1. Desire to Believe
(a)
The Lord does not expect someone, in the
beginning, to believe with no evidence. Later on He might, but in the beginning
He provides evidence. He gave the greatest evidence of all that He existed by
appearing to Joseph Smith
(b)
As you grow spiritually, you will require less
and less evidence in order to believe, but in the beginning, you need some
evidence. But even with evidence, you must have a desire to believe.
2. Believe on the Lord’s Word
(a)
You must be careful not to cast it out by your
unbelief. This does not just apply to gaining a testimony; it is true of
exercising faith as a father, a mother, a priesthood leader, or a missionary,
or in any aspect of life.
(b)
Every day we cast out great things because of
our unbelief, but if we do not cast out that portion of the Lord’s word in our
hearts, it will begin to grow within us
3.
Experiment and Obtain Spiritual Evidences
(a)
Different people may have different ideas about
what that spiritual feeling is and what it means
(b)
How do
you correctly recognize that feeling and know that the seed is from God?
(i)
It begins to enlarge your soul
(ii)
It begins to enlighten your understanding
(iii)
It begins to be delicious to you
4. Your Faith is Strengthened and Increased
(a)
A person must observe his covenants by
sacrifice. He has seen faith rewarded before, and is certain it will happen
again.
5. You Obtain a Perfect Knowledge in That Thing
(b)
A person knows by his experience that a thing is
true
6. Nourish the Word
(c)
After you have obtained this faith and this knowledge,
you must not stop, but you must continue nourishing the word until you can
obtain eternal life.
(d)
You must keep in mind that faith is a gift of
God, that you must center your faith in Jesus Christ, that you must use the
power of the Holy Ghost, and that you must recognize and be thankful for the
faith you already have.
7.
Faith is a Gift of God
(a)
If you really want to have more faith, you would
be wise to pray with all of your heart to obtain it and then be willing to
receive what the Lord will give you.
(b)
We should not expect faith to drop from heaven
and descend upon us
(c)
Faith comes as the Lord provides us with
experiences and challenges that will strengthen us as we live righteously
(d)
Faith comes by a lot of hard work, a lot of
patience, and a lot of time
8. Center Your Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
(a)
We really can never afford to center our faith
in anything or anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ
(b)
Christ is the rock of our salvation. He is
immovable. His course is one eternal round, and you can depend on Him wherever
you are throughout your life and throughout all eternity. He will always be the
same.
9. Use the Power of the Holy Ghost
(a)
The Holy Ghost is the revelator of all things,
including the attributes of God upon which faith is based
(b)
The truths that you will obtain spiritually as a
member of the Church will come through the Holy Ghost
(c)
“Faith is based on truth, and is preceded by
knowledge. Until a person gains a knowledge of the truth he can have no faith.
Faith and truth cannot be separated; if there is to be faith, saving faith,
faith unto life and salvation, faith that leads to the celestial world, there
must first be truth. Not only is a true knowledge of God a conditioned
precedent to the acquirement of this faith, but faith can be exercised only by
those who conform to the principles of truth which come from the true God who
actually exists.”- Elder Bruce R. McConkie
(d)
After your service, patience, and incessant
prayer, the Lord will reveal Himself to you, and you will obtain the kind of
faith that you need in order to have eternal life
10.
Recognize the Faith You Already Have
(a)
We must be very careful that we do not overly
condemn ourselves in thinking that we do not have faith
(b)
As we become more spiritually sensitive, we
being to realize as we look at ourselves that great things are happening to us
spiritually that are not at all perceivable in the natural realm
(c)
Like the Lamanites (3 Ne. 9:20), we have
probably felt the Holy Ghost, but some of us may not have recognized it fully
(d)
We struggle many times when we see how much
faith other people might have, or how much the Lord has in His perfection, and
it makes us feel very humble to realize that we have very little
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