D&C 85–87

Structure your personal scripture study by following a 15-minute, day-by-day plan. Each day's assignment includes the required scripture passages from the Come, Follow Me curriculum, as well as suggestions for additional resources to bring context and understanding to your study. For the best experience, use our Reading Plan in the free ScripturePlus app! You can track your progress and have access to the best resources.

Monday

• Commentary: Section 85 Context, Steven C. Harper
• Scripture: D&C 85:1–5
• Quote: “To develop enduring faith, an enduring commitment to be a full-tithe payer is essential. Initially it takes faith to tithe. Then the tithe payer develops more faith to the point that tithing becomes a precious privilege. Tithing is an ancient law from God. He made a promise to His children that He would open “the windows of heaven, and pour … out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). Not only that, tithing will keep your name enrolled among the people of God and protect you in “the day of vengeance and burning” (D&C 85:3).
  Why do we need such resilient faith? Because difficult days are ahead...
  Russell M. Nelson, “Face the Future with Faith”, April 2011 General Conference
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 85:1–5.

Tuesday

• Scripture: D&C 85:6–9
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 85:6–7.
• Quote: The Holy Ghost speaks with a voice that you feel more than you hear. It is described as a “still small voice” (D&C 85:6). And while we speak of “listening” to the whisperings of the Spirit, most often one describes a spiritual prompting by saying, “I had a feeling …”
  The Prophet Joseph Smith explained: “A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; … those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.”
  Boyd K. Packer, “Personal Revelation: The Gift, the Test, and the Promise”, October 1994 General Conference
• Quote: The Prophet Joseph Smith, in a letter to William W. Phelps, quoted Section eighty-five of the Doctrine and Covenants, and, commenting upon the mission of the one mighty and strong (D&C 85:7) said: “Now Brother William, if what I have said is true, how careful men ought to be what they do in the last days, lest they are cut short in their expectations and they that think they stand, should fall because they keep not the Lord’s commandments.”
  In The Deseret News of November 13, 1905, President Joseph F. Smith and his Counselors, commenting on this statement, said: “Perhaps no other passage in the revelations of the Lord in this dispensation has given rise to so much speculation as this one . . . the Church of Christ and of the Saints is completely organized, and that when the man who shall be called upon to divide unto the Saints their inheritances comes, he will be designated by the inspiration of the Lord to the proper authorities of the Church, appointed and sustained according to the order provided for the government of the Church.
  So long as that Church remains in the earth—and we have assurance from the Lord that it will remain in the earth forever—the Saints need look for nothing of God’s appointing that will be erratic or irregular, or that smacks of starting over afresh, or that would ignore or overthrow the established order of things. The Saints should remember that they are living in the dispensation of the fullness of times when the Church is established in the earth for the last days and for the last time and that God’s Church is a Church of order or law, and that there is no place for anarchy in it.”
  Delbert L. Stapley, “Perfection Through Obedience”, April 1952 General Conference.
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 85:8–9.

Wednesday

• Scripture: D&C 85:10–12
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 85:10–12.
• Commentary: Section 86 Context, Steven C. Harper
• Scripture: D&C 86:1–3
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 86:1–3.

Thursday

• Scripture: D&C 86:4–7
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 86:4–7.
• Quote: Years ago, I wondered over the scriptural imagery of angels waiting “day and night” for “the great command” to come down and reap the tares in a wicked and suffering world; it seemed rather eager to me (See D&C 38:12; D&C 86:5). Given such massive, needless human suffering, I don’t wonder anymore!
  Even so, the final reaping will occur only when the Father determines that the world is “fully ripe” (D&C 86:7). Meanwhile, brothers and sisters, the challenge is surviving spiritually in a deteriorating “wheat and tares” world.
  Neal A. Maxwell, “Behold, the Enemy is Combined”, April 1993 General Conference
• Video: The Wheat and the Tares - John Hilton III (D&C 86)

Friday

• Scripture: D&C 86:8–11
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 86:8–11.
• Quote: In this final verse the Lord reminds us of two things. First, he reminds us of our responsibility to do missionary work here on the earth. Second, he informs us that we are not only to be messengers of salvation to the living, but saviors for our ancestors who went before us and who, though now dead, have paved the way whereby we might receive our present blessings. It is through them we received our priesthood. The promise was made that, even if they were born at a time and place where they could not hear the gospel preached in life, God would provide saviors for them from among their descendants. We are those saviors God promised through whom they can have every priesthood blessing.
  Theodore M. Burton, “Salvation for the Dead: A Missionary Activity”, April 1975 General Conference.
• Quote: How you deal with life’s trials is part of the development of your faith. Strength comes when you remember that you have a divine nature, an inheritance of infinite worth. The Lord has reminded you, your children, and your grandchildren that you are lawful heirs, that you have been reserved in heaven for your specific time and place to be born, to grow and become His standard bearers and covenant people. As you walk in the Lord’s path of righteousness, you will be blessed to continue in His goodness and be a light and a savior unto His people (See D&C 86:8–11).
  Russell M. Nelson, “Face the Future with Faith”, April 2011 General Conference

Saturday

• Commentary: Section 87 Context, Steven C. Harper
• Scripture: D&C 87:1–5
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 87:1.
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 87:2–3.
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 87:4.
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Sunday

• Scripture: D&C 87:6–8
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 87:5–6.
• Commentary: Casey Paul Griffiths, Doctrine and Covenants Minute, Doctrine and Covenants 87:7–8.
• Quote: Wherever we go, our priesthood goes with us. Are we standing in “holy places” (D&C 87:8)? Said President J. Reuben Clark Jr., who served for many years as a counselor in the First Presidency: “The Priesthood is not like a suit of clothes that you can lay off and take back on. … Depending upon ourselves [it is] an everlasting endowment.” He continued: “If we really had that … conviction … that we could not lay [the priesthood] aside, and that God would hold us responsible if we [demeaned] it, it would save us from doing a good many things, save us from going a good many places. If, every time we started a little detour away from the straight and narrow, we would remember, ‘I am carrying my Priesthood here. Should I?’ it would not take us long to work back into the straight and narrow.”
  Thomas S. Monson, “The Priesthood - a Sacred Gift”, April 2007 General Conference.
• Quote: Are we following the Lord’s command, “Stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly” (D&C 87:8)? What are those “holy places”? Surely they include the temple and its covenants faithfully kept. Surely they include a home where children are treasured and parents are respected. Surely the holy places include our posts of duty assigned by priesthood authority, including missions and callings faithfully fulfilled in branches, wards, and stakes.
  Dallin H. Oaks, “Preparation for the Second Coming”, April 2004 General Conference.