How many of you who attend the temple regularly understand that it is a “dress rehearsal” and a simulation–part of which is the lone and dreary wilderness you now occupy in real life–where you are supposed to seek the Lord’s face? Sure, you finally arrive at a curtain in the temple and are brought through by an old man dressed in white who represents the Lord and you think you’re set for eternity, but do you do this in REAL life? Do you seek His face? Do you keep the laws you covenant to obey in your life in view of parting a real veil like Enoch or Nephi or Moses or the brother of Jared did? Do you strive to live the law of consecration in your life as a Zion individual would? What does that look like in your life?

Joseph Smith once said you might as well baptize a bag of sand if not done in view of getting the Holy Ghost and Jesus once said that unless one is born of water AND the Spirit, one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5). Where one ordinance points you to the Comforter which you must “receive,” so does the other ordinance which points you to the Other Comforter which you must also “receive” (John 14, Matthew 25, etc) Partaking of these heavenly gifts are not passive receptions like being sprinkled with fairy dust that allows you to ascend the sky but rather proactive engagements to “take hold” of said gifts. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the endowment ceremony is teaching you to ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7:7-8) with the intent to experience a theophany. The Earth may become dotted with a million temples with tens or hundreds of millions of members attending daily, while oblivious of their privilege and duty of obtaining their Second Comforter. I’ve written about this often over the years, but here are two examples worth considering: The New Covenant and The Strength to Endure

In a nutshell, though, and to summarize:

Ether 4:15 Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel.

May you have the the peace of a loving Father in heaven today.

D&C 105:3 But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them;
4 And are not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom;
5 And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.
6 And my people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer.

Are you sinless? Are you perfect and blameless (Greek “teleios”/Hebrew “tam”), walking uprightly before God? We are still being chastened because until we can abide a terrestrial sphere which is governed by the principles of the laws of the celestial kingdom (think Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts), we will not be able to build Zion, much less dwell there.

Only Zion people can and will build a Zion city. But scattered throughout are believers of all faiths who are even now learning by sad experience what it truly means to be one heart, one mind and have no poor among them. If you want Zion, start right now in your own heart and in your own homes and in your own neighborhoods.

What are you doing to elevate those around you who cannot elevate themselves? What are you doing to ease the burdens and suffering of those less fortunate than you? Do you practice the law of consecration in your lives? Or are you waiting for some church leader to tell you how it should be done? Do you not have the Holy Ghost and your own connection to the Lord? Are you seeking His face? Do you pray incessantly without fainting? Do you spend hours on end on your knees? Why must so many wait until they are commanded in all things when they are agents unto themselves and can bring to pass much good of their own free will, being anxiously engaged in good causes?