Summary of my training on Obedience

So I was really grateful actually to give this training on obedience. It was really cool because Elder Rosas actually told me he had a prompting to ask me but then thought to himself "why would Elder Hayes need to give a training on Obedience?" So he asked Sister Bennion and she said she couldn't because she had to film something that day during District Council. So that was crazy. So he ended up asking me and I was sure glad! It went really well and I like to think that I got missionaries to think about Obedience differently. 

We all know what Obedience is. If you have doubts I would read in Ch. 6 of Preach my Gospel on Obedience. It is very simple and helpful. Anyways for my purposes, I thought a lot about why it is important, and for what we reason we should be obedient. Firstly, it is important to note that we need to listen to the Spirit of the Lord over any written word. Let's use the example of Nephi in 1 Nephi 4:1-12. Here Nephi is obviously guided by the spirit to find Laban passed out on the ground and he was able to be guided by the spirit because of his initial obedience to a commandment from the Lord. Which was to recover the plates. So here we can learn that Obedience is a preparatory action we must take so that we can receive spiritual promptings from the Lord. And contrary to what Nephi would ever think, the Spirit prompted him to kill Laban, because the Lord had delivered him into his hands. Nephi felt conflicted for obvious reasons. 

The 10 commandments were well known and he knew killing was against one of those 10, not to mention he'd never even thought of taking someone's life. I love how the spirit touches him and reassures him that there is a greater purpose behind it. Often the Lord also comforts us and blesses us with the understanding we need. I wouldn't presume to think that many of us will ever have experience as "intense" in nature as Nephi did. However, from this, we can learn that if we have an eternal perspective, we will better be able to understand why we receive some of the promptings we receive and will be more confident as we follow them. We have to realize that the only reason we have commandments and have a need to be obedient to them is that we are imperfect, and as humans are physically incapable of following the spirit and only choosing the right as Christ did. Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be obedient or try to justify our behavior by saying "it felt right" when in all reality Satan has slowly been working on us to the point where we can no longer discern between him and the Spirit. 

I will say however and promise that the Lord knows you. He knows your tendencies, your personality, and how you will react to situations you are put in. If you pray with all sincerity of heart, do the small and simple things you're supposed to, and strive daily to follow the Spirit, you will not be led astray. You can't go wrong with being exactly obedient to the written word of the Lord, but you can go wrong if you fail to listen to a prompting you received from the Holy Ghost, and might I add more often than not, that prompting will come multiple other times if not heeded immediately. This is what it means to be "exactly obedient." That you follow the Lord to the best of your ability in all things but that when you receive personal revelation to do or change something, that you are ready to submit your will to His, because in all reality that is the only thing we can give him. 

I hope that you were able to learn something from this, I know in preparing for the training I did. The Lord is so aware of each one of you. He has a plan personally for you! He wants us all to get back to the Celestial Kingdom to live with him someday. For that reason, he sent Jesus Christ, who taught His Gospel here on the earth and made it possible for us to eventually become as He is. That's why we have the priesthood! To form and be sealed as Eternal Families:) As we strive to put off the natural man and hearken to the word of the Lord, he will bless us and confirm to us that we are doing His will.

Hope this helped you guys maybe in some way think about how you can more effectively receive personal revelation and continue to make the right choice. Love you guys!

Elder Hayes