Follow the Prophet with Purpose

Introduce Myself and the Topic

Good afternoon. I am pleased to be with you today. For those of you that don’t know me, my name is David Mitchell. I am here on assignment as a Stake High Councilor. Allow me to briefly introduce myself. I live in the Massaponax Ward with my wife, Rachael, and with 5 of our 6 children. I have 5 sons from the age of 23 to 9. And our daughter is 4. My wife and I grew up in northern Virginia and met in middle school. Since being married, we have lived in West Virginia and Alabama, and 10 years ago moved back to Virginia and have lived in the Massaponax Ward since.

The assigned topic today was left to me, so you will today hear some of the things I have studied and thought about the past couple of weeks. Some of the subjects I delved into personally include:

• The prophecies of Isaiah, especially his prophecies about the role of the Savior.
• I watched General Conference, and took special note of things President Nelson asked us to do.
• I pondered what rights, powers, and authority are bestowed when ordaining one to be and Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood. For answers, I re-read Sections 3, 8, and 18 of the General Handbook.
• I also revisited The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. I pondered what we can learn from Machiavelli about leadership, discipleship, agency, and how they are related.
• I also re-acquainted myself with the history behind one of Socrates most famous dicta and how it relates to Alma chapter 5, repentance, and becoming more Christlike.

My main focus in this talk will be from our prophet’s messages to us from last General Conference, but expect some of my other studies to find their way into my talk as well.

Invitations from a Prophet

I have recently started to pay more attention to the specific invitations our prophet gives us at General Conference. In this last Conference I found 5 very direct invitations. It is possible I missed some others. He also gave us several indirect invitations by what he chose to declare, affirm, and to teach us. In addition, the Holy Spirit, makes personal invitations to us as we attentively listen.

The 5 direct invitations I found are:

1. Make notes during General Conference
2. Prayerfully ask the Lord to confirm that what we heard at General Conference is true
3. Take charge of your own testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel: work for it, nurture it, feed it truth
4. Become a righteous people that the Lord can return to at the 2nd Coming
5. Cherish and honor your covenants above all other commitments

In addition to what he invites us to do, I have started taking note on how he invites us, and other phrases he uses to tell us how he feels about us. This last conference I took note of these words from President Nelson that made my ears perk up:

• Let me be perfectly clear
• I grieve
• Please
• I love you (at least twice)
• I weep over your heartaches, disappointment, and worries
• I pray for you
• I plead with you now
• My plea to you this morning
• I call upon you

We have a loving Heavenly Father who knows you, knows your struggles and pains, and wants you to succeed and be happy. He has chosen a prophet in President Nelson who shares those feelings and desires.

Take Charge of your Testimony

The specific invitation I want to focus on comes from the Sunday Morning session. President Nelson said,

“I plead with you now — to take charge of your own testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Work for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. Feed it truth. Don’t pollute it with false philosophies of unbelieving men and women. As you make the continual strengthening of your testimony of Jesus Christ your highest priority, watch for miracles to happen in your life.”

What is a testimony? For years my definition would have been something simple, like, a testimony is a statement of my beliefs. And a testimony of Jesus Christ is a belief that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that only through his Atonement and Resurrection can we return to live with our Heavenly Father.
But, I have come to realize that a true, living testimony is more than just belief. Just like faith, a true testimony drives us to act and changes our behavior. It is when a knowledge of Jesus Christ and his gospel moves from facts we know, sometimes things we know in great detail, and becomes real. We know it not just in our minds, but also in our hearts.

This final part is something we have to own for ourselves. The part President Nelson pleads with us to take charge of. Seminary, Institute, Sunday School classes, parents, peers, church leaders, and even our own personal scripture study can teach us truth. But the desire to truly believe in both mind and heart must come from within. The process of building an actual, real, personal relationship with the Savior must be initiated by you.

What Machiavelli Teaches About Motivation

When I think about what motivates us my thoughts turn to Machiavelli.

I think to understand The Prince, you have to know about him. Machiavelli served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic for over a decade, through 1512, while his political rivals, the aristocratic Medici were out of power. He was intimately familiar with diplomacy and military affairs. But he was also known for writing comedies, songs, and poetry.

In 1512, the Medici toppled the Florentine Republic, and Machiavelli wrote The Prince while in exile. We know Machiavelli stood against aristocracy and the idea of a prince ruling over us. Among the possibilities that The Prince was sincere advise, purposefully bad advice, or a satire, my personal conclusion is that he wrote The Prince as an exposé. He wasn’t telling the aristocracy how to rule, as much as he was exposing to the common people the evils and ridiculousness of aristocratic rule.

