hinton - not perfect to be worthy

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We Don t ave to be PerfectTo be Worthy

nd Other Essays on Personal Religion

By

Gay len Hinton


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Table o ontents

PREFACE .................................................................................. 3HAVE YOU INQUIRED OF THE LORD? ............................... 4THE FAITH OF POWER ......................................................... 21WE DON T HAVE TO BE PERFECT TO BE WORTHy ...... 32OMITTING THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS ........................... 41WHOSOEVER IS ANGRY ..................................................... 4 5HE THAT IS HAPPY SHALL BE HAPPY STILL ................. 54POWER IN THE PRIESTHOOD ............................................. 56IF YOU RECEIVE NOT THE SPIRIT .................................. 73SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES ................................................. 77THE LATTER DAYS AND THE SAINTS ............................. 83MIRACLES GIFTS AND NONMEMBERS .......................... 86A HOPE IN CHRIST ............................................................... 91IN HIS HANDS........................................................................ 98

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PREF CEThis is a collection of essays that discuss concepts of personal religion---that part of

religion that takes place in the secret chambers of the heart and mind. Commandments, policies,dos, and don'ts are generally not discussed in this book. What is contained in this work is a smalldiscussion about the spiritual relationships between God and self.The general direction of this book is to approach gospel subjects from a spiritualperspective, not an intellectual one. Spiritual feelings are identified, emphasized and givenprecedence over intellectual skills. The general thrust of these essays is to encourage greateremphasis on spiritual skills and concepts in dealing with our mortal probation.Many of the concepts presented in this work were difficult for me to accept initially. Iwas trained as a scientist (a physicist), and took a scientific approach to everything that I did,even with religion. y belief was that if something were true, it could somehow be measured,monitored, or proven. I held that logic could prove or disprove anything. The concept that therewas an additional source of knowledge far beyond the senses or the power of reasoning, wasforeign to me. Even though I was raised in the Church, I founded my beliefs on what I saw sphysical evidences. I assumed that revelation was in the form of a physical manifestation orevidence that God would give to man.

t was difficult for me to begin to recognize spiritual feelings, and accept them s asource of knowledge. It was even more difficult to begin to give those feelings priority overlogic and reason. And finally, the most difficult task was to begin to let those feelings governmy life. However, my Father in heaven has been most patient with me.

I have finally learned that the spiritual sphere is not only just s real s the physicalworld, but is even greater, grander, and more reliable. The physical world can be so misleading.t is hoped that this work may make the spiritual transition easier for someone else.

n their original form, these essays were not intended for publication. They were simplywritten to record, in plain language, the thoughts, feelings, interpretations, and understandingsthat have been impressed upon my heart. Upon those pages I wrote the things of my soul, andthey constitute part of what I consider to be the Small Plates of Gaylen . Perhaps others mayfind worth in them in the form in which they are presented here.These essays presuppose a belief in God, Jesus Christ, and in the scriptures of the Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on the part of the reader. An understanding of basic LatterDay Saint doctrine is assumed, although extensive gospel scholarship is not required.

Gaylen Hinton

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ChapterH VEYOU INQUIRED OF THE LORD?

When Laman and Lemuel were quarreling over the meaning o their father's words,Nephi asked them: Have ye inquired o the Lord? l Ne. 15:8.) They responded, We havenot; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us. (Vs 9.)This was a seemingly innocent response from Laman and Lemuel. They simply did notthink that the Lord would answer their questions. However, their unwillingness to even ask Godbrought strong words from Nephi, chastising them because they would not seek answers fromthe Lord. (See vs. 10 .)Notice that Laman and Lemuel did not say that the Lord would not answer their prayers.They did not say that they didn't believe in prayer. Neither did they say that personal revelationwas not important. They only said that they did not believe the Lord would give an answer to thequestion they were arguing about. n their opinion, that question was not o sufficientimportance to merit revelation.Too often, many o us are like Laman and Lemuel. We fail to ask our heavenly Fatherquestions because we think that the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us. Such a thoughtbecomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and sure enough, nothing is made known to us We do notbelieve that our questions are important enough to merit revelation from the Lord, so we don'teven ask.

It is easy to forget what the Lord told us through Nephi: If ye will not harden yourhearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping mycommandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you. l Ne. 15: 11.)We all know that the Lord will reveal the truthfulness o the Book o Mormon to anyoneby the power o the Holy Ghost , in response to humble prayer. (See Moro. 10:4.) But wesometimes fail to remember that anyone is also entitled to know the truth o ll things by thepower o the Holy Ghost. (Moro. 10:5 italics added.) This is not a privilege reserved for justprophets, seers, and revelators, but for all o God's children, although most do not take advantageo that privilege.In section 42 o the Doctrine and Covenants, the section given as the Law o theChurch , we read the following counsel to general church members: If thou shalt ask, thou shaltreceive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know themysteries and peaceable things - that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal. (V s61.) Although this privilege is available to all, many do not understand how to receive theserevelations. Oliver Cowdery did not understand. When he requested the privilege o translatingthe Book o Mormon by revelation, he somehow thought the Lord would just show it all to him,but nothing happened. After he failed to receive his expected revelations, the Lord gave him,through the prophet Joseph, the now famous formula: Behold, you have not understood; youhave supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your own mind; then you must ask mei it be right, and i it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, youshall feel that it is right. But i it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have astupor o thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong (D&C 9: 7-9.)Some, in trying to use this formula, have swung the pendulum to the opposite extreme.

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They think that a person should not even ask the Lord for an answer until he has exhausted thelimits of the arm of flesh in studying it out in his own mind. Yet, when the Lord gave theabove formula, He was instructing Oliver on how to receive revelations necessary to translate.How does a person translate something? It is done word by word and phrase by phrase.Therefore , in translating a document by revelation, an answer from the Lord would not be soughtafter the whole job was done, but rather on a phrase by phrase, if not word by word, basis.Oliver needed to seek answers almost continuously.This sheds a whole different light on what is meant by study it out in your own mind .n translating, the process of studying it out in his own mind may have only taken Oliver a fewseconds of thought before he could ask the Lord if it was right. Sometimes the task of studyingin out in our minds can be accomplished simply by formulating the right questions to ask.With this in mind, we should not be afraid to seek answers from the Lord on a veryfrequent basis. We should also not be afraid to seek answers on any subject - to seek the truthabout all things. n the Doctrine and Covenants we read the following: But ye are commandedin ll things to ask of God, who giveth liberally (D&C 46:7, italics added.) Notice that this isnot a request. To ask God in all things implies very frequent requests. It also implies that weare not to withhold our questions from God just because we do not think that they are importantenough.We have been commanded, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;

knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Mt. 7:7.) The key words of this scripture are actionverbs -- ask, seek, and knock. They tell us what we must do if we want to receive the Lord'srevelations. These are the actions that Laman and Lemuel were unwilling to do. If we too fail toask, seek, or knock we can miss out on great blessings.Let me share a personal experience. This story starts in Sacramento, California. A youngman was awakened by his drunken boss and ordered to get in a car to go to Lake Tahoe . t wasabout 2:00 AM on a Labor Day holiday. This was typical of his boss' unreasonable requests, butthe young man did not have the confidence in himself or in his abilities to find another job. Withhis wife expecting their first child, he felt like he could not tell his boss no, regardless of howunreasonable he was.The boss did not even let him find his shoes, but ordered him to get into the car barefoot.The drunken boss then drove the car and attempted to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains.n his stupor he did not realize that he was riding the clutch, and before they reached the

mountain pass the clutch was totally gone. y the time they determined that they could not fixthe car, it was about 8:00 AM.At this point the boss stayed with the car and continued drinking his stash of liquor. Heordered the young man to get back to Sacramento, and bring back a tow truck he owned. (He wasin the junk car business.) So the young man started walking and trying to hitchhike a ride.Nine hours later he was still walking. His bare feet were swollen and his fair skin wasbadly sunburned. The blustery wind had tied his long red hair into horrible knots, and he had anabscessed tooth that caused him to wince with pain at every step. Staggering down the road withhis eyes mostly closed, he looked almost as bad as he felt. Yet no one had given him a ride.

