2.170 If it be According to the Spirit of the Lord, Which is in Me

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. We're going to dive into our Book of Mormon side of things for at least today, maybe tomorrow a little bit. We may get back to our Doctrine and Covenants readings, but let's get over to the Book of Mormon because there's some great stuff in there with Alma and Amulek.

We are reading this week Doctrine and Covenants section 64 to 66, as well as Alma chapter 1. In Alma chapter 11 we have the opportunity to hear from Amulek. Now, he is the second testimony to Alma, the second witness.

A lot of people gave Alma flack saying, who is this guy that comes here and speaks without a witness? Amulek says, wait a second, he's not speaking without a witness, he's speaking with me. And the people are kind of like, whoa, what does this guy have to say?

Because we know who he is. So that's kind of where we're at in the story. Our verse for today comes inside of Alma chapter 11, verse 22.

Before we look at 22, I just want to make a note that Zeezrom, the man that they're dealing with in verse 21, we find out he was expert in the devices of the devil. So this man is not a novice. He's going to have silky smooth speaking.

He's going to have all of the hooks and vices that Satan is going to employ upon him. And so he's expert in these devices of the devil. And then we get to verse 22.

He's asked if Amulek would simply answer some of his questions. And this is Amulek's response to him in 22. He says, And Amulek said unto him, Yea, if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord which is in me, for I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord.

And Zeezrom said unto him, Behold, here are six onties of silver, and all these will I give thee, if thou wilt deny the existence of a supreme being. Now there's a lot inside of this very beginning conversation between Zeezrom and Amulek, but the piece I want to point out is the front end of verse 22. Amulek has confidence that he has the Spirit with him and he says, If it be according to the Spirit of the Lord, which is in me.

I love that because we're reminded by our prophets and apostles today that the days are coming where we won't be able to even tell truth from untruth, right from wrong, without the constant influence of the Spirit in our lives. This is such a great reminder that Amulek stood in confidence and he said, oh, you want to have a conversation? No problem.

But just so you know, I'm only going to say things under the influence of the Spirit because I have the Spirit in my life. My friends, isn't that a beautiful idea that Amulek could stand in confidence knowing that he had the Spirit and he was going to be able to teach according to it? I think a lot of times for us we get caught up on, you know, what if someone asks us a question when we're trying to give our testimony?

What if they ask us a question we don't know? Or what if we're not great at explaining, you know, something in church history? Or what if we can't talk about that one piece that someone always wants to bring up because of the family member that wants to stoke the history of the church?

We get caught up in those moments and I think we forget that we can simply respond the way Amulek did. And that is, I'm happy to have this conversation with you as long as it's according to the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. For I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord.

That's such a relief to me because it tells me I don't have to have all the argument points. I don't have to have this beautiful, laid out, silky smooth speech of what my testimony is. I simply can speak according to the Spirit as it prompts me.

And a lot of times that can simply disarm the conversation. I can remember, let's see, there's three specific times in my head right now of different places and times in my life where I didn't know what I was supposed to say in the debate or the argument. One was on my mission.

One was in Houston, Texas, when I was a ward mission leader and I was going out with missionaries and there was a man that wanted to kind of grapple and argue around the Book of Mormon. And then there was another time talking to some friends where we had gotten into some deep doctrinal questions and I didn't know what to do. And in all three of those times I can specifically remember the prompting from the Spirit to simply testify of the reality of God as our Father, of Jesus Christ as the Savior, and their plan of happiness.

I'm here to simply bear testimony here. And this interaction with Amulek and Zeezrom is going to come down to that. Amulek's going to say, I know what you're doing, and I'm here to simply bear testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ as our Savior.

My friends, it doesn't take us having a PhD in philosophy or religion or know all of the. And that's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.