it is, and you have not taken the time to repent while in this life, and we each face our own battles in this life, I don't exclude myself from that. If you have not repented of that, that same spirit is going to possess you at the time of death. You don't get a second chance. This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God.

"For behold if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked." (Alma 34:35)

Well, those are powerful words. They're not my words, they’re his words. And they were given to him by the Lord, and Father in Heaven wants the best for us. But those are sobering words and they're sobering because they're true. That's what makes them sobering. And I think all too often we imagine unto ourselves a God who will allow us a little leeway in obedience to the commandments. We sometimes tell ourselves: I'm only human and I'm not perfect. I have the next life and then I will repent. All the big commandments, I will keep those today and save the troublesome little commandments for the next life. After all, only Yeshua is perfect. I am here to tell you that this is a doctrine of Satan. The Lord, however, has told us that He cannot look upon sin with even the least degree of allowance. And that no unclean thing can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He said:

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5:48)

What are those little sins; sins of anger, sins of pride, sins of boastfulness, lust, gossiping, selfishness. We can literally sit here for an hour and read off a list of sins that we commit. And we probably are all subject to them from one time to another. But I believe that it's an important thing to demonstrate to the Lord that we do love Him, and we demonstrate that love by keeping His Commandments. The Savior said if ye love Me keep My Commandments. And what a blessing it is, as we turn that tide, as we experience what Alma was speaking of, the mighty change in our hearts.

So how is this supposed to work? Do we become perfect in this life? Is there even a single commandment which the Lord has given us that we can't obey with some effort on our part? If there is I'm not aware of it.

I have a person that I work with that in his weekend job is a pastor. He is a good, good man; good family man. I have never seen him do anything that was even slightly tainted as far as disobedience to God's commandments or laws. He is in an upstanding, and a righteous man, and I'm happy that to know him and to work with him. But I asked him one day this last week I said, can you think of; do you believe that Heavenly Father would give us any commandment, or the Savior would give us any commandments that we can't obey. And I was, I was pretty surprised at his response. He said, oh yeah, I believe there's lots of them. It was a difficult thing for me to grasp and understand. I want you to know, that doctrine of the devil, that we're not perfect, and we can't be perfect, and you know leave that up to the Saviour, and you'll have more time after this life is over to repent. It's a false doctrine. I want you to know that this life is the time for us to meet God, to prepare. And it's because that He has this love that is unfathomable to us, that He's created the world, He's given us bodies to experience good from evil, we experience joy, and we experience suffering, we experience health, we experience sickness. And He has sent us messengers throughout history, and servants to teach us, and we are all servants. We have taken it upon ourselves that commitment to serve Him.

We should not take sacred things lightly. He has given us scriptures to teach us so that we can know how to act at all times, and in all situations. I received a blessing some years back that said that I need to become familiar with the scriptures, that I need to study the scriptures, so that I can be in a position to stand uprightly before God when I give an accounting of this life. And I believe that was wise counsel from a Heavenly Father that loved me and that cared about me. If you remember that it's by persuasion, by gentleness, and meekness, by love unfeigned by kindness, and pure knowledge which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy or guile. This is from the Doctrine and Covenants the 121st section.

He has given us prayer that we can communicate with Him. And He does give us revelation that we can receive answers to our prayers. He has given us a Savior, Yeshua, who is meekest of all, that we could be forgiven of our sins. He set the example for us to follow; we can set the example for others. He has given us the Holy Ghost to act as our guide and we surely do need his guidance in all things. But I want you to know that Father loves us. He is totally devoted to us. He waits for us to call upon Him for the help that we need day to day, and He will answer our prayers.