The road he walked was not a lonely path, but one streaming with Labor Day traffic.Motorhomes, campers, and fancy cars all came in endless procession. But they, like the Priestand Levite of long ago, all chose to pass by on the other side . (See Lk. 10:32.)My family and I were returning from an outing that day when we saw the young man . Itoo was ready to pass by on the other side, because like the others, I also had my excuses. After

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all, I reasoned, there were already six of us, plus a hundred pound dog, in a car designed for five.I was ready to excuse myself on the grounds of no room. As we came closer to the young man,my wife commented that he looked like he must be on drugs . I agreed.However, s we were passing by, my wife noticed his bare feet, and her heart was movedwith compassion. "We have got to help him " she said. I tried my lack-of-space argument onher, but it did not work. She insisted that we could make space. I could not think of any otherargument that would not expose myself as totally heartless, so I began to slow the car down. AsI did, my wife turned to me and asked, "Do you think he is really on drugs?"

I did not know, but I knew Who did know. As I was turning the car around, we paused tofind out the truth about that hitch-hiker. e had very little data with which to "study it out in ourown minds". Most of what we had seen made us think that we ought to stay far away. Therewas concern that one of God's children might be desperately in need of help, but we also knewthat the safety of our family might be at stake. So we asked our heavenly Father to reveal thetruth to us. We asked Him if it was safe and right for us to give that young man a ride .Before we started back to pick him up, we knew that the hitch-hiker would cause us noharm, and that Father approved of our actions. He revealed the truth to us by the power of theHoly Ghost, and let us know that it was right for us to go back. (Incidently, there have beensimilar situations where the answer has been O .When we arrived back at the location of the young man, my good wife gave up her seatto the stranger, and crowded in the back with the four kids and dog . The young man was verygrateful, and quickly told us the story of his misfortunes. e stopped at the first store weencountered to get him some pain-killers, and allowed him to try to phone somebody. Butunfortunately, he was not able to make contact with anyone to help him.After that, we told him that we were going to Sacramento anyway, and so we could takehim where he needed to go. He knew that we were not telling the truth, but he was veryappreciative that we would give him a ride, especially s he knew that we were going out of ourway. Even though we were crowded, and had to go two hours out of our way to take him there,our family benefited more from that ride than the young man did. t was a wonderful experiencefor all of us, and we felt privileged that we had been able to help. e were grateful that ourFather in heaven had revealed the truth about that hitchhiker to us. e were grateful that we hadtaken the time to ask Him about it. Had we not, a wonderful experience would have beenmissed.The Lord can and will reveal the truth of all things to us, however, there are numerousreasons why some may not inquire of the Lord. Some feel unworthy, unimportant, or that God isunavailable to them. They feel that "the Lord maketh no such thing known unto them." Othersare simply unwilling to ask, or are unbelieving. Yet there are many "who are only kept from thetruth because they know not where to find it." (D&C 123: 12.) They do not inquire of the Lordbecause they do not really know how, or do not fully understand what is available to them.

Some people miss the joys of inquiring of the Lord because they pray in private by emulating what they hear in public prayers. In public prayers we cannot ask specific questions thatneed revealed answers, so we pray for things instead of about things. Public prayers tend to bemonologues, but personal prayers should be two-way conversations about things that either we,or our Father, think are important. In public prayers, we do not confess our personal sins, seekrevelation, share the inner desires of our hearts, or seek the will of God in all things in our lives.Our private talks with our Father should be much different than the generalities, cliches, and


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please bless lists that often prevail in public prayers.There are some who seldom inquire of the Lord because they have a hard timerecognizing answers when they come. They may not know the difference between a burning inthe bosom , an emotional high, or wishful thinking. For this reason, let us review the specificfeelings we receive when the Lord is speaking to us.First of all, we must remember that an answer to prayer is a spiritual experience, and nota physical one. We need to look for spiritual responses and not physical feelings. An exampleof these spiritual feelings are the feelings associated with doing a good deed.

f a person does something kind to someone in need, he will feel warm and good insideabout it. He will know that he has done something good because he can feel that it is right. Itis a wonderful feeling isn't it?)These are the same kinds of feelings that one receives s an answer to prayers. Withthese feelings, one can feel that it is right when the Lord answers his prayer in the affirmative.These feelings of peace, joy and warmth cause our spirits (not our hearts, livers, or lungs)to burn within us. Alma tells us that these feelings will begin to swell within your breasts; and

when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves - It must needs bethat this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; ye it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me. (Alma 32:28.) TheLord, in reminding Oliver Cowdery of an answered prayer, asked: Did I not speak peace to yourmind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God? (D&C 6:23.)These calm, sweet, spiritual feelings of peace and joy may also be accompanied byphysical feelings of warmth, swelling, increased heart beat, or pulsation. But even though suchphysical feelings may accompany a true answer to prayer, one should be careful aboutinterpreting physical feelings as a witness from God. There is a danger in assuming that justbecause a person has received physical feelings that he normally associates with the Spirit, thathe has received an answer to prayer. (We will discuss more about how physical and emotionalfeelings can be misinterpreted later.)Physical feelings may be counterfeited or misinterpreted, but there is no substitute to thepeace and joy and that come from the Lord. f there is no peace, there is no answer. Even if theanswer may be something that we do not like, there will still be peace and joy in knowing thewill of our Father.Some people may want to believe something so badly that they somehow think that theyhave experienced a burning in the bosom. They think that they have received an answer totheir prayers, but still feel uneasy about it - and blame the uneasy feelings on their ownweakness. (This is the case with many who get caught up in false doctrine.) Such a person hasreceived no confirmation from the Lord. f there is no peace, there is no answer. In fact, if thereis no peace, it is likely that the answer is NO.For many, recognizing a NO answer from the Lord is more difficult than a Y S answer,but this ability is just as important. f an affirmative answer is always accompanied by peace,then a negative answer would be accompanied by the opposite. n the Lord's formula to OliverCowdery, He says that a negative answer would bring a stupor of thought, something thatwould make him forget the thing which is wrong. This stupor of thought is not commonlyunderstood.Even though a negative answer to prayer may not cause a person to immediately forgetthe thing that is wrong, the negative feelings will make him w nt to forget it. This stupor ofthought may cause a person to have difficulty even thinking about his request of the Lord. His

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words (either vocal or unspoken) will fall heavy from his lips, and will seem forced s he tries toframe them in his mind. Instead of flowing free, as on eagle's wings to heaven, his words willseem to fall s lead bricks. A stupor of thought affects the very process of even asking thequestion.As one imagines his incorrect request being true, there is no peace. He may recognize theheaviness of a O answer even before he has finished his request, even before the words leavehis lips. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yetspeaking, I will hear. (Is. 65:24.) (The same can be true with a YES answer also.)Just s the feelings associated with doing something kind and good are of the same natures the feelings of a YES answer, the feelings of a O answer are also familiar. When someonehas done something very wrong or hurtful to another, he has no peace about it. f he tries tothink about his wrongdoing, he gets a heavy, oppressive feeling, but it is hard for him to eventhink about it. He will have a stupor of thought about even thinking of his deeds.Although the feelings associated with a negative answer to prayer are also spiritual innature, there is a good physical analogy to them. This analogy is the heavy, sinking feeling thatone has from eating too many pancakes and regretting it. The thought of eating more pancakes isnot only unpleasant, but it is difficult to get the mind to even think along those lines. One mightsay that he has a stupor of thought about thinking of more pancakes. He can feel that it iswrong to have eaten so much.

In talking about YES and O answers to prayers, it presupposes that we ask questionsthat can be answered by a yes or no. For example, if we ask our Father, What shall I do? wewill never get a yes or no answer. Unless we were given an open vision, or heard a voice, such aquestion would go unanswered. We need to understand that most revelation from God is goingto come in answer to yes or no questions, and frame our requests accordingly .Let us diverge for a minute, and suppose that God did give answers to prayers in the formof physical responses instead of spiritual feelings. Let us analyze what would happen in thatevent. For the purpose of this argument, let us suppose that the Lord answered prayers in thefollowing form:f your right hand twitches it means that the Lord is answering your question in the affirmative .f your left ear gets hot, the answer is NO.

This would be an adequate communication system, and with it we could carryon longconversations with the Lord. We could ask questions needing a yes or no answer, and He couldrespond. For example: Is the Book of Mormon true? ---Right hand twitch. Is this churchtrue? ---Twitch again. Did Joseph Smith really see The Father and the Son in the Grove? --Twitch, twitch. But what about the polygamist groups? Some of them seem so sincere? ---Hotear. Are they not living a higher law? ---More hot ear. And so we could go on, asking ourFather whatever questions come to our minds .

However, there would be two significant problems with the above system. First of all,what would happen if I got a muscle spasm? I might think that I was getting grandioserevelations, when I merely had a physical problem. With the best of intentions, I might go astraybecause of supposed revelations. This, by the way, would also be a problem with anycommunication system based on physical responses.The second problem would be a result of the system itself. What if I did not know thecode? Who would teach it to me? What if did not believe the instructor? Or, what if I got it

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backwards? It would be as an unknown tongue, or even a misleading one. As Paul said, If thetrumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" 1 Cor. 14:8.)Because of these two problems, the above communications system would be flawed.Would a perfect God give us a flawed system to communicate with Him? Would He trust oureternal salvation and the well-being of our souls to a system with holes in it? I think not.The system that our perfect God has given us is the one we already read about in D&C 9.When the Lord answers our questions in the affirmative He will cause that our bosoms shall burnwithin us, and we will feel that it is right.At first reading, this sounds no better than the hand-twitching system t sounds like aheartburn victim might think he was having a revelation. However, the feelings that the Lord haspromised us are spiritual in nature, and are not based on physical responses.In exploring the above concepts with a man I will call Bill, I had the followingconversation:GH: "Bill, I want you to close your eyes and think of the kindest, most charitable thingthat you have ever done for anyone-----Have you got it in mind? Now, as you think about it, tellme how you feel."Bill: "I feel good, and warm, and happy."GH: "Are you sure that you feel good?"Bill: "Positive."GH: "Ok, now tell me how you know that you are feeling good.Bill gave me with a puzzled look, and then slowly reiterated: "I just feel good inside."Tongue in cheek, I continued to press the issue: "You told me that you felt good andwarm. Are you sure it wasn't b d and warm? After all, they tell me it's pretty warm down therewhere bad people go."Bill laughed and said, "No, it was goo and warm."Getting serious again, I asked: "Bill, how do you know what "good" feels like? Whotaught you how "good" feels?"After a minute of hesitation, Bill flashed an understanding smile, and said, "No one had

to teach me what "good" feels like. I guess I already knew."Bill latched onto the amazing fact that nobody has to teach any of us what "good" feelslike. It is an innate gift that each of us are born with. We recognize that feeling without anycoaching and identify it as "good".I continued: "You mentioned that you also felt "warm" inside. Where there is warmth,something is usually burning. So what was burning inside you? ---- Was it your stomach? Yourlungs? Your heart? Your liver?"Bill: I don't think that it was any of those." ---- He recognized that it was a spiritualfeeling, and not a physical sensation that he had experienced.It is interesting to note that although most of us normally talk about emotional andspiritual feelings as coming from the heart, that is not true of other cultures. Some culturesattribute emotional feelings to the liver. They believe that the liver is the seat of emotions, ratherthan the heart. They might say things like: "That was a real liver-warming story." Or, "He is areal kind-livered person."But the truth of the matter is that these feelings do not come from our hearts, livers, orany of our body parts. They come from our spirits within us. When the Lord causes that ourbosom burns within us, it is our spirit that feels good and warm-----And we are born with theability to recognize those feelings. That ability is inborn, innate, and given to all men.

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I continued with Bill: "Now, I want you to close your eyes again, and think about themost unkind, hurtful thing you have ever done . ------ Now, tell me what you are feeling. "Bill: "I'm having a hard time even trying to think about it " He recognized how dwellingon something "bad" or "wrong" can affect our very mental processes. He recognized the conceptof the "stupor of thought" .GH: "I realize that it is difficult , but just do the best job you can at concentrating on it,and tell me how you feel."Bill: "I feel bad---I feel uneasy." It was unspoken, but also understood, that no one had totrain him to recognize a "bad" feeling either.I asked, "Is it possible that you might confuse these feelings of "bad" with those "good"feelings of a few minutes ago?""Of course not," he replied.

Bill's answers were essentially the same as anyone of us would have given. We all knowwhat "good" feels like. We all know what "bad" feels like. There is no confusion between thetwo. God's perfect system cannot be ambiguous or counterfeited, because good only comes fromGod. (See Moro. 7: 12 .) Even the good feelings that come from helping others are from God. Itmakes sense that God uses good feelings to let us know that we have done something right , andHe uses good feelings to tell us that an answer is right.The trumpet does give a certain sound, and we all know what it is. And with it we canprepare ourselves for the battle that is raging for the souls of men.So, if God's communication system is so perfect, why do we not all use it? f everythingis so clear and straight forward, why should there ever be doubts, fears, or lack of understanding?There is a one word answer to those questions, and that word isfaith. Faith is usually theproblem.As specific and recognizable as these spiritual feelings are, they are still only feelings ,and delicate feelings at that. They can be gone as soon as they come. They are not tangibleproof. We do not see or hear anything. These feelings are not admissible in court. Neither arethey acceptable as scientific evidence. This is where faith comes in.

Faith is believing in things because of what w l not because of what we think. Faithis the willingness of the conscience mind to accept the feelings of the soul as truth withoutadditional evidence. f we are not willing to trust in these feelings, divine communication willnever be ours. (For a more in-depth discussion of faith, please see Chapter 2, "The Faith ofPower".)n our Western culture we have largely been trained to give a low priority to our feelings.

We want the facts. We want hard evidence. We want proof. Our culture teaches us to thinkabout things rationally, and make decisions based on logical interpretation of irrefutable data.Feelings generally do not count. Logic and "proof" reign supreme.Yet in our society, it has generally been more socially acceptable for women to payattention to their feelings than for men. Because of this, women generally have done better with

spiritual feelings than men. Hence, in most Western cultures, a greater proportion of womenthan men have accepted spiritual things in the past. (Although current trends are tending todesensitize women to spiritual feelings as well.)In spite of our cultural background, we need to learn to trust in our feelings . One of ourmissions here on earth is to learn to "walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Cor. 5:7.) Our job is to givecredence to the delicate, but unmistakable feelings that come from the Spirit.

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SPIRITUAL INTERFERENCEAlthough spiritual feelings cannot come from physical sources, certain physical andemotional feelings can affect our receptiveness to the Spirit. Spiritual feelings are very delicate ,and cannot compete with more powerful physical or emotional feelings. In addition to beingvery delicate, spiritual feelings are also very fleeting . They can come almost instantly, in answerto prayer, and they can leave just as fast. Among those physical and emotional feelings that canoverpower the spiritual are: drowsiness , anger, fear, hate, pain, greed, lust, drug-inducedphenomenon, and excitement. This last emotion needs further explanation.Some time ago, when a friend told me that excitement can get in the way o receivinganswers to prayers, I was surprised. I did not believe him. I figured that excitement would get aperson pumped-up and ready to receive whatever answers the Spirit could give him. Shortlyafter that, I learned from sad experience that my friend was right.In the spirit o excitement I had prayed and felt like I had received a strong answer that a

certain choice was correct. Yet that same day I found out that I had been dead wrong. I wasshocked. I was devastated. It was not the consequences o my choice that disturbed me, butrather that the "answer" to my prayer had been wrong. The feelings had been so strong Thisexperience caused me to do some serious soul searching, but I learned some important lessons asa result o it.Excitement dulls our receptiveness to the Spirit because it puts us in a frame o mind thatis the opposite to that which is required by the Spirit. The Lord has told us, "Be still, and knowthat I am God." (Ps. 46: 1 .) In order to know that the Lord is God, or to receive any otheranswer to our prayers, we have to be calm, at peace, and focused on the Lord .Excitement causes our emotions to be agitated (anything but calm and still), and causesus to focus on the center o excitement, rather than on the Lord. (Even i that excitement is aboutsomething related to God or religion, it is not the same as focusing on Him.) But besidesmasking the true Spirit, excitement can also be a vehicle to make people think that they aregetting something spiritual when they are not.Excitement is a tremendous tool that Satan uses to deceive many. When a person isexcited about something, he naturally wants to feel good about the focus o his excitement. Andalthough he may not feel good spiritually about the point in question , he will feel good about itemotionally If in his excitement, he makes an attempt to pray, the excitement may trigger anynumber o physical responses, including responses he might normally associate with answers toprayers. He may also think that his emotional feelings are his answer, and he will be unreceptiveto any conflicting response from the True Spirit.Satan uses excitement to both lead people away from the truth and to keep them fromseeking truth. Religious revivals, apostate groups, charismatic leaders, fringe groups discussing"new doctrine", and others all rely on this same effect. They all use excitement to mimicspirituality. Those who peddle the philosophies o men, both inside and outside the church, allrely on excitement to win the hearts o others. In the excitement o the moment they want theirlisteners to accept their teachings or believe their creeds. In the atmosphere o excitement, falseteachings, false manifestations, deceiving miracles, or pseudo-spirituality can all be made toseem true.This is in such contrast to the teachings o the gospel The gospel teaches us that to know


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our God, we must be still, and that we should ponder and seek truth in the quiet serenity of ourprivate closets, secret places, or wilderness. (See Alma 34:26.)A good example of the Lord's plan is how our missionaries work with people. Ourmissionaries do not invite investigators to accept teachings in the heat of a revival-type meeting,but rather invite them to seek the truth at the quiet solitude of their own bedsides.A tremendous tool that we have been given to combat excitement, or other emotionalinterference, is the principle of fasting. In the scriptures, fasting is almost always recommendedin connection with prayer. As we fast, our bodies and our emotions become subdued, and wearrive at a state that is quite the opposite of excitement. Fasting generally has a more powerfulinfluence on subduing our emotions than our bodies. In the subdued condition that fastingbrings, we are freed from emotional and physical manipulations that would lead us astray, andwe can focus on the delicate communications that the Spirit gives to our souls. With fasting, wecan overcome the dangerous influence that excitement and other emotions have on our spiritualrecepti veness.

