Backwards is telling

My reading the other day was telling - enough so that I saved it to write about on another day. It looks like that day is today.

So here is Ammon, gushing about the success he and his brothers have seen as missionaries and servants of the Lord. I don't think there's anywhere else in the scriptures where this kind of overwhelmed exuberance is shown - you can hear and feel the passion in his sentences, even though his sentences are reduced to words and letters.

You can feel the love he feels. You get that he believes he has just won the lottery - twice. And yet he has done nothing that will monetarily enrich his life. His overwhelming gratitude has nothing to do with him, but what he and his brothers have been able to assist others to do.

In fact, not only did it not enrich him monetarily, but the whole process was kinda rough. Alma 26: 29 shows that they were mocked, spit on, hit, stoned, and tied up and thrown in jail. Then it goes on and says they "suffered all manner of afflictions" - which to me is a nice way of saying "what happened to me is too horrible and grotesque to tell you about it".

Yeah - they didn't do this for the lifestyle that it would create for them. They did it for another reason.

But while Ammon is gushing about the awesomeness of the Lord and what he was able to do for his brothers, he unleashes something that might be a sideways "everyone knows this" sort of thought, but of course it's more than that. It's the gem I was looking for on the day I read it.

If a person is looking to receive the blessings, guidance and mysteries of God, Ammon provides the path. All along, I've been saying that in many cases, if you want a gift from God, first you prepare yourself to receive it, then you ask humbly, then you receive it and develop it gratefully. Ammon provides further light on the subject.

Alma 26:22 "Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing - unto such is given to know the mysteries of God."

So there's the recipe: repent, faith, good works, pray. To me, it's like "darn! I wanted it to be something cooler than that". Kinda like washing yourself in a dirty river to get clean. I'd much rather do something less routine than these four steps. We all would. But it's a line upon line thing, where you go deeper inches at a time - not miles. You don't go from being the stoned out meth head, to saying "I want spiritual depth" and all of a sudden getting it like you ordered it at a McDonalds drive up window.

Covey called it the law of the farm.

But another thing caught me here. What if you look at it backwards? What if someone is telling you that he has spiritual depth? What if he is indicating that he has the answers from God?

A person could look at it from the reverse end of the recipe. So this person has answers? Did he go through the path to receive these answers from God, i.e. does he repent, exercise faith and bring forth good works? Not just good words, but good works. Do you believe that he is a man of faith in God, or faith in himself? Does he acknowledge and work on what he needs to repent of, or does he hide that stuff?

And finally, does this person have the depth to know that in many cases, the mysteries must be earned and learned personally, not simply handed to someone else? To do so might be kinda like copying someone else's homework.

There are some very real exceptions, if you want to call them exceptions. For example, in a sunday school class, a wise teacher can share his knowledge and depth with others in the room, because a) it's his role to do so, and b) because the students in the room are there to learn.

In a church meeting, a listener can use the gifts of the spirit he has developed to learn from the speaker, and gather great depth. But this is more about the listener than the speaker. The speaker should and must do his best, but the responsibility to learn lies with the listener.

To finish up, I feel I haven't been clear enough. There is a very real way to learn the mysteries of God. There is also a way to know if someone else who claims to have the mysteries of God actually has those gifts, or if his mysteries come from another source. May we develop our gifts, deepen our souls, and rely on those who have our best interests at heart. And may we avoid those who don't.