Latest / ToddTalks--Spirit By Design: Your Weekly Survival Guide / How To Protect Your Moral Agency In A Noisy World - Agency Part 1 of 3

Transcript

How To Protect Your Moral Agency In A Noisy World - Agency Part 1 of 3 · ToddTalks--Spirit By Design: Your Weekly Survival Guide

• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: During the early days of dogfighting, a fighter pilot had to constantly be on the lookout for enemy aircraft in order to set up and gain control of the engagement.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: If the other pilot saw you first, he could come out of the sun, have the initiative, and instead of flying and positioning for the kill, you are no longer in control.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are only reacting.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't gain control, you could lose everything.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You either have control of the situation and choose your actions, or you can only react and pray you don't get shot down, or that the other guy makes a mistake.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritually speaking, that's exactly what happens when we stop exercising agency.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because make no mistake, agency is not just a gift, it's a battlefield, the original battlefield for your soul.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to break down what it means to fight with and for agency.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also, seven stages of decline that lead to spiritual capture and a daily combat checklist to help you stay in control under pressure.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is Todd Talk, Spirit by Design, where I help you build the strength of character and ability to seek and receive revelation to help you in these latter days.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've spoken several times about how in the beginning, before we were born, heck, before the world was formed, we lived with God our Father, and He called us into a council to tell us about His plan for our growth.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: He would create a world where we could come and receive a body and learn to choose right from wrong.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: The most important things he offered us were a body and agency.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then we got to exercise our agency by choosing which plan to save us would be best.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: A third of the host of heaven chose to follow Lucifer when he offered to destroy the agency of man and force everyone to do what was right.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Think communism.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Christ, on the other hand, offered to be a savior and allow people to choose and learn to repent.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Two-thirds chose Christ.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Two-thirds of us chose Christ.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Agency, therefore, is kind of a big deal.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, of course, Satan tries and succeeds quite often in getting us to give away our agency and become slaves.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: That is why I started this episode talking about how agency is a battlefield, because it spiritually is.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: The forces of good and evil.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good and evil are fighting it out for your soul every single day.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Book of Mormon gives us the doctrine that agency is one initiative in the war for your soul.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: In 2 Nephi 2.26, we read, Because that they are redeemed from the fall, they have become free forever, knowing good from evil, to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: That phrase, act and not be acted upon, is everything in combat terms.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Acting, or I should say in combat terms, acting equals initiative, the high ground, being positioned and ready.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Being acted upon equals being the prey, losing the battle, being shot down.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Elder Neil A.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maxwell taught the submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's altar.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the truth.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Agency is your ability to choose your altitude, direction, and outcome, even in enemy airspace.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Agency is your ability to choose, it's your ability to act.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: But in all things there are opposites.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: In the case of agency, there is an adversary.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: The adversary's strategy is to destroy agency without you noticing.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: In the pre-mortal war, Lucifer sought to destroy agency, and Jesus defended it at all costs, thus the war in heaven.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Moses 4 3 states, wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I the Lord God had given him, and also that I should give unto him mine own power, by the power of mine only begotten, I cause that he should be cast down.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the key insight.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: He sought to destroy agency.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then now that he's been cast down, he's been cast down to earth, do you think he stopped?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's changed tactics.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of a direct attack, he tries to erode your agency gradually.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the story I heard of a pilot whose instrument would gradually go off course by a degree here, a degree there, until by the time he was supposed to be landing, he was facing he was flying almost 180 degrees off course back towards where he took off from.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Since Satan tries to erode our agency gradually, we can see a seven-stage pattern to the decline of moral agency.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is spiritual loss of control.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Something you definitely don't want.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Stage one, disengagement or spiritual drift.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've already done one episode about drifting.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: In this stage, you don't rebel, you just stop actively choosing God over man.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer becomes optional or omitted.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture reading becomes occasional and you start coasting, just living life.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Your purpose or destination has been forgotten.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're still flying through life, just not navigating anywhere.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've all been there.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: After my mission, I thought I had it all, I thought I knew it all, and slowly I found myself disengaged and choosing things that I never would have even pictured choosing before.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: That disengagement is a real trap.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've been there.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it took a lot of repentance and self-reflection to get back to where I wanted to be.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Stage two is distraction.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we lose focus.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your attention gets captured.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big one today.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: President Russell M.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nelson stated the adversary is increasing his attacks on faith.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: How is he doing this?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: By such simple means, it makes me sick thinking about it.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Endless scrolling.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's even a name for it.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Doom scrolling.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Busyness without purpose.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Constant noise making it near impossible to hear revelation.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: This makes us fly blind to the threats.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time we don't even realize how bad it is.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a habit we develop, and suddenly we've lost hours, days, weeks, months, or years of endless nothingness.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's a hard one.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty sad.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Stage three, desensitization and the lowering of standards.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Things that once felt wrong don't anymore.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: You become desensitized to what goes against your moral code if you still have a moral code.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: As it says in Ephesians 4.19, we become past feeling.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we start to rationalize sin, justify compromising our standards, and laugh at what once troubled us.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Our warning systems are failing us and we don't even realize it.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: The longer you play in sin, the deeper you get pulled.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And soon we are treading deep waters and have no clue how we got there.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Stage four is distortion.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is where truth becomes flexible.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: This stage is obvious to outsiders.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's where we begin redefining truth.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: For example, losing the definition of what a woman is and not being able to define the specific truth that man and woman were created by God, and there are only two genders.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah warned us about this when he said, Woe unto them that call good evil, that call evil good and good evil.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's Isaiah 5.20.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: In this stage, truth becomes personal, commandments become suggestions, and your compass becomes thoroughly broken.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: You start worrying about your truth and my truth and their truth without recognizing or regarding with reverence the truth.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Stage 5.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Dependence and loss of control.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is where habits take over and become addictions or compulsions.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Agency shrinks because you are controlled by your sins.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: At this point, you are no longer choosing freely.