To receive spiritual truths, one must be obedient as well as diligent (see D&C 130:19). Spiritual light is received when one follows the doctrine of Christ–that is, the first principles and ordinances of the restored gospel. I challenge you to increase your faith by living gospel principles more precisely, by repenting when you fall short, by taking an active role in your ward, by rendering service to others, and by making prayer and scripture study a part of your everyday life. In this manner you will find true joy.
In closing I turn to the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who wrote about the connection between heaven and our intellect as follows:
We consider that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments. [TPJS, 51]
Category Archives: Bateman
the Light of Christ (Bateman; Penrose)
More than 100 years ago, President Charles W. Penrose, citing section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants, stated that the physical and spiritual spectrums of light are related and belong to one continuum. Speaking of the Light of Christ, the Spirit of God, he said:
It is the light and the life of all things. It is the light and the life of man. It is the life of the animal creation. It is the life of the vegetable creation. It is in the earth . . . ; it is in the stars . . . ; it is in the moon . . . : it is in the sun, and is the light of the sun, and the power by which it was made; and these grosser particles of light that illuminate the heavens and enable us to behold the works of nature, are from that same Spirit which enlightens our minds and unfolds the things of God. As that light comes forth from the sun, so the light of God comes to us. [Charles W. Penrose, JD 26:21]
Elder Merrill J. Bateman, BYU Devotional, September 2000
http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=297
escape from death and sin (Groberg)
the very personal nature of the Atonement (Bateman)
(emphasis added, Elder Merrill J. Bateman, “The Power to Heal from Within,” Ensign, May 1995, 14).