Come Follow Me with Taylor Halverson (Doctrine and Covenants 85-87, August 2-8)

Come Follow Me with Taylor Halverson (Doctrine and Covenants 85-87, August 2-8) – powered by Happy Scribe

How might we experience the still small voice of God? I’m going to share a story of one way perhaps not to. And let me give you some context. I’ve spent a lot of years studying religion. Now, I’ve been a member of the church all my life, and I’ve been deeply benefited from great teachers in the church throughout my life. And I found myself interested in studying other religions. I actually did a graduate degree in religious studies. I’ve traveled to many places around the world and found great joy in studying a variety of religious traditions.

And all of that is actually magnified my love for God and my deep appreciation, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And in my years of experience, I sometimes have attended other religious religious festivals or religious meetings. And for example, when I was in graduate school at Indiana University, I once attended an evangelical congregation one evening and really loved feeling the faith and love that the people in that congregation had for God. And I want to be careful how I share this story, because I don’t mean to be negative.

But it was an interesting because that evening the pastor of that church wanted to teach an important lesson about how to feel and experience and hear the still small voice of God, something that I think all of us aspire to. Now, in that church, they had a very capable band that was on the stage and they’re playing music. And when the preacher came on, the band was playing kind of loud music and he got to a point where he was preaching with such enormous enthusiasm about how to hear the still small voice that he literally was shouting into the microphone saying things like, there will be times in your life that you will hear the still small voice whispering, whispering in your heart.

Now, the words were true that he was saying. But because he was doing it so loudly and because the music of the band was so loud, I thought I just smiled to myself that yes, it is true that we can hear the still small voice. And possibly in that setting, some people did. I thought it was a little bit distracting. There was so much noise, it was actually hard for me to really concentrate and feel and hear.

The still small voice, though, again, I share that story mostly for a smile, but not to denigrate anybody, but is a reminder that if we want to hear the still small voice of God, we have to put ourselves in circumstances where we can hear something that’s so quiet, so pervasive, but may be distracted by lots of outside confusion, commotion or noise. So wherever you are, maybe even today, could you take a few minutes and put yourself in a moment where all distractions are cut out and you truly can hear the deep, piercing and beautiful voice of God whispering to you with love and comfort to know that you are his child, his beloved child.

He cares deeply about you. And he was willing to do all of this in the world just for you, that you might return to his presence. God loves you. He wants you to hear his voice and he knows yours. And as you hear his voice, you will feel that deep peace that you need so you can find yourself wrapped in his presence.