Here is a talk I gave in Stake Conference on 2/10/18. The topic was Follow Him. It was pretty vague but the lessons I learned while preparing this topic have been such a blessing to me.
While I prepared this talk I felt like I was working on a group presentation with God and I was that obnoxious partner that wanted to do it my way and didn’t listen to the brilliant but more soft spoken partner (with all the good ideas and suggestions). God is so merciful and He lets us try and fail and hopes we will eventually get it right. I prayed that the Holy Ghost would tell me what to say and I pray now that He will take the reigns here and do the teaching as well. :)
There were 3 phrases I feel confident were from my presentation partner (The Holy Ghost) as I tried to prepare for this talk: This was at times when I stopped talking for just a moment so my partner could make some suggestions.
1. We can see Him, hear Him, feel Him, know Him, follow Him.
Boyd K. Packer taught that our physical body can see, hear, touch and feel and learn. Speaking of this he says:
“Through your intellect, you can learn most of what you know about the world in which we live. But if you learn by reason only, you will never understand the SPIRIT and how it works—regardless of how much you learn about other things….Your spirit learns in a different way than does your intellect.”
So we are talking about learning Spirit to Spirit. Learning with our spiritual eyes, spiritual ears and emotions, thoughts and feelings.
How can we prepare to learn?
Learning position (Spirit to Spirit)
When I was an Special Education teacher in an Elementary School, many of my students were easily distracted. To bring them back to the lesson and help them refocus I had them get into “learning position”. Many teachers use this…not just in special education. I have also heard it called “ready position”. This is what it looks like:
EYES: on the Teacher
EARS: listening to the Teacher
MOUTH: closed when it is time to listen but I would never discourage my students from asking an on topic question.
HANDS: on the table ready to work (not fiddling with pencils, toys, or other distractions.)
So I would ring a xylophone when I noticed they were getting a little off task during a lesson or needed to focus on something important they would need to know for future. This ringing sound was essentially a signal to ask them: ARE YOU READY TO BE TAUGHT?
I found a description of Nephi’s spiritual "learning position" in the Book of Mormon: His spirit was ready to be taught. 1 Nephi 10:17 he tells us that he desired to see, hear and know what his father saw in vision.
Then in 1 Nephi 11:1: Nephi says
“For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot.”
That is one heck of a classroom! I believe that we can experience this kind of classroom just like Nephi and Lehi and other prophets and individuals in the scriptures. In fact, Nephi tells us so at the end of chapter 10. Also, notice that Nephi has the same teacher that you and I have. What a blessing!
My learning position xylophone (ARE YOU READY TO BE TAUGHT?) “rings” most often in the middle of the night, early morning when I study and in the shower.
Sometimes I will wake unexpectedly or to the cries of one of my 2 children in the middle of the night. When I am back in bed I often ask: Do you have a message for me now? or sometimes I will ponder a specific question I have been struggling with or wondering about. Also, I have received personal revelation so often in the shower that I have learned that it is one of my classrooms. The spirit invites me to put away the distractions in my mind: to-do lists, music, podcasts and listen.
What about you?
When, where, how do you get into learning position and signal to the Lord that you are ready to be taught?
It could be in the car while you are driving, at night before bed, during scripture study? It will be personal to you.
The key for me personally is to meet Him in the Silence
Mother Teresa said this about silence:
“We must improve our PRAYER and, flowing from that, our charity toward others. It can be difficult to pray when we don’t know how, but we can help ourselves through the use of silence. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence. This silence takes a lot of sacrifice, but if we really want to pray, we must be ready to take that step now. Without this first step toward silence, we will not be able to reach our goal, which is union with God.”
SPIRITUAL LEARNING POSITION RECAP:
SPIRITUAL EYES OPEN AND ON THE TEACHER: who is the Holy Ghost who testifies of the Master Teacher -Our Savior Jesus Christ (Can you picture Him in your mind’s eye? Visualize Him?)
