Elder Dube Tells Students Three Ways to “Get Understanding”
Contributed By Casey Adams, Church News contributor
Elder Edward Dube, a General Authority Seventy, delivers a devotional address to LDS Business College students at the Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 28, 2017.
Article Highlights
- “Get understanding” by seeking gifts of intelligence, discernment, and unity.
Elder Edward Dube, a General Authority Seventy, encouraged students to seek understanding and to ponder the scriptures during an LDS Business College devotional February 28.
The devotional theme stemmed from an excerpt in Proverbs 4:7, “with all thy getting get understanding.” Understanding, Elder Dube said, has many definitions, but he focused on three in particular: intelligence, discernment, and unity.
Intelligence
“Your efforts and diligence in getting understanding will help you ‘to know the mysteries of God,’” Elder Dube said, referencing Alma 12:9–10. “As you continue in the path of discipleship you will be ‘given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto [you] to know the mysteries of God until [you] know them in full.’”
Elder Dube, who was joined by his wife, Naume, invited audience members to reflect on the devotional messages and frequently called on students volunteering to share their impressions of the lessons being taught.
Calling on a student from the audience, Elder Dube listened as she added insight from Doctrine and Covenants 93.
Elder Edward Dube, a General Authority Seventy, calls on a member of the audience to comment during a devotional for LDS Business College students in the Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City on February 28, 2017. Photo by Casey Adams.
“It was basically saying that the knowledge of God is pure intelligence,” the student said, “and if we want to become like God we have to gain that intelligence for ourselves here in our mortal existence in life.”
Discernment
Elder Dube reminded students to live in such a way to enjoy the consistent companionship of the Holy Ghost.
“Your perception of the things around you will be enlightened,” he said. “You will be able to not only discern what is right, but you will see ‘not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance.’ You will see as the Lord sees: ‘on the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Elder Dube showed a video clip of a 2015 Face to Face live broadcast with Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Susan. During the Face to Face event, Elder Bednar responded to a question from a young man by teaching the principle of discernment.
Elder Edward Dube begins a devotional in the Conference Center Theater for LDS Business College students on February 28, 2017.
Elder Bednar said: “The spiritual gift of discernment is the ability to see not just with natural eyes but with spiritual eyes—to hear not just with natural ears but with spiritual ears. … What discernment ultimately means is not just recognizing between good and bad, but discernment is the capacity—the spiritual gift—to see the good in someone else that that individual has perhaps not recognized. And it’s also the ability to help them develop it.”
Unity
Recounting some past interactions with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Dube continued the devotional with an example of unity.
Elder Edward Dube, a General Authority Seventy, listens to a student comment during the LDS Business College devotional in the Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City February 28, 2017. Photo by Casey Adams, Deseret News.
Elder Holland saw Elder Dube and greeted him at the 2012 general conference leadership meeting that welcomed newly called Area Seventies, which included a nervous and hesitant Elder Dube.
“Edward, it is good to see you here,” Elder Holland exclaimed.
He described how Elder Holland touched his face, “playing with my cheeks! I felt like a baby,” Elder Dube said. “What a great welcome, which helped me realize that I was not lost, but with my fellow brethren.”
The following day and before the conference started, Elder Dube observed Elder Holland initiating the same greeting to a fellow Apostle, Elder Dallin H. Oaks.
“Playing with his cheeks! I immediately realized and recognized who these men were. These men are simple men called of God. They are prophets, seers, and revelators,” Elder Dube said.
He added that “they not only strive to be one with the Lord, among themselves, but to be one with all of us, whom they have given their all to serve until the end of their mortal lives. They are driven by this love and unity for all.”
Elder Dube described this “love and unity for all” as a common thread in bringing to pass the “immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Just as in ancient times, the Lord speaks to His children through His prophets.
“Sometimes what they say may not be what we want to hear,” Elder Dube said, “but it is important for us to know that they in reality represent the Lord in all that they say ‘when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be … the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation’ (D&C 68:4).”
