Latest / ToddTalks--Spirit By Design: Your Weekly Survival Guide / Faith Becomes Power When We Move, Stop Being a Spectator in Your Own Life - Episode 2

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Faith Becomes Power When We Move, Stop Being a Spectator in Your Own Life - Episode 2 · ToddTalks--Spirit By Design: Your Weekly Survival Guide

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good to see you again, or hear you again, or actually you're hearing me.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm back with episode two of the reinvigorated Todd Talks, your spirit by design.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Glad you're here.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to start with a uh quote from Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: She said, You cannot be, I know, nor do I wish to see you an inactive spectator.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have too many high-sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that goes really well with uh what I wanted to talk about today.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: There is always much talk and very little action.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about when you receive revelation acting on it, right?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And very often I see in the world today that we talk about a lot of things, but do we actually do them?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get a little introspective.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Think about this for yourself.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you say you're gonna do something?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's February.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you made New Year's resolutions and kept them?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of talk, high words, very little action.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: We become inactive spectators in our own life.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Very interesting because there was a talk by Elder Bednar where he he laid out the principle of acting uh to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: That it's that it's an action on our part.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be willing to receive it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just something once we receive the laying on hands, it's it's given and boom, we have it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, we have to actually be open to receiving, we have to open our spirit, take action.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in the rise um Rise Zion podcast, they talked a little bit about this.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they says, Elder Bednar directs us to uh Doctrine and Covenant section 42, where the Lord declares, and the spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That phrase changes everything when we remember that faith is a principle of action and of power.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit is given by the prayer of faith, not by assumption, not by ritual alone, but by active obedient engagement with God.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Active obedient engagement.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: How active are you in trying to address your spiritual defects?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: How active are you in your religion?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: How active are you in not just trying to hear the word, but to live the word?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of those one of those keys, one of those difficulties I think that many Christians make is the idea that once we've been saved, once we've accepted Jesus, that that's it, we're done.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the Bible points out, as well as the Book of Mormon, that we have to continually strive to live the life that Christ lived, to emulate the life that the actions and follow the commands and the words that he gave us.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Difficult in this world.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know it is.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, but that's why he gave us repentance.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of action.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: It is a principle that takes us from just hearing the word to living the word.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: This applies to parenting, teaching, leadership, testimony.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I am paraphrasing from Ryze Zion right there.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it also affects and should be part of your work life, your daily life, your prayer life, your scripture reading life.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It should be part of everything that you do.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel is a principle of action.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Receiving the Spirit is a principle of action.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not just assuming that you're going to have it, but listening.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Active listening.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what active listening is?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard that phrase?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Active listening.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you say a prayer, and quite often we say, Well, I don't, my prayer wasn't answered.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But did you actively listen?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Did you pause?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Study it out in your mind?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did you read your scriptures?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Did you think about all the different possibilities possible actions that you could take?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did you weigh the pros and cons and come to a decision and then take that decision to God?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Receiving the Spirit requires active listening.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It also requires action when you receive the answers.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I talk about this a lot because I try to live my life by this.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Acting on the answers that you get.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Joseph went to the sacred grove intending to do whatever God revealed.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: That expectation turned his prayer into power.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: If the Spirit is given by the prayer of faith, then receiving the Holy Ghost requires movement.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: The real question, jumping ahead, is not whether hands were placed on our heads years ago when we were baptized, after we were baptized.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: The real question is whether we are receiving the Spirit now.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are we acting when prompted?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are we repenting when corrected?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Are we aligning all our will with Jesus Christ daily?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I love that that quote.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: That was a great uh message that I saw on the Facebook page.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so true.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Are we acting?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Are we receiving?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Are we acting on the information we receive?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, are we studying and willing to do the things that the Lord asks us to do?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm laughing as I say this because we bought a house, we moved, and Tiffany was like, um, I don't want to move there.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, she fought it, but we ultimately bought the house and we moved here.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord told us to.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's the right thing, and we've had confirmation after confirmation after confirmation that it was the right move, that it was the right thing.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord's willing to do that for us.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's willing to bless us, he's willing to bless you.