Receiving Answers from God

            Some time ago my friend Chris was seeking answers to a big problem in her life. Her dilemma was about decreasing her monthly expenses to a level where they met her income. She was in the awful spiral of withdrawing retirement funds in order to meet ongoing expenses, and she realized that this pattern could not continue.

            Christ had been in this situation for several months, and we had discussed it numerous times. One day I asked her if she was praying for enlightenment from God on what she should do. She indicated that she was praying, but she said that she was not receiving any help.

            I assured my friend that she was receiving answers and suggested that she wasn’t recognizing the answers when they came. I then reviewed two of her experiences that she had previously shared with me and told her that I considered those experiences to be answers to her prayers. I do not remember the particulars about the events in her life, but I was able to open her eyes to how God speaks to her. She eventually sold her home and moved to another state where her money will stretch further.

            While assisting the Prophet Joseph Smith in the translation of the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery desired the gift to translate. Oliver began translating but doubted his ability. Heavenly Father then revealed the following to Oliver through Joseph at Harmony, Pennsylvania, in April 1829.   

  

2 Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

3 Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2-3; emphasis added). 

            We learn from this scripture that God speaks to us in our minds and in our hearts. This means that we receive His communications through our thoughts and feelings. We can be sure that the information is from God if we receive a sudden thought – one that is foreign to our normal thought pattern – and the feeling that it is from God. No one but God knows our thoughts and feelings, and He knows what we need before we ask Him for help.

            As I was thinking about what to write, I remembered a scripture in the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ that may be helpful to anyone seeking to receive communication from God. 

3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.

5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do (2 Nephi 32:3-5; emphasis added). 

            This scripture tells us that we must study the scriptures in order to know what God has already revealed for us to do. They – the words of Christ – will “tell” us the commandments and doctrine of God. Nephi says that we must include prayer with our scripture study in order to understand the words of Christ. Then he gives a very important piece of counsel: The Holy Ghost will “show” us how to apply the words of Christ to our personal circumstances.

            Another Book of Mormon scripture keeps coming to my mind, so I will share it with you. “For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding” (2 Nephi 31:3; emphasis added). This scripture tells us that Heavenly Father knows the best way for each of His children to learn and that He teaches us in that way in order for us to understand what He is telling us.

            For a lot of years Heavenly Father taught me by dreams. I usually recognized that the dreams were from God, but I did not always understand them or interpret them correctly. I will give some examples. In late spring I had a couple of dreams about my mother. I recognized that both dreams were basically giving the same message, but I did not understand the message. She died a few days later, and I then understood that the Lord had been preparing me for her death. If I had understood the dreams before she died, I would have called my mother when prompted to do so and expressed my love instead of saying, “What would I tell her?” I passed off the inspiration because telephone calls from Alaska were so expensive and I had nothing particular to tell her. I missed a great blessing because I lacked understanding.

            Sixteen years later I awoke one morning after a dream about my father. I immediately knew that he was dying, but I received no thought or prompting to call him. Instead, I worked all day long to prepare myself, my home, and my family for a quick trip out of state. I received “the” telephone call that evening and was on the airplane the next morning. This time I understood what the Lord was telling me, and I was prepared.

            Another example happened when my older son was on a mission. Heavenly Father knew that I was having a difficult time being separated from my son for two years, and He compensated my sacrifice by giving me dreams of him from time to time. One morning I awoke after seeing my son riding his bicycle and then flying through the air. I was certain that he had been hit by a car, and I expected a telephone call from his mission president at any moment. I dreaded the thought and cringed every time that the telephone rang. No call came, but a letter came a couple of weeks later. My son wrote that he had forgotten to tell me about an accident that he had while riding his bicycle. He did not see a board lying across the sidewalk and hit it. He went flying through the air with everything in his backpack scattered all around him. He was wearing his helmet and was okay, but he thought that it was important to share.

            I seldom receive information in dreams now. The inspiration usually comes while I am studying the scriptures, pondering, or quietly listening. A recent bit of inspiration came while I was cutting the batting for a quilt, and it came so softly that I could have easily missed it. The prompting was nothing big or life shattering, but it was a simple suggestion to turn my fabric sidewise on the batting in order to be more frugal with the batting. I am grateful for the inspiration, but I wonder why I did see this solution many years ago.

            All this thinking and remembering came because I read an article by last week by one of my favorite speakers, Sheri Dew. I could listen to her much more often than I do because I value her counsel so much. Her article is actually an excerpt from her book Worth the Wrestle and is about learning how to receive messages from God. 

            Sister Dew admitted to a friend and mentor that she could feel the Spirit but was unable to “discern specific answers.” Her friend suggested that she ask the Lord to teach her “what it felt and sounded like when He was speaking to me.” She followed the counsel of her friend and learned several things over the years.

[She learned that] seekers have certain habits that are key to learning to communicate with God. For starters, they engage in the wrestle, meaning they work at it. They immerse themselves regularly in the scriptures, which are the textbook for the Lord’s language. And seekers listen….

Seekers also work to be increasingly pure – pure in their heart, thoughts, and motives; pure in what they say, watch, read, and listen to; even pure in what they wear – meaning avoiding suggestive or provocative attire. Purity invites the Spirit, and it increases light….

As you create a spiritual environment at home, cultivate spiritual habits, and seek to recognize the Lord’s hand in your life, there are two questions that will help open the heavens. First, ask the Lord to teach you what it feels and sounds like for you when He is speaking to you via the Holy Ghost. Then watch how He tutors you – including the scriptures you’re drawn to, the emphases in general conference message you may have missed the first time around, and so on.

Second, if you’ve never asked the Lord how He feels about you, that is a great question to ask. Over time, He will tell you, and, as He does, you’ll learn more about discerning revelation through the Spirit.

Cultivating the capacity to feel the presence and hear the whisperings of the Spirit is central to living a life based intentionally upon the Spirit. When the Lord sees that we want to communicate with Him, He will teach us how….

Searching the prophets suggests more than reading or even studying. It implies spiritually wrestling. When we are willing to work, the Lord will teach us, open our eyes to things we haven’t seen before, and lead us along as we grow in our understanding about the truths of the gospel.

            I appreciate this counsel from Sister Dew because it confirms what the scriptures say and what experience tells me. When we truly desire to receive answers from God, we will seek them. We will search the scriptures and the words of the living prophets and apostles diligently. We will ask for help from Heavenly Father. We will listen when the Holy Ghost prompts us to do certain things. In other words, we will become what Sister Dew calls seekers.