General Conference and Personal Revelation

As general conference approaches (on September 24 and October 1-2), I would like to share a few thoughts regarding things we can do to prepare. In doing so, we can make of general conference the blessing intended by the Lord.

General Conference - A Time for Personal Revelation

When we think of general conference, most of us look forward to what we will be taught by the First Presidency, other General Authorities and General Officers of the Church. Indeed, their instruction is inspiring and vital to our well-being in a world of rapidly declining moral values. However, perhaps we often don’t put enough emphasis on the fact that general conference can be a time of personal revelation--a time when impressions can come that are independent of what is spoken from the pulpit.

Prepare to Learn from the Spirit

I would like to paraphrase something spoken by President Boyd K. Packer, adapting it to general conference: “What we gain from [general conference] will depend to a large degree on what we take to [general conference] in the way of humility and reverence and a desire to learn. If we are teachable, we will be taught by the Spirit in [general conference]” (“Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple," 10, emphasis added).

As we prepare for general conference in the spirit of President Packer’s counsel, impressions will come--especially if we listen with questions to which we need answers. The answers will come in the the Lord’s way and timing.

As it says on the general conference page of lds.org, “Conference provides an opportunity to receive personal revelation as living prophets give counsel and direction. Asking questions can help you prepare for conference, increasing personal revelation while you watch” (emphasis added).

“As you prepare for general conference, I invite you to ponder questions you need to have answered. There are messages in each general conference given as a gift and a blessing from heaven specifically for our personal life situations” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, emphasis added).

Be Prepared to Take Notes and Take Action

Have something handy to write on when impressions come. If we don’t record impressions given to us by the Spirit and treat them with the thoughtful consideration and action that they deserve, the Lord may be reluctant to give us more impressions. On the other hand if we record, ponder and act on impressions, the Lord will see that he can trust us with more of them.

I love general conference and pray that all of us will prepare and partake of general conference to our great blessing.

Repentance with Replacement

This morning a friend shared a scripture that had touched him. It is found in Romans 12:21: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” It is a scripture that has also touched me. A few years ago I highlighted this scripture on the LDS Gospel Library app and added the following note, which supports and strengthens this principle.

“Do not try merely to discard a bad habit or a bad thought. Replace it. When you try to eliminate a bad habit, if the spot where it used to be is left open it will sneak back and crawl again into that empty space. It grew there; it will struggle to stay there. When you discard it, fill up the spot where it was. Replace it with something good. Replace it with unselfish thoughts, with unselfish acts. Then, if an evil habit or addiction tries to return, it will have to fight for attention. Sometimes it may win. Bad thoughts often have to be evicted a hundred times, or a thousand. But if they have to be evicted ten thousand times, never surrender to them. You are in charge of you. I repeat, it is very, very difficult to eliminate a bad habit just by trying to discard it. Replace it. Read in Matthew, chapter 12, verses 43 to 45, the parable of the empty house. There is a message in it for you” (Boyd K. Packer, That All May Be Edified (1982), 196).

We find some examples of this principle in the Book of Mormon.

In 3 Nephi 5:3, “[the Nephites] did forsake all their sins, and their abominations, and their whoredoms, and did serve God with all diligence day and night.” In other words the Nephites replaced their sins with service to God.

Another example is found in Moroni 7:45: “Charity . . . rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth.”

Lehi provides yet another example. In experiencing the vision of the tree of life, Lehi didn't notice something that Nephi later noticed when receiving the same vision. Subsequently, Nephi shared the following observation: "The water which my father saw was filthiness; and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water" (1 Nephi 15:27). Lehi didn't just remove from his mind a vision of filthiness. He filled his mid with "other things", the things of righteousness. This is an important lesson for all of us.

As we repent of our sins and replace them by “treasur[ing] up the words of life” (D&C 84:85) and “let[ting] virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly” (D&C 121:45) and “look[ing] unto [Jesus] in every thought” (D&C 6:36) and other worthy actions, we will find that repentance with replacement is one of the keys to success in enduring faithfully to the end. That we may do so with greater and greater consistency with the passage of time, is my humble prayer for each of us.

"The Truth Shall Make You Free"

Among the many reasons that we should read the scriptures daily is because in the scriptures we find the truths of eternity. We have been sent to earth to "obtain a body and gain earthly experience, to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize [our] destiny as . . . heir[s] of eternal life" (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). Without eternal truth to guide our footsteps in this life, we will not be armed to make the correct choices that will help us gain the kind of experience that will qualify us for eternal life.

During His earthly ministry, the Savior gave the following counsel to His followers:

 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:31-32)

The challenge of mortality is to "continue in [His] word." Of course, we won't be able to so continue unless we know His word and follow it. As we go to the scriptures daily, to learn and live the truths therein, we are incrementally strengthened against the temptations that would otherwise prevent us from continuing in God's word. I know that this is true, because I have experienced it myself and have observed it in the lives of others.

Through this simple practice of prayerfully going to the scriptures daily and courageously and consistently applying them in our lives, we will become ever more "firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of God" (1 Nephi 2:10). That is what it means to continue in His word and to increasingly know the truth, which will make us free from false doctrine that would lead us away from the divine destiny that God has prepared for each of us.

Joseph Smith provided this supportive insight: "Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.  But we cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we . . . keep those we have already received" (Smith, Joseph, Jr., TPJS, 255-56).

Let us read and follow the scriptures daily, so that we can lay claim to the great blessings of eternity.