Episode #256 - Spiritual Practicality

Sometimes we just need to hear it from a practical sense.

Transcript

Welcome to this special episode.  Spiritual Practicality.  What is it?  It is the application of the knowledge that I talk about every week.  It is so very important to understand the practical nature of the gospel.  How it applies to everyday life and how to apply it to everyday life.  I thought I would take a brief sidestep from my normal discussion to talk about some of my practicality from a spiritual sense.  Now these are my applications and how I cope and work within the gospel framework.  They may or may not work for you.  But you are welcome to them.  Well that’s it for the intro.  Let’s get to it.

1)      Revelation – Revelation is tough.  No matter how you look at it getting needed revelation is tough.  For me I have had to learn a few things about it.  First, I don’t get promptings like normal individuals in most senses.  Most of my revelation doesn’t come with a marvelous manifestation of the truth.  Most of what I now view as revelation, I once didn’t.  I get thoughts out of the blue when I am not thinking about the subject or problem.  Someone will say something that leads me to a solution.  The Lord will highlight phrases in my mind.  Every once in a great while I do feel that peace described in the scriptures but it is rare for me.  I admit when I realized what revelation was and is, I found it all around me.  Now this doesn’t mean that I don’t get silence.  I get silence on some subjects for long periods of time while other revelation seems to flow much easier around it.  Not always sure why but I know that the Lord does know.  I try not to worry about missing revelation, I try more about trying to see it, recognized it, act in accordance with it and being grateful for anything I get.

2)      Capacity – I while back a did an episode about the widows mites.  I love this episode.  When you have capacity problems, mental, emotional, spiritual or physical you need to refer to this parable.  The Lord gave the widow the capacity she had.  He did not fault her for her lack of capacity to pay more.  He was grateful for what she had given and from what we can tell he didn’t change her capacity.  We don’t need a change of capacity as much as a change of mindset about our capacity.  Our capacity is going to differ on a daily basis and we need to adjust to that capacity.  I good portion of my difficulties over the years has been fighting my capacity, running past it and crashing as my feet overrun my energy.  This is a difficult ask and I know it and I am still learning it.  If we can adjust to our daily capacity, we can better aid our illness and our spirituality.  When we run faster than we have strength it affects more than just our mortal body it can affect us spiritually.  Long periods of recovery because we are unwilling to adjust our mentality does not do a body good physical or spiritual.

3)      Guilt – You are going to feel worthless, guilty, sinful and awful.  None of this comes from the Lord.  And yes I know that doesn’t help much when you are in the midst of it.  For me, I had to learn to compartmentalize my emotions and to throw out what I could.  If it doesn’t come from what is real then I label it as the illness.  It does aid the mind to do this although it is not a complete solution for many individuals.

4)      Isolate me from my illness – I have an identity outside of my illness.  I have had to isolate me from my illness.  I am not my illness although it affects me in almost every way.  One day I will not have this illness and I need to know who I am and so I work to understand who I am and to separate that from my illness.

5)      Come unto me – The one scripture that I will likely note today comes from the Book of Mormon in Ether and I quote it a great deal.  In that scripture is a promise that if you come unto the Savior he will make weak things become strong.  Now this isn’t a miracle healing.  He just said make them strong.  How he makes them strong is up to the Savior and we should put this all into the healing box.  Strengthening takes place in many ways and we should note that as the Lord may be providing help and we are not even recognizing it.  To come to the Savior is simply to place everything on the alter for him to work with us.  That means everything we have in mortality including our health and a continuance of our issues.  We give everything to the Lord and he gives back that which we need with a promise of help and strengthening.  This is not easy and placing everything on the alter will take time and come in stages.  However, this idea of coming to the Lord is the idea that has saved me and provided the anchor that I have needed.

