Is it possible to have the fullness of the gospel in your life and yet be filled with emptiness?  Unfortunately, yes. 

As a bishop, I found that far too many in fact have this experience.  To them the plan of happiness is a burden that is heavy when what the Savior promises is a yoke that is easy. 1

However, such feelings can be overcome.  When you gain and apply a more complete understanding of three key terms — covenants, callings and consecration — your gospel experience will be different. Fullness can and will replace emptiness.

Foundational Understanding

We learn from the scriptures that this life is what is known as our second estate.  Our existence here is a direct result of our decisions and actions as free agents in a first estate. The cumulative result of our choices in these two estates is to either be added upon or diminished in the eternities to come. Those who keep their second estate (mortality) have been promised that they shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever. 2 Imagine the significance of such a promise.

That understanding should help us see that our life here on earth represents both a special mission and a grand stewardship. As we progress through life, our Heavenly Father breaks these down into a series of “bite-sized” missions and stewardships.  Our overriding mission and stewardship is to do all things whatsoever the Lord our God commands us. 3 It is to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. 4 

Such a path leads to peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come.  It leads to a fullness of joy.  It leads to perfection and the accompanying (perfect) happiness that our Father experiences.

The Role of Covenants

Understanding what would be expected of us here on earth, our God renewed in this life a practice followed in our pre-mortal existence.  This was the pattern of covenant making. 

Covenants are sacred promises we make with God.   However, unlike those associated with secular contracts we enter into in this life, the covenants we make with God are being made with our Lawgiver and Creator — the Source of light and truth — the Author of our salvation.  Therefore, with the Lord’s covenants, there is no possibility of the other party reneging on the contract. 

As a result, we do not stand as equals in either setting the terms of the agreements or in determining the blessings that will flow from their fulfillment.  Covenants with God are sacred obligations that we engage in only on His terms. 5  And to “keep our second estate,” we must come to them, enter into them and keep them.

Elder Henry B. Eyring explained the same concept this way:

“The Latter-day Saints are a covenant people. From the day of baptism through the spiritual milestones of our lives, we make promises with God and He makes promises with us. He always keeps His promises offered through His authorized servants, but it is the crucial test of our lives to see if we will make and keep our covenants with Him.” 6

Covenants then help to define as well as give shape and form to our stewardship in this probationary state.  They become the means by which a measurement can be made to see if in fact we have done all things whatsoever the Lord our God has commanded us.  Covenants are everlasting in their nature because the Lawgiver is everlasting in His nature.

All laws, commandments, principles, statutes, ordinances and doctrines are encompassed in the everlasting covenant of the gospel.  We received and kept this covenant in the pre-mortal world.  That is what is meant when it is said that we kept our first estate. 7 Our station in this life is evidence of that.  Keeping our second estate means keeping the everlasting covenant of the gospel, again.  This, in part, is why the Lord has said, “Therefore, ye shall live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God.” 8

Covenants are entered into through ordinances.  This is so there is no question about what we are doing and to what and whom we are committing.  When we enter into covenants with a sincere heart and real intent, the power of godliness is manifest. 9  Revelation begins occurring, the heavens are literally opened to our view and the rights and privileges attached to those covenants become our inheritance. 10  The ultimate end to that inheritance is to receive all that the Father hath — therefore, the everlasting nature of the new and everlasting covenant is realized. 11

Covenants are both initiating and restoring or renewing in their nature.  As an example, baptism initiates and defines certain covenants we will enter into with our Father while simultaneously restoring us to the innocent state we were in when we entered this life.  The sacrament becomes an extension of our baptism experience and allows us to initiate a covenant each week with our Father that will propel us to always remember His Son while simultaneously restoring the cleansing we received with our baptism. 

When the sacrament is combined with keeping the covenant associated with the Sabbath Day, we can then enter each week innocent before God and renewed in our spiritual capacity to keep all of our covenants, fulfill each of our roles and callings and know that our efforts will then be consecrated for our good.  And we do that knowing that we will “always have his spirit to be with us.”

The Role of Callings

Callings cannot be separated from covenant making. We accept calls first and foremost because we are under covenant. For example, in section 107 of the Doctrine and Covenants, priesthood holders are instructed to act in their appointed offices “according to the covenants and commandments of the church.” 12  As we do our duty, and act in the office to which we’ve been appointed in all diligence, we keep our covenants. Therefore, we begin to be “added upon,” we gain knowledge and intelligence that will rise with us in the resurrection and we secure an advantage in the world to come. 13

Callings come to us in this life in several forms.  As they do, each represents an area of stewardship that we accept and carry out in the context of the probationary nature of our second estate.  They are part of the bite-sized segments of that special mission and grand stewardship referred to earlier.

We might think of callings as falling into four different categories:

1. Callings that are issued to us within the framework of the Church through formal priesthood channels
2. Callings that are inherent in the gospel covenant we have embraced
3. Callings associated with roles we assume in our attempt to fulfill the full measure of our purpose here on earth
4. Callings that come to us through promptings or personal revelation that relate to spiritual gifts and talents we have been given, inherit or develop in this life

To illustrate what I mean by each of these, I will refer to callings and roles I have held; but you should think of how the principle applies your sphere of influence, assignment or role.