SPIRITUAL EARS OPEN TO HEAR HIS VOICE blocking out all other distractions: Silence. Cling to that IRON ROD of His words. (Found in the scriptures, promptings from the Holy Ghost or Light of Christ, and Words of the Prophets…)
MOUTH: Closed to listen and ASK. ASK. ASK.
HANDS READY TO DO THE WORK: Free your hands for HIM. Same concept of silence.
2. Seek This Jesus
This phrase comes from the last verse in Ether 12. Moroni is speaking. Right before this invitation he says:
“And then shall ye know that I have SEEN Jesus, and that he hath talked with me FACE TO FACE, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things.”
(Sounds like he is using more than just his spiritual eyes). He continues in verse 41: “And now I would commend you to SEEK THIS JESUS!”
This sounds like a learning that we can experience that is far beyond what we typically share in testimony meeting.
President Uchtodorf talks of this kind of learning which is described over and over in the scriptures:
Speaking in the PH session but really to all of us: He says:
“Brethren, we are faced with a choice. We can be satisfied with a diminished experience as priesthood bearers and settle for experiences far below our privileges. Or we can partake of an abundant feast of spiritual opportunity and universal priesthood blessings.”
“Think of what a glorious thing it is to reach beyond our earthly limitations, to have the eyes of our understanding opened and receive light and knowledge from celestial sources! It is our privilege and opportunity as bearers of the priesthood to seek personal revelation and to learn how to know the truth for ourselves through the sure witness of the Holy Spirit.”
“Let us earnestly seek the light of personal inspiration. Let us plead with the Lord to endow our mind and soul with the spark of faith that will enable us to receive and recognize the divine ministering of the Holy Spirit for our specific life situations and for our challenges and priesthood duties.”
How is this done:
3. Surrender: Fall at His feet-Fall to your knees by the tree of life
I had a bunch of quotes that went along with this but I feel prompted to share a personal story instead.
Almost 2 years ago exactly I experienced what many call a “trial or a crisis of faith”.
Suddenly, I didn’t know what I believed. There may be many of you who have had this experience at some point in your life where your faith was tested either by a trial or when you were put in a position to defend what you believe and suddenly didn’t feel prepared to do so.
I remember one particular day I was especially upset and my faith was so fragile. Everything I was experiencing was so raw. I sobbed on my knees for what felt like forever. I prayed to Heavenly Father asking if the church is true or not. I promised that I would do my due diligence to study, read all that I could, and pray for understanding.
In that poignant moment, I surrendered. I was desperate. I fell at the Savior’s feet and pled for guidance, knowledge and peace. I have found that He hears us loud and clear down there…perhaps more so than any other time.
My quest for faith and understanding included a whole lot of searching, pondering and prayer…just as I promised. Ultimately I had to lay my fear and my doubts on the altar, allow them to be consumed and pray for the gift of faith and wisdom to replace it. I still work at this everyday.
The Savior didn’t expect me to do any portion of this process on my own.
*Sometimes I don’t feel the desire. So I have to pray for an increased DESIRE to know Him better: He then blesses me with a flame of desire that changes my heart.
*I often don’t know WHAT to SURRENDER to Him: So I ask Him. He shows me what burdens are holding me back. Pride. Addiction. Impatience. Fear. Worldly distractions.
*Sometimes I don’t know WHAT to PRAY for: I ask for the tongue of angels and for the Spirit to take over and tell me what to pray for.
Include Him in all of it and you will see MIRACLES.
President Nelson’s wife Wendy said this:
“When we're desperate to be guided by heaven, we work harder than ever to tune in to heaven….When we're desperate to become the people we were born to be, our vision changes. We wake up from the spiritual amnesia the adversary so cleverly administers, and suddenly we see things about ourselves, others, and our lives we've never seen before.”
I testify that if we desperately Seek this Jesus, and surrender our will and life to Him: we can see, hear, feel, know and Follow Him.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen