Hey there everybody welcome out to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood.
Scott and David Durfey here as always.
How's it going Dave?
Good.
Good brother.
Well with you.
Yeah, as well.
I know you've noticed but there's a little nip in the air.
Yeah, and that awesome.
Well actually I know that you've noticed you're wearing a sweater.
Yeah, it's cold down here.
I wish you'd get heat down here.
I bet you do.
Yes, snow on top of the mountains.
I know, I took a picture.
Bring it on.
Brought a picture of a Tempononga yesterday and sent it to my friends that I work with
one in Dallas, one in Seattle and I said here it comes.
Bring it on.
I'm going to go out and buy my funds on its way.
I'm going to go out and buy my ski pass this week.
Well you're excited for it.
Yeah.
But for me it shortens my golf season.
I'm going to have to go start taking trips to...
St. George.
Yeah, St. George.
Las Vegas.
Right.
Yeah.
Okay, well how's the mission stuff coming?
Oh, it's coming great.
If you'd rather not talk about it.
Man, it's been an ordeal because you know, blessings really.
I mean an ordeal, I think annoying blessings, you know, the things that we go through and
it's really, I think, important, Scott, that we continually remember that God's in control
because sometimes you can begin to think that, you know, what is wrong with me or you can
begin to...the accuser can put all kinds of negative thoughts in your mind.
Why isn't this working out?
Or why isn't this going as planned or whatever?
You know, the joke that you want to make God laugh, tell him you're planned.
Exactly.
And it's just nice to know that he has a plan and that he's in control and that things are
going to work out.
And why ever is taking this long with our health issues and other things.
Who knows, but it is really comforting to have the faith know that he's in control.
So I don't know, I know all of our listeners are going through stuff.
I got my own, but when you think of it in that perspective, that God's in control, it
changes how you see it.
You know, it changes your heart, changes your mind, changes your perspective, your view.
So it's going great.
Since you asked, right?
So it's going great.
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Well, good.
Family's great.
Everything's great.
I think it's a time that we move right into, Dave, we got through, I think it was number
five.
And in the middle of this, I wouldn't really call it a course, but maybe a series of podcasts
here, maybe it is a course where we're talking about receiving personal revelation.
The importance of some call it a workshop.
I wish people kind of see it as a workshop because that puts some responsibility on them.
And receiving revelation is work.
It is work.
Prayer is work, right?
Answers to prayer is work.
And I think people should see it as a workshop on revelation.
So I hope that it's people aren't just listening and interested, but that they'll actually
kind of again, experiment with these things and learn how they apply in their own life.
We had talked about, you know, last week we talked about music.
We talked about art.
And I mentioned the picture that I have hanging in our living room upstairs.
And you know, that's kind of renewed my love for that painting.
It was our discussion there.
And when I come in to the house now, and I see that, if you're wondering what I'm talking
about, we're not going to belabor it here, but go back and listen to last week's podcast.
But that's important.
And you know, the other thing is, Dave, is I had a really rotten day.
I'm not going to get into it, but I had a really terrible day this week.
And I got on my motorcycles because I sold my horses, that used to be my outlet.
But that was a rotten day too.
Yeah, it was.
When you sold your horses.
I probably have more rotten day for my dad, even than it was for me.
But it was a tough day.
But I still have my motorcycle, my iron horse, right?
And so that's what I use now for my therapy, wind therapy, I get on that and I drive carefully
and I promise Deb that I will.
And you know, and all that.
And you know, you think here I am, I got my leather, my leather shaps on and my helmet,
you know, and my vest in.
And you know, if you saw me driving down the road and you had to guess what music I was
listening to, I guess I can almost guarantee that 99% of people would have been wrong because
I was listening to that sacred music that we had talked about last week.
And David, and it made a difference.
It changed.
Totally makes a difference.
It changed things for me.
Totally.
And we affirm, you know, the things that we talk about here, they're not just so we can
have something fun to talk about.
If we will, and you mentioned the word workshop a few minutes ago, if we'll actually make
this a workshop where we look for takeaways, where we have action items.
And so maybe that'll be our first invitation this morning is if, or the today is as you're
hearing these, when the spirit prompts you, write it down, write it down and hold yourself
accountable and start taking action on the promptings of the spirit.
And that way this can become a workshop where in we see differences in our lives.
We keep using this word, but it's so important is you have to be intentional.
It's just so easy to just go with the flow and listen to the same playlist or the same
channels or the same, whatever that we listen to that we watch.
And we just have to be more intentional, Scott, in what we, what we choose to watch, what
we choose to read, what we choose to listen to.
And it does make a difference.
If you don't have a sacred playlist, that should be a workshop is prepare a sacred playlist.
Get that so that it's easier to do.
We're not affiliated with Deseret book or anything like that, but I, and I may be wrong,
is either a Deseret book or LDS living magazine came out recently and there was a little QR
code on there that you could scan.
And it was actually called Sunday music.
And so if you don't have one, look for that and you know, just scan that QR.
A lot of sources to get that playlist.
Absolutely.
I use the churches app.
Yeah.
Primary songs.
Yeah.
You can download.
I use Apple music.
Anyway, and, and it's not, I can't stand listening to sacred music all the time.
I mean, there is a time to listen to a horse with no name or the Tin Man or a little America
or Eagles or hotel California or Beatles or yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know about hotel California.
I don't think I'd listen to that, but I would.
So there, there is a time and place, you know, to listen to bread.
You ever listen to bread bread?
You are really dating yourself.
I love bread.
I remember the song diary from bread.
I found it underneath the tree and started reading about me.
Yeah.
I'm pretty familiar with my sweet art.
Hates, hates bread.
I do too.
I went to a concert and took another girl in.
Oh, so every time, every time that comes up on my playlist, this is before you were married
with me.
I fast forward it.
Do you?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
This is when we were nice.
We were ready to clarify here.
When we were in high school and I don't know why I did that, but anyway.
So there's a time and a place, you know, I like to sometimes just hit the road and turn
up a horse with no name as loud as I can.
And I have no idea what that song's about.
I just like the, the vibe.
And there's a time and place for that.
And, but, oh, it's got, we just have to be more intentional.
I, I mentioned last week, you know, the, the new habit I have of this turning on a general
conference talk.
Right.
Every night when I go to bed, let the brother and put me to sleep.
But there's something, there's something about that.
That is inspiring to me that, that softens my heart that just whenever we can hear the
word of the Lord, if I am awake or asleep, you know, is inspiring.
There's certain, you know, there's certain songs that will invoke certain feelings.
And so there's certain artists that can be associated with those songs.
And I've found that's also true with some of the general authorities.
Now I got to be careful here because I love them all.
But, but, but for example, you know, there's been a reason for me lately to really be looking
at the things that we talk about.
I really have wanted to be experiencing the effects of the instruments of grace in my
life.
But Elder Ciaran's last couple of talks for me have been that solace that you're talking
about when you go.
So I've been listening to a couple of his same ones over and over the last couple of
nights.
Yeah.
Since you made that suggestion, it's, and it's making a difference for me for sure.
It, it, it does.
I anyway, if so, we all have to just be more intentional.
Yeah.
Step number six today is a really important one, Scott.
And it's one that I have not mastered.
It's one that I want to work on more.
It's one that requires a intense amount of faith.
And I'll give you this little background to it.
You know, I had a friend who was area 70 and he was telling me about the general authority
training he received when he was a new area 70.
Elder Bednar was training the, these new area and general authorities in April before
conference that week before conference and Elder Bednar's training was called.
He, he entitled it inspired inquiry, revelatory response.
I think I've referred to that before, but anyway, as Elder Bednar likes to do, he's,
he's, he's trying to get them involved and he calls on a few of them.
And I think he, if I remember, he called on my friend.
These were former, a lot of the general area authorities in that meeting were former state
presidents and leaders and other, other places, other positions.
And he asked my friend, so give me a problem that you face as a state president.
Maybe your most difficult challenge or problem that you can remember facing.
I'm sure it was hard to come up with one and they all have several, but, but he, he kind
of shared without, without disclosing any names, a real challenge that he had with his
stake, members in his stake.
And Elder Bednar said, so how did you, how did you deal with that?
And he proceeded to tell him how he dealt with it.
And he said, so what questions did you take to God about that?
What questions would you ask God about that?
What did you do to help God solve that problem?
And he couldn't come up with anything that he had asked God about that problem.
I mean, I'm sure he had prayed, generally speaking.
He'd read the scriptures.
