Run Fast

It is not meet that we run faster than you have strength.

What a lousy cop-out we use to defend our laziness in drawing closer to God.  If I sold everything I owned and gave it charity I would be called a charlatan and a heretic, not doing the Lord's will but my own. And if I told someone I felt like the Lord was asking me to do that, I would be called crazy. Thankfully he hasn't asked me to do that, but if he did would I listen, would I even be able to hear it?  Or would my preconceived notion that God would never ask that stop me from hearing it?

It doesn’t take strength to get close to God. Pushups build muscle, seeking after God in worship, introspection and prayer builds that muscle. Purifying our hearts is the really hard part.  Being humble enough to listen. That's the biggest challenge.

If you can’t run because you don’t have strength, work hard on building that strength up with prayer, fasting, introspection, scripture study, temple attendance, and ridding yourself of all ungodliness in media and thought.

The strength part is building to prepare you for the work. The work part is what you need to be careful about running too fast after…. Feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and afflicted, that needs wisdom and order. 

You can’t seek after God too much. You can't be too Righteous. Those things can be done nearly constantly and the Lord would bless us accordingly to maintain a roof and food and even the basic comforts of life. 

The moment we being to seek for ourselves and our own gain before the Lords, we lose our footing.  We can be good stewards which means we don’t live absurdly or lavishly, but we live according to our fair wants and needs, and are prepared to give it all away at a moments notice.

Oh is that too much faith?  The willingness to give it all up. People seem to hate hypothetical but I thrive in that department.  That's how you strategize against an enemy, you think ahead and try to consider what might be thrown at you. This is a war we are fighting after all.

 I’m sure most of us would give it all up if the Lord showed up and told us to do it. But does that take faith?  Does that show we hear the Masters voice? He wants us to follow his voice, and that is definitely a good thing because a good sheep knows his masters voice, that way when he calls after us we can come and he doesn't have to hunt us down every five minutes when we start to wander off.

So how about on a prompting. How sure are we that we can hear the Lord’s voice if he told us that in a prompting.  Have we purified our hearts before him?  Are we willing to do his will at all costs? If so, then we will hear his voice pretty clearly.  And if we are in a place where we can hear his voice that clearly, then that also means he can use us for a lot of other smaller and easier purposes.

One of the strange things that happens to men, when they become smart or successful they begin to think that everything they do is right or inspired because it pays off with fruits….success in material things is mistaken for fruits of the Lord.  They can be, but not exclusively. The real fruits of following God with exactness, without preconceived notions are the healing of the sick. Power in the Priesthood. Walking with God.

When they are learned they think they are wise…How many of us study and learn the gospel. That's a dangerous precedent if we think that makes us a wizard in knowing all God's ways..A wise man would constantly seek the Lords counsel ready to learn from the fountain of all knowledge. There isn’t one answer.  There millions of them, no man can know all the ways of the Lord for there are too many to list, and each issue no matter how similar might require a completely new approach, especially when dealing with the complexity of human beings. We are after all light years behind on His understanding of things, so we stop earnestly seeking his counsel thinking we already understand. 

A wise man will go to the Lord for learning rather than books.  A wise man will purify his heart to hear the voice of the Lord loudly and clearly so we can learn from Him.

 Section 8 of D&C:

1 Oliver Cowdery, verily, verily, I say unto you, that assuredly as the Lord liveth, who is your God and your Redeemer, even so surely shall you receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive a knowledge concerning the engravings of old records, which are ancient, which contain those parts of my scripture of which has been spoken by the manifestation of my Spirit.

The Lord showed Nephi how to build a ship, and he can show us how to do anything else pertinent to our salvation if we can just hear his voice.