Lehi in Context Part 2

"Wherefore, it came to pass that my father Lehi, as he went forth, prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart in behalf of his people."

Lehi is praying. Not saying prayers. We might ask ourselves, how often do I actually pray? Or am I just saying prayers?

What is the difference between saying prayers and praying? Or in Lehi's case, praying "with all his heart"?

"and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw and heard he did quake and tremble exceedingly".

It may be an oversimplification when we say things like "You can know God is speaking to you when you experience feelings of love, joy, and peace". Certainly God can and does communicate comfort and consolation to our souls. But He can also communicate things that are dreadful to us, that would make us "quake and tremble". Just because a message or a spiritual impression is negative, doesn't mean it is not from God. Sometimes God has bad news for you. For example, you may believe you are pretty righteous, but in reality you're not. Consider how Christ interacted with the pharisees, calling them names (generation of vipers) and telling them that they were wicked people because they loved their culture/traditions more than God. It's possible that there were some rabbis of the day saying things like: "It's obvious that this Jesus character is from the devil, because he is not sharing a message of peace. I didn't have good feelings when he called us a ‘generation of vipers’ and said that we were ‘whited sepulchers full of bones’, so therefore I know he is of the devil".

Back to Lehi...

"he returned to his own house at Jerusalem, and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen"...

"he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God. And it came to pass that he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven, and he beheld that his luster was above that at noon­day. And he saw twelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament."

Consider how Christ's brightness is as the noon­day sun (celestial). The 12 followers posses a brightness of the stars (telestial).

Much could be discussed about this comparison. Most troubling to me is "Why are the 12 apostles 'only' as bright as the stars? And if they are only at the 'star level', then at what level am I? " I always remember being taught in Sunday School that the celestial kingdom was for the good people, the terrestrial was for the okay people, the telestial was for the bad people, and outer­-darkness was for the apostate mormons. Oversimplified perhaps, but for the most part, that was the drift.

In some of Joseph Smith’s sermons, he speaks of "attaining to the resurrection". It would seem that he taught that resurrection was a power to be attainted to by our faith in Christ, and is not a gift given to all by default, immediately. It becomes a discussion about time, and how long one would have to wait until they could develop sufficient faith/power to call back their body, and I suppose, command it to be perfected. In earlier years, I believed as I had been taught, that resurrection was an inevitable and already paid for gift that all who come to this earth would receive. That may be true in one sense, but the waiting can apparently be quite difficult to deal with.

"For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage." DC 138:50