I'm sure you can get revelation, solving problems, reading scriptures.
I'm sure he went to the temple.
I'm sure he did all those things, used all the instruments of revelation.
But Elder Bednar's point was, well, what question would you like asked Heavenly Father in order
to solve that problem?
And my friend said it was so hard to come up with an inspired question.
It just wasn't new to him.
It wasn't a habit of his.
And it was really, I think, frustrating for him.
And he kind of worked on this.
And Elder Bednar did that with several others.
And the point of all of that was that we need to be careful about it.
It takes preparation.
It's a craft to be able to ask inspired questions.
It's not something, and I know the Spirit can help us.
In fact, the Spirit has to help us do that if it's going to be an inspired question.
But it takes some pondering and some work to go to the Lord with a problem and not just
tell him about the problem and ask him to fix the problem, but to actually go before
the Lord and to ask him an inspired question.
My friend telling me this story, his wife was with him.
We were at lunch together.
And I turned to his wife and I said, So does he pray differently now?
And his sweetheart said, kind of looked at him out of the corner where I actually, and
he kind of nodded, yes.
And she said, Well, he prays with a notebook now.
So when we go before the Lord, if we really want revelation, and we've prepared an inspired
question prepared by the Spirit, again, this takes work and it takes faith.
And ask that inspired question.
With faith, we pause, we listen, and we write down any impressions.
Now, maybe impressions will come, maybe not.
Maybe we'll have to have that inspired questions for days or weeks or months.
But I trust that answers will come and that when they come, that they better not fall
to the ground or disappear into the air unheeded, that when we receive revelation, it should
be recorded.
And that's one of the final steps in this workshop is to record the revelations.
But I just think this is, if we're really serious about getting personal individual
revelation, hearing the voice of the Lord to help us in our problems and with our questions,
we have to learn this skill.
And I think it's a skill, you know, Julie Bang and her back many years ago, and she
was General Relief Site President.
And it's, you know, I went to school with her.
She's a classmate, and I love Julie and the Bang and her family, but she taught, right,
in general conference.
Revelation is a skill.
It's probably the most important skill.
It's something that must be cultivated.
Question, inspired questions have to be crafted.
And I, Prophet Joseph Smith did not take revelation lightly.
And most of the revelations he received in the Doctrine and Covenants, two thirds of
them really, are answers to inspired questions, Scott.
And that's how we, that's how the Prophet Joseph Smith was able to help Heavenly Father
reestablish his kingdom.
That's how we can kind of establish our own kingdoms is by learning to ask inspired questions.
So what's your thoughts on that?
And I'll share the better story.
Well, yeah, so inspired questions.
This has been on my mind, you know, we know what we're going to talk about a little bit
in advance each week.
And so this week I've been thinking about this topic, inspired questions.
And you know, I need, I need to develop some inspired questions in my own life.
There's some things that I need to develop, because I need to receive some personal revelation
around.
And I want to hear what you have to say about this, Dave, but if this has been the case
for me, maybe it'll be the case for some of our other listeners too.
It's easy to get stumped up a little bit on what should that inspired question be.
So even sometimes, you know, we think that, well, I'll come up with the inspired question
then I'll ask the inspired question.
What has occurred to me is that maybe I even pray for direction in the questions that I
should be asking.
Absolutely.
That's the preparation.
Right.
Part of the preparation is to actually pray for the, for what should I ask.
Yeah.
And that's Dr. Incumbent section 46.
You know, we've read that before, Scott, but Dr. Incumbent section 46, after describing
these gifts of the Spirit, this is how the revelation ends in verse, why don't you just
read verse 28, verse 30, Scott?
Yeah.
Dr. Incumbent 46 verse 28.
So this is 28, and it shall come to pass that he that Ascoth in spirit shall receive in
spirit and then I'll skip to 30.
He that Ascoth in spirit, Ascoth according to the will of God, wherefore it is done even
as he Ascoth.
And again, as I say unto you, all things must be done in the name of Christ whatsoever you
do in the spirit.
He that Ascoth in the spirit will receive by the spirit.
So these inspired questions are driven really by the spirit.
It's really what I call praying in the spirit.
And sometimes the questions Scott are prepared, written down, maybe even read in a prayer,
looking at a piece of paper, reading it, or Scott, so many times, just in praying, being
overcome by the spirit, I, words have been given to me what to pray.
And those are really precious inspired questions that may be given to you to ask, that to not
only words be given to what I, how I express my gratitude, but words can be given as to
what I ask.
You know, I love the phrase, ask not amiss.
That's in 2 Nephi chapter 4 verse 35.
This is kind of the where Nephi has been lamenting his, you know, his sins and he's, he's in
the, I know in whom I've trusted and, and yet he kind of a self deprecating and this
is the lamentations of Nephi.
But notice how he ends this, this whole chapter in 35.
Yeah, I know that God will give liberally unto him that asketh, yeah, my God will give
me, if I ask not amiss, therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee.
Yeah, I will cry unto thee, my God, that rock of my righteousness, behold my voice shall
forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God.
Amen.
That's a powerful verse.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
And what do you think it means to ask not amiss?
I will, if I ask not amiss.
That means the question will be the right question.
Yeah.
The right question, see prayer, prayer itself, Scott, should not just be a, now I know, I
know it is and there's no wrong prayer.
There's never a bad prayer.
Whatever one, when anyone in any level of faith is expressing their desires, their needs,
their love, their gratitude to God, that's never wrong.
However, prayer that invokes revelation takes a lot of work and some preparation usually
is my experience.
And I love how Brother Matthews in the Bible dictionary, when he wrote the Bible dictionary,
expressed this.
And I just want, I just one of my favorite parts of the Bible dictionary is the little
art, little caption that he's written on prayer.
As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God, namely God is
our father and we are his children.
Then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part.
Well, I love that, you know, that we're, we're just talking to our Heavenly Father.
As a child and we're asking our father a questions, we're thanking him, we're expressing our love
to him.
Then Brother Matthews continues in the Bible dictionary in this page 707.
Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship, meaning
father to child.
Prayer is the act by which the Will of the Father and the Will of the Child are brought
in to correspondence with each other.
I love that.
Prayer is the act by which the Will of the Father and the Will of the Child are brought
in to correspondence with each other.
The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and
for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on
our asking for them.
Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them.
In the last sentence in the Bible dictionary, prayer is a form of work and is an appointed
means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.
And I think one of the highest of all blessings is to hear the voice of the Lord, to receive
the will of the Lord and to receive revelation.
So I just really love how do you, how do our listeners, I'm asking each of you who are
listening, how do you see prayer?
Do you see it's a high form of worship for sure.
It's a daily act upon which we humble ourselves and it can be kneeling, it can be standing,
it can be sitting, it can be driving, it could be like Amulet says, we should pray in our
fields, we should pray in our closets, we should pray morning, noon and night.
We've been commanded to pray always, which I think is so interesting to picture what
that looks like, to be able to pray always.
How do you see prayer?
Well I love this idea that prayer is the object of prayer is not to change the will of God
but to secure for ourselves and for others.
I think about my children and grandchildren and others.
To secure for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made
conditional on our asking for them.
So I think one of the real important parts of prayer that I and probably most of us neglect
is to really be able to ask according to the will of God, to ask not a miss and to be able
to ask for the inspired questions in order to receive the blessings that are according
to the will of God.
It is not pleasing, I don't think to God, that we ask for things according to just my
will.
I don't think he's angry about that, he's not capricious about that, he's not judging
or condemning us in any way when we do.
But I think sometimes he probably just shakes his head and he says, if you can only see
what I see, why would you ask for that?
Ask for those things that are according to my will, the Father's will.
Ask for that.
And that takes revelation, work even before we pray.
I mean sometimes we think of revelations coming as the result of prayer, but if some revelation
would precede prayer, our prayers would be so much more effective.
So I think about that a lot when I pray that I'm praying to bring into alignment, I think
one of the real purposes of prayer is to bring into alignment my will with the Father's will
and to ask for blessings that he's already willing to grant that are conditional upon
me asking for.
I love that.
I love what your friend in the Bible dictionary has written that you just read.
And I'm just going to re-read some of this.
I just think it's that important.
Because it really is through prayer that this relationship is not just established, I mean
it's established outside of prayer too, but this is where really the codification of it
takes place.
Yeah, the Father-child relationship.
Yeah, that's just so cool to me.
