Elizabeth Nielson: This is the Prosper Stronger podcast, a community where LDS women gather to cultivate covenant connections and strive to be devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.
Hi, today I am so excited to just briefly discuss the talk President Nelson just gave us called "Think Celestial." And I don't know about you, but it's another game changer.
President Nelson just has this way of dialing down key principles, core doctrine, and teaching us truth. But he does it in such a simple way that is easy for us to apply because I believe not only is he a genius, but he has a hundred years of experience behind him. And because he is just a joyful person who truly loves us and wants us to return to live with our Heavenly Father again. He is following the direction of Jesus Christ. I know it. And I was so delighted that we got to hear from him.
As we got to the very end of conference. And it was a Sunday afternoon session that was just one last speaker in my heart. I was just pleading that they would say that President Nelson was going to address us. And I had hope and faith that he would figure out how to do it, that they would through technology be able to do it. And even still, when they announced it, my eyes just got watery. I was so grateful. And what a lesson, because I think sometimes we take for granted the fact that we have a living prophet on the earth today, and he is teaching us and counseling us and warning us.
He is giving us what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ need us to know now today. And I firmly believe that it is true and I sustain President Russell M. Nelson. And it was so grateful to get to listen to his talk and watch him in the recording, watch the recording of him delivering it. And so grateful that he had the strength to do it. And wasn't it amazing that here he was in intense pain and yet you could still feel and see his joy and his light and his enthusiasm. He is just glowing with joy. I love it. I love it. Anybody watching that would probably never know that he was in intense pain and had been dealing with that from this injury.
So what a blessing it is that we were able to hear from him again. And since then, I listened to the talk at least five times and I'm grateful that within 24 hours they had it on our app and we could listen. That's so amazing. But then I was eager. I was like, oh, where's the printout? I need to be able to see the words. I need to be able to write on it. I need to be able to mark it up. I need to be able to really dig deep. And it was so anxious. And finally, when I saw that I could get the printed version, oh, yay. And I raced to print it out and I have been studying it and I'm just amazed again. At all that is taught there is so much for us within these talks and especially within present Nelson's talk is such a blessing and I hope we're all taking advantage of it.
Because I didn't know I didn't realize I always enjoyed conference and yeah I'd look at the talks again and I'll maybe listen to them again, but it wasn't until I started making a conscious effort to really dig in deep to each talk for a week in preparation to teach from it and teach about it that everything changed.
I don't even know how to explain it. I just invite you and encourage you to spend time with these talks. And I'm actually going to do another episode sharing the system and kind of some of the tips that have really helped me in learning how to really get golden nuggets out of every single message and how it has helped me in my life and transformed my life and helped me become a much better person and to be able to think celestial, honestly, studying and learning from these talks has made it so that I can think celestial. And so having this talk, I'm like, Oh, of course, yes, that's what we have to do.
But now he's put it into beautiful words and simple words, but he's been very straightforward and very clear. And so in just the next few minutes, I want to just touch on a few highlights and share a few thoughts about "Think Celestial" by President Russell M. Nelson.
So of course, he's just had his 99th birthday. And I love that he starts out by saying that, people ask him how the secret to living a long life, but really what they should be asking is what has he learned in a hundred years of living? And he shares with us three things and he mentions that there's a lot more that he's learned, but I find it very interesting that he shares these three things of all the things he's learned. These are the most important.
And the first is that he has learned that Heavenly Father's plan for us is a fabulous plan. And then second, that what we do in this life really matters. And third, that the Savior's atonement is what makes our Father's plan possible. This fabulous plan.
So those are the three things that he's focusing on. And those are the three out of all that he has learned in his 100 years that he felt were most important for us to know. And I don't think that's insignificant. I love that he emphasizes that it is because of Jesus Christ's infinite atonement that our Heavenly Father's plan is a perfect plan, that it takes the mystery out of life and the uncertainty out of our future.
And I don't know about you, but I think a lot about my future. I think we all do. We worry about it. We wonder about it. What is it going to be like? What's it going to be like in a year from now? What about five years from now? What about 10 years from now? What about eternity? And going through this talk, I honestly had some thoughts where I worried a bit about my future and what it would look like.
And so even in the experience of just going through the talk, I had to exercise how to think celestial. But the beauty of it is that in doing so, I also experienced the blessings and the fruit of the thinking celestial.
Now President Nelson knows that we have a choice and he's teaching us this. In the talk he mentions three times the choices that we are making. These are the core and key choices of our experience here on earth. And he's going to emphasize them over and over again. And so he knows, he says, these are the things he knows, right? He knows the plan is fabulous. He knows that what we do in this life or what we choose in this life really matters. And he knows that it's through the Savior's Atonement, the Father's plan is perfect.
And as I've thought about this plan many circumstances when we were growing up, we had family home evening and I don't believe we had it every week. I'm sure we didn't. But we had it often enough that it felt like it was every week.
And it also felt like every single lesson was on the Plan of Salvation. And I'm sure that wasn't the case, but for some reason, a reason now that I believe is a very smart reason, my parents felt like it was essential for us to understand the Plan of Salvation. And it was so much so that by the time I was 11 years old and my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I fully knew the Plan of Salvation.
I didn't understand it all the way, but I knew it. And I knew that because of the Plan of Salvation, there was hope. And when she passed away five years later, I knew that she continued to live, that her spirit was yet alive. And I knew that I wanted to be in the Celestial Kingdom with her, that I wanted to qualify for the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom, because I have full confidence that is where she is. Where she will be because she loved the Lord. She was not perfect, but she loved the Lord. And she tried diligently to improve and to become more like Christ. And she kept her covenants and I want to be with my mom again. So at that time, in that young age, I solidified in my heart, my goal, my desired destination is the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom.
And president Nelson talks about that. He begs us, please make this your goal. Make the goal today to have the Celestial Kingdom be your goal. But in order to do that, we have to then live so that we can reach it, so that we can qualify it. And that's actually why he says he's giving us this talk. He said today, to assist you to qualify for the rich blessings heavenly father has for you. I invite you to adopt the practice of thinking celestial. He is giving this tool thinking celestially, because he knows that we do have the gift of agency, that we do get to choose what it is that we get to choose. We get to choose how we will live in this life. And where we will live for eternity, where we will live forever.
And he goes on, he actually adds another thing that we get to choose. He says, we get to choose who we will live with forever. And so he repeats these different choices, or I guess I would say it's not so much the choices. They are choices, but they're almost more the outcome or the consequences of the choices we make here.
He re-emphasizes those three times, and we know that repetition means we need to pay attention. I find it very intentional for President Nelson that as he first talks about the choice, we're choosing how we will live in this life and where we will live forever. Immediately he gives us this warning and truth. The warning is that the philosophy of eat, drink, and be merry is not the right choice, it is not going to get us where we want to truly be. And he then teaches us the truth that it is one of the most absurd lies in the universe, the whole universe. One of the most absurd lies. He's not mincing words. He's being very direct. And we know this is true.
But then present Nelson is just so masterful because he follows it up with an absolute truth. And this is it, and it's so simple, it's stated so simply, but it is a glorious truth. He said, the very things that will make your mortal life the best it can be are exactly the same things that will make your eternal life or your life throughout all eternity, the best it can be.
So Heavenly Father made it easy for us. Do the same things. You don't have to worry about making it hard. Do the same things. He wants it to be simple. Think celestial is simple. We can do it. Honestly, just saying think celestial brings the right thoughts into my mind. And it's powerful. It's been so fun this last week applying, think celestial.
And I say fun because I'm seeing the results of it. Not fun because sometimes the instances where I've needed to apply it are really painful for me, but it's marvelous to have this tool. And he goes on to say, thinking celestial means being spiritually minded. We know, and second, Nephi says being carnally minded is death, but spiritually minded is life eternal.
And here we are, as President Nelson says, immortality, which is a master class in learning to choose the things of greatest eternal import. Now, Because you're here and he knows because you are here on earth, immortality, that you kept your first estate in the premortal existence. You chose to follow Jesus Christ.
And so I think what President Nelson is doing is saying, let's keep that in mind. Let's remember that you already chose that. And now here in mortality, let's continue to choose it by looking forward by choosing celestial while we are here. And if we do that, we will keep our second estate and can move on and receive all that God has in store for us. All that He wants to give us all the abundant blessings. Everything that He has promised all that He has. And as Alma says, eternal bliss with those we love, we've heard this before and he's reiterating it. Our prophets before have told us this, your decisions determine your destiny. President Nelson says your choices today will determine three things. And then here are these three things again, where you will live throughout all eternity, the kind of body. You will have when you're resurrected and those with whom you will live forever.
Now, that's interesting. I had not thought in the terms of my resurrected body that I was deciding today, deciding now what kind of a body I would have then, even though I was taught by my parents and my dad repeatedly teaches us, hey, if you want to have all the powers, all the godly powers which include procreation, only the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom. will have those powers, right? So only a body, a celestial body can receive and exercise those powers.
And you probably recall that President Nelson said, if you choose to live a Telestial life here on earth, then you're choosing to live for the rest of eternity in the Telestial state and in a Telestial resurrected body.
I don't know about you. But I want the Celestial body. I'm thinking, maybe when I was about 27 years old, I think my body was pretty good then, I really liked it. I'd love to have that body, but I'd also love to have all the power available to me. And we put so much emphasis, our world puts so much emphasis on our physical body. You know it, you see it driving past the gym. It's packed in our neighborhood, in our city, the gym is constantly packed with cars and everybody's got to make it to the gym, got to make it to the gym, got to make it to the gym. And you know what? I love, love, love to hear as when I also hear people around me saying, got to make it to the temple. Got to make it to the temple. On my way to the temple, the temple parking lot is packed and you have to park on the street and plan an extra 10 minutes so you can walk from your car to get to the temple. That's a marvelous thing because it means they are nourishing and strengthening the spiritual body, not just the physical body.
So it's something to consider. I believe we have stewardship. We are to be wise stewards over our physical bodies. And could I do a better job at times? Definitely. I could definitely do a better job right now. But the key is living a celestial spiritual life because we can do everything we can to care for our body. And if we're not taking care of our spirit and living celestially, the best that we can thinking celestially for our spirit, then no matter what we do with our physical body, we will not receive a celestial body forever. So an interesting thing to think about there that I really hadn't thought much about before.
And then those with whom you will live forever. And he goes on to teach us these truths, these principles that are in the Celestial Kingdom. So he reminds us what he already taught us is to begin with the end in mind and to set the Celestial Kingdom as our goal. But then he asks and invites us to do this.
He says, once you've made it your goal, then carefully consider where each of your decisions that you make while you're here on earth will place you in the next world. That's really the key, isn't it? That every decision we make is going to have an impact on where we end up in the next world and who we live with and what kind of body we have while we're there.
And then he teaches us this truth that only men and women who are sealed as husband and wife in the temple, and who keep their covenants will be together throughout the eternities because they are sealed here on earth. And there's a fabulous scripture in quotes with that as well. And I know some people struggle with this, especially with what's going on in our world today. There's so much confusion. There's so much deception and what is marriage and man and a woman and all of these different things. But the Lord has been very clear.
Now President Nelson didn't say this in a mean way. He's not condemning. He's not being mean. He's simply speaking the truth. And we need to understand that because frankly, this truth is hard for me, not because it's true, but because of my circumstance, this truth causes some pain, causes some worry for me. And it probably does to other people as well. And you might think, no, I don't like that truth. I don't like it. Because what about this person? And what about that person? And what about how I'm feeling? Or what about all these things? I felt that today. I felt what about me? What about me? Because I made covenants in the temple. And guess what? If my life continues, if my marriage situation continues as it is, then I am looking at being alone for eternity. Or at least I could think that way. I don't believe that's true because here's the thing. My husband has chosen to break his covenant. He's chosen to turn away from God. He doesn't even believe in God anymore.
