Though Israel has been scattered, it is time for the Lord to fullfill His promise to gather Israel. This is the final dispensation and the final hour draws ever closer. There is majesty in this moment. We have been preserved and prepared for this time to help fulfill the the Lord's promises. Our effectiveness increases as we learn how to tap more fully into charity, which is the pure love of Christ, and to participate in the grandest endeavor on earth. Let us be gatherers.

With each message, we not only learn about gathering Israel – we apply the doctrine and concepts in our lives. At the end of each lesson, we draw your attention to the ‘Applying the Doctrine’ section. We invite members to work as individuals and families to apply the doctrine and put gathering Israel principles to work in your lives.

In our previous message, we were invited to expand our circles of friendship by inviting more people to be a part of our lives. In this message, we are invited to speak about the gospel with those around us every day, to more fully let God prevail, and to increasingly recognize that we work WITH the Lord in the vineyard.

In our previous message, we concentrated on expanding the charity we have for others. We focused on both increasing the intensity of Christ-like love that we have for others, as well as expanding our circles and getting to know more people. Our purpose in doing so is to find the elect - those ready to hear (and recognize) His voice - those ready to follow Him. We participate in the gathering by extending the voice of the Savior to the world. Primarily, this voice is one of love and invitation. This why Moroni teaches that without charity, we are nothing, even when we have been endowed with many other spiritual gifts and abilities. This is because God's purposes - all of them - are built and accomplished upon the foundation of love. Charity (love of God and others), therefore, is the primary driver of gathering Israel.

Now that we have acknowledged our need to increase our love of others, let us consider the power of God's love for us and His children, and how our Heavenly Father's love becomes a penetrating, miraculous force in gathering Israel.

God's love moves the work forward, even through His imperfect children.

It is a miracle that our Father in Heaven allows us to participate in His work, which is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Why is it that, even in our imperfect and often sinful state, we can perform such grand labors alongside Heavenly Father and the Savior and participate in this glorious work?

Consider the following experience from President Stanley.

Heavenly Father loves each of us - all His children. And that love is instrumental in the work of gathering Israel. Recognizing and developing the reciprocal love we feel for Heavenly Father is what gives us both the courage and desire to follow Him, to serve Him, and to participate in His work alongside Him. Our desire to serve God and help gather Israel is what truly makes us eligible to engage in the work. Consider the fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

This section is about the great harvest (the gathering) in the last days. In the fourth verse, the proclamation is:

Further, the 5th and 6th verses point out personal attributes that help make us effective in the work:

While these developed characteristics enhance our ability to be effective in the work, our actual calling (what makes us eligible) to gather Israel is found in verse three (3).

Although a sense of duty in keeping the commandments and fulfilling our responsibilities, is admirable and helpful, the more powerful source of strength in sharing the gospel is found in the desire to gather Israel. That desire is most powerfully developed when we increase the depth of love we have for Heavenly Father and the Savior. As our love deepens for Them, we discover that what is important to Them becomes important to us. Their work and glory become our work and glory, or the thing in which we glory most.

Thus, the first, most impactful thing we can to do to help us become gatherers of Israel is to love Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. And the second is to love Heavenly Father's children. With these two characteristics, we are prepared to follow the Lord's commandment to gather Israel.

Although we may see ourselves as working for Heavenly Father as we help Him to gather Israel, the truth is that we can become a partner with Him and work alongside Him.

In the Book of Mormon, Jacob, chapter 5, we find the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees. In this chapter, both the scattering and the gathering of Israel is foretold. We also see that the Lord of the vineyard directs his servant in managing the vineyard in specific ways to preserve the olive trees and increase the harvest of the fruit, for it grieves the Lord that any tree (and fruit) should be lost.

But in the final season of the vineyard, we learn more about the working relationship between the Lord and the servant:

What more powerful assistance can we have than to work alongside the Lord of the vineyard. We work not for Him as much as we work with Him.

In the course of our earthly lives, we learn to do what the Lord wants us to do - we learn to be obedient in all things. But in connection to that obedience, there is a higher change that occurs within us. As the Lord invites us to do as He desires us to do, the change that occurs within us is that we begin to feel as He feels. In this way, we become like Him. In gathering Israel, we become effective when we learn to care about His children, and we learn to feel urgency to help them, and a desire for them to be saved (preserved).

Returning to the allegory of the vineyard, we not only work alongside the Lord in His vineyard, we also get to feel (reap) the joy that He feels. This is evident toward the end of the chapter:

We work alongside the Lord in our labors. We partake of the joy with Him in the fruit that is harvested.