MULTIPLE ANSWERSOur Father in heaven always wants to communicate with us. We need to remember thatHe wants to communicate with us at least as badly as we want to communicate with Him. Hewants us to be able to recognize His answers, and does not mind repeating Himself if necessary.It is perfectly acceptable to rephrase a question and ask again: Does that mean that...? or Are

you telling me that...? One can also rephrase his question in the negative to see if he gets theopposite response from the Lord for an additional confirmation. We need to remember that weare not bothering the Lord to seek His answers. He is always happy to communicate with us.Sometimes, in order to get directions from the Lord, we need multiple answers instead ofa single yes or no. The Lord knows our needs, and stands ready to give us whatever is necessary.It is therefore appropriate, and acceptable, to ask as many questions as are needed to know theLord's will. For example, we can present a list to the Lord of the various options that we haverelative to a particular endeavor. We can then go down the list and get a yes or no on each itemon the list. And, if we get a good feeling about two items on the list, that may mean that either isacceptable, or that the best solution incorporates, or is related to, both options.At times, multiple answers are built upon each other, where every answer affects the nextquestion. For example, suppose someone wanted to give a Christmas food package to whomeverthe Lord wanted most to receive it. His first question to the Father might be: Am I to give thisfood to someone I know? f the answer were yes, he might then proceed with lists. f it wereno, he might proceed to locate the person by directions. He might ask: Does this person livewest of the tracks? Then, South of Main Street? and so on until he could narrow it down to ahouse or apartment.

Although the above explanations sound easy enough, receiving multiple answers from theLord often requires much struggling in the spirit. Enos received multiple answers from the Lord,but he had to struggle all night to get them. Faith, discipline, concentration, and a pure heart arerequired to communicate with the Lord, but as with developing any talent, it becomes easier themore we work at it. Just as one struggles with frustration in his first attempts at communicatingin a foreign language, learning the language of the Spirit can also try men's souls. But fluency inthat language, as with any other, s possible2


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I recall the difficulty that I had in learning to communicate in a foreign language . I didnot take any languages in high school, nor did I have the benefit of a foreign language mission.The extent of my exposure to foreign languages was one quarter of Spanish 1 1 in college.However, because of a business opportunity, my wife and I had the chance to move to PuertoRico. We lived in the small town of Quebradillas, where almost no one spoke any English. ywife knew a few words of Spanish, and I knew even fewer, but we were committed to make itwork anyway.

When we moved there, I began to study Spanish from an old textbook. I memorizedwords, and learned grammatical rules, but it did me little good , as I was too afraid to try to useany of it. y knowledge of the principles was of no value, as I was unwilling to put them intopractice. I was so afraid that I would make a fool of myself, that I made no attempt tocommunicate in Spanish.

One day I was working with an old gentleman named Pepe who knew no English. I washaving a very bad day, and Pepe knew it. Things were going from bad to worse. Pepe wanted tohelp, but he did not know how, so he just provided unspoken sympathy with his presence.

After a while, I committed to myself that I was going to say something to Pepe. Istruggled in my mind as I went over the words I was going to speak. For a half hour or more, Icarefully prepared and rehearsed what I wanted to say, assuring myself that my words would becorrect. I practiced over and over again in my mind to get the confidence to say a simplesentence of five words. Finally, with sweaty palms, and all the concentration I could muster, Igot the courage to say, Hoy no es mi dia. " (Today is not my day.)

Pepe laughed, and repeated back several times what I had said. That day I not onlycommunicated for the first time in Spanish, but I also made a friend. Years later, he stillremembered the first sentence that I spoke to him.

After that day I began to take other opportunities to express thoughts in Spanish to Pepeand others, but it still continued to be a struggle. For the next three months I was still studyingSpanish, learning the principles and words, but I still did not do much real communicating .Whenever I did say something to someone, it was in simple, single-sentence comments. n mymind I congratulated myself on my diligence in studying and learning the principles, but inreality, I was content with mediocrity, and was going nowhere.

On the other hand, my wife was communicating freely with the neighbors, townspeople,and church members. I arguably knew the theory better than she did, but she knew the practice.She could speak much easier, and understand far more than I could. I did not realize that inorder to learn a language and understand it, I had to speak it. Neither was I humble enough tobecome as a little child in order to do it.

Yet, in spite of my weakness (or maybe because of it), the Lord showed forth hiskindness, and devised a plan to get me to learn Spanish. The Stake President called me in andasked me to be a Seminary teacher. The first full paragraph of Spanish that I ever put togetherwas in front of that Seminary class. Those marvelous students patiently put up with mystruggles, and I quickly started to learn Spanish We had a wonderful year together, and we allended up learning.

Eventually, after much effort, practice, and time, it became as easy for me to speak inSpanish as in English. And with that ability, I had blessings, opportunities, and understandingopened to me that I never would have imagined possible. Had I been content to remain mediocrein my ability to communicate, I would have missed out on some of the greatest blessings of mylife.

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Too often, people's abilities with the Spirit follow the same trend as my beginnings inSpanish. They learn a little about what is involved, and what they must do. Then they struggleand work at their first attempts at spiritual communication. Finally, after sincere commitment,time, and concentration, they break through and feel the warmth o a Heavenly Friend. Afterthat, they may periodically struggle to communicate from time to time, and feel that they aredoing just fine. While congratulating themselves because they continue to study and learn theprinciples, they can become content with mediocrity in their practice o communicating, neverrealizing what they are missing.We need not be content with mediocrity in our abilities to communicate spiritually. Wecan become fluent in the language o the Spirit i we are willing to humble ourselves and putprinciple into practice. The Lord has promised that the general members o the Church (not justapostles and prophets) can "receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge .. "(D&C 42:61.) All we have to do is ask.Remember what the Lord told Oliver Cowdery when he wanted to translate. (See D&C9:7-9.) Had Oliver done his part, he would have been able to translate part o the Book oMormon. He would have been getting answers from the Lord on a phrase by phrase, i not wordby word basis. Surely the Lord would not have expected Oliver to struggle, as many o us do, toget an answer to each o his requests. (At that rate it would have taken a very long time totranslate the Book o Mormon ) The Lord was ready and willing to freely give answers toOliver's questions, but it was Oliver who was not ready.

