Cindy: 0:05

Hi friends, welcome back to Primarily Scripture. I am your host, Cindy Young, and we've got a familiar face with us. Hello, Vienna. How are you?

Vienna: 0:12

Hello!

Cindy: 0:13

Did you have a good Christmas?

Vienna: 0:14

Yes.

Cindy: 0:15

Good. For the new year, we're now studying Doctrine and Covenants, and that will also include Joseph Smith History. So we'll learn about Joseph Smith, and how the church got started, and all those things. And so the very first lesson that we're doing this week, is on something called the, let me read it, "The Restoration of the Fulness

of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: 0:33

a... Proclamation to the World." Yes. So we do have these worksheets available on the website. Uh, the website is under construction today. Hopefully it'll be up soon, but free download. You don't even have to give me your email. And included on the worksheet is a study version of the proclamation. But then most of my worksheets look like this, where it's got direct scripture, or in this case, words of the prophets, And then some fill in the blanks to help you understand it and look back into the scriptures and find those answers. And then a couple of study ideas. So this does come directly from the proclamation and that's what we'll look at right now, okay? All right, so which activity did you do, Vienna?

Vienna: 1:16

I did the search for promises.

Cindy: 1:18

Oh, that is such a good one. There are amazing promises in this proclamation. All right, will you read that study box for us from the worksheet? What's it say?

Vienna: 1:25

Not every promise in the scriptures will start with, I promise. So you have to look for them. What promised blessings can you find in this proclamation? What does it say you need to do before you receive these blessings?

Cindy: 1:36

Awesome. Okay, so what did you find? We've got two paragraphs from the proclamation that are on the worksheet. Did you find blessings in the first one or the second one?

Vienna: 1:45

Uh, the second one.

Cindy: 1:48

Okay. So there are two paragraphs on the worksheet, and it happens to be the very first paragraph and the very last paragraph from the Proclamation. So let's look at that last paragraph. What promises did you find? Maybe we should read it first.

Vienna: 2:01

Yeah." With reverence and gratitude, we as His Apostles invite all to know- as we do- that the heavens are open. We affirm that God is making known His will for His beloved sons and daughters. We testify that those who prayerfully study the message of the Restoration and act in faith will be blessed to gain their own witness of its divinity and of its purpose to prepare the world for the promised Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

Cindy: 2:30

Very good. Okay. Where in this paragraph did you find promises?

Vienna: 2:35

Um, so I found, um, the promise that if you have faith, you will be blessed. Found that one.

Cindy: 2:39

Awesome. I'm going to mark that directly on my worksheet. Let's see. If you act in faith, what did you say the blessing is?

Vienna: 2:48

It just said, uh, blessed to gain their own divinity, which I don't know what that means.

Cindy: 2:53

Okay. Let's jump over to column two and see what it says over there. Let's see, it says "we testify that[the people] who prayerfully [blank] the message," What word goes there?

Vienna: 3:04

Study.

Cindy: 3:04

Study."Who prayerfully study the message of the restoration and [blank] in [blank]"

Vienna: 3:11

act in faith.

Cindy: 3:12

Yes, if you act in faith, fill that in, "they will be..."

Vienna: 3:17

blessed.

Cindy: 3:18

"Blessed to..." okay, here's the blessing that's gonna come right here.

Vienna: 3:24

Get their own testimony.

Cindy: 3:25

Ah, gain their own witness means get your own testimony. So when you act in faith, you study and act in faith, the blessing is that you get a testimony of it. Yeah. Divinity. What's divinity mean?

Vienna: 3:39

Um, it has the word divine.

Cindy: 3:42

It does. And what's divine?

Vienna: 3:45

Godly?

Cindy: 3:46

Yes, that is a perfect explanation. Yes, so you'll get a testimony of how it is godly. It is from God. Anybody else will think, Oh, some weird guy named Joe Smith made up this religion. No, no, no, that's not true. But that's what they think because they didn't act in faith and gain their own witness. But after they do act in faith, then they can gain a testimony that it's actually from God. It is Godly. Okay, I'm going to circle divinity because that's an important thing. That's one of the things you get a testimony of, that it comes from God. And what else is promised? What else will our testimony be?

Vienna: 4:23

Um, "and of its purpose to prepare the world for the promised second coming."

Cindy: 4:28

What is the restoration?

Vienna: 4:30

The restoration is, there was the church, and then I'm seeing like blocks in my mind, like making like this little tiny like thing.

Cindy: 4:39

Mm hmm.

Vienna: 4:39

And then it was, like, destroyed, like, the blocks get knocked over.

Cindy: 4:42

Yes.

Vienna: 4:42

And then for a bit, there just wasn't a church anymore. Or a good, like, true church. And then, Joseph Smith helped build the blocks back up and make a church.

