--Barbara Hoffman
“HEAR HIM” – PRESIDENT RUSSELL M. NELSON
“The increasing darkness that accompanies tribulation makes the light of Jesus Christ shine even brighter. Just think of the good each of us can do during this time of global upheaval. Regardless of where you live or what your circumstances are, the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, and God’s prophet, Joseph Smith is your prophet. He was foreordained before the foundation of the earth to be the prophet of this last dispensation, when ‘nothing shall be withheld’ from the Saints. Revelation continues to flow from the Lord during this ongoing process of restoration. The adversary is clever. For millennia he has been making good look evil and evil look good. His messages tend to be loud, bold and boastful. However, messages from our Heavenly Father are strongly different. He communicates simply, quietly, and with such stunning plainness, that we cannot misunderstand Him. For example, when He has introduced His Only Begotten Son to mortals upon the earth, He has done so with remarkably few words. To Joseph Smith, that profound declaration that opened this dispensation, God simply said, ‘This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!’ Our Father knows that when we are surrounded by uncertainty and fear, what will help us the very most is to hear His Son. Because when we seek to hear—truly hear—His Son, we will be guided to know what to do in any circumstance. The very first word in the Doctrine and Covenants is hearken. It means ‘to listen with intent to obey’. To hearken means to ‘hear Him’—to hear what the Savior says and then to heed His counsel. In these two words—‘Hear Him’—God gives us the pattern for success, happiness and joy in this life. We are to hear the words of the Lord, hearken to them, and heed what He has told us! As we seek to be disciples of Jesus Christ, our efforts to hear Him to be ever more intentional. It takes conscious and consistent effort to fill our daily lives with His words, His teachings, His truths.”
President Nelson asks: “where can we go to hear Him?” He reminds us to go to the scriptures every day. He urges us to attend the temple, and do family history and indexing while the temples are closed. He teaches us that we must refine our ability to recognize the whispering of the Holy Ghost to hear Him more clearly.
“The Holy Ghost is the messenger. He is the Comforter. He will bring peace to your heart. He testifies of truth and will confirm what is true as you hear and read the word of the Lord. I renew my plea for you to do whatever it takes to increase your spiritual capacity to receive personal revelation. And finally, we hear Him as we heed the words of prophets, seers and revelators.”
President Nelson blessed us all: “What will happen as you more intentionally hear, hearken, and heed what the Savior has said and what He is saying now through His prophets? I promise that you will be blessed with additional power to deal with temptation, struggles, and weakness. I promise miracles in your marriage, family relationships, and daily work. And I promise that your capacity to feel joy will increase even if turbulence increases in your life.”
Sisters, I testify of the divinity and truths of our Prophet’s powerful message. MY sincere prayer is that we will all hear, hearken, and heed.
I invite you to study the Bicentennial Proclamation and have it confirmed in your hearts and minds as truth.
I also invite you to make your own list of personal ways that you hear Him –some through seeing, that cause you to hear Him. It was a wonderful experience for me!
Barb,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful insights and summary of President Nelson's conference address, and thank you for the love you share....we love you too.
For the past several summers, Lee and I have talked about hiking to Elephant Rock, but you know about good intentions, and somehow summer after summer would past without our making it there. This year however, whether because of happy memories of hikes there when the kids were younger, or the Covid 19 isolation, or maybe just deciding to do it, today Lee and I with our son Mark made the hike to that beautiful monument on the mountain. It was magnificent and worth every bit of effort.
I loved and certainly related to President Nelson, when he shared, “our efforts to hear Him need to be ever more intentional”. For me, just like the easy procrastination of doing a beloved hike, I find that I need to do better to intentionally “hear Him”. When I make the effort, He is always there!
Sometimes it can be so hard to always "hear Him," with so many distraction around us. Sometimes I am almost intimidated by the degree of intentionality it takes to have Him in my heart. I know though, that every bit we practice keeping ourselves and our environments in a state where we can hear Him, we will find ourselves able to do so more and more easily.
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