Week one with Elder Sparks has been a blast. We have had some great lessons and many great
miracles. One example came Tuesday
night. We were invited by a group of
young men over to their house for pizza and gospel discussion. They (politely and with sincere curiosity)
drilled us with questions about LDS theology, and we (calmly and kindly)
explained eternal truths out of the scriptures.
The Spirit was there in power.
They felt something. Two interns
at a community church, one full time employee of the same church, and one young
man graduating this spring with a degree in Bible studies felt the power of
restored truth as we taught them out of their own Bibles of things that they
had never even considered to be possible, let alone true.
That isn't even the half of it. It has been a miraculous week.
We have had some investigators who have started to
struggle. They understand the doctrines
of the church intellectually, but spiritually they do not have a growing
conversion. Nephi, in the Book of
Mormon, diagnosis a crowd he is preaching to with this same symptom in 2 Nephi
chapter 32. In verse 7 Nephi says:
And now I, Nephi, cannot say more [he just finished teaching
about the doctrine of Christ, the need for faith unto repentance, unto
baptism]; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance [Nephi can't teach anymore!], and
I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the
ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge,
nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even
as plain as word can be.
Nephi cannot teach more because the people will not
spiritually receive more. In verse 8 he
teaches how we receive spiritually in teaching settings, and invites the people
to do as he directs, or really, as the Holy Spirit directs:
And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder
still in your hearts [Like he just said, they will not understand great
knowledge]; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if
ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know
that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth
him that he must not pray.
What does he say that all people must do to gain spiritual
knowledge? They must pray about it. Without prayer personal scripture study or
group discussion on gospel topics will never yield the fruit of conversion.
There are some things that we cannot understand just by thinking deeply on
them. The gospel of Jesus Christ can
only be known and understood through personal revelation in response to
personal prayer. We cannot grasp these
truths alone. Pray about them.
I have full confidence that all who pray in confidence to
God will receive from God. He hears our
prayers, and He will answer them to the extent that our faith, humility, and
real intent allow. Live the gospel, pray
about the gospel, and you will come to know gospel. That is my prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
With love,
Elder Jared Cummings
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