Hey there everybody welcome out to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood, Scott
and David Durfey here as always.
How are you Dave?
I'm good.
Good.
I don't talk enough about that.
We don't.
It's uncomfortable for people I think Scott to talk about blood.
I don't know my wife and I had that little conversation the other day because I was talking
about cleaving to covenants and the importance of cleaving to our covenants gives us a special
access to his love and his blood.
And she said, why do you say blood?
I said sweetheart, you know many times the scriptures talks about the blood.
Our garments wash white in his blood.
His blood represents our cleansing, our healing, our life.
And our spiritual life is through his blood, redemption through his blood.
I mean I know it's uncomfortable for people and it's a little bit of our culture I think.
But you know if you've ever witnessed the sacrifice of a lamb during a Jewish festival
they are bloody, I mean you get a priest, a son of Levi dressed in white, covered in
blood.
I mean really from head to toe blood is splattered all over him.
And that's sacred.
That is really, really sacred and symbolic.
And I don't know, we chose to name this podcast that three years ago or more Scott and it
was for a reason and I just think we need to be more mindful of that use, the use of
that word and what it represents even every Sunday when we partake of his blood.
We really should just take that in and cherish that and if it makes it feel uncomfortable
maybe that'll make it more memorable.
I don't know.
So anyway, we say that every, you start the podcast out every week saying that and it
just rolls off our tongue but we named it that for a reason anyway.
Sunday and this is an exercise that I'll be having this evening with our Institute kids
as we talk about these important things.
Every Wednesday though we're going to talk about, you know, we won't ask for specific
experiences and stuff but we're going to talk about what was your sacrament experience
and we're going to be reflective on that and intentional about it.
You know, this is something that I've made a practice in my own life for many years now
and it began when I re-entered the fold.
In other words, when my membership was reinstated, when I was rebaptized and all those things,
that's when that began for me because that's when the sacrament really took on a deep meaning
in my life and I wanted to be prepared as I was partaking the sacrament because there
was a stretch of time, a long stretch of time when I wasn't allowed or when I wasn't able
to take of it and so during that period of time I missed it and long for it.
So this Sunday I'm sitting in sacrament meeting and I'm contemplating this very thing, the
blood, right?
And I love it in Romans chapter 4, God commanded his love towards us that in that while we
were yet sinners Christ died for us, much more than being now justified by his blood.
Justified, made right by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Anyway, and then it goes on and the word atonement is used one of only a few times in the Bible.
The only one time in the New Testament is in Romans.
And it is used more in the Old Testament.
Right.
Yeah, Scott, I just think we have to really appreciate the imagery of his blood and his
suffering and all of that.
And you know, heaven forbid that any of us would lose our membership in the church.
But boy, it could be a blessing to anyone to be denied the privilege of participating
in those blessings for a while to help them fully appreciate and be more grateful.
I think we just take so many things kind of for granted and don't just don't dwell on
it enough or think about it enough.
Right. my personal experience definitely aligns with what you just said.
No question.
Yeah.
Well, let's finish our course if we can.
We'll see where we go, how far we get.
But we're on the principles of principles and keys of revelation, personal revelation,
personal revelation.
Such an important topic and the most important spiritual skill that one can acquire.
I think it is a skill.
I know it's a gift.
First and foremost, it's a gift.
It cannot be demanded.
It can't be earned.
It can't be manipulated.
But it is a skill to be able to know how to receive revelation and how to be open to it,
how to hear it, how to how to use it in our lives, which our Heavenly Father, I know,
wants us to learn that skill.
And it's a skill and a gift that's not cheap.
So I hope that people are.
I was thinking today, coming over here, Scott, I wonder how many people today will even be
aware of their fears?
How many people today will seek some revelation in their life?
How many people will try to really try the experiment to look under him in every thought?
How many people will walk in the spirit?
Know they're walking in the spirit?
You know, it's kind of a daily thing, Scott, and people, I think, have to to really learn
the skill of revelation.
It has to be a daily thing.
It can't be a Sunday thing or a once in a while or depends on how I feel thing.
It's got to be it's got to be a daily thing where we're we're seeking it to through prayer
and scripture and the instruments of grace.
We're seeking to have the spirit with us to receive the spirit, really the commandment
to fulfill the commandment, receive the Holy Ghost, which everyone received that commandment
when they were confirmed.
So anyway, hope our listeners are being more mindful and intentional about that.
