Conference Talk of the Week

Overview

Elder Bednar teaches that ordinances and covenants are like a passport for the journey back to Heavenly Father. He starts with a man who held a valid passport but was turned away at the border because the passport had been damaged and taped together. Receiving ordinances gives you the opportunity to return, and keeping covenants over time keeps that opportunity in force. The Holy Spirit of Promise is the authorized stamp. He confirms ordinances and covenants as acceptable to God, and that confirmation usually comes gradually as you repent, honor your covenants, and yield your heart to God. Elder Bednar then applies this to temple sealings. The sealing joins husband and wife to each other, which he calls the lateral part, and joins them to God's eternal family, which he calls the vertical part. When one spouse breaks covenants, a faithful spouse still remains worthy of the vertical sealing and of every promised blessing, because another person's choices cannot take away what God has promised a covenant keeper.

Three Key Takeaways

• 1In his passport story, holding a valid passport gave the man the chance to enter the country but did not guarantee he would get in. In the same way, receiving ordinances is essential, and ongoing faithfulness is what keeps those spiritual credentials valid.
• 2The Holy Spirit of Promise ratifies, or confirms, ordinances and covenants as acceptable to God. The Lord taught that covenants not sealed by Him have no force after the resurrection (D&C 132:7). This sealing is conditional during mortality and usually comes over time, not all at once.
• 3Elder Bednar clarifies that the passport analogy has limits. Adversity and affliction that come through no fault of your own do not reduce God's promises to you or cancel your covenants.

Reflection Questions

• President Packer said receiving ordinances is 'the quest of a lifetime' and keeping them is 'the challenge of mortality.' Which of the two takes more of your effort right now, and why?
• Elder Bednar says the ratifying seal of the Holy Spirit of Promise comes 'in process of time' as you repent, honor covenants, and yield your heart to God. Which of those three is the Lord inviting you to work on most this season?
• Is a hardship in your life, or someone else's choices, making you wonder whether God's promises to you are still sure? How do Elder Bednar's teaching on the limits of the passport analogy and his answer to the faithful spouse speak to your situation?