The Lord Will Perfect Me Concerning His Kingdom

Whom the Lord Calls, the Lord Qualifies

The Lord does not wait until His servants already possess every skill, understanding, or experience they will need before He calls them. He sees what they can become and gives them work that requires growth. Through that work He teaches, corrects, strengthens, and enlarges them until they are able to carry responsibilities that once may have seemed beyond them.

President Thomas S. Monson often taught the principle, “Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.” The doctrine is not that receiving a calling means a person is already fully prepared or that everything they presently do must therefore be right. A calling begins a stewardship in which the Lord can prepare the servant to accomplish what He has required.

The Lord gave a similar promise to those He sends in His service:

“And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:88).

The servant is still required to labor, learn, repent, seek revelation, accept correction, and act in faith. The promise is that the servant does not have to do that work alone. If the Lord has truly given the stewardship, He can also provide what is needed for the servant to grow into it.

Our work is to build up the Kingdom of Zion in preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. That work requires more than occupying positions or receiving titles. It requires people who are willing to be taught by the Lord while they serve. Weakness, inexperience, or incomplete understanding do not disqualify a willing servant from being useful to God. They become part of the place where the Lord begins His instruction.

Learning Through Stewardship

When I was called to serve as the second counselor to the Prophet, I was given responsibilities that required more from me than simply agreeing with him or being present when help was needed. I was called to support, counsel, and sustain him in his labors, assist members when they needed counsel, report the state of things to him, help mediate difficult circumstances when he could not personally attend, serve as a scribe, assist in editing doctrine, oversee membership records and callings, and bear testimony and witness of the truth.

I did not enter that calling already understanding perfectly how to fulfill each responsibility. The stewardship itself became part of the Lord’s instruction. As situations arose, I had to learn what support actually required, when counsel was needed, when to listen, when to speak, how to carry burdens that were not mine to govern, and how to strengthen the work without taking the Prophet’s stewardship from him.

A dream helped me understand this more clearly. In the dream, I was preparing for a necessary surgery. I trusted the surgeon who was going to perform it, and his assistant had been assigned to help him and support me through the procedure. The surgeon carried the primary stewardship. He was responsible for the operation, and nothing the assistant did could replace or supersede that responsibility. The assistant’s work existed to help the surgeon fulfill his work and to help the patient safely receive what the surgeon was there to provide.

Instead, the assistant became distracted. I was cold, but the assistant did not get me a blanket. I was nervous, but rather than helping me or remaining attentive to what the surgeon and I needed, the assistant spent the time talking and gossiping with another woman. Eventually I became frustrated enough that I stopped the procedure before it began. I told the assistant plainly that I was not receiving the support I needed and that I would rather have someone else there to help me.

When I left, the assistant turned to the surgeon, surprised by what I had said. The surgeon did not defend the neglect. He confirmed that I had needed better support than I was receiving.

The order in that dream taught me something important about my calling. The surgeon’s stewardship was paramount to the work being performed, just as the Prophet is responsible for the work the Lord has placed upon him. My role as second counselor is more like the assistant. I am not there to perform the Prophet’s work for him, compete with his stewardship, or become distracted by everything happening around me. I am there to help him carry out the work the Lord has given him and to remain attentive to the needs of the people affected by that work.

That kind of support requires attention. A counselor cannot become so occupied with the opinions of others, the distractions of the world, gossip, side issues, or unrelated concerns that the central work is neglected. The responsibility is to watch, listen, counsel, serve, recognize what is needed, and help create the conditions in which the Prophet can fulfill his stewardship and the people can be properly cared for. Supporting another person’s stewardship is itself a real stewardship, and it must be magnified faithfully.

The Lord does not give a commandment without also preparing a way for His servant to accomplish it. Nephi expressed this confidence when he was given a difficult responsibility:

“I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” (1 Nephi 3:7).

That promise applies to the stewardships the Lord gives His servants. The path may require learning, correction, patience, experience, and greater faith than they presently possess, but the Lord knows what the work requires. If He has given the commandment and the stewardship, He is able to prepare the way for His servants to become capable of accomplishing it.

This is one way the Lord qualifies those He calls. He gives responsibilities that reveal what still needs to be learned, then teaches through the work itself. Stewardship becomes a place of instruction when a servant remains attentive to the work, faithful within its bounds, and humble enough to learn from what the Lord is showing.

Seek Your Own Witness

A servant of Jesus Christ cannot build a lasting testimony entirely upon another person’s testimony. Prophets, teachers, leaders, scriptures, and other witnesses can present truth, but each disciple remains responsible to seek the Lord and receive a witness for themselves.

I have experienced this as I have shared the teachings of this Church with people the Lord directed me to speak with. Some have accused our Prophet of teaching things that contradict what they previously understood, and they have assumed that because I sustain him, I must have simply accepted his words without seeking God for myself.

That is not how my testimony was formed. I listened to what was taught, then I prayed, studied, acted upon those teachings, and sought revelation from the Lord concerning whether they were true. I had to bring the matter before Jesus Christ and receive my own witness rather than borrow someone else’s certainty.

Alma taught this same pattern when he invited the people to begin with a willingness to test the word:

“But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.” (Alma 32:27).

