Forget about receiving a miracle

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 1987 Conference.

I thought this was kind of a funny thing for a General Authority to say about how to develop a testimony:

Youth of Zion, forget about receiving a miracle, or the so-called sure sign from heaven. There are no shortcuts to eternity. Thus, extreme patience becomes another key factor as we develop our testimony over a lifetime. It is simply “line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little, and there a little,” just as the scriptures say. 

In context, he isn't saying "miracles aren't real" or anything like that. Rather than "You WON'T receive a miracle" I think he means "Don't FOCUS on receiving a miracle." Which, actually, I think is good advice. His point is that developing a testimony is a lifelong process, which cannot be hurried or accomplished in one dramatic event. I like his phrase "extreme patience"—I feel that sets up appropriate expectations. :) Rather than waiting passively for miracles, we ought to be focusing on our own obedience and faith, letting the miracles come as God wills.

Elder Simpson then gives this further counsel:

If you want to know the truth, you become informed, you be willing, and you be available. 

Be informed about truth by reading the scriptures and by listening to inspired leaders.
Be willing to live that truth to the best of your ability. 

And then be available to the gifts of the Spirit through your personal worthiness that you may be directed and that you may recognize the answer when it comes. 

…And never forget this: anyone who has been foreordained as you have been, anyone who has been given the gift of the Holy Ghost as you have, and anyone who has had priesthood authority conferred upon him as you have, will surely find within his grasp the ability to acquire a strong testimony—a testimony that should never stop growing.

And that, among other things, IS the miracle—the Holy Ghost working upon us bit by bit to bring us closer to Jesus Christ.


Other posts in this series: Engage the Blessing of a Priesthood Blessing—by Jan Tolman