Principle 1: We have to Ask in Order to get Direction and Guidance from God

WHY DO WE NEED TO ASK?  --- Because that is how revelation is received.

Communication with our Father in Heaven is a sacred PRIVILEGE.  The help we receive comes in response to our faith, obedience, and our proper use of agency.

STEPS TO RECEIVE REVELATION:

1. FAST (spiritual will exerted over our mortal desires strengthens our capacity to notice spiritual promptings)
2. PRAY to find and understand helpful SCRIPTURES. (Study the scriptures and write down your impressions)
3. PONDER and pray for inspiration (not just right after you read, but continue it for days in quiet times, car rides, walks, washing dishes.  Think-a prayer in your heart continually)
4. ASK if there is any more impressions the Lord wants you to know (do 2 & 3 again)
5. Often more impressions come as you repeat the process

THINGS THAT OFFEND THE SPIRIT AND HINDER REVELATION:

1. Feelings of Anger, Hurt or Defensiveness
2. Loud, inappropriate laughter
3. Haughtiness, pride and conceit

THINGS THAT AID SPIRITUAL COMMUNICATION:

1. Careful, quiet speech- reverence
2. Good sense of humor (escape valve for the pressures of life)
3. Good health practices (exercise, sleep, good eating)
4. Righteous environment
5. Humility
6. Mentally and physically clean and have purity of intent (virtue and integrity)
7. Obedient (obedience inspires TRUST from the Lord- we have to give up worldly things, appetites, etc. to earn that trust)

OUR SPIRITS MUST BE IN CONTROL OF OUR MORTAL BODIES

-An individual motivated by a desire for praise or recognition will not qualify to be taught by the Spirit.  An individual who is arrogant or who lets his or her emotions influence decisions will not be powerfully led by the spirit.

OBEDIENCE will assure we get that inspiration and will qualify us to receive the divine power to accomplish what the Lord wants us to do.  This is the Blessing of being Obedient.

If we READILY respond to initial promptings, we will get more detailed directions.

When we are acting as instruments on behalf of others through service, we are more easily inspired and also taught truths for our own benefit.

We need to not lean on our own experience and capacity, but instead seek divine inspiration through prayer and study.

“And ye are to be taught from on high.  Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken” (D&C 43:16)

(“Sanctify yourself” is equivalent to “keep my commandments”)

MY THOUGHTS:

I think more than anything, this principle has been a tender mercy to me over the last 10 months.  It has given me answers to the questions of “Why did this need to happen?” and “What am I to do now with my life?”  It has brought me closer to my husband as I have felt him aid in inspiration received through the Holy Ghost. It has given me peace, as the veil has been partial peeled away.  The Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance, not just things we have learned here, but memories and things we learned before we came to Earth, when we lived with our Heavenly Father as His spirit children. This principle has opened my understanding of the Plan of Salvation particularly when I attend the temple.

In this section, Elder Scott refers to pieces of revelation that refer to far off future events in your life.  I have had personal experience with this in my youth.  I knew in third grade that I would marry my husband.  Over the years as I held fast to that thought and I pondered it, more information was given to me.  I knew what to look forward to.  I focused my life and preparation on that goal even though I had no indication other than the prompting that it would come to pass.  It was difficult at time to extend that faith.  Sometimes I questioned myself, but always I lived my life so that that blessing could be realized.  When Scott returned from his mission, I followed that prompting received so many years before and I saw the things realized in the same manner that they had been revealed to me.  Then my faith was no longer faith.  I now knew of assurity that those promptings were true and direct revelations intended to guide my course. These are the hardest prompting to have faith in because the realization of these blessings can take a lifetime or beyond, but if they are given, they are the most important to hold fast too.  They are given not just to satisfy our curiosity about the future, but because that knowledge will be essential in the choices and direction we need to take.

How do I know if something is a prompting or just a wishful idea on my part?  I have pondered this a great deal. I find true prompting reoccur.  Each time they reoccur the Spirit is felt.  Often additional information is given.  Recording and reviewing these promptings is key.  When reviewed if the Spirit is brought back, then it is confirmed to me that they are true.  When I review recorded promptings, I remember the feeling I had when I received them and doubts that have crept in vanish.  My resolve to follow them is strengthened. Pondering these revelations gives the Lord the opportunity to open to us additions information and understanding.  Action and Diligence is also required for the additional light and knowledge.