To Act for Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency

The Gift and Blessings of Agency
To Act for Ourselves: 


“The Power To Coose!”

Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness.


I am grateful for the testimony of our prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley.

I express gratitude that he chose to follow the inspiration of the Lord and asked us to read the Book of Mormon.

Father Lehi, the first prophet recorded in the Book of Mormon, also chose to follow the Lord. He was instructed to “take his family and depart into the wilderness.” Despite harsh traveling conditions and the murmuring of his sons Laman and Lemuel, Lehi led his family to a land of promise. But it was not a place of peace. As Laman and Lemuel used their agency to disobey the Lord, Lehi’s “heart [was] weighed down with sorrow [for them].” Before his death, Lehi gathered his children around him, blessed them, and counseled them. To his rebellious sons he urged repentance and faithfulness: “Awake, my sons. … Shake off the chains with which ye are bound.” And to his righteous son Jacob he taught one final, very important lesson.

If we could leave one lesson of greatest importance for our children and grandchildren, what would it be?

Of all the glorious principles of the gospel, Lehi chose to teach his son about the plan of salvation—and the gift of agency.

He taught that “men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil.” 5 This sacred instruction began in the heavens. There, in a Grand Council, our Heavenly Father would continue the gift of agency to prove us here in mortality, “to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command.”

But Satan opposed God and His plan, saying: “I will redeem all mankind, … wherefore give me thine honor.”

“Wherefore, because … Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, … I caused that he should be cast down.” 8 “And, at that day, many followed after him.” Indeed, “a third part of the hosts of heaven” used their agency to reject God’s plan.

You and I were among those who used their agency to accept Heavenly Father’s plan to come to earth, to have a mortal life, to progress. “We shouted for joy … to have the opportunity of coming to the earth to receive bodies [for we knew] that we might become, through faithfulness, like unto our Father, God.”

Now we are here on earth, where opportunities to use our agency abound;

for here “there is an opposition in all things.”

This opposition is essential to the purpose of our lives.

“What is God’s Plan of Life? - The Family!

What is Satan trying to break down? - The Family!

Adam and Eve were the first of God’s children to experience these enticements.

Satan, “the father of all lies,” tempted Adam and Eve.

Because they chose to partake of the “forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth.”

Because of that choice, they also “brought forth children; … even the family of all the earth,” and this earthly state “became a state of probation” for them and for their posterity.

Lehi told Jacob. “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”

Sometimes we forget that our Heavenly Father desires that each of us have this joy.

Only by yielding to temptation and sin can we be kept from that joy.

Yielding is exactly what Satan wants us to do.

President Kimball taught the brethren an unforgettable lesson:

He said, “The adversary can never have joy unless you and I sin.”

In the Book of Mormon it says: “Wo, wo, wo unto this people; wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent; for the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people.”

It is our sins that make the devil laugh, our sorrow that brings him counterfeit joy.

Although the devil laughs, his power is limited.

(The old adage: “The devil made me do it.” )

No . . . the adversary cannot make us do anything. He does lie at our door, as the scriptures say, and he follows us each day. Every time we go out, every decision we make, we are either choosing to move in his direction or in the direction of our Savior.

But the adversary must depart if we tell him to depart. He cannot influence us unless we allow him to do so, and he knows that!

The only time he can affect our minds and bodies—our very spirits—is when we allow him to do so.

(Two choices: “No matter what decision you need to make, you will always have 2 choices. Choose that which will bring you closer to the Celestial Kingdom where God is.)

We have been given agency, we have been given the blessings of the priesthood, and we have been given the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghost for a reason.

That reason is our growth and happiness in this world and eternal life in the world to come.

Have we received that Spirit? Are we following on the strait and narrow path that leads to God and eternal life? Are we holding onto the iron rod, or are we going another way?

How we choose to feel and think and act every day is the way we get on the path, and stay on it, until we reach our eternal destination.

Now, All of us make mistakes!

Knowing that we are redeemed from the fall by our Savior, Jesus Christ,. . .we have become free forever, knowing good from evil;
“To act for ourselves and not to be acted upon.”

In these latter days, we must avoid being acted upon by acting for ourselves to avoid evil.

The Holy Ghost will prompt us.

(Like the Prophets of old:)

Joseph was told to flee from Potiphar’s wife.

Abraham obeyed the commandment to flee out of the land of Ur.

Lehi was instructed to flee Jerusalem before it was destroyed.

And to protect the Savior’s life, Mary and Joseph were prompted to flee into Egypt.

Will we need to Flee? Will we hear His promptings?

God does not speak with a voice of thunder.

The voice will be as soft as a whisper, coming as a thought to our minds or a feeling in our hearts.

We will be protected from the destructive consequences of sin.

If we ignore those promptings, the light of the Spirit will fade.

For example, if we make BAD choices and get in debt, we will lose our agency

If we choose to break the law, we may be put in prison!

Spirit prison is very much like that. Therefore, to retain our agency we must daily walk in the light of our Lord and Savior and follow the path of obedience. It is the only path that leads to our Father in Heaven.

The adversary cannot take away your AGENCY without your yielding it to him.

Choose to accept that you are a child of God, that He loves you, and that He has the power to help you.

Believe that you are His child. Decide that your life belongs to Him and that you will use your agency to do His will.

Have experiences with the Spirit of God through prayer, in scripture study, at Church meetings, in your home, and through wholesome interactions with others.

When you feel the influence of the Spirit, the light is being turned on, and where that light shines, the darkness of evil cannot remain.

Choose to obey and keep your covenants, beginning with your baptismal covenant. Renew these covenants weekly by worthily partaking of the sacrament.

Choose to prepare to worthily attend the temple,.

And most importantly, choose to believe in the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Accept the Savior’s forgiveness, and then forgive yourself.

Because of His sacrifice for you, He has the power to “remember [your sins] no more.”
You must do likewise.

After you are back on the path again,

Refuse to be discouraged about the past.

Rejoice in hope for the future.

Remember, it is Satan who desires that we be “miserable like unto himself.”

Let your desires be stronger than his. Be happy and confident about your life and about the opportunities and blessings that await you here and throughout eternity.

Finally, remember our agency is not only for us. We have the responsibility to use it in behalf of others, to lift and strengthen others in their trials and tribulations.

Through friendship and love, we may lead others along the path of obedience and encourage them to use their agency to make the right choices once again.

Agency was manifested in the Council in Heaven as we chose to follow our Heavenly Father’s plan and come to mortality for this probationary period.

Agency allows us to be tested and tried.

Agency leads us to express our inward spiritual desires.

Agency permits us to make faithful, obedient choices.

Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness in the present.

Agency will help us look with faith to the future, even into the eternities.

Our use of agency determines who we are and what we will be.

Agency leads us to act: to seek that we may find, to ask that we may receive guidance from the Spirit

Jesus Christ is the source of spiritual light, even the Light and Life of the World.

As we use our agency to follow Him, His light will grow within us brighter and brighter until that perfect day when we are welcomed into the presence of our Father in Heaven for all eternity.