Impossibly Possible

What do the Miracle of the Hamster and Taylor Swift tickets have to do with Come, Follow Me? Well, this week, you're going to find out. Some would say receiving an answer to a prayer is a miracle, and in this week's episode Candis breaks down miracles witnessed throughout Matthew 1 and Luke 1 as well as how to see miracles in your own life and believe that the impossible is actually possible.

Go & Do Challenge
Write about a time you have seen a miracle in your life & then share about it with your family/friends.

Episode Links
Waiting on the Lord - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

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Transcript

Candis Shupe  0:02  
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Candis Shupe. And the very first thing that I want to do is wish you a most joyous and happy New Year. I hope that as you are looking at 2023, and determining what direction you want to go that one of the things that you're including in that is moving closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope that some of you have already taken the challenge from week one to pray and ask heavenly father if he loves you. My question after that is did you get an answer? If you did get an answer, and you are willing to share, we hope that you'll go out and comment on social media to let us know about your experience and about your answer. If you feel that it is something that you can share. If it is too sacred of an experience, we definitely understand and get that and I would encourage you to keep it as such. Some would say that receiving an answer to a prayer like that is a miracle. And as I contemplated the word miracle, I went to our friend to the online Webster's Dictionary again, to see what that definition would look like. And Webster's defines it as an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. So as we talk for the next few minutes, I want you to contemplate the question, when in your life, have you seen a miracle? When in your life have you seen a miracle? Now, the reason that I want you contemplating that for this week in Come,Follow Me is because the New Testament starts with two major miracles taking place. So we're going to jump right in as we hear the announcement of John the Baptist, we're going to jump over into Luke chapter one. A nd in Luke chapter one, if you'll remember with me, we've got Zacharias and he  is performing his duties. He goes to the temple as a little background for about them, though, Zacharias and his beautiful wife, Elizabeth, they are up in years like 80s 90s Plus, they're old. And in the process of that happened, and I'm gonna say that because I'm old. But in the process of that happening, one of the things that transpires there is they have always longed for children, and for whatever reason, have not been blessed with children. I think we find out that reason here at the end of this story, but in the process of them longing for children, we pick the story up or the narrative in Luke chapter one, verse number five, we read, there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, certain priests named Zacharias of the course of Aviana, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God. Now love that that is called out in Scripture that they were righteous. I don't know about you, but I would love to be called out as and Candis was righ teous, that would be great. So here we have that both Elizabeth and Zacharias they are righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless than we understand why they get that title of righteous, they were obedient to the commandments and ordinances of the gospel verse seven, and they had no children, because that Elizabeth was barren. And they both were now well stricken in years. So here they are this faithful covenant couple, who are unable, for whatever reason to have children. And Zacharias as it would be goes up into the temple. And he is, as the custom of the priests office, it's his turn to burn the incense. So we pick up the story as he's in there, burning the incense, verse 11. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. I don't know about you, but I think if an angel showed up somewhere, I'd have a little bit of fear myself, I'd be like, Whoa, what's up? There is angel shows up. But I love what happens in verse 13. But the angel said unto him, fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear the son, and thou shalt call his name, John. Now, did you catch the two things that are really important here about Zacharias and Elizabeth, for that matter? The angel first tells him, to fear not to be afraid, do not be afraid. As a side I decided one of the things that I wanted to pick for 2023 is my personal mantra is, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now, that's a pretty heavy mantra to take on, and I'm going to be working on it. Because a disciple of Jesus Christ is not afraid. They're not afraid to disclose who they are and what they believe. And so here the angel says under Zacharias, fear not, but why for the prayer is heard. So, here he's told to not be afraid, because his prayers are actually being heard. Word. That is something you and I can and hopefully have been learning from a very early, early age, to not be afraid. But to take those concerns to a loving Heavenly Father, whatever they may be. Now, in an attempt to help my youngest really understand this, we have made prayer part of our lives. It's a part of what we do before she heads off to school. Now that she's in junior high, but about five years or so ago, she had a hamster. Now this poor young lady didn't have just one hamster. As fate would have it. She was given a hamster for her birthday. That hamster died while we were on a vacation. She was traumatized and wanted another hamster. So we got another hamster, which I learned they have a 14 day return window. That one was aggressive. So we returned it. And we got another one. The third one was aggressive and we returned it. So I told her look, this fourth one is the do all end all hamster. If this doesn't work for you, we are done with hamsters. Well, she was very diligent with this hamster and did everything she could to make the hamster work except for one small thing. The hamster I think really was Houdini reincarnate. Like no joke. Like this hamster had a way to escape out of locked cages, better than almost any hamster I have ever heard of. Well, one particular afternoon she had left the hamster cage open, the hamster had escaped, we easily found it. And I said to her look, Tyli, here's the deal. This hamster escapes again, and it will not come back to live with you. Because when I find it, I will kill it. Now that's pretty harsh as a parent, probably to lay down on a you know, I think she was all about six or seven. But in the process of talking to her about this, the concept really was look, keep your hamster under control if you want it. Right. Well, that was all good and well until one morning, my daughter comes walking out crying from her bedroom, and I felt horrible. I said, Tyli, what's wrong? What is going on? And she said, Mom, my hamster is gone. I locked the cage last night I put it away like I was supposed to. I did everything that I was supposed to do. But the hamster is gone. And I looked at her and I said, You gotta be kidding me. You better find it. If I find it before you do, what's going to happen? And with tears in her eye she said, Mom, you're gonna kill her. Well, she was absolutely right. In that moment, I was so frustrated because like many parents, I had heard so many horrific stories about hamsters escaping and multiplying on their own and getting in furnaces and then seriously like any hamster horror story. I think I had heard them all. And so here in my fear of this hamster, I looked at my young young daughter and said, You better find it. Well, in the process of her starting to look, then she also began to panic because it was time to get ready for school. And her older sister comes in and says what seems to be the problem. And I said, Oh, that hamster. That hamster has escaped. And I better not be the one to find it? Well, we searched her room and couldn't find it in and time was ticking and I could feel her stress mounting. And I said, Well, you've got to get ready for school. We will have to figure this out while you're gone. Well, she went downstairs after she got dressed quickly for breakfast. And as I came down to the kitchen to meet her I said to her Tyli you better pray and you better pray you find that hamster. Well, this sweet little six year old, folds her arms and says a very humble and direct prayer of Heavenly Father my hamsters missing help us find it because mom's gonna kill it if she finds it. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Well, she ended her prayer and she starts to eat her breakfast. And it wasn't even five minutes later, we her older sister called down. I found the hamster. We both ran upstairs. And sure enough, deep in the crevices of the closet, she had found the hamster. We quickly put the hamster back in. I'm not going to kid you. And I say we use paper clips and everything else to keep that cage locked.