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: You've given away a large portion of agency to the demands of sin, the desires of the flesh.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that leads us to stage six, bondage.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You feel stuck.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: The chains of hell bind you down and pull you towards endless woe.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Shame increases while motivation to improve decreases.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: You see a physical outward change on many individuals at this point.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You feel powerless.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your aircraft at this point is no longer responding to control inputs.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, you enter stage seven, justification or full surrender of agency.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: You stop fighting altogether and just go with your desires.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Nephi 28 21 says, and thus the devil cheateth their souls.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: You defend your condition, you make excuses, you reject correction, and you normalize captivity.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: This equals mission failure.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: It means you've completely gone over to the dark side of the force.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: The dark side of the force.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I'm not going to point out the negative without giving you a strategy to overcome it.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: A counter-attack, if you will.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is how you can strengthen your agency daily.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: You see, there's never a time when we can't repent.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Agency can be rebuilt, strengthened, and weaponized against the darkness.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: In the last episode, I talked about how when you strap on the armor of God, you can overcome sin.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your daily combat checklist, therefore.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is like our pre-flight and in-flight checklists.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: First, morning alignment.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: This sets your heading.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: DNC 636 says, look unto me in every thought.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: How does it work?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, kneel in prayer, pray, declare your intent to follow his son.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Ask, what does God need me to do today?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you do this, you're igniting your purpose.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Start with God, not the world.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, input control.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Guard your mind.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: In Alma 3637, six we read, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: In contrast, by small and simple things are we brought down if we don't guard our thoughts.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: How?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's easy.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Media, everything you input, limit toxic media, don't watch the news all day.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Choose uplifting content.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many new and good channels like Angel Media, Daily Wire, etc.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Prager U.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Also protect your attention.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning don't spend all your time on social media or mindless games that waste your time.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: You only have one life.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Choose wisely.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: You decide what influences you because everything you take in influences you in one way or another.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Especially the music and video that you take in through your eyes and ears.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: 3.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Master the micro choices.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Win the small battles of choice.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Elder D.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Todd Kris Sofferson stated moral agency is the ability to choose and act for ourselves.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, in all your choices, choose patience more often than anger.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Choose discipline more often than gratifying immediate desires.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Choose kindness more often than enmity.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Your moral agency is built in the daily moments, not just in milestones.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let me repeat that.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Your moral agency is built in daily moments, not just in milestones.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: If men come unto me, I will make weak things become strong unto them.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: The key to growing moral agency is to notice drift and to make change.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Repent quickly.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: When corrected, make changes.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Adjust your course early and often.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Small corrections prevent large deviations.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Repent daily.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can I repeat that?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Repent daily.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: We all need it.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm no different.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have to repent daily.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, don't react.
• 14:50
  unknown: Act.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the initiative.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: In Doctrine Covenants 5827, we are counseled to be anxiously engaged in a good cause.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Things will happen in life.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Things will happen in your life.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've often counseled you to stop being the background actors in your own story.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Be the main character, the protagonist in your story.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Serve someone.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do something hard voluntarily.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just react to what happens around you.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Act and take action without being told to.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Stay on the offensive and choose the life you desire.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number six, debrief each night.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's Alma 3737.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Journal and pray.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I suggest.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Journal and pray.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ask where did I choose well?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Where did I drift?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: What can I improve tomorrow?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then wait and listen.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: All pilots in the military debrief their flights.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Fighter pilots break it all down and debrief often, and debriefs often last a lot longer than the actual flight.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Consider similar stances in your discussions with the Lord.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not gonna sit here on a pedestal and say that I'm perfect at this.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: I am a mediocre journalist.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to journal more and I don't.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I have I go in fits and starts with it, but I know it works and it's nice.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I do pray.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I pray all the time.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I need the counsel and guidance of the Lord in my life, because I have a crazy life.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, number seven, keep your covenants.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Stay linked to God's power.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Take the sacrament, go to the temple, pray.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Ghost is necessary to survive in today's high-paced sadistic world.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Ghost restores clarity, power, and control.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: You see, the truth about agency is that you don't lose agency by choosing God.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: You unlock it.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Christ showed us the way by telling the Father, not my will but thine be done.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't surrender.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was him giving up his agency.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't him giving up his agency, that was him using his agency to choose good.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was perfect control.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, each of us is in flight or on a stage.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, are you acting or being acted upon?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because in this war, neutrality is not safety, drift equals defeat, and choosing intentionally is power.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: So today, choose ye this day whom you will serve.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Consciously choose your flight path.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Become the primary actor in your life and choose your path.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Choose wisely, young Padawan.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Todd Talks, part one of a three-part series on agency.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned for parts two and three.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe, leave reviews, share if you feel like I'm providing a benefit and helping you learn how best to grow your spirituality.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can always leave a five-star review to help increase my presence in the algorithm so that more people will give a chance to hear and develop their relationship with God.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: As always, thank you for listening.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Have a blessed day, but I'm not sure.