We had a Relief Society meeting on Sunday and I was struck with the fact that they reiterated something that has been stated again, and again, and again, and again 🤣 and so I took that idea to my classes this week and asked them if they understood this concept (shared at the meeting) taken from a talk by Pres. Nelson:

Every woman and every man who makes covenants with God and keeps those covenants, and who participates worthily in priesthood ordinances, has direct access to the power of God. Those who are endowed in the house of the Lord receive a gift of God’s priesthood power by virtue of their covenant, along with a gift of knowledge to know how to draw upon that power.

The heavens are just as open to women who are endowed with God’s power flowing from their priesthood covenants as they are to men who bear the priesthood.

President Russell M. Nelson, Spiritual Treasures, General Conference October 2019

I highly recommend reading the entire talk. So these are the questions that I asked the women of the class:

President Nelson stated that, “those who are endowed in the house of the Lord receive a gift of God’s priesthood power by virtue of their covenant, along with a gift of knowledge to know how to draw upon that power.”

1. What do you understand this gift of priesthood power to be?
2. How have you seen or used this gift?

I got many varied answers, some were quite vague, so I asked them to drill down into their experiences and memories because if the Prophet is saying that we have this, and that there will also be a gift of knowledge to draw upon this power, then we really should figure it out!!

Some of my favorite answers included:

That the power that one student feels (as an endowment from her temple covenants) is the ability to be more secure knowing that an answer is from the Holy Ghost. She said before she was endowed, it was difficult for her to know if she was really getting an answer from God, because she would get anxious about her decisions. Now she can discern the Spirit with more clarity.

Another was the spiritual feelings and promptings that mothers get on behalf of their children (some may call it women’s intuition, but this student correctly identified it as a gift from the Spirit to help with her important calling as a mother).

Others talked about speaking and led by the Spirit on their missions. Being prompted to give promises to people, that were not theirs to give, but they felt sure in the fact that as a representative of Christ they were allowed to speak these promises.

They spoke about sisters doing ordinance work in the temple, healings and other miracles through the prayer of faith, and even day-to-day lifting of others in their personal ministries. Knowing what to say and do.

A dear friend, as I continued the conversation beyond the classroom stated that maybe we (as women) need to just recognize that the spiritual things that we are already doing ARE exactly what the prophet is saying – that the Holy Ghost magnifying the inherent spiritual gifts that we have because we are covenant keepers. She had felt prompted to send out some very specific thoughts to her missionary daughter that day.

The truth is that both men and women (as you look at that quote) who are covenant keepers are entitled to the endowment of power through their temple covenants. And because they are too numerous to mention we must (as the first student stated) take time to recognize how our Spiritual lives have changed since we have been endowed. For me, it’s been a deeper love for and loyalty to the Savior, and that has only increased in the 20 plus years since my first time in the temple.

So, I invite you to think, and recognize how the Lord has blessed you to do His work in your own personal earthly ministry. I would love to hear it in the comments, or if it’s too personal to share publicly, you can send it to me, or write it in a journal. But let’s do listen and recognize what the prophet is saying so that we can become the Kingdom of Priests and Priestesses that we have been called on to become (Exodus 19:6, Isaiah 61: 6; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6).