Tag Archives: Step-11

Receiving Revelation for Our Lives

Living in Recovery, Working the Program, , , ,

“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.” (President Russell M. Nelson, Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives, Ensign, May 2018, p. 95)

I love step-by step approaches to improving my life. In this talk, Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offers a simple, straightforward approach to receiving personal revelation for our lives. He did not present it as a set of defined steps, but that is how they feel to me.

1. Pray

What should we pray about?  Our concerns, our fears, our weaknesses, and the longings of our hearts. How do we pray? In the name of Jesus Christ.

When we pray with a true understanding of the Lord’s ability and willingness to ease our burdens and help us come unto and become like Him; if we are willing to trust Him, He can deliver us. What does He deliver us from? From bondage to our concerns, our fears, our weaknesses and shortcomings. When we take them out of the dark hiding places of our hearts and hold them up to His light, they lose their power to keep us from achieving our full potential in this life, with His help.

2. And then listen!

What a concept! This took me many years to learn for myself. I thought I was finished with my prayer when I said “Amen.” I would get up from my knees and go about my life wondering when and how I would ever hear answers to my prayers.

3. Write the thoughts…Record your feelings

The thoughts and feelings that come to us when we listen after praying can be personal revelation for our lives. When I first started listening for, and receiving answers a disconcerting pattern emerged. After a few hours I could remember that I had received an answer to my prayer, but I couldn’t remember what I had heard! I started writing – at first just the answers and then the entire prayer including the answers. My practice of written prayer has enhanced my personal relationship with the Savior so much that when I cannot write, I feel cheated.

4. Follow through with actions

Satan discourages us from seeking revelation for our lives.This is the crux or heart of the matter. It is what I still struggle with and work on daily. Almost every prayer I write includes a plea for help with recognizing and acting upon the promptings I receive that day. Activities and distractions frequently push down the thoughts and promptings under a load of urgent but often less important things. When Satan cannot stop me from praying and receiving guidance, he settles for distracting me from acting on it. I am reminded of the talk, “Good, Better, Best” given by President Dallin H. Oaks in October 2007 General Conference. It is always best to follow the personal revelation I receive from the Lord each day.

  • What are you willing to do today to enhance your ability to receive personal revelation?
  • How can you better act upon the revelation you receive?

Please share your thoughts about this post by commenting below.

Related Posts: Step 11: Receiving Meaningful Personal Revelation, Six Points to Discern the Lord’s Will, Open Your Arms to Receive His Blessings, If Prayers are Conversations with God, Why Am I Doing All the Talking?, Tools: Quality Prayer

How is Personal Revelation Like Google Maps?

Living in Recovery, Metaphor, ,

“You have begun to understand and appreciate your need for the Savior, Jesus Christ, and His role in your life and treasure the Light of Christ.” (A Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing, p 65, emphasis added).

In my ARP Guide I have underlined the words “His role” and written “power source” in the margin. I have a previous post about how Christ is my powersource. In a recent meeting on Step 11 (Personal Revelation), the words “power source” jumped out at me. A picture of an electric car popped into my head.

Electric carI saw myself as a sleek little electric car, maneuvering through the highways and byways of life. My battery was being wirelessly recharged by the Savior and His Atonement as I motored down the road. At first I thought perhaps I was a driverless car, and the Holy Ghost was the computer program that was driving.

Upon further thought, I realized I am the driver because I have agency. The Holy Ghost is my spiritual Google Maps. I always turn it on, even when I know where I am going. It finds me the fastest route and warns me of danger. When I come upon unexpected traffic, instead of getting off the road and trying to find a shorter way through the mists of darkness, I follow the promptings of the nice Google Maps lady. She has already considered the alternatives and knows what will be best for me. When she kindly tells me to “make the next legal u-turn” I know I have made a mistake. I follow her directions to get back on the right path.

In my life, I want to be aware of and willing to listening to the direction of the Holy Ghost. He helps me choose the best path to my temporal and eternal destinations. He helps me avoid pitfalls and problems and traffic jams along the way. Just like Google Maps, He will also suggest stops to make, places (or people) to visit, and activities that will enhance my journey. He corrects me when I get lost and tells me how to get back on the right path.

I pray every day for personal revelation. I ask for the Lord’s help to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost and carry them out valiantly. It is the best way I know to receive the righteous desires of my heart—peace and serenity in this life and in eternity. By doing this I ensure that my sleek little car and its fully charged batteries will stay on the right road and arrive safely.