I wanted to duct tape it honestly. But we use everything we could to keep it locked up. And we got her off to school. Well, right before we got her off to school, one of the things I did say to her was, well, what should we do now that we found it? I appreciate her courage, and her trust in a loving Heavenly Father as she said, We need to tell Heavenly Father thank you. And I said, Well, before we do that, let's ask your sister how she even found the hamster and I turned and I said how did you find the hamster? To which she responded. I looked and looked and felt impressed to pray. So I knelt down in the room and asked Heavenly Father if he would guide me to where the hamster was. I knew he had to be in the room still. And sure enough, as soon as I ended the prayer, I heard a scratch scratch scratch in the closet. Now what I love about her experiences, she knelt to say that prayer, the exact time that a little six year old was praying to the same loving Heavenly Father. In short, between the two of them, they had prayed and subsequently experienced an extraordinary event, manifesting divine intervention in a human affair. They were witnesses as was I that morning to the miracle of the hamster. Which goes back to our first question. So when in your life, have you seen miracles? When have you seen a loving Heavenly Father, manifest His divine intervention into your lives into the lives of others that you love? Well Zacharias and Elizabeth they sit on this announcement. And sure enough, Elizabeth, she is pregnant, she conceives a child. They know that the child is to be named John the Baptist. Well, not John the Baptist. Let's be honest, he's supposed to be named John Baptist comes later. But he's supposed to be named John. When the process of all of that happening, one of the things that I love is, is in the same chapter in Luke chapter one, we find another announcement. Let's take a look at what happens in verses 26 through 38. So we jump over into Luke one, verse 26. And we read, and then in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. So you know, these people, Mary and Joseph, they're engaged, and the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, here's some power words again, fear not marry, for thou hast found favor and God. Now I absolutely love what happens right there. As Mary contemplates this situation, that's transpiring, the angel reads the room, and says, Fear not, just like he had previously was Zacharias. Verse 31. And behold, thou shalt conceive in my womb, and bring forth a son, and call His name, Jesus. Now, we have some pretty interesting things going on here. And just those sequence of verses. We have Mary who is engaged, she's told that she's going to become pregnant, prior to ever being married. Now, that's a whole lot to unpack for anybody, let alone somebody in her type of situation. So I love how she responds in verse 34. She simply says, unto the angel, How shall this be seeing? I know not a man, she was pure. She had kept her covenants, and is asking how something like this will take place. And I love what happens in verse number 37. As the angel clarifies and says, through the power of the Holy Ghost, this will happen. We jumped to verse 37. And he says, For with God, nothing shall be impossible. Now I want to read that again. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. In other words, through a loving Heavenly Father, The impossible becomes possible. President Nelson in the most recent General Conference, put it this way, he stated, but my dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead. In the coming days, we will see the greatest manifestation of the Savior's power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time he returns, with power and great glory, He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful. Did you catch what he said? Wonderful things are ahead, the greatest manifestations of the Savior's power, blessings and miracles upon the faithful. In other words, a loving Heavenly Father wants to make the impossible possible in our lives. Now, I'm gonna say that one more time, because it's tricky one, a loving Heavenly Father wants to make the impossible possible in our lives. But there's a couple of things that you and I have to do. See, if we look at the pattern that's already been exhibited. One quality that both Zacharias and Mary are reminded of, is to fear not to actually trust the Lord, and what it is that he would have them do. The other thing that they're asked to do, is clearly to pray. Now, that being stated, we want to look again at Luke chapter one, verse 36. Even when he says, with God, nothing is impossible. Now I want you to throw in a cross reference there. This is one of my most favorite cross references actually have this on a bracelet. Not even joking, because I love this Scripture so much. And it's Philippians chapter four. And in Philippians, chapter four, verse 13, we read the following. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. So remember, Luke is teaching us with God, nothing is impossible. Why? Because I can do all things through Christ, and he Christ, which strengtheneth me. So with that said, What is something that appears impossible, that you need to turn over to the Lord, what is something in your life that appears impossible that you need to give to the Lord, and to His timing. You see, often we want and desire certain things in our lives. Those of you that know me really well and personally know that one of the things that I was really striving for, for a really long time was to find an EC, I had a hard time finding my eternal companion, I don't know which one of us got lost. But it was a struggle there for a while. But I found him at age 35, a little bit different than the typical Latter Day Saint version of how things happen. But it worked for me. And even though at the time, it seemed completely improbable or impossible, it still transpired in a loving Heavenly Father's time. And looking back now I understand a little bit better about why it was that way. That being said, I want to tell you about my great nephew. Now, he's not great, because he's super cool, even though he is kind of cool. But he's great, as in generational. So I am the youngest of what we affectionately my family called the first generation, I have six older brothers and an older sister. I have over 30 nieces and nephews and I have that again in great nieces and nephews and we're still compounding down on the math. That being said, I want to tell you about one of my great nephews, and his name is Cayson and Cayson for as long as I can remember, has had a secret and not so secret crush on Taylor Swift. In fact, one of the biggest things that  Cayson is absolutely desired to do most of his life is to attend a Taylor Swift concert. Now, those of you that have experienced some of the mayhem in times past and now most recently, with the great debacle, realize what a challenge it is to try and get Taylor Swift tickets, nearly impossible, seemingly improbable. And as someone who actually even tried herself to obtain some tickets, and didn't have it pan out, I recognize the difficulty that it is to make this happen. Now, the reason that I want to share that piece of the story with you is because Taylor Swift clearly is something that  Cayson has longed to do, I would say the vast majority of his life, I would even dare go so far as to say he's probably prayed over Taylor Swift tickets, more than one time. Now, I

