He was firm and steadfast in staying with his armies at the top of the mountain.

He knew the only way Amalakiah would win was for Lehonti to move.

And so he refused to move.

He kept the high road.

But then… Amalakiah realized Lehonti was going to need to meet him halfway.

(Figuratively and literally.)

Lehonti agreed to come halfway down the mountain to meet with Amalickiah, struck up a deal, and soon after, Lehonti had been poisoned by degrees, and Amalakiah was in charge of the entire army.

What’s urging you to come just halfway down the mountain right now?

What might be poisoning you in small degrees?

What’s taking you even one step away from the top of the mountain?

You know what mountains are often symbols for throughout scripture?

Temples.

And this is our answer.

The Lord taught saints living thousands of years later this same lesson:

“Stand ye in holy places, and BE NOT MOVED.” D&C 87:8

Don’t come down the mountain for anything.

Not any Facebook argument, not any TV show, not any friend, not any pleasure.

Stay in the holy places (and the cool thing is, we can CREATE places that are holy), and then don’t come down the mountain.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Stand ye in holy places first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

As I listened to the lyrics though, I pretty quickly realized it was not-so-awesome.

Kyle and I were going to the temple that evening with some friends as soon as I got home from work.

I had the thought to turn the radio off.

But… I didn’t.

Later, in the temple, guess what song kept popping into my head?

I sat there and sang a bunch of primary songs and hymns in my head, trying to get rid of these terrible lyrics that kept coming to my mind.

Nothing was working.

I eventually just prayed my heart out.

“Heavenly Father, please remove this song from my mind. It’s distracting me from the spirit in the temple.”

And immediately.

Immediately.

A piercing thought came into my mind.

It was still and small, but powerful.

It was very clearly Divine.

And that voice said:

“Cali, you can’t pray away the consequences of your decisions.”

I was being reprimanded by the spirit in a very direct way.

I realized in a dramatic fashion that I couldn’t choose to ignore the spirit when he told me to change the radio station and then expect him to help remove the natural consequences of my actions later on.

Joseph Smith shared a powerful example of his experience with this spirit in D&C 85:6:

“the still small voice, which whispereth through and pierceth all things, and often times it maketh my bones to quake while it maketh manifest”

In the car, the spirit spoke to me in a very still and small voice.

And in the temple, it pierced my mind and made me very aware of the power behind it.

I needed to learn that lesson that day, and it has dramatically shaped my music choices ever since.

I needed that piercing voice for a major course correction.

And I am so grateful for a companion like the spirit who can give those messages in a way that I can’t write off.

I heard it, and I knew God knew that I heard it.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post A piercing message first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Joseph is reading newspaper reports every day about South Carolina’s new drama.

The federal government had established new tariffs (taxes), and South Carolina nullified them AKA refused to pay them.

United States President Andrew Jackson threatened South Carolina. They better pay the tariffs, or they would go to war.

It was in this mindset that Joseph prayed and received the revelation known as Section 87. 

This was a uniquely specific prophecy that actually mentioned specific locations and events:

It mentioned the rebellion of South Carolina, a war between the Southern and Northern states, the Southern states calling on Great Britain for help, and slaves rising up against their masters. 

So… I’m sure you know what happened next, right?!

… the federal government and South Carolina made a pretty quick and easy compromise where the government lowered the tariffs and the state agreed to pay them.

That was it.

All that political tension and turmoil, and then add on a very specific prophecy from a prophet about war.

And then, an anticlimactic resolution. 

Was the prophet wrong?

Well, if you are familiar with U.S. history, you know the power of hindsight. 

30 years later, South Carolina did lead a rebellion that brought unprecedented war between the north and the south, the south called on Great Britain for help, and slaves rose against their masters. 

Long after Joseph had died, and long after the saints had already moved west to Utah.

God’s timing is so dramatically different than our timing.

The early saints believed Christ’s return was imminent… and here we are 200 years later.

And this war prophecy did not come true even when current events seemed to point toward it happening right away.

Feeling a sense of “urgency” has always been something that the Lord has tried to evoke.

Change now. Keep the commandments immediately. Follow the prophet.

We don’t do these things because we know we’ve got a deadline approaching.

We do these things because He knows we will feel so much more peace in our lives as soon as we decide to turn to Him.

God’s timing is His own.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The unique story of Section 87 first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

It looked really cute, and I sat there for a while watching along with her.

I pretty quickly realized I didn’t like the attitude and rudeness in the show.

There weren’t bad words or taboo topics, but it wasn’t the general vibe that I’d like to see my daughter watch or emulate.

I’ve realized throughout my years of teaching and interacting with teens, and now as a parent, a truth that can be kind of scary to embrace at first.

I can’t block every bad influence out of my daughter’s life.

I can’t weed out all the tares.

Whew.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I don’t try to create a safe haven environment in my home.

We turned off the TV show, and in the future I know we’ll have discussions about internet and phone usage…

But at the end of the day, I can’t control every single thing my daughter will ever be exposed to.

I’m going to get rid of as many tares as I can, but I can’t root them all out.

“Pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender (for verily your faith is weak), lest you destroy the wheat also.” D&C 86:6

But as scary as this realization can be, Elder L. Tom Perry taught a sweet but powerful reminder:

“A steward managing the field must, with all his or her power, nourish that which is good and make it so strong and beautiful the tares will have no appeal either to the eye or the ear.”

How do I deal with the fact that I can’t get rid of all the tares right now?

I can nourish the good.

I can grow the wheat so strong and beautiful that the tares lose their appeal.

I can teach about the tares to take away shame or fear.

And I can prove through the way I live my life that sticking with the strong wheat is the way to go.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Wheat and tares first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I loved those days.

I knew each talk like the back of my hand, and I felt so close to each of the apostles and other general leaders.

A few of my favorites from that time were:

Elder Holland’s counsel to: “Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.” (April 2016)

That talk always widened my perspective when I was stuck in the day-to-day craziness.

Elder (at the time) Nelson’s counsel to make the Sabbath a delight was life-changing in getting me to really consider my choices each Sunday in a much more mature way. (April 2015)

Elder Bednar’s perfect talk about meekness that made a bunch of Christlike principles click in my mind. (April 2018)

My General Conference listening isn’t quite as consistent anymore, but I will tell you one thing that has not changed.

I have a testimony that the apostles are special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

And as we learn in the parable of the wheat and tares, as explained in D&C section 86:

“the field was the world, and the apostles were the sowers of the seed”. D&C 86:2

The apostles sow the seeds.

They sow really good seeds.

I used to view the apostles as the guys in the highest leadership positions in the church.

But now I view them a lot more like 15 men who have been called to serve and bear testimony of Jesus Christ, with the entire world as their responsibility.

They are servants who are sowing good seeds with every new place that they travel and every talk that they give.

We are almost exactly halfway in between Conferences right now.

And I think we can still do some heart-softening and some Conference-listening and some testimony-strengthening.

The apostles are different.

Their priesthood duty is to hold all of the priesthood keys and to bear special witness of Jesus Christ.

They don’t point us to how awesome they are.

Instead, they point us straight to Him.

I’d love to hear: What is something you’ve heard from an apostle recently that has really “sowed a good seed” into your life?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Sowers of the seed first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.