Thursday, April 18, 2024

Larry Barkdull on Consecrating a Sickness and Life to the Lord

  

CONSECRATING A SICKNESS AND A LIFE TO THE LORD

 

The concept of consecration permeates gospel principles. Healing the sick is one example. The administration ordinance effectively consecrates or reconsecrates a life to the Lord. To consecrate is to set something apart as holy. Thus, the administration ordinance consecrates or sets apart the illness for a holy purpose, and that purpose is always the welfare of the afflicted person’s soul—whether the expression of that purpose is spoken or unspoken in the ordinance. (2 Nephi 32:9) The ordinance also consecrates the person’s healed and saved life to the Lord. When considered in this light, every affliction is an opportunity to bring a person to Christ, who will heal the afflicted both spirit and body. Therefore, our being saved from sickness and affliction by the power of the priesthood might be viewed as symbolic of Christ's power to deliver us from all our enemies, (Mosiah 29:22; D&C 49:6; 58:22) including spiritual and physical death. Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet wrote: “It may be that all of the miraculous healings performed by Jesus were but tangible symbols of the greatest healing that he alone could perform—the healing of sick spirits and the cleansing of sin-stained souls.” (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4:41)

 

A sickness or affliction reminds a person of his fallen state, and it drives him to recognize his helplessness and his need for the Lord’s intervention. (Alma 26:12; Moses 1:9-10) That is, because of the Fall, a sick person finds himself in a weakened situation, but he knows that Christ has overcome the Fall and can help him. In the context of Zion, that person finds himself afflicted by the world and desperately seeks deliverance into the health and safety of Zion. When a person is sick or afflicted, he places his hope in the Savior and the Lord’s saving power. The sick and afflicted person humbly beseeches the Lord for help, which motivates him to call for the Lord’s authorized priesthood representatives, to use his name and answer the person. The sick and afflicted person recognizes the Lord’s servants as having the authority of Jesus Christ, to use his name and answer the person’s request. (Alma 15:5-11) The elders come in response to that request. Preceding the administration ordinance, the sick person (or a friend, loved one, or the elders [James 1:14]) should offer a sincere prayer of faith in which the person humbly declares his testimony of the Lord. In the prayer of faith, he expresses his belief that the Lord, through his Servants, can heal him from the specific effects of the Fall that he is suffering, and he asks the Lord to heal him. (Alma 15:5-11) At that point, the elders authoritatively perform the ordinance of administration through the power and in the name of Jesus Christ. (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 21-22) Because the administration is sealed, it is recognized in heaven and on earth, (D&C 128:8, 10) and the Lord promises to confirm or validate it. (Mormon 9:4-25; D&C 132:59)

 

By means of the administration ordinance, powers on earth and in heaven are set in motion, and now the Lord begins to direct the process of healing, both spiritually and physically. When the healing process is completed, the Fall symbolically has been overcome, and the once-afflicted person is now in a position not to bear heightened testimony of the realty of the Savior, the Lord’s power to deliver, and the certainty of the restoration of the gospel and priesthood. Throughout the process of healing, the person has rededicated and reconsecrated his life to the Lord. No wonder then that the person, through his illness and healing, is brought closer to the Lord and the ideal of Zion. Such a person becomes a witness, someone who can bear testimony of the power that is resident in Zion and the quality of salvation that can be found there. (Larry Barkdull, The Three Pillars of Zion [Orem, Utah: Pillars of Zion Publishing, 2009], 472-73)