Jake sent this to us this week because he is speaking at
church this coming Sunday.
Good morning brothers and sisters. For those of you who don't know me, I am Elder Richardson. I am from Tucson Arizona and have been on my mission for 16 months. I have been serving in the Laurel area for almost 3 weeks. I am loving serving here so far and am so grateful for all that you do for us as missionaries.
Brother Pollock asked us to speak on a talk titled “How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for your Personal Life”. I really enjoyed studying this talk and I hope the spirit may be here as I speak today so that you may be uplifted and edified as I have. I hope you can take something from this talk and apply it in your life to help you come closer to Christ.
Before I start I think we should understand the difference between revelation and inspiration. Richard G. Scott explains this very well in his talk. He said ” The Holy Ghost communicates important information that we need to guide us in our mortal journey. When it is crisp and clear and essential, it warrants the title of revelation. When it is a series of promptings we often have to guide us step by step to a worthy objective, for the purpose of this message, it is inspiration.” Elder Scott goes on to share an example of what revelation is. He said “ An example of revelation would be the direction that President Spencer W. Kimball received after his long and continued supplication to the Lord regarding providing the priesthood to all worthy men in the Church when at the time it was available to only some of them.” In Moroni Chapter 7, Moroni explains to us how we can know what is inspiration from God.
There are a few principals we need to understand and master so that we can let the Holy Ghost in to our lives and receive revelation and inspiration. The first is we need to ask. Elder Scott poses this question “Why do we need to pray and ask”. His answer is simply “Because that is how revelation is received”. If we are searching for answers to questions or wondering what choices to make in life we need to ask. Elder Scott gave a personal example of how he recieves his own personal revelation when is faced with a challenge. He said ”When I am faced with a very difficult matter, this is how I try to understand what to do. I fast. I pray to find and understand scriptures that will be helpful. That process is cyclical. I start reading a passage of scripture; I ponder what the verse means and pray for inspiration. I then ponder and pray to know if I have captured all the Lord wants me to do. Often more impressions come with increased understanding of doctrine”. I love how Elder Scott says that this process can be cyclical. It is a great reminder to me that when I am looking to receive inspiration no matter how much I want an answer if it is not what the Lord knows is best for me he will wait. Just because we do not get an answer to our prayers while seeking revelation that does not mean we should stop. If anything that means we should keep relying on the Lord and maybe start asking different questions or ask what the Lords will for us. A lesson I have learned time and time again in my short life so far is that no matter how you think things should go if it is contrary to the Lords will, it will go the way the Lord knows is best for us. Even though this may be hard for us to understand, we need to put our trust in the Lord. I can bear testimony that the Lord knows each one of us perfectly and will do what is best for us in a eternal perspective.
The second principal we need to understand is that we need to yield to emotions such as anger, hurt, or defensiveness. These are emotions that will drive the Holy Ghost away. These emotions must be eliminated or our chance of receiving revelation is slight!
The third principal Elder Scott talks about is to be cautious with humor. He teaches us that loud or inapropriate laughter will offend the Spirit. He says “A good sense of humor helps revelation; loud laughter does not. A sense of humor is an escape valve for the pressures of life”.
Something I have noticed and struggled with in my personal life in recognizing promptings from the Holy Ghost. Like it states in Moroni if the prompting inviteth us to do good it is from God, but there are some other thing we can do that will make it a little easier to receive personal revelation. One thing that we can do to help is, practice healthy living. Exercising often, making sure to get enough sleep, and eating healthy are all things that will help make receiving revelation easier and more understandable. I have noticed on my mission thus far that when I take the time in the morning to work out or go running, I get a lot more out of my morning studies. I feel like I am more awake and aware of what I am studying and am more receptive to the promptings of the Spirit. I promise you that as you strive to do these three things that Elder Scott talks about, you will be able to recognize the promptings of the Spirit more in your life.
