The world around us is becoming more troubled, more divided, and more confused. With so many voices calling for our attention and proclaiming what truth is and is not, it can be difficult to know how to navigate our mortal journey.
Thankfully, the Lord has not left us to navigate mortality alone without direction and tools. He has blessed each of us with the light of Christ to help us recognize right from wrong. He has blessed us with the gift of the Holy Ghost, who gives us additional guidance, direction, peace, hope, and testimony. And He has blessed us with the words of prophets, both past and living.
What a privilege and blessing it is to live at a time when a living prophet walks the earth as Heavenly Father’s mouthpiece. Heavenly Father knows and sees all. When the prophet speaks prophetically, we can be sure it is the voice of Heavenly Father. It is through prophets that He warns, prepares, and guides his children through difficult and confusing times.
In his October 2018 general conference address, our living prophet President Russell M. Nelson, warned us that “the adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counterstrategies and proactive plans.”
In his April 2019 general conference remarks, President Nelson again warned us, “The adversary is quadrupling his efforts to disrupt testimonies and impede the work of the Lord. He is arming his minions with potent weapons to keep us from partaking of the joy and love of the Lord.”
We must use the knowledge and tools Heavenly Father has blessed us with to recognize and understand Satan’s tactics and counter them. I believe three of the most powerful tactics and weapons Satan uses against us are his ability to counterfeit, his power of deception through half-truths, and his ability to distract. If we are aware and vigilant, we can recognize and guard against Satan’s attacks. His goal is to stop our progress in becoming like our Heavenly Father by keeping us from partaking in the power and blessing of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He understands that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can reach our eternal potential and exaltation.
Counterfeits of Satan
In the Book of Mormon, we learn from the prophet Jacob that Satan is able to transform himself “nigh unto an angel of light.” Satan and his followers have had thousands of years to refine and test their tactics and have become very effective and proficient. An example of one of Satan’s most powerful counterfeits is his counterfeit for guilt.
Heavenly Father has blessed us with the gift to feel guilt when we have done something wrong, so we can recognize what we’ve done and change. This heavenly gift is accompanied by love, encouragement, and hope. It comes with the reassurance that we can turn to Christ and repent and change through the power and grace of His Atonement and become more than we can be on our own.
Satan has learned to counterfeit the powerful and important gift of guilt in order to stop our progress. We are bombarded with Satan’s counterfeit guilt and sometimes struggle to recognize when we are feeling heavenly guilt or experiencing the counterfeit guilt of Satan.
The Book of Mormon prophet Moroni teaches us how we can know if something is from Heavenly Father and if something is from Satan:
"For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for everything which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him."
Heavenly guilt is always accompanied by feelings of hope and love and turns us toward Christ and His Atonement. Heavenly guilt is like a road sign along our mortal journey, signaling us to make a U-turn and return to Christ.
On the contrary, Satan’s counterfeit guilt is accompanied by feelings of deep despair, discouragement, and doubt. It prompts feelings that we are not good enough and will never be good enough. Feelings that we are incapable of changing. Feelings that Heavenly Father is disappointed in us and discouraged by our constant mistakes. In contrast to heaven’s road sign, Satan’s sign signals that the road we are on is a dead end, and U-turns are not allowed.
Feelings of despair, discouragement, and doubt never come from Heavenly Father. He is not a God of despair. He is a God of hope and light, and forgiveness. He is a God of encouragement and enlightenment. He is a God of power and progress. He is a God of charity and change.
If we are not careful, we can mistake Satan’s counterfeit guilt for heavenly guilt. Moroni teaches us, "Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.”
Those who fail to recognize Satan’s counterfeit can begin to associate the accompanying feelings of Satan’s guilt with our Heavenly Father. They begin to feel that Heavenly Father is harsh and unreasonable. That He expects more of us than we are capable of. They associate feelings of despair with Heavenly Father, and they forget to turn to Jesus Christ. Satan doesn’t have to convince us that the Atonement isn’t real, he just has to get us to forget that it’s there for us.
As Sister Heather Carter taught in her devotional address last week, “We cannot cut Christ out of the equation. Christ is the critical component that allows us to find strength.”
When we recognize Satan’s counterfeits, we can use our gift of agency to reject and disregard those feelings and always turn to and depend upon Jesus Christ and His Atonement.
