Prophets has warned us that we will not survive spiritually is we do not learn to listen to the spirit. The way is open for us to learn, it is up to us to listen and to hear.
Tim Frodsham, 3 February 2023
I am absent minded. I can work in the kitchen, not move a step and misplace three different kitchen tools. Make it to the car with keys, wallet, cell phone and glasses all at the same time? Nye onto impossible. I would worry as I am getting older, but this was a fact of my life from pretty close to day one. My absent mindedness has been compounded lately by the fact that I am recently engaged with joyful thoughts of marriage just over the horizon.
Over the years, I forget from time to time to take my prescribed medication. As a result, I have a month or so in reserve when the prescription becomes due. Preparing for a recent trip, I was nearly out and realized I had lost or misplaced the most recent refill. I knew the refill date, and had not stumbled across the prescription itself in over a month. Instead of my usual frustration in times like this, fretting over my inability to keep track of the simplest things, I focused on listening to the spirit, expressing to my Heavenly Father thanks for all the tremendous blessings I do have, a good memory not being all that important in the grand scheme of things. I focused on being peaceful and being calm. By bed time, I gave up looking for that prescription simply because I had run out of places to look. Throughout the day, I had searched diligently every place that prescription could possibly be, and a whole lot of places that made no sense at all. I simply could not think of another place to search. That night, just before bed, I felt a quiet prompting to look, of all places, in the jockey box of the car. There it was. I have no idea why I had put that small bag in the jockey box. Apparently, I had not opened the box in the intervening month between the time I picked up the prescription, and the time I needed it.
Coincidence? Faulty memory finally working? Maybe, but I think not. President Nelson and the Church of Jesus Christ in general have been emphasizing personal revelation1. In today’s world with ever increasing distractions and overt evil, we will not survive spiritually without it2. For me, personal revelation comes only when I am quiet and peaceful enough to receive it, and that was my focus. I am slowly learning to recognize these promptings for what they are, and differentiate them from the normal chaotic thoughts buzzing in my head.
That quiet, gentle, warm reminder I recognize as personal revelation. It happens, it is real, and all we need do is prepare for it. Will personal revelation solve all our problems and make life easy? No. Would I have been disappointed and lost my testimony had that prompting not come? Again, no. Inspiration came in part because I was not demanding or pleading for it. I was focused on the day, making it productive and reconciled to the fact that no matter the outcome, all would be well. It was at a time of submissiveness to Him that the prompting came. I know, I know, this was a little annoyance. I could have wrestled with the doctor and with my insurance while on my trip to get the lost prescription refilled at a new location. These are precisely the times, however, to learn to seek and receive personal revelation. Learn to seek and receive His promptings before the crises come. Communication with our Heavenly Father is one of the premiere lessons He wants us to learn, and He gives us every opportunity to practice. I must emphasize that answers come, but rarely the answer we want. I cannot recount how many times the answer for me has been “I gave you brains, figure it out for yourself”
I do not mean in any way to trivialize personal revelation. This is something I have been thinking about, praying about and working to receive since 2018 when President Nelson gave his talk on the subject2. In all cases, our God is a loving, caring God and will prompt and inspire us as we learn to seek him. He is there, waiting quietly for us to calm ourselves, rejoice in all that we do have, submit ourselves to His will and keep in perspective all we think we may lack. It is then that inspiration comes.
- Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/04/revelation-for-the-church-revelation-for-our-lives?lang=eng
Latter-Day Saints 