LACK OF ANSWERSAs we communicate with our Father, sooner or later we will ask for an answer that Hedoes not want us to know. Often, the things that we would most like to know, or the things thatwe think we nee to know, are things that the Lord does not want us to know at present. Forexample, questions relating to the timing o events in our lives are often not answered. At least

twice in scripture, even the prophet Joseph was put off when he asked "How long?" or "When?"(See D&C 121:2-10; D&C 130:14-16.) Therefore, as we inquire o the Lord, we may want toask three questions instead o two. Instead o just asking "Is it yes?" or "Is it no?" we may alsowant to ask Am I supposed to know the answer at this time?"Often we do not receive an answer because we are asking the wrong questions. OurFather is usually quite willing to reveal our next step to us, but He can be very tight-lipped aboutlong range answers.For example, a young man might ask the Lord i he is supposed to marry a certain girl,but gets no answer. It is likely that he is asking the wrong question. The correct question mightbe: "Am I to continue pursuing this relationship?"Our Father may want these two people to continue seeing each other for the next fewmonths, even though He does not want them to eventually get married. Or He may want them toeventually get married, but will not confirm that fact to them until the relationship has progressedto a certain point.

f the Lord does not want us to know something, or i we are asking the wrong question,He will usually witness that fact to us However, we have to specifically ask Him: "Am I askingthe wrong question?" Or "Is this something that I am not supposed to know right now?" Withsuch a confirmation, we can take comfort in the Lord's will, and receive strength to try not to14


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worry more about the question.Sometimes the Lord will not answer our prayers directly, but will answer them throughothers. The revelation may come to someone else in response to our prayers. Let me illustratethis with a story.One day a temple worker was late for his assignment, and was racing towards the templein an attempt to minimize his tardiness. On his way, he passed a forlorn-looking man that was

shivering in the cold. Excusing himself on the basis of his pressing assignment, he drove on by.He tried to forget about it, but he could not. The image of that man kept coming into his mind,as much as he tried to rationalize it away. Before too long the Spirit succeeded in whispering tohis heart, and he knew he must go back and pick up the stranded man.When he stopped the car, and offered the ride, the hitch-hiker quickly jumped into thecar. His first words to the tardy temple worker were: "You don't know how hard I've beenpraying for someone to give me a ride." The temple worker replied, "Oh, yes I do "The Lord mayor may not have given the stranded man peace and assurance that allwould be well in response to his prayers. But it is doubtful that He revealed any details of howor when He would provide that ride. The details and specifics were revealed to the templeworker who then became the agent of the Lord in answering the prayer.

f we seem to receive no answer to our pleas, we should not give up . t may be that ourFather is answering our petition through someone else.There are times when the Lord does not answer prayers because the person is consciouslyor unconsciously seeking for a sign. As James says, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye askamiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts." (Js. 4:3.) n the Doctrine Covenants the Lordtells us that "all may be benefited that seek or ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they mayconsume it upon their lusts." (D&C 46:9.)n a very real sense, every time that the Lord answers our prayers , it is a miracle and a

sign. However, we do not seek the answers for that purpose. We can seek answers for knowledge, guidance, help, or comfort, but not as a sign. Sometimes though, there is a fine linebetween the two. For example, a mother might plead with the Lord that her daughter will dowell in a concert recital, and receive the comforting witness that she will. This is good andproper. On the other hand, she might ask the Lord the same question, but in the back of her mindthinking that she will put the Lord's answer to the test, waiting to see if the daughter really doesdo well. n this case, the goal is a sign, and would not be answered .Not long ago, a man I'll call Fred and his family were driving an old beat-up car fromUtah to California in the middle of the night. One of the worn-out tires on his car had a blow-outand self destructed. Fred replaced it with the spare, and they continued on their journey. Whenhe stopped for gas a while later , he noticed a hissing sound coming from one of the other tires,and saw that it was getting flat. Fred found out that there was air was escaping from between thetire and the wheel rim. Worried and frustrated, he proceeded to put more air in the leaky tire togive himself time to consider his options.

n a small Nevada town, at midnight, a person has very few options to begin with. Withonly three tires and almost no money, the choices become even fewer. As he was consideringthe situation, Fred noticed that the increased pressure in the tire had partially sealed off the leak.Taking heart, he put as much pressure into the tire as he dared, and saw that the leak had almoststopped. Logic told him, however, that a good bump on that tire could start the air escapingagain. Fred now had an additional choice: His family could start driving on the pressurized tire

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and risk being stranded in sub-freezing weather, in the dark, fifty miles from the nearest town.The man needed answers. He needed to know what would happen if he did take the risk. Heneeded to know the future. Such a desire can often be associated with seeking a sign, forknowledge of the future can always be verified. Once verified, such knowledge becomes a sign.But , as much as Fred may have wanted a sign, he needed useful knowledge even more.So he prayed, and asked his heavenly Father if the tires would last, and get his family where theyneeded to go.The calm assurance that he received from the Spirit let him know what to do, and hedrove off into the darkness. In the next several hours, he did not spend any time worrying aboutthe leaky tire. He never even stopped to check it. Three hundred miles later, when he had tostop again for gas, Fred casually glanced at the tire and smiled . The smile was not because hehad seen a sign, or had verified what the Lord had told him, but simply because he was gratefulfor the kindness of God.Yes, the Lord's answer to Fred ended up being a sign that his prayers were truly heard,but it was not intended as such. It was given by faith, from a loving Father, for the good of menunto my glory. (D&C 63: 12.) Signs follow faith and trust, not the other way around.There have been occasions in my own personal prayers when my intent was not right, andI was unconsciously seeking for a sign . When I received no answer from the Lord, I had to stopand review my motives. As I came to understand why, I had to back off and say: Forgive me, Iwas seeking for a sign wasn't I? (For a further discussion of signs, see Chapter 2, The Faith ofPower .)Sometimes we may get no answers from the Lord, yet we know that it is not fromunworthiness, asking the wrong questions, seeking a sign, or anything else that we may be doingwrong. There may be times in a righteous person's life when for hours, days, or weeks the Lordsimply says, I will not commune with you at this time.Apparently the Savior experienced this on the cross when He exclaimed, My God, myGod, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mt. 27:20.) Such a time of Celestial silence was also part ofJob's trial. Among other things, he lamented, I cry unto thee, and thou doest not hear me: Istand up, and thou regardest me not. (Job 30:20, see also Job 7:19,12:22-24,31:35 .)If we are called to go through a time when the Lord does not answer us, we need to takeheart and keep on trying. We have to remain faithful and trust in Him until our trial of silence isover.

WRONG ANSWERSWe have discussed ways in which our emotions and desires can get in the way and make

us think that we have received an answer to prayer when we have not. But what about the timeswhen we are sure that we have received an answer, but later we find out that our answer is verydifferent from reality? Let me illustrate with an experience.We had an older car that was not running, and was becoming an eyesore in front of ourhouse. I had made an attempt to sell it but had gotten no offers. One day a friend I will call Janecalled my wife because the engine in her vehicle had self-destructed, and she had notransportation. She had no money to get it fixed or to secure an alternate vehicle. Jane was in

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distress. My wife Kristi told her that she would see if there was anything we could do, and wewould get back.Kristi and I talked about the possibilities of how we could get help for Jane. One of thepossibilities was to get our old car fixed and let her use it for a month or two. When we prayedabout it we felt strongly that we were supposed to help Jane by taking our old car in to a repairshop to have it fixed. I even got a witness as to where I was to take the car to be repaired.That answer really surprised me. Even though I had not taken the time to adequatelycheck out that car, I had thought that the engine may not be repairable. y answer to prayerpleased me because it seemed to mean that we would not only be able to help a friend, but wethat would have our car running again.I called Jane and told her the news. She was totally thrilled. It was the best news she hadheard for a long time. She knew that it would take a few days to get the car ready, but said thatshe could work out some short term solutions until then.The next morning Kristi and I towed the car to the repair shop, and told them what wewanted done. They said that they would call if there were any problems, and that they wouldprobably have it ready the next day.No one called. I assumed that no news was good news, and that the repairs must begoing smoothly. No one called the next day either, and I assumed the same thing. I called at theend of the day to find out about it, and was told that the person who knew had gone homealready. The next day no one called either. When I called in the late afternoon, they apologizedfor taking so long to get to it, but they had just found out that the engine was irreparable. Theytold me that there was nothing that they could do, but that lowed them $20 for looking at it.This burst my bubble. Not only was I going to have to tell our friend that we could nothelp her after all, but I was out $20 besides. How could I have been so wrong? How could Ihave thought that the Lord had told me to take the car in to get fixed?Reluctantly, I called Jane that evening and broke the bad news to her. However, insteadof being disappointed, she thanked me profusely. She said that she had been able to worksomething else out, and would not need the car anyway. But she told me that the night I hadinitially called her, she had been so distraught about the situation that she could hardly function.Our offer to her had been healing balm to her soul. Just the fact that we had offered help hadbrought hope to the hopeless, and strength to the weary. She said that the hope we had given herhad carried her through the next couple of days.Even though our prayer had not given us the results that we had anticipated, it had stillbeen truly answered by a loving Father in a way that had greatly blessed someone.And that is not the end of the story. When I went back to the repair shop, I was ready topay my money and tow the car home. I figured that $20 was a cheap price to pay for giving afew days of hope, solace, and cheer to someone in despair. However, while I was waiting to paythe bill, a mechanic asked me if I was willing to sell the car. He bought the car from us for morethan I had figured we would get, and we did not even have to tow it home.

