I learned many things from preparing this talk and I like to share what I learn. Thus, I've reposted my talk here. Please note that it is geared for practicing members of the Church, as it was delivered in our main worship service. Thus, there may be things that are referred to that are not expounded further because we expect a majority of the congregation to understand many of these basics and regularly used vocabulary. Regardless of your experience with the Church, if you have any questions about what we have referenced in these posts or anything related to it, please feel free to ask in the comment section and I will be happy to clarify as I am able.
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President
George Q. Cannon said,
If any of us are
imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the [spiritual] gift that will make us
perfect. …no man ought to say ‘Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.’ He is
not justified in it, for the reason
that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give
gifts that will eradicate them. …That is the design of God concerning His
Church. He wants His saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He
gives [spiritual] gifts, and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in
order that they may be perfect people upon the face of the earth. (Source)
The
Atonement of Jesus Christ brings with it the reality of and hope for eternal
improvement and progression. Spiritual gifts such as the ones listed in 1
Corinthians 12 are defined as blessings or abilities given by God to His
children that are eternal in nature. Doctrine and Covenants 46 gives us the
reminder that, like all things that come from God, spiritual gifts are also to
be used not only for our own salvation, but “that all may be profited thereby.”
When God gives us a candle, we shouldn’t hide it under a bushel. We are so blessed to live in a time in
which such opportunities for eternal progression on earth are possible, but Elder
Oaks states a concern regarding this privilege. He says, “We know too little
about spiritual gifts. This is evident in our communications, and it is also
evident in our failure to seek after and use [them]” (Source).
As I pondered over this quote, I reviewed my
knowledge of spiritual gifts. I came to the conclusion that (1) I knew nothing
more about them than that there’s a list of example gifts given in 1
Corinthians 12 and D & C 46 and (2) that, as Bruce R. McConkie stated, “[they] are endless in nature and infinite in variety.”
That about covered my knowledge on the topic.
An important
truth regarding these gifts is that they come only through the power of the
Holy Ghost. That’s a big deal.
Only those who have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of
hands have the privilege of receiving and enjoying spiritual gifts. During the
great apostasy (when the authority to give the Gift of the Holy Ghost was no
longer present on the Earth), there were no spiritual gifts. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that because these gifts “are
obtained through that medium” and “cannot be enjoyed without the gift of the
Holy Ghost. … The world in general can know nothing about them” (Source).
It is absolutely
true that someone who doesn’t have the Gift of the Holy Ghost can have
qualities such as charity, respect, high moral values, honor, genuine love for
others, and patience—all of which are also spiritual gifts. There were many during
the apostasy whom we revere and consider enlightened who received
manifestations through the Spirit and had amazing Christ like qualities, but there’s
a difference between a quality and a gift. The difference is in the way the
Spirit can use it. It’s like learning a new skill: you can work on your own until
you figure it out, and if you consistently work at it, you will. But unless you
have an expert teacher to guide and direct you in your progress, you will reach
a point in which you can go no further. In life, we may be either raised with or
naturally have qualities that are eternal in nature, but unless we have the
Holy Ghost—the expert teacher—to magnify those qualities and help us use them
for our eternal progression, they will remain as qualities instead of evolving
into the gifts that as
President Cannon said, enable us to overcome our weaknesses, come closer to
Christ, be perfected in Him, and prepare for exaltation.
So,
what do we need to do to qualify for the gifts of the Spirit? In Elder Oaks’
quote earlier, he said that our communications about the spiritual as well as
our failure to seek and use spiritual gifts need some work.
What is it about our communications that
needs to change? In Elder Hales’ talk, Gifts
of the Spirit, he recalls a time in which he was in conversation with
President Marion G. Romney. He said
For
some reason, I asked a question that, at the moment I asked it, I realized was
inappropriate. The question I asked President Romney was “What is the most
spiritual experience you have had as an Apostle of the Lord?” There was a
pause. It seemed like an eternity. Then he said, “I believe what Joseph Smith
and Brigham Young taught, that if we would keep our spiritual experiences to
ourselves, many more spiritual experiences could be shared with us. (Source)
I was an ordinance worker in the Provo temple
for 2 ½ years after returning from my mission. It’s wonderful to be in the
temple for five hours each week, but after a while, you start to become very comfortable
with everything that goes on. It becomes easy to talk casually about it,
especially in the temple with your fellow workers. I remember more than a
couple of times in our pre-shift prayer meeting in which we were reminded that
being in the temple doesn’t give either workers or patrons carte-blanche on spiritual
discussion; even though—and very likely because—the
temple is the most sacred house of the Lord on Earth, that which is sacred
still needs to be carefully guarded in our hearts and discussed only as the
Spirit directs. Because we have the fullness of the gospel, we know that the
Holy Spirit is an intelligent being; a person, not a formless entity. How are
we showing both him and the Lord through our communications that we respect the
experiences and gifts they have enabled us to have? If we are too casual about
spiritual things, we will continue to know little about them because the Spirit
will not deem us worthy of more knowledge.
