Line upon Line

Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please CLICK HERE

“Seek for and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost”.  How many times have we been taught to do this (or to “heed the whisperings of the Spirit”)?  It has been in almost every General Conference, many stake conferences and in a myriad of church lessons.  But, even after all of those lessons, many good members of the Church have only left the lesson or talk more frustrated, with a feeling of inadequacy.  We ask ourselves, “Is there something wrong with me?  Why have I never felt these promptings that everyone else keeps talking about?”  The answer is simple…You HAVE been getting those promptings. The issue is that nobody ever taught you how to recognize them; that is what I want to share with you today.

This concern (of worthy members feeling as though they have never had a prompting given to them) hit me like a ton of bricks in the summer of 2014.  My wife and I (and our youngest daughter, Jenna) had recently arrived in São Paulo, Brazil where Sister Dalton and I would serve as President and companion of the Brazil São Paulo Interlagos Mission.  In my first talk to the mission, one of the things that I shared with our wonderful missionaries was the importance of seeking for — and then acting on — the promptings of the Spirit.  My message was that, instead of doing what they felt they should do, they would be much more successful if they would do what God wanted them to do.  I was excited to share this message.  I was excited about the changes it would bring in the mission.

To my surprise, my talk did not bring the results I had anticipated.  Rather than have lots of missionaries reporting back to me about their miracles from following the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, I had a number of missionaries scheduling interviews with me.  One after another, they would come in and, with tears in their eyes, they would say, “President…I don’t think I have ever had a prompting of the Spirit in my whole life.”  After a lot of very similar interviews, hearing these wonderful and worthy young men and women feeling terrible because they thought that the Lord didn’t think enough of them to ever communicate to them, it hit me that I had skipped a very important “first step” in teaching our missionaries how to act on the promptings of the Spirit. Before they could ask for and act on them, they needed to be taught HOW TO RECOGNIZE these whisperings of the Holy Ghost. 

Initially, I taught this principle to those missionaries who shared their concerns with me. Later, I shared it with all of our missionaries and, finally, I shared it with all of the members within our mission boundaries in different stake conferences.  In hopes that this message may help a few readers, I want to share with you what I taught our wonderful missionaries:

SOME FACTS

First, let me share three important facts that are the foundation of everything else we will discuss:

FACT #1:  The Holy Ghost is a Spirit. 

FACT #2:  We also have a Spirit.

FACT #3:  When the Holy Ghost talks to us, it is one spirit (the Holy Ghost) talking to another spirit (our Spirit). 

These facts seem straightforward and easy to understand.  However, the problem is that we have been in our earthly tabernacles for so long, that we have forgotten how spiritual beings communicate. So, in order to understand how it works, we need to understand it in a “PHYSICAL” way.  It is as simple as this.  When the Holy Ghost talks to us, his prompting (or whisper) pops into our head like a good idea.  I like to call it a “BING!” moment.  Of course, we know that God could appear to us or send an angel to talk to us, but, as we learn in Alma 37:6-7, it is usually by “small and simple means” that He works with us.  Why would He appear to us when He can accomplish the same thing by sending us a prompting to our minds (a “BING!”)? 

“BINGS” Are From God

The problem is that, all too often, when these ideas pop into our minds, we think the idea or thought that just popped into our heads is OUR OWN thought and, as a result, we don’t give as much credence to it.  We usually feel like, “Sure. That is a good idea.  I will do it later when I am done with this thing I am doing now.”  But, when we finish with that thing we are currently doing, we have forgotten about the “BING” and, as a result, we never act on it.  However, we don’t feel badly about not doing it, because we think it was just our thought. 

Too often, we have fallen into the trap of believing that, if it was from God, it would be a “burning in the bosom”.  That is not the case.  In fact, in D&C 8:2, the Lord says (emphasis added), “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost…”.  In D&C 11:13, He adds (emphasis added), “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind…”. We need to trust that those positive thoughts that pop into our minds (the “BINGS!”) are, indeed, whisperings (or promptings) from the Holy Ghost.  And, we need to act on them immediately!

In order to better illustrate this, let me give you an example that has probably happened to many of us:  You are watching a TV show (you could be doing anything…gardening, playing video games, ironing, etc…but I will use the TV show in this example), when all of a sudden — “BING!” — A thought pops into your head that you should call “so and so”.  It is important to note that “so and so” is a friend of yours that you haven’t seen in 10 years and haven’t even thought about in five years.  But, all of a sudden, you get this thought, out of the blue, during this TV show, that you should call him or her. What happens next? 