And as soon as, so I'm reading, again this is from 707 in the Bible dictionary, Brother
Matthews, as soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God, namely God is
our Father and we are His children, I mean that doctrine right there is enough.
That doctrine alone stands, that doctrine stands alone enough in our relationship or describing
our relationship with Heavenly Father that it should open our hearts and our minds to
this concept fully.
And so on it goes, namely God is our Father and we are His children.
Then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part.
Well, of course it does, right?
I mean you think about the relationship.
When you have a friend, a father, a mother, a loving, familial or even a parent-child
relationship, you know where you feel safe, where you feel loved, where you feel warm,
that's where you will retreat for your direction.
You can't wait to talk to Him.
Exactly.
And you know in each of our days, every day some of us, most of us, we will become aware
of the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve in our lives.
And you know as we pray to put into correspondence our will and His will.
Oh man, holy cow, to me, you know this prayer is where my will and God's will come into
correspondence with each other.
So if that's really true- Our will swallowed up in the will of the Father.
That's really true and I say I want to know God's will for me, then inspired questions
will come around what is your will for me.
Yeah.
And again that may take some time.
And it probably will.
And some effort.
And some faith, some great faith to be able to ask those inspired questions.
I know it's just been too easy for me throughout my life and probably most others to just say
fix it.
You know to say change it.
To say help me.
And nothing's wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with any prayer, anything that comes from the heart and the sincere
desire.
But it makes revelation difficult.
And I think Heavenly Father is not going to do anything for us that we cannot do for
ourselves.
And that we kind of need to change, just kind of tweak the perspective that okay, so Heavenly
Father isn't just going to fix this problem without my effort.
My whole goal here should not be that he just fix it.
My goal here should be what can I do as an in his instrument, as his child, to help bring
about the changes here that I desire or that my children or others that I love, changes
that maybe they need that they need in their life.
And the greatest example of that, Scott, that where I learned this was for years.
And I, it wasn't just one child.
There, you know, all of our children have challenges.
And I can remember praying for all of my children.
Please change them.
Please fix them.
Please heal them.
Please whatever.
You know, praying that God somehow just make my children whole and protect them from the
fall of Adam and Eve.
You know, I laugh, but wow.
It's just right.
That's part of the plan that we experienced the fall and Heavenly Father knew that they
would anyway.
There's been so many times where in essence, I don't think I necessarily just use those
words, but that's what I'm really praying for is fix them, change them.
And I was saying that prayer one day as I was driving down I-35 in Minnesota with my children
in their teenage years and then me praying that God would, would fix him or fix her.
And I remember feeling the spirit come over me and really chastise me.
And I mean, it was a revelation and I'm, and I'm really grateful that Heavenly Father would
through his spirit to chastise me.
And he, it got my attention and the strong thought, which I knew was coming not from
me, but from an inspired source was will you stop praying that I fix him or her?
And will you start praying that I, that I change you, start praying for you and how you can
be a better dad.
Man, I thought about that, Scott, I drove for several miles thinking about that.
And, and before I got out of the car, I remember praying Heavenly Father, help me to know how
I can be a better dad for this child.
That's an inspired question because he can answer that by revelation.
And that's, that's how really the economy of heaven works, Scott.
The economy of heaven is, let me help you to, to change.
And quit praying for me to change others.
Now I know it's not wrong to pray for a child like Alma did for, to protect, you know, his
son Alma, to get that assurance, you know, from the Lord that his child would be protected.
And, and I know it's not wrong to ever pray to Heavenly Father to do things for our children
that we cannot do for ourselves.
And there are so many examples of that.
But I think it's just sometimes too easy on our part and a little bit of a lack of faith
and maybe sometimes desperation that we, that we just pray for God to fix it.
And it would be so much more effective and inspiring.
And there'd be so much more growth and progression in the process of prayer and receiving revelation.
If we would pray with inspired questions as to how, what can I do, what, how can I act,
what should I think, how should I feel, you know, ask for questions that won't affect
the agency of others, but take it upon myself to receive help and guidance through the Holy
Spirit and allow the voice of the Lord to speak to me how I can be an instrument in
his hands.
Those are more the inspired questions.
When Deb and I, and we run into this because we have kids, and it's not because our kids
are of any persuasion or another or anything like that, it's just because they are also,
like we subjected to the effects of the fall and their response to that, those effects
are sometimes different than we'd want them to be.
