Transcript

So [INAUDIBLE] in Zimbabwe asked a similar question: "Sometimes I feel the presence of the Spirit, but sometimes I don't feel it at all. So how can I feel it everywhere I am?" Alexis in Tennessee also asks, "How can I listen to the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost when the world is so loud?" Actually, she's saying--this last part of the question, at least for me, is I've had experiences--they're very personal, so you don't talk completely about them--of absolute assurance that I heard the voice of God. Absolute. It hasn't happened very often. But I'll tell you this. Every time it's ever happened, of the times it's happened, I was quiet inside. I really reached the point where I said, "I've got a choice to make here. I have to do something. I'm not wise enough. I give up. I'll do whatever You want. Tell me." And whenever that has come as an answer has always been when I was so quiet in my--I think "quiet" is the way to say it, just because it is a still, small voice. And if you're noisy--and at least for me, I'll put it more positively--the times I've really heard have been when I was really--I just had a feeling of complete quiet inside. And saying, "I give up. I just want what You want." And then I could hear it. And I realized that if I had been noisy in terms of my own thinking, then I couldn't have. But yet there's a kind of coming to a point where you say, "Father, Thy will be done. I'll do what You want. I can't go without You." And then you get an answer. Those key words, "still" and "small." Just as I hear President Eyring use them--"still" and "small." I don't think He'll--He's not willing to compete. And He's not willing to do unneeded battle with the world. He's going to wait until we care enough to provide an environment that He can be still and small and, therefore, penetrating and deep. I think related to that, our earlier questions about prayer--I think so often we make prayer a kind of a laundry list of requests. It's sort of like we want to go to the store and get this and this and this and I need it right now and I want it in the bag and on my way. And we fail to remember that He's supposed to speak back to us. We'll finish a prayer and be up and on our way and back into the hubbub of the world. We need to let Him speak to us in a quiet setting, in a still setting, and that probably means after we're through talking. And I hope it isn't just requests. But when we're through talking or in the course of our having been the voice, we need His voice. We've got to provide an environment for Him to speak to us. And that means stay on your knees. Stay quiet. Stay in the private setting. Let it happen. We often deny Him the chance to reply. In fact, what he and I were both praying about before this thing began is to say, "Help us to say something so that at least some people out there might have confidence that if they can just really truly feel, 'Thy will be done.' That's all I want. If they can just feel that and then ask for direction, they can receive it." They also have to be willing, like Joseph was, to go do it. Do something about it. Whatever it is, to do something about it. The quietness has to be almost like, "I'll do anything You want." And then when that comes, you can get answers and, I think, be fairly confident you're not doing it on your own.

How can I feel the Holy Ghost more often?

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A question from the March 4, 2017 Face to Face event. Watch this event in whole or in part here: https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/eyring-holland?lang=eng
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