We Take Credit for Promptings From the Holy Ghost

When this thought comes, you think it is our own thought or idea.  You don’t recognize it as being from the Holy Ghost because you didn’t hear a voice speaking to you or feel a burning in the bosom.  You just had a thought pop into our head (“BING!”).  Because you believed that it was your own thought, you don’t worry too much about it.  You say to yourself, “Hmm.  That is a good idea.  I will do that, but I am into this TV show right now and I want to see how it ends. I will make the call after the show is over.”  Then, after the TV show ends, you forget all about that “BING!” and you never do try to call that person. 

Now, let’s think about this for a second…..if you haven’t seen this person in 10 years, nor thought about the person in 5 years, do you REALLY believe that YOU, on your own, would have thought just suddenly pop into your head that you needed to call this person right in the middle of a TV show that has nothing to do with this person?  OF COURSE NOT. Don’t be silly! The only reason that you had that “BING!” moment is because the Holy Ghost knew that “So and So” needed to hear from you right at that moment. And, had you known that it was a prompting of the Holy Ghost, you would have surely stopped what you were doing and made the phone call. 

The problem is that, since we, too often, make the mistake of “taking credit” for whisperings of the Spirit and believing that they are our own thoughts, we make the bigger mistake of NOT acting on that prompting.  We need to stop “taking credit” for things that the Holy Ghost is actually telling us to do!!  If we change the way we view these “BING!” moments — and accept them as promptings from the Holy Ghost — we will begin to play an important part in many miracles (and the answers to many prayers) in the lives of others.

Even Small “BINGS!” are Big Ones to Those We Help

It is important to note that, many times, by acting on these promptings (or the “BINGS” that come), it may seem like a small thing to us, but these small actions on our end will bring important blessings to the lives of those that the Lord is prompting us to help.  So, even if it doesn’t seem that important, ACT ON IT ANYWAY. Let me share a couple of “every day” experiences from the lives of my own siblings that will illustrate this point…because usually, these promptings are just every day thoughts.  We need to train ourselves to act on them. 

I am the 9^th out of 11 children and we had the good fortune of having a mother who was one of the best we have ever known at recognizing and following the promptings of the Spirit.  She taught us that, in her morning prayer, as she began every day, she would ask Heavenly Father to trust her enough to give her at least one prompting that day and she promised Him that, if He would give her one, she would stop whatever she was doing and act on it immediately.  She also taught us another important principle about this. She said that, many times, you won’t get to see how the story ends.  But, she taught us to NEVER doubt that it was a prompting from God, even if the person doesn’t respond well.  She reminded us that the other person still has his or her agency and, as a result, they may not respond well.  But, God still wanted it to be done. I have a few different stories to back up this point, but that may need to be shared in a future article. 

My younger sister, Jody Johnson, was looking for a photo that one of her daughters needed.  In looking for that photo, she came across a number of photos of her oldest daughter with her high school friends.  A few of those photos included a friend of her oldest daughter, who had passed away.  The thought came to Jody’s mind (“BING!”), “If I was the Mom of this girl, I would want every possible photo I could have of her.”  At first, she had the thought that she would, at some later point, go get real photos made.  Then, another “BING!” that told her she would probably never get around to doing that and she should just take her phone out, take pictures of the photos and text them to the Mom of this girl.  She did…and, immediately, she got a text back from the mother, saying how much it meant to her to get these photos. As it turned out, it was her daughter’s birthday that very day and she was just about to head over to the cemetery with flowers.  Jody was SO grateful that she acted on the simple thought that came to her mind to send them to that mom right away on what was a very special day.  Jody didn’t know it was that girl’s birthday.  But the Holy Ghost did.

Sometimes, the “BINGS!” May Be Physical

Sometimes, in order to answer the prayer of another, the Lord has to do more than give us a little “nudge” to have us help be the answer to that prayer.  One day, a number of years ago, my oldest brother Mike, was driving down the highway on a very hot California summer day.  He didn’t have air conditioning in his car so he had his windows down as he was driving.  All of a sudden, a big gust of wind caught the open map that was on his dashboard.  It flew up and stuck right on his face as he was driving (for you younger readers, a number of years ago, our maps were all foldable paper maps instead of ones on our phones.  I know, you are thinking that we had it pretty rough, right?). 

Mike was startled and as he reached for the map, he accidentally hit the gear shift and knocked the car out of gear and into “neutral”.  His car drifted over towards the median of the highway and came to a stop right behind another car that was also in the median.  He looked at the car ahead of him and saw a woman in the driver’s seat.  All of a sudden, he had a “BING!” moment. He felt strongly that this woman was in need of help.  When he shared the story with me, he said that he told the Lord, “Okay, you don’t have to hit me over the head with a baseball bat.”  Then a thought popped into his head that said, “Yes, I do.” And, then he confessed, “Okay, maybe you do!”

Mike got out of his car and walked up towards the driver’s window of the car in front of him.  Even though it was a blazing hot, summer day, the woman had all of the car windows rolled up.  He figured that she must be very afraid for her safety.  He could see that her head was bowed, as if in prayer.  He tapped on her window.  She cracked it just enough to communicate and Mike asked her if she needed any help.  She said that she had run out of gas.  Mike said that he would go get her some gas and be right back.  He got back into his car and drove to the next exit.  He found a gas station and bought a gallon of gas and took it back to her car and emptied it into her gas tank.  She immediately started her car and was on her way, no doubt with a newfound testimony that God answers personal prayers.

Even the Prophet Joseph Taught this Principle

When I taught my missionaries this principle (that these “BINGS!” are promptings from the Holy Ghost), many of them asked, “But, President…how will I know if it really is from the Holy Ghost or if it is just my thought?”  I replied, “It doesn’t matter.  Just do it!!”  They look confused.  Then, I told them, “Let’s think about it for a second…If it really was YOUR idea (instead of the Holy Ghost prompting you) to do this good thing and you do it, will God be mad at you?  OF COURSE NOT.  However—and think about this for a bit—if it really was a prompting of the Spirit and you do NOT do it because you think it was your idea, you risk losing God’s confidence in you.  I then gave them a “fact to live by” in our mission that I had heard years earlier from Dr. Joe Johnson (who was, at the time, serving as the stake president of the Sparks, Nevada Stake).  Our “fact” (and his quote) was the following: “A positive thought to say or do something is a prompting from God until proven otherwise!” 

Before any reader says that this is a “copout” answer because it doesn’t let us know for sure from whom the thought really came, let me back it up by a quote from the Prophet Joseph Smith (I believe that most who are reading this article would agree that he was an EXPERT in receiving revelation).  He said, “If you will listen to the first promptings, you will get it right nine times out of ten.” (Joseph Smith the Prophet by Truman G. Madsen, p. 103).  In other words, it is almost ALWAYS (at least 90% of the time, according to the Prophet Joseph Smith) the Holy Ghost who is prompting us to do this good thing.  President Spencer W. Kimball coined the term “Do It” probably at least 15 years before Nike used “Just Do It’ as their slogan.  But, this is the attitude that we need to have.  When a “BING!” comes to do or say something positive, we just need to DO IT.

If the “BING!” Doesn’t Make Sense, We Need to “JUST DO IT”, Anyway

Every one of us can think of times where we have had a “BING!” come to our mind, but because the prompting (even though it was a good prompting) didn’t make sense we didn’t act on it.  We need to train ourselves differently. We need to remember that Heavenly Father doesn’t need to have things “make sense”.  He already KNOWS what the right thing to do is, so when we get a prompting to do something good, EVEN IF IT SEEMS TO NOT MAKE ANY LOGICAL SENSE, we need to know that, just as the Prophet Joseph taught, it is more than likely from God.  We just need to act on it and trust in God. 

Another couple of stories from the lives of my family serve to illustrate this point: 

This first one happened to me.  I had worked for the same company for 25 years. Over the years, I had moved up the ranks of the company and had become the President of three different companies for the same NYSE parent company.  During my career, I also gave a lot of advice to friends, etc., who were thinking of changing jobs.  One of the things I would always counsel them was that they shouldn’t leave a job until they have another one waiting for them.  For some reason, after 25 years of being at the same place, I had a strong impression (“BING!”)  that I needed to leave my company (even though I had no other job in the wings).  I told my wife, Annette, and she had the same feeling.  But, it didn’t make sense.  So, we fasted and prayed about it.  We STILL felt that it was what we were supposed to do.  The CEO of our parent company had me sign a non-compete / non-recruit agreement, which made it even more challenging for me as I began looking for something new. 

Within a few months, I was opening up a brand new company in a totally different industry.  That company was only a few months old when my wife and I were called to serve as Mission President and companion in São Paulo, Brazil.  That was when things FINALLY began to make sense.  Had I stayed at the previous company, I would have had no income for our family for those three years in Brazil.  However, because I had started a new company of my own (with a minority partner), I was able to build up equity for our family during those three years that we were in Brazil, serving our Church.  At the time, it made no sense at all, but the Lord knew what He was doing. We just needed to trust in the promptings we were given and follow them.  By doing so, things worked out in a wonderful way for us. 

What if the Prompting is to Do Something That is Super Awkward?

My youngest sister, Mindy Carter, also has had many experiences with acting on promptings that don’t make sense – and, even on acting on promptings that can seem a little bit awkward.  Fortunately for those whose lives she has blessed, Mindy isn’t afraid of “awkward”!