Something I think that is very important that Elder Scott mention is that when it is for the Lords purposes he can bring anything he wants to our rememberance. Elder Scott says “That should not weaken our determination to record impressions of the Spirit. Inspiration carefully recorded shows God that His communications are sacred to us. Recording will also enhance our ability to recall revelation. Such recording of direction of the Spirit should be protected from loss or intrusion by others.” Something that our mission does is that when you first come to the mission you receive a “Book of Revelation”. We were instructed to write down the revelation that we receive during our missions. This is something that I have struggled at and not done as much as I should. I have noticed though that when I took the time to write down the revelation I have received I have been able to look back on it and receive revelation from past revelation I have received. I would counsel all of you to get your own journal and make It your own “Book of Revelation”.
Elder Scott says “For spirituality to grow stronger and more available, it must be planted in a righteous environment. Haughtiness, pride, and conceit are like stony ground that will never produce spiritual fruit.” As Elder Scott counseled, we need to no let haughtiness, pride, and conceit get in the way of our privlidge of receiving revelation. Instead we should focus on humbling ourselves. Humility is one Christ-like attribute that I have been trying to work on throughout my mission. One of my favorite examples of humility is Ammon. In the 26 chapter of Alma, Ammon is talking about all the great things he and his brethren have accomplished when his Brother Aaron rebukes him and says “Ammon I fear that thy joy doth carry thee away unto boasting”. And this is Ammon's response. “But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. For behold, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of my self, but I will boast of My God, for in his strength I can do all things”. Like Ammon we need to remember to realize God's hand in all that we do. In order to receive revelation we need to come to the Lord with a humble Spirit. If we do this we will receive answers to our questions, but remember they may not be the answers we want or we might not get them when we want them, but we are promised them. We need to remember that the Lord knows what is best for us and trust in his timing.
One thing that I think will help us in better understanding the reve that we receive is if we understand how we personal receive revelation. Everyone receives revelation in different ways. You always here about how people will get a burning feeling or chills when they feel the Holy Ghost but that is not how it works for me. For me, I just feel a sense of peace, or I just know that everything will be alright. Elder Bednar describes three different patterns of light, or ways we recognize the Spirit in his talk “The Spirit of Revelation”. Here is an excerpt from Elder Bednar's talk
“The first experience occurred as we entered a dark room and turned on a light switch. Remember how in an instant a bright flood of illumination filled the room and caused the darkness to disappear. What previously had been unseen and uncertain became clear and recognizable. This experience was characterized by immediate and intense recognition of light.
The second experience took place as we watched night turn into morning. Do you recall the slow and almost imperceptible increase in light on the horizon? In contrast to turning on a light in a dark room, the light from the rising sun did not immediately burst forth. Rather, gradually and steadily the intensity of the light increased, and the darkness of night was replaced by the radiance of morning. Eventually, the sun did dawn over the skyline. But the visual evidence of the sun’s impending arrival was apparent hours before the sun actually appeared over the horizon. This experience was characterized by subtle and gradual discernment of light.
Another common experience with light helps us learn an additional truth about the “line upon line, precept upon precept” pattern of revelation. Sometimes the sun rises on a morning that is cloudy or foggy. Because of the overcast conditions, perceiving the light is more difficult, and identifying the precise moment when the sun rises over the horizon is not possible. But on such a morning we nonetheless have sufficient light to recognize a new day and to conduct our affairs. In a similar way, we many times receive revelation without recognizing precisely how or when we are receiving revelation.
I believe half of the battle of receiving revelation is just understanding when and how we personally receive revelation. Brothers and Sisters, as we recognize how we personally receive revelation it will make understanding the revelation we receive more clear.
Now that we know how to receive revelation, the next thing I would like to talk about is acting on the revelation we receive. When we receive a prompting from the Holy Ghost we should not put it off. We should recognize that it is from God and act on it. There are 2 things that stop us from acting on revelation we have received. Those 2 things are doubt, and fear. These 2 things are put into our heads by Satan. Something I have learned is that fear and doubt are selfish emotions that stop us from acting on our faith. Brothers and Sisters, sometimes we worry to much about what the worst thing is that could happen that we do not have enough faith in the best thing that could happen. I promise that as you act on the revelation you receive and put doubt and fear behind you will be blessed and strengthened by the Lord.
In closing I would like to share a quote by President Monson that I have come to love.
"We cannot know what faith is if we have never had it, and we cannot obtain it as long as we deny it. Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other"
Brothers and Sisters let us do as Elder Holland councils us and doubt our doubts before we doubt our faith.
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