AGENCY

 This post isn't finished it has been sitting in my draft for a few weeks, but I decided to publish it anyway...

I've been studying agency for a while now, maybe I can put part of what I've learned into words finally, we'll see...

I think we all understand that agency is one of the greatest gifts God has given us and that it is what the War in Heaven was all about.

Elder Bednar says that we don't understand agency he explains that we first need to understand gospeel truths and act in accordance to that understanding.

This is what he said.

1. willingness to take upon us the name of Christ 

2. always remember Him 

3. keep the commandments

https://youtu.be/nmzp4o-DHsQ?si=8tEub_pII5w7RRd2

It's not about doing whatever you want whenever you want. 

Moses 7:33

And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, AND THAT THEY SHOULD CHOOSE ME, THEIR FATHER; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;

Helaman 13:27 

But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and DO WHATSOEVER YOUR HEART DESIRETH-and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.

Where did we get agency? 

Moses 7:32

The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the WORKMANSHIP of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day that I created them; and in the GARDEN OF EDEN, GAVE I UNTO MAN HIS AGENCY;

Moses 3:17

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, FOR IT (AGENCY) IS GIVEN UNTO THEE; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God gave us our agency. That means he gave up his power and control over us. When we think of all the things that are the WORKMANSHIP of His hands and the power that He has over the wind, the waves, the mountains and the trees. They ALL obey His voice, His word. The world was created by His word, by His voice. He regularly shows us the magnitute of HIS POWER. 

Helaman 12

6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide. 

7 O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. 

8 For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God. 

9 Yea, behold at his voice do the hills and the mountains tremble and quake. 

10 And by the power of his voice they are broken up, and become smooth, yea, even like unto a valley. 

11 Yea, by the power of his voice doth the whole earth shake; 

12 Yea, by the power of his voice, do the foundations rock, even to the very center. 

13 Yea, and if he say unto the earth—Move—it is moved. 

14 Yea, if he say unto the earth—Thou shalt go back, that it lengthen out the day for many hours—it is done; 

15 And thus, according to his word the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun. 

16 And behold, also, if he say unto the waters of the great deep—Be thou dried up—it is done. 

17 Behold, if he say unto this mountain—Be thou raised up, and come over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up—behold it is done.

He commands everything, and everything obeys...

except us.

Think about that. Everything obeys God. Everything, because of His power. He gave up that power over us so that we can have the gift of AGENCY, with that agency He wants us to choose Him. He says we are less than the dust of the earth because the dust listens and obeys His word. ALWAYS!