Here is my double-sided handout:
Here are the flower pens we made for recording personal revelation:
Here is just the text (my notes) of my presentation:
Slide 1
How to Grow in Our Ability to Receive Personal Revelation
Slide 2
Does God really want to speak to you?
Yes!
Slide 3
Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know.
Slide 4
I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things-that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”
Slide 5
My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.
Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.
[now that we know that God wants to reveal things to us, how do we follow the prophet’s admonition?]
Slide 6
How do we increase our scriptural capacity to receive revelation?
What spiritual work is necessary?
Slide 7
l Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of:
l 1. Increased purity [how? Keep the commandments]
l 2. Exact obedience
l 3. Earnest seeking [prayer]
l 4. Daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon
l 5. Regular time committed to temple and family history work.
Slide 8
To be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient,expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek. [why do we need personal revelation?] [Blessings and miracles]
Every blessing the Lord has for you—even miracles—will follow.
That is what personal revelation will do for you.
Slide 9
“This is the grand privilege of every Latter-day Saint… that it is our right to have the manifestations of the Spirit every day of our lives.”-- President Lorenzo Snow
One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as President of the Church is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will.
The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.
Slide 10
How can we become the men and women—the Christlike servants—the Lord needs us to be?
How can we find answers to questions that perplex us?
If Joseph Smith’s transcendent experience in the Sacred Grove teaches us anything, it is that the heavens are open and that God speaks to His children.
The Prophet Joseph Smith set a pattern for us to follow in resolving our questions.
Joseph took his question directly to Heavenly Father.
He sought personal revelation, and his seeking opened this last dispensation.
Slide 11
What will your seeking open for you?
What wisdom do you lack?
What do you feel an urgent need to know or understand?
Follow the example of the Prophet Joseph. Find a quiet place where you can regularly go.
Humble yourself before God. Pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father. [pray]
Turn to Him for answers and for comfort. [listen and feel]
Slide 12
Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart.
And then listen!
Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take.
As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.”
Slide 13
We live in a world that is complex and increasingly contentious. The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages.
If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation.
Slide 14
Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again.
We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory.
But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.
Slide 15
One of the great lessons that each of us needs to learn is to ask.
Why does the Lord want us to pray to Him and to ask?
Because that is how revelation is received.
-- Richard G. Scott
[McDonald’s example]
Slide 16
When I am faced with a very difficult matter, this is how I try to understand what to do.
1- I fast.
2- I pray to find and understand scriptures that will be helpful. That process is cyclical.
3- I start reading a passage of scripture;
4- I ponder what the verse means and pray for inspiration.
5- I then ponder and pray to know if I have captured all the Lord wants me to do. Often more impressions come with increased understanding of doctrine. I have found that pattern to be
a good way to learn from the scriptures.
Slide 17
There are some practical principles that enhance revelation.
First, yielding to emotions such as anger or hurt or defensiveness will drive away the Holy Ghost. [easily offended] Those emotions must be eliminated, or our chance for receiving revelation is slight.
Another principle is to be cautious with humor.
Loud, inappropriate laughter will offend the Spirit.
A good sense of humor helps revelation; loud laughter does not.
Careful, quiet speech will favor the receipt of revelation.
Slide 18
On the other hand, spiritual communication can be enhanced by good health practices.
Exercise, reasonable amounts of sleep, and good eating habits increase our capacity to receive and understand revelation.
It is important that our daily activities do not distract us from listening to the Spirit.
Slide 19
Revelation can also be given in a dream when there is an almost imperceptible transition
from sleep to wakefulness.
If you strive to capture the content immediately, you can record great detail, but otherwise it fades rapidly.
It is the Lord doing the teaching through the Holy Ghost. However, He may in a dream make it both easier to understand and more likely to touch our hearts by teaching us through someone we love and respect.
Slide 20
When it is for the Lord’s purposes, He can bring anything to our remembrance.
That should not weaken our determination to record impressions of the Spirit.
Inspiration carefully recorded shows God that His communications are sacred to us.
Recording will also enhance our ability to recall revelation.
Slide 21
I have seen individuals encountering challenges who knew what to do when it was beyond their own experience because they trusted in the Lord and knew that He would guide them to solutions that were urgently required.
The Lord has declared: “And ye are to be taught from on high.
Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken.”
The words sanctify yourselves may appear puzzling. President Harold B. Lee once explained that you can replace those words with the phrase “keep my commandments.”
Read that way, the counsel may seem clearer.
Slide 22
One must be ever mentally and physically clean and have purity of intent so that the Lord can inspire.
One who is obedient to His commandments is trusted of the Lord.
That individual has access to His inspiration to know what to do and, as needed, the divine power to do it.
For spirituality to grow stronger and more available, it must be planted in a righteous environment.
Humility is a fertile soil where spirituality grows and produces the fruit of inspiration to know what to do. It gives access to divine power to accomplish what must be done.
Slide 23
Our Heavenly Father did not put us on earth to fail but to succeed gloriously.
Slide 24
How do we know when a thought, feeling, or prompting is revelation from God?
Slide 25
Two indicators that a feeling or prompting comes from God are that it produces peace in your heart and a quiet, warm feeling.
As you follow the principles I have discussed, you will be prepared to recognize revelation
at critical times in your own life.
Slide 26
Communication with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter.
It is a sacred privilege.
It is based upon eternal, unchanging principles. We receive help from our Father in
Heaven in response to our faith, obedience, and the proper use of agency.
Slide 27
Sister Michelle Craig teaches us four ways to increase our spiritual capacity to receive revelation.
Slide 28
1. Be Intentional about Creating Time and Space to Hear God’s Voice
As you use your agency to carve out time every day to draw close to God’s voice, especially in the Book of Mormon, over time His voice will become clearer and more familiar to you.
In contrast, the distractions and noise that fill the world and our homes and our lives can
make it more difficult to hear His voice.
Slide 29
These distractions can so occupy our minds and hearts that we leave no room
for the gentle promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Satan wants to separate us from God’s voice by keeping us out of those quiet places.
Pick a time and place, and listen for God’s voice every day. And keep this sacred appointment with exactness, for so very much depends on it!
Slide 30
2. Act without Delay
When you receive promptings and then act with intention, the Lord can use you.
The more you act, the more familiar the voice of the Spirit becomes. You will increasingly recognize God’s guidance and that He is “willing … to reveal His mind and will.”
If you delay, you might forget the prompting or miss the chance to help someone for God.
Slide 31
3. Get Your Errand from the Lord
The prayer Heavenly Father seems eager to answer is our plea to be led to someone who needs our help.
You can pray and ask the Lord for an errand.
As you do, He can use your ordinary skills to accomplish His extraordinary work.
Slide 32
4. Believe and Trust
Each of us has a different mission to perform, and at times the Spirit may call us in “another way.”
There are many ways to build the kingdom of God as covenant-making, covenant-keeping disciples of Jesus Christ.
As His faithful disciple, you can receive personal inspiration and revelation, consistent with His commandments, that is tailored to you.
You have unique missions and roles to perform in life and will be given unique guidance to fulfill them.
Slide 33
Do we miss or dismiss personal errands from the Lord because He has prepared “a way” different from the one we expect?
Trust God to lead you, even if that way looks different than you expected or is different from others.
Slide 34
But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.
Slide 35
I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.
Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.
Slide 36
The End
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