When
it comes to our failing to seek after and use gifts, I believe there are a few
reasons for this.
First
and foremost, are we even asking for gifts? Are we searching within ourselves
to discover which gifts we need? If we know which gifts we need, are we making
the necessary changes in our lives to receive them? We don’t get something from
God without effort on our part.
Perhaps
we’re not actively seeking out gifts of the Spirit because we tend take Holy
Ghost for granted. Most of our conversation regarding him are as one who bears
witness in our hearts to the truth of all things or provides inspiration to
either do or not do something. Do we fully understand his capabilities? How
often do we think of actively working with the Holy Ghost to find and use
spiritual gifts? Do we recognize him as a key player in the Atonement, being
the medium through which we can receive the gifts that will eradicate our
weaknesses? Until I began preparing this talk, I had never even considered
that. We regularly talk about having a happy, loving relationship with the
Father and the Son. How often do we strive to develop a happy, loving
relationship with the most sacred heavenly messenger in existence? Spiritual
gifts come through him to help us get back to God. That’s a relationship we
should definitely be working on.
Sometimes
we fail to seek after certain gifts because we don’t understand that we can
have them. There are those who believe that gender or a priesthood office are
determining factors in the receipt of spiritual gifts. It is true that within the
church, we receive specific gifts to help us fulfill our callings, but they can
only be used within said calling. Outside of the church structure, however, the
who-does-the-Lord-allow-to-receive-what-and-when question comes up quite a bit.
To this, Elder McConkie very strongly stated that
“Where spiritual things are concerned,
as pertaining to all of the gifts of
the Spirit, with reference to the receipt of revelation, the gaining of
testimonies, and the seeing of visions, in all
matters that pertain to godliness and holiness and which are brought to pass as
a result of personal righteousness […] in all
these things men and women stand in a position of absolute equality before the
Lord. He is no respecter of persons.” He then used the example of the Lord’s
revelation to Rebekah regarding her unborn twins, Esau and Jacob. He explains,
“Though she was the wife of a prophet and [the] patriarch [of their family],
Rebekah [the matriarch] inquired of the Lord and the Lord instructed her
directly on a matter of great personal concern to her, to the children she
would bear, and to generations unborn.” (Source)
There is no gift
of the Spirit that a faithful member should feel unable to seek.
I believe
that another downfall in our lack of understanding is that we, at times, expect
gifts to manifest themselves differently than they do. Joseph Smith reminded us
that most eternal things are not tangible, and spiritual gifts are no
exception. He says
There are several gifts mentioned [in 1
Corinthians chapter 12], yet which of them all could be known by an observer …?
[Wisdom and knowledge] are as much gifts as any other, yet if a person
possessed both of these gifts… who would know it? Another might receive the
gift of faith, and [others] would be as ignorant of it. Or suppose a man had
the gift of healing or power to work miracles, that would not then be known; it
would require time and circumstances to call these gifts into operation. (Source)
Who would know it?
No one. And that’s okay. Not everyone needs to know. We won’t be able to use our
gifts all the time but if we’re in tune with the Spirit, we will always use
them at the right time. Those who have the Holy Ghost and are in tune with the
Spirit will recognize it as a gift when it’s being used. Good people don’t have
the Holy Ghost with them will still be able to profit from its use without
knowing from whence it comes.
But
there must needs be opposition in all things. Where there is a great outpouring
of heavenly gifts, there is also an outpouring of satanic attacks to keep us
from utilizing them. Thus, one of the gifts that I saw receiving a great deal
of attention in my studies was the gift of discernment: being able to recognize
what comes from God and what doesn’t. Let’s be real, here: if Satan really did
have bright red horns and a tail, no one would ever be deceived. But he
doesn’t. He’s the most flattering and enticing person anyone will ever come
into contact with. The warnings I found from various general authorities on the
gift of discernment all focused on the fact that we are not seeking to have it
like we should be.
