Alma demonstrates a great sensitivity to the spirit of prophecy. He knows his time is not yet up. Again, there is a pattern in this. The Lord is able to protect his servants from any of Satan’s powers. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ was not killed until his time had come. The prophet Joseph Smith’s life could not be cut short until his work was finished. While struggling with hardship in Liberty Jail, the prophet was told, Thy days are known and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever (DC 122:9). In administering to an ailing Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff gave him a similar promise, “’I told him in the name of the Lord that he should live and not die, for he had not finished his work in the flesh.’ He began at once to improve, and in a few days was able to attend meeting.” (Mathias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff: History of His Life & Labors, p. 428)
The challenge for us is to live our lives as if our work was as important as that of Alma, Amulek, Joseph Smith, or Orson Pratt. If we remind ourselves that our work is not finished, we will be more likely to be anxiously engaged and less likely to idle away our valuable time in mortality (DC 60:13).
Elder Melvin J. Ballard
“…the work of God is not finished in the earth. It has only partly completed what God ordained it to do. And those of us who remain must seize the banner and carry this work off victorious, to glorify the names of those who have been identified with this work in the days that are past, and to receive honor and place and position with them in the eternal world, and vindicate the word of our Father in his blessings and promises to those who would enter into sacred covenants to keep the commandments of the Lord.” (Conference Report, June 1919, p. 73)