03/16/2024
We hear from time to time of some of our beloved ASM missionaries that they have “left the church” for various reasons. We want you to know that no matter your current status of activity, Sister Sweeney and I love you and your spouse and family. If you are sincere in your search, the journey you are now on is unavoidable. Along the Wasatch front the number of people who are similarly searching is undeniably larger than past years and former generations. The Deseret News is even running a series of articles this week on those who have left and returned - a tacit admission that it is a trend.
What I will share now is not a criticism or comment on how you arrived at where you are. And this applies to any of our missionaries who served with us in ASM. It is given as my personal recommendation on some truths I have found that I hope you will experiment with during your future journey.
The single most influential writing I ever read on the way to gain spiritual knowledge was written 40 years ago by Boyd K. Packer called “The Candle of the Lord”. It is available online in several places but I like this version best: https://church-of-jesus-christ-facts.net/classicscandleof/
This talk was delivered to a mission presidents training seminar back in 1982, so it presupposes that those who read it have access to the scriptures and know how to pray. No matter where you presently are, the principles of spiritual communication with God through the Spirit contained in this talk will assist you. Among them are these quotes:
• We do not learn spiritual things in exactly the same way we learn other things that we know, even though such things as reading, listening, and pondering may be used. I have learned that it requires a special attitude both to teach and to learn spiritual things. There are some things you know, or may come to know, that you will find quite difficult to explain to others. I am very certain that it was meant to be that way.
• We are expected to use the light and knowledge we already possess to work out our lives. We should not need a revelation to instruct us to be up and about our duty, for we have been told to do that already in the scriptures; nor should we expect revelation to replace the spiritual or temporal intelligence which we have already received—only to extend it. We must go about our life in an ordinary way, following the routines and rules and regulations that govern life.
• The voice of the Spirit is described in the scripture as being neither “loud” nor “harsh.” It is “not a voice of thunder, neither … voice of a great tumultuous noise.” But rather, “a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper,” and it can “pierce even to the very soul” and “cause [the heart] to burn.” (3 Ne. 11:3; Hel. 5:30; D&C 85:6–7.) Remember, Elijah found the voice of the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but was a “still small voice.” (1 Kgs. 19:12.)
• We do not have the words (even the scriptures do not have words) which perfectly describe the Spirit. The scriptures generally use the word voice, which does not exactly fit. These delicate, refined spiritual communications are not seen with our eyes, nor heard with our ears. And even though it is described as a voice, it is a voice that one feels, more than one hears. Once I came to understand this, one verse in the Book of Mormon took on a profound meaning, and my testimony of the book increased immeasurably. It had to do with Laman and Lemuel, who rebelled against Nephi. Nephi rebuked them and said, “Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words.” (1 Nephi 17:45).
• It is not wise to wrestle with the revelations with such insistence as to demand immediate answers or blessings to your liking. You cannot force spiritual things. You can no more force the Spirit to respond than you can force a bean to sprout, or an egg to hatch before it’s time. You can create a climate to foster growth, nourish, and protect; but you cannot force or compel: you must await the growth. Do not be impatient to gain great spiritual knowledge. Let it grow, help it grow, but do not force it or you will open the way to be misled.
• The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all. Occasionally it will press just firmly enough for us to pay heed. But most of the time, if we do not heed the gentle feeling, the Spirit will withdraw and wait until we come seeking and listening.
• I have learned that strong, impressive spiritual experiences do not come to us very frequently. And when they do, they are generally for our own instruction, or correction.
• Be ever on guard lest you be deceived by inspiration from an unworthy source. You can be given false spiritual messages. There are counterfeit spirits just as there are counterfeit angels. (See Moroni 7:17.) Be careful lest you be deceived, for the devil may come disguised as an angel of light.
• Avoid like a plague those who claim that some great spiritual experience authorizes them to challenge the constituted priesthood authority in the Church. Do not be unsettled if you cannot explain every insinuation of the apostate or every challenge from the enemies who attack the Lord’s church. In due time you will be able to confound the wicked and inspire the honest in heart.
• The skeptic will say that to bear testimony when you may not know you possess one is to condition yourself; that the response is manufactured. Well, one thing for sure, the skeptic will never know, for he will not meet the requirement of faith, humility, and obedience to qualify him for the visitation of the Spirit. Can you not see that that is where testimony is hidden, protected perfectly from the insincere, from the intellectual, from the mere experimenter, the arrogant, the faithless, the proud? It will not come to them.
I have learned that every single point above is true. I have personally experienced the spiritual gifts promised by Elder Packer as I tested them in the real world. I can also say that the journey back can be very much quicker than the journey away. Sister Sweeney has had spiritual dreams wherein she and my grandfathers “spoke” to each other just as Elder Packer describes in another quote from this talk: “Should an angel appear and talk with you, neither you nor he would be confined to physical sight or sound in order to communicate. For there is that spiritual process, described by the Prophet Joseph Smith, by which pure intelligence can flow into our minds and we can know what we need to know without either the hard work of study or the passage of time, for it is revelation.” We both testify that the Spirit can and does speak through pure revelation at times for our blessing and profit. We have both experienced it and those memories do not dim with time. As Joseph Fielding Smith wrote: “When a man has the manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase.”
I have also learned the truth of one other spiritual principle Elder Packer taught in his talk “Obedience”:
“I am free, and I am very jealous of my independence. I am quick to declare my independence and
my freedom. Choice among my freedoms is my freedom to be obedient. I obey because I want to: I
choose to. Some people are always suspicious that one is only obedient because he is compelled to be. They indict themselves with the very thought that one is only obedient because he is compelled to be. They feel that one would obey only through compulsion. They speak for themselves. I am free to be obedient, and I decided that-all by myself. I pondered on it; I reasoned it; I even experimented a little. I learned some sad lessons from disobedience. Then I tested it in the great laboratory of spiritual inquiry-the most sophisticated, accurate, and refined test that we can make of any principle. So I am not hesitant to say that I want to be obedient to the principles of the gospel. I want to. I have decided that. My volition, my agency, has been turned in that direction. The Lord knows that.
Some say that obedience nullifies agency. I would like to point out that obedience is a righteous
principle…. Obedience to God can be the very highest expression of independence. Just think of giving to Him the one thing, the one gift, that He would never take. Think of giving Him that one thing that He would never wrest from you. Obedience that which God will never take by force—He will accept when freely given. And He will then return to you freedom that you can hardly dream of—the freedom to feel and to know, the freedom to do, and the freedom to be, at least a thousand fold more than we offer Him. Strangely enough, the key to freedom is obedience.”
We love each of you! We will be where we have always been. On the covenant path. Come and join us. We are ALWAYS open to talk with you! Email is an option as well. [email protected] or [email protected]. If you'll DM me, I can also give you my cell or Sister Sweeney's cell.
classicscandleof (The Candle of the Lord ** ) ‘The Candle of the Lord’ — by Elder Boyd K. Packer Delivered at a Mission Presidents’ Seminar in 1988 Elder Boyd K. Packer discusses how we should prepare ourselves to receive the Spirit of the Lord presidents. I would like to share some things w...
