Our hearts swell with great confidence when we realize the knowledge and power of God. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows our hearts. He wants to bless us with His Holy Priesthood—and He does. We are always blessed according to our faithfulness. Many of us will be required to pay the price of enduring persecution in our lives, and for all of this we shall be blessed. Looking at the fate of Ammonihah should cause us to realize that our prophets speak for God. Today when our prophet asks us to obey the commandments and do certain things, we should realize that it is always for our own good. The blessings of heaven will be ours for obeying the commandment on which the blessing is predicated.
Let us consider that our mission upon the earth commenced in the premortal existence where we were called to service (as we were reminded in Alma chapter 13) based on the principle of foreordination as anchored in faith and valor. When we came here on our mortal journey we knew beforehand that the righteous would be persecuted for the sake of Christ. We were schooled in premortal classrooms to recognize both the agony of guilt and the ecstasy of deliverance—because we were taught there the first principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We knew before the foundations of the earth were laid that God’s word would always be fulfilled, then as now, and we rejoiced in the coming opportunity to complete our mortal probation with dignity, loyalty, and virtue—no matter what adversity might pour into our lives, no matter what sacrifice we might be called upon to make on behalf of the kingdom of God.
An account of the sons of Mosiah, who rejected their rights to the kingdom for the word of God, and went up to the land of Nephi to preach to the Lamanites; their sufferings and deliverance—according to the record of Alma. [Note: This preamble was included in the original edition of the Book of Mormon published in 1830.]