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to ask yourself when you're kneeling in prayer, when you're thinking about what you want out of this next year, this next month, this next week, even this next day.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're struggling because you're in a dead-end job.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're and you want to improve, maybe finances are an issue, maybe you don't like where you live, maybe you don't like the people around you.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a bad situation, you need to get out of it, but you don't know how.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting on a train, in your closet, in a church, at a pew, on a mountaintop, wherever it is, wherever it is that you find a moment of solitude to express your desires to the Lord, when you say amen, that's just the start of the process.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then you begin the active listening.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then you decide, are you willing to actually do the things that the Lord's giving you?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: If the Lord gave you an answer, are you gonna give him a timeline?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes things don't happen in the timeline we expect.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I know this for a fact.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I went a very roundabout way to be a pilot.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Started when I was 15, wanted to do it, kept running out of money because I was paying my own way.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Went on a mission, and after changing my whole uh schedule for a girl in my first year of college, and dropping Air Force ROTC, which probably would have been a much easier way to go about being a pilot.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Came back from my mission, met my wife, got married, went to school for aviation, ran out of money, had kids on the way, praying about what to do, and multiple times was given the answer join the Air Force, become a linguist.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Join the Air Force, become a linguist.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Join the Air Force, become a linguist.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: For an entire year, I finally listened and acted on it.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And within three, within 30 days, I was at basic training.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: At basic training, I ended up being like the dad of the group.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: People would come to me with troubles.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I helped several guys that were struggling.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord put me where I needed to be, when I needed to be there.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And three and a half years later, I got accepted to pilot training.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Again, continuing the path where the Lord wanted me to be, but I had to be willing to act and listen for a year.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: It took me a year to realize that that's what he was telling me.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And once I heard, I understood.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then, ever since then, Tiffany and I have made it a point to hear and act.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I talk about this a lot.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about this quite a few times in a bunch of episodes because it is such an important, it's such an important step for a successful life, in my opinion.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: This concept is more than just a concept.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is a way of life that when actively pursued and actively used and acted on will help you live a life that you can't even imagine.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have had crazy experiences, good and bad, over the last 50 years.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've lived a lifetime, probably three different times, because I'm willing to do what the Lord asks me to do.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to do what the Lord asks you to do?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, believe me, I am not perfect.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: It may sound like I'm tooting my own horn here.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: That is one area where I have committed myself to doing.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've committed myself to a lot of other areas, but I don't always I don't always measure up.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not always as good at some things as I'd like to be.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I have been very good at this, and that's acting when receiving the prompting.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I harp on this so much.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's why it is something that really strengthens my testimony and helps me to helps me to be a better person.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that it's an area that can help you to be a better person.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: John's wife again said, I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature, and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping and like the grave, cries, give, give.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: What area are you going to give?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to give your time, effort, and self, because that's ultimately what you give.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to give it to the world?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to give it to God?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, God wants us to be in the world, but not of the world.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have to live in this dark and dreary world.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot of beauty and light in this world.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Will you be one of those that shines, that becomes a candle not hidden under a bushel, but set on a candlestick to light the way?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Will you be a city set on a hill that lights the way in the darkness?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: This world is full of darkness.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you have a choice to take that first step.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Take that first step forward in moving on a new path.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: It may be an old path.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: It may be a path that you've been on for a while and you're trying to adjust.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody has to walk their path.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on here with you.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hope to be here with you.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh would love it if you ever get a chance to share with me some of your stories.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Has anything I said touched you in a way that made you think differently?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Has it helped you to improve your life?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you share with me your stories, the email is in the show notes.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put them on the air.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about it.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully your story can help others.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: As always, this is Todd Talks, where I help you live your best spiritual life.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's why this is now Todd Talks, your spirit by design.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: You get to design the spiritual life that you want.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: How close do you want to be with God?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: How close do you want to be with Jesus Christ?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna be friends?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Acquaintances, or ships passing in the night?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're gonna try to help you become friends.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this podcast is all about.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Help you to live the life that you desire, the spiritual life that you desire.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good night.