Episode Twenty-three: Unlocking Covenant Power: With Sharla Goettl
In this episode of Latter-day Miracles, host Haley Hatch Freeman welcomes Sharla Goettl, author of 'Covenant Power' and 'Spiritual Resilience.' Sharla shares her journey of writing about the sacred Temple Endowment and the miracles she experienced along the way. Through engaging stories and deep insights, she explains how covenants are designed to address different human fears and how they help us access and increase Christ's power in our lives. Don't miss this inspirational episode that dives into the divine connections between scripture, temple, and personal growth.
Sharla Goettl
Sharla’s Book available on Amazon
Contact Our Guest
Instagram: @authorsharlagoettl
Spiritual Resilience book link
Website: sharlagoettl.com
Transcript
Welcome to Latter-day Miracles, where we share true stories of angels and marvels. Get ready to enjoy accounts from everyday people that remind us of divine love, that we're never truly alone, and the power of faith in these latter days. I'm Haley Hatch Freeman. And I'm Misty Smith. Sit back, open your heart and prepare to be inspired.
[00:00:27] Haley Freeman: Welcome to Latter-day Miracles. Today we have a guest that I'm really excited for you to hear her stories. She's an author and she was referred to us by Trina Boice. So, you know, she's gonna be amazing. Um, I'm gonna go ahead and read her bio and then send the time over to her. All right. Sharla Goettl is the author of two books, Spiritual Resilience and Covenant Power.
These are two topics she still wants to study further. She's especially interested in understanding the hows and the whys of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sharla is a seminary teacher and temple ordinance worker. I think that is amazing. Sharla and her husband have three young adults
daughters and own a residential construction business near Portland, Oregon. That's amazing. Three daughters. I have three children, but. Not all daughters, so she'll have to tell us a little bit about that maybe, but Alright, Sharla, I'll go ahead and turn the time over to you.
[00:01:27] Sharla Goettl: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Haley.
I really appreciate it. I think miracles are a part of our everyday life. I'm so glad that you have this opportunity to talk with other, people who are eager to give credit where credit is due, to our savior Jesus Christ, and to our Heavenly Father for the good work that they do in our lives. They have certainly done good work in my life and I am grateful to them.
I am a writer and I have been working on this last project, Covenant Power for over three years now. It's been a project that I felt compelled to work on the spirit, gave me lots of promptings, um, to start writing this book, which I, pushed away for, for a long time. I didn't feel confident in my ability to write a book about our covenants.
I felt that the Temple Endowment is a very sacred space and I very much wanted to get it right. I very much wanted to, push the conversation forward so that we all might be able to understand the sacred space better. But I certainly wanted that push forward to be in the right direction. I wanted to make sure that the words that I wrote, you know, led in the right way.
[00:02:41] Haley Freeman: Right? That is a big responsibility . That's a deep topic.
[00:02:46] Sharla Goettl: It, it wasn't one , that I felt comfortable writing about. But the Holy Ghost kept prompting me that I needed to
[00:02:53] Haley Freeman: Well, there you go. You have to do it then.
[00:02:56] Sharla Goettl: Yes. I'm stubborn. I'm so stubborn, and I, and I delayed and I made excuses and I was like, oh, I don't have time today or tomorrow or the next day, you
[00:03:06] Haley Freeman: know, right
[00:03:07] Sharla Goettl: week, I'll work on it.
Um, I, I just kept putting it off and putting it off. It wasn't for lack of desire. I certainly wanted to be able to write about the Temple Endowment, which I love very, very much. It is a source of confidence for me. It is a source of firm foundation, just as our Savior's promised us a firm foundation, that is where I see my firm foundation is, is through the covenants that we make in the Temple Endowment.
So I had the desire to want to write about it. I just wasn't sure that I could, I wasn't sure I was capable of doing so.
[00:03:46] Haley Freeman: Sure.
[00:03:47] Sharla Goettl: The miracles that happened in my life happened layer by layer. Um, idea by idea, by idea where the thoughts and the promptings came slowly and sometimes in a flood, and then slowly again in a trickle, sometimes again in a flood.
Wow. There was one instance where I felt very inadequate and I was a stake young women's president at the time and I went to a training meeting, um, that was hosted by Elder Bednar. Wow. I was excited to go to that meeting. You don't get that opportunity very often. We were in a stake center and it just so happened that my stake was sitting up at the, in the front section, and so I was only, um, maybe two rows away from him.
