2 Nephi 11

Nephi gives us four things that he delights in doing. One is quoting the words of Isaiah. How many people, including me, have asked, "How can you delight in words you can't understand?" I think with Isaiah, you have to keep trying. Each time you go back, a little of the curtain is pulled back. It's like the temple, each time you go, you get a little more. The second thing he delights in is proving to the people the truth about the coming of Christ. Nephi is looking forward; we look back to prove that he came and for us that he has come twice. Once for his ministry and atonement and once to restore the gospel. He tells us that all things in the world bear witness of him. In Moses it says, "All things have their likeness, and all things are crated and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath, all things bear record of me." If we look, we will see.

The third thing Nephi delights in are the Lord's covenants, particularly the promise he will deliver us from physical and spiritual death. Nephi says this promise shows how great his grace, justice, power, and mercy is. The fourth thing is similar, it's Nephi's delight in proving that unless Christ came, there would be no deliverance from death. He uses good logic, if there is no Christ to redeem us from death, there is no God, and if there is no God, there would have been no creation. Our very existence is proof that there is a God. No one has ever been able to explain what the essence of life is, what makes things live, move and function. At death it would seem that this essence of life ceases to exist. But if it exists, it had to have been created. Of course, we know our existence goes way beyond this experience of mortality.

These four things that Nephi delights in are a testimony of Christ. I find that we experience a special spirit when we teach and testify of the Savior. If we open up our hearts and let us ourselves feel, we can know. At the end of second Nephi, he says, "when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men. But behold, there are many who harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast away many things which are written and esteem them as things of naught." The Holy Ghost is there. We just need to open our hearts. If we don't let our minds wrestle with the detail, we will find that we can know without doubt. Once we have that foundation, then the details fall into place and we no longer have this battle going on in our minds. We reach a place of peace and assurance where our heart and our mind are at the same place. That enables us to see things more clearly and to understand more deeply the things of the gospel and of life. If we soften our hearts, we will feel.