An experiment requires participation. Alma did not ask the people merely to admire his testimony or accept his authority. He asked them to give the word a place, act upon it, and observe what happened. As the seed grew, they would come to know by experience that it was good.

That pattern has mattered in my own life. My testimony of what the Lord is doing does not rest solely upon the Prophet’s testimony. I have had to study the words, pray concerning them, live them, observe their fruit, and allow the Lord to teach me through the process.

Personal revelation also governs how I respond to people who disagree with me. Before answering difficult accusations or questions, I try to counsel with the Prophet where appropriate and then seek the Lord concerning how I should respond. The Spirit can teach a person to remain kind without surrendering conviction, to speak plainly without condemning, and to bear witness without turning disagreement into contention.

A servant who is being qualified by the Lord must learn to hear Him personally. The purpose is not independence from prophets or rejection of counsel. It is to become a disciple whose obedience rests upon a living relationship with Jesus Christ and whose testimony has taken root through personal revelation and experience.

Line Upon Line

The Lord does not normally give a servant the entire understanding of a calling at the moment the calling is received. Qualification is progressive. Knowledge increases as previous light is received, obeyed, and understood.

The Lord taught this principle through Nephi:

“For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.” (2 Nephi 28:30).

The promise and the warning belong together. Those who receive what the Lord gives and remain willing to learn will receive more. Those who decide that they already have enough close themselves to the additional light He is prepared to give.

This pattern means that new revelation does not automatically reject previous truth. The Lord may build upon what a person already knows, correct an incomplete understanding, add doctrine that was not previously known, or show how earlier teachings fit into a larger design. Growth requires enough humility to receive more without treating current understanding as the limit of what God is allowed to reveal.

I have seen this in my own preparation. Although I have not held my calling for very long, the Lord was teaching me before I recognized what He was preparing me to do. Dreams, experiences, scripture study, prayer, difficult conversations, and the repeated need to discern truth from error became part of that preparation. Looking backward, I can see lessons that were laying a foundation for responsibilities I had not yet received.

The Lord continues that process after a calling begins. He does not reveal everything at once because we do not need everything at once. He gives the light necessary for the present work and then adds more as we become prepared to receive and use it. A servant is qualified over time by continuing to hear, receive, and obey.

Qualification Requires Action

Revelation can teach us what the Lord wants, but knowledge alone does not magnify a stewardship. A servant becomes more capable by acting upon what the Lord teaches.

Faith therefore cannot remain only as belief. Prayer, study, and revelation must lead to obedience. Counsel must be practiced. Responsibilities must be carried. Weaknesses exposed through experience must be corrected. When mistakes occur, repentance must produce a better pattern rather than only regret.

This is one reason a calling itself is so useful in the Lord’s hands. A person may understand in theory that they should be patient, supportive, courageous, diligent, prayerful, or wise, but responsibility eventually creates circumstances in which those qualities must actually be exercised. Experience reveals whether the principle has become part of the person or remains only something they agree with.

Growth often includes failure. A servant may speak poorly, misunderstand a responsibility, overlook a need, respond too slowly, act too quickly, or discover that something they believed they understood was incomplete. The important question is what happens next. If the servant listens to correction, repents where necessary, seeks further light, and tries again, even failure can become part of the Lord’s instruction.

The Lord’s qualification is therefore not passive. He provides help, revelation, correction, opportunities, and strength, while the servant must use what is given. Faith becomes mature through obedience, and ability increases through faithful practice. The work that first exposes weakness can become the very work through which the Lord develops strength.

Perfected in Knowledge Concerning His Kingdom

Psalm 138 ends with David trusting that the Lord would continue His work in him:

“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.” (Psalm 138:8).

The Joseph Smith Translation expresses the principle in language that applies directly to the work of building the Lord’s Kingdom:

“The Lord will perfect me in knowledge, concerning his kingdom. I will praise thee O Lord, forever; for thou art merciful, and wilt not forsake the works of thine own hands.” (Joseph Smith Translation, Psalm 138:8).

“The Lord will perfect me in knowledge, concerning his kingdom” describes what I have experienced through my own calling. I was not required to understand everything before the Lord could use me. I was required to receive the stewardship, seek Him, listen when He taught me, act upon what He gave me, and remain willing to grow.

That same promise gives confidence to every servant who feels inadequate before a real responsibility from God. The answer is not to pretend that weakness does not exist or to assume that a calling has already made us complete. The answer is to trust the Lord enough to let Him teach us through the work He has given.

Solomon taught:

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Trusting the Lord means allowing His knowledge to govern the process of our growth. We do not have to see the entire path before taking the next faithful step. If He has called us, He knows what the work requires, what we presently lack, and what experiences will help us become more capable.

Jesus Christ is at the head of His Kingdom. He prepares His servants as surely as He assigns their work. Those who remain teachable, seek their own witness, receive additional light, and act faithfully upon what He gives will not remain where they began. The Lord will continue to qualify them and perfect them in knowledge concerning His Kingdom.

I am a witness of these things. I have seen the Lord teach, prepare, and qualify His servants in my own life, and I know that this is God’s work. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.