Sunday morning session: Divine instruction: recognize it, respond
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God gives His children messages of instruction or encouragement to enable them to do His will, said President James E. Faust Sunday morning.
"We should keep our lives in order so that when we receive a burning bush type of message telling us what to do, we will be able to respond. We need to be sure we are in a position to recognize it and to pursue it."
President Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, said in a world where there is a "glut of messages," sent by e-mail, fax, and cellular phones, it is easy to miss a vital message.
"Serious consequences result whenever we miss important messages, especially if these messages are from God," he said.
Throughout the world's history, God has sent messages in various ways, continued President Faust. For example, God chose to speak with Moses out of a burning bush. And the prophet Elijah heard the voice of the Lord in a still small voice, after an earthquake and a fire.
"Messages are more commonly manifested by the still small voice, which speaks to all of us through the scriptures, modern prophets and personal revelation."
Sometimes — like Jonah when the Lord called him to go to Nineveh and declare repentance — "we don't want to hear messages from God," said President Faust.
Instead, Jonah boarded a ship to Tarshish to get away from the presence of the Lord. However, the Lord caused a mighty tempest to come upon the sea and the frightened mariners threw Jonah into the sea. He was swallowed by a great fish and after three days in the fish's belly prayed for forgiveness and deliverance. Jonah then went to Ninevah.
"Some of us may need something startling like a burning bush experience to awaken our senses. In such an experience the essential nature of something — a person, a situation, an object — is suddenly perceived. We understand this to be inspiration. To be able to perceive by inspiration the common and ordinary things of life in their true meaning is a special gift. Many people fail to perceive inspiration because God's 'great power looks small unto the understanding of men' (Ether 3:5) or because they are 'less and less astonished at a sign or wonder from heaven,' " (3 Nephi 2: 1).
So how does one recognize inspiration when it comes? questioned President Faust.
"The voice of the spirit of revelation is not necessarily audible, but it gives us divine confirmation through our thoughts and feelings," he said.
Church members, he said, must cultivate their sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Ghost.
"My first radio was a crystal set," recalled President Faust. "It was hard to tune to the frequency of a particular radio station. I had to literally scratch the receiving wire whisker over the top of the rough crystal to find the right pinpoint, a little valley or peak on the crystal where the signal was received. Just a millimeter off on either side of that point and I would lose the signal and get scratchy static. Over time, with patience and perseverance, good eyesight and a steady hand, I learned to find the signal point on the crystal without too much difficulty.
"So it is with inspiration. We must attune ourselves to the inspiration from God and tune out the scratchy static. We have to work at being tuned in. Most of us need a long time to become tuned in."
Even with advanced technology, cell phone users still deal with dead spots where the signal coming to the phone fails, he said.
"So it is with divine communication," President Faust added. "The still small voice, though still and small, is very powerful. . . . But like my old crystal set, the message may be there but we fail to pick it up. Perhaps something in our lives prevents us from hearing the message because we are past feeling. We often put ourselves in spiritual dead spots — places and situations that block out divine messages. Some of these dead spots include anger, pornography, transgression, selfishness and other situations that offend the Spirit."
Messages come to members individually and directly from a divine source and through the presiding officers in the Church. Also of great importance are the messages that come from parents and grandparents, he said.
"Parental messages may not be wanted. But with experience and the passage of time we come to realize that inspired messages from our father and mother are messages of love."
President Faust said one important message is the Lord's commandment to "keep (ourselves) unspotted from the world" (Doctrine and Covenants 59: 9).
Other important messages include the need to strengthen and safeguard families; to be honest with the Lord, with oneself and others; and to stay out of debt.
"In our day when we are bombarded by messages from many sources, both profane and spiritual, how can we determine the ones that are most vital to us? I suggest that we may look to the source of the messages and the motivation behind them. The Lord has given us a guide through the Prophet Alma, 'Whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil' (Alma 5: 40).
"We must strive to be worthy so that we do not miss the profound messages that come from God. Ultimately these messages include the sum total of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
President Faust closed his address by noting that he has had some acquaintance with more than half of the presidents of the Church since the Prophet Joseph. "I have wanted to live in harmony with their counsel," he said.
"In the nine years that President Monson and I have served as counselors to President Gordon B. Hinckley, I have come to know and feel absolutely and unequivocally that President Hinckley is the inspired president and prophet for our time. I testify that he has known and received and will continue to receive the mind and will of the Lord for this people and the whole world. We should always be looking for and heeding the prophetic messages that come from the president of the Church."
