Preparing for Your Interview with the Lord

By John C. Neubauer

The priesthood interviews we have today can help us prepare for the interview we will someday have with the Lord.

Shortly after I was baptized as a convert, I was called to be a counselor in the elders quorum presidency. In my first meeting with our quorum president, he said that during the coming week we would be scheduling interviews.

When I asked whom we would be interviewing and what the purpose of the interviews would be, he said, “Our interviews will include some routine questions, and we’ll talk about quorum needs and family needs. But I like to think that the purpose of our interviews is to help our quorum members be prepared for the interview they will someday have with the Lord.”

It was a spiritual insight that I still remember, even though I heard it 23 years ago.

It’s How We Serve That Counts

Within six months, our stake and ward boundaries changed. I was called as the elders quorum president for our new ward, even though I was scheduled to move out of state within three months. When the stake president set me apart, he said, “Brother Neubauer, the Lord does not care how long we serve; He cares about how we serve.” So in the time I had, I interviewed as many members of the quorum as possible.

Later, when I was 70 years old, I was again called to be an elders quorum president. This occurred just after the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles announced that in each ward or branch, high priests and elders would be combined into a single quorum. I thought back to that insight my first elders quorum president had shared with me so many years ago: “The purpose of our interviews is to help our quorum members be prepared for the interview they will someday have with the Lord.”

So how does a leader help a quorum member to prepare for an interview with the Lord? In ministering interviews and in quorum discussions, I have asked quorum members: “If you knew that in six months you would be standing in the presence of the Lord, what would you change in your life in preparation for that moment?” Mostly I have let people just think about the answer. But sometimes someone has shared personal insights about what they feel that moment with the Lord will be like.

What Mountains Need to Move?

I have also shared with quorum members these statements from President Russell M. Nelson: “The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible.”¹ “With faith in Him, we can move the mountains in our lives.”² And then I have asked another question: “What would you most like to be doing when the Lord comes again?” I have asked them to ponder what mountains in their lives need to be moved so that they can be doing what they want to be doing when the Lord comes again, what they need to do to be ready to talk to Him face-to-face.

The scriptures tell us that someday we will stand before the Lord to be judged: “And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God” (2 Nephi 9:15).

I pray that by thinking in advance about what we want to say and be at that great day, each of us will be able to move whatever mountains need to be moved so that we can be prepared for our interview with the Lord.

The author lives in Utah, USA.