Chapter 48

The Love of God

The yearnings of Christ in his prayers to the Father were more than just faith—Love of God is
greater than faith in God—The Lord draws close to Mark, desiring to share much more with him than the
vision of the new temples.

What an amazing day it had been! It was a Pioneer Day that Mark would always
remember. But the Lord wasn’t quite through with him just yet. Granting Mark a vision of the
new celestial room might have seemed enough already for one day, but the Lord was anxious to
reveal more. Fresh in His mind were the experiences of yesterday––the wonderful time spent
with Enoch and the people of that marvelous city while it still existed on earth. He saw an
opportunity to share similar experiences with Mark and the people of the Springville East Stake
if their faith was sufficient. He desired to walk with Mark and to show him the hidden things, the
great and wondrous things, all the exciting things of the celestial kingdom. As with the prophets
and apostles of old, and as with the prophets and apostles of today, he might build a closer
relationship with Mark (a simple stake leader) and show forth immense love to him.

Love! What is it?

Do we know anything at all about the love that God, the Eternal Father, has for each one
of us?

Jesus Christ had powerful yearnings in His prayers to the Father during His earthly
ministry. Surely, we would not dare to describe such feelings as mere faith; like Ammon, our
souls might flee at the thought. No, the example of Jesus was to pray to God consumed with
love; and we can only imagine the great love the Father had for His beloved Son when He
received those beautiful prayers. These were the most sacred words ever spoken on earth and
only traces of them are we able to find in the scriptures.

What we lack in our personal prayers most often is love––love of God and yearnings as
children, like those of Jesus Christ, for our Father in Heaven. We often forget that we are exactly
that, children, in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. So, why are we often puffed up in pride and
not more like children in the feelings we have for God? Pride gets in the way when we pray; we
are too smart, too sophisticated, or too busy with other things to love God. We should be as little
lambs.

Love of God is greater than faith in God. Faith is a component of love, not the other way
around.

Love of God is a gift of the Spirit.

Faith in God is called. Love of God is chosen.

Correct beliefs and good works (the two things added together being faith in Christ)
without love are dead, being alone.

If we have faith in God only, then our obedience to gospel principles is like living in a
black and white world—we lack the beautiful spectrum of colors in our soul that comes from
being filled with the pure love of Christ.

Faith in God is the power by which we as a Church build meetinghouses and temples.
Love of God is the power by which we fill them up with happy and motivated people... and keep
them filled.

Faith in God is the power by which wards and stakes are established. Love of God is the
power by which Zion is established.

Love is the food we use to feed the Lord’s sheep.

Love is the power of the priesthood (JRE Link, 2017-0129 (Sun), COM-STR2).

Love is the power by which the Atonement of Christ was brought to pass for all mankind.

If we love God with all of our hearts, minds, and strength, it will be well with us at the
last day, even if we don’t know the truth of all things. Yet being filled with the love of God helps
us to gain knowledge of all earthly and heavenly things as well.

The love of God can fill us to overflowing, sanctifying us first as individuals, then our
families, and then our wards and stakes.

The love of God is chief among the areas we can research in exhaustive personal study to
find the passion and desire necessary for building Zion.

With these comments made, we are now prepared to describe the outpouring of love to
Mark by the Spirit of God at the conclusion of this important holiday.

After watching and listening a couple times (two, three, or four times, he didn't really
count) to God So Loved the World performed by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square on DVR
(performance of Feb 12th, 2012, Carl J. Nygard, Jr. composer, softer and slower), and after
completing his nightly prayers with Kathleen, Mark lay down in his bed for the night. But he was
too excited to sleep. There was so much to think about... so much to enjoy thinking about.

The inside of the celestial room had been spectacular; his mind focused on that first while
he rested. Then he thought again about the other parts of the vision. This continued off and on for
almost an hour, then his eyes became weary and he was about to fall asleep.

Suddenly his mind was jarred—a quick burst of energy, almost like electricity in a sense.
Calmly, the Spirit spoke to him these words:

“Kathleen will be yours for eternity.”

Mark’s heart jumped.

“Huh? What was that?”

It took a few moments for the words to sink in. The implications were mind-boggling.

“Jeez,” replied Mark to the Spirit, as if in regular conversation, “there are so many areas
where I need to improve in life still. I wonder what exactly was meant by this.

“I’m sure the intent of these words, like always, is conditional on us being obedient to the
commandments and enduring to the end. Kathleen and I shouldn’t read anything more than that
into it. The promises of temple covenants are always there for us if we're faithful. That’s
probably all that was meant.”

Mark was now wide-awake.

“But jeez! What did the Spirit mean in saying this to me now?

“Well, whatever the meaning was, it’s a pretty good thing. Amazing...."

Humbled, Mark added this new thought to the wonderful collection of thoughts that he
had previously been enjoying. The Spirit had interacted with him and had dramatically increased
his happiness in life with the utterance of a few words.

Several minutes passed. Mark’s mind returned again to details of the vision.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted again.

“I AM,” said the Spirit.

This, having come so soon after the others, seemed to reaffirm the previous words and, at
the same time, reminded him of the many exchanges with the Spirit that he had enjoyed in the
past, including the time he had been greatly worried about being laid off at the plant.

Once again, the Spirit had come upon his mind quickly, said something to him, and then
departed.

Less surprised this time, Mark replied (quietly, within his heart and mind only) almost
instantly to the Spirit when he heard the words spoken.

“Yes! It’s all real! The things of God, the things of the Spirit, they're all real, aren’t they?

“Surely, we are all fools! Because of pride, we never see things the way they truly are in
this world!”

Not long after, while Mark was still thinking about the prior statement, the Spirit spoke
again.

“You are saved.”

Before Mark’s mind could react to this new thought, however, the Spirit continued:

“Keep the commandments.”

Mark smiled within his soul. A conversation with God was occurring minute by minute
through the Spirit. The conversation itself was amazing; the implications of the words spoken
were even more amazing.

He continued to listen for the voice of the Spirit as he lay in bed. He responded back each
time to everything spoken by the Spirit, trying to show forth love to God the best way he knew
how. He was learning to speak with love in his thoughts and love in his prayers—these two
activities of his, thoughts and prayers, often being much the same thing as he lay awake off and
on all night long. He expressed gratitude for all of the wonderful things that he had been given in
life—a very good thing to do. But the act of expressing love to God like this was still a learning
process, even for a sixty-four-year-old stake president. He could only imagine the manner in
which Christ prayed to the Father. Words of love expressed by that perfect being to God go
beyond the understanding of man.

The Spirit came again several more times during the night, speaking words or phrases to
Mark––sometimes when he was awake, sometimes when he was drifting off to sleep, and
sometimes when he was awakened from his sleep. And even when he was asleep, his mind was
filled with the images, parables, and stories of dreams, such that there was a constant flow of
insight, ideas, love, excitement, things easy to understand, things hard to understand, reminders
of the past, concerns for the moment, warnings for the future, and other such things that kept him
occupied all night long.

Although tired from a lack of sleep the next morning, Mark gave Kathleen a warm
embrace first thing when she awoke and quickly related to her everything that had happened.

Thus we can see that the love of God is contagious, something particularly easy to share
with one’s eternal partner. Mark and Kathleen shared everything in life and would share
everything in the eternities.