Deceptions of Satan
In his April 2020 general conference address, President Nelson warned, “The adversary is clever. For millennia he has been making good look evil and evil look good. His messages tend to be loud, bold, and boastful.”
Satan has become extremely effective at making the philosophies of the world appear correct by spattering its philosophies with half-truths. By including some truth, he tries to convince us that the whole of the philosophy is correct and good.
For instance, love and charity are key attributes of Christ that we are all taught to seek for and have. Satan convinces many that in order to show love and charity towards someone, we must approve of and support what they do. This line of thinking is flawed and incorrect. Christ showed love and charity to the woman caught in adultery, but He did not accept and support her actions. Rather, He lovingly and charitably encouraged her to change and sin no more. When Peter cut off the ear of one of the men who came to arrest Christ, He told Peter to put away his sword, and He lovingly and charitably healed the man's ear. By healing the man’s ear, Christ was not condoning and supporting the man’s part in His unlawful arrest and execution. Rather, Christ was showing us that regardless of one’s actions and choices, we can still show love and charity toward them.
Agency is an essential part of our doctrine and fundamental to our progress here in mortality. Some philosophies of the world try to justify and excuse peoples’ choices by misinterpreting and misrepresenting the principle of agency. The world’s philosophy tries to convince us that because the freedom to make a choice is a good and true principle, then all choices we make must also be good and true. It tries to convince us that if someone opposes the choices someone else makes, then they don’t support freedom of choice or agency. This idea is flawed and false.
We have been given our agency to choose between good and evil. What we choose is as important as the ability to choose. If we choose evil, it will be to our demise. If we choose good, it will be for our eternal good. To oppose another’s choice that we regard as wrong is not opposing the person's ability to choose. What the world wants is to be relieved of any consequences for the choices they make. The world may remove the earthly consequences for certain choices people make, but they cannot remove the eternal consequences that inevitably come with making those choices.
President Nelson taught us how we can recognize when a message comes from Heavenly Father: “Messages from our Heavenly Father are strikingly different. He communicates simply, quietly, and with such stunning plainness that we cannot misunderstand Him.” There are no gray lines with Heavenly Father’s truth. There is right, and there is wrong. The world tries to create acceptable exceptions to God’s truths, but there is no such thing. When Heavenly Father speaks, there is plainness and clarity, and if ever there is confusion, we can be sure that the confusion comes from the philosophies of men and not from the Lord.
Distractions of Satan
Satan has become the master of distraction, and there have never been so many distractions in human history as there are today. So many things call for our time and attention that it can be difficult to determine what to do and when to do it. We have family, work, school, and church responsibilities that are extremely important and require much of our time. But mixed with all of these responsibilities, we have constant and continual distractions from a million other sources. Phone calls, texts, emails, social notifications and trends, news notifications, new TV shows and movies, sports, hobbies, friends, and so much more. As demands on our time increase, it is vital we choose wisely what we do and do not spend our time on.
Because distractions will always be present in our lives, we need, as President Nelson counseled, “counterstrategies and proactive plans.” We can never forget why we are here on earth and that our ultimate goal is to become like our Heavenly Father and return home to Him. We must keep this goal at the forefront of our minds in all that we do.
On the devotional discussion board this week, Jian Walker said that daily prayer and scripture study help him keep an eternal perspective in his life. I believe this is one of the most important and effective counterstrategies we can adopt in our lives.
With so much going on and so many distractions bombarding us, attending church once a week and praying occasionally is not enough. The time we spend studying the scriptures and praying each day will be the anchor that reminds us why we are here on earth and of our eternal purpose and goal. No matter what challenges and demands we face, we will be able to put those challenges into an eternal perspective. It will help us remember and know that, through Christ, we can overcome everything we face in this life with the hope of eternal life in the world to come. Things that seem insurmountable and overwhelming from the world's perspective will be put into their proper perspective as we keep our focus on our eternal purpose and on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Daily reading of the scriptures and prayer throughout the day will also help us recognize the promptings of the Spirit when they come. The Spirit will become our guide through the confusing and tangled distractions of life. He will warn us from going down paths that distract from our purpose and take time away from the things that really matter. As we read and study the scriptures and the words of living prophets, we will come to know and understand more perfectly the absolute necessity of the Atonement of Christ in our lives.
