On Spiritual Gifts---A Talk

Here's a talk I gave a couple years ago. I just stumbled on it cleaning the computer and was surprised how insightful I can sometimes be (Carolyn must have wrote it for me):

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I. Introduction
Let me start with my mea culpa. I am not a reverent person. I know this takes many of you by surprise. My dulcet tones and softspokenness are legendary. But the reality is that I have the attention span of a squirrel who got into your neighbor’s coffee rinds. I don’t sit still during church or work or home, I’m constantly inattentive (ask my wife) and when I do pay attention I too often am over-analyzing the message being delivered.

My inattentiveness is coupled with a great dislike of anything that makes me uncomfortable. People crying for example, I don’t know how to react to that, I think you should only cry at funerals and if you win a sporting event. Unfortunately sometimes these two great flaws in my personality come together at church where I myself drifting off into the nether world of my imagination only to be brought back to earth by hearing someone tell of a dream, vision, or other spiritual experience.

Devoid of the context of the experience I find myself lost and a bit uncomfortable because I have forgotten the greatest advice the Lord has given us regarding our spiritual experiences. That we should

Remember that that which cometh from above is sacred, and must be spoken with care, and by constraint of the Spirit; and in this there is no condemnation, and ye receive the Spirit through prayer; wherefore, without this there remaineth condemnation. (D&C 63:64)

With the faults in my personality I find I often do not know how to react to stories of great spiritual experiences and of spiritual gifts being received. Worse and I think this is a failing for many of us, I don’t always know how to share my own experiences and so I keep my experiences, and the spiritual gifts the Lord has given me close to my chest.

Yet they are there for each of us who receives the gospel and the redeeming power of the atonement into our life. Said Orson Pratt of the matter:

Whenever the Holy Ghost takes up its residence in a person, it not only cleanses, sanctifies, and purifies him, in proportion as he yields himself to its influence, but also imparts to him some gift, intended for the benefit of himself and others. No one who has been born of the Spirit, and who remains sufficiently faithful, is left destitute of a spiritual gift. (Orson Pratt, Masterful Discourses, 539)

If we were to parse this statement there are layers of insight we could glean, but let’s focus on these words regarding the effect of the Holy Ghost on us “in proportion as he yields himself to its influence…imparts to him some gift…for the benefit of himself and others.”

II. Testimony as Revelation
Now obviously that proportion must begin with faith. Most of us know Alma 32 and the idea of faith as a seed growing within us. I think it’s interesting that the story of King Lamoni’s father shows us that faith starts with a desire, but that’s another talk entirely.

Yet once faith has grown within us, and we have followed the counsel to read the scriptures, and we have knelt in humble prayer, the Lord has promised us that he will confirm the truth unto us by the gift of the Holy Ghost. Millions have done this and the truth has been manifest to them. The way iin which the Lord speaks to them, it is important to note, differs greatly from person to person. Yet how many of us appreciate this almost ineffable experience (though we don’t use that term in the church) for what it really is.

No man can be saved unless and until he receives revelation. Revelation is the rock foundation upon which true religion and personal salvation rest…This revelation is called a testimony of the gospel. But a testimony is only the beginning of revelation. The recipient has just begun to drink at the fountain of revealed truth. He has but opened the door to an immeasurably great storehouse of spiritual knowledge. (Bruce R. McConkie, The Rock of Salvation, October 1969)

That moment of insight when we know the truthfulness of the gospel, the Book of Mormon, and the prophets of God is revelation. It is the first of the spiritual gifts given to men and women everywhere. And as Bruce R. McConkie states, it is but the opening of the door to an immeasurably great storehouse.

Indeed the scriptures are rife with examples of these spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12, Moroni 10, D & C 46, and A of F 7, all contain lists of gifts available to those who are baptized and yield themselves to the influence of the Holy Ghost. What’s included in these lists? Well you all know the biggies: tongues, prophecy, revelations, visions, dreams, healing, mighty miracles, etc. these and many more are given to the Saints as the scripture says

9… for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they may consume it upon their lusts.
10 And again, verily I say unto you, I would that ye should always remember, and always retain in your minds what those gifts are, that are given unto the church.
11 For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.
12 To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.

