As we
work to reclaim our wayward children, we are not alone. Often angels are
dispatched to help us. These angels include our ancestors, whose love and
concern for the child equals ours.
Redemption
is the work of celestial people; thus it is the work of
angels, as Heavenly Father employs them. We receive continual support in our
quest to rescue our wayward children. As both Hezekiah and Elisha testified,
there are many more who stand to help us than the powers that oppose our
children and us.[i]
Joseph
Smith taught, “The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more
glorious work; hence they are blessed in their departure to the world of
spirits. Enveloped in flaming fire, they are not far from us, and know and
understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained
therewith.”[ii]
Angels
are agents of the Holy Ghost and speak and act by his power.[iii] That
the keys of the ministering of angels[iv] have
been restored should fill us with hope and faith. By virtue of the powers
attendant to the Aaronic Priesthood, parents have the right to ask for angelic
help in behalf of their children.
Angelic Ancestors
We all
know that sometimes angels are those who now live on this earth, but often,
angelic help comes in the form of our ancestors, they who perhaps understand
better than we the power of the “welding link”[v] that
binds us together through temple ordinances. They enjoy a clearer view of the
importance of the children’s and their fathers’ hearts being turned to each
other, and the sealing that must be set in place and not allowed to be broken
lest “the earth will be smitten with a curse.”[vi] The
Prophet Joseph revealed,
And
now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are
principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed
over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and
essential to our salvation, as Paul said concerning the fathers — that they
without us cannot be made perfect — neither can we without our dead be made
perfect.[vii]
Heaven
and earth are partners in the cosmic work of salvation. Neither can we be made
perfect without our fathers (we need their help) nor can they be made perfect
without us (we provide them the saving ordinances). When we bless them with
saving ordinances, they are suddenly endowed with power to help save our/their
children. Elder Boyd K. Packer wrote, “Brother Widtsoe reaffirmed that ‘those
who give themselves with all their might and main to this work [genealogical
and temple work] receive help from the other side. Whoever seeks to help those
on the other side receives help in return in all the affairs of life.’”[viii]
In this
mutual redemptive effort, the hearts of the children and their fathers
are turned to each other, or welded together, and the
“promises made to the fathers” are planted “in the hearts of the children.”[ix] What
promises? The promises of the Abrahamic covenant, which include the promise of
salvation and eventual godhood. That is, as the fathers have covenanted to save
us, their children, so we have covenanted to save them.
Angels are not Strangers
Our
deceased ancestors, therefore, become ministering servants — angels of God —
and their redemptive work continues. President Joseph F. Smith said, “When
messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not
strangers, but from the ranks of our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and
fellow-servants.”[x] Additionally, in
his vision of the spirit world, he declared, “I beheld that the faithful elders
[including sisters] of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life,
continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption,
through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in
darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the
dead.”[xi]
Of the
reality of ministering ancestral angels, a mother from Utah wrote,
One of
my most precious experiences occurred when my wayward son had visited me and
left me in tears once again. This child is like trying to hug a porcupine! He
believes he is doing himself and everyone else a favor when he tells things
“the way they are.”
That
evening, I had been alone at home. Everyone in my support system was
unavailable: my husband was away serving in a Church calling, my youngest son
was at work, and my parents were out of town. I was completely defenseless when
my son began to hurl unkind accusations and angry words.
I
remember the searing pain and agony I felt in the wake of his tirade. When he
stomped out the door, I sank to the floor and sobbed. I felt myself spiraling
into despair and loneliness. I thought that I had nowhere to run and nobody to
turn to. As I wept uncontrollably, I realized that I wasn’t alone; all I needed
to do was talk to my Heavenly Father and ask for comfort.
What
occurred then was unexpectedly beautiful and priceless. As I poured out my
agony and begged not to be alone, I asked for someone to come be with me and
help me through this horrible time. Soon, I began to feel a warmth creep across
my body. Immediately to my right, I sensed the presence of a grandfather to
whom I had been particularly close in my youth. Then, to my left, I sensed the
presence of my husband’s grandmother, whom I had met only twice in our early
marriage. She was sympathetic to my plight; she had lived her life without
seeing any of her sons active in the Church. As these two family members stayed
with me, I felt surrounded by love, peace, and the knowledge that families are
connected in this life and the next.
My
husband and I have had many experiences with ancestors helping us, but this
experience was especially sweet because it came to me in such a difficult
moment. It was a vivid reminder that we are never alone. When we need help we
will be ministered to by spirits who love us, know us, and want to help us
succeed.
Angelic Ministration is Central to the Restored Gospel
To
discount the reality of the ministering of angels is to deny one of the
supernal blessings of the restored gospel. As Moroni was closing the Book of
Mormon, he exhorted us to believe in miracles and in the ministering of angels:
“Wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it
is because of unbelief, and all is vain.”[xii]
At the
April 2006 General Conference, President James E. Faust, quoting Joseph F.
Smith, confirmed,
In
ancient and modern times angels have appeared and given instruction, warnings,
and direction, which benefited the people they visited. We do not consciously realize
the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives. President Joseph F.
Smith said, “In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters
and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and
worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to
visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the
divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to
those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.
“Many
of us feel that we have had this experience. Their ministry has been and is an
important part of the gospel.[xiii]
Assembling the Powers of Earth and Heaven
We must
not despair. In working with our wayward children, God will assemble all the
powers of heaven and earth to achieve His glorious work. Whether our children
have strayed from the path of truth, become lost by following a forbidden path,
or consciously rebelled and run away to a far county, their Heavenly Father can
find and rescue them. Even when they are so broken that they are no longer
recognizable, He will patiently put them back together until they can bring
forth good fruit.
No
matter their choices and situations, God loves them and is constantly working
to save and redeem them. And so are their family and friends that have gone
before. We are never alone in the work of redemption.
Notes
[i] See 2 Chronicles 32:7–8.
[ii] Alma P. Burton,
ed., Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 128.
[iii] See 2 Nephi 32:3.
[iv] See D&C 13:1.
[v] D&C 128:18.
[vi] D&C 128:18.
[vii] D&C 128:15.
[viii] John A. Widstoe,
quoted in Boyd K. Packer’s The Holy Temple, 252.
[ix] D&C 2:2.
[x] Joseph F.
Smith, Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of
Joseph F. Smith, 435.
[xi] D&C 138:57.
[xii] Moroni 7:37.
[xiii] James E. Faust, “A
Royal Priesthood,” Ensign, May 2006, 50, emphasis added.
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