We just yak-yakked for 30 minutes and it was wonderful! Words...how we use them and enjoy communicating and strengthening and comforting each other... or words mis-used that have the power to create pain/anger etc. so powerful!
A man has joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it! Proverbs 15:23
This morning I've been addressing St. Patrick day cards to my family and SS class and friends in distant places. I was reminded of the connection and the power of staying in touch by sharing our feelings through our words...even something as outdated and archaic and time consuming as greeting cards!
I know I blogged (somewhere) about our early membership and trying to understand and figure out how Priesthood blessings work. That was just so foreign and yet so desirable to experience that power in our life. I shared about Terry being asked to help the Branch President administer to his very sick son and how Terry and I both really hoped it "worked" so the young man wasn't let down. To our surprise he was healed. The event that helped us most of all was a wedding that I attended in the Oakland Temple and the officiator asking the men in the room who had given their wives a Priesthood blessing and they all raised their hands. He then said that he wasn't talking about when they were sick but when they needed comfort and told them they should use that power for their families. Up to that moment we thought it was for illness. Terry worked that day and wasn't with me and when I told him we both decided to use that power for our family. I have received some absolutely marvelous blessings from him. Even now, with his health not 100%, and if I start feeling overwhelmed or whatever, he will bless me.
One thing that he had to learn was how to feel the spirit to pronounce a blessing. He did that.
If I needed a blessing of healing...I wanted someone that I had confidence in (sort of me judging them worthy of having the Priesthood! Maybe that already negates any good forthcoming!), not only of their faithfulness but their belief in the power they had. I wanted to believe their words and would listen and have them recorded and re-read them. sometimes I struggled with the pronounced blessing. I know my son and husband both would struggle sometimes over a blessing they had given and fret about it not happening to the individual as they had said or puzzling over why they said such and such. I remember Terry receiving a blessing once and was told "I command you to get out of this bed and walk". Well, I felt no spirit about that and two hours or so later, I had him in the ER. None of that shakes my faith as that fellow must be on a rather steep learning curve!
Others probably learned about the words pronounced, and understand what I was late to understand. The words are great but that is not the main thing!! What a beautiful relief!!
IF you are going...ho hum yawn...everyone already knows this!...then just stop reading my blog today! If you have had or are having questions or struggles or etc. etc. then read this!!! (really I should charge you for me sharing this!) In 2010 Elder Oaks clarified it as only he can do! The last sentence is such a summary! (IF I shared this talk before...I don't think I did...then enjoy again!)
Healing the Sick by Elder Dallin H. Oaks here
There are five parts to the use of priesthood authority to bless the sick: (1) the anointing, (2) the sealing of the anointing, (3) faith, (4) the words of the blessing, and (5) the will of the Lord.
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Words of Blessing
Another part of a priesthood blessing is the words of blessing spoken by the elder after he seals the anointing. These words can be very important, but their content is not essential and they are not recorded on the records of the Church. In some priesthood blessings—like a patriarchal blessing—the words spoken are the essence of the blessing. But in a healing blessing it is the other parts of the blessing—the anointing, the sealing, faith, and the will of the Lord—that are the essential elements.
Ideally, the elder who officiates will be so in tune with the Spirit of the Lord that he will know and declare the will of the Lord in the words of the blessing. Brigham Young taught priesthood holders, “It is your privilege and duty to live so that you know when the word of the Lord is spoken to you and when the mind of the Lord is revealed to you.”13 When that happens, the spoken blessing is fulfilled literally and miraculously. On some choice occasions I have experienced that certainty of inspiration in a healing blessing and have known that what I was saying was the will of the Lord. However, like most who officiate in healing blessings, I have often struggled with uncertainty on the words I should say. For a variety of causes, every elder experiences increases and decreases in his level of sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit. Every elder who gives a blessing is subject to influence by what he desires for the person afflicted. Each of these and other mortal imperfections can influence the words we speak.
Fortunately, the words spoken in a healing blessing are not essential to its healing effect. If faith is sufficient and if the Lord wills it, the afflicted person will be healed or blessed whether the officiator speaks those words or not. Conversely, if the officiator yields to personal desire or inexperience and gives commands or words of blessing in excess of what the Lord chooses to bestow according to the faith of the individual, those words will not be fulfilled. Consequently, brethren, no elder should ever hesitate to participate in a healing blessing because of fear that he will not know what to say. The words spoken in a healing blessing can edify and energize the faith of those who hear them, but the effect of the blessing is dependent upon faith and the Lord’s will, not upon the words spoken by the elder who officiated.
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