And I think we're on like the sixth or seventh step.
We're on seven.
And we talked last time about asking inspired questions, the right questions, right?
And not asking a mess.
And the seventh step is I'll just read it off my PowerPoint here.
Be mindful, meditative and learn to listen.
Eliminate distractions and distortions from your life and do not become over programmed
by technology, social media and virtual reality.
And artificial intelligence.
Yeah.
I think that's probably become more prevalent since you originally originated this stuff.
But yeah, I think that, you know, Dave, in just hearing you kind of set us up for what
we're going to talk about today, there's key.
There's a couple of key elements here.
And I hope that we've all picked up on those key elements.
You know, we have to be mindful in order to be mindful that's going to require some focus
and some work and some and some work.
Yeah.
The elimination of distractions.
Yeah, there's a lot of work here.
You have to be really intentional about it.
Yeah.
And so, you know, because of that, because of the intent that's required behind all of
this, this is one that we do, we really kind of have to go back and consider, okay, what
are the, the first keys that have led me into this one?
So if it's okay, just real quick, I'm going to, I'm not going to read them all in their
entirety, but I'm just going to kind of summarize them.
So the first key is identify fears and other negative emotions and replace them, right,
with faith and love.
The next one is to know God, learn of Christ and develop faith in their character and attributes.
Identify three, identifying, replace the pavilions of selfish, inappropriate motives.
Four, increase personal purity and confidence in the presence of God by letting virtue govern
your thoughts unceasingly.
Five, repent of sins of omission.
Be intentional and diligent in using instruments of grace.
Six, ask the right questions.
And now this one, be mindful and meditative.
And you can see why number seven comes in its order.
You know, we are, we're now prepared by going one through six of what I just read.
We're now prepared to focus our minds and to discipline our meditation and to discipline
even our learning so that we have, and you know, you think about what, think about that,
that, that phrase right there, learn to listen.
You know, we think about, well, I don't have to learn to hear.
I can hear, you know, but listening is a skill, you know, and it's going to require some effort
on our part as well.
So I just wanted to point that out because I think that the other six definitely are
preparatory to seven and seven will be to eight and eight to nine and so on it goes.
But I wanted to just make sure that we were all kind of had the same bedrock with Beneath
us as we go forward, Dave.
Well, I think that's great.
And I, you know, I think one of the, my favorite talks given in the last 10 years in general
conference was given in the, the session of general conference in which a proclamation
was read recognizing the 200th anniversary of the first vision and President Nelson read
that proclamation in front of a, uh, uh, one of the witness trees, one of the trees, one
of the oldest trees in the sacred grove, which I, you and I have, you know, stood in front
of together.
And he read a proclamation and as part of that, he gave this amazing talk called hear
him April 2020 general session of conference, hear him.
And I just, I have loved that talk.
I have read it and re read it and, you know, maybe a better words that we should use instead
of a learn to listen to him is learn to hearken to him because hearkening includes listening
and acting.
When we read the word harken in the, in the holy scriptures, which is used often in the
doctrine of covenants, especially it means to hear and to obey.
And he, he, there's just one paragraph in that talk I want to, I want to read.
Uh, maybe, maybe, maybe a couple and a lot of, a lot of my thoughts behind this principle
of revelation, uh, is, uh, comes from this talk.
He says, as we seek President Nelson, as we seek to be disciples of Jesus Christ, our
efforts to hear him need to be ever more intentional.
Prophet God, Scott, it takes conscious and consistent effort to fill our daily lives
with his words, his teachings, his truths.
We simply cannot rely upon information we bump into on social media with billions of
words online and in a marketing saturated world constantly infiltrated by noisy nefarious
efforts of the adversary where we can go to hear him.
Well, that's a prophet talking and telling us the truth.
And I love the word choice there.
You know, he says that, uh, info we bump into, how descriptive is that?
I mean, that is so perfect because that's what it is.
It's happened to me and I'm, and I'm pretty sure it's happened to all of us, you know,
we get on the internet and it happened to me just yesterday.
I was looking something up for Deb and I, and I saw something that I hadn't attended to
yet and I'm like, oh gosh, and I got, and then, you know, maybe 30 or 40 minutes later, I'm
Deb's like, so did you ever get that?
And I'm like, oh geez, I didn't even remember, you know, I know.
Yeah.
So it's, it's, you know, down that rabbit.
Yeah, I got, I got bumped into on social media or whatever.
