During the April 2018 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, President Russel M. Nelson said:
“The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children. Through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will assist us in all our righteous pursuits.
Imagine the miracle of it! Whatever our Church calling, we can pray to our Heavenly Father and receive guidance and direction, be warned about dangers and distractions, and be enabled to accomplish things we simply could not do on our own. If we will truly receive the Holy Ghost and learn to discern and understand His promptings, we will be guided in matters large and small.”
What a great blessing it is to know that we, individually, may receive guidance from our Father in Heaven to help us in our lives.
I have found that there are times in my life when personal inspiration and revelation are far from me and hard to find. I have learned that when this happens, it is I who have moved away from God, rather than Him departing from me. I have learned that there are some simple things within my control that can bring me back into the light.
A few years ago in Virginia, after a major snow storm, I was plowing snow with my garden tractor, clearing our road and some of my neighbors’ driveways. As I was plowing the entrance to the driveway of a neighbor, he came out to thank me and talk awhile, but I could not hear him. He yelled something to me, raising his voice so I could hear above the noise of the tractor. I had a hard time hearing what he was trying to say to me. Eventually, I turned off the tractor and we were able to carry on an effective and meaningful conversation in normal voice.
Sometimes when I am having a hard time getting the guidance and inspiration from the Lord that I seek, I recognize that my hearing and ability to feel are being interfered with by too much worldly noise around me. This noise may take on any number of forms, such as work, hobbies, personal goals, television, sports, video games, worries about money, etc. I find that if I will, as the prophet Spencer W. Kimball counseled, immerse myself in the scriptures, the noise lessens, my prayers become deeper, and the inspiration and divine communication returns. If you feel you cannot hear the voice of the Lord, try turning down the noise in your life and listen with greater focus. Seek out the voice and draw closer to it.
As a young man, I was once out on a horse pack trip with my father. As we traveled along, I noticed the pack on our pack horse was slipping to one side. The pack was unbalanced. I called forward to my dad, who was leading, and told him the horse’s packs were slipping and it looked like we were going to have to stop and unpack and re-pack the horse and to get the packs balanced. He looked back at the pack horse and told me to stop and pick up a rock about the size of a grapefruit and stick it in the pack on the light side to put things back into balance. Surprised at the simplicity of the solution, I did as instructed. The packs immediately began to ride evenly, the pack horse was again comfortable, and the trip continued uninterrupted.
Often, when I find myself having difficulty feeling the Spirit of the Lord and His blessing in my life, when it feels like I’m just not quite in tune with the Spirit, it is because my life is a little out of balance. Sometimes, my first instinct is to think I need to overhaul my life and get my priorities straight, when all I really need to do is to add a little weight to the part of my life that is a little “lighter” than it should be. Often, the solution is nothing more complicated than to add a little more priority to or put a little more effort into one aspect of my life, such as doing a little more in my calling in the church, putting in a little more effort at work, being a little kinder, spending a little more time in the service of others, spending more time with my wife, or maybe just taking a little more time to “stop and smell the roses.” My packs just need to be re-balanced by adding a little more weight to the side that is too light.
I have a friend, with whom I often ride horses. He related to me a life-lesson he learned while on his horse. He told me that he often rides a particular trail near his home. For a long time there was a particular tree that had a particular branch sticking out over the trail. Each time he would pass that tree, my friend would try to get his horse to move to the side of the trail so he could avoid the branch. Usually, the horse would step the wrong way or fail to move over at all and time after time my friend would have to grab the branch with his hand and push it out of the way. On one occasion, as he tried to grab the branch, it slipped out of his hand and tore his shirt. Angry at himself, he stopped the horse, got down, and went back and cut the branch off and threw it aside.
He said, “Sometimes you just have to cut the branch off!”
There are often distractions in our lives, whether they be bad habits, unrepented sins, or addictions, that cause us to lose focus or move away from those things that are truly precious in our lives. Sometimes we need to stop just working around them and just cut those things out of our lives, so that our vision again becomes clear and the Spirit of the Lord can return to our lives and homes.
In D&C 88:63, we read:
Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
I want to leave my testimony with you, that I know our Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us. I know also that He is much more involved in our lives than we know. He is all knowing, all loving, and all powerful, so I trust that when I am living as I should, striving to keep His commandments and honor the covenants I have made with Him, and truly seeking to hear His voice, He will guide my footsteps and lead me in the paths of righteousness. That may not always be the easy road, but it will be His road and in the end I will find joy in His presence.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.