Summary: In this talk, Heber J. Grant teaches that God always prepares a way for us to succeed when we obey His commandments. Using Nephi as an example, he explains that true spiritual and material prosperity comes from being faithful, even during difficult trials. He strongly emphasizes the importance of paying tithing and prioritizing our duties to God ahead of worldly obligations, promising that keeping God’s laws will open the windows of heaven and keep our hearts from becoming greedy.
Source: “Effects Produced by trio Lives of Great Characters, Etc.” (Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, p. 18, October 1899)
Editor’s Note
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Notable Quotes
We will all be blessed of the Lord if we have this same spirit and realize that no obstacles are insurmountable when God commands and we obey. [in response to 1 Nephi 3:7–8]
“As Latter-day Saints, let us have a desire to live lives of usefulness, and to be instruments in the hands of God of accomplishing much good.”
Let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of God and then we know that we can win the battle, though we may be opposed by a man with his tens of thousands.
“Let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of God and then we know that we can win the battle, though we may be opposed by a man with his tens of thousands.”
HEBER J. GRANT
OF THE QUORUM OF TWELVE APOSTLES
Effects Produced by trio Lives of Great Characters—Blessings of God Secured by Obedience—When the Lord gives Commands He opens the way for the Obedient to Fulfill them.
I rejoice exceedingly at again having the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in General Conference. I have listened with a great deal of pleasure to the remarks that have been made by the brethren who have spoken, and I earnestly desire that the time which I occupy may be for our mutual benefit to strengthen us in the faith of the Gospel, and to inspire us with a determination to press forward in the discharge of the many duties and responsibilities resting upon us as members of the Church. We all, no doubt, look around in life and from our observation of men, or from our reading of the lives of those who have died, form our ideals, and we try to live and to be like those whom we admire. There is no character with which I have been familiar through my reading that has inspired me more than has Nephi of old. I can never read the life of that man without being inspired with a desire to be faithful, diligent and true to the Lord, that I may be abundantly blessed of the Lord, as was Nephi. If we all could be inspired with a determination to live as this man lived, there is no question in my mind but we would grow and increase in the Spirit of God, and in power and ability to do the will of our Heavenly Father on the earth. Alma says that the Lord granteth unto men according to their desires, whether they be for life or death, for Joy or remorse of conscience. As Latter-day Saints, let us have a desire to live lives of usefulness, and to be instruments in the hands of God of accomplishing much good.
I have read and spoken time and time again from the section of the Book of D&C from which Brother Woodruff read this morning. I have felt a desire in my heart to be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and to bring to pass much righteousness of my own free will. I have endeavored to impress this also upon the minds of those with whom I have been laboring since being called to minister among the people. I desire to read a few words more from this same section.
After telling us to be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and not to wait to be commanded in all things, the Lord says:
“Who am I that made man, saith the Lord, that will hold him guiltless that obeys not my commandments?
“Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled?
“I command and a man obeys not, I revoke and they receive not the blessing.
“Then they say in their hearts, this is not the work of the Lord, for His promises are not fulfilled. But wo unto such, for their reward lurketh beneath, and not from above.”
I know scores of Latter-day Saints who have been commanded of the Lord time and time again, but have failed to receive the blessings promised through the fulfillment of the commandments of God, because they have obeyed not. Yet they have accused the Lord of failing to fulfill His promises made to those who obey His commandments. I have ever known that those who pay not their tithing are the ones that criticise the expenditure of the tithing. Those who are approached for donations for laudable purposes, sometimes under the direction of the Presidency of the Church, and who refuse to contribute, are the ones that criticise the Presidency of the Church and the Apostles for calling upon them for means. But I find that the men who obey are those who testify that the promises of God are fulfilled. Therefore, it behooves each and every one of us to be true and energetic.
I desire to read a few words from the writings of the Prophet Nephi. After hearing the testimony of his father, and after they had gone into the wilderness Nephi says:
“16. And it came to pass that I Nephi, being exceeding young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father, wherefore I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers.
“17. And I spake unto Sam, making known unto him the things which the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit. And it came to pass that he believed in my words;
“18. But behold Laman and Lemuel would not hearken unto my words; and being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, I cried unto the Lord for them.
“19. And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying, blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart.
“20. And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments—”
This is the point that I desire to impress upon your minds.
“And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.”
I say to the Latter-day Saints that this last statement is one of the testimonies of the truthfulness of this record, because this is a land choice above all other lands, and God has blessed the people upon this land. He has fulfilled the words recorded in this book time and time again, that those who should come up to fight against the people of this land should not prosper. After Nephi had been thus abundantly blessed of the Lord, when he returned to his father, who had received a commandment from the Lord that his sons should go back to Jerusalem for the brass plates, Laman and Lemuel were murmuring against this commandment. But these are the words of Nephi:
“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father, I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
“And it came to pass that when my father had heard these words he was exceeding glad, for he knew that I had been blessed of the Lord.”
We will all be blessed of the Lord if we have this same spirit and realize that no obstacles are insurmountable when God commands and we obey. I heard Brother Lyman once remark in a meeting of the Quorum of the Apostles, that he knew of no man who had ever been blessed by one of the Quorum of the Apostles or by the Presidency of the Church and had been sent out to fulfill a mission that had failed to do so. There might be those whose hearts they did touch, but there were those whose hearts could be reached. There never was a member of the Quorum of the Apostles sent upon a mission, but what sooner or later fulfilled that mission. This is a testimony of the statement of Nephi: “For I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them.” Let us realize this and that the keeping of the commandments of God will bring to us the light and inspiration of His Spirit. Then the desire of our hearts will be to know the mind and will of the Lord, and we will pray for strength and ability to carry it out, thereby following in the footsteps of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. After the sons of Lehi had gone up to try and get the plates and were driven back, and Nephi’s brethren desired to return to their father, Nephi said unto them.
“That as the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness, until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.
“Wherefore let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord.”
Here is the key: Nephi knew how to be successful. Let us therefore be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord.
“Therefore let us go down to the land of our father’s inheritance, for behold. he left gold and silver and all manner of riches. And all this he hath done because of the commandments of the Lord.”
After they had been driven the second time and Laban had stolen their gold and silver that they had offered him for the plates, Laman and Lemuel murmured again, and said that Laban could command his fifty and would slay them. And Nephi replied:
“Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord: for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands.”
That is the kind of faith to have. Let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of God and then we know that we can win the battle, though we may be opposed by a man with his tens of thousands. The final result was that Nephi got the plates. We find recorded here also that Nephi was commanded of the Lord to build a vessel. His brethren laughed at him when they saw he was sorrowful because they refused to help him to build the vessel. Nephi said to them:
“Behold, my soul is rent with anguish because of you, and my heart is pained; for I fear lest ye shall be cast off forever. Behold, I am full of the Spirit of God, insomuch that my frame has no strength.”
Nephi continues:
“And now it came to pass that when I had spoken these words, they were angry with me and were desirous to throw me into the depths of the sea; and as they came forth to lay their hands upon me, I spake unto them, saying: In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God even unto the consuming of my flesh; and whose shall lay their hands upon me, shall wither even as a dried reed; and he shall be as naught before the power of God, for God shall smite him.
“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto them, that they should murmur no more against their father: neither should they withhold their labor from me, for God had commanded me that I should build a ship.”
On another occasion when Nephi was in affliction. having been bound by his brethren on the ship, and they unbound him because they were afraid of the storm, Nephi said:
“Wherefore they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists; and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof.
“Nevertheless I did look unto my God, and I did praise Him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord, because of mine afflictions.”
We find here a man of faith; a man who submits to affliction without murmuring. In all his history we find that he followed the commandments of the Lord. The Lord said to him in the beginning that if he followed His commandments, he should be prospered in the land, and he was prospered. I wish to bear my testimony to the Latter-day Saints that all of us who will obey the commandments of God will be prospered in the land. Sacrifice doth bring forth the blessings of heaven. I bear my testimony to the truth of what Brother Lund has said today, that if the people will pay their tithes and offerings, they will not only be blessed in their material affairs, but they will be abundantly blessed with increased outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord. We find recorded in Section 130 of the book of D&C, the following:
“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundation of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated;
“21. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”
I bear witness to you, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, that material and spiritual prosperity is predicated upon the fulfillment of the duties, and responsibilities that rest upon us as Latter-day Saints. I have rejoiced exceedingly that the debts which the people owe to the Lord in tithing have been forgiven by the Prophet of God. But I want to say to those who are able to pay those debts, it will be a great deal better for them if they will do so, notwithstanding they have been forgiven, If the Lord will help me, I propose to pay every debt that I owe in the world. I propose with the help of the Lord to be true to my fellowmen in fulfilling every obligation that I have entered in. to with them. But above all and beyond all, I propose to fulfill my obligation, to. the best of my ability, to God my Heavenly Father. I have been ridiculed in the public prints because I said that a man’s duty was to pay his debts to the Lord if he did not pay his, debts to his fellowman. I repeat that. God my Heavenly Father has blessed me with a knowledge of the Gospel. I do know that God lives; I do know that Jesus is the Christ; I do know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God; I do know that Lorenzo Snow is a Prophet of God; I know that God loves me; that He blesses me; that I am one of His children; that I am under obligations to Him; and that all I have on earth, all that I will ever receive here or hereafter, I am indebted to Him for it. Therefore, I say, shall I not fulfill the duties and obligations that I owe to my Creator and loving Parent before I fulfill my obligations to my fellowman. Has any man ever loaned me money because he loved me? No; he has loaned it to me because he wanted his interest. With the help of the Lord I propose to keep the commandments of the Lord, and then I do know that I shall be able to pay all that I owe; because I know that God blesses those who keep His commandments. I know that I never made a sacrifice of a financial nature in my life to help the advancement of God’s work, without being abundantly rewarded therefore. Not only materially, but I grew in the knowledge of the Gospel and in the Spirit of God, which is worth more than all the wealth and honors of men. I desire never to allow my heart to wither up, so to speak, but rather to have it grow and expand. I desire to seek first the kingdom or God. I do know and bear witness to you that if I do it, all other things for my good will be added unto me. And what I bear witness to pertaining to myself, I bear witness to for all the Latter-day Saints. If you desire the Spirit of God, be honest in keeping the commandments of God. If you desire prosperity, and at the same time the testimony of the Gospel, pay all your obligations to God and you shall have it. If you are not honest with God, you may prosper and you may be blessed with the things of this world, but they will crowd out from your heart the spirit of the Gospel; you will become covetous of your own means and lose the inspiration of Almighty God. The Savior told us that if we gabled the whole world and lost our own souls, it would profit us nothing. We have started out for life eternal, the greatest of all the gifts of God to man, and keeping the commandments of God will bring it to us. May God bless you. Amen.
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