A House, My House

I love the verse in D&C 88:119 "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God". I would usually start at the first and rush to the 'a house of order' part, which basically says 'I should have a house that is organized and in order, and the spiritual things like faith, prayer and fasting'. I've come to recognize recently my error with this scripture. I believe it is in order for a purpose. Spiritually I should be organized (seeking to be in balance and working on the basics of life), and once I've done this I am ready to build my spiritual house as the Lord would have it. (Or as I've now come to understand, the Lord helps build by spiritual house-not just me)

First-Pray. Pray always. (2 Nephi 32:9, D&C 10:5) Once you learn that when you have a prayer in your heart always, it helps direct you to do the Lord's will. That you will continue to communicate with Him and to do as Alma directs "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings and he will direct thee for good." (Alma 37:37)

Second-Fasting. Once you have a prayer in your heart always-the Spirit of the Lord is with you, as promised in the sacrament prayers and you will realize as the sons of Mosiah did that some things don't happen by prayer alone. Alma 17:3 tells us that "they had given themselves to much prayer and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy and the spirit of revelation and when the taught, they taught with power and authority of God". How blessed our lives would be if we followed this example. The Savior also taught in Matthew 17:21 when asked why his disciples couldn't cast out a devil from a child and he said "howbeit this kind goeth not out buy by prayer and fasting". There are just some things in our life that can't be acocmplished without fasting in addition to prayer.

Third-faith. Now faith is present in the beginning otherwise prayer and fasting wouldn't take place, but the refining fire of faith I believe is spoken of here. Our faith is as a seed and will grow when there is opposition to it. When we are pushed to our limits we decide what our faith will do. Will it grow up toward the sky where God is? or will it fight against itself and stay in the ground where it rots because it receives no light, only darkness and dampness. We must have treasures in our houses and the treasure of faith is as gold and the trial of our faith more precious than gold. (1 Peter 1:7)

Fourth-Learning. I believe I'm at this stage now. The Lord is showing me his truths and I am truely learning about the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. They are not what the world offers, but are truth and a light in the darkness. These truths are open to all if they but seek, for they shall find, knock and they will be opened unto you.

As you can see I haven't even made it to the order part of the house. The spiritual house that the Lord is helping me to build will be like unto His house here on earth. A place where His spirit can dwell because I will have put all things in order in the end I will be able to abide with God, even as He and Christ abide in each other (John 15:4).

Now, on to the second discovery of the house. I didn't really notice before -lightbulb moment again - how we are likened unto a house. The wise man builds his on rock, the foolish on the sand and we know how that song goes. Then we learn about the house when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man and returns bringing 7 more wicked spirits to occupy that house. Be careful to not repeat a sin you've repented of as all the former sins return. And so on, the scriptures go to help us to liken ourselves unto a house. The previous scripture in D&C 88:119 talks about the house we should have and then if you think about how are bodies are like temples...is it clicking yet? I won't venture down that road as I'm still talking about houses. In John 14:2 it reads, "In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you." Again, being able to abide with God and Christ, our house will be a part of His house. Before I get tangled up in not conveying this thought properly, I would like to say that we are here on earth to become like Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ gave us the example on earth of how we should live our lives in order to become and return to Heavenly Father. In viewing God's house-temples-the scriptures do a wonderful job of helping us to further understand this concept of becoming like Heavenly Father when we see the pattern of the temple. When we turn ourselves to the temple as the people of Mosiah did (Mosiah 2:6), then we will be able to rid ourselves of sin, and organize ourselves to become that house of God.