And you know, I know that early on, Deb and I have been married for 22 years.
We combined a family, our two oldest are the same age, pushing 40, I don't know how old
they are, 37 or 38.
Our youngest is 31, I think, Kirby.
And so we have seven kids all jammed in there.
And you know, in fact, Trevor and Jessica, they share the same birthday, born on the
same day.
Lexi and Casey are the same age, different birthdays, you know, months apart, Dakota's
right in the middle and then Bowen and Kirby are about the same age.
And so we have, you know, 16 grandchildren also under the age of 12 years old now.
And so that's it.
I mean, it just comes.
It's just, boom, concentration and with that concentration and, you know, some of the
decisions and choices that life that I've made in my life and just because of the free
agency of some of our kids, too, there's just some way there's just some of our kids are
just living their ways and ways that I probably wouldn't choose for them.
And it's really, it was really difficult for Deb and I in the very beginning, because
we would pray, you know, please fix them.
Oh, please, Heavenly Father, fix and fix and fix me.
And I believe that's a good prayer.
Change them, protect them from this.
Protect them from that.
Yeah.
You know, don't let my sins affect their lives, those kinds of things.
And you know, and obviously that's not even a possibility or even in God's plan.
But that's, you know, that's what we sometimes as parents want for our kids.
And I don't know.
And I think it was you.
I think that if, I don't know if you remember this, but we were, I called you one day and
I was beside myself.
We were trying to put this thing together and we met at the Italian place in Orem and
you, and you helped me to kind of see some things.
And that's where Deb and I changed.
You know, I came home after that conversation and I said to Deb, or maybe she said to me,
I don't want to take credit if I, if I shouldn't be, but either way, together we came up with.
When we pray for our children, we just need to acknowledge that they are His.
Remember the first part of the series that we teach in this class of divine gift of forgiveness
is who we are.
And who's even more importantly than that, who's we are.
And as parents, if we remember that not just for ourselves, but for our children that they
were His, they are His.
They have been purchased by Christ's blood.
They are His.
And so there, and even recently there's times when Deb and I, as we know by our bed, we'll
just say, haven't we fathered their ears?
And we're doing our best we can with them.
But we don't know.
And we have now began to pray for those questions that we should be asking rather than we just
fix them.
Our prayer, my prayer today is, Heavenly Father, will you please just show me how to be a better
dad?
Yeah, show me a few things this week that I can work on to be a better dad and then be
open to it.
Right.
And as I do that, you know, when we talked about this, I'm going to just talk about this
for a second.
But as we, as we do this, remember, go back to a notebook might be important for me in
a situation like this, because I have a lot of experiences.
You know, I had one yesterday as I attended the couple as I attended the temple yesterday,
and I wanted to really remember not just the feeling that I had, because I'll remember
that.
But the way that it came to me, the verbiage that I received, whether it was through the
Spirit or the Spirit using my own intellect, doesn't matter.
But I received some verbiage that, you know, that type of verbiage would be important for
me to know and to carry forth into my life, to carry out into my life, not just what was
said, but how it was said.
Because sometimes for me, the how it was said, and you know, reminds me that's not me, that's
coming from Heavenly Father.
And so if I can write those things down and read, you know, and again, we'll get to that
as we get to that step.
But this is where it becomes super important.
And then, and I think we move into the next step with it to David, because, you know,
the prayer, we begin, we have that prayer and we put ourselves out there and we begin
this communion, this correspondence, as Brother Matthews puts it, this correspondence of our
wills, our will with his will.
The next step in that whole process is to listen.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
And that's actually the next step.
But before we before we leave step six and move to seven, let's just end on the experience
of Nephi in Helaman chapter 10, Scott.
I just let's just discuss these two verses for a minute.
Again, let me just remind the listeners, there's there's no prayer that's wrong and
there's no words that are wrong.
And I hope that I'm not being at all critical of any prayer, any prayer, however you ask
it, well, whatever your your intent is, as long as it's sincere and humble is a great
prayer and I know Heavenly Father loves it.
But some prayers are more effective than others.
And if you want to receive revelation, it's a skill that must be developed, that must
be cultivated in order to receive revelation.
It seems Joseph Smith had really developed early on in his life, that skill.
For example, Elder Elder Bednar points out, you know, the inspired question of the Prophet
Joseph Smith.
