Do you remember the first time you knew that you were a child of God?
This is all about how the Father and the Son are separate but united beings.
Many years ago I took the opportunity to study the final testimonies of the prophets in each dispensation. Each bore a powerful witness of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
This sounds like the approach I have enjoyed taking at times of choosing some specific condition or circumstance and looking for commonalities among different instances. I think I’ve even done final witnesses of prophets.
As I have read these testimonies—and many others like them over the years—it has always touched my heart to sense how deeply Heavenly Father loves His eldest Son and how Jesus shows His love by His obedience to His Father’s will. I testify that when we do what is necessary to know Them and know Their love for one another, we will obtain “the greatest of all the gifts of God”—even eternal life. For “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
“Life eternal” is the kind of life God has and we are told that if we come to know Him and His Only Begotten Son we will have the kind of life They have.
How did I know this? you might ask. The scriptures teach, “To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and … to others it is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful.” From my perspective, this does not mean that some people will forever be dependent upon the testimonies of others.
My own testimony grew as I learned about Heavenly Father and the Savior from the teachings and testimony of my parents, teachers, the scriptures—which I read diligently—and especially the Holy Ghost. As I exercised faith and obeyed the commandments, the Holy Ghost testified that what I was learning was true. This is how I came to know for myself.
Before my eighth birthday, I sought to know more about baptism. I read the scriptures and prayed. I learned that I would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost when I was confirmed. I also began to understand that God and Christ are literally a Father and a Son—separate, distinct, individual beings who are wholly unified in Their purpose. “We love [Them], because [They] first loved us.” And over and over again I observed how They love one another and work together for our good.
The pattern of studying in preparation for coming covenant steps is a good one to follow.
When He came to the people on the American continent, His Father introduced Him, saying, “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name.” When Jesus descended among the people at the temple, He introduced Himself, saying: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ. … I have … glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world.” When He taught His doctrine, He explained:
“It is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me.”
“Verily … the Father and I are one.”
I’d never noticed the connection before that The Father bore record of Christ as He descended to the Nephites. Christ then immediately bore record of His Father in introducing Himself and confirming the words that the people had just heard from heaven.
Jesus is a God, yet He continually distinguishes Himself as a separate, individual being by praying to His Father and by saying that He is doing His Father’s will. During His ministry among the Nephites, He pled, “Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world, … that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them.”
You too can seek our Heavenly Father and “this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have [testified]” in the scriptures and in this general conference. As you seek a personal witness—your personal revelation—you will discover that Heavenly Father has provided a special way for you to know the truth for yourself: through the third member of the Godhead, a personage of spirit we know as the Holy Ghost.
“And when ye shall receive these things”—including what I have shared today—“I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
“And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know [with a surety] the truth of all things.”
Brothers and sisters, I testify that our Heavenly Father wants us to seek this knowledge now. The words of the prophet Helaman cry from the dust: “Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation … , a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” Indeed, we will not fail.
That sure foundation is Jesus Christ. He is “the Rock of Heaven.” When we build our house upon Him, the rains of the latter days may descend, the floods may come, and the winds may blow, but we will not fall. We will not fail, for our home and our family will be founded upon Christ.
I bear my special witness that our Savior is Jesus Christ, that He lives, that our Eternal Heavenly Father loves us and watches over us, that we have a prophet in this dispensation—even President Thomas S. Monson—to lead and to guide us. The Holy Spirit testifies that this is true to each who goes and seeks the knowledge. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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