I'm striving to keep my covenants, but this says only men and women who are sealed as husband and wife in the temple and who keep their covenants will be together throughout the eternities. So then what do I think? Okay, then I guess that means we won't be together for the eternities. My husband and I, and is that painful and does that hurt and does that cause fear and worry?
Yes.
But then I can choose to think celestial and I did, I made the choice to think celestial and I've done this so many times in the past and I've researched the doctrine and I've sought blessings and I've studied the scriptures and the truth is I don't know what's going to happen. Because my husband has agency, I know that I have chosen that I want to be with him for eternity and I want to be with my children and grandchildren and my brothers and my parents and everybody, my sister for eternity, but they still have their agency.
I can control what I do. I choose them and I choose them by choosing to live a celestial life as best that I can. I choose them by striving to keep my covenants by trying to qualify so that I can be in the Celestial Kingdom and by doing so, that means that I seek and invite the atonement of Jesus Christ to work in my life.
And I know that through him, I can be made perfect. I'm not earning my way to the Celestial Kingdom. It is through Christ. I choose this, but they still have their choice and I don't know if they will choose Celestial. I don't know if they will choose me. I don't know if my husband will choose me, but I do know this, that Heavenly Father loves all His children and that there are things that I don't understand and there are things that I may not understand and we may not know until after this life.
I hope and I believe the Heavenly Father knows each and every one of his children, and He is fully capable of doing the work of saving them through Jesus Christ and His atonement. And that if our loved ones choose, then there will be a way for them to have joy and happiness if they choose celestial, at some point there is a way for them to be there with us.
So for those of you that may be struggling or feeling that you don't like that truth I invite you to be humble and to think Celestial and to do as President Nelson pleads with us to do which is to go to our Father in prayer Seek truth in prayer, seek it in His words and trust in Him and then leave it in His hands because we have to respect the agency of others just as God does. He will not interfere with our agency. He will not interfere with mine. He will not interfere with my husband's. We all have the opportunity to choose. So what will you choose? That's what President Nelson is asking. That's what he's teaching us. And he's letting us know, if we unwisely choose to live Telestial laws now, we are choosing to be resurrected with a Telestial body. And we are choosing not to live with our families forever.
So he's letting us know what the consequences are. He's teaching us, he's teaching us the truth. And so he's saying, you get to choose, but you don't get to choose the consequences and here's what they are, right? The positive, the hopeful, the Celestial consequences and the Telestial. And everything in between you get to choose, but he says, when you make choices, I invite you to take the long view to keep that eternal perspective and put Christ first. So he has been teaching the doctrine. He's been explaining this principle, this idea of thinking. Celestial and teaching the principle and the doctrine.
Now he's going to say, okay, so now what? How do you do it? You put God first, you put Jesus Christ first, you put your faith in Jesus Christ first and you are obedient. He reminds us that obedience paves the way for a joyful life for you today. Not just in the future, but today and a grand eternal reward tomorrow. Obedience brings joy. Jesus Christ brings joy. Faith in Jesus Christ opens the path for joy. So there is an immense Incredible promise. We all want joy. We all want happiness. And so he's saying this is the way to choose celestial, and this is what you can receive. And when it gets hard, when life is hard and he goes through all the different things that can be so hard about our lives, or maybe we doubt or we're hurt or we lose a loved one or we're dealing with a sickness or so many different things.
He says, when we're tested, when we're tempted. Everything, the answer is think celestial, and thinking celestial means thinking of Jesus Christ, putting our faith in Him, trusting in the power of His atonement to heal us and to save us and to redeem us, choosing these things. And then the answer is easy. The answer is Jesus. Think celestial. And then he reminds us too, that as we work on thinking celestial, we're still going to have opposition because Satan, he is just so good at it. He always knows and he is never going to stop trying to deceive us. He's never going to stop attacking us. So expect opposition.
