In three years, the church in Kirtland will grow from 150 members to to 1300 members in 1833 when this revelation is given. At this time, there are no buildings owned by the church. They are renting rooms for their meetings and so a building committee is established. The building committee continues to function today. This revelation instructs that buildings be built, one for the presidency of the church and one for printing church materials. These are not large, basically big enough to for one room. The Lord also instructs that lots for home be planned for members that spread out from this point in the community. I feel the Lord is setting a precedence for the church, one that continues today, in having a room for the first presidency to meet, carry out business, and greet officials who come to visit. Back in the 1970's, for example, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale visited the First Presidency and described the room and their meeting in these words:
"I met with these men of God in the room which [President] Woodrow Wilson said was the most beautiful room in the United States - and it is indeed magnificent.... I said to the president, because I felt that he was so deeply spiritual, "PresidentKimball, will you bless me?" He replied, "You mean you want me to give you a blessing such as I give our people?" I said, "Yes." So he came around behind me with the two other presidents and they put their hands on my head and President kimball in his quiet, sincere, loving manner prayed for me by name. As he prayed, I began to be very broken up and touched, and then of a sudden I had a wondrous feeling of the Presence and I said to him, "Sir, He is here; I feel His presence."
Verse eight promises that if no unclean thing comes into this room, "my presence shall be there."
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