Elder Gary E. Stevenson (Oct. '23): "Promptings of the Spirit"

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 We have received excellent counsel over the last few years (longer probably but it feels like there has been a renewed emphasis lately) about the importance of having and heeding the Holy Ghost.  Elder Stevenson's talk is a clear declaration of some important principles about this issue.  There are dozens of ways to approach this talk that could all be powerful.  The activity I suggest here focuses on considering the exact words of Elder Stevenson and how they might apply to the individual lives of our class members.  As such I see this coming at the end of the lesson, although there might be other ways to use it.  

The Activity:

  1. Make sure that every class member has access to a copy of the talk either digitally or physically.
  2. Ask the class members to silently consider for a moment if they would like to feel the Spirit more often and/or more clearly than they currently do.
  3. Invite them to take a minute and consider what you have discussed today in class.
  4. Invite them to turn and share a couple of things that they found especially impactful with a neighbor.
  5. Read par. 4-5 "Returning to our . . . requires spiritual exercise." and par. 35 "Your ability to . . . diligent, patient effort."
  6. Ask the class members to consider what they could do in the next day or next week that would help them to feel the Spirit more (clearly).
  7. After a moment, invite them to take our their phones and create a note and/or an alarm to help them remember to do this.
  8. Bear testimony that they will be rewarded for following up on this goal.

Using the Activity:

It is a vital part of our spiritual growth to set goals when we are under the influence of the Spirit and then to act on those goals.  Unfortunately, we often leave this step out of our lessons.  When we teach with the Spirit, we should always issue an invitation accompanied by a testimony.  We don't do that enough.  So, this activity is one that could easily be modified for any lesson that we teach.  It feels especially important with this talk, though, given the renewed focus that I spoke about in the introduction above.  

Going further, we (or is it just I again?) often set goals in those moments but then forget about them in the busy-ness of daily life.  That is where step 7 comes in.  Most people have their phones with them all the time.  This is a power that we can use for good in this case.  Setting an alarm to go off each day to, for example, remind us to consider God's hand in our lives that day (which my stake president recently challenged us to do) is a good way to not lose sight of that goal.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  Please drop me a note and let me know how these ideas are working for you.  God bless.

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