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“The
Lord is anxious to lead us to the safety of higher ground, away
from the path of physical and spiritual danger,” Elder Henry B.
Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told BYU-Idaho
students in his devotional address Tuesday.
“As the world becomes darker and more dangerous, we must keep
climbing. It will be our choice whether to move up or to stay
where we are. But the Lord will invite and guide us upward by
the direction of the Holy Ghost, which He sends to His leaders
and to His people who will receive it.”
Elder Eyring warned that the
Indian Ocean
tsunami and the earthquake that caused it “is just the beginning
and a part of what is to come, terrible as it was.” He reminded
students of the words in Doctrine & Covenants Section 88: “For
after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes…
the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of
lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the
waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. And all
things shall be in commotion; and surely, men’s hearts shall
fail them; for fear shall come upon all people.”
“Fear shall come upon all people. But you and I know
that the
Lord has prepared places of safety to which He is eager to guide
us,” said Elder Eyring.
He related two accounts of people in
Thailand
being led to safety by the Lord. A group of people on vacation
decided to attend sacrament meeting that morning. The chapel was
on higher ground, and they were spared when the waves came.
Also, he told of a businessman who checked into a beachfront
hotel the day before the tsunami. He was prompted to check out
that day and move to a different hotel, one on higher ground.
When the tsunami struck, he survived and stayed to help others.
Elder Eyring said, “The word of God will guide those who develop
the capacity to receive it through the ministrations of the Holy
Ghost.”
He then listed four steps necessary to retain the companionship
of the Holy Ghost.
“The foundation is a burning desire to qualify for that gift,”
said Elder Eyring. Most people have felt the desire to have the
Holy Ghost from time to time, he said, but it usually happens
when they are in trouble. A better way to retain that desire is
to reflect on the times the Holy Ghost has been felt in the
past.
“I
can choose to remember what that companionship has been like,”
he said, “and whenever I do, I want that blessing again with my
whole heart.”
The second step he listed is to pray in faith.
“It takes the prayer of faith to bring the companionship of the
Holy Ghost.
It
takes faith that God the Father, the Creator of all things,
lives and wants to send us the Comforter. It takes faith that
Jesus is the Christ and that He atoned for our sins and broke
the bands of death.”
The third step is to carefully study the scriptures, especially
those where the Savior speaks personally.
“When I read the words spoken by the Savior in the scriptures, I
grow in my capacity to recognize inspiration from the Holy
Ghost,” Elder Eyring said. “I
can better recognize the voice of the Spirit when the Savior’s
words echo easily in my mind.”
The fourth step Elder Eyring taught is willing obedience to the
Lord’s commandments.
“Just
as pondering the scriptures invites the companionship of the
Holy Ghost, so does doing the things we have been told to do and
doing them promptly,” he said. “When
we go and do what we have been told the best we can, we qualify
for more instructions of what to do.”
Elder Eyring warned that halfhearted efforts to pray, read the
scriptures, obey the commandments and exercise faith won’t be
good enough. Neither will “one great burst of effort.” He said
that “only a steady, ever-increasing effort will allow the Lord
to take us to higher ground.”
He encouraged students and faculty to set the bar higher for
themselves. “More is possible spiritually for you and for me.
And more is necessary,” he said.
“In spiritual things you have a heavenly power lifting you
beyond where you are now. You can set your expectations for
yourself a little higher and then a little higher, with
confidence that a loving Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son
will send you the Holy Ghost and lift you higher and higher,
toward Them.”
Elder Eyring closed his talk by telling students that this
message was given “with a feeling of optimism, not pessimism.”
“I was told to talk to you about the hard times that are ahead,
and they are real. And they are coming. But I was given a
feeling of light and confidence about you – that somehow, the
people that I would be speaking to were special, brought here
and chosen because of your capacity to rise higher than you
yourselves think is even possible, spiritually.”
Weekly devotionals are held Tuesdays at
2 p.m. in
the Hart Auditorium with additional seating in the Hinckley
Chapel, Taylor Chapel, and Kirkham Auditorium. Devotionals are
broadcast on KBYI-FM 100.5 at 2 and 9 p.m. each Tuesday. Next
week’s devotional speaker will be
Sister
Lili Anderson, instructor of Family Life at
Brigham
Young
University.
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