In this light, Machiavelli has incredible insight into the fallen nature of man, of the proper use of power, and on good and bad forms of leadership.

In one passage where he writes how leaders can inspire his subjects, he asks:

“From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting.”

Note that he does not answer which is better, only that which is safer. But, to flip this questions around, what motivates you to be obedient or to follow anyone? Doing what a teacher says, or a boss, or a parent, or a commanding officer, or your Branch President, or the Prophet may all have different motivations. Fear of a bad grade, fear of losing your job. But also perhaps an inner desire to learn and grow, or a sense of duty, or perhaps you obey because you respect somebody. There is also cultural norms and peer pressure. The list goes on and on. I have wondered though, if each can be categorized as either a form of fear or love.

But most important, what drives you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? To have faith, to repent, to make covenants, and to keep the commandments? As a follower and disciple of Christ, hopefully the answer is we do it out of love. I think other motivations can sometimes help us get going. But only love with be the lasting force to drive us forward in testimonies and in building a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The further quote Machiavelli:

“Returning to the question of being feared or loved, I conclude that since men love at their own will and fear at the will of the prince, a wise prince must build a foundation on what is his own, and not on what belongs to others.”

There are plenty of lessons about leadership and followership that can be gleaned from that quote. For me, the most profound truth I have discovered from pondering that statement is that we show we love Jesus Christ when we willingly use our agency to follow Him.

This echoes what Elder Neal A. Maxwell said in the October 1995 General Conference:

the submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we “give,” brothers and sisters, are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truly ours to give!

The Examined Life

And so I ask, what will motivate you to take charge of your testimony? Not just in obtaining one in the first place, but in nurturing and feeding your existing testimony. What will drive you to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ?

It is good to ask yourself, and to be excruciatingly honest in your answers to yourself, about where you stand with God. What motivated you to come to Church today? Which was a good choice. But also, what motivates you to make choices you know are wrong? An honest assessment identify areas where you are doing pretty good. A true self examination will also identify areas for improvement, no doubt. It can be uncomfortable and even painful to truly examine yourself. But, this is so important to do for at least a couple of reasons. First, President Nelson has encouraged us to find the joy in daily repentance. If we never examine ourselves thoughtfully, we will certainly miss many opportunities to become more Christlike. Second, knowing why you do things, and then acting with purpose, allows you to be one that acts, rather than one that is acted upon. Realizing our full potential as children of God requires we act with intent and purpose.

The dictum of Socrates I was thinking about is this:

The unexamined life is not worth living.

To appreciate the profoundness of this statement by Socrates requires knowing the background. In 399 BC, Socrates was put on trial for 2 capital crimes: impiety and the corruption of the youth of Athens.

The accusations came as a consequence of his asking political and philosophical questions of his students. Political rivals and the existing religious power structures were not comfortable with the questions or the ensuing logical conclusions. Socrates was found guilty and condemned to death, executed by drinking a poisonous beverage of hemlock.

His allies, including Plato, had arranged for Socrates to escape Athens and avoid the penalty. Socrates reply to that was “an unexamined life is not worth living.” And Socrates willingly subjected himself to the punishment. To him, being unable to ask questions, including of himself, was not freedom.

Alma the Younger seems to agree with the importance of asking self probing questions. When he preaches to the people of Zarahemla, he asks 36 questions to help them evaluate their spiritual progress. As a side note, using questions as a method of teaching is called the Socratic Method, named after Socrates. I encourage you to read Alma, chapter 5. Don’t read it as Alma asking an ancient people in another time and place. Read the chapter as if he is asking you those questions. He often asks the people if they remember different things. If you don’t remember, or never learned, the things Alma refers to, then go study those. Figure out why he is asking you to remember those things.

Conclusion

To conclude, I encourage you to revisit General Conference and find the invitations our Prophet made to us. He invited us to do things for a reason. He pled with us to take charge of our own testimonies. This invitation stuck out to me because in my role in the Church, I see this as a major issue. None of us can afford to live on borrowed light in the long run; we need to know and feel things for ourselves.

In working on our testimony and your relationship with Jesus Christ, ask yourself why. Do we keep commandments because we love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? Or do other things drive us? And then, continue to examine yourself. Find where you need to improve. Then act with purpose. Be the one that acts instead of is acted upon.

I share with you my testimony. I know Jesus Christ is our elder brother and he volunteered to be our Savior. I know he volunteered and fully submitted his will to the Father because he loves us. He loves each of you. I know we all need the Savior in this Fallen World. I know I need Jesus Christ to be my Savior. I know this is Jesus Christ’s church. I know he has put at the head of this church a prophet. I know that President Russell M. Nelson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today, and that we should listen to his counsel, and we should accept his invitations.

I say these things….

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