Thank you! It means a lot to get feedback from people. I put the time into preparing, but it’s hard to see on my end if it’s making much of a difference.
@@DanielSharonTveten it is making a difference. Keep at it and if nothing else you'll learn a lot from it but others will be lifted by. We appreciate all the work you put into it.
Good discussion. We are so limited by our human language in our ability to convey spiritual things… I think “the language of the Spirit,” as you called it, is not words, but Truth. Ideas conveyed by inspiration. Words are limited. You can’t translate an idea to just a single set of words such that everyone who reads those words will understand it in the same way. Even the simplest idea can be conveyed in countless different ways in countless different languages. Sometimes ideas are difficult to translate between languages because one language will have more words to describe the idea than another. Even the scriptures have this limitation. That’s why have to learn to see with our spiritual eyes and find understanding through the Holy Ghost. “Learning the language of the Spirit” is like learning to see beyond the words on the page and perceive the Truth behind the language. It’s still important to attempt to write down what you learn from the Spirit, though it may be difficult. I think it helps to write down how the inspiration or prompting made you *feel.* Often, remembering the emotions you felt because of the idea can help you remember the idea itself.
Joseph Smith: "A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus." This is a lot like what you were saying! I don't think the Holy Spirit speaks a different language to us (2 Ne 31:3). I just think it is a process to grow in receiving revelation, and paying attention, "diligence, and heed" (1 Nephi 16:28-29). Learning that skill, to listen, to pay attention, to remember what we receive, and to apply it faithfully... this is the journey and adventure of a lifetime. There are some situations where we may not understand the promptings we are receiving, but that is usually our own fault, or a lack of patience to wait upon the Lord, exercise faith, and receive further light and knowledge. For example, see Jacob 4:14: 14 But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble. The Jews were stiffnecked (remember, Jarom 1:4 says you must NOT be stiffnecked) and they were rebellious and sinful. Thus, they lost the words of plainness from above and were left to struggle and flounder. Kind of like when Lehi's family sinned and the Liahona stopped working. If you're getting weird and confusing messages, something is wrong. Or it's a sign that what you're getting is not from God.
I was corrected today, I do think there are more situations than I acknowledged in my previous comment, where we do have to learn how the Spirit wants to communicate with us. There are habits, skills, patterns, symbols and the like that we should become familiar with and as we learn them we’ll get better at receiving revelation. My prior comment was a bit dismissive of this very real part of growing in revelation.
When we get revelation, we hope to also receive the gift of discernment and interpretation, so that we can accurately discern and distill the meaning of what we felt, dreamed, heard, saw, etc. Without discernment or interpretation, we can struggle to understand the language through which the Spirit is speaking to us. Nephi loves to talk about plainness. But there is a lot of revelation that isn’t plain. Like the dreams that Joseph of Egypt or Daniel interpreted. We do need inspiration for discernment and interpretation in many cases-instruction from on High.
@@DanielSharonTveten It’s also true that the Spirit speaks in different ways to different people. To each of them “according to their understanding.” And maybe it’s not so much that the Spirit speaks to us differently as it is that we *learn to hear Him* differently. I’m reminded of the #HearHim videos made by church leaders. We each need to learn how we hear Him best.
This sinner has felt the closeness of the spirit and on occasion when leading a discussion with a group of good people I have uttered words that others felt lead them to feel the spirit but in truth I rarely even remember the words but do remember the feeling of closeness to the spirit.
Wow, fantastic. I'm going to listen to this again tomorrow. I love the parable l was transported back to my childhood and my angel parents. Thank you
Great content and insights. It definitely gave me some things to think about. Well done!
Thank you! It means a lot to get feedback from people. I put the time into preparing, but it’s hard to see on my end if it’s making much of a difference.
@@DanielSharonTveten it is making a difference. Keep at it and if nothing else you'll learn a lot from it but others will be lifted by. We appreciate all the work you put into it.
I love this Apostle. He always inspires me.
Good discussion. We are so limited by our human language in our ability to convey spiritual things…
I think “the language of the Spirit,” as you called it, is not words, but Truth. Ideas conveyed by inspiration. Words are limited. You can’t translate an idea to just a single set of words such that everyone who reads those words will understand it in the same way. Even the simplest idea can be conveyed in countless different ways in countless different languages. Sometimes ideas are difficult to translate between languages because one language will have more words to describe the idea than another. Even the scriptures have this limitation. That’s why have to learn to see with our spiritual eyes and find understanding through the Holy Ghost.
“Learning the language of the Spirit” is like learning to see beyond the words on the page and perceive the Truth behind the language.
It’s still important to attempt to write down what you learn from the Spirit, though it may be difficult. I think it helps to write down how the inspiration or prompting made you *feel.* Often, remembering the emotions you felt because of the idea can help you remember the idea itself.
Joseph Smith: "A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus."
This is a lot like what you were saying! I don't think the Holy Spirit speaks a different language to us (2 Ne 31:3). I just think it is a process to grow in receiving revelation, and paying attention, "diligence, and heed" (1 Nephi 16:28-29). Learning that skill, to listen, to pay attention, to remember what we receive, and to apply it faithfully... this is the journey and adventure of a lifetime.
There are some situations where we may not understand the promptings we are receiving, but that is usually our own fault, or a lack of patience to wait upon the Lord, exercise faith, and receive further light and knowledge. For example, see Jacob 4:14:
14 But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.
The Jews were stiffnecked (remember, Jarom 1:4 says you must NOT be stiffnecked) and they were rebellious and sinful. Thus, they lost the words of plainness from above and were left to struggle and flounder. Kind of like when Lehi's family sinned and the Liahona stopped working. If you're getting weird and confusing messages, something is wrong. Or it's a sign that what you're getting is not from God.
I was corrected today, I do think there are more situations than I acknowledged in my previous comment, where we do have to learn how the Spirit wants to communicate with us. There are habits, skills, patterns, symbols and the like that we should become familiar with and as we learn them we’ll get better at receiving revelation. My prior comment was a bit dismissive of this very real part of growing in revelation.
When we get revelation, we hope to also receive the gift of discernment and interpretation, so that we can accurately discern and distill the meaning of what we felt, dreamed, heard, saw, etc. Without discernment or interpretation, we can struggle to understand the language through which the Spirit is speaking to us. Nephi loves to talk about plainness. But there is a lot of revelation that isn’t plain. Like the dreams that Joseph of Egypt or Daniel interpreted. We do need inspiration for discernment and interpretation in many cases-instruction from on High.
@@DanielSharonTveten It’s also true that the Spirit speaks in different ways to different people. To each of them “according to their understanding.” And maybe it’s not so much that the Spirit speaks to us differently as it is that we *learn to hear Him* differently.
I’m reminded of the #HearHim videos made by church leaders. We each need to learn how we hear Him best.
This sinner has felt the closeness of the spirit and on occasion when leading a discussion with a group of good people I have uttered words that others felt lead them to feel the spirit but in truth I rarely even remember the words but do remember the feeling of closeness to the spirit.
Promo>SM 🤔