And if thou wilt inquire, thou
shalt know mysteries which are great and marvelous; therefore thou shalt
exercise thy gift, that thou mayest find out mysteries, that thou mayest bring
many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, convince them of the error of their
ways. (D&C 6:11)
This verse intrigued me recently, and I noticed that along
with the promise of knowing and finding out mysteries if we inquire, it also
states that the purpose of finding out mysteries is to bring people to know the
truth and convince them of where they’ve erred. I think that’s really
interesting, since it implies there are mysteries of God’s kingdom that help us
forsake our errors and overcome certain stumbling blocks in our lives that come
out of ignorance or the prevalence of the traditions of men. Mysteries can be useful and practical,
instead of speculative, as we often think.
In fact, I’ve been noticing how many principles of
revelation are in D&C 6. Since it was given to a world with no authoritative
guidance on how to prepare for revelation or how to discern revelation, D&C
6 is itself full of mysteries.
Another thing I notice in this verse is the statement “thou
shalt exercise thy gift, that thou shalt find out mysteries.” It makes me ask, “How do I exercise my gift?” From the perspective
of a church member, I immediately think the gift referred to is the gift of the
Holy Ghost, but I don’t know if I exercise that gift as much as I hope that it exercises me. What do you think?
How do we exercise the gift? Do
you think of exercise here in terms
of just using the gift, or in terms of trying to build a muscle?
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