  • How do you consciously seek personal revelation in your life?
  • Do you act upon the counsel of the Holy Ghost when you recognize it?
  • What will you do today to improve your ability to recognize and act upon personal revelation?

Please share your thoughts about this post by commenting below.

Related Posts: Step 11: Receiving Meaningful Personal Revelation, Six Points to Discern the Lord’s Will

If Prayers are Conversations with God, Why Am I Doing All the Talking?

Living in Recovery, , , , , ,

If prayers are conversations with God, why am I doing all the talking?For many years after I joined the church my morning and evening prayers were 90% talking and 10% listening, if that. They went something like this:

  1. Kneel at the side of the bed or couch.
  2. Open by addressing God, usually as “Heavenly Father.”
  3. Thank Him for what I am grateful for.
  4. Tell Him what I want to tell Him.
  5. Ask Him what I want to ask Him.
  6. Request what I want Him to do for me or a loved one.
  7. Close in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
  8. Get up and get on with my day, or into my bed.

I would do an abbreviated form of this during the day, if needed, usually one or more of steps 3 – 6.

As I heard more about getting “answers to prayers,” I started trying to hear or look for answers in my scripture reading, church meetings, and conference talks. I also hoped that somehow I would “hear” in my mind, direct answers.

At some point I realized that if I wanted to hear answers, it might make sense to listen for them(!), and I began waiting momentarily, after I said “amen,” to see if I could hear anything. When I actually did begin hearing the Lord answer my prayers, I began writing them, so that I could remember what He told me. I have written about this much more extensively in other posts.

Step Prayers

I want to suggest another kind of prayer, based on the 12 steps. These are prayers of humility that may or may not take the place of “normal” prayers. They help me see myself in my proper relationship to God, and help me internalize the principles of recovery. I take steps 1, 2, 3, 7, and 11 in these prayers. Then I just listen. God does most of the talking; I do most of the listening. Here is one example of what this might sound like:

Dearest Heavenly Father, I know that I, of myself, am powerless. Without you I am nothing. I know that you can and will manage my life effectively and help me to realize my full potential, if I let you. I turn my will and my life over to you today. Please remove my weaknesses and shortcomings if it is your will, and give me a new heart. Please help me to recognize and carry out your will in each moment. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

And then… I listen.

It takes less than a minute to say prayers like this, so I have plenty of time to listen. Instead of 90% talking and 10% listening, these prayers are 10% talking and 90% listening. Sometimes it just feels like the right way to connect with God.

  • Can you see steps 1, 2, 3, 7, and 11 in my sample prayer?
  • What percentage of your prayer time is spent talking as compared to listening?
  • What are you willing to do today to improve your conscious contact with God?

Please share your thoughts about this post by commenting below.

Related Posts: Prayer, Meditation and Pondering, Tools: Quality Prayer

 

 

Step 11: Receiving Meaningful Personal Revelation

Working the Program, , ,

Step 11: Personal RevelationAs  members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are taught how to receive personal revelation from childhood. Adult converts are taught by the missionaries how to seek it before they are baptized.  From the pulpit in Church and in General Conference we are exhorted to seek the counsel of the Lord and to try to discern His will through prayer and meditation. We know that by doing the other basics: scripture study, attending Church meetings, keeping the Word of Wisdom, holding Family Home Evening, writing in our journals, we prepare ourselves to receive personal revelation. None of these things require working the 12 Steps.

Step 11: Seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord’s will and to have the power to carry it out.

Why is Personal Revelation Part of Recovery?

  • Why is personal revelation included in the Addiction Recovery program if we already learn about it as a part of the gospel?
  • What is different about the practice of receiving personal revelation as part of working the Steps?
  • How do steps 1-10 prepare us to receive personal revelation in a deeper way?

We Develop Faith by Working Steps 1-3

Step 1: Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.
Step 2: Come to believe that the power of God can restore you to complete spiritual health.
Step 3: Decide to turn your will and your life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Steps 1 through 3 (see “I Can’t, He Can, I’ll Let Him”) are a “simple” to follow breakdown of the anatomy of faith. When I (1) admit that I cannot do what needs to be done by my own power and strength, (2) acknowledge that God has all power and can, in fact, make it happen, and (3) make a decision to allow God to team up with me and help me on my journey through life, I am practicing faith in Him. These are not simple statements that I just have to read and accept. No, not at all. Working these steps takes me through serious introspection and effort. This work, and it is hard spiritual work, takes me from a place of surface acknowledgment of the principle of faith, to deep down, in my heart, “wrestling with God” to receive the gift of faith.

