The Word Found In Us

As Alma taught and warned the people of Ammonihah he said this about being brought to judgment in the world to come: “Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word, insomuch that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned” (Alma 12:13).   This gives us an interesting question to ponder as we consider our own spiritual state: Is His word “found in us” now?  One way to think of that question is whether the Word personified is in us.  As disciples we seek for Christ, who, as John declared, is The Word, to be reflected in our actions.  When people interact with us, are they drawn to be more like Him?  Do they learn of Him because they have found His influence in us?  We want, as Mormon taught, to “become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him” (Moroni 7:48).  If we have become like Him such that the Word is indeed found in us, then we shall not stand condemned.

               The other way to understand Alma’s teaching about the word being “found in us” is of course whether the word of God—the scriptures—are found within us.  Have we fully internalized the sacred teachings of holy writ such that we both know them and live them?  In the Law of Moses we read this invitation to internalize the words of the Lord: “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 11:18).  We are to lay up the words of God in our hearts and our very souls so that they become a very part of us.  I think that we see those in the scriptures who indeed did this and were able to pull from themselves at any time the words of scripture they had stored up.  For example, when Abinadi stood before the priest of King Noah in bonds he recalled from memory the great prophecy of the Savior from Isaiah.  Surely the priests didn’t offer him a set of scriptures to refer to; Abinadi had internalized the prophecy and withdrew it for them when he most needed it (Mosiah 15).  As Nephi stood boldly before his angry brothers (who were refusing to help with the ship), he recounted the stories of the children of Israel and even quoted Isaiah as he (see 1 Nephi 17; verse 39 is a quotation of Isaiah 66:1).  Nephi had read the stories and understood their meaning and was able to recall them and apply them to their situation in the difficulty of the moment.  The word was truly found in him.  Stephen in the New Testament was another who in a moment of great danger to himself was able to recount a brief history of Israel and quote the stories of the scriptures to his hostile audience.  He knew the details of the life of Moses and boldly taught their meaning to the angry Jews who would subsequently take his life. The word of the Lord as he had it and had studied it growing up surely was found in him.     

            Elder McConkie gave us an example in our day of what it means to have His word found in us.  In his now famous last conference address, he said, “In speaking of these wondrous things I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture, words spoken by other Apostles and prophets.  True it is they were first proclaimed by others, but they are now mine, for the Holy Spirit of God has borne witness to me that they are true, and it is now as though the Lord had revealed them to me in the first instance. I have thereby heard his voice and know his word.”  He knew the words of the scriptures so well that they were truly his own.  The word of the Lord was indeed found in him.