He didn't ask, you know, which church, you know, is true.
That's not what he asked.
He didn't say show me which church is true.
He said, just just think of this for a minute, the tweak here, he doesn't say which one's
true.
He said, which one should I join?
Now that's more inspired, because he's taking some responsibility in that question.
He's saying I'll act.
You tell me which one to join, I'll join it.
There's there's action, there's some responsibility on his part.
I think I think that's really significant that when we pray that we accept some responsibility
with a desire to act as an instrument in the hand of God to be his instrument.
Anyway, I that's all I'm saying is that the words matter and how we feel about certain
things in our prayers, I think it's way too easy in our prayers just to feel like I'm
just going to relegate all of my responsibility to God and that just turn this problem over
to him and I'm not saying that's wrong.
I'm not saying that's bad.
It just may not be as effective.
And we may not receive as much revelation by being by praying in generalities and not
taking responsibilities for what we pray, how we pray, what we say and what we ask for.
You take for example, you know, this great example, this amazing prophet, one of the
greatest missionaries in the Book of Mormon, this Nephi and Helaman chapter 10, when to
read verses four and five, Scott.
Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done, for I have beheld how thou
hast with unwaringness declared the word which I have given unto thee unto this people, and
thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will and
to keep my commandments.
And now, because thou hast done this with such unwaring ingness, behold, I will bless thee
forever, and I will make thee mighty in word and indeed in faith and in work, yea, even
all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which
is contrary to my will.
That's an amazing passage, John.
Prayer.
What would it take to be in such revelation, in such specific alignment with Heavenly Father
that he could tell me that?
You know.
That which is, let's see.
Anything you ask, you'll receive.
Yea, yea, yea.
Because you will ask.
All things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which
is contrary to my will.
That amazing.
I would love to get to that level of prayer.
You know, that's when we talk about putting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, you know,
part of that process, and when we get to that kind of, not the end, but as that process
is coming into completion, let's put it that way, that's one of the things that we benefit
from, and having done that, is we get a sense that our life is acceptable to God.
Yea.
Well, that's that third step in faith, right?
That's the faith of power.
And you know that your life is in accordance with the will of God.
And that's what it would take.
You would be there at this point, because that thou shalt not ask that which is contrary
to my will, you must be in complete alignment.
You're living by the Spirit, you're walking by the Spirit, you're thinking by the Spirit,
you're asking in the Spirit.
And again, that takes an intentional, diligent life.
That takes preparation.
We should live a prayer.
Yea, we really should.
You're right.
We should live our prayers.
I think that's what it means to pray always.
Live your prayer.
Yea.
Constant contact.
You know, that's what we say in Alcoholics Anonymous, is step 11, sought through prayer
and meditation to maintain conscious contact with God.
There you go.
Praying only.
Constant, what?
Constant contact with God.
Conscious, constant conscious contact with God.
So not only are we in conscious contact, but we're aware of it.
Not only are we aware of it, we're living in it.
And then it ends by saying, praying only for a knowledge of his will for us.
And the power to carry it out.
Yea.
Well.
And again, Scott, in the morning when I pray, you know, I might pray in the morning and
say, help me Heavenly Father to be an instrument in thy hands.
I would say probably most mornings I might pray something to that effect.
Help me to be an instrument in thy hands and doing good and helping others.
You know, and I can think about ways to do that.
But it's different if you ask Heavenly Father, who can I help today?
Yea.
Heavenly Father, I desire to be an instrument in your hands today.
Can you please show me who and how that can happen?
Have your pen and notebook ready.
Yea.
And carry it with you.
Because this is the thing, and this is what I meant to say about my experience in the
temple yesterday, is I had this great experience.
I couldn't write it down, and I get into my car and I pray for the inspiration to come
again, and it did enough that I was able to get it.
But throughout the day yesterday, things continued to come to me.
Yea, good.
And as they do, it helps for me to have an instrument by which I can record those.
You know, whether I put it in notes on my phone or write it down, I tend to write things
down.
I'm kind of moving away from that more, getting more electronic.
But whatever the case, dev text, she devils text things to herself.
You know?
Oh, Jenny, my little sister, you know, we were in Lake Powell two weeks ago, and she
had a thought come to her while we were on the boat.