A simple answer to prayer that could easily have been interpreted as a wrong answer,ended up blessing many lives. Had our Father given us the whole truth about the car, wewould not have been able to give Jane the hope that she was so desperately in need of. Neitherwould we have been able to sell the car for what we did.There are some very important principles involved in this example. First of all, thisincident illustrates that revelation from the Lord is pure and true, but our interpretation of it issubject to our own understanding. The Lord did not tell us that our car woul be fixed, only that7


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we were supposed to take it in to be fixed. It was merely an assumption on our part that the carwas going to run again.However, in this example, the Lord wanted us to assume that the car would be fixed.Otherwise we would not have gone through the exercise. He gave us an answer to prayerknowing full well that we would interpret it in a way that was contrary to reality. That answerwas given so that our friend would receive hope.Our Father in heaven not only answers prayers for the purpose o giving knowledge orblessings, He also answers prayers for the purpose o giving hopeSomeone once said that it is hope, not love, that makes the world go 'round. Hope is avery precious commodity. Without hope, people can accomplish very little. Many times wemay think that the Lord is inspiring us to achieve a specific goal. However, in the end, we mayrealize that the inspiration was given for the express purpose o giving hope to carry us throughour trials. The whole purpose o the exercise may have had nothing to do with end results, butjust to give hope when we or someone else needed it.All o us have had difficult experiences in our lives. Most o us have probably saidsomething like: If I would have known how difficult this was going to be, I never would havedone it. Our Father knows our capacities. He knows how far we are willing to push ourselves.

If He knows that we cannot knowingly endure to the end o a difficult path, He will give usenough hope to endure as far as we can. n this way He can carefully lead us down paths, orthrough trials that we would never have had the strength to get through otherwise. Manyanswers to pleading prayers are given to deliver hope and get us to gain experience, even thoughwe may interpret those answers as meaning we will be delivered from our problems.

n 1833, the saints were pleading with the Lord to help them in their woes in Missouri.The Lord answered by giving Section 1 3 o the Doctrine and Covenants. This revelation toldthe saints to gather up their strength and march into Jackson County. Although He did notspecifically say that they would chase their enemies out o the land o Zion so that the saintscould return, the wording o the revelation lead them to believe that. Particularly, in the state oanxiety that many o the saints were in regarding Zion, it seemed as though section 1 3 was theirpromise o deliverance.However, with the historical perspective that we now have, we can see that the Lordnever intended for Zion's Camp that came in response to section 1 3 to redeem JacksonCounty for the saints. The purpose o Zion' Camp was to test the faith o saints and make themgrow. It was the crucible that refined those who would be chosen as the first Apostles andSeventy o this dispensation. Section 1 3 was given by a loving Father to motivate the saintsand give them the hope they needed to get through a difficult trial. t gave hope to those whohad been expelled from Zion, and also gave hope to those who were called to go on the difficult1500 mile trek.Apostates o the Church accused Joseph o being a fallen prophet because he had beenwrong with section 1 3 . They said that a true prophet would never have received a revelationto lead people on such a foolish and fruitless trek. Those uninspired apostates never realizedhow fruitful that experience was.

REPENT ANCE AND COMMUNICATIONOne o the only things that will keep us from communicating with our Father, besides not

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trying, is our own iniquities. Isaiah tells us, But your iniquities have separated between you andyour God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Is. 59:2.) f theheavens seem as brass, it is generally because our hearts are hard; and repentance is the cure.(For an in-depth discussion of repentance and prayer, see Chapter 3, We Don't Have to bePerfect to be Worthy .)Repentance should be our first item of business as we bow before the Lord. yconfessing our sins, seeking the Lord's forgiveness for our failings, forgiving freely as we wouldbe forgiven, then seeking His help to overcome, we unburden ourselves before the Mercy Seat.Then, with clean hands and pure hearts, our confidence [waxes] strong in the presence of God(D&C 121:45), and we can stand worthy before our Father.

n this state, there are no more walls, barriers, or pretenses. Trite phrases, bless lists, and oftrepeated lines become irrelevant. We can communicate with our Father on a soul to soul basis,express our love to Him, and feel His love in return. We can pray as did the Nephites in thepresence of the Savior: they did not multiply many words, for it was given unto them what theyshould pray, and they were filled with desire. 3 Ne. 19 :24.) The Spirit teaches us what to say,and our desires turn from the mundane to the glory of God as our souls long to return to ourFather.As we naturally and freely thank our Father for his greatness and goodness towards usand our fellow men, He teaches us through the Spirit what to be thankful for. We come to realizethat our material blessings and security (or lack of them) are insignificant compared to the love

of God, the plan of salvation, the atonement of Christ, and the privilege of communicating withour Maker.After expressing our love and gratitude, the Spirit will continue to guide us as we pray,and teach us what to ask for. t is so important to let the Spirit guide us in this aspect of ourprayers. Without the Spirit guiding us, we might be tempted to jus t go down a bless list , oreven a wish list as we seek blessings of the Father. For example, we might be tempted to askthe Lord to heal Uncle John just because we think he needs healing. But maybe the Lord oes

not w nt Uncle John to be healed at present. We would then be praying for something that wascontrary to God's will-----not a good thing.With the Spirit guiding us, we may end up petitioning the Lord much differently than ifwe rely on our own simple perceptions of who and what needs blessing.After the Spirit has guided us in modifying our bless lists for that day, it may seem likean appropriate time to end the prayer. After all, we have finished going through the standardThank thees , and Please blesses . Public prayers generally end here. This is where Lamanand Lemuel dropped out. They quit because they were unwilling to go any farther. But for thosewho are willing, the best can be yet to come.

f the Spirit so directs, this is where we can seek for the will of God in our lives, and askthe Father the questions that concern us . However, one should be careful about seeking theLord's will if he is not willing to follow it. No sacred cows, favorite sins, or personal agendasare allowed as one submits before the throne of God. Remember that Abraham had progressedto the point where he did not even withhold his only son.All too often, instead of seeking the Lord's will and desires, many of us try to get God tovalidate our will, and go along with our desires. We find ourselves in a position of trying tocounsel God, rather than taking counsel from His hand. (See Jac. 4:9.) However, if we followthe Spirit as we pray, we will never ask for that which [we] ought not. (D&C 8: 10 .) As soonas we even begin to say something in our prayers that the Lord does not want us to say, we can

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feel the Spirit withdraw, and we should stop immediately. That does not mean that the thingsthat we were about to say were wrong or bad, or even that we were not supposed to pray aboutthem. It just means that we were not supposed to pray about them at that timeUnlike conversations with humans, our Father does not mind i we do not speak incomplete sentences. f we start to say something and feel the Spirit withdraw, we need not try tomake something up to complete the thought. We can drop the sentence in mid thought, and get

the Spirit to lead us into the next topic. After all, our Father knows when we are ad-libbing.Seeking the Lord's will may require receiving multiple answers, as we try to determineexactly what He would have us do. It may require much work, faith, time, and effort on our part.However, i we are willing to seek the Father's will and then do it, we will receive our greatestJOY When we finish praying, we should still have prayer in our heart, and thus stay in tunewith the Spirit throughout the day. By so doing, we can still have access to our Father as we needHis help, or as we need to ask additional questions. n this way we can truly have the HolyGhost as a constant companion to teach us the truth o all things. Those who have received theGift o the Holy Ghost have this privilege i they will but use it.By getting closer to our Father through true communication, we can change our attitudesfrom those o Laman and Lemuel to those o Nephi. Then, when posed with Nephi's question,we each can truthfully answer, Yes, I have inquired o the Lord.

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hapter 2THE F ITH OF POWER

When an investigator is learning about the Church, he is told that the Lord will manifestthe truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost yemay know the truth of all things. (Moro. 10:4-5.) He is led to believe that the Holy Ghost willgive him the faith that he is seeking. But, on the other hand, he is told to pray with faith in orderto get his answer. He is left with a chicken-or-egg question---Which comes first, faith or theHoly Ghost? Does the Holy Ghost give us faith, or does faith bring the Holy Ghost?When Jesus Christ was among the Nephites, the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them.The Savior then prayed: Father, thou hast given them the Holy Ghost because they believe inme . 3 Ne. 19:22.) In the D&C we are commanded, Ask the Father in my name, in faithbelieving that you will receive, and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifests all things ..(D&C 18: 18.) The formula seems to be faith first, then comes the Holy Ghost.

However, there are other scriptures that would seem to conflict with this formula. Weread that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 1 Cor. 12:3.) Also, theSavior said, the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me . . 3 Ne. 11 :32.) These verseswould seem to infer that the Holy Ghost is the one that testifies to us of the Father and Son in thefirst place, and so therefore, he is the one that gives us our faith to begin with.A more explanatory scripture solves this conflict: Verily, verily, I say unto you, that thisis my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth inthe Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire andwith the Holy Ghost. And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bearrecord unto him of the Father and me . 3 Ne. 11:35-36.) Even though the Holy Ghost gives us awitness of the Father and the Son, we have to believe first, we have to first demonstrate our faith.As Moroni said, ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. (Eth. 12:6.) The HolyGhost will not witness anything to us until we do our part first.So, we are still left with questions: What do we have to do to get faith? How do weget faith in the first place?

We read in the Doctrine and Covenants, And the Spirit giveth light to every man thatcometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkenethto the voice of the Spirit. And everyone that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh untoGod, even the Father. (D&C 84:46-47.) This is talking about the Light of Christ, or Spirit ofChrist, that is given to every man. (Some people call it our conscience.)Notice the wording of this scripture. Even though this Spirit giv s light to every man thatcomes to the world, it only nlight ns those who hearken to its voice. And those who hearken toits voice come to God. The light is given to all, but all are not enlightened by it. Only those wholisten are enlightened. Only those who listen to the Light of Christ develop the faith to comeunto God, even the Father.Let us look a little closer at the Light of Christ and the method that it helps us achievefaith. When the Apostle Paul defined faith, he said that faith was evidence of things not seenand the substance of things hoped for . (Heb. ll 1.) Yet Alma tells us that faith is not to have aperfect knowledge of things . (Alma 32:21.) He makes it clear that knowledge is not faith . (See

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vs.17-18.)The question then arises, "How can faith be substantive, and be comprised of goodevidence as Paul says, yet not be knowledge?" The answer to this question lies in understandingthe Light or Spirit of Christ, and how it works in us.As we mentioned before, the Light of Christ gives light to every person in the world,

although most do not know it. The Light of Christ is not seen, nor heard, neither does it reasonwith mankind. This "conscience of man" speaks to the soul, not to the physical senses. It is thespirit inside a person that hears its voice and receives this substantive evidence, not his intellect.t then becomes man 's obligation to take this information spoken to his spirit, and transfer it to

his conscious mind. This is hearkening to the Light of Christ. This is what faith is.Faith is the willingness of the conscious mind to listen to the whisperings of the soul.The communications of the soul do not come as sounds, sights, or logic, but as gentle feelings.Listening to the subtle feelings of the soul can only come through humility and quietreflectiveness. Hence the Lord's command: "Be still, and know that I am God . (Ps. 46:10.)This is why Moroni said that a person "cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek andlowly of heart. (Moro. 7:43.)Notice that Moroni did not say that it would be difficult to have faith without meeknessand lowliness, but that such a person cannot havefaith . Without humility it is impossible tohave true faith .Faith cannot come to a person who is proud, or who makes intellectual reasoning hisstrength. Sure, a proud person can believe anything his mind can imagine, but in that state he"cannot have faith". The person who is unwilling to listen to his heart and soul will never findtrue faith. True faith is believing in things because of what wefeel not because of what wethink.

We know that "the natural man is an enemy to God .. and will be forever and ever, unlesshe yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit". (Mos.3:19.) Not only does the "natural man" include the physical appetites and vices, but intellectual vices as well. Jacob says, 0 thevainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men When they are learned they think they arewise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing that theyknow of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not." (2 Ne.9:28.) Pride is a terrible vice, a terrible intellectual vice. It not only makes people think thatthey know the truth already, but it makes them unwilling to accept the truth when it is pointedout to them.

n his marvelous discourse on faith, Alma points out the minimum requirement that aperson has to have in order to obtain faith. He says, "Even if you can no more than desire tobelieve, let this desire work in you ... " (Alma 32:27.) A desire is all it takes. A person does noteven have to desire to believe that the gospel is true. But he does have to have a desire to believe"the truth", whatever that may be. He does have to have a desire to find out. He has to "giveplace that a seed may be planted in [his] heart". (Vs. 28)Even having a desire to know the truth is a great act of humility. That is because if aperson genuinely wants to know, then he is admitting that maybe he did not know the answersbefore. Also, if he really wants to know, then he is willing to accept the consequences ofknowing. These consequences may involve admitting that he has been wrong, as well aschanging his lifestyle to conform to the knowledge.

n spite of what they may say, many many people do not want to know the truth. This is22


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because they are not willing to accept the consequences of knowing. They are not willing toadmit that they may have been wrong. They are not willing to meet the minimum requirement.Their intellectual vice of pride keeps them from having faith.

Faith then is the mastery of a person's spirit over his intellect in the same way that selfcontrol is mastery over the body. It is the communication between the spiritual the physical.With this definition of faith, God has perfect faith. However, if we equate faith withintellectual speculation or belief, then God has no faith at all. Knowing all things, He hasnothing left to speculate about or believe in.

n Alma 32:21 we read that if [we] have faith [we] hope for things which are not seen,which are true (Italics added.) This infers that it is impossible to have true faith in false things.As faith is the result of communication between the spirit and the intellect, it can only come fromtrue things.A person can believe anything that his mind can imagine. But, he can only have faith inthat which his spirit communicates to his intellect, which can only be of true things. Hence, it simpossible to have true faith in things which are not true .The prophet Joseph Smith, in Lectures on Faith, tells us: A religion that does not requirethe sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life andsalvation. (Lecture 6:9.) Attaining faith definitely requires sacrifice on our part, but whatsacrifice is required by the Lord?

We read: Ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. (3Ne. 9:20.) This sacrifice is the offering of humility and submissiveness where a personbecometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to allthings which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.(Mos 3:19.)

t is easy to see that the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit implies thewillingness to sacrifice all things . Hence, it is the ultimate sacrifice, and the humility that itbrings provides a fertile ground for faith to blossom as a rose.t can easily be seen that there is a vast difference between faith and mere belief. Faith is

a union of the mind and the soul whereas belief is a product of the mind only, as in makebelieve , or I believe in Santa Claus . Mere belief is a passive thing, and does not cause muchmotivation, while faith can unleash the motivational power of the inner spirit. The Savior tells usthat the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Mt. 26:41.) Faith is willing, but belief isweak. Therefore, a person who only has an intellectual belief in God will have little motivationto go through the pains of sincere repentance to keep the commandments of God. It should bepointed out however, that when the scriptures use the word belief, it usually means that beliefthat comes of faith, and not simply intellectual conjecturing.Unfortunately, much of the so-called faith in the world can be put in the class ofintellectual speculation rather than in the class of true faith. f it is grounded in faith, then it is avery limited faith. The prophet Nephi tells us of the Book of Mormon: If ye believe in [havefaith in] Christ, ye will believe in these words. (2 Ne. 33:10.) Therefore, people who claim tohave faith in Christ, but reject the Book of Mormon, do not have true faith, but only belief, or avery limited faith. f they really had true faith, they would have the union and communicationbetween their minds and souls that would manifest the truth of it unto them . (See Moro. 10:4.)Even many of us in the Church are lacking in true faith at times.

