2.47 Let's Just Keep it Simple
Show Notes
Allen Roberds explores Doctrine and Covenants 11:12, focusing on the simple truth of trusting the Spirit that leads us to do good. This episode helps listeners understand how to recognize spiritual promptings by their righteous fruits and avoid overcomplicating spiritual guidance in daily life.
Key Points
- Trust in the Spirit that consistently leads to doing good, dealing justly, walking humbly, and judging righteously, as taught in Doctrine and Covenants 11:12.
- Avoid overthinking or overcomplicating the experience of feeling the Spirit; its influence is clearly discernible through righteous actions.
- The Spirit's guidance towards positive and just actions is a clear indicator of its presence, dispelling doubts about personal thoughts versus divine promptings.
- Following the Spirit's lead to do good fills the soul with joy, as mentioned in Doctrine and Covenants 11:13.
- Recognize the Holy Ghost as a gift received through baptism, which consistently guides individuals to the right path and righteous living.
If you're being guided to do good things, to do justly, walk humbly, judge righteously, you're being guided by the Spirit.
Episode Resources
Full Transcript
In Matthew 5.13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.
Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. I can't believe we made it to the end of this week.
I can't believe that it's taken me this long to get to Doctrine and Covenants section 11. Quite honestly, this was such a tough week because I absolutely love 2 Nephi chapters 1 through 4, as I have said many times, I know. And I also loved going through Doctrine and Covenants section 10.
And so that leaves us this week with just one verse to look in Doctrine and Covenants section 11. I don't know if I picked the right one, but I picked one that I absolutely love. And it's one that leaves me thinking, Allen, do you overcomplicate things?
Maybe you're just overthinking it a bit. So for those of you out there that are maybe overthinkers or overcomplicators, this one's for you. We're going to be looking at Doctrine and Covenants section 11, verse 12.
Now really, as I usually do, none of these are just, you know, epic standalone verses. So really, you're going to look at 12, 13, 14, probably even actually 11 as you go into that. So you're going to see the verses around it, but let's focus specifically on 12.
This is the Lord speaking and it says, 'And now verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit, which leadeth to do good, yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously.' And this is my Spirit. My friends, sometimes I get so in my own mind. Am I feeling the Spirit?
Am I not feeling the Spirit? Is this a prompting from the Spirit? Is this my own mind thinking about the Spirit?
Am I thinking myself? Is this my idea? Is this the Lord's idea?
Is this the Spirit's idea? And I get so caught into it. And I think the Lord is trying to help out here with Joseph and his brother.
And he's trying to say, 'Look, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good. Do good.' This is not overcomplication here. There's a Spirit that's going to lead you to do good things, to deal justly, right?
To walk humbly, to judge righteously. This is my Spirit. And then you find out in 13 that when you do that, it's going to fill your soul with joy.
My friends, I love that feeling the Spirit doesn't have to be overcomplicated. I remember a talk, it's been years now, probably five years ago or so, Elder Bednar was talking about this and the struggle with how do I know it's the Spirit versus not know it's the Spirit. And he said, 'Look, do you really need to wrestle if you have a prompting to do good in the world?
Do you need to wrestle about whether it's your prompting or whether it's a prompting from the Spirit? Like, go do good in the world.' And I love that. I tried to find that.
I think it actually was like a fireside or something because I can't find it in general conference talks. So maybe if you know what I'm talking about, send it over to me so that I can look into it again. But Elder Bednar was basically saying, stop complicating the feelings of the Spirit.
So as you look through this verse, I love taking some time to look into all of these footnotes in this one. So take some time to look at trust. And in fact, here's a little fast footnote activity at the end of this episode here.
Look what happens when you just footnote the words together: Trust, Spirit, leadeth, good, justly, humbly, judge. I love that combo. It's a great little kind of adventure to go through those footnotes.
My friends, don't overcomplicate this. The Spirit of the Lord leads men to the right path. All of these things are being guided by the Spirit.
If you're being guided to do good things, to do justly, walk humbly, judge righteously, you're being guided by the Spirit. And that is a gift we all can have through the blessing of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am grateful for that in my life today.
That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.
This transcript was generated using AI and may contain errors. I do my best to review and edit them when I can.