2.267 Hold the Keys of the Ministering of Angels

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. Let's get back into the power and authority of God. Ah, I love this.

We are reading Doctrine and Covenants sections 106 through 108, really a focus on 107 this week in the priesthood. We're also reading Helaman chapters 13 through 16. And today we're going to pick up right where we left off.

Yesterday we covered verse 19 in section 107. If you didn't read that, "The Power and Authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood," go back and check that one out. Then we get into today: Doctrine and Covenants, section 107, verse 20, the power and authority of the lesser, Aaronic Priesthood.

Let's read verse 20 and see what it says here. I love this one, by the way, for young men and young women—like the youth. Understand this one.

See who around you, as you're going through your teenage years, and look at it through this lens. "Verse 20: The power and authority of the lesser, or Aaronic Priesthood, is to hold the keys of the ministering of angels, and to administer in outward ordinances—the letter of the gospel, the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, agreeable to the covenants and commandments." Now, I want to share a quick story with this one. Because it's kind of... I'll just keep names anonymous; we won't even use names.

But this happened several years ago. I was—it's been a number of years since I was in the Young Men organization, it's been a number of years since I was asked to substitute for Primary, now that I think about it—but there was a young man in Primary that was just about to transition into the Aaronic Priesthood, and he was quite a challenging child. He had quite a lively spirit.

And one day, when I was asked to substitute for the Primary class, he was bouncing off the walls. And I stopped, and I just said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you about to receive the power and authority of God by being ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood?" And he stopped, and he said, "Yes." And I said, "How is your behavior right now in alignment with that calling?" Now, he didn't immediately change and everything became amazing, right? But it actually...

I subbed for that Primary class. I was a Young Men leader at the time. And he came into our Young Men lessons, and he started to really dive into the Young Men lessons.

He started to become really engaged. And I watched him... 12, 13... I'm not saying that that moment was the moment that changed his perspective by any means.

But I shared often Doctrine and Covenants 107:20 to the young men. I shared it often because I wanted them to truly understand the keys that they were holding as Aaronic Priesthood holders. The keys of ministering of angels and these things.

These are powerful things, and I wanted them to catch that. He caught that vision over the years. He has since gone on a mission and returned.

And you know what? One of my favorite things to do is to see him in the temple. We cross paths now.

He's now in university. He got into the program he wanted to get into, which is amazing and awesome. But one of my favorite things to do is to see him, shake his hand, embrace him, see the light in his eyes.

He's getting it. And he's still just barely understanding the power and authority available to him and to all of us through the power of the priesthood. My friends, when we understand the privileges that are promised us, we truly will begin to see miracles in our lives.

I believe in the miracles of the scriptures, and I believe that they are very much possible in our day as well, as I have seen and witnessed them and can bear testimony of them. May we all help our young men and women; may we all help our youth to truly realize the privileges of having the power and authority of the priesthood on the earth today. That's all for today, my friends.

Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.