And that's what he's talking about.
You know, the words that we kind of started off with, with the importance of being intentional
with this, right?
I mean, we bumped into stuff.
That's not intentional.
That word bump.
Yeah.
I do too, Scott.
And honestly, that, this is such an important skill in and of itself to learn to listen.
And I, I think it's a, I don't know, I think it's a, an attribute, a character attribute.
You know, some people, and I'm, I'm, don't claim to be one of those, are so good at listening.
You know, they, they're so good at listening to others before jumping in or solving problems.
They can, they'll just listen.
They'll listen to understand.
They'll, they listen unselfishly without any idea of manipulation or they'll listen before
they start thinking of their answer.
They just really want to, to receive information and understand the other individual.
So that's what, that's the intent of really revelation is not to again get what we want.
I think so many times we pray for what we want and we want revelation.
Well, that shouldn't, that should not be our motive.
Our motive should be as sons and daughters of, of a heavenly father.
We should seek to know what he wants us to know.
What information does he want to give us?
That's, that's the purpose of the skill of revelation.
That's the skill of listening is to understand him, not to be understood, but to understand
his will, to, to, to know his will, not to get what we want.
That's just so critical, I think in this principle of revelation.
So there's a, a scripture in the doctrine of covenants, doctrine of covenants 88 63.
This is what it says, draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you seek me diligently
and you shall find me ask and you shall receive knocking a shall be opened unto you.
And I think Dave, this is a, a, when we eliminate these distractions and seek the Lord diligently,
we will receive guidance and revelation.
I mean, that is just a promise that's been given to us, but there is that requirement.
I have to draw near unto him and how do I draw near unto him?
Well, I really do need to eliminate a lot of these distractions and so forth that we're
talking about.
And, and I purposely use the word distortions.
Right.
Distractions and distortions.
So explain why?
Well, social media is so, it's, it's not just a distraction, but even worse, there
are so many distortions.
What you see isn't real.
What you read about isn't true.
It's all, it's, you know, they, they preach social media, the news, everything else.
It's just, it's not based on truth.
It's based on perception.
It's based on culture.
It's based on so many things that are not eternal or absolute.
It's, it's just, it's so flippant, really the, the stuff, the information that we receive
and it's just, I don't know, Scott, we, we just have to be more, more intentional again
what we watch, what we, what we listen to.
I, I just, this has been on my mind in the scripture.
You know, I love this story about Elijah and the Lord speaks to him and this is in 1st
Kings chapter 19 and I just want to read here for a minute.
So, Elijah is, is seeking, you know, to know what to do in a certain situation and, and
the rocks break in pieces and, and he says, the Lord was not in the wind and after the
wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake,
a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
I mean, we just see so many events, right?
Everything is so sensationalized these days.
The news, everything is just so spectacular and grand and noisy.
There's just so much noise, so many things going on in the world, so many things going
on in our life.
Oh man, Scott, it's so sad to me sometimes when I, even in family, sometimes activities,
I look around and half the people are on their phones, you know?
I don't know what they're, what they're seeking, but I don't know.
It just really bothers me that we can't, let me finish the verse.
Sorry.
And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire,
a still small voice.
Now that is what we need to be seeking is that still small voice.
The Lord is not in these sensational things.
If we want revelation, it is a still small voice.
That's 1 Kings 19, 11 and 12.
And Scott, it's not easy to hear a still small voice.
It's, it's, it's not easy.
I love what Elder Bednar said.
You know, this is something he said at a CES fireside in 2009.
He says, we live in a time when technology can distract us from what is most important.
Now this is 2009.
We live in 2020 for today.
Technology has advanced exponentially since 2009.
So imagine it difficult as it would have been in 2009 times that by however many and then
again, and that's what it is today, right?
So we live in a time when technology can distract us from what is most important.
If we lower attention to be constantly divided, we lose the ability to focus and more importantly
to listen.
There you go.
So you know, he's telling us that technology, if we allow technology to fragment our attention
and diminish our capacity to listen to the spirit, then we will pay that price and that
will be the price of, of over distortion and too much technology using it for the wrong
reason, get distracted and all that other stuff.
So I don't know when, when we, what are some practical invitations and exercises we can
offer listener Scott about how to, how to gain this skill?
Well, how can they, how can, how can we listen?
How can, what can we do to become more adept in hearing the voice of the Lord?
Well, because it's going to take focus because it's going to take effort on our part.
We have to find ways to draw quietness or solace or the ability to be able to just focus
on him into our lives.
And so, you know, we use prayer, we use meditation, we talked about that.
We use the scriptures and other good books and music and all the other stuff that we
talked about.
But, but I think today our focus is, it needs to kind of just be on the prayer of meditation,
specifically maybe the meditation part of how we do this.
You know, again, we go back to seven, the key itself, be mindful, meditative, meditative
and learn to listen, eliminate distractions and distortions in your life.
Do not become over programmed by technology, social media or virtual reality.
So be mindful, meditative and learn to listen.
I think all three of those things can kind of be encapsulated into one experience.
And it may take some planning and effort and practice.
It may take some planning.
It may take a habit.
It may take a time set aside.
It may, I mean, really Scott, it's not going to happen if you don't plan it.
And maybe as part of one's day, I mean, when's the last time you put meditation down in your
plan?
Are you asking me?
Yeah.
Yesterday.
You did?
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
This is, this is, and if you would ask me that a week ago, I wouldn't have been able
to say that, but this has been a re, a point of emphasis that I've just kind of re restored
in my own life.
I, there's been some stuff.
We talked about it.
I've alluded to it without getting into full detail.
But you know, the fall of Adam and Eve has been alive and well in my life and in my family
lately.
And I know that through, you know, we, we in step 11 in Alcoholics Anonymous, we sought
through prayer and meditation to maintain conscious contact with God, maintain conscious
contact with God, praying only for a knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry
that out.
And Dave, since you know, 20, it'll be 26 years next month, but 26 years ago when I
began to engage in this process of recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous, that step 11
was really important to me right from the very beginning because that's where I feel
him.
You know, we let's go back to it and just talk about why, you know, use some logic around
this.
You know, in the beginning, when we started this podcast, we talked about the fall of
Adam and Eve.
We talked first, we talked about who we are, who's we are the fall of Adam and Eve, the
effects of the fall in our lives, the atonement of Jesus Christ and the effects of Jesus Christ's
atonement and the power of Jesus Christ or the or Jesus Christ's power and effects in
our life made available to us through his atonement.
Well all of those things are important and they bring us to this spot where it allows
us now through prayer and meditation to not just establish but to really maintain and
build on that relationship with God.
Because we begin to build on that relationship with God, all of our comings and goings and
this is not happening probably for any of us because we don't live in a perfect world
and we're not apostles and prophets but all of our comings and goings.
If we are walking with God the way God has invited us and ultimately wants us to walk
with him then all of our communication with him is personal revelation.
Yeah, true.
Well, so you meditate it.
Yeah.
That's in your daily plan.
Yeah.
How long?
Well, that's the thing.
I don't know for sure.
A few minutes, several minutes, less than 15 and I don't time it.
How do you do it?
So the way I did it this time is I just came in here.
A lot of people like to go somewhere where there's not distractions around them and I
love to do that.
I have a place up Provo Canyon that I love to go and then I have a place that's even
more sacred to me because it takes more effort but it's Tempanuki up behind Tempanogos Mountain.
I've got a space up there that I love to go.
How do you meditate here in your home?
In my home.
So this is a great question.
So I have to prepare my, you know, they say prepare the space.
Well the space includes me and so I have to silence all of my stuff.
I silence my Alexa app here.
I make sure that the night I don't just silence my computer.
I have to turn it off because in my industry I'll get dings when things happen in the stock
market.
It'll be a big, big time distraction for me.
So I have to turn that off.
And then I always start with prayer and I like to have music in the background and the reason
I like to have, and when I say music, just instrumental, I don't like to have, and this
is just me.
This is not a prescription.
This is my prescription and it's evolving and changing pretty regularly.
But I like to turn on just some kind of instrumental music and there's all different types that
I love to listen to.
Sometimes it's church related and sometimes it's not.
You know, I love Native American flute music, for example, and other things like that.
And I'll listen and as I'm listening, I will set the intention and I will say pray to Heavenly
Father, I am opening myself up to you to receive whatever it is that you have for me.
And or I'll go with a question or I'll go with an intention of something that I need,
that I know I need healed in my life.
And this goes back to last week.
This is where the question is asked, show me ways that I can do this better.
And I'll do that.
And sometimes my meditation, Dave, is completely silent and sometimes I don't have the music
going and I'm in the mountains or whatever.
And sometimes I'm here and I'm doing it with the little music going and a pen and paper.
And so it just looks different.
You know, the important thing about meditation for me is creating the space and inviting
the spirit.
And it doesn't have to look a specific way.
It can look however anybody needs it to look in order for them to have that.
So when we're describing meditation, so it's clear to our listeners, we're not talking
about sitting in a certain position on the floor.
What is that position when you're sitting in a position and you've got your hands in
a certain position and you're chanting or humming.
You know, I get all that.
I think there's power in some of that.
Actually, I've studied that a little bit and I know that there's something to that.
But we're not talking about that.
We're talking about really just meditating upon what God has for us to learn from him,
seeking the spirit.
It's as a patriarch to receive revelation for someone else and to be prepared to give
someone a revelation from God is really the process is not any different than trying to
receive a revelation for me, which Heavenly Father invites us to do.
And the way I would do that, I don't know how other patriarchs do it, but the way I
do it was to begin with prayer, using sacred music, turning to some scripture, pondering
the word and not while I'm reading or while I'm listening or whatever, I'm seeking the
voice of the Lord.
I'm not just reading for information here.
I'm reading to hear the voice of the Lord for me and how that verse applies to me or
I'll then I'll go off and I'll ponder and I'll set back after reading a word or two
or a verse or two and I'll lean back and I'll ponder.
I mean, this is the meditative state that we're talking about.
Last time we talked about saying a prayer and if you ask an inspired question, pause
and listen for an answer.
Listen to what comes to you through the Spirit.
Listen to what comes to your mind and to your heart.
That's really what we're talking about in being a listener, being mindful, being meditative.
I think we could kind of describe it by saying to be mindful, meditative actually means to
create space in our lives for the Spirit to speak to us.
And for a young mother who has children up at night and children up in the morning and
how does she create a space and a time, you know, or all of our other listeners are so
busy, really, how do you create that?
Well, I'll tell you where I receive a lot of revelation actually is laying in bed at
night.
And usually, you know, early in the morning, I usually go to bed listening to a conference
talk and I'm asleep by the time they say, Amen.
I'm really blessed that I can be asleep in 10, 15 minutes.
But I think it kind of sets me up.
I think my dreams are better, more edified because I go to bed listening to a voice of
a prophet.
Then in the morning, usually when I get up, I just kind of lay there and meditate.
There's lots of places.
It may be in a bed where one meditates.
Yeah, absolutely.
And then I'll take notes on my phone if I receive a prompting or a revelation.
So I just, it is for whatever circumstance and situation people are in, but I know that
there's those moments and those places that one can receive revelation and they may, maybe
it's in a car while driving, listening to music or listening to the scriptures or whatever.
You don't have to go to the mountains.
You don't have to go to a sacred grove.
Nope.
You don't have to do any of that.
Maybe it's washing dishes.
Maybe.
Maybe it's doing the wash or whatever.
You're meditating.
You're thinking about the voice and will of the Lord while you do those things.
This is really interesting because we think oftentimes, and I know I've been guilty of
this.
Can I just say probably nobody washes the dishes anymore?
Yeah, you're right about that.
I remember watching the dishes.
My mother never had a dishwasher.
My mother would always, I remember my mother, just a memory, Scott, sorry.
I remember my mother setting in that kitchen window, looking out that kitchen window at
the traffic going by a main street in American fork and her washing dishes.
And I believe she probably received her greatest revelations, washing dishes, looking out that
window and meditating.
And we've kind of, we have lost some of those opportunities in our world because everything
is so automated and we don't really do some of those things anymore.
We don't have a time out to just wash the dishes.
Anyway, we've really created a busy life for ourselves.
There's no doubt.
And you just conjured a ton of memories in my mind.
I still, when I drive past the property, the house no longer even stands there, but where
Grandma and Grandpa's house used to be, I still drive past there and there's two or
three things that I miss as I'm driving past.
And one of those is seeing Grandma standing there at the sink, whether she's washing dishes
or preparing a meal.
But you can see her as I drive by and I still, as I drive past her, I still long for that
comfort.
She loved that.
That was one of those things.
But you know, we can alter to her.
We talk about meditation and I think that it conjures in our mind a vision of what it
should look like exactly.
You know, we think of, you know, as we started with our palms, palms spaced up, our legs
crossed, you know, chanting home or whatever the case may be.
And that's fine.
But we're misconstrued in that.
And the reason I say that is, you know, we think that we take that even from the Buddha
practices, which I guess in part, you know, some of that has been replicated from there.
But the Buddha taught this, chop wood and carry water.
And that's your meditation.
It doesn't have to be.
And that was from the Buddha.
The Buddha literally said that as he was talking about, what am I supposed to do?
How am I supposed to meditate?
What am I supposed to live in?
And that was his instruction.
Carry chop wood and carry water.
And so it doesn't have to look a certain way.
I love maybe, maybe without earbuds.
You probably eat well unless you're listening to some great well music to help you stay
in it.
You know, that's, that's true.
I mean, that's really true.
But so many times when we're listening to other stuff, we're not really meditating.
Well, and what is the will of the Lord?
We're listening to somebody else tell us what the will of the Lord if yeah, that's their
ideas or their thoughts.
And we're not really, there's a, there's a mediator there.
And I'm not saying that's bad.
The Savior is a mediator.
Prophets can be mediators.
But I'm just saying that sometimes we are just so immersed in information over programmed
over programmed that we just need to put maybe some, some earplugs in our ears instead of
earbuds and block out the, the, the noise.
If you could come up with an earplug for brain noise, you would be a, that would be amazing.
I'm just saying that would be amazing.
We should, we should start a campaign.
Earplugs not earbuds.
Earplugs.
Yeah.
Plug, plug the, plug the noise.
Well, I think that, you know, as we, as we're moving along this process and trying to learn
how to implement personal revelation in our lives and to, to make these things at work
so that we can't, you know, Dave, let's, so let's just go back to what's our main objective
here.
Our main objective is always to draw an eye unto him, to put on the atonement of Jesus
Christ so that we can fill the instruments of grace in our life at work administering,
which is the Holy Ghost administering the effects of the atonement in our life, not
just for sin.
That's important, but not just for sin, but for all of the effects of the fall of Adam
and Eve that we have that are obvious in our lives every day.
So you know, to have that spirit with us, to be able to administer that in our lives,
the effort that we put into this and the way that we begin to develop and mold and shape
our thinking and our approach to Heavenly Father.
When it comes to prayer meditation, and I think specifically when it comes to meditation,
it's easy for me to tell him it's hard for me to hear him.
And I think that it's through the meditation where much of that hearing takes place.
That's where the real work is.
I agree.
Is in the listening, being so that leads us to number number eight, which is related.
And that is, be still and wait upon the war.
And they're, they're a little bit different, but be still and wait.
So I wanted to just, you know, there's that amazing scripture in doctrine, come in section
98.
You want to turn there?
So doctrine, come in section 98 verse one, does I remember?
Elder Christopherson.
This was powerful.
Elder Christopherson, when I was the Institute director at UVU, Elder Christopherson was coming
to UVU Institute to do a fireside.
We actually held it in the UVU Convention Center on, on, on, or UCU, the Utah community.
You CCU.
Sorry.
Utah Community Credit Union.
Yes.
In their big arena, arena convention hall, whatever, on the UVU Utah Valley University
campus.
A lot of us in there.
Anyway, Elder Christopherson and his wife had come and, and I, I was, you know, I kind
of hosted him and we, we had dinner together and this was a, this was a great event.
And to hear a prophet of God, right?
So excited.
And I'm sitting on this stand and kind of, you know, close by and, and he says, I have
a message, an important message that I've prepared for you tonight.
And he turns on a video and he plays the opera singer from Europe singing, be still and know
that I'm God.
And he plays this message.
Now she had, Cissel, is that her name?
I don't, Cissel.
I don't remember.
Cissel.
Okay.
And as I think she goes by that.
And anyway, she sings beautifully.
It's one of my favorites.
It's him, definitely my favorites.
She does it with the choir.
She does it with the Tabernacle Choir and, or the choir on Temple Square.
What's their name now, Scott?
That's it.
The choir, Temple Square.
And anyway, she sings this and everybody should download it.
And he, he, after everybody listens to that, he says, that's my message to you tonight.
Be still, be still and know God.
That's my message to you tonight.
Now he said some more things, beautiful, wonderful counsel and testimony.
But I would, that was impressive that he came with a singular message to the young adults
and thousands were there.
And he said, you, you need to be still.
You need, you need to slow down.
Just slow down and be still.
I'll never forget that.
And I just think sometimes we just get so busy and our minds just race and so much of it
is on things that aren't, aren't even appropriate.