We Repent by Working Steps 4 through 10

Step 4: Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself.
Step 5: Admit to yourself, to your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, to proper priesthood authority, and to another person the exact nature of your wrongs.
Step 6: Become entirely ready to have God remove all your character weaknesses.
Step 7: Humbly ask Heavenly Father to remove your shortcomings.
Step 8: Make a written list of all persons you have harmed and become willing to make
restitution to them.
Step 9: Wherever possible, make direct restitution to all persons you have harmed.
Step 10: Continue to take personal inventory, and when you are wrong promptly admit it.

Steps 4 through 10 are an incredible step by step breakdown of the repentance process by which we can receive the healing power of the Atonement. I am not going to take the time to go through each of these steps in depth in this post, as I have done so previously. Taken together, Steps 4 through 10 are the most comprehensive and succinct, yet simple, explanation of what a person needs to do to completely repent of all their shortcomings and weaknesses I have ever seen. When we work them deeply and without reservation, they help us achieve a humble state of repentance. They bring us into an intimate relationship with and mindful dependence upon the Lord from moment to moment. Which brings me to the point:

We Receive Personal Revelation Best in a State of Humility and Repentance

Earlier in this post I asked a few questions about why personal revelation is included in the 12 Steps. Here are my answers. By working Steps 1-10, we develop a deeper level of faith and a state of humility. Through sincere repentance and the grace of the Lord, we receive a new and humble heart. The old, proud and stony heart has been rooted out of our breasts.

With this broken heart and contrite spirit, we are prepared to receive personal revelation almost as if we were conversing with God, face-to-face. Receiving personal revelation is part of God’s plan for us. He wants us to receive it. There are those who somehow intuitively know how to turn to Him in this way without working the Steps. I am not one of them. It was working Steps 1-10 that truly prepared me to receive communication from God. I am grateful for the 12 Steps in my life. I am grateful for my addiction and the things that brought me to the ARP program. The price I had to pay to get here was well worth the reward: an intimate relationship with my Savior that is characterized by regular and meaningful personal revelation.

  • Are you satisfied with the quantity and quality of personal revelation in your life?
  • What do you think it would take for you to improve in this area?
  • What are you willing to do today to make progress?

Please share your thoughts about this post by commenting below.

Related Posts: Grateful for My Addiction! Are You Kidding Me?, Six Points to Discern the Lord’s Will,

Tuning In

Six Points to Discern the Lord’s Will

Working the Program,

Richard G Scott quote re discerning the Lord's will.In this quote, Elder Scott expressed in elegant simplicity what it looks like to live in Step 11: “Seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord’s will and to have the power to carry it out.” Elder Scott points out that our success in doing this is contingent upon our spiritual preparation to receive two important blessings: knowledge of the Lord’s will for us and the power and willingness to carry it out. In this post I am focusing on the first, discerning the Lord’s will.

The Lord will not compel us to do what would be best for us. That was Satan’s plan. He rarely hits us over the head with personal revelation, either. The Lord’s plan is to allow us to choose our attitudes, work ethic, and activity level. He will grant unto us those things we request which are in harmony with His will, if we do the work necessary to receive them. Two of Elder Scott’s conference talks (“How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for Your Personal Life” and “To Acquire Spiritual Guidance“) give us a glimpse of the importance of personal revelation to him and how he went about receiving knowledge of the Lord’s will for him.

What does it take to be spiritually prepared to receive this personal revelation? I think it takes work! Here are six things that I have found to be personally helpful to me as I strive to “live to be worthy to know the will of the Lord and to live to have, with his help, the capacity and courage to carry out that will—and to desire nothing else,” as Elder Scott says.

  1. I have to humble myself and become willing to receive knowledge of the Lord’s will even when it is not what I was hoping for.
  2. I have to spend time in the scriptures, not necessarily to find answers there, but to learn to recognize the voice of the Lord, and to quiet my mind and prepare myself to be able to hear with spiritual ears the message the Lord has for me.
  3. Working my own program – reading the ARP Guide and other 12-Step books and implementing in my life the way of living described there – clears away many stumbling blocks and impediments to receiving knowledge of the Lord’s will.
  4. Spending time talking to others who are living in a state of recovery helps me feel more able to receive knowledge of the Lord’s will, both directly from Him, and in the words and examples of those I talk to.
  5. Writing is, for me, one of the most effective and helpful tools for receiving personal revelation. (See Tools: Quality Prayer.)
  6. Once I receive knowledge of the Lord’s will for me I must act upon it.

