For Christmas I got Sheri Dew's Women and The Priesthood and have been SO IMPRESSED with it. I hope I'll be able to blog more about the entire book later, but I can't get a certain section out of my mind regarding spiritual gifts and personal revelation. I thought it's certainly applicable to receiving personal revelation at General Conference and in discerning some of the current social trends. From page 64:
President George Q. Cannon encouraged us to pray for gifts of the Spirit that would countermand and eradicate our weaknesses: "If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. . . ."
Spiritual gifts are given to those who seek after them, and they are given to those whom the Lord can trust to use them to bless others.
If some of the prevailing social winds run counter to gospel doctrine, and that conflict concerns or confuses you, search the scriptures and the teachings of living prophets, seers, and revelators [Conference] and seek to understand the Lord's way and to recognize how and why the Lord's way differs from man's. As you study, pray for the gifts of wisdom and discernment.
If you're not sure if you're feeling the presence of the Holy Ghost, or you wonder if you are accurately translating the impressions you're receiving, ask the Lord to tutor you through the ministering of the Spirit. Ask him to lead you to scriptures and to teachings of the living prophets [Conference] that will help you grow in the spirit of revelation. Look for every evidence in the scriptures of direct communication between heaven and mortals on earth, because in those accounts lie instructions for learning the language of revelation.Isn't that WONDERFUL?
I just have to jot down a little note about that very last sentence of looking to the scriptures for "direct communication between heaven and mortals." At our last stake conference, we were encouraged to read the Book of Mormon three times with three different emphases, one of which was to see how God dealt with his children. I've totally missed the one month deadline, but it's really neat to see how God does deal with His children---how he talks to us!