Wow. And he, he was speaking about a topic that he often speaks about, which was the need, to be an agent unto ourselves to act and not be acted upon. The spirit was, was telling me things that maybe he didn't say specifically, but the Holy Ghost was interjecting my own. Well,
[00:04:55] Haley Freeman: I love that because he says that.
He says, don't take notes on what I'm saying. Take notes on what you're feeling and what the Holy Ghost is telling. Exactly telling you. So I love that. That's what you received right there. That's amazing.
[00:05:07] Sharla Goettl: That's what, that's what was happening. I was receiving promptings that were not said.
[00:05:12] Haley Freeman: I love that.
[00:05:12] Sharla Goettl: And while I was sitting there in that stake center, listening to him speak, the air around him began to shift. Have you looked through a fire and noticed how the air ripples around the fire, um, as you're looking through it, as the, the heat rises and it interacts with the air around it and, the air, creates this ripple effect.
Yeah
That's what happened? Wow. The air around him rippled like that for a good period. Wow. Um, I was shocked. I was overwhelmed. I was very, humbled. I was looking around to see if anyone noticed what I was noticing. I think it was, I think it was just a singular event. I was starting to recognize that he is asked to do something very difficult every day.
Something that I'm sure is intimidating, something that he very much wants to get right. He very much wants to lead in the right direction. I feel that, and I know that of his efforts. And yet it's a difficult thing that he's been asked to do. How does he go about doing it? He does it because the Holy Ghost helps him.
And, and what I was witnessing in that moment, I think I was, I think I was witnessing the Holy Ghost helping him.
[00:06:34] Haley Freeman: Wow.
[00:06:36] Sharla Goettl: That is not what happens to me when I walk around, but, it was this undeniable lesson that the Holy Ghost is there to help us, inspire us in the ways in which, Jesus Christ would ask us to move forward.
And I was being asked to move forward and to take on a task that felt intimidating to me. And I needed to have that firm foundation, that, that solid knowledge, that the Holy Ghost would help me do it. If I was prayerful, if I truly sought the help of the Holy Ghost, if I truly, dedicated this effort for the right purpose, then I would be able to produce
what was intended. Certainly if Heavenly Father wanted the book written by someone else, He would ask someone else to do so, which He hadn't done.
[00:07:30] Haley Freeman: Right.
[00:07:32] Sharla Goettl: Right.
[00:07:32] Haley Freeman: I was asked by Heavenly Father as well to write a book, and I felt the same way. It was about my own experiences, but I felt the same way.
Well, I am not gonna be able to do this on my own. And I felt like that I, every time before I wrote a single word. I just would kneel down by my computer and pray and pray. And there were so many times I felt like the words weren't my own. So I know that same testimony that if we're asked to do something, God will provide a way and He will give you the words that he wants you to write.
So I, I know that's true.
[00:08:07] Sharla Goettl: The fact that the words are not flowing from my fingers onto my keyboard any longer is a testament of how helpful He was to me.
[00:08:18] Haley Freeman: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:18] Sharla Goettl: It's as if that, the book is done and that responsibility is not on my shoulders anymore. The mantle is lifted, and certainly the Holy Ghost is still there to help me in the things that I need to do, but not in the same way.
So I can look back and I can read things that I wrote that came from me and feel like, wow, who wrote that?
[00:08:42] Haley Freeman: Yeah.
[00:08:42] Sharla Goettl: You know, like,
[00:08:45] Haley Freeman: yeah.
[00:08:45] Sharla Goettl: It's so interesting that it's almost, it's almost as if it, you know, words that I did not say.
[00:08:51] Haley Freeman: Yeah.
[00:08:53] Sharla Goettl: There was one point when I was writing the book.
Where I, I felt such relief. I felt like it was done. So the book is about the covenant power. It's about the temple endowment. I go through each covenant, the five covenants that we make in the endowment process, the law of obedience, law of sacrifice, the law of the gospel, the law of chastity, and the law of consecration.
And there's a chapter for each section.
[00:09:19] Haley Freeman: I love that.
[00:09:20] Sharla Goettl: The book is actually half narrative, half nonfiction. And so at the beginning of each chapter, I've rewritten a first person narrative from the perspective of the prophet that I feel teaches that principle best in the scripture. Oh,
[00:09:36] Haley Freeman: cool.
[00:09:37] Sharla Goettl: Um, or at least the one that resonates with me the most.
And so it was this very introspective process of really wanting to get the context correct, wanting to understand what were these people, um, experiencing. Why did they say the things that they did, what led them to get to that conclusion? And so it, it was a heavy lift. And when I completed those five chapters, I, I felt the sense of relief.