Only through Jesus Christ
Recognizing the tactics of Satan will help us avoid his pitfalls and unnecessary discouragement, grief, and pain. But it is only through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can fully overcome Satan and the negative effects of our mortal existence. Only through faith in Jesus Christ and His selfless sacrifice can we reach our ultimate goal and destination of becoming like Heavenly Father and returning back to His presence as eternal families. It is through the Atonement of Christ that we are able to repent.
In his April 2019 general conference address, President Nelson explained what it means to repent. He taught,
"The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo. The prefix meta- means 'change.' The suffix -noeo is related to Greek words that mean 'mind,' 'knowledge,' 'spirit,' and 'breath.'
Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to 'repent,' He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.
Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind. When coupled with faith, repentance opens our access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. . . ."
Experience the strengthening power of daily repentance—of doing and being a little better each day.
When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy—the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become more like Jesus Christ!
It is not enough to just believe in Christ. We must, with faith, take hold of the Atonement and change. We must make a concerted effort to change from the natural man and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. Little by little, we will become more and more like our Heavenly Father.
The Atonement of Jesus Christ was not prepared for us in case we made mistakes. The Atonement was prepared for us so that we could make mistakes, learn from our mistakes, and grow and change through the process. It is only through this process and the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can become like our Heavenly Father.
In the same address, President Nelson taught,
"Too many people consider repentance as punishment—something to be avoided except in the most serious circumstances. But this feeling of being penalized is engendered by Satan. He tries to block us from looking to Jesus Christ, who stands with open arms, hoping and willing to heal, forgive, cleanse, strengthen, purify, and sanctify us."
As President Nelson taught, the idea that repentance is a punishment comes from Satan. Heavenly Father is not in the business of punishing. He is in the business of salvation and exaltation. He is in the business of changing souls and helping them become like Him.
The world often imposes penalties as punishment to compel or control behavior. Heavenly Father is anti-control. He cannot and will not compel us to become like Him. It was Satan who wanted to take our agency from us and compel us to do what was right.
When Heavenly Father speaks of punishment, it is often in reference to the natural consequences of the choices we or others make. If we choose to do something contrary to what we know to be right, there is a natural consequence that follows. Contrary to what Satan would have us believe, Heavenly Father does not punish us every time we do something wrong.
When we experience negative consequences for a choice we or someone else makes, we are experiencing the natural consequence of that choice and not a punishment from Heavenly Father. For example, you are distracted while driving, run a red light, and hit another car. Wrecking the other car and your car is not a punishment for being distracted, it is a natural consequence of being distracted while driving.
Sometimes, we think Heavenly Father should block us from the effects of natural consequences, but He cannot without destroying the demands of justice. Justice demands that there be consequences for our choices, and Heavenly Father cannot destroy the demands of justice. In order to overcome the natural consequences of mortality, Heavenly Father provided His Son Jesus Christ as the sacrifice to meet the demands of justice. Heavenly Father cannot remove the consequence of a choice, but through the Atonement of Christ, the eternal effects of the choices can be overcome, making it possible for us to return back to His presence.
I know that it is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can overcome the effects of our mortal journey and, through His love and grace, be brought back into the presence of the Father and eventually become like He is. I’m grateful for the direction and tools He has provided for us to help us navigate life on earth. I’m grateful for a living prophet who is Heavenly Father’s mouthpiece and who guides and directs His work on the earth. I pray we can all keep our eternal perspective throughout our lives and never become lost from the path that leads to eternal life and eternal happiness, even God’s happiness.
Notes
[1] Russell M. Nelson, “Opening Remarks,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2018/11/saturday-morning-session/opening-remarks.
[2] Russell M. Nelson, “We Can Do Better and Be Better,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2019, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2019/05/36nelson.
[3] 2 Nephi 9:9.
[4] Moroni 7:16–17.
[5] Moroni 7:14.
[6] Heather Carter, “Stong at the Broken Places,” BYU-Idaho Devotional, Aug. 22, 2023, https://www.byui.edu/devotionals/heather-carter.
[7] Russell M. Nelson, “Hear Him,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2020, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2020/05/45nelson.
[8] See John 8:1–11.
[9] See Matthew 26:47–56; Mark 14:43–50; Luke 22:47–53; John 18:1–12.
[10] Nelson, “Hear Him.”
[11] Nelson, "Opening Remarks.” e
[12] Nelson, “We Can Do Better and Be Better.”
[13] Ibid.