Day 309 Be Filled with the Spirit Through the Sacrament

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from. Thank you for joining me and know that I'm cheering for your every success. Welcome to day 309 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together.

Today, you're going to be reading 3 Nephi chapter 20, verses 8 through 26. We're going to be right in the middle of that chapter. We get the tail end of Jesus Christ.

We're going to be performing that miracle and doing the sacrament with the people there. And then Jesus is going to talk about several of the prophecies from Isaiah and kind of help interpret them for what it means for the Nephites. And I hope you have a good time diving into that and kind of hearing Jesus give an interpretation to what Isaiah spoke about.

Our verse for today is actually on the tail end of this miraculous event from the sacrament. It comes in 3 Nephi chapter 20, verse 9, and it's right on the tail end. The people are just finishing things up.

And it says this in verse 9: Now when the multitude had all eaten and drunk, behold, they were filled with the Spirit. And they did cry out with one voice and gave glory to Jesus, whom they both saw and heard. Now, first of all, having the sacrament passed to you by Christ has got to be quite an amazing event in and of itself.

Right, the seeing and the hearing of Christ being there during the sacrament, that's probably going to turn up the sacred level of taking the sacrament to a couple extra notches. But I love the part here that after they had taken it, they were filled with the Spirit. And it got me thinking about the importance of the regularity of taking the sacrament.

I know sometimes church becomes, you know, kind of a, 'does it fit into our lives' type thing. And as I've talked to my daughter about her mission, and as I think about my mission, there's a lot of times where trying to help people realize the importance of attending church really lies inside of the partaking of the sacrament. And inside of this here, you get this 'filled with the Spirit' phrase.

It got me thinking about how vital it is to have that rejuvenation on a weekly basis in my life. And that led me down to kind of dig into different conference talks, as I like to do a lot of times with these verses. And it led me to President Oaks—before he was President Oaks, Elder Dallin H.

Oaks. He gave a talk back in 1996 in General Conference called "Always Have His Spirit." And President Oaks can give some incredibly doctrinally heavy talks, right? So I'm going to put the link in here for you so that you can do that.

But he said this inside of it, and he's described this filling with the Spirit in a way that was new to me. And I don't remember it from 1996, so I didn't go looking for it for that reason. But let me read it to you and see if it catches you a little bit differently as well.

He said: "To those brothers and sisters who may have allowed themselves to become lax in this vital renewal of the covenants of the sacrament, I plead in words of the First Presidency that the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, our direction finder, our communicator, our interpreter, our witness, and our purifier—our infallible guide and sanctifier for our mortal journey toward eternal life." Wow, my friends, when I hear the Holy Ghost described like that, I think, how vital is it for me to have the Holy Ghost in my life and to make sure that I have it in its fullness. Partaking of the sacrament is an opportunity for you and I to be filled with the Spirit. I want that.

I want the descriptions that President Oaks gives here. I've heard some of those before, but our purifier, our infallible guide and sanctifier for our mortal journey is something I want to make sure I have in my life. I hope you do as well.

I hope that the partaking of the sacrament can become something where you and I can truly be filled with the Spirit as we've been promised here in these verses. That's all for today, my friends. Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow and I hope you are too.