The Branch President
asked me to prepare a lesson on the duties of the Aaronic Priesthood for a
relatively new member.
As I prepared the lesson
and read D&C 13, I became concerned he would ask what is meant by the keys
of the ministering of angels.
D&C 13
1 Upon you
my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer
the Priesthood of Aaron, which
holds the keys of the ministering
of angels, and of the gospel
of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of
sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the
Lord in righteousness.
I shared the following
story to help explain D & C 13,
There are two concepts that may be considered in regards to D
& D 13. In the recent General Conference several instances were cited where
angels did administer to members of the Aaronic Priesthood. What may not be
fully appreciated is that when an angel administers to someone he seldom makes
himself visible. Rather he puts thoughts into the mind and feelings into the
heart of the Aaronic Priesthood bearer to whom he is administering, giving him
aid and suggestions to bless his life. It may be in the form of avoiding
danger, encouraging righteous action or clean thoughts, and most often in
answer to sincere prayer for help, as was mentioned in the conference.
Let me give you an example of the subtle ministering of angels.
This was an experience, however, of an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood who
happened to be on a mission. He was my son. On their preparation day, he and
his companion took a hike into the hills west of Mendoza, Argentina. Just west
of the city the mountains rise abruptly, much like in Denver, Colorado. The
hike was rather extensive, as they went to the top of the first range of hills.
As they started down it was evening, and they mistakenly took a different
canyon on the way back. It was a cloudy night, with no moon, and so the
darkness was rather complete. Since they had taken the wrong canyon down they
could not see the lights of the city, so it was very dark, and they had to feel
their way down the canyon one footstep at a time.
At a certain point along the way my son thought, “I think I’ll
pick up a couple of rocks and throw them ahead to get an idea of what it may be
like by the sound they make.” So he did so. The first rock that he threw ahead,
he waited to hear the sound of the rock hitting the ground, but heard nothing.
So he threw a couple more rocks, and still heard no sound of their falling. So
he and his companion went back up the canyon a short distance and settled down
for the night.
When light came in the morning they went back down to where they
had stopped and observed just a few feet ahead a sheer cliff that dropped down
about 1000 feet!
To me that was a clear and unmistakable example of the
ministering of angels to those two missionaries.
Let’s think a minute about the kind of a person to whom an angel
might administer. In the first place it would seem that righteousness on the
part of the person would be an important factor, and certainly prayer would
usually be a factor. Who would be more righteous than a recently baptized
person, whose sins had been forgiven by compliance with that sacred ordinance?
The Aaronic Priesthood, as stated by John in the above revelation, has the keys
to repentance and baptism. Would not that fact alone qualify the recipient for
the ministering of angels? The keys to the administering of angels would be used
each time a Priest would baptize a person.
