Area Leadership Message
God Hears You and Speaks to You
Dear sisters and brothers, it is so good to be serving with you in the beautiful Caribbean Area. My wife and I are thrilled to be here. We love the gospel of Jesus Christ and what it teaches us.
One of the beautiful eternal truths we have learned through the Restoration is that the heavens are not closed. God not only hears our pleas but can reveal His will to us. The Prophet Joseph took the direction to “ask of God” in James 1:5 literally when he went into the woods to pray. He learned the heavens are not closed, and our Heavenly Father cares for His children in a very intimate way that requires a two-way communication with Him. God hears and speaks to His children because He loves them.
We will not likely have the same experience as Joseph Smith, but President Russel M. Nelson has asked us to learn how God speaks to us. He affirms that God and His Son know our circumstances and stand ready to help us. He teaches: “Our Father knows that when we are surrounded by uncertainty and fear, what will help us the very most is to hear His Son.”
When we seek to hear—truly hear—His Son, we will be guided to know what to do in any circumstance. Since we are individual spirit children of our Heavenly Father, we tend to hear Him in different ways. So, how can we learn to better hear Him?
Here are some principles we can all apply to help us hear the quiet whisperings of the Lord through His Spirit:
1. Seek His comfort and His counsel. The scriptures encourage us to seek the Lord through prayer. We must seek the wisdom we need, ask for the comfort we desire, and plead for the blessing we need. Our Heavenly Father and His Son are ready and want to bless us! The first step to receiving revelation is having the desire to commune with God. We cannot expect results without effort on our part.
2. Prepare ourselves to receive. President Nelson said: “We also hear Him more clearly as we refine our ability to recognize the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. It has never been more imperative to know how the Spirit speaks to you than right now. In the Godhead, the Holy Ghost is the messenger. He will bring thoughts to your mind which the Father and Son want you to receive. He is the Comforter. He will bring a feeling of peace to your heart. He testifies of truth and will confirm what is true as you hear and read the word of the Lord.”
Preparing ourselves and improving our ability to hear sometimes means eliminating other noises and distractions. These distractions can come upon us suddenly and cause us to question our faith because we cannot feel the influence of the Spirit.
We can plan for and mitigate the risk arising from a world that becomes more and more distracting and noisy. Let me illustrate with an experience I had many years ago.
I was flying an airplane from my home in Kalispell, Montana, to Las Vegas, Nevada, to pick up my father-in-law for a business trip. The airplane I was flying was very sophisticated, and my co-pilot was very experienced. Together, we had more than 60 years in the cockpits of different aircraft. We checked the weather, filed a flight plan, and made other preparations for the flight.
The weather in Kalispell was a beautiful, clear night, and we were prepared to leave just as the skies darkened in the cool of the spring evening. I was excited. I was flying a fabulous airplane, I had a co-pilot who was a dear friend, we had great weather, and there was the prospect of another business venture with my father-in-law. We had made a flight plan with numerous waypoints along the route.
After flying for about an hour and a half, air traffic control gave us descent instructions into the Las Vegas area. We descended into a storm that we had been comfortably flying over for some time. Suddenly, the static electricity from the storm overwhelmed the radios, and we could no longer speak to the controllers on the ground. We were flying into some of the busiest airspace in the world, with no ability to see anything outside the aircraft and no ability to speak to the controllers on the ground, whose job was to keep the aircraft separated.
Neither of us had ever experienced anything like this storm. However, we knew exactly what to do. The Federal Aviation Administration (governing body of all flights in the US) has a rule. If a pilot loses communications with the ground, he should fly “last clearance then flight plan route,” which means you do what the controller last told you and then keep to the plan you have made.
Soon, we flew out of the storm. When we finally connected with air traffic control, they told us, “We could hear you. You just couldn’t hear us.” We could not hear because the static had overwhelmed our radios, but by keeping with our plan, we were able to stay safe.
There may be times when we turn to God for guidance, but because of our personal circumstances, we cannot hear His responses. If we make a spiritual plan for ourselves and adhere to that plan, we can be safe knowing that He hears us, even if we are temporarily unable to hear Him. That plan should include such things as making and keeping sacred covenants and renewing those covenants whenever possible. It should include a plan for personal study and prayer.
3. Be in sacred spaces. As we prepare, it is important to put ourselves in and remain in sacred spaces. These sacred spaces can be different for everyone, depending upon your individual circumstances. Sacred places can inspire and help you to cultivate a connection with the Savior and our Heavenly Father. For some, it is serving in the house of the Lord. For others, it is in intense scripture study and prayer or quiet contemplation and meditation. For most, creating a sacred place physically, mentally, emotionally, and especially spiritually includes all these activities. The sacred place I am speaking about is not necessarily a physical place but a state of being. These things will help us weather the storm, keep our own spiritual plan, and be safe.
4. Be patient. This can be hard for many of us, but it is important. Impatience can drive the Spirit from us as it is often rooted in our own pride and desires instead of the will of God.
In Doctrine and Covenants sections 121 and 122, we are allowed to read a sacred exchange between the Prophet Joseph and the Savior. No one could blame the Prophet for being impatient after enduring four months in a dark and filthy prison, fearing for the safety of his loved ones. He was in dire circumstances, suffering horribly, when he cried, “O God, where art thou?” Then he finally heard the voice of the Lord say to him: “My son, peace be unto thy soul” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:1, 7).
We don’t know why the Lord chose to wait. We don’t know what Joseph learned in the process. We do know that the Lord’s ways are not our ways, and His timing is not our timing. We do know that someday when the curtains are drawn, we will see clearly that the Lord always acts for our good.
I know that our Heavenly Father and His Son know us and love us. I know that They desire to help us through this life. They have not closed the heavens but have opened them widely for all of us. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ.