Developing spiritual gifts requires spiritual work and practice even after receiving the gift.
If you want to feel the spirit stand in holy places…stand with holy people…testify of Christ…listen to the Holy Spirit.
You can cultivate an atmosphere for the spirit but you can’t dictate how or when inspiration comes.
We marvel at performers in numerous sports and other disciplines who achieve the highest level of their art. We speak of their God-given talents or gifts. This includes those gifted in dance, gymnastics, music, art, drama, mathematics, science, and more. Each such person demonstrates God-given gifts that are then refined and honed by a lifetime of hard work, study, and practice. God-given gifts make gifted people.
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Returning to our analogy of gifted performers, it is important to remember that a gift alone does not a master make. Extraordinary natural talent notwithstanding, it is through painstaking and laborious practice and effort that performers refine and hone their craft to reach their highest level of artistry. Even those gifts received and unwrapped are often accompanied by the dreaded language “some assembly required.”
The constant companionship of the Holy Ghost is one of the greatest spiritual gifts Latter-day Saints enjoy.
I think the fact that we each have this gift given to us makes it easy to underestimate how powerful and special this gift is.
Let me offer four guiding principles that may be of assistance to you in inviting and recognizing the promptings of the Spirit.
- Stand in holy places
- Stand with holy people
- Testify of holy truths as often as you can
- Listen to the Holy Spirit
We have a place which we want to make holy (home) that is filled with people who have no desire to be holy (largely because they have not experienced a holy place. It’s a negative reinforcing system. My challenge is learning how to reverse the cycle so that we act like holy people and this create a holy place here.
We should study things out in our minds. … Then we should pray for guidance and act upon it. … If we do not receive guidance, we should act upon our best judgment.
Dallin H. Oaks
So long as we act on our best judgement the Lord can consecrate the outcome for our benefit. If we stand still indecisively there is less that the Lord can do with the results.
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