CC #11 Prompings of the Spirit, Stevenson

Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets. How blessed we are to have a living prophet today. Brothers and sisters, the Savior declared, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. Welcome to Conference Chronicles, where we systematically take one conference talk per week from the previous conference and dissect it and learn from it. I'm your host, Taylor Lithgow, and I firmly believe that as we listen to and apply the Lord's teachings through His living prophets, we will fulfill the full measure of our creation and we will be prepared for the Lord at His second coming. So please join with me each week as we take this quest called Conference Chronicles. Hello everybody and welcome to this week's episode of Conference Chronicles. This week's episode is on Elder Gary E. Stevenson's talk entitled Promptings of the Spirit. He starts the talk by saying that we recently experienced the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and how there are 200 national teams from all around the globe, and how each demonstrated their grit, dedication, talent, and athleticism as they competed for the soccer world's highest honor. He goes on to say, we marvel at performers in numerous sports and other disciplines who achieve the highest level of their art. We speak of their God-given talents or gifts. This includes those gifted in dance, gymnastics, music, art, drama, mathematics, science, and more. Each such person demonstrates God-given gifts that are then refined and honed by a lifetime of hard work, study, and practice. God-given gifts make gifted people. Looking through a gospel lens, God endows His children with many spiritual gifts, making them spiritually gifted people. Covenant-keeping members of the Church are bestowed with gifts of the Spirit, which include the gift of a testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the gift of faith to heal and to be healed, the gift of discernment, the gift of receiving miracles, and the gift of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord invites us to earnestly seek the best gifts, even spiritual gifts. He gives spiritual gifts to bless us and to use in blessing others. I wanted to take a moment to pause and consider the spiritual gifts that we have. So take a minute. What are some of the spiritual gifts that you have? Maybe the Spirit has brought them to your mind. Maybe your patriarchal blessing has told you about some of your spiritual gifts. Maybe the people that are close to you have pointed out some of the spiritual gifts that they've noticed in you. Whatever it may be, take a minute and think about some of your spiritual gifts. Now I want you to think about how some of those gifts have blessed others. How has Heavenly Father used you and your spiritual gifts to bless and serve others? Now on the flip side, how have you benefited from and been blessed by other people and their spiritual gifts? Just take a minute to ponder those questions, even if you need to pause the episode for a minute. Just think about those. Now let me again read something from Elder Stevenson's talk. He says, Returning to our analogy of gifted performers, it is important to remember that a gift alone does not a master make. A gift alone does not a master make. Extraordinary natural talent notwithstanding, it is through painstaking and laborious practice and effort that performers refine and hone their craft to reach their highest level of artistry. Likewise, I have observed a learning curve associated with spiritual gifts. Exercising spiritual gifts requires spiritual exercise. Receiving the guidance of the Holy Ghost in your life requires spiritual work. So it doesn't really take a genius to figure this out, I mean, no offense to Elder Stevenson of course, but any talent or gift that we can think of, of course requires work and laborious practice, as he says. Think of any great athlete or musician or artist of any kind, really. And of course they were endowed with some natural God-given talents and ability, but those that perform at the highest level of anything will tell you that there are probably many others that are just as talented or more talented than they are. The main thing that separated them from the pack is their consistent dedication at nurturing the gifts that were already there. So if this applies to any earthly gift, why would it not apply to spiritual gifts? Of course it does. So moving forward, Elder Stevenson goes on to say, over the course of my ministry I have found a universal longing by everyone to know how to invite and recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Promptings of the Spirit are very personal and come in different ways. We are, however, blessed to have words of prophets, both ancient and modern, give us valuable insights about how to receive direction from the Spirit. Let me offer four guiding principles that may be of assistance to you in inviting and recognizing the promptings of the Spirit. So here are those four guiding principles that Elder Stevenson gives us. Number one, stand in holy places. Number two, stand with holy people. Number three, testify of holy truths as often as you can. And number four, listen to the Holy Spirit. So let's start with number one. Stand in holy places. I'd like to share an experience or two with each one of these four points. As a child my family wasn't very active in the church and we never went to church until I turned nine and we moved into a new home. We moved from Sugar House to Sandy, Utah. And the ward was really great and kind of took us in. And I remember getting taught by the ward missionaries when I was nine and I loved it and I wanted to get baptized and so I did and my family and I started going to church more. I remember two specific experiences singing hymns as a child in sacrament meeting. I