I was called as a bishop through formal priesthood channels within the Church.  Associated with that call were specific responsibilities and areas of stewardship for which I had charge.  For example, the bishop is the presiding high priest in the ward.  Among other things that means I was responsible for the missionary service and family history progress that took place in my unit.  Let’s call this a kind of “macro” stewardship. 

However, by virtue of my membership in the Church and understanding of the gospel plan, I was and am always under call to preach the gospel and redeem the dead.  I am equally under covenant to do so. As a result, I must heed the call that might come at a moment’s notice to open my mouth and share the gospel or to seek out an ancestor that has been pressing on me through the Holy Ghost to find him and perform his temple ordinances.  I’ll call this a kind of “micro” stewardship. 

Now, those promptings and calls might come to me instead of someone else because I have certain talents, abilities and/or roles the Lord has carved out for me as a means — in His eternal economy — of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. 14

Additionally, as a priesthood holder, my responsibilities include home teaching families to which I’ve been assigned.  I go there to visit because I am under call, but I teach and succor them because I am under covenant.  The covenant is associated with the priesthood I bear and the call to visit specific families is a practical means of helping me fulfill that covenant.

The call to that family came to me, perhaps, because in the everlasting perspective of the Master of the Vineyard, the Lord had instilled abilities and insights in this disciple that He can use — if I will allow it.  I demonstrate that allowance by keeping my covenants.  (I can’t tell you the number of times I have experienced this blessing as a home teacher.)

Similarly, through choices I have made, I have assumed the role of husband and father. Each of those roles is also a calling.  And I keep my covenants in those callings by teaching my children light and truth.  Family home evening, family scripture study, and family prayer, then, become mechanisms whereby I can fulfill and keep my covenants.  They are not solely wholesome and good family activities.  Similarly, if I receive promptings to teach my family in settings outside that structure, I am under just as much obligation by virtue of my covenants to act on them as I am while carrying out those other more clearly prescribed activities.

While callings might be for a designated period of time, the shelf life of a covenant is eternal. Therefore, however small we think our influence is in the calling we have received, it has an everlasting impact because it is being carried out within the framework of the everlasting covenant of the gospel.  Listen to this sequence of thought in the scriptures as evidence of what I mean:

“And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father.

“And the Father teacheth him of the covenant which he has renewed and confirmed upon you, which is confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the whole world.” 15

Consecrated for Our Good

With this understanding as a foundation, can you begin to see how important it is that we come to understand what consecration means? Consecration is the term the Lord has used to define an acceptable offering by those who enter the path of covenant making and covenant keeping.  It is a word that describes both what is expected of us as well as the result that inures to the benefit of those who are anxiously engaged in keeping their second estate.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained it this way:

“We tend to think of consecration only as yielding up, when divinely directed, our material possessions. But ultimate consecration is the yielding up of oneself to God. Heart, soul, and mind were the encompassing words of Christ in describing the first commandment, which is constantly, not periodically, operative (see Matt. 22:37). If kept, then our performances will, in turn, be fully consecrated for the lasting welfare of our souls (see 2 Ne. 32:9).” 16

As we are about keeping our covenants and carrying out this grand stewardship that is our second estate, we will inevitably have experiences that stretch us.  It is part and parcel of the “we will prove them now herewith” 17 clause in our mortality contract.  However, the Book of Mormon teaches us that for those that keep their covenants, such experiences will be “consecrated for the welfare of their souls.” 18

Such a statement implies that there is a sanctifying and purifying effect that flows from even our afflictions.  These experiences, if endured well, will one day be the reason that we have glory added upon our heads for ever and ever.  If this is true, then even our trials are evidence that the Lord’s mercy is being extended in our behalf.  Truly, by keeping covenants even in the face of storms and whirlwinds, we unlock the blessings associated with the atonement.  Even those burdens that aren’t lifted or the wounds that are not immediately healed will one day be completely resolved though the infinite impact of the Savior’s atonement.  His divine propitiation is so far reaching and complete in its healing influence that one day even the memory of our pain will be swept away. 

This is what it means to have something consecrated to or for the welfare of our souls.

Eye Hath Not Seen Nor Ear Heard

I hope no one is discouraged by what has been taught here.  Certainly the opposite was intended. Many demonstrate through their daily walk that they have a clear understanding of covenants, callings and consecration.  There are many models to follow. To each of them, the words expressed in the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants should have special meaning. To those that still experience emptiness instead of fullness, these assurances should help to fix your gaze on Him whose promises are sure.

“For thus saith the Lord — I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.

“Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their aglory.

“And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven

“For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.” 19

The Savior is real.  His yoke is easy and His burden light. It is my hope that each of us will live up to the privileges He extends to us if we will keep our covenants, assume our calls and consecrate our efforts unto the Lord. 

Notes