I am a Temple ordinance worker, and I have been a Temple ordinance worker for quite a while now, in an effort to want to be close to the temple while I've been writing about it. So I, I actually work multiple shifts a week and I just wanted to really be embedded, you know, in the environment that would help me most and to learn as much as I could about the temple and our experiences there.
[00:10:35] Haley Freeman: I'm looking forward to reading it. I, I was doing a book review on another book that I needed to finish, and so I just finished that and now your book is next. I, I'm looking so forward to it.
Because it's like I said, it's kind of a deep topic and it is nice to find books that help you break down each of those covenants. So I'm so thankful that you've written it. And it's just released this month, right?
[00:11:01] Sharla Goettl: Yes. Yeah, just this month. It's brand new.
[00:11:03] Haley Freeman: Brand new. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited.
[00:11:05] Sharla Goettl: Oh, that's kind of you. There was this one point where I was in the initiatory as an ordinance worker, and
I was actually performing an ordinance mid-sentence where this, this idea just downloaded into my mind. It was, it was as if the whole chapter just downloaded into my mind. It kind of caught me off guard. I stumbled through the next few words and I realized that the book wasn't done, I realized that there was more that I was supposed to write.
[00:11:40] Haley Freeman: I was just gonna ask you, so, so you have written about the initiatory as well?
[00:11:47] Sharla Goettl: No, I didn't specifically write about the initiatory.
[00:11:50] Haley Freeman: Okay. So, but you got a download of something you did want to add?
[00:11:54] Sharla Goettl: Instead, I rewrote the first chapter of the book.
[00:11:58] Haley Freeman: Okay.
[00:11:58] Sharla Goettl: Which is about the Abrahamic covenant.
[00:12:00] Haley Freeman: Oh,
[00:12:01] Sharla Goettl: okay.
And how that ties into all of the ordinances in the our temple experience.
[00:12:07] Haley Freeman: Okay. And the download just happened to come during Initiatory?
[00:12:10] Sharla Goettl: Yes.
[00:12:11] Haley Freeman: Oh, got you. Okay.
[00:12:12] Sharla Goettl: In our day, we would call the Abrahamic Covenant, the New and Everlasting Covenant. That plays heavily into the initiatory, which I think is probably why it was sparked at that moment.
That makes sense. Yeah, I, um, it was important for me to understand that Heaven Father is a really great editor.
[00:12:37] Haley Freeman: Yes. He,
[00:12:39] Sharla Goettl: he knows me well. He knows that I needed a task that would provide a backspace button, and it does. Yeah. Um, I could never be, you know, a seamstress or, or sculptor or,
[00:12:57] Haley Freeman: yeah.
[00:12:57] Sharla Goettl: Oh, I need something with a backspace.
But, but he, uh. But I'm so grateful that the work has been, overseen, overseen by someone who knows, certainly much better than I Yeah. And, and has been able to, um, guide me in the right direction as much as I was willing to understand.
[00:13:19] Haley Freeman: Yes, for sure.
[00:13:20] Sharla Goettl: The temple is certainly a place of great miracles, but it's been my experience that it comes a little bit at a time for sure.
And the frequency of our time there really does have an impact. Um, the ideas that have come to me have come at unexpected moments. In unexpected ways. Usually at times where I am not thinking about the question at hand, but, the knowledge that I need scoots its way into my thought process and is a often illuminated while I'm at the temple.
[00:13:58] Haley Freeman: That's how you receive your answers at the temple.
[00:14:01] Sharla Goettl: Yes. That's very much so.
[00:14:04] Haley Freeman: Beautiful.
[00:14:04] Sharla Goettl: I feel that as I have been able to recognize the connection between our scriptures and our temple experience, it has triggered more insight into how I need to act and what it is that I am promised by my covenants.
I've been able to recognize that our scriptures are like a handbook. Our scriptures are the handbook and our covenants are the tool with which, Heavenly Father creates transformation in our souls. He is the sculptor, right? He's the sculptor of our character and of our souls.
And those covenants are his tool. His tool to do many things, but also to transform us into something better. The scriptures are the handbook teaching us how this process works. I've been able to bridge that gap better than I ever was before because of this writing process and because of my time in the temple.
Fabulous. I love that. So you put, uh, a lesson that you have learned is the Lord wants us to be spiritually ambitious. What do you have to add to that?
