Bearing a Powerful Witness

This week in Come, Follow Me we studied and read about Ammon, and his interaction with the sons of Mosiah and King Lamoni. The reading starts with Alma running into the sons of Mosiah as they traveled to the land of Zarahemla. Basically, it had been 14 years, they were out in the wilderness, and had struggled as they had been prompted to teach the Lamanites. That’s when they ran into each other, all headed to teach the Lamanites. The readings then focus on Ammon. There are several things to take away from this week’s lesson, but let’s focus on Ammon’s story.

As Ammon is traveling to preach to the Lamanites, he comes across Lamoni’s people. Lamoni is a Lamanite king. It was customary to tie up and take Nephites before King Lamoni, and have him decide what to do with the Nephites they found. Ammon tells King Lamoni that he’s there to serve him, and wants to live among his people there, possibly for the rest of his life. King Lamoni is impressed with Ammon, and offers one of his daughters in marriage. Just a quick note – this week’s video makes this seem like it happened immediately, while this could have happened over a longer period of time, which would help to explain King Lamoni’s change of heart regarding Ammon.

Anyways, Ammon tells King Lamoni that he only wants to serve him, and is put to work watching over King Lamoni’s sheep. People come to take the sheep, and the other shepherds that are with Ammon are afraid, because the last time this happened to somebody, King Lamoni had them killed. Ammon says, “nah, we’ll go get the sheep”, so they do. Once they have them, the raiders come back again to take the sheep and kill the shepherds, and Ammon fights them off.

Word gets back to King Lamoni, and he begins to think that Ammon might be what he calls “The Great Spirit”.. He asks where Ammon is – he’s out taking care of the horses. His humility strikes King Lamoni, and he sends for him. Basically, Ammon then teaches him about the plan of salvation, and King Lamoni is overcome by the spirit and basically passes out, but everybody is afraid he dies. He wakes up, bears testimony, and everybody in the room when King Lamoni speaks is now overcome with the spirit. Ammon gives thanks, and is then overcome by the spirit himself. Now there’s a room of people overcome by the spirit, essentially lying down. King Lamoni’s guards were afraid, but Abish, a Lamantish woman (a female Lamanite) was excited.

Abish had been a believer in God, but had never really made it known, since it was against Lamanite traditions. She was converted to the Lord, and understood that it was the power of God. She went and gathered a group of people to come witness what had happened. Some people in the crowd thought Ammon was the Great Spirit, as they called it. Others thought he had killed the king and everybody else in the room. Abish had faith, and reached for King Lamoni’s wife. She arose, everybody else in the room got up, and describes how they had seen and conversed with angels in their overcome state. This is how the gospel was begun to be spread among the Lamanites.

What stuck out to me was Ammon’s powerful witness. It was a powerful witness, not because of what he had learned and could then recite, but it was a powerful witness because of his humility, and his practical application of gospel principles in his life. He came to the Lamanites, only wanting to serve them, to help them, and to preach to them what he knew to be true.

You have to remember, the sons of Mosiah had been wandering around the wilderness for 14 years. That’s 14 years of wanting to give up, having hard times. Being chased, being thirsty, hungry, tired, and facing all the different challenges that come with living in the wilderness for 14 years. I’m sure they didn’t just have it nice and easy for 14 years. That’s 14 hot, humid summers. That’s 14 winters. Not to mention the transformation they experienced before they left. Now, Ammon was in King Lamoni’s fields, teaching by example. He was able to bear a powerful witness to what be believed because of the way he was living. His experiences led him to where he was during this time, to teach King Lamoni, and help convert King Lamoni’s tribe. This was an experience that he and the sons of Mosiah set out to have, not one that he just happened across one day because he was watching YouTube, playing video games, or sitting around bored.

This brings us to this week’s big question – what have you experienced? What have you lived that helps you to bear a powerful witness? Even better – what do you choose to do with your time to help you to bear a powerful witness? You don’t have to have read every scripture, front to back, back to front, multiple times, in order to claim you know something. You don’t even have to share the same things that somebody else does! Knowing something and doing something are two completely different things. For sure we need knowledge and understanding that comes from learning, but we need the knowledge and understanding that only we can share, that we can bear witness of, as an individual who has faced those things. This powerful understanding only comes from the things you experience, that are part of your soul. They come from your story.

How do you spend your time? What could you bear witness to? What could you teach? Ammon chose to spend 14 years in the wilderness before he taught King Lamoni and his people. Where are you? Are you avoiding your metaphorical wilderness? What could you teach, given the opportunity? How do you choose to spend your time? What habits do you have? What challenges do you choose to take on?

Take some time, review how you spend your time. Find a challenge, face a problem that you’ve been avoiding. Journal about it. Set some goals. Turn that challenge or problem into an opportunity. Journal your experience, journal what you learn, how you feel. What if life happens FOR us, not to TO us? Grow and learn, and then be able to bear powerful witness because of what you learned, because of who you are. You can help those who come after you. You can help the people around you, not just because of how smart or articulate you are, but because you can bear powerful witness to your beliefs. A witness powerful enough to teach kings and queens.