Hosanna to God and the Lamb

I read again this morning President Nelson’s talk from the April 2017 general conference Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives. He introduced his talk this way: “God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son to help us. And His Son, Jesus Christ, gave His life for us. All so that we could have access to godly power—power sufficient to deal with the burdens, obstacles, and temptations of our day. Today I would like to speak about how we can draw into our lives the power of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.” He then gave four ways that we can obtain more power from Jesus Christ in our lives: 

1.       “We begin by learning about Him.”

2.       “We choose to have faith in Him and follow Him.”

3.       “We also increase the Savior’s power in our lives when we make sacred covenants and keep those covenants with precision.”

4.       “Another element in drawing the Savior’s power into our lives is to reach up to Him in faith.”

 I think we can summarize these four actions in a single statement which was the essence of his message: we must focus intensely on Jesus Christ. As we learn of Him in the scriptures, seek to develop faith, follow His commandments, keep covenants we have made with Him, and reach out to Him with intensity, we are focusing our thoughts and desires and actions on Him.  As we do everything to keep Him at the center of our lives we can have His power to help us in all our difficulties.

                In this talk President Nelson made this statement that I have thought about often and frequently quoted: “When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.” To reach out to Him with intensity is surely to do those four things that President Nelson mentioned consistently, seeking to learn and obey and exercise faith. Interestingly, he followed that declaration with this statement: “When you spiritually stretch beyond anything you have ever done before, then His power will flow into you. And then you will understand the deep meaning of words we sing in the hymn ‘The Spirit of God’: 

The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding. …

The knowledge and power of God are expanding;

The veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is filled with His power, which is available to every earnestly seeking daughter or son of God.” To me one of the most powerful hymns of the Church is indeed The Spirit of God that was sung at the Kirtland Temple dedication. It fills me with a sense of the grandeur of God as we sing it with real intent, and “the power of God” indeed seems to be expanding as we shout hosanna to God and the Lamb. It focuses our thoughts and feelings on the glory of God to me holds the same kind of spiritual intensity that President Nelson was urging us to have in our lives. It invites us to reach more earnestly towards the Lamb and to extend our understanding and the power of God in our lives.  

                On that same day this was sung in 1836 at the temple dedication, the Prophet Joseph prayed this: “O hear, O hear, O hear us, O Lord! And answer these petitions, and accept the dedication of this house unto thee, the work of our hands, which we have built unto thy name; And also this church, to put upon it thy name. And help us by the power of thy Spirit, that we may mingle our voices with those bright, shining seraphs around thy throne, with acclamations of praise, singing Hosanna to God and the Lamb!” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:78-79) That must be what we seek in our lives, reaching out to the Savior with a fervent, repeated plea to “hear us” and to “help us by the power of [His] Spirit” as we focus our souls on always “singing Hosanna to God and the Lamb.” Then, as President Nelson promised, we will “draw His power into our lives” and “both He and we will rejoice.”