"Things As They Really Are" - David A. Bednar

In Jacob 2:3 Jacob says, "I this day am weighed down with much... desire and anxiety for the welfare of your souls." Brother Bednar then said, "The message I want to share with you today has over time distilled upon my soul 'as the dews from heaven' (D&C 121:45)." He then stated, “The spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls” (Jacob 4:13, D&C 93:24). From my perspective, Brother Bednar focused on the reality of how life really is and how the world can influence you. The topic I’m going to focus on from his talk is entitled, Our Divine Destiny. I would like to share some quotes from Brother Bednar’s talk that really stuck out to me and that I think are important.

He starts off by talking about how we, as God’s children “obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize our divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.” He said by receiving a physical body we advance closer to “our divine destiny. We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body.” Bednar also spoke about how the devil doesn’t have a body, which is his punishment. Bednar said, “All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. The devil has no power over us only as we permit him, the moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power… Lucifer labors to make the sons and daughters of God confused and unhappy and to hinder their eternal progression… One of the potent scriptural meanings of the word damned is illustrated in his inability to continue developing and becoming like our Heavenly Father.” Satan “invites and entices us to share in his misery through the improper use of our bodies.

 “Our spirit and our body are combined in such a way that our body becomes an instrument of our mind and the foundation of our character. Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognize and act in accordance with truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies. Just as water flowing in a riverbed is stopped by a dam, so the adversary’s eternal progress is thwarted because he (Satan) does not have a physical body.”

“Apostles and prophets consistently have taught the mortal and eternal importance of our bodies.” Our bodies are temples of God. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” – 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. In D&C 88:15, it says that “the spirit and the body are the soul of man.”  Bednar says, “When a body and spirit are inseparably connected, we can receive a fullness of joy.”