You Cannot Force Spiritual Things

There is something else to learn. A testimony is not thrust upon you; a testimony grows. We become taller in testimony like we grow taller in physical stature; we hardly know it happens because it comes by growth.

It is not wise to wrestle with the revelations with such insistence as to demand immediate answers or blessings to your liking. You cannot force spiritual things. Such words as compel, coerce, constrain, pressure, demand, do not describe our privileges with the Spirit. You can no more force the Spirit to respond than you can force a bean to sprout, or an egg to hatch before it's time. You can create a climate to foster growth, nourish, and protect; but you cannot force or compel: you must await the growth.

Do not be impatient to gain great spiritual knowledge. Let it grow, help it grow, but do not force it or you will open the way to be misled.

Use All Your Resources

We are expected to use the light and knowledge we already possess to work out our lives. We should not need a revelation to instruct us to be up and about our duty, for we have been told to do that already in the scriptures; nor should we expect revelation to replace the spiritual or temporal intelligence which we have already received—only to extend it. We must go about our life in an ordinary, workaday way, following the routines and rules and regulations that govern life.

Rules and regulations and commandments are valuable protection. Should we stand in need of revealed instruction to alter our course, it will be waiting along the way as we arrive at the point of need. The counsel to be "anxiously engaged" is wise counsel indeed. (See D&C 58:27.)

A Nathaniel or a Thomas

There is a wide difference in the spirituality of individuals. When Philip told Nathaniel that he had "found him, of whom Moses … and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph," his response was, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

Philip said, "Come and see." Come he did, and he did see. What Nathaniel must have felt! For with no further convincing, he exclaimed, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God."

The Lord blessed him for his belief and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." (John 1:45–51.)

Thomas is another story; the combined testimony of ten of the Apostles could not convince him that the Lord had risen. He required tangible evidence. "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Eight days later the Lord appeared. "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." After he had seen and felt for himself, Thomas responded, "My Lord and my God."

Then the Lord taught a profound lesson. "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:25–29; italics added.)

And so the title "Doubting Thomas"; different indeed than Nathaniel, whom the Lord described as being "without guile." (See John 1:47.) With Thomas, it was "seeing is believing"; with Nathaniel, it was the other way around—believing, then seeing "heaven open and angels of God descending and ascending upon the Son of Man." (John 1:51.)

More Powerful Than You Know

Now, do not feel hesitant or ashamed if you do not know everything. Nephi said, "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." (1 Ne. 11:17.)

There may be more power in your testimony than even you realize. The Lord said to the Nephites:

"Whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not." (3 Ne. 9:20; italics added.)

Several years ago I met one of our sons in the mission field in a distant part of the world. He had been there for a year. His first question was this: "Dad, what can I do to grow spiritually? I have tried so hard to grow spiritually and I just haven't made any progress."

That was his perception: to me it was otherwise. I could hardly believe the maturity, the spiritual growth that he had gained in just one year. He "knew it not" for it had come as growth, not as a startling spiritual experience.

Where to Start

It is not unusual to have a missionary say, "How can I bear testimony until I get one? How can I testify that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and that the gospel is true? If I do not have such a testimony, would that not be dishonest?"

Oh, if I could teach you this one principle. A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it! Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that "leap of faith," as the philosophers call it. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. "The spirit of man," is as the scripture says, indeed "is the candle of the Lord." (Prov. 20:27.)