I Am In Your Midst

The Come, Follow Me lesson this week invites us in this words, “Ponder how modern revelation has deepened your faith that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God and the Redeemer of the world.” It further states, “Throughout the Doctrine and Covenants, the Savior bore witness of His own mission and divinity. What do you learn about the living Christ from His words in Doctrine and Covenants 29:5; 38:7; 62:1? You might consider recording declarations like these that you find as you study the Doctrine and Covenants.” In these three verses He declared, “I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father…. I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst…. [I am] Jesus Christ, your advocate, who knoweth the weakness of man and how to succor them who are tempted.” He not only lives but He is in our midst. He understands our weakness and knows how to bless and help us. He is our advocate and will succor us in all our challenges. The Doctrine and Covenants indeed contains some of the most powerful declarations that we have in scripture about the divinity of the Savior, His great atoning sacrifice, His glorious resurrection, and His personal involvement in our lives today.

               Here are a handful of passages in the Doctrine and Covenants in which the Savior described Himself. Of His position even before this world He declared, “Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, the Great I Am, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made; The same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eye.” He was chosen before the foundation of the world and knew us then. He continued by describing His sacrifice for us, “I am Christ, and in mine own name, by the virtue of the blood which I have spilt, have I pleaded before the Father for them” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:1-4). A revelation given to Martin Harris expounds further on His great atoning sacrifice: “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18-19). Nowhere else in scripture do we find such a powerfully sobering description of Christ’s suffering from His own mouth. The previous revelation tells further why such His sacrifice was given: “For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:11). He suffered in order to redeem us from sin, He used this title of Redeemer frequently to describe Himself such as in this revelation: “[I am] the Lord your Redeemer, the Savior of the world, even of as many as believe on my name…. Verily, thus saith the Lord your God, your Redeemer, even Jesus Christ” (Doctrine and Covenants 66:1,13). He also witnessed that He lives still today: “I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:4). He lives today and watches us in our lives as He declared to the elders of the church in 1831: “Wherefore, I am in your midst, and I am the good shepherd, and the stone of Israel. He that buildeth upon this rock shall never fall” (Doctrine and Covenants 50:44). That knowledge can provide us peace and reassurance in all our troubles as we remember this declaration to His Saints in our time: “And now, verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you” (Doctrine and Covenants 61:36). The words of the Doctrine and Covenants powerfully proclaim the Jesus lived, suffered, died, and rose again, and that He lives today to guide and direct our lives if we will but heed His voice.