As of this week’s Come, Follow Me study, there are 208 dedicated temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (including those in operation and those closed for renovation). Each was dedicated, and some re-dedicated, with a prayer after the pattern recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 109. In this week’s sections, we can read the Lord’s inspired words over the first constructed temple of this dispensation, as well as the visions and miracles that took place in that holy house.
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Segment 1
Scriptures:
D&C 109:22 (Go forth with power)
Words of the General Authorities:
We are instructed that all who worship in the temple will have the power of God and angels having “charge over them.” How much does it increase your confidence to know that, as an endowed woman or man armed with the power of God, you do not have to face life alone? What courage does it give you to know that angels really will help you? (Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys”, April 2024 General Conference)
Segment 2
Scriptures:
D&C 109 section heading (Dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple)
Quotes:
In ancient days there lived a man,
Amidst a pleasant garden,
Where lovely flowers immortal bloom’d,
And shed around a rich perfume;
Behold, his name was Adam. (Elizabeth Ann Whitney, “Adam-ondi-Ahman”, Patriarchal Blessing Meeting in the Kirtland Temple, also recorded in At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women)
[When] the Temple was finished and dedicated … they were two of the happiest days of my life. The fitting hymn that was composed for the occasion was ‘The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning.’ It was verily true that the Heavenly Influence rested down upon that house. … I felt that it was heaven on earth. (Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy, “Women of Faith in the Latter Days”, also recorded in Voices of the Restoration: Spiritual Manifestations and the Kirtland Temple)
Feasts were given, three families joined together and held one at our house. We baked a lot of bread and had the best of wine. (Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy, recorded in Witness of Women: Firsthand Experiences and Testimonies of the Restoration, p. 185)
Father Joseph Smith [Sr.]...made a practice of going into the Temple before sunrise, and continuing there till after 4. o-clock in the afternoon, and we never thought of being hungry or thirsty we were so full of the spirit of the Lord. (Eliza R. Snow, Marriott Ward Relief Society Minutes, delivered on May 16, 1878)
It was during one of our monthly fast meetings when the saints were in the temple worshiping. A little girl came to my door and in wonder, called me out exclaiming. The meeting is in the top of the meetinghouse. I went to the door and there I saw on the temple, angels clothed in white, covering the roof from end to end. They seemed to be walking to and fro. They appeared and disappeared before I realized they were not mortal men…
The whole congregation was on their knees praying vocally for such was the custom at the close of these meetings when Father Smith presided, yet there was no confusion. The voices of the congregation mingled softly together. While the congregation was thus praying, we heard from one corner of the room above our heads, a choir of angels singing most beautifully. They were invisible to us, but myriads of angelic voices seemed to be united in seeing some Song of Zion and their sweet harmony filled the temple of God. (Presendia Huntington Buell Kimball, recorded in Witness of Women: Firsthand Experiences and Testimonies of the Restoration, p. 97)
Segment 3
Scriptures:
D&C 109:8 (House of God)
D&C 109:5,49 (Tribulation of the people)
D&C 109:13-15 (Cross the threshold of God’s power)
D&C 95:4 (God’s strange act)
D&C 109:7-8,14-16 (Seek learning/house of God repetition)
D&C 109:32 (Delivered from the yoke)
Abraham 1:2 (Greater peace and rest)
Translations:
Strange - nāḵrî (nokree) = Unknown, unfamiliar or foreign (Hebrew)
Words of the General Authorities:
Joseph Smith’s dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple is a tutorial about how the temple spiritually empowers you and me to meet the challenges of life in these last days. I encourage you to study that prayer, recorded in Doctrine and Covenants section 109. That dedicatory prayer, which was received by revelation, teaches that the temple is “a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.”
This list of attributes is much more than a description of a temple. It is a promise about what will happen to those who serve and worship in the house of the Lord. They can expect to receive answers to prayer, personal revelation, greater faith, strength, comfort, increased knowledge, and increased power. (Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys”, April 2024 General Conference)
Study Helps:
A temple is literally a house of the Lord, a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead. A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness. (Temple, Bible Dictionary)
Segment 4
Scriptures:
D&C 110:9-10 (Many can rejoice in blessings)
D&C 109:22-23 (Go forth with God’s power)
D&C 109:25-26 (Blessings of protection)
D&C 109:44 (Thy will be done)
D&C 109:76-78 (The final petition to the Lord)
Segment 5
Scriptures:
D&C 110:1-5 (Visions at the Kirtland Temple)
D&C 109:12,22,76-77 (God’s glory upon us)
D&C 110:6-7 (Their sacrifice was accepted)
1 Nephi 14:1 (Manifesting in the word and power)
Words of the General Authorities:
Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing! (Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys”, April 2024 General Conference)
Segment 6
Scriptures:
D&C 27:12-13 (Peter, James, and John restore the Melchizedek Priesthood)
D&C 110:16 (Keys of this dispensation)
D&C 110:11-13 (Moses, Elias, and Elijah)
D&C 110:15 (Turn the hearts of the fathers)
CR: 3 Nephi 25:5-6
CR: Malachi 4:5-6
CR: Luke 1:17
Words of the General Authorities:
Ultimately, all keys of the priesthood are held by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose priesthood it is. He is the one who determines what keys are delegated to mortals and how those keys will be used. We are accustomed to thinking that all keys of the priesthood were conferred on Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple, but the scripture states that all that was conferred there were “the keys of this dispensation.” (Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood”, April 2014 General Conference)
When we speak of the gathering, we are simply saying this fundamental truth: every one of our Heavenly Father’s children, on both sides of the veil, deserves to hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They decide for themselves if they want to know more. (Russell M. Nelson, “Hope of Israel”, Worldwide Youth Devotional, June 3, 2018)
Sealing keys, restored by the Old Testament prophet Elijah, enable ordinances to take place in holy temples. Ordinances performed in these temples enable individuals and families to return to the presence of our heavenly parents. (Gary E. Stevenson, “Where Are the Keys and Authority of the Priesthood?”, April 2016 General Conference)
View transcript here.