One lesson that that was taught to me was, was the idea that the plan of salvation is circular, not linear. Um, often, you know, you sit in primary or, or even in young men's or young women's, um, any, any missionary will tell you in the, those first lessons about the plan of salvation how you lay out the steps, pre mortality, birth, uh, you know, death judgment, three degrees of glory.
And that's usually a simplified version, right? And it, and it all follows a linear path. And that is a good way to understand it at the beginning, but it is not a comprehensive way to understand it. The plan of salvation is actually circular. You know, it starts over at the beginning.
Heavenly Father's process has started over at the beginning, and He's been able to invite us into his plan of salvation. We are intended to be able to do the same one day far in the future, um, with many steps in between, but
I have been taught to frame my questions to see how they fit within that circle. Where does my question fit within this circle of my existence? At what point does my question affect my existence on this circle? And by being able to see how it impacts that circle, I've been able to get better answers to my questions.
I've been able to gain, um, more knowledge from our Heavenly Father, and it's taught me to be very hopeful, be very motivated about the good things he has intended for me, and to truly be ambitious, to seek after those things, to seek after them with a very confident heart.
[00:17:10] Haley Freeman: Don't limit yourself.
[00:17:12] Sharla Goettl: No.
[00:17:13] Haley Freeman: Right. Don't limit yourself or limit God. Just, yeah, be ambitious about it. I love that.
[00:17:19] Sharla Goettl: I think Heaven Father wants us to have everything that we want for ourselves. Every everybody wants something different. You want something different than I do, and I want something different than you do. I'm sure there's things that we have in common, but there's also things that
you might put higher on your list than I would put on mine, and yet Heavenly Father has, has promised us eternal joy. Not a generic joy, not one that doesn't fit very well, not one that I wish I could return and exchange for a different fit or a different color. Um. Not one that was a hand-me-down, you know?
Mm-hmm. But there, there is no Goodwill or a thrift store for eternal joy. Right. It is the perfect fit for you and is the perfect fit for me. I think we often forget that. I think we, we come to a spiritual question and we say, how do I fit into the spiritual question? Or How does my friend fit or, or my child, how do they fit inside the spiritual question? I think what we forget sometimes is that how Heavenly Father has a perfect fit for each individual that. He wants to make covenant promises with each one of us, which means individually He is promising each one of us eternal joy, one that fits us perfectly. He is not compromising on our fulfillment in any way, shape or form.
He is not promising us anything less than eternal life and that applies to everyone. That applies to everyone. He wants it for everyone.
[00:19:00] Haley Freeman: Great. I love that. So do you have any tips or advice that you'd want to share?
[00:19:08] Sharla Goettl: I would say that our covenants, each one of our covenants is made and designed to address a different human fear.
[00:19:16] Haley Freeman: Wow.
[00:19:17] Sharla Goettl: , Say
[00:19:17] Haley Freeman: that again. That's powerful. So
[00:19:20] Sharla Goettl: that every covenant is designed to address a different human fear.
[00:19:24] Haley Freeman: Fear. That's amazing.
[00:19:26] Sharla Goettl: And as we really think about those covenants, think about where you see them in the scriptures. How did they play out in the scriptures?
Who uses them? Who uses that idea or teaches about that principle in the scriptures? How did it work for them?
[00:19:41] Haley Freeman: And
[00:19:41] Sharla Goettl: once you're able to see that Heavenly Father is trying to comfort that fear. It helps you move forward in a more confident way, in a more spiritually resilient way. You're able to overcome that obstacle and push closer to a sense of hope in Jesus Christ than you were before.
It helps you recognize that the best way to get what you want is through Jesus Christ
[00:20:08] Haley Freeman: Always.
[00:20:10] Sharla Goettl: Yes. He is the source of everything you want in the best way, um, that it could ever be had. He already has it. Yeah. And He wants to share it with you. It's amazing.
[00:20:19] Haley Freeman: And this is a little off the topic, but not really.
'cause it's always to the answer is Jesus Christ always. Um, I was talking to somebody today that was saying they didn't know they were good enough. They were worried about like their salvation of being good enough, and I was like, that is a fear you don't have to have, because I know you have a testimony in Jesus Christ.
I know you have the testimony of the atonement. So that is a fear. You never ever have to have you don't have to worry if you're good enough, if you're righteous enough because. If you believe in Christ, you can wipe that off. You're fearless because if you have joined arms with the Savior then He's taking care of that part.
[00:21:06] Sharla Goettl: That is exactly right.
[00:21:08] Haley Freeman: So I'm like, that
[00:21:09] Sharla Goettl: is exactly right.