Paul echoed this sentiment in his chapter on Spritual Gifts when he stated:

12 For as the body [meaning the church] is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.

Each of us has gifts given to us at baptism some enumerated in our patriarchal blessings some that we come to know overtime in our lives. Personally I count my lack of fear in giving talks as one of mine with which the Lord blessed me. But holding onto our gifts without using them for the benefit of others robs us of many blessings. As one commentator put it:

The genius of this system of divine distribution of gifts is that all of us are in a position to be instructed, blessed, and edified by others. None of us can enjoy a fullness of the outpourings of the Spirit in isolation of the body of the Saints. (McConkie, Millet, The Holy Ghost, 54)

III. Accessing the Power of Heaven
Now let’s be frank, sometimes the scriptural accounts of the manifestations of spiritual gifts or even the accounts of Joseph in the early days of the Church seem incredible and outside our reach. LeGrand Richards mentioned this in a talk many years ago.

A statement reached us…a few days ago from one of our educators who…made this statement: “I don’t know whether it would be proper for us to teach our young people to read Leaves from My Journal, by Wilford Woodruff, for fear they might expect similar spiritual experiences, and be disappointed.”

I wonder if there are really very many Latter-day Saints who would be afraid to promise unto the youth of Zion the spiritual gifts and blessings that God, the Eternal Father Himself, has promised.

We cannot offer our young people the Bible as the word of God, or the standard Church works, and believe only a small portion of that which is written therein.

You brethren do not need to be afraid to promise your children or the youth of Zion that the blessings and gifts of the Holy Ghost will be theirs if they will live for them. You do not have to fulfill these promises. God, the Eternal Father, who made them, will fulfill them. (LeGrand Richards, The Promise unto the Children October 1943)

What a spectacular promise and it is all dependent upon us living for them. Like so many other things in the gospel, the gifts of the Spirit depend on the faithfulness of the one receiving. Does this mean simple and exact obedience to the commandments should qualify us for any and all spiritual gifts? I don’t think so. Listen to what Orson Pratt said on the matter.

I have thought the reason why we have not enjoyed these gifts more fully is, because we have not sought for them as diligently as we ought. I speak for one, I have not sought as diligently as I might have done…I have been blessed with some revelations and prophecies, and with dreams of things that have come to pass; but as to seeing things as a seer, and beholding heavenly things in open vision, I have not attained to these things. And who is to blame for this? Not the Lord; not brother Joseph—they are not to blame. And so it is with the promises made to you in your confirmations and endowments, and by the patriarchs, in your patriarchal blessings; we do not live up to our privileges as saints of God and elders of Israel; for though we receive many blessings that are promised to us, we do not receive them in their fullness, because we do not seek for them as diligently and faithfully as we should. (Orson Pratt, A Church of Order, May 1878)

We should seek for these blessings, especially those to which we have already been promised in our temples and our patriarchal blessings. Further as we live the covenants we have made to consecrate ourselves and our talents and gifts to the Church and kingdom we will bring blessings of our spiritual gifts to those who might not have the same. The D&C makes quite clear how important this service and interaction is in the first two gifts it lists in section 46.

13 To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world.
14 To others it is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful.

Without the first the second would be lost in this case.

IV. Culmination of gifts
In consort with one another in the body of the church and in the lives of all the Saints, the gifts of the spirit can and should have a perfecting effect. With them, those that heal can heal, those that can teach the word of knowledge with power can do so, those that are blessed with a listening heart can listen and help bare the burdens of their fellow saints.

Ultimately all gifts of the spirit lead to that day when the veil is burst and our salvation is assured, by revelation and that we shall as Bruce R. McConkie says “have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend us or to appear to us from time to time, and until even he will manifest the Father unto us.”

He continued with this statement:

I know man can commune with his Maker, can petition the throne of grace and receive answers to his prayers because I have done so.

I know man can receive revelations, because I have received them. God has spoken to me, not for the guidance of the Church, not for your benefit, but for mine. The same thing has or can or should happen in the life of every member of his kingdom. (Bruce R. McConkie, The Rock of Salvation, October 1969)

This revelation, beginning with testimony, which he speaks of, should happen to every member of the Church. I know it’s happened to me, and it can happen to all of us. We just need to be more direct. We need to ask not just for nebulous help but specific blessings. We need to recognize the diversity of spiritual gifts that have already been granted us, and we need to follow the example the Savior gave us in referring to the light of the gospel. Like that light, we should not put the light of the gifts which we have been given under a bushel, but use it to illuminate the lives of our fellow saints.

For me, my gifts are not of visions and dreams, but the Lord has blessed me richly with a knowledge of the gospel and has allowed me to cull insights from places that many wouldn’t think to look. But as great as that blessing is in my life, it is the testimony based on revelation that succors me. It is those moments of pure insight brought by the Holy Ghost which leads me (and led me here). And it is the promise of section 93:1 that if I am faithful in all these things, I may see His face and know that He is, which drives me to my ultimate goal of exaltation.