Several weeks ago, I attended the evening adult session of our stake conference. Elder Robert M. Daines of the seventy was presiding and was also the main speaker. The format of his talk was unique—because most of the time he did not talk. Instead, he invited us to ponder questions the Savior asked in scripture. He put the questions on a slideshow, played music, and let us think. It was beautiful.
One question in particular immediately brought the Spirit to my heart. I’ve frequently thought about it since. It comes from the Savior in John 13:12:
“Know ye not what I have done for you?”
In my notes, I wrote that Elder Daines then expanded the question and invited us to think about this:
Assume that God has been at work with you recently. What is He teaching you?
I was surprised at how quickly thoughts flooded my mind. My pen moved quickly across my journal as I wrote down themes I’d noticed in my life. A few examples:
- Generally in life, I am doing better than I think I am. Heavenly Father wants to communicate His love, gratitude, and belief in me.
- “For whatsoever a man [or woman] soweth, that shall he [or she] also reap” (Galatians 6:7). The small choices I make each day will build up to create my life.
- Feeling the Holy Ghost buoys me up in ways nothing else can and is the only way to have a lasting testimony of truth.
I think Elder Daines’s phrase holds such power because it invites you to start from a place of faith—assume God is working in your life. Let yourself believe that, even for a moment. For me, exercising that particle of faith opened the door to revelation.
Another key part of the phrase is the word recently. We may sometimes focus on large spiritual experiences from the past, such as moments from full-time missionary service. To instead have faith to look for what is happening in my life now gave me eyes to see. God is working with me. No matter how normal or uneventful a certain season of life may feel compared to another, God is always working with us.
That stake conference reaffirmed to me this teaching from Elder David A. Bednar:
“If we are striving to be and become good—not perfect right now, but gradually getting better—if we are honoring our covenants, seeking for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, worthily partaking of the sacrament and retaining a remission of our sins, and pressing forward, then indeed we can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. We are not ‘preparing to receive revelation’; we are ‘living in revelation.’”
How true that is. And as we stop to think in faith about what revelation we are recently receiving, I believe God will eagerly whisper reminders of all He says to us day by day.