6)      Do what you can – The other day I was thinking about the phrase do your best.  I worry that when we have mental and emotional illnesses this may not be the best phrase to use.  For me in connotates the idea of giving everything I have one time, to give my best.  Like racing on a track against competition.  I don’t think that gives us the best look at what the Lord desires.  If you have a day full of activities giving everything you have on the first one just doesn’t make sense.  The Lord needs us to do more than one thing.  So when he says do our best we must consider our best with everything else that must be done and then apply our best given what we see.  For instance, if we did our best with just one of our children and ignored our spouse and the rest of the children, this would be ignoring responsibilities and really wouldn’t be our best for the other children and the spouse.  So to do your best must consider your capacity and those things that need to be done.  Your capacity is likely to change daily so this means that you must measure your best by your capacity and what you accomplish not by your success in one activity.  And this means all your activities not just what you think important.  So we do what we can everyday spiritual to help ourselves even when it might not feel like we are doing anything.  I listen to the scriptures every morning and I can honestly say I don’t get the same feelings and spirit every morning.  I do what I can to attend my meetings, do my church work and listen for the spirit.  Rather than think about everything I didn’t get done.  I do attempt to think about what I did get done.  I promise that your efforts are appreciated by the Lord.  I know that you feel worthless at times and I do but the Lord is so loving and kind.

7)      Mercy – I do believe that mercy is extended based on our weaknesses and need.  If the Lord is going to extend a difficult weakness then he will extend extra mercy as long as we qualify for it.  And that simply means we are doing what we can.  You have great mercy extended to you so learn from your weakness.  Learn about your illness.  Learn what makes sense and what doesn’t for you.  I can promise that feelings of worthlessness will never come from the Lord as he doesn’t work in that manner.  If you look in D&C 121 you will see what he asks of us when we lead and love people and he considers himself to be governed by the same principles of mercy and kindness.  Stick with the Lord and he will stick with you.

8)      False Promptings – I get these all the time.  Normally this is my mortal bodies way of getting what it wants.  It give me false emotional impressions.  The same occurs within the mania portion of bipolar.  We can feel positive emotional experiences that can mimic the emotions of the spirit.  This is probably everyone’s worse nightmare feeling as though you are called to do something when you are not or receiving an impression you will be healed but you are not.  These false impressions are often given at the direction of Lucifer through our own emotions and yes they cause me to ponder.  What I have found is that the Lord tends not to speak to me this way and I have learned that when I feel certain positive emotions to be very cautious about them.  What does that look like for me?  I test them.  I wait to see if the feeling continues after a couple of days.  I wait to see if I am prompted in other ways.  The Lord has learned or perhaps better spoken I have learned that the Lord often speaks to me in a couple of ways so that I know it is him.  I generally do not rely upon one good feeling or one good moment.  I wait to see what else the Lord might say on the subject.

9)      The Temple Can be a place of healing – I have noticed that temple attendance seems to improve my emotional state.  Now it doesn’t always do this and it isn’t a complete healing.  Just a note from the Lord that he is pleased.  Attending the temple regularly will provide for some measure of healing.  However, one caution, if you have anxiety in a serious way, take your journey more slowly and deliberately so that the temple becomes a place of healing.  Don’t do an endowment on your first trip back.  Just go and sit on the grounds.  Just go and sit in a sealing session.  Just be there and then work back to participation.

10)   Feeling Alone – You are going to feel alone regularly.  While it feels real, it is a false impression.  You are never alone when suffering.  There is a reason that the Savior received an angel during his suffering.  It was meant to be an example.  Those who have passed on are not far from us and come and comfort us giving us a portion of their energy and light.  The Savior also visits homes regularly to comfort and bless.  We do not generally know when he is there but I know  that he continues his ministry.  The Savior and our ancestors are always there.  Always fighting for us.  I know this to be true as I have experienced it on many occasions. 

Most of all know that your Savior has a deep and abiding love for you.  He knows what he has allowed to come upon you and he is ever willing to extend mercy because of it.  He is not some drill instructor training us for exaltation.  He is literally training us by working with us through the trial and even carrying any necessary load to help us through it.  The one thing we have with our covenant is the power of mercy and no greater power exists than to be able to extend mercy to those you love.  May the Lord bless you and keep you safe.  Until next week do your part so that the Lord can do his.