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SIGNSIn the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord tells us that "faith cometh not by signs" . (D&C

63:9.) This statement may seem very strange to the unbeliever who says, If I see a sign, then Iwill have faith." But the Lord is very specific in saying that signs do not produce faith.Sure, a sign will make a person elieve in what he saw, but that belief is of the I-believein-the-Easter-Bunny type. It will cause no lasting change. It will not produce true repentance orsincere good works.Faith does not come from signs, because signs only affect the intellect , they do not affectthe spirit. True faith is a product of both.Alma the younger had a tremendous sign given to him (Mos . 27: 11-16.), but it did notgive him faith. It was not until three days later, after sincere and humble repentance, that he

gained faith. (Alma 36: 10-24.) Laman and Lemuel also had great signs given to them 1 Ne.3:29; 17:52-55), yet they showed by their actions over and over again that they did not haveenough faith to follow the Lord.In the fifth section of the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord instructed Joseph Smithconcerning the gold plates and other sacred things that he had received. He told him of the threewitnesses and their mission, and taught him why it was not necessary for anyone else to see thosethings. The Lord explained, "Behold, if they will not believe my words , they would not believeyou, my servant Joseph, if it were possible that you should show them all these things which Ihave committed unto you." (Vs. 7)What amazing doctrine the Lord taught Joseph Smith in that verse He told Joseph thatshowing the world all the wonderful things that had been given to him would not make anyoneaccept the gospel who would not accept it anyway.But what about all the skeptics? What about all the people who say that if we could onlyprove our claims, they would accept it? What about all those who say, " f I see, then I willbelieve"?Incredible as it may seem, the Lord tells us that seeing the gold plates would not convertanyone. Seeing the wonderful Liahona or the sword of Laban would not help. Witnessing themarvelous Urim and Thummim would not give anyone faith to believe in the word of God.The word of God, in the form of the Book of Mormon, is all we need to believe in thegospel. f people will not believe that , then no other signs or wonders will help.

f we had the gold plates on public display, and had expert witnesses from around theworld confirming the accuracy of the translation, no one would become a faithful member of thechurch who would not have become one anyway.f someone does not want to believe, it does not matter what signs, wonders, miracles, or divinemanifestations he sees, he will still not believe . No matter how great a sign they have seen, or

how miraculous something is to them, people will find a way to rationalize it away. They willcome up with a way to justify their own beliefs (or lack thereof). As the wise old Solomon said,"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes." (Pr. 2: 15.)The Nephites, after the birth of Christ, saw many wonderful signs and miracles, but thosesigns produced no lasting change in their hearts. We read that "the people began to forget thosesigns and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or awonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts , and blind in their24


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minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen- Imagining up some vain thingin their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the deviL. 3 Ne. 2: 1-2.)No amount of signs will convert the unwilling, but by the communion of the Spirit, thehumble willing soul will believe without a shred of physical evidence. Even seeminglycontradictory physical evidence will not stop a person from gaining faith if he listens to his heart.Faith comes from what the heart feels, not from what the eyes see. This is why "faith cometh notby signs."

IT IS A QUESTION OF DOINGSome time ago I spoke at the funeral of a member of the Church. t was a "MormonService" even though almost everyone there was a non-member. n that talk I spoke of verydeep spiritual things, profound doctrines, and spiritual experiences. I surprised myself as I spoke

of things so deep that I would have been reluctant to even share them in a Sacrament meeting,yet somehow they came out anyway. But the most surprising thing was the reaction of the nonmembers. They loved it.There were no wandering eyes, no one whispering to his neighbor, no one who appeareddisinterested or sleepy. People were sitting on the edge of their seats, paying all the attentionthey could. They were all very interested.This was not an isolated incident. n general, people love to hear about and feel spiritualthings. Many polls in recent years have confirmed the desire of people to have spiritual feelingsand experiences in their lives.One poll, conducted in the United States, asked people what they thought about God andspiritual things. The results of that poll were that 90% of the people of the United States had,within the previous year, thought about improving their spiritual life, or improving theirrelationship with God. And a full 50% responded that they had thought about it a lot.The question then arises: If 90% of the people of the United States want to improve theirspiritual lives, why do 99% of them close their doors to the missionaries? Why will they notlisten to that which would give them the very thing they desire?

f the missionaries went to the homes of those who had listened so intently at that funeral,would those people listen to the Elders? I doubt it. And why not?Why would a person listen so intently to profound doctrines and feel the Spirit at afuneral, yet not want anything more to do with that same spirit later? The answer to this questioncomes as a single word, and that word is responsibility There was no responsibility in thatfuneral home, but there is responsibility in hearing and accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Atthe funeral they could listen and enjoy with no consequences at all, but the consequences oflistening to the missionaries may involve changing their whole lives.

n the Pearl of Great Price, we read of the purpose of this world, and our lives on it. TheFather and the Son said: "We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of thesematerials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove themherewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them."(Abr. 3:24-25.)They did not say that they were going to test us to see if we would believe in the Lord, orin His gospel. Neither did they say that they would prove us to see if we would accept Hischurch. This life is to see if we will do all that the Lord commands us. This tells us that our

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purpose here on the earth is not a question of believing, accepting, or knowing, but of doing. It isa question of personal responsibility. And when we accept the responsibility, the believing partcomes automatically.The Lord has made it possible for every person here on the earth to believe in Him, andaccept his gospel. There is not a single soul who will not have sufficient witnesses to have allthe faith he needs. At the judgement bar of God no one will say, "But I did not know " No onewill say, "There was not sufficient evidence " No one will argue, It was too complicated " No

one will say, "How was I supposed to believe that?" No one will complain, It's not fair "At the judgment seat of God, all will simply say, "Holy, holy are thy judgments, 0 LordGod Almighty - but I know my guilt; I transgressed thy law, and my transgressions are mine;and the devil hath obtained me, that I am prey to his awful misery." 2 Ne. 9:46.) All will admitthat in this life there was not a question of being able to believe, just a question of doing.In the Book of Mormon we read the story of the king of all the Lamanites. After hearingthe gospel from Aaron, he was willing to do anything the Lord required of him, and he prayed toGod to tell him that fact. He prayed, 0 God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and ifthere is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away

ll my sins to know thee .." (Alma 22: 18, italics added.)He was willing to repent of ll his sins in order to have faith in God. Notice that the kingdid not say, as many do today, If I knew you, then I would abandon my all my sins." He did notsay, I will repent of some of my sins to know you." The king knew that it was a question ofdoing, not a question of believing. He knew it required doing ll things whatsoever the Lordwould command him.A few years ago my wife and I were trying to get a dear friend interested in the Church.After some time she finally confronted us with the question: "Why do you keep trying to get meto join the Church? I am a good person already. I don't have a problem with any of your

Mormon commandments anyway."I took this as an opportunity to ask follow up questions to determine her sincerity.Asking about the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, Sabbath observance, praying, scripturereading, and serving in callings, I got nothing but positive responses from her. I then askedabout the Law of Tithing. She immediately turned cold and defiantly said, "I will never paytithing."Our conversation ended there, because both she and I knew the real reason that she wouldnot join the Church. It had nothing to do with believing. It had nothing to do with doctrine, goldplates, angels, or polygamy. It was simply because she was unwilling to obey. Even she knewthat it was a question of doing.

Her heart was set so much on the things of the world that the love of God could not takefirst place in her life. Our friend was smart enough to know that she could not serve twomasters, or have two loves, so she chose the one that was most important to her.What a shame For something as simple as ten cents out of a dollar, she chose to rejectkingdoms, thrones, principalities, glories, honor, and eternal lifeThere are many people in the world who reject the gospel because of some small thing.In effect they say, 1 would accept the gospel, but I don't want to quit doing my favorite sins ."Or, I love the Lord, but don't talk to me about my occasional beer, my wild women, or aboutpaying tithing." It is not a question of believing, it is a question of doing.Even in the Church, we have people who say, "Yes, I have a testimony of the Gospel, butdon ' t ask me to give up my favorite sins. Don't ask me to give up R-rated movies ... or go home

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teaching .. or pay tithing or not be prideful... or teach in the primary .. or to not be atalebearer." They are not willing to do all things that the Lord their God shall command them.Because they are unwilling, they will never have a true testimony about those things, for as Ethertaught us, "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." (Eth. 12:6.)The Lord told us through the prophet Joseph Smith: "And the whole world lieth in sin,and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin. And by this you may know that theyare under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me. For whoso cometh not unto me isunder the bondage of sin." (D&C 84:49-51.)No one fails to come to the Lord, or fails to join the Church because they cannot believe.No one has insufficient evidence. f people fail to have faith it is because they are under thebondage of sin, not because they are an unbeliever. And the sin that keeps them in bondage maybe very small, it does not have to be some great wrongdoing. There are very good people in theworld who are doing almost everything right in their lives, but bondage to one small thing is all ittakes to keep them away. A cup of coffee, a little pride, a little resentment, may be all it takes.They may be willing to do most of the things that the Lord their God commands them, but notall Faith is a function of doing, not a function of believing.When the Savior was on the earth, He told His disciples, If any man will do his will, he

shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (In. 7: 17.)Again, it is a question of doing, and then the believing becomes automatic.As a Bishop, I had multiple families come into my office and layout their finances beforeme. They did this in an attempt to justify their statement: "We can't afford to pay our tithing "They showed me that with their income and expenses each month, there was no way that therewas 10% left for the Lord. After explaining that we pay tithing with our faith, not with ourmoney, I challenged each of these families to pay their tithing anyway, even though it seemedimpossible.Within a few months I had these same families come back into my office an

hinton - not perfect to be worthy

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