While Mindy’s daughter, Cassie, was on a mission, the bishop of the ward where Cassie was serving felt impressed (“BING!”) to contact a single woman in the ward who had been less active for several years and ask her if she would consider having the sister missionaries live with her.  The woman quickly gave him a resounding, “NO.” The bishop asked her to go home and pray about it, which she did. To her own surprise, she felt like it was the right thing to do.  She ended up calling the bishop to accept, even though she still had reservations about it.  When Cassie arrived at the woman’s house, they had a wonderful first visit. The good sister took an instant liking to Sister Carter and her companion.      

Over the weeks that Cassie lived there, Cassie would often leave Post-it notes around the house for her to find (in the microwave, on the fridge, etc.), telling this sweet woman how much she loved and appreciated her. They had many conversations that ranged from meaningful to silly, and they even had private jokes together. Basically, they became dear friends. One day, a few weeks after Cassie had been transferred to another area, this woman popped into Mindy’s mind (“BING!”) with the thought that she should call her.  Mindy thought, “That’s silly!  I have never even spoken to this woman before.  And now, my daughter doesn’t even live with her.  It makes no sense to call her.  I don’t have her phone number, and I don’t even know her last name to try and look it up–I couldn’t even call her if I wanted to.” 

But, then, after giving herself all of the reasons NOT to call, the thought came again (“BING!”).  This time, though, along with the thought to call her, Mindy got a “reminder” that this woman had once texted a picture of Sister Carter to Mindy, back when Cassie was living with her.  With that extra thought, Mindy finally talked herself into placing this fairly strange, out-of-the-blue phone call.  She remembers thinking, “I don’t even have any idea of what to say when she answers the phone, but here goes…”.  The woman answered the phone and Mindy said, “Hi. You don’t know me, but I’m Sister Carter’s mom.” Mindy started to tell her that she just wanted to call and thank her again for being so good to her daughter while she stayed with her.  However, before Mindy could get all of that out, the woman broke into tears. 

Eventually, after she regained her composure enough to talk, she told Mindy that she had been so sad ever since Cassie was transferred. She went so far as to say, “I miss her so much. You just don’t know.” Mindy, of course, resisted the urge to tell her that she was pretty sure she had a very good idea of how she felt about missing her daughter!  This good woman then explained that she didn’t feel the same connection with the new sisters that she had enjoyed when Cassie and her companion lived there.  She missed that connection, which left her feeling lonely and uncomfortable in her own home. She told Mindy that, as she was speaking with her on the phone right then, she was sitting in her car in a parking lot because she didn’t even have the emotional strength to go home.

She went on to say that right before Mindy had called her, she was PLEADING with her Heavenly Father, telling Him how sad and lonely she felt and asking Him if He even knew her or cared about her. The last thing she said to her Heavenly Father before her phone rang was, “Please just let me know that you care!”  

Because Mindy had the courage to act on a very awkward prompting, she was able to be the immediate answer to prayer for this sweet woman.  We need to remember that this is how our Heavenly Father works.  Since He knows what needs to be done, He has no need to worry about whether something makes sense or seems awkward.

President Nelson Teaches How to Grow into the Principle of Revelation

Another important thing to note is that, every time we act on these “BINGS” that come to us, we are doing something else, as well.  I believe that, with each time we act on a prompting, we are tuning in the reception on our “Celestial Two Way Radio” with God.  In other words, each time we do it, the next time, it will be easier to recognize it. And, as we continue to act on them, it will just get easier and easier (the promptings will be more and more clear and distinct for us).  President Nelson (one who knows quite a bit about revelation) has taught this to us.

In the first General Conference of the Church after President Russell M. Nelson was set apart as the 17^th President of our Church (April 2018), he gave the concluding talk of the Sunday Morning session.  His talk was titled, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives”.  In this talk, he said (emphasis added), “Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses – yes, the very longings of your heart.  And then listen!  Write the thoughts that come to your mind.  Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will ‘grow into the principle of revelation’.”  In this message, our prophet tells us that thoughts (promptings – or “BINGS”) will come to our mind.  And, he also teaches us that, by acting on them, we are growing in the process of revelation (tuning in our “Celestial Two-Way Radio” with God). 

Beware of the Promptings of the Adversary

While learning to act on these positive thoughts will really change us in many ways, it is important to remember that the adversary is also a Spirit.  And, since he is, he communicates with us in the same way that the Holy Ghost does.  In my next article, we will discuss how to recognize the promptings of the adversary, so we can much more easily avoid his promptings.  It is CRITICAL that we understand his tactics, so we can stop him from having as much success as he has been having in our lives.

Until then, have fun with your “BING” moments! You will love being a part of the miracles in the lives of others!