[00:21:10] Haley Freeman: Don't worry about that. Ever. You believe in the savior, you believe in the atonement. You're good. Um, you know, keep trying your best, but if you have locked arms with him, you're good. He's the answer. And don't worry about that anymore.
[00:21:25] Sharla Goettl: That's right. That's right. And so how do you know if you've locked arms?
If you, if you have this covenant relationship with him, then you have a tangible memory of, of that lock and. How do you know that you're good? How do you know that you are good enough? Because you have a tangible memory of making the covenant of the law, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the law of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the promise that you are good enough that he loves you, that he absolutely loves you authentically exactly the way that you are.
And then he has a path for you individually. Um, this is a bit on another topic, but the idea of being good enough. Um, I think the law of chastity is something that is very much misunderstood. I think the law of chastity isn't about the things we cannot do, it's about what we are better able to do as we stay loyal to Jesus Christ.
[00:22:20] Haley Freeman: Expand on that a little bit.
[00:22:22] Sharla Goettl: The law of chastity is the way in which we increase. It is the law that is associated with filling the measure of our creation. Multiplying and replenishing the law of chastity is how we increase in Christ's power. Maybe I should back up. The book is called Covenant Power because the Temple Endowment is the vehicle with which we access Christ's power.
[00:22:49] Haley Freeman: Yes, yes.
[00:22:49] Sharla Goettl: The law of obedience is how we start to recognize Christ's power. We see that it's real, the law of sacrifices, is the action in which we gain Christ's power. The law of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way in which we retain our progress. We retain the Christ power that we've already, um, integrated into our character through the process of repentance.
The law of chastity is how we increase in Christ's power and the law of consecration is how we share Christ's power with others and how we become joint inheritors with Him. It all plays in together. Step by step, it all builds on each other. It's this beautiful framework that builds from a foundation and moves upward.
And as we better understand our covenants, we can be part of that building process. We can see it happening around us and in us. We can see that transformation taking place.
[00:23:49] Haley Freeman: Wow. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. That's really aha moment, you know, eye-opening to help understand that.
It's so deep but so simple at the same time, you know, and just hearing someone explain it the way you did was really helpful. Thank you. I love that. So you're making me want to get your book and highlight and read it again and again, and I'm sure our audience is thinking the same thing.
So tell us where can we get your book?
[00:24:18] Sharla Goettl: Oh, well first, I wish Heaven Father could write his own book. He has. He's given us the scriptures. Yeah, but I want more, right? Yeah. I want His book. I want His book. He is the author of the Endowment and, He's genius. , my book in its humble form you can find it on Amazon or the publisher's Cedar Fort and so on Cedar Fort's website.
It's available there as well. Awesome. You have a
[00:24:41] Haley Freeman: website
[00:24:42] Sharla Goettl: that
[00:24:42] Haley Freeman: we can go and check out?
[00:24:44] Sharla Goettl: Uh, my website is Sharla Goettl My name is not easy to spell. S-H-A-R-L-A-G-O-E-T-T-L, um, sharlagoettl.com And, um, and
[00:24:56] Haley Freeman: I'll have all these links on our, website as well in the show notes. So we'll definitely link your Amazon links as well.
[00:25:06] Sharla Goettl: Perfect. Perfect. Love it. Thank you so much.
[00:25:09] Haley Freeman: Yes. Um, so is there one final message if somebody could only take away one message, what would that be?
[00:25:17] Sharla Goettl: Spend more time in the temple. Um, spend as much time as you can there. I would say that it is how you get what you want. I know that seems so simple and almost even disconnected, but they're not.
These principles that are highlighted for us in the Temple Endowment are the principles that helped Heavenly Father get what he wanted. They're what helped Jesus Christ get what he wanted. And those are the principles that He's teaching to us. Um, because truly they're how we get what we want. Um, we just need to learn about it and integrate it into our, into our character, into our choices.
And the more time you spend at the temple, the easier it is to integrate those principles into your life.
[00:26:02] Haley Freeman: I love that. Thank you so much. I've enjoyed this. It's been so educational, and I just really appreciate you spending the time with us, and hopefully our viewers have learned as much as I have today and hopefully they'll grab your book.
[00:26:15] Sharla Goettl: Thank you so much.
Thank you for joining us on Latter-day Miracles. If you have a miracle story that you feel inspired to share, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us on our website at latterdaymiracles.net or message us on social media. Until next time, keep your heart open to the miraculous and may you feel the presence of angels in your everyday life.
