Consecration

The following is an attempt to set forth in an organized fashion and in brief compass the principles by which the Law of Consecration is to be applied to individuals and families according to the Doctrine and Covenants:

1. To love the Lord is to serve him and to keep all of his commandments. (D&C 42:29) This means that we should perfect both the spiritual and the temporal aspects of our lives under his direction.
2. To perfect the spiritual aspects of our lives we must put our whole faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, be baptized for the remission of our sins, receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and endure to the end (which is eternal life.)
3. When a person’s heart and mind have been thus changed through love for Jesus Christ, his new spirituality will give him the intelligence to be wise in temporal matters.
4. A most important part of enduring to the end is to consecrate our physical properties to the poor, which is to do it unto the Lord. This is done by taking the deeds and titles to our property to our Bishop and signing these properties over to the church, finally and legally. (D&C 42:30–31) This is the way we show the Savior that we love him more than we love our physical possessions—the thing the rich young ruler could not do. It is part of coming down into the depths of humility before the Lord, to be as little children before Him.
5. The Bishop will then assign to us properties from those consecrated to the church. We may receive more, the same, or less than we have consecrated, according to the revelation of the Lord of his mind and will to both the Bishop and to ourselves, according to our righteous wants and needs and according to the resources the Bishop has to dispense. (D&C 42:32) Whatever we receive from the Bishop we receive from the Lord as a stewardship. Though we receive legal title to the property, we acknowledge that it belongs to the Lord. It is our responsibility to care for, improve, beautify, and make productive whatever we are given, be it a home, a farm, a business, or an automobile. The purpose for this wealth and production is to bless others under the Savior’s direction.
6. Thereafter we shall make an annual accounting to the Bishop. If we have produced more than our needs, the residue will be given to the Bishop with which he might succor the poor. If we have less than our needs, the Bishop will give to us from other person’s residues. (D&C 42:32)
7. Surplus residues, more than are needed to bless the poor, will be used to purchase land, to build buildings, for building the New Jerusalem, for the gathering of Israel. (D&C 42:34–35)
8. The servants of Christ, stewards unto him, are not to be proud. They are to wear plain garments, and do all things in cleanliness, and to enthrone faithful work unto Christ as the ruling principle of their lives. (D&C 42:40–42)
9. All who belong to the church of the living God are to give and receive in this divine order of consecration. None are exempt; whether they labor in temporal or spiritual concerns, this is the Lord’s own way of perfecting his kingdom. (D&C 70: 9–12)
10. Becoming willingly equal with each other in temporal things as members of the church is the key by which the church will receive further abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (D&C 70:14)
11. Even as now faithful members of the church account for their spiritual stewardship before the Lord’s two witnesses in the obtaining of a temple recommend, under the Law of Consecration we will also account for our temporal stewardships. Those who qualify on both counts are adjudged to be wise stewards and faithful laborers. To be so judged on earth is the blessed preparation to stand before the eternal bar of justice. (D&C 72:3–4)
12. When wise and faithful stewards move from place to place in the church, they will turn over to the Bishop they are leaving the consecrated properties over which they have been stewards in that place. The Bishop will certify that they are indeed wise stewards and faithful laborers. The Bishop in their new location, upon receipt of that certification, will give by consecration local properties to the newly arrived faithful servants. (D&C 72:9–19)
13. Only as we are able to live the full law of the Lord, to live in faithfulness and love both temporally and spiritually, can we be made equal with our Savior and receive exaltation. (D&C 78:3–7)
14. He who enters into this order of consecration and then turns back to selfishness shall be excommunicated (delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption.) (D&C 78:8, 10–12)
15. Through this spiritual and temporal order the righteous of the church will become independent above everything that is not celestial through relying alone upon the merits of Jesus Christ. (D&C 78:13–14)
16. When the members of the church have become independent from the world through their love of the Savior, they, too, will receive the blessings of Adam-ondi-Ahman. (D&C 78:15–22)
17. When all these things are accomplished, even the kingdoms of this world will be able to look at the church and see that it is indeed truly the kingdom of Zion, the kingdom of Christ. (D&C 105:31–32)
18. “Therefore, let us become subject unto his laws.” (D&C 105:32)