Last night I was talking to my kids about the recommendation in the Come Follow Me manual to study the Book of Mormon, read it, ponder its messages, then to pray and ask God, in Christ’s name, if it is true.
I asked them if they remembered doing this last year, if they could remember their experience and what they felt. They told me they did and I asked them what it felt like. Eddie told me he remembered feeling the Holy Ghost. And I asked what that felt like. Jentri went on to explain, “It felt warm in my chest.”
Over the years, I’ve felt this warm in my chest many times. Not just after praying about the Book of Mormon, but I have also felt it when listening to other people share their testimonies about things, while listening to music, while reading scriptures, while preparing lessons, while snuggling my children or playing games with them, while praying, while watching a movie, while watching someone perform and even while simply being in the presence of someone. I can be standing there listening to someone ramble on about something so random and my chest can fill with warmth, happiness, security, safety. I can literally feel it expand.
Sometimes I know what I am feeling when this happens. When I am in a church setting, I know this is the Holy Ghost – I can easily identify it. But when it is in a different setting, I don’t usually find myself saying that it is the Holy Ghost. Guess what, though, it is.
The Holy Ghost testifies to us of truth. He teaches us truths, all truths, any truths. It doesn’t have to just be church truths. Moroni promises us “And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:5) That says “ALL” things. Notice the word in there, though, “may.” This indicates option. It is optional whether we learn these truths. And that option is one of choice.
Learning truths by the Holy Ghost has three parts to it. The first part is up to the Holy Ghost to testify of it to us. That is the warmth, peace, happiness we feel in our chests. The second part is up to us to actually recognize the feeling. This is usually where this experience stops. People feel it, recognize that they do, appreciate that feeling for what it is and then go on their way knowing they felt the Holy Ghost. Don’t get me wrong, this is all good, but there is one more part to learning truths.
The third part is for us to actually identify the truth being taught. Learning to do this is where we open ourselves to the actual promise Moroni gives, “… ye may know the truth of all things.” The Holy Ghost can testify to you while you are listening to someone share their testimony, and you may even know that you are feeling the Holy Ghost. But what is he testifying of? Do you ask yourself this question? What truth are you actually being taught?
It’s one thing to feel it, but to actually verbalize to yourself what you just learned, to take it from your heart and put it into your head, is a whole other world! This is learning truths. When you can tell yourself, “I just learned that Joseph Smith was a real prophet and I know it because I just felt that it was true,” this is when learning becomes big.
See, the Holy Ghost can testify, and we can feel it, but that alone is not enough to learn a truth. To actually learn, we have to choose to learn. We can feel the Holy Ghost testify of something, and know that he is testifying, and then we can choose to accept it and learn it or choose to ignore it, to brush it aside. We can actually choose to reject the truth by ignoring it and brushing it aside. Sometimes truths may not be what we want them to be or what we think they should be, and so we simply ignore what we felt and move on. We reject the actual “learning” part of the experience.
So if you want to “know the truth of all things” as Moroni promised, next time you feel that warm, fuzzy, comfortable, peaceful, happy in your chest, stop and ask yourself “What truth am I learning?” You will be surprised at how often you are being taught. It’s not just during church or church study. It is in everyday life interactions. And you might even be surprised at what you are being taught. My guess is that you already know so much more than you realize, you just have to choose to see it.
Forever grateful!
