D&C 50:26-36

50:26-30 - The Lord now talks about the “first is last and the last is first” concept, saying, “He that is ordained of God and sent forth, the same is appointed to be the greatest, notwithstanding he is the least and the servant of all. Wherefore, he is possessor of all things; for all things are subject unto him, both in heaven and on the earth, the life and the light, the Spirit and the power, sent forth by the will of the Father through Jesus Christ, his Son. But no man is possess of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin. And if ye are purified and cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done.” When hearing this I think of Nephi, son of Nephi, son of Helaman, who prayed that a famine would replace the war that was ravishing the land, or Elisha who told Naaman to go wash in the river 7 times to be cured from his leprosy, or Lorenzo Snow who brought a boy back from the dead. In order to do all these things they had to know the will of the Lord, and they had to be so in tune with the Spirit that they could know at an instant the will of the Lord, so they can’t have anything in their lives that drives away the Spirit, so they must be “purified and cleansed from all sin.” Now I’m not exactly sure what this means, if it’s possible to be cleansed from all sin in this life time, or if it just means that they reach the highest level of purity attainable in this life, that’s an interesting concept, I’m going to have to think about this. The IM teaches, “Those who strive to keep the Lord’s commandments are made joint heirs with Jesus Christ and inherit all that the Father has. But ‘no man is possessor of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin.’ Keeping all the commandments of God is the key to eternal life. The Prophet Joseph Smith said: ‘We believe that God condescended to speak from the heavens and declare His will concerning the human family, to give them just and holy laws, to regulate their conduct, and guide them in a direct way, that in due time He might take them to Himself, and make them joint heirs with His Son…Here then, we have this part of our subject immediately before us for consideration: God has in reserve a time, or period appointed in His own bosom, when He will bring all His subjects, who have obeyed His voice and kept His commandments, into His celestial rest. This rest is of such perfection and glory, that man has need of a preparation before he can, according to the laws of the kingdom, enter it and enjoy its blessings. This being the fact, God has given certain laws to the human family, which, if observed, sufficient to prepare them to inherit this rest.’ Those who are clean before the Lord may pray with confidence and expect to receive righteous answers to their prayers. That which they ask, if expedient in the Lord’s mind, will be given. ‘But know this, it shall be given you what you shall ask.’ We should pray for what is reasonable and according to the mind and will of the Lord. If we are righteous, we will enjoy God’s spirit, and it will be ‘given unto (us) what (we) should pray,’ because we will be ‘filled with desire.’ We will desire what the Lord wants us to have, and that will be the subject of our prayers.” I’m always really struggled with the concept of prayer, and now not just prayer, but also how to pray by the Spirit, how to ask for what I’m prompted to ask for. I’ve done it a couple of times and it was really profound, but it also goes to my resistance to allowing others to have a say in my life, even when it’s gone. Of course, I realize that the concept of control is invalid because I don’t have control over anything, so really, I should just come to terms with the fact that what Heavenly Father wants for me is the best, accept that and ask for it sooner, rather than fight him tooth and nail to get what I want, which he won’t give me if it’s not good for me. Interesting, I’m going to have to think about this.

50:31-36 - Now we get into how to deal with spirits that we don’t believe to be of God. The Lord says if there is a spirit that “you cannot understand, and you receive not that spirit, ye shall ask the Father in the name of Jesus’ and if he give not unto you that spirit, then you may know that it is not of God.” To me that means if the spirit that we encounter doesn’t edify, bring clarity, understanding, and joy, then we can ask God if it’s of Him and we will know that it’s not, basically because “by their fruits ye shall know them.” The process we are given is to “proclaim against that spirit with a loud voice that is not of God. Not with railing accusation, that ye be not overcome, neither with boasting nor rejoicing, lest you be seized therewith.”  But those spirits that are of God “let him account it of God; and let him rejoice that he is accounted of God worthy to receive.” The IM teaches, “When we are confronted by a spirit that we cannot understand, or by someone who has great spiritual power but whose claims seen in doubt, we must ask God in the name of Jesus if it is a good or an evil spirit. If prayer reveals that such a person is not of God, ‘power over that spirit’ can come only from God. We cannot control or conquer evil on our own power, but God can give us sufficient power to do so. We just then give credit to the Lord. The Lord teaches us that ‘power’ is available ‘to overcome all things not ordained’ of God.” I think that this is related to the personal purity point because, if we think about stewardship, we don’t have stewardship over the evil spirits, only God does, so we can’t rebuke them or command them or anything like that, we can only do that stuff if given temporary authority by the Lord and in order to have that authority given to us we must be worthy.