Satan
knows how important the gift of discernment is in our eternal progression; if
we’re always so in tune with the Spirit that we easily know what comes from God
and what doesn’t, Satan will never have power over us. Thus, he will do
anything to keep us from accessing it.
When
most of us think about the importance of discernment, we think about
recognizing immorality in the world, false prophets, and things like that. One
place we usually don’t think about needing too much discernment is within
ourselves. In early Church history, David Whitmer recounted the following:
One morning when [Joseph Smith] was
getting ready to continue [translating the plates], something went wrong about
the house and he was put out about it. Something that Emma, his wife, had done.
Oliver and I went upstairs, and Joseph came up soon after to continue the
translation, but he could not do anything. He could not translate a single
syllable. He went down stairs, out into the orchard and made supplication to
the Lord; was gone about an hour—came back to the house, asked Emma’s forgiveness and then came
upstairs where we were and the translation went on all right. He could do
nothing save he was humble and faithful. (Source)
The
opposite of humility is pride. Proverbs 13:10 states that “only by pride cometh
contention.” Joseph was put out by something Emma did. Synonyms for put out are annoyed, irritated, angry, offended, and irked. All of these things cause contention, and that one
thing—whatever it was—that caused Joseph to be put out also caused him to
completely lose the gift to translate. I’ll bet Satan was fairly pleased with
himself for having made the prophet lose an hour of that sacred work. Imagine
if Joseph had been so unable to control his own emotions that he didn’t make
amends for the rest of that day? What if he and Emma had started an argument
over what was probably no big deal? How much longer would it have taken for the
gift of translation to be restored?
I
believe the reason he was able to realize his mistake and repent so quickly was
that he had the gift of discernment; he could recognize Satan’s attack and put
a stop to it so that his gifts could return.
While
I’m pretty sure most of us here don’t have the need for the gift of translating
dead languages, there are gifts that our families need that Satan works
overtime to keep us from accessing because he know how important they are.
Elder Hales listed some of these
gifts, which are (1) a testimony, (2) love of God, (3) love for [God’s chosen]
servants, and (4) a love of the Scriptures. These aren’t just good qualities
for parents to instill in their children or the usual bullet points on a list
of desirable traits for a spouse. Elder Hales said that these are among the
gifts “that are eternal in nature.” They are essential to protecting our
families and are among the building blocks of a strong foundation in a world of
rapidly deteriorating values.
Yet,
it should come as no surprise that these are also the gifts that we give the
most excuses for not doing. We say we love the scriptures, yet we don’t
actively study them because we “just don’t have time”; we say we love the
prophet and apostles, yet we get annoyed or stressed out when they remind us
that we’re not going to the temple enough; we say we love God, yet we put
late-night Netflix binging before personal prayer and then get so tired because
of “unwinding” that our prayers aren’t meaningful.
Elder Hales said that “Satan is mindful of each of us. He is
committed to our destruction. He hopes we will fail to keep the covenants we
have made to our Heavenly Father at baptism and in the temple. That is the only
joy and satisfaction he and his disciples will ever have—when one of us falls.
Think about it” (Source).
Before
preparing this talk, I didn’t really have a testimony of the gifts of the
Spirit. How could I? I hardly knew anything about them. I wasn’t seeking them,
and I wasn’t making an active effort to use them. I didn’t understand how they
were supposed to be used or why they were so important. I didn’t even know that
some of the things I hold dear are, in fact, spiritual gifts. But I know now
and I can honestly say that I have begun to develop a testimony of the gifts of
the Spirit. I still don’t know as much about them as I’ve realized I need to,
but I do know that they are from God. I know they exist to help us get back to
Him and have eternal life. I know that they come through the power of the Holy
Ghost and that only by being in tune with him can we benefit from these sacred
gifts. I also can most definitely testify that Satan wants to keep us from
everything that is of God. I know that he knows our weaknesses and does
everything in his power to exploit them for his benefit. I know that as we seek
those spiritual gifts that protect us from the adversary, we will become ever
closer to God and ultimately enjoy exaltation with our families in His
presence.
Thank you for sharing - great points to ponder
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