One thing about prayer that I wanted to mention that occurred to me; I, in my pocket, I have my cell phone. Cell phone is amazing technology that we have today. When I was young we didn't have cell phones. Some of you can relate to that. And cell phones work great in major metropolitan areas and really through out most of the U.S., there is good coverage. I know that it can be spotty at certain places, and at certain times, but because I live in the mountains I know that I can contact somebody. And this is it this is a great point, technology allows me to talk to you right now. We have people listening from the Philippines. We have people that are listening in Canada. We have people in North America, we have people in Africa that are listening right now, and we can do the same thing on that cell phone. But one thing about a cell phone is that you have to be able to receive a clear signal.

When we are living God's laws and God's commandments those pathways are open, that alignment with Him is crisp and it is clear. We need to maintain those open channels of communication with Heavenly Father. We do that through walking in obedience, walking in faith to His Commandments, by loving our brothers and our sisters. By unselfishness, by giving more of ourselves to them than we give to ourself. It is about everybody else, it is not about us. He wants us to return to Him; Heavenly Father does, and the Savior, Yeshua, does. They want us to be like Them in every respect, and to even exceed Father, just as surely as I love my five children, and I want them to exceed me in all areas of life. I hope they do. And the Heavenly Father has that same desire for us, to be able to exceed Him. It is my hope that we can call upon Father in the name of Yeshua for the strength, and the ability to make the changes that we all need to make in our life. To love each other as we love ourself, and to be there for each other, an actual deed, not just paying lip service and talking about it. We need to live the virtues. We need to obey Him that we can receive the image of His countenance in our face is my prayer and message to you in the name of Yeshua Messiah, Amen.

Joseph, the time is back to you.

Conclusion:

Joseph: Well thank-you very much.

Kevin: You're muted.

Joseph: That would help, thank-you, thank-you very much. I was trying to figure out how to get it to show the person speaking, but on our side, it seems to have highlighted us and not showing anybody else on our side. All this fun technology.

So, I would like to thank everybody for tuning in and listening to this messages that we spoke of this day. We really have, we have a few things to report to everybody that the church is moving along, everything seems to be going smoothly. We are still working very hard on the book of Mormon project, and we should have that published within a couple of months at least electronically, if not physically. We are still working on a website that will, well we will find out when it will be up and running. And we do have plans to expand the Ministry as well. So everything is moving forward.

Our next conference will actually be held in another three months, and it will conclude our presentation of all the basic doctrines, and how to actually move forward and apply the ordinances in our lives. Now this is very important; all the talks today went together, this is very important to understand these things so that we can apply them, because it is open to all. Every one of us can get to become a servant of God, can get to the Lord, but it is very important that we realise that this is not done for us; it is not done so that we can, you know, ‘consume it upon our lusts,’ as the scripture says. It is done so that we can actually help our Father in His work, and with our hearts set upon His work, set upon Him. That is where the Lord is. The Lord is in the field; the Lord is working. And the Lord would like us to come and help. And the call has gone forward, that all of the strength of the Lord’s house needs to come together and start working. And we can actually accomplish this great goal.

So I would like to invite anyone who has not yet been baptized to give us a shout, and we will find someone close by to perform that ordinance. Anyone who would like further teaching on this so that they may accomplish it, you know, we do have a Forum where we discuss a lot of these things, and the doctrines are all put forth that actually have results to them. We do have some blogs and various pages on social media, and we can be contacted in many different ways. So do not be shy, come forward; let’s talk about some of these things, and actually move forward.

The whole idea of the restored gospel is to bring everyone to the Saviour, and that is what it is all about. So for myself, I would like to extend that invitation to come. Come to the Saviour, get to Him, talk to Him. He is a real person. He loves you very much and would like to help you gain your hearts desire of eternal life, and to have that joy continue forever.

But make no mistake, it is up to us! We can not wait for Him to do it. We have to actually change our hearts and move toward the Lord. We have to believe in Him enough to actually follow what He said. And as we do this, we will find ourselves wrapped in His arms.

Did I forget anything today? No?

Okay, then I would like to thank everyone for coming once again and please, do not be shy, send us some messages and let’s talk about these things so that we can all progress together.

We do need someone to volunteer for a closing prayer. Does anyone feel inspired?

Closing Prayer: Will