"And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach."
Doctrine and Covenants 42:14
This is powerful. I think that so many times we try to do things on our own. We live, work, play, raise families... whatever it is, and we give little thought to God. But this part about teaching... it applies to that, but also to much more. We're teaching the people around us, every day. And we're trying to do it alone, which is just plain crazy... since God offers us his help, freely. Sometimes we don't think freely... we think it is a high cost. But really, it just like sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher and saying that we aren't free to set our desks on fire. Sure, we can... but it would make it pretty hard to learn, and what would be the point of that? The whole reason we are in the classroom in the first place is to listen and learn and discover and experiment, with the teacher to guide us so we don't blow ourselves up. We are free to get in the way of our own learning... but we can't listen to God as he helps us learn *and* destroy the classroom at the same time.
Really, there is very little that we actually should be doing without the spirit, except seeking the spirit. :) And having the spirit means that we'll be more calm, more kind, or as Galatians 5:22 tells us, we'll feel more "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, [and] faith." And think about if we had all of those things in more abundance in whatever we're doing. Wow. :)
Today, let's avoid influencing other people if we don't have the spirit. And, if we don't... let's do the work to get ourselves back there, on the same page with God. First, God can help us put the fire in the desk out, and then we'll move on to the next step. :)
Doctrine and Covenants 42:14
This is powerful. I think that so many times we try to do things on our own. We live, work, play, raise families... whatever it is, and we give little thought to God. But this part about teaching... it applies to that, but also to much more. We're teaching the people around us, every day. And we're trying to do it alone, which is just plain crazy... since God offers us his help, freely. Sometimes we don't think freely... we think it is a high cost. But really, it just like sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher and saying that we aren't free to set our desks on fire. Sure, we can... but it would make it pretty hard to learn, and what would be the point of that? The whole reason we are in the classroom in the first place is to listen and learn and discover and experiment, with the teacher to guide us so we don't blow ourselves up. We are free to get in the way of our own learning... but we can't listen to God as he helps us learn *and* destroy the classroom at the same time.
Really, there is very little that we actually should be doing without the spirit, except seeking the spirit. :) And having the spirit means that we'll be more calm, more kind, or as Galatians 5:22 tells us, we'll feel more "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, [and] faith." And think about if we had all of those things in more abundance in whatever we're doing. Wow. :)
Today, let's avoid influencing other people if we don't have the spirit. And, if we don't... let's do the work to get ourselves back there, on the same page with God. First, God can help us put the fire in the desk out, and then we'll move on to the next step. :)
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