I have found that if I do not act upon my promptings quickly, the moment can pass, and I miss out on the blessings that might have been mine. I have also found that if I ignore the promptings I receive for an extended period of time, I lose some of my ability to hear and understand what the Lord would have me do. Sometimes I don’t act because I feel overwhelmed; sometimes because I am afraid. When the Lord wants me to go outside of my comfort zone I tend to question whether I heard Him correctly. Of course He wants me to go outside of my comfort zone! He wants me to grow and reach my full potential! He isn’t finished with me yet.

  • Step 11 says, “Seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord’s will and to have the power to carry it out.” How satisfied are you with your prayer and meditation practice?
  • How confident are you that you are able to discern the Lord’s will for you?
  • What are you willing to do today to improve in this area?

Please share your thoughts about this post by commenting below.

Related Posts: On Being a Perfect Rosebud, Prayer, Meditation and Pondering, Tuning In,

 

Prayer, Meditation and Pondering

Tools,

3 Spiritual Channels: Prayer, Meditation, PonderingWe are often encouraged by Church leaders to make prayer and meditation an important part of our lives, but they have said very little about how to meditate, or what they mean when they use that word. Some people use the word “meditation” as a synonym for “pondering” or “contemplation” but to me there is an important difference. This post is not so much about semantics or word definitions as it is about three important spiritual activities that we need to engage in to grow spiritually.

President David O. McKay spoke about the importance of meditation and related it to prayer. He also described pondering as something separate from meditation. (See the Teaching of the Presidents Manual for David O. McKay, chapter 4.)

Prayer

Most of the time the word “prayer” applies to the act of communicating with the Father. It is sometimes done formally, often on bended knee. Other times prayer is less formal,  such as when we are in a hurry and ask God to help us find a close parking space or the missing shoe or keys. Readers of this blog know that my personal favorite way to pray is in writing. I write a letter to God most mornings. I think more clearly in writing.

Used in this way, as many people do, prayer is a kind of monologue. We give our gratitude and request lists to God, close “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen,” and get up and go about our business, hoping that we might be able to discern an answer to our prayers during the course of the day, in our scripture reading, or in a talk at church.

In my opinion, prayer should be a dialogue, not a monologue. The Lord might be ready and willing to answer our prayers — or at least to speak to us about what is on His mind — as soon as we have said “Amen.” When we get up and go about our business without taking time to listen at the end of our prayers, we don’t give Him a chance to answer.

Meditation

I think that when our leaders use the phrase “prayer and meditation” they mean for us to slow down, quiet our minds, experience the moment, and listen patiently for the voice of the Lord, especially after we have finished praying.  Usually His voice comes in the form of thoughts or impressions. It is important to keep in mind that the Lord may or may not speak to us exactly about the same topics we spoke to Him about in our prayer. In my experience, that is often the case.

Two-Minute Meditation

There are other, more formal forms of meditation, such as yoga, transcendental meditation, guided meditations, etc. They also help clear your mind, and experience the moment. Here is a useful meditation technique that takes only two minutes and produces an immediate, noticeable stress relieving effect. This is very helpful in trying to receive personal revelation, or answers to prayers.

  1. Sit quietly and close your eyes gently.
  2. Breathe in and out through your nose.
  3. Choose a phrase that you can use as a mantra, or quieting thought. I usually use “I am / at peace,” or “I am a child / of God.”
  4. Focus your attention on the end of your nostrils — the point at which your breath enters and leaves your body.
  5. As you inhale, think the first half of the phrase you chose, and as you exhale think the second half.
  6. Repeat this exercise slowly three times, then open your eyes.

When I do this I can actually feel the stress leave my body, and I am able to think and hear more clearly.

Pondering

Pondering is a way of seeking truth by obtaining and using knowledge gained through study and life experiences. When I ponder a question or topic, I reflect on it, applying what I already know, trying to arrive at truth. Conference talks, studying scripture references listed in the Topical Guide, and/or talking to others are all ways of finding additional knowledge to help me come to an understanding that feels right to me as I ponder an issue.

Summary

Prayer is the process of communicating with the Father. Meditation is clearing and opening my mind to receiving truth directly from the Lord through the Holy Ghost. Pondering is seeking to find and apply knowledge to come to understand the issue. These are three different but important activities that contribute to spiritual growth.

  • Do you place as much priority on listening for answers as you do on praying?
  • Are prayer, meditation and pondering all spiritual activities that you practice?
  • What are you willing to do to improve your ability to to receive personal revelation and answers to prayers?