A prophet of God speaking to thousands of young adults and he says to them, this, this
is not just my message to you.
This is the Lord's message to you.
Slow down and be still.
Let's read 98 verse one.
Oh, yeah.
I almost forgot.
Okay.
So this is Doctrine and Covenants section 98.
And this is a time of where the church is going through terrible persecution in Missouri.
And this is a revelation to them in the midst of all of their persecution and all of their
tribulation and listen to what the Lord says in verse one.
Barely I say unto you, my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted.
Ye rejoice evermore and in everything give thanks.
Keep going.
Waiting patiently on the Lord for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of
Sabaath of Sabaath and are recorded with this seal and Testament.
The Lord has sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.
All right.
And the next verse.
Good.
Therefore, we'll read that.
He gives this promise unto you with an immutable covenant.
Immutable covenant.
That they shall be fulfilled and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work
together for your good.
And to my name's glory sayeth the Lord.
Okay.
So look at verse two.
Waiting patiently.
Waiting patiently upon the Lord.
Now I don't think that means sitting around doing nothing.
I don't believe that.
I think slowing down doesn't mean you do nothing.
I don't think that means you sit down or sit down under a tree somewhere and wait for
God to move you or to answer you.
Maybe it is, but that's not how I picture it.
I picture waiting upon the Lord as a server waiting upon me at a restaurant.
I think it's a, how can I be a better waiter upon the Lord?
That waiting upon the Lord means serving him.
It means being where he wants me to be.
And I believe that in that process, Scott, so when I, when I think of waiting upon the
Lord and being still, it may be in the middle of doing service.
In fact, I learned a powerful principle years ago in priesthood leadership when I was in
Minnesota, when search was being made for a location for the St. Paul Minnesota temple.
We were looking for pieces of real estate, all the stake presidencies were, and we had
a powerful area, 70 there who I, who I love, you would have loved him too.
He was just so down to earth and he liked to play basketball.
And anyway, I loved him and he, he was trying to find a place and he was told by one of
the, one of the brethren, you, you can't find it in the newspaper.
You can't find it in ads.
You're not going to find it in a real estate office.
You have to go stand on the property.
You can only receive the revelation standing on the property.
So he, he, he found the, he found a place and he went and stood on the property and
he heard a voice and the voice said, this is where I will build my house.
That's where the temple is today.
You have to stand there and that takes effort and that takes work to be in the right place
at the right time.
And one of the things President Nelson has told us is that one of the best things we
can do to receive revelation is by waiting upon the Lord in the house of the Lord, by
serving him in his holy temple.
And we can go there for revelation, but we should go there to serve.
We can receive revelation.
Maybe the best place to receive revelation is in fulfilling our callings.
Maybe the best place to receive revelation is serving our families, not getting what
we want again, but what the Lord wants for others and to serve, to be his hands, to be
his arms, to be his feet, to be his voice.
That's, that's how in my life, Scott, I have received probably the most important significant
revelations is in the process of serving the Lord in callings or in ministering or in just
being a good neighbor.
So I hope that our listeners will take this, this last step, number eight that we'll talk
about today, wait, wait upon the Lord means to go serve the Lord.
Go serve him.
Just set around to do nothing, but wait upon him and serve him and in the process, standing
on the property, standing in the home, standing in holy places where you're serving others,
that's where you will receive revelation.
And that may mean doing dishes for the family or washing somebody's clothes or cleaning
the house.
Honestly, you can receive really powerful revelation doing those things that are serving
the Lord and helping the Lord to serve others.
I hope that we'll take serious this last, not final, but this last step that we've talked
about today, step eight, be still and wait upon the Lord.
Dave, you provided us with some great insights around waiting upon the Lord.
And maybe just as an invitation for this week, let's just take a look at how is our meditation,
how is our mindfulness around our relationship with our Heavenly Father, how do we listen
to him through his Spirit and are we able to achieve a state of stillness?
And do we understand and really make an effort to wait upon the Lord?
A lot today.
A lot of take away, a lot of us to consider and ponder, but it's a good thing because
we've just talked about meditation.
So you should have plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to do that as you're doing
that today.
Hey, everybody, thanks so much for being with us.
We're grateful for you.
We're grateful for your listening and ask you to just go ahead and put in an email, any
questions you may have or thoughts, etc.
You can do that at he redeemsus.com.
Thanks for being with us.
We look forward to being with you again next time.
Until then, be well.