My "one thing"

Nephi counseled to inquire of the Lord (1 Nephi 15:8) and to feast on the words of Christ, delivered by the Holy Ghost. For "the words of Christ," he said, "will tell you all things what ye should do" (2 Nephi 32:3).

Just in case we didn't get it the first (or second...or hundredth) time, he repeated himself:

5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.
6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh.

So the Holy Ghost both tells us and shows us all things what we should do.

What?! Isn't that "the Church's" job? Don't we need apostles and prophets, high priests and pastors to "show and tell" us what to do? Don't we pay tithing to employ full-time ministers to travel the globe to enlist hundreds of thousands of volunteers, hiring business managers and public relations consultants and marketers and lawyers and thousands of full-time employees and spend billions of dollars each year erecting and maintaining chapels and other facilities, printing handbooks and pamphlets, manuals and magazines, broadcasting weekly sermons and producing videos and holding semi-annual conferences so we can be shown and told what to do? Is receiving the Holy Ghost even necessary? Can't we just "hitch our wagon" to "the Church" and be led by The Brethren to the Promised Land? I mean, the Church is the wedding party, right? We're the ones waiting for the Bridegroom, aren't we? "We're all in this together" right? What's mine is yours and yours is mine. If I've got no oil, I can see by your lamp, can't I?

Nephi called his words "the doctrine of Christ".

He said there would be no more doctrine revealed until after Jesus shall manifest Himself unto us in the flesh. I take that statement to be the promise of a personal visit to each of us by Jesus. But my stake president and bishop say that expectation is "false doctrine", that only those guys -- "prophets" and "apostles" and the like, not us -- get to see Him. They get to learn from Him directly, while the rest of us must learn to "submit to priesthood authority" and subsist on borrowed light (for now).

I'm not so sure about that. That doesn't "jive" with what I've been "seeing" and "hearing".

Denver Snuffer said (if I remember correctly) we should learn from God the "one thing" that we're supposed to "work on" and do that (until it's done or until God directs us to do something else). That makes sense to me.

Many, many years ago (I'm embarrassed to confess) God showed me, in a dream, a "priesthood holder" getting mad at his son. The boy had broken his own foot, goofing around. After yelling at his boy for breaking his foot, this "priesthood holder" proceeded to place his hands on the boy to give him a "blessing". He sought to heal him! The "priesthood holder" bowed his head, closed his eyes, and began to pray. 

I interrupted him. 

"You could pray all day over that boy's foot and never heal him," I said, almost casually.

The man was startled from his prayer. He looked up and lashed out at me in anger: "How dare you..."

"No! How dare you!!" I shouted. He was practically vaporized by the blast of words from my mouth. I told him that he was not righteous; that he was not worthy to bless his son; that he was arrogant and proud and angry; he didn't have power to bless because he didn't do what he sought to do with love. "Amen" to the priesthood or authority of that man, and all that.

I didn't understand that dream at the time. (I know. I'm a slow learner.) I'm still "working" on that dream. I see now that I am both the father -- who arrogantly chastens, but nonetheless seeks to "bless" -- and the son -- who foolishly hurts himself and needs to be healed.

D&C 121:41-42 meant almost nothing to me on my mission. Didn't we have the "power"? Wasn't the "priesthood" conferred upon us? Hadn't we been "ordained"? I didn't understand then that the powers of heaven are handled or controlled -- not merely by receiving and performing ordinances or obeying and following "rules" -- but only by being persuasive, long-suffering, gentle, meek, and truly loving, kind and compassionate. These are the "principles of righteousness" upon which the powers of heaven are exercised. Christ's bowels were moved with compassion before the heavens were opened and the dead were raised.

"Jesus wept." (John 11:35). It's the shortest verse in the Bible. You'd think it'd be the easiest to learn.