The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work

Prophet Joseph Smith gave two teachings near the close of his ministry that have been frequently taught by his successors. One of these is his teaching in the King Follett sermon that family members who were righteous will be together in the world of spirits. Another is this statement at a funeral in the last year of his life: “The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work … [in] the world of spirits. … They are not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained therewith.”

Trust in the Lord

October 2019

2010–2019

Dallin H. Oaks

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/10/17oaks?lang=eng&verse=#p

The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work...in the world of Spirits

 The spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work … [in] the world of spirits. … They are not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained therewith.”

Trust in the Lord

October 2019

2010–2019

Dallin H. Oaks

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/10/17oaks?lang=eng&verse=#p

Some repentance can occur in the spirit world

“To repent from sin is not easy,” Elder Russell M. Nelson taught in a prior general conference. “But the prize is worth the price.” Repentance begins with our Savior, and it is a joy, not a burden.....To assure that we will be clean before God, we must repent before the Final Judgment (see Mormon 3:22). As Alma told his sinful son, we cannot hide our sins before God, “and except ye repent they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day” (Alma 39:8; emphasis added). The Atonement of Jesus Christ gives us the only way to achieve the needed cleansing through repentance, and this mortal life is the time to do it. Although we are taught that some repentance can occur in the spirit world (see Doctrine and Covenants 138:31, 33, 58), that is not as certain. Elder Melvin J. Ballard taught: “It is much easier to overcome and serve the Lord when both flesh and spirit are combined as one. This is the time when men are more pliable and susceptible. … This life is the time to repent.”

Cleansed by Repentance

April 2019

2010–2019

Dallin H. Oaks

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/51oaks?lang=eng&verse=#p

Could you gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would by reading all that ever was written on the subject

Could we read and comprehend all that has been written from the days of Adam, on the relation of man to God and angels in a future state, we should know very little about it. Reading the experience of others, or the revelation given to them, can never give us a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God. Knowledge of these things can only be obtained by experience through the ordinances of God set forth for that purpose. Could you gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would by reading all that ever was written on the subject. … I assure the Saints that truth … can and may be known through the revelations of God in the way of His ordinances, and in answer to prayer.”

Chapter 36: Receiving the Ordinances and Blessings of the Temple

Joseph Smith ,Teachings of Presidents,

How to Release Those Spiritually Dead

There is a way to release the spirits of the dead; that is by the power and authority of the Priesthood—by binding and loosing on earth.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, (2011), 468–478

Our Ancestors Are Solicitous for Our Welfare

Us with Them and Them with Us, by Caitlin Connolly
November 3–9: “A Voice of Gladness for the Living and the Dead”

Doctrine and Covenants 125–128I believe we move and have our being in the presence of heavenly messengers and of heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. We begin to realize more and more fully, as we become acquainted with the principles of the Gospel, as they have been revealed anew in this dispensation, that we are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors, to our friends and associates and co-laborers who have preceded us into the spirit world. We cannot forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to them by ties that we can not break, that we can not dissolve or free ourselves from. If this is the case with us in our finite condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, shortsightedness, lack of inspiration and wisdom from time to time, how much more certain it is and reasonable and consistent to believe that those who have been faithful, who have gone beyond and are still engaged in the work for the salvation of the souls of men, the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound and proclaiming liberty to the captives who can see us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them. They have advanced; we are advancing; we are growing as they have grown; we are reaching the goal that they have attained unto; and therefore, I claim that we live in their presence, they see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; they can comprehend better than ever before, the weaknesses that are liable to mislead us into dark and forbidden paths. They see the temptations and the evils that beset us in life and the proneness of mortal beings to yield to temptation and to wrong doing; hence their solicitude for us and their love for us and their desire for our well being must be greater than that which we feel for ourselves. I thank God for the feeling that I possess and enjoy and for the realization that I have, that I stand, not only in the presence of Almighty God, my Maker and Father, but in the presence of His Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Savior of the world; and I stand in the presence of Peter and James, (and perhaps the eyes of John are also upon us and we know it not); and that I stand also in the presence of Joseph and Hyrum and Brigham and John, and those who have been valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ and faithful to their mission in the world, who have gone before. When I go I want to have the privilege of meeting them with the consciousness that I have followed their example, that I have carried out the mission in which they were engaged as they would have it carried out; that I have been as faithful in the discharge of duty committed to me and required at my hand as they were faithful in their time, and that when I meet them I shall meet them as I met them here, in love, in harmony, in unison and in perfect confidence that I have done my duty as they have done theirs.  (Conference Report, April 1916, p.3, Joseph F. Smith)

If We Want To Visit Jerusalem, Or This, That, Or The Other Place—And I Presume We Will Be Permitted If We Desire—There We Are, Looking

I can say with regard to parting with our friends, and going ourselves, that I have been near enough to understand eternity so that I have had to exercise a great deal more faith to desire to live than I ever exercised in my whole life to live. The brightness and glory of the next apartment is inexpressible. It is not encumbered so that when we advance in years we have to be stubbing along and be careful lest we fall down. We see our youth, even, frequently stubbing their toes and falling down. But yonder, how different! They move with ease and like lightning. If we want to visit Jerusalem, or this, that, or the other place—and I presume we will be permitted if we desire—there we are, looking at its streets. If we want to behold Jerusalem as it was in the days of the Savior; or if we want to see the Garden of Eden as it was when created, there we are, and we see it as it existed spiritually, for it was created first spiritually and then temporally, and spiritually it still remains. And when there we may behold the earth as at the dawn of creation, or we may visit any city we please that exists upon its surface. If we wish to understand how they are living here on these western islands, or in China, we are there; in fact, we are like the light of the morning. … God has revealed some little things, with regard to his movements and power, and the operation and motion of the lightning furnish a fine illustration of the ability of the Almighty (DBY, 380).

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, (1997), 279–84

Increasing Your Power to Teach the Gospel Qualifies You In This World or in the World to Come to Help Heavenly Father in Gathering His Children

There is another thing you can do. You can study the word of God, not for yourself alone but to be an emissary of the Lord Jesus Christ to all the world. When you increase your power to teach the gospel, you are qualifying to help Heavenly Father in gathering His children. As you do that, another blessing will come. Should the need ever come in family life in this world, or in the world to come, to draw back lost sheep, you will have received more power than you may now recognize.

Author: Henry B. Eyring
Title: Faith and the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood
Where: Ensign, May 2008, 61–64