I Believe I Can, I Knew I Could - Part One

Good Morning, or Good Afternoon, or Good Evening, this post focuses on highlights from a past General Conference in October 2002 and it's called "I Believe I Can, I Knew I Could" by President James E. Faust. This post is part one. This post should take five minutes to read from start to finish. 

President Faust has mentioned the following; 

"President Gordon B. Hinckley has accomplished an insurmountable group of tasks. Yet he was once a young Aaronic Priesthood holder like many of you. You young men of the Aaronic Priesthood are going to be the future leaders of the Church.

… You need to understand that success —both for yourself and the Church —will depend on your determination to accomplish the work of the Lord. Each of you will need to have faith and confidence to move forward.

… the holy priesthood of God. It is the power to act righteously in the name of the Lord to build up the kingdom of God on earth. I remind you “that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.” Priesthood is divine agency, and the Lord will hold us accountable for our use of this great authority.

At times all of us are called upon to stretch ourselves and do more than we think we can. … We develop our talents first by thinking we can. … We may wonder whether it was fair to take the talent from the one who had the least and to give it to the one who had the most. From the outset, however, the Lord explains that each man had ability.

"I Believe I Can, I Knew I Could"

Some of us are too content with what we may already be doing. We stand back in the “eat, drink, and be merry” mode when opportunities for growth and development abound. We miss opportunities to build up the kingdom of God because we have the passive notion that someone else will take care of it. 

The Lord tells us that He will give more to those who are willing.They will be magnified in their efforts, like the little blue engine as it pulled the train up the mountain. But to those who say, “We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.”

The Lord entrusts all of His servants, including every priesthood holder, with spiritual talents. The Lord, who endows us with these talents, tells us: “I believe you can. I believe you can.” While we are not all equal in experience, aptitude, and strength, we have different opportunities to employ these spiritual gifts, and we will all be accountable for the use of the gifts and opportunities given to us.

Church history includes incidents of priesthood holders of great capacity. A few were brilliant but also erratic and unreliable and so lost the spiritual gifts and talents with which the Lord had so richly endowed them. Those of us who now hold the priesthood responsibility of this Church must follow and sustain our prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. … we need to be on the right track and develop our talents. 

We must remember that the priesthood can only be used for righteous purposes. When used “in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.”

I would like to encourage you to look forward to the next post because it'll be about more highlights from this General Conference talk.  

Stay Tuned.