haven't verified that with him. But I think that it's happened at least once or twice. And I also know that on this most recent sale, my sweet, great nephew  Cayson, he was praying that they would get touched, touched and tagged in the lottery, to be able to get said Taylor Swift tickets. I'm going to pause on the story there for a moment and read a quote by Elder Holland, from General Conference October 2020. Elder Holland teaches, while we work and wait together for the answers to some of our prayers, I offer you my apostolic promise that they are heard. And they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way we wanted. But they are always answered at the time in in the way an omniscient and eternally compassionate parent should answer them. Close quote. I want I want us to pick this apart here for just a second. Elder Holland uses something pretty intense. Anytime you see a general authority say, I offer you my apostolic promise. That's like saying, I give you a complete guarantee. So here's elder Holland, stating, I promise you it's going to happen what that your prayers are heard. And they are answered. Every prayer is heard. Every prayer is answered. However, he carves out, perhaps not at the time or in the way, we wanted, some answers that we've received quite candidly, we're not going to recognize until we have the opportunity to watch the This Is Your Life video. That's going to take place for each of us later on. That said, they are answered. How, at the time and then the way and omniscient and eternally compassionate parent should answer them. So let's go back to my great nephew  Cayson. Here he is most recently praying, working with his aunt who is my niece. She's pretty great too, but not a great niece. So working with my niece to get these Taylor Swift tickets, and in the sequence of events, he is told that they didn't get the tickets, it was impossible. And again, many of you listening probably experienced that same thing. But the tickets weren't purchased. One of the interesting things that came out is he stated to his aunt, my great nephew to his aunt states. Well, maybe I just didn't pray hard enough. How many times do we think that when answers to our prayers don't come in the way that we expected? Or in the timing that we expected? Maybe I just didn't do it, forgetting that the Lord makes the impossible possible. But it's always on his timetable. Let's go back to Zacharias and Elizabeth for just a moment. Remembering they were well, in years past the time of childbearing. They'd been praying and I'm competent to some extent and said, Well, we're done praying for a family because we we know that it's not in the cards, it's not going to happen. And yet hear clear down at the end of the road when nobody thought that it would happen. Elizabeth conceives, and John is born. Reverse that on the other side with Mary at a time when Mary clearly should not have had a child. Again, the Lord makes the impossible possible. So let's go back to my great nephew, and to elder Holland. Remember the last part of that elder Holland quote, they are always answered at the time in a way, and omniscient and eternally compassion parent would answer them, I'm grateful for the opportunity as a parent that I get to practice on my children, before I have have the opportunity to become like Heavenly Father. Because I love to delight my children. I know that my sister loves to delight her children and her grandchildren. And what my great nephew didn't know was that although they didn't get the tickets, the way that he thought they did, they actually did get the tickets. And on Christmas morning, he had the opportunity to open a very unique gift, a compassionate gift, and the timing of a parent, grandparent, aunt, and those that care and love him, could provide for him. You see on Christmas morning, in place of the day of the ticket sale, tickets were gifted, and the seemingly impossible is now possible. So we're back to where we've started. When in your life, have you seen a miracle? Remembering our definition that a miracle is what a miracle is an extraordinary event, manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. So when have you seen a miracle? Can I give you an invitation? Will you write about those time or times in your journal? And then will you share with your family during your Come follow me discussion, or with your Sunday group? And finally, if you feel so inclined, will you share with us how it went? Your sharing of your miracle with your family or Sunday class on social media? Second, what is something impossible that you need to turn over to the Lord? Will you take time to write about this? And then will you fear not pray and wait on the Lord expecting miracles? Okay, so what are our challenges? We write about when you've seen miracles in your life? When you shared your income, follow me discussion. And when you share with us how that went on social media and to what is something impossible you need to turn over to the Lord and His timing. Will you write about this? Then will you fear not pray specifically about it. Wait on the Lord and expect the miracle to happen. I testify that God can make the impossible possible. May you see his divine intervention during this week is my hope. Take care

Transcribed by https://otter.ai