Continuing from Henry B. Eyring: To Draw Closer To God:
Clearly, my problem and your problem is to hear the word of God from and through imperfect teachers and leaders. That is your test and mine. And it is our opportunity, All of us—today, next week, and for the rest of our lives—are going to be sitting somewhere while someone leads us or teaches us who will seem weak or simple because he is human, like us. God has said that if we are going to make it home again, we must not only hear his voice privately by our own effort, but also through the voice of his servants who, when they speak by the power of the Spirit, speak as if it were his voice. Now the practical question is, How can we do it? Next Sunday, for instance, you will go into a class where someone will teach you. He will look a little afraid and be imperfectly prepared, no matter how hard he has worked. You will have the challenge not simply to be attentive but to listen the way my friend with the notebook did. He could hear the voice of God in the words of a child.
Our problem is to have the Spirit confirm to us the truth of the words of our teacher just as it has, for instance, confirm the words we have read in the Book of Mormon. Most of you, I would hope, have read in the Book of Mormon and have felt something in your heart or in your mind that told you it was true. I bear you my testimony that that is the voice of the Spirit speaking to you. Our pride is less likely to be aroused when we open the book than a stranger or fellow who lives down the street begins to speak. Nevertheless, whatever method works when we study alone should work as well when we listen together.
Here Are President Romney’s instructions: “If you want to obtain and keep the guidance of the Spirit, you can do so by following this simple four-point program. One, pray. Pray diligently. Pray with each other. Pray in public in the proper places. . . . Learn to talk to the Lord; call upon his name in great faith and confidence. Second, study and learn the gospel. Third, live righteously; repent of your sins by confessing them and forsaking them. Then conform to the teachings of the gospel. Fourth, give service in the Church.”
And then President Romney concludes this way: “If you will do these things, you will get the guidance of the Holy Spirit and you will go through this world successfully, regardless of what people of the world say or do.” (“Guidance of the Holy Spirit,” Ensign, January 1980, p. 5; emphasis added.) ~Henry B. Eyring, To Draw Closer to God, Deseret Book Company, 1997) p.13-15 (Elder Eyring is in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