A spiritual thought, something that she wouldn't need to remember for her role in her ward,
and she just spoke it into a text and texted it to herself so she would have it.
So we can get creative, but these are the kinds of things.
We live in a day and age where it's pretty easy for us to get distracted.
We acknowledge that, but it's also pretty easy for us when we are receiving revelation
to make it a part of our life.
If, and this gets back to one of the very first things that we said today, if we're
intentional.
It's so easy with our technology.
And I haven't done as much lately as I have in the past for different reasons, but we
all have a recorder on our phone.
And oftentimes when I was driving back and forth to work, pondering, seeking revelation,
seeking to solve problems or issues at home or at work or wherever, I would often, I mean,
I use my recorder on my phone a lot to capture thoughts and feelings.
I think that's really critical.
That's a great idea.
I wonder how our listeners do it.
Let's invite them to, you know, if you're recording your thoughts, if you're not, then
start and if you are, maybe just kind of shoot us an email.
He redeems us at gmail.com and let us know what your experience has been around that,
how that's helped you, how you seek to improve and maybe even ask any questions, questions
around that that you may have.
Anyway, how to throw it out to Dave.
So an inspired question is one in which God will give us some specific information, a
question that will enhance and allow him to give us specific information.
Asking who can I bless today instead of just help me to bless others today.
Questions that put some more responsibility upon me to act and not just to be acted upon
or leave all things up to him.
Again, nothing's wrong with that.
But if we want to hear the voice of the Lord more in our life, if we want to receive more
revelation, which I think we all should do, I think this is one of the major themes of
President Nelson is revelation.
The first talk that he gave, the very first talk he gave as President Church Scott was
revelation for the church and for individuals.
And then he gave, he followed that up a year, year and a half later with amazing talk, the
voice of the Lord.
And I think one of the major missions or purposes, callings that President Nelson feels that
he has is to help us as individuals and as a church to receive more revelation.
I think that's going to be required of us to prepare for the second coming of Jesus
Christ.
We need to hear the voice of the Lord.
And we didn't really get so much to the next step today.
We'll do that next week.
But the next step is to, I'll just read it and this will talk about it next time.
Be mindful.
This is step seven.
Be mindful, meditative and learn to listen.
Learn to listen.
It's easier said than done.
Eliminate distractions and distortions from your life.
We can talk about distractions and distortions next week.
And do not become over programmed by technology, social media and virtual reality.
I need to add to that in AI.
And anything like unto it.
Yeah, Dave says AI and looks right at me.
No, those are great tools.
But if you're over programmed and the spirit is absent from those, you can get information.
You can get a ton of information without revelation.
But if you can learn to use those tools and be contemplative, meditative and intentional,
those tools could actually be instruments of revelation for us if the spirit accompanies
the information.
But just to receive information, I think leads to frustration and confusion.
So we can talk about that next time.
Got it.
So thanks, Scott.
Yeah.
I think our main takeaway today is to just create a way to make a note or to record.
And again, we're going to get into this.
This is a step in and of itself.
But because we're asking the right questions, inspired inquiry leads to revelatory response
and remembering how and why that's so important.
And then learning and remembering to pray for things that are expedient that God desires
to bless us with.
That's going to require some effort on our part.
And so, you know, just encourage you to come up with those ways that you can record and
remember and hold yourself accountable to and respond to those types of revelatory responses
that we anticipate receiving from the Lord.
So, Scott, one thing, I just wanted to end with this quote from the prophet Joseph Smith.
When we ask inspired questions, how do you know if you're receiving revelation?
You know, how do I know what to write down as being the voice or the will of the Lord?
And I just want to remind everybody of this quote, which Elder Raspin gave a whole talk
on this quote a few years ago.
This from the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith, page 151.
When you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas
so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon.
Those things that were presented under your minds by the Spirit of God will come to pass.
And thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle
of revelation until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.
You can grow in the principle of revelation.
It's a growth experience.
Yeah.
It's really good.
So pay attention to those sudden strokes of ideas or that pure intelligence that pours
into your mind.
It's a skill and it takes time to develop that skill to be able to recognize which of
these sudden strokes of ideas or thoughts are pure intelligence and which ones are maybe
my own or coming from other sources.
Let's not be afraid to experience that.
Thanks everybody for being with us.
We look forward to being with you again next week.
And until then, be well.