Cindy: 4:51

That's right. The restoration, to restore, means it comes back. And within that church, there are certain things that it needs to be the true church. And that's where, uh, studying the rest of it will come in handy, and you can find what is included in the restoration, what the church needs. Things like true prophets and apostles. Right? Priesthood authority, ordinances. Because other churches don't have the priesthood authority and the ordinances. What else do they not have?

Vienna: 5:18

Book of Mormon.

Cindy: 5:19

Mm hmm. We have the Book of Mormon. And the Book of Mormon was a huge part of the restoration in giving us more scripture that helps support the Bible. It proves that the Bible is true and gives us even more knowledge. And so the Lord is restoring, building up again, His church. And that's what we have. Those promises are amazing! Why do we study the scriptures, including words of the prophets like these. Why do we study them?

Vienna: 5:44

So that we can know.

Cindy: 5:45

Yeah. Is knowing enough?

Vienna: 5:48

No.

Cindy: 5:49

Why not?

Vienna: 5:50

You can know and then believe.

Cindy: 5:52

Yes. And then what else that's said in here?"Those who prayerfully study," and then what?

Vienna: 6:00

And then you need to act.

Cindy: 6:02

If what you study doesn't help you want to do something, then you're not studying enough. You need to study a little bit more so that you will want to do something. We have to act in faith. Doing those things helps to change our hearts, helps to build our testimony. It gives us spiritual experiences. That's how your testimony is built. If you don't act, if you don't do something, then it doesn't matter at all. It's just reading a book. And I've actually had friends who read the Book of Mormon, and then put it away and were like, I mean, I read it, it's just a book. Who cares? But the difference is I acted in faith, I prayed about it with real intent, and I decided to follow. And so I gained my own witness, my own testimony. So that's a huge promised blessing. All right, so what is the challenge in that Search for Promises study box? At the very bottom, in bold letters, what's it tell you to do?

Vienna: 6:54

Ponder and pray about what the Lord wants you to do this week, then write it down.

Cindy: 6:59

After you study what you feel like you need to do, is probably going to be different from what I feel like I need to do. Because I'm a mom, and my life looks totally different from you, who's a kid. Totally different, right? But all of us can receive inspiration on what we need to do. There is an amazing line in this that I'm going to mark, that is super important. Are you ready? It's closer to the top of that second paragraph on the worksheet. It says, "We, His Apostles, invite all to know- as we do-" because they know this, "that the heavens are open." The heavens are open. Four words. So important! The heavens are open! Before the restoration, people would say that the heavens were closed because there were no more apostles, right? And so they thought, well, Bible times are over. The heavens are closed. God just doesn't work that way anymore. He doesn't have apostles and prophets. Kind of like a store being closed. Nope- can't get anything from there. Heaven is closed. Is that true?

Vienna: 7:58

No.

Cindy: 7:58

No, it's not. The heavens are open. And you can receive messages from the Lord. And that's important to know when you say, I'm gonna ponder and pray about what the Lord wants me to do. Well, the heavens are open, He will let you know. YOU can receive that inspiration. Isn't that exciting?

Vienna: 8:13

Yeah.

Cindy: 8:14

I love that! Have you ever received inspiration before?

Vienna: 8:18

Um, maybe? I felt the Holy Ghost before tell me, like, do something.

Cindy: 8:24

Yeah, that's inspiration, absolutely.

Vienna: 8:26

I was in like a tool shop, like in my garage somewhere, petting my old cat. And all of a sudden I just felt this like need to go outside, and like, go check on the goats. And so I went outside, and one of the goats had a collar, and it was stuck on the fence.

Cindy: 8:38

Oh no! So, because you followed that inspiration, you were able to save your goat.

Vienna: 8:43

Yes.

Cindy: 8:44

That's awesome! I love that! What a great example of receiving inspiration. Okay. On these worksheets, I've got a new journal page and, um, it gives you room to write your thoughts and feelings. So and then places to write "Messages for Me." You can get little messages from the scriptures, and you can write them down right here if you want to, okay? So look for that as you are studying. There are a lot of ways to study. You might find videos and storybooks, there are podcasts like this one that you can listen to or watch, but if you don't jump into the scriptures yourself, you will never get those messages. Because I can only get messages from me. you have to get in the scriptures yourself to get messages for you. So, go do some studying, and I'll see you next time.

Vienna: 9:26

Okay.

Cindy: 9:27

Awesome. Thanks, Vienna. Bye, friends. Blah, blah, blah. Oh my gosh.

Vienna: 9:31

I've just been staring off into space for five minutes straight. I can read.

Cindy: 9:38

And we're done. Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website PrimarilyScripture. com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time!