And even president Nelson had that. Isn't it interesting that somebody, a colleague, said he had too much temple in him. Isn't that an interesting phrase? That's a criticism that's opposition, but isn't that an amazing compliment? I hope and I think President Nelson probably thought of it that way.
Oh, great. I have too much temple in me. That's awesome. And so now I'm thinking, okay, that's one of my other goals. I want to have too much temple in me. I want to be the person that takes that power of the temple with me. And if somebody else doesn't like it and they say something to me about it, then that probably means I'm doing okay.
I hope so. I love that. I love that story. And it's real. And the opposition is real. I have felt it this week. I felt it yesterday. I was attacked. Not physically attacked, but spiritually, I was attacked yesterday in my own home about something such as tithing and isn't it great that President Nelson teaches us? About tithing here that is not about the money, right? He shares his own story and the church wasn't different because of his dollar 50, but he was different because of being a full tithe payer because he chose to think celestial about money and it made a difference in his life and in his wife's life and in his profession and his career, right? There's so many blessings, even though we will face opposition, even though it may not always be easy.
And he goes on then to say, as we think celestial, as you think celestial, there are a multitude of blessings. And he shares with us what some of those are. He says, your heart will gradually change. And then he gives us another tool we can use to think celestial and to help us. And that is prayer. And prayer is powerful. And he said, the Lord's perspective transcends your mortal wisdom. So in prayer, and if we ask for help, he can help us think celestial and his response to your prayers may surprise you and will help you think celestial.
And then he goes on to tell us not to let our prayers be a shopping list, but that our prayers can be and should be living discussions with our Heavenly Father. Have you thought about that? An actual discussion for years and years. I have felt so lonely. Because I could not discuss the things of my soul and the things of the gospel with my companion, with my spouse, and I miss it. It's hard to not have that. But I'm so grateful that in the last ten years, thanks to direction from our church leaders, thanks to help and inspiration from others, I have been working to make my prayers more meaningful and I have felt the blessings that have come from that effort.
And there have been times when the answers I have received have surprised me, some in fun and fabulous ways and others in ways that just made me think about something totally differently. And other times in ways where I've been chastised. When I thought I was doing okay, the surprise was, oh, you're not doing, oh, okay. I see. I see. I need to change.
So yeah, sometimes the answers have surprised me, but this idea of a living discussion, I honestly, just in the last few years started to catch glimpses of this. Oh my goodness. Okay, I think, wow, I'm feeling that I'm hearing it. And then just in the last year, I'm thinking of one instance in particular where I prayed so sincerely, and I wrote down, now that's a key, write it down. And I was writing what I was hearing in my head, I say hearing, it wasn't audible, but the thoughts that were coming to my head into my mind and into my heart, I was writing them down. And before I knew it, we were conversing. I was conversing with the Lord.
We were having a discussion, and I had three, then four, then five pages in my journal. And at one point I even stopped and I wrote, is this real? Can this really be happening? I didn't know this was possible. The answer was, yes, it is possible. I'm so excited to talk with you. Thank you. Thank you for coming to me. Thank you for putting forth an effort so we could converse.
I know that when President Nelson says our prayers can be and should be living discussions with our Heavenly Father, I know he's speaking truth, and I know he's giving us the tools to know how to do it. But it does take effort. Then he goes on and shares another blessing. As we think celestial, we will find ourselves avoiding anything that robs us of our agency. Now that's a huge blessing because agency is the gift that Heavenly Father gave us. It is so valuable and everything Satan wants to do, everything he tries to do is to get us into bondage, to give up our agency.
And what's crazy. Is that he even twists it and distorts it so that we think, or so many people think, oh, the church is forcing me to do this or God is forcing me to do this. Therefore, I'm going to revolt and in revolting, I'm going to do the exact opposite. And the exact opposite is what actually leads him to bondage.
