Growing Faith is an Experiment Everyday

I kind of have to laugh at myself.  I am such a natural woman at times.

For instance yesterday morning as I was praying I was like, “Lord,,,, I’m kind of ready for another big spiritual experience.  It’s been a while.  When is it going to happen?”   If I’m really being honest I’ve kind of had this in my mind for a while.  “When is the next big spiritual experience coming?  Is there any more?  Am I done?  Is there anything left for me?”

Yup, sometimes I just want one more really big, powerful spiritual experience.  (Elder Bednar says these kind of experiences are more rare than not.)  But that is what I want.  I just want God to tell me one more time that all of this is true.  Joseph Smith saw God.  The Book of Mormon was written in ancient days by prophets in the Americas.  That we don’t come from Apes!  (That one stems from an article I read in the news this week.) And that He really does love me and know me.

I’m kind of laughing at myself, but I’m serious too.  I’m such a child.  I do have strong faith, and yet I still feel I have to constantly work at my faith as the world bombards me. 

I know, I’m supposed to remember all those other times God has spoken in powerful ways to me.  I’m supposed to cast my mind back.  God doesn’t have to keep telling me the same things over and over.  That’s like a child having to be told over and over again.  Parents get tired of that, right?  But like I said I am such a natural man/woman.

But this really great inspiration came to me as I was praying, that I think is really great inspiration. 

So I’m going to share?

“Every day you can have a powerful spiritual experience as you pay attention to the experiment you live every day.”

Here me out, this is what that means:

People.  Every day we are experimenting.  It’s Alma 32, every day.  We plant seeds of good and evil, right and wrong, every day, and you can learn about God, the adversary, the Light of Christ, the Voice of the Spirit, Repentance, the Power of Christ’s Atonement, etc., every day as you pay attention.  I am having a big spiritual experience every single day.

 “What do you feel when you pray?  What do you feel when you obey?  What do you feel when you read scriptures?  What do you feel when you listen while on your knees?” What do you feel when you take the sacrament, go to church, attend the temple?   All of it is exactly what the Book of Mormon says you will feel in Alma 32. 

To summarize the experiment:

Humility is the key to the whole thing.  Being humble is mentioned about 7 times is those beginning versus.  Life can humble us, or we can choose to be humble, either way it doesn’t matter, nothing can happen until we are open, soft, moldable, easily entreated, willing to see another way, besides our own.

Next we have to have a desire.  If we aren’t ready than the experiment will fail.  We have to want this my friends.

Then we plant the seed.  We put the word in our heart, we think about it, we pray about it, we receive thoughts and ideas about it, and we are willing to listen.  We nurture it so it can grow.

Then the key.   The key to the whole thing.  We have to pay attention.  We have to notice how we feel.  If the seed is good it will enlarge us, enlighten us, it will begin to swell inside of us and it will be so good that it will be delicious to us, we love it that much.

Alma 32 doesn’t talk about this but I think, of course, the opposite is true also.  When we plant incorrect seeds of untruth in our heart, we nurture those seeds then they will grow also.  We will feel depleted, confused, defeated, angry, etc.  I think we can see the truth of this in how many people are so angry and easily offended in our world.   The world pulls at us to plant incorrect seeds that pull us away from all that is kind, grateful, peaceful and Godly.

When we are humble we can see and learn from the un-good seeds also.  Who wants to feel yucky?  But what we plant in our hearts bears fruit, and either way, we can learn what is good and what is not. 

That’s Huge.

Whenever we feel feelings that are NOT the fruit of God’s loving spirit, we can learn.

Whenever we feel feelings that ARE of God’s loving spirit we can learn.

That is a big spiritual experience of God pouring out His knowledge to us and it happens all the time.  I am receiving God’s knowledge He intended for me to learn, every day as I just pay attention to what good does, what God’s truth does.

Pay Attention:

You feel peace!  Noticing it, is the way you grow your faith.

You feel love!  Noticing it, is the way you grow your faith.

You feel stronger! Understanding that is the way you grow your faith.

You feel happy!  You receive knowledge everyday about things you should do that leads to more peace, love, strength and happiness.  That is the big, powerful spiritual experience.

I had never thought of this before.  It has totally changed my perspective.

These little feelings of being enlarged, enlightened, and uplifted are an amazing spiritual experience every day that teach me about God and His Way.  They teach me about the truth of the Book of Mormon, about my origin as a Daughter of God who can learn by praying to Him. 

I am actually on fire for this!  I know writing always makes me feel frustrated that I can’t express my fire!

(Huh, there you go, a spiritual experience just happened to me.  What did I just learn?  I must be planting seeds that don’t lead to the spirit.  The seed was, “I can never write powerfully enough to get my message across.”  Then if I pay attention I learn that it was not a good seed.  I felt negative, fearful, frustrated and unfaithful.  Yup, not a good seed. 

In conclusion. I saw an old friend last week I hadn’t seen in probably 35 years.  He had experienced a painful divorce that devastated him a few years back.  Because of that he left the church, got addicted to all kinds of drugs and was homeless for a time.  He has worked his way out of addiction and has come back to living the gospel for about 3 years now.  I asked him what he has learned from his journey.   

He said, “Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to true happiness.”

That is the testimony.  That is the big spiritual experience we can see every day if we pay attention.  Living the gospel of Jesus Christ brings true happiness, long lasting happiness.

I love this gospel.  I love good.  I love that our Heavenly Father speaks and we can learn by small and simple things like just paying attention to how we feel as we plant and experiment every day.