Counsel of God

“ The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men. ”

“ Can we settle our goings upon any promising road of purpose and endeavour? Along what lines shall we pull ourselves together? And in answer to all these questions I bring you this well-tried counsel of the great Christian apostle, this bugle-peal from the first century, and I ask you to let it be to you as the inspired word of the living God. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." Let us examine the counsel in order that we may buckle it on to our souls. ”

“ It is for this reason that Scripture does not blame persons who do not follow the counsels. Indeed, a counsel of God manifested outwardly, or proposed to men, indicates only a judgment of God, approving what he counsels as being more useful and suitable to reach everlasting happiness with greater ease and perfection. And any mind that would array itself in opposition to a divine counsel, by holding such a counsel not to be a better and more useful means for salvation, would put a grievous affront on God, in thinking so ill of his counsels. ”

“ God requires one thing of the people called Latter-day Saints, and if they will receive and obey that, everything else will follow, and that is—to obey the counsel of God's servants. If you will do that, everything else will follow in the train. And why should we not do so? Have we not a leader whom God has blessed as he has no other man of whom we have any knowledge at present on the earth? Look at what has been done! See how God has prospered him and those who have received his counsel! ”

“ I have exhorted them from year to year upon this very point, and have asked, why do you receive the counsel of God with doubtful hearts when you are taught the way of life and salvation, when things are made so plain and easy to you that you cannot misunderstand them? ”

“ If we will hearken to counsel we shall be the best people in the world; we shall be as a bright light set upon a hill that cannot be hid, or like a candle upon a candlestick. We declare it to all the inhabitants of the earth from the valleys in the tops of these mountains that we are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—not a church but the church—and we have the doctrine of life and salvation for all the honest-in-heart in all the world. ”

“ All the counsel of God - All that God has determined and revealed concerning the salvation of man - the whole doctrine of Christ crucified, with repentance towards God, and faith in Jesus as the Messiah and great atoning Priest. ”

“ This should be our aim as a people and as individuals, every day living so near to God that we shall have more of His Spirit and power, and more of the gifts and endowments of the holy Gospel of the Son of God. If we take and continue in this course we shall feel and understand that we are progressing in the knowledge of God and in the comprehension of truth. And let me tell you, my brethren and sisters, if we thus live, when counsel is given, no matter what it may be, or what principle it may refer to, it will be plain and simple, and as clear unto our minds as the light we now see ”

“ Now, the day has come when we, as a people, will have to listen to the voice of the servants of God, to the instructions of the Almighty through his servants, and obey them as implicitly as though God was in our midst. Yet, how often is it the case that, when we have counsel imparted unto us, we feel as though we had some suggestions to make that would make that counsel better and more applicable to us. ”

“ God needs not either to be counselled by others or to consult with himself; he knows what he will do, but thus he would show us that there is a counsel in his whole will, and teach us to consider our ways, and particularly that the sending forth of ministers is a work not to be done but upon mature deliberation. Observe, (1.) Who it is that is consulting. It is the Lord God in his glory, whom he saw upon the throne high and lifted up. It puts an honour upon the ministry that, when God would send a prophet to speak in his name, he appeared in all the glories of the upper world. ”

“ Note, In dealing with God, that which is good counsel to the meanest is so to the greatest, for there is no respect of persons with him. To persuade him to take this counsel, he sets before him good and evil, life and death. 1. If he will tamely yield, he shall save his children from the sword and Jerusalem from the flames. ”

“ We say we are willing to take counsel, and so we are, in a great measure, and with this knowledge I do not feel to forsake the Latter-day Saints, but I feel like pleading with them to live for God and His kingdom. Let us all continue steadfast and remember that we must obey the counsel of our Father and God. ”

“ For that the counsels of God cannot be but good, neither can the observance thereof seem difficult, unless to those who govern themselves according to human prudence, having less confidence in God than they ought. For he who hath given the counsel, will consequently give force and means to accomplish the same. And if your zeal and fervor draw you to embrace the counsels of Jesus Christ, observe them with the greatest integrity and perfection that you possibly can, seeing they were equally given to both sexes. ”

“ Counsel shall perish from the ancients; the elders of the people, that should advise them what to do in this difficult juncture, shall be infatuated and at their wits' end. It is bad with a people when those that should be their counsellors know not how to consider within themselves, consult with one another, or counsel them. 6. Since they had animated and encouraged one another to sin, God would dispirit and dishearten them all, so that they should not be able to make head against the judgments of God that were breaking in upon them. ”

“ Hence in the research of counsel, man requires to be directed by God who comprehends all things: and this is done through the gift of counsel, whereby man is directed as though counseled by God, just as, in human affairs, those who are unable to take counsel for themselves, seek counsel from those who are wiser. ”

“ If you would take my counsel you never would cease to plead with the Lord, until He opened the eyes of your understanding and revealed eternity to you, that you might know for yourselves how things are, and when you know and keep in that spirit, you will never be deceived, but the spirit of truth will always be with you, and if you cleave to that, it will lead you into all truth and holiness. ”

“ For by the counsel of God that man is set forth as blessed, ‘whom his Lord shall appoint over the ministry of his fellow-servants, to give them their meat in their season, not thinking and saying in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming, and who shall not begin to beat his fellow-servants, eating and drinking with harlots and drunkards. ”