remember singing Praise to the Man and I remember singing the Spirit of God. They're both hymns of the Restoration. But to this day I still remember the feelings I had as we sang those hymns. It was amazing. It was like I was on fire. I felt the Spirit and I felt it strongly in that holy place, that chapel in which we had just partook of the sacrament and had I not been standing there in that holy place I would not have had that spiritual experience. Another one I thought of, fast forward a few years, I was in high school now, my senior year. I was supposed to be preparing for a mission but it was kind of a rough spot in my family's life and in my life and I felt lost and I wasn't keeping the commandments the way that I should and this is kind of the backdrop for this. I remember it was a Sunday evening and there was a mission prep class being held at one of my leader's homes and typically I wouldn't go to those types of things but I decided to go this Sunday and to be honest I can't really remember anything that I learned there but as I was walking out of the leader's home it was drizzling, just a light drizzle. I remember I walked out of the house, I was walking towards my car and I was looking up into the sky, into the heavens and the drops were just falling on my face and I was overcome with the most amazing peaceful Spirit, a Spirit that I had not felt in a while to be honest and I knew in that moment that God knew me, that that was where I was supposed to be that night and that I was supposed to serve a mission. I had all of these things come to me at once and I knew them all to be true simultaneously. Isn't that amazing how the voice of the Spirit works? Sometimes it teaches us many things all at once. It's quite miraculous really but again I would not have had that experience had I not gone to that holy place aka the mission prep class and so moving on to the second point, stand with holy people, it definitely applies to both standing in holy places and standing with holy people but as a missionary we had a multi-zone temple trip in Mesa, Arizona so there were probably about 80 missionaries or so in the chapel of the temple waiting to do an endowment session and we all sang the hymn, I Believe in Christ and that ended up being such a powerful and sacred experience. We in unison were singing the words to that hymn. I can testify that there were many others joining in in the singing, angels joined. It was so loud but not in a deafening way and it filled your whole being with power as we sang. It's hard to imagine the power and sacredness of it unless you were there of course but I know that the reason why it was so powerful is because of course we were standing in a holy place, the temple, but we were all standing or sitting shoulder to shoulder with missionaries that had been dedicating their whole lives to serving the Lord so I was standing with holy people as well and the feeling of unity was palpable. So that's number two, stand with holy people. Number three, testify of holy truths as often as you can. Really the reason why I'm doing this podcast kind of falls into that category as well. I just realized that every time I bear my testimony, my testimony is strengthened and the Spirit testifies the truth of it as it's coming out of my mouth. So that alone is a huge reason why I did this podcast to start with. Another example I thought of is again when I was a young man, I was probably around 14 and I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and I remember not anticipating having this feeling but as I spoke, I almost felt like the words were being given to me. It's almost as if I could hear myself saying them. Like I was lifted above myself almost and I could hear myself speaking and I looked out into the congregation and multiple of my leaders were crying. They had tears in their eyes. The Spirit was testifying to them as well and I began crying and I just remember feeling as I stood up there at the pulpit in front of all of these people, feeling and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the things that I was testifying of were true. So that phrase that we often hear, a testimony is found in the bearing of it, is definitely true and I know that to be true for myself. Fourth and finally, listen to the Holy Spirit. This might sound redundant, you know, He's giving us guiding principles that may be of assistance to us in inviting and recognizing the Spirit. So you might think, well, isn't listening to the Spirit kind of implied? But when you think a little deeper about it, you realize that listening is a verb, it's an action word, it requires faith to actually listen. Also, the voice of the Spirit is calm and it's almost like learning another language, to be honest. We need to become familiar with how it sounds and how it feels. I have one experience that I'd like to share. As a missionary, we were walking past a bus stop one day and there was a man that was clearly beaten up. He was bleeding and not in good shape. He was laying next to the bus stop. So we called my mission president and said, hey, we're with a member right now. We have the member's vehicle and there's this man that looks like he's been beaten up. We need to take him to the hospital. The hospital's outside of our area. Are we good to go? And he's like, yeah, for sure. You guys can take this guy to the hospital. So we loaded him up in the member's car. We drove him to the hospital. We dropped him off. We got him checked in. And as we were leaving, we were walking out of the doors. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman who was kind of kneeling down by the wall on the outside of the hospital and she was probably about 200 feet away from us. I looked over there. I saw her kind of crouched down by the wall and the words, she needs somebody to talk to came into my mind. So I nudged my companion, I nudged the member and I said, hey, you guys, she needs someone to talk to. She walked over there and I kind of crouched down. So we were on eye level, me and her, and she looked up. She brought her face out of her hands and she saw us and she said, oh, thank you for coming over here. I really needed someone to talk to. And in that moment, the spirit rushed over me and confirmed that I was in tune and taught me that I just needed to trust any good thought that came into my mind. If it was good, it means it was coming from God. And I shouldn't doubt that. I should simply obey. So moving forward and as we start to wrap up this episode, I did want to read some words of caution that Elder Stevenson gives us. He says, here's some words of caution. As you consider these principles to invite and recognize the spirit, consider the following words of cautionary guidance. First, confirm your spiritual impressions. For example, impressions from the spirit will align with the scriptures and the teachings of living prophets. Second, be certain that the feelings you receive are consistent with your assignment. For example, unless you are called by proper authority, impressions from the spirit are not given for you to counsel or correct others. Third, spiritual matters cannot be forced. You can cultivate an attitude and an environment that invites the spirit and you can prepare yourself but you cannot dictate how or when inspiration comes. Be patient and trust that you will receive what you need when the time is right. And then fourth, use your own best judgment. Sometimes we want to be led by the spirit in all things, however, often the Lord wants us to use our own God-given intelligence and act in ways that are consistent with our best understanding. President Dallin H. Oaks taught, a desire to be led by the Lord is a strength, but it needs to be accompanied by an understanding that our Heavenly Father leaves many decisions for our personal choices. Those who try to shift all decision-making to the Lord and plead for revelation in every choice will soon find circumstances in which they pray for guidance and don't receive it. We should study things out in our minds, then we should pray for guidance and act upon it. If we do not receive guidance, we should act upon our best judgment. I think that's so important to remember that ultimately the Lord wants us to become like Him. He wants us to become spiritually independent. Of course we're depending on Him and His power throughout the whole process, but He really doesn't want to command us in all things. When we have a spiritual truth confirmed in our heart and we know it to be true, that truth can then lead and guide so many of our actions. That's why principles are so important. The Lord doesn't want to give us a whole host of rules. He wants us to learn correct principles and then we can just govern ourselves, as the Prophet Joseph Smith said. So sometimes we ought not to overthink everything and feel like, oh my goodness, I haven't really received such a strong, powerful spiritual impression about this. That's okay. Just act. Again, anything good is coming from God, so if you are doing good things, you can act with confidence knowing that the Lord will be proud of you, or at the very least, He's not going to let you go astray. So in closing, I'll read an invitation that Elder Stevenson gives us at the end. It might not seem to be completely relevant with his talk, Promptings of the Spirit, but I think it is, and I think there's a reason why he gives us this invitation. He says, I close with an invitation especially for all the youth. Many of you start your day by standing in front of a mirror. Tomorrow, this week, this year, and always, pause as you look at yourself in the mirror. Think to yourself, or say aloud if you like, wow, look at me. I am awesome. I am a child of God. He knows me. He loves me. I am gifted, gifted with the Holy Ghost as my constant companion. While that exercise might feel uncomfortable or corny at first, I truly believe that it will be a powerful exercise. I am going to try to do that myself. I am going to do that myself. How about that? I commit to doing that. Satan, the devil, is not shy in trying to fill our brains with a bunch of hateful and untrue messages about ourselves. I know all too well how sinister he can be in the things that he tries to make me believe about myself. So we need to allow the Spirit's voice to be operative in our lives. And I think this exercise can help invite the Holy Ghost into our minds and hearts because everything that's shared right there is true. I am a child of God. He knows me. He loves me. I am gifted, gifted with the Holy Ghost as my constant companion. All of those things are true. So as we say them out loud and look at ourselves in the mirror, the Spirit can testify of their truthfulness to our hearts. I close with my testimony that I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ truly have given us a third member of the Godhead to be our constant companion. What an incredible blessing that is. I know that receiving the Holy Ghost is a choice. After we're baptized, hands are laid on our head and the verbiage is, receive the Holy Ghost. I know that that's a choice. That's an action word to receive the Holy Ghost then, now, and every day. I know that as we do, we will be able to navigate this life and experience many wonderful things with the Lord by our side. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you very much for tuning in this week. I love you all. I hope you're enjoying these episodes. Please share them with others. It means a lot. I believe that we can all benefit with a weekly study of these conference talks. Next week's talk will be, Do You Want to Be Happy? by Elder Yoon Hwan Choi of the Seventy. I look forward to talking with you next week. See you then.