3.018 The Voice of the Spirit

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello, my friends, it's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve. With so many voices around us, even so many voices in the scriptures, how do we know which ones to follow?

We are finishing up our reading this week with Genesis 1 and 2, Moses 2 and 3, as well as Abraham 4 and 5. And even inside of those readings, we get different versions of the Bible. We are going to be talking about the Bible from this week with our readings that are coming next week as we go over the Fall of Adam and Eve and dive into what happens with them.

This one comes from a talk given by President James E. Faust, at the time he was in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. So he was just Elder Faust at the time, I guess I should say.

And this is September of 1993. And this actually comes out of BYU speeches. So I'll make sure that the link today goes specifically to this talk so that you can dive into it.

And as BYU speeches typically go, this one's about 30 minutes or so. So this is a longer conference talk, so to speak, right? But the reason I selected it, one, it is an absolute banger of a speech.

I got to be honest. I love this one. He covers such great information, this one, and speaks in such a way that encourages us to lean into the voice of the Spirit.

Let me take a section out of his talk here for our verse for the day and see if we can maybe connect this idea of the Old Testament as we go from the Creation into the Fall of Adam and Eve. He is talking about different voices in the world today, and in this paragraph he says this: "We hear other voices. Paul said, 'There are so many kinds of voices in the world that compete with the voice of the Spirit.' We have come here to hear just one voice.

I have humbly prayed that I will speak by the power of the Holy Ghost so that my message may be carried into your hearts by that same power. Imagine, however, what would happen if all of a sudden a heckler in the back of this hall started to yell obscenities. Another one on my left began to contend with him.

Another one on my right began to debate with his neighbor. Someone in the center turned on a recording of some loud music. Soon a chorus of raucous, rival voices would smother my voice, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to deliver a spiritual message to you.

Such is the situation in the world. The Spirit's voice is ever-present, but it is calm, said Isaiah, and the work of righteousness. The Bible says, 'The Lord shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.' The adversary tries to smother this voice with a multitude of loud, persistent, persuasive, and appealing voices." And then he goes on to list many of those.

My friends, this talk is so good! Elder Faust talks about all the different voices that we are listening to and the importance it is. And he actually gives us five or six keys at the end of this talk for us to focus in and make sure that as we are going through our lives, we are focused on the voice of the Spirit.

So as we dive into all of these different interpretations, as we look at Genesis versus Moses versus Abraham, as we look at different translations of the Old Testament, whether it's the KJV or the NIV or whatever it is, I just wanted to bring up and make us aware that ultimately at the end of the day, what we're seeking to have in our lives is a better tuning to the voice of the Spirit. That's where our testimonies are going to grow. That's where we're going to be taught by our Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ.

And that's where ultimately we will turn from the inside out and ultimately repent and have a change of heart and continue to go forward and serve the Lord. That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We'll be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.