“ The promise of blessedness which God has made to believers is not a rash and hasty thing, but the result of God's eternal purpose. (2.) This purpose of God was agreed upon in counsel, and settled there between the eternal Father, Son, and Spirit. (3.) These counsels of God can never be altered; they are immutable. God never needs to change his counsels; for nothing new can arise to him who sees the end from the beginning. ”

“ He has made it, has deposited that counsel, that wisdom and those riches, and it will circumscribe all that pertains unto good, unto salvation; all that pertains unto peace and unto happiness; all things that pertain to glory and to the exaltation of the Saints in this world and in the world to come. ”

“ I suppose the precursor of all visions of Him, which have calmed His servants' souls with the peace of a clearly recognised duty, has been their cry, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?' God counsels men who use their own wits to find out His counsel. He speaks to us through our judgments when they take all the ordinary means of ascertaining our course. ”

“ That a man be of such good counsel as to counsel others, may be due to a gratuitous grace; but that a man be counselled by God as to what he ought to do in matters necessary for salvation is common to all holy persons. ”

“ I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass ”

“ Be not therefore without counsel, that thou go not without thy purpose; and if thou canst, get many counsellors, whereby thou art likely the sooner to get thine end. For many counsellors are like many hands joined together, and can reach far in attaining thy desire.—Jermin.
I. No mortal man can attain unto such depth of judgment and understanding, to be able sufficiently, of his own knowledge, to manage all his affairs: God will have every man stand in need of his brother’s direction: that is revealed to some which is hid from others ”

“ We have learned the necessity of giving the most earnest heed to every counsel and word which the Lord our God has given to regulate our conduct. And many of us have learned, also, that when the Lord speaks, not by command, but by the word of wisdom and advice, that we should give heed to the same, in order to enjoy that flow of the Spirit of the living God in our hearts which is necessary to prepare us for further blessings. ”

“ When the Twelve come here full of wisdom and full of the power of God, I want you to receive their counsel in your hearts, for they will not teach you anything that will injure you; they will never counsel you to transgress the law of God, to live in the dirt and in the ashes; neither will they counsel you to live in these old bed-bug caves, but they will counsel you to be industrious, to be cleanly in your persons and in your habitations; they will counsel you to set out fruit trees, to gather around you the comforts and blessings of life. ”

“ The first is a counsel, as I said, to be followed by those who would be perfect; to mortify our own will and submit to the direction of others when it is not evidently wrong or foolish. But the second is a strict duty to be practised if we would be saved: to submit to the commands of those who certainly do speak in God's name, when their commands are not plainly wrong. And who are those who speak in God's name? First, they are those whom he has appointed to rule his church—your Holy Father the Pope, the bishops, and your pastors. Remember, when they speak to you they speak in the name of God ”

“ For what is more exalted than being made the recipient of God’s counsel, which is from all eternity?
Neither human tongue nor angelic mind is able worthily to praise her through whom it is given to us to look clearly upon the Lord’s glory. ”

“ The second kind of image is that foreknowledge which is in God’s mind concerning future events, His eternal and unchanging counsel. God is immutable and His counsel without beginning, and as it has been determined from all eternity, it is carried out at the time preordained by Him. ”

“ For it is written, “Many are the thoughts in the heart of man, but the counsel of the Lord abideth for ever,” [1] for no other reason except that we may understand or believe that as God is eternal, so is His counsel for eternity, and therefore unchangeable, as He himself is. ”

“ Is it not my privilege to give this people counsel to direct them so that their labors will build up the Kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of the devil? I will quote you a little Scripture, if you wish, the words of an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ to me. ”

“ The prime requisites for them that take counsel together are purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His Divine Fragrances, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones, patience and long-suffering in difficulties and servitude to His exalted Threshold. ”

“ Ask counsel at God's mouth, and make him king whom God shall choose; and happy it was for them that they had an oracle to consult in so weighty an affair, and a God to choose for them who knows infallibly what every man is and will be. ”

“ And if thou rejectest the counsel of the Lord, and followest the [Pg 185] desires of thine own heart, and the wills of men, and wilt not have the light of the world, Christ Jesus, only to rule thee, and to teach thee, which condemns all evil, then shall evil surely fall upon thee, if thou lovest not the light in thee which condemns it; and the judgments of God, nor the day of his last visitation with vengeance, thou mayest not escape. Therefore consider and mark my words, and let this counsel be acceptable unto thee; let it move thee to meekness, to humbleness, and to fear before the Lord ”

“ That will help and encourage others to get the same Spirit; for, in the midst of all that we hear from this stand with regard to counsel and implicit obedience to counsel, you and I must have the testimony of Jesus within us, or it is of but little use for us to pretend to be servants of God. We must have that living witness within us. We need the light of the Holy Spirit continually, day by day, as you have been told hundreds of times. ”

“ His friends who thus counsel him must also, to the attaining thereof, help to pray for him themselves, and cause him to desire good folk to help him to pray for it. And then, if these ways be taken to get it, I doubt not but the goodness of God shall give it.
VI VINCENT: Verily methinketh, good uncle, that this counsel is very good. For unless a person have first a desire to be comforted by God, I cannot see what it can avail to give him any further counsel of any spiritual comfort. ”

“ Then the counsel of our text prescribes the submission of our judgment to God, in the confidence that His wisdom will guide us. Committing our way unto the Lord does not mean shifting the trouble of patient thought about our duty off our own shoulders. It is no cowardly abnegation of the responsibility of choice which is here enjoined; nor is there any sanction of lazily taking the first vagrant impulse, wafted we know not whence, that rises in the mind, for the voice of God. ”