Feeling vs. receiving
Yesterday at institute, our teacher was gone, so we had one of the recent RMs from the ward sub in. Although the lesson was fairly decent, he seemed to fall back on a lot of gospel cliches–words and phrases that we’ve all heard hundreds of times before. One of those that stood out to me was “feel the Spirit.”
“Feel the Spirit” is a phrase that’s really common among us Mormons. We say it all the time, usually in reference to coming closer to God or increasing our personal spirituality. Yet the phrase itself denotes a passive state of mind, one where we’re just waiting around for God to make us feel good.
That doesn’t sit well with me, because I know that that’s not the way God works. Yes, He gives us comfort–after all, “Comforter” is one of the names of the Holy Ghost–but that’s not all that He does, and certainly not the most important thing either.
The Holy Ghost’s mission is to testify of Christ and bring us unto Him, and He does that primarily by communicating eternal truths and giving us personal guidance and inspiration. He doesn’t just exist to make us feel good–quite the opposite, in fact. Through His still, small voice, He pushes us to repent, be baptized, keep our covenants, and endure faithfully to the end. If we’re just sitting around doing nothing, He won’t come to us–or if He does, it’s usually to kick us in the pants.
I submit that instead of the term “feel the Spirit,” we should use the term “receive the Spirit.” This is in connection with the baptismal ordinance, which ends “and say unto you, receive the Holy Ghost.”
To receive the Spirit, we need to be striving to follow the gospel–to exercise faith, continually repent, keep our baptismal covenants, and follow the promptings and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. We need to make place in our lives to listen to that still small voice–to tune out the distractions and actively listen. We need to humble ourselves so that our hearts are contrite enough to follow His guidance, regardless of how it seems to contradict our own plans and desires.
In short, I hope that in speaking of the Holy Ghost, we can recognize that inspiration is not just a “feel good” thing. It’s a vital part of our eternal salvation, and as such it requires an element of work. Let’s not forget that.
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