At today’s BYU-Idaho Devotional, Elder Vern P. Stanfill, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke about using our agency to follow God’s plan back to Him.
In his address entitled “Choose Discipleship Now!” Elder Stanfill emphasized the importance of our mortal experience in our eternal growth.
“It is however much more than just returning to their presence – it requires growth, development of character and soul, it requires the acquisition of experience and judgment, it requires a change of heart so not only are we forgiven but have no more disposition to do evil,” he said.
Change and repentance were at the heart of Elder Stanfill’s message, as he expressed his thoughts on learning to truly communicate honestly with Heavenly Father about what we can do to align ourselves with His will.
“Our quest for exaltation is personal. It is something that we engage in as individuals. While we can gain support from family and friends, we must be personally engaged with the Savior,” he said in his talk. “We must accept His atoning sacrifice for ourselves. We must seek personal revelation to know what our Heavenly Father would have us do and how to do it.”
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, Elder Stanfill dove deeper into his talk. He said the key to both fulfilling the Father’s will and returning to Him is found in staying on the covenant path.
“His plan for us and all of the blessings that he wants to give us are dependent on our correct choices,” he said in the interview. “We can’t change that plan. We can’t change the gifting of those blessings because we want to. He sets the terms of the covenants—we don’t set those—and it’s His will and not ours.”
Elder Stanfill said we can start from wherever we currently are. To him, it’s the small things that are key to the spiritual growth necessary to “choose discipleship now.”
“If we try and take on too much at once we can become discouraged,” he said. “But, if we just take do the basics at first, study scripture, attend your meetings, minister to others, serve others. If we do those basic things that our prophet is teaching us now in very clear ways to do, it will come. Little by little, it will come.”