Satan is so good at it. But when we truly know and understand, we know God will not ever take away our agency. He's teaching us, He's giving us commandments to keep us safe, but He's given us our license, just like driving. We have to get our license, but then we can drive. If we don't follow the rules of the road, we can lose the license.
We can be put in bondage, just like Heavenly Father has given us our agency. He's also given us the laws or the boundaries or the rules to keep us safe. That will help us actually be able to keep our agency and use it in its fullness. But if we don't, that's when we start to lose. Our agency, that's when we get into bondage, especially in anything that's addictive.
Right? And he talks about that gaming, right? TV, watching, gambling, debt, drugs, alcohol, anger, pornography, sex, or even food. And I'm going to add even Hallmark movies or TV series, anything, all of these things offend God. And why? Because our obsession becomes our God. Because we turn to these things.
Instead of turning to God, and isn't it true? We turn to food for comfort, right? Oh, I turned to Hallmark movies for comfort. Maybe we turn to other things, right? Instead of turning to God. And every time I do, I'm not satisfied. I don't feel comforted. You get to the end of a chick flick or Hallmark movie, and let's face it, most of the time, I don't really feel any better than when I started.
Sometimes I just think, wow, I feel worse because that was kind of a waste of my time. I still enjoy them, but for what purpose? To watch them as a treat or a reward for something or a good day and to gather my girls around and watch, that's great. But when I watch them and stay up late at night, because I'm just trying to soothe my soul. It never works. Only God has the answers. Only Christ and his atonement can heal and soothe the soul that way.
So he says, please do not let an obsession rob you of your freedom to follow God's fabulous plan. And he carries that over into the law of chastity and keeping the law of chastity. If we think celestial, it will help us keep the law of chastity. He warns us that immorality is the quickest way to lose a testimony. And why? Because the adversary is so relentless and the power to create life is the one privilege of God who the Heavenly Father allows his mortal children to exercise. Therefore, he set clear guidelines for us. And we need to follow them.
I was actually talking to a man who is in our neighborhood, very revered. He's a fabulous, wonderful man. And I trust him. And he just was saying how he's been trying to think celestially this week and how it was so simple. He thought, Oh, it's too simple, but how he's seen the blessings. And one of the things he mentioned was that he's a man.
So as a man, sometimes unclean thoughts just come. He said, but what's been amazing is the power of one. I think celestial instantly. Those thoughts are gone. This is an amazing tool President Nelson has given us. Thinking celestial helps us discern truth. The public opinion is not the arbiter of truth, but the Lord is, and that we will be able to better discern truth.
We'll be able to view our trials differently and in a new light, and we won't question our testimony when we think Celestially. And he says, so please be prepared. The adversary is not going to stop. Please be prepared and take counsel from those who believe. Seek counsel from those who teach truth and for whom you can trust the prophets, the apostles, the scriptures, and the Holy Ghost.
And then he reminds us that we need to do the spiritual work to be able to increase our capacity to receive personal revelation. So that we can discern truth and that we can have the help we need and that our faith can increase. So he talks about paying tithing as increasing faith and then the temple or the power of the temple to increase our faith.
Not only is President Nelson counseling us, guiding us, giving us the tools that we need, but he's showing us in simple ways by his own example. So we can think celestial. So we can increase our prayers and our ability to receive personal revelation so that we can feel the power of the temple, that we can fill our lives with more of God's power so that we can live with him again with the ones we love in the Celestial Kingdom with the celestial body.
I encourage you and invite you to dive into this talk, study it deeply, and take it into your life. This is a truth from our prophet led and directed by our Savior, and it will change your life. It has changed my life already this week.
I know it will change yours. Thank you for being here. Let's prosper stronger together and to prosper stronger means to live in his presence. That's what we truly need. That's what He wants for us. He desires to bless us.
And if you would like, please go to prosperstronger.com and download the personal revelation guide.
It is taken straight from President Nelson. It has helped me so much and has helped so many others to not only increase our ability to receive personal revelation, but also to be able to have our prayers become living discussions with Heavenly Father. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks so much. And I look forward to seeing you again.
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