Becoming Like the Brother of Jared

I am still thinking about  the Brother of Jared.

{This goes along with my earlier post:What I have Learned from the Brother of Jared}

I am reading the book of Ether very carefully and pretty slow so I can capture all the good stuff. This scripture has been with me for a few days as I have been mulling it over in my mind on HOW I can personally become like this:

Ether 4:7 "And in that day that they shall exercise ^afaith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become ^bsanctified in me, then will I ^cmanifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my ^drevelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the ^eFather of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are."
Can I become like the Brother of Jared was? Can I  ever have enough faith like that? 

The answer is yes.  I can.  And you can. We all can. But like the Brother of Jared, we have to pay the price of exercising our faith and obedience like He did.

I know I have had moments in my life when I have been in the mode of exercising pure faith in God.  I have felt the Lord beginning to "unfold" personal revelation to me. Those are extremely touching spiritual moments. At those times, I have tried to remember to grab a pen and write those thoughts, feelings, and impressions from the Spirit down as I have learned they can be very fleeting.

So because of these moments of exercising pure faith, I know it is possible.

The Lord then refers to being sanctified. I am not really sure if I fully understand what that means: to be sanctified.  The dictionary defines it as being holy or sacred.

Sanctified= holy or sacred

 So...{I am thinking out loud here}  sanctification comes as a result of our exercising faith.  THEN when we have become sanctified we are on our way to "paying the price" and becoming full of faith possibly like even the Brother of Jared.   Very cool!  I have such a LONG way to go!!

Here is what Elder David Bednar said in his book Increase in Learning;

"The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out." (Teachings, Joseph
Smith, 267)

"Every man and woman should seek the Lord for wisdom, that they might get knowledge from Him who is the fountain of knowledge.." (Teachings, Joseph Smith, 266)

"Each of us can be blessed abundantly as we come to understand our individual responsibility to learn as well as what we should learn, how we can learn, and ultimately what we are to become." (page 8)

"Put forth your ability to learn as fast as you can, and gather all the strength of mind and principle of faith you possibly can" (Teachings, Brigham Young, 194) 

source

I love this picture.  The artist did a beautiful job of capturing the faith in his face.

 WE can become like the Brother of Jared

What I have learned from the Brother of Jared

I love the story of the Brother of Jared from the Book of Mormon

It gives us a glimpse into the lives of people who seem very real (they could be you and me) who lived at the time of one the most pivotal events in the world

The Tower of Babel

Sometimes I wish I could have been a fly on the wall back then just to be able to observe that whole scene unfold.

 I have always had one question:  Did they REALLY, seriously believe they could build a tower high enough to reach heaven?  Really? 

Well, I guess they did because they were doing it!

Which is where the brother of Jared comes in.  Well, actually he comes in when the Lord is confounding the languages and scattering the people.  This had to be a time of great chaos and panic.

Ether 1: 34  talks about some of the spiritual and physical features of the Brother of Jared:

·         He was large and mighty ( I would guess mighty both physically and spiritually)

·         The Lord LOVED him

·         He had an immense faith bordering on sure knowledge of Jesus Christ  from the beginning

·         He was a great spiritual leader among his family members as well as his friends

Then it seems to me that the Brother of Jared asks the Lord kind of the long shot question of the day by request of Jared, his brother: 

1.       “Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not understand  our words”

            And the Lord compassionately complied.  Then Jared asks his brother to pray a little more:

2.       “Cry again unto the Lord that He will turn his anger away from them who are our friends”

And the Lord compassionately complied. Then Jared had one more big question for the Lord.

3.       “Cry unto the Lord whether He will drive us out of the land, and if he does, where shall we go??”

       And the Lord compassionately complied, again. 

The Lord must have been just waiting for that question because HE HAD A PLAN FOR THEIR LIVES, but He was waiting for them to ask.

 Ether 1:43 “And this I will do because this long time ye have cried unto me”)

Then after a serious of miracles, they are driven, guided, and led by the hand of God to the promised land. It wasn’t just a better, safer land…it was the promised land-their promised land.

Ether 12:43  "And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation. And ^athere shall be none ^bgreater than the nation which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth.

And thus I will do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me."

You can, of coarse,  read the book of {Ether }to get that full account

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I think about this story and how the Lord so compassionately complied.  How He delivered them and saved this group of people.  Literally.  It was a physical and a spiritual rescue, like it can be so many times with us.

There are so many times the Lord has delivered and saved me personally.  It has been going on from my childhood and is still on-going.   I remember a time when I was 9 and fell through an icy lake and almost drowned.  Just when I thought I might not survive, I was able to pull myself out and walk home.  He has saved me. And has been doing it my whole life.

His rescue is has been on-going in my marriage and family I am raising now.  I have been amazed over and over again how the Lord loves us and continually guides and leads us to our kind of promised land.  Blessings that are especially perfect and catered to us.

Like the Brother of Jared and his family and friends, I have seen how the Lord does His best and greatest work in impossible situations.  Nothing is impossible to Him, only to us. 

I have also learned that the LORD HAS A PLAN for our lives…and a promised land for each of us.  If we trust in Him, and let Him lead us…He will write a better story for our lives than we would ever come up with on our own.