In Wendy Ulrich’s FAIR conference presentation last summer, she spoke on spiritual experiences, and our attempts to discern whether such experiences come from within, as part of our own emotions, or whether they are truly created by the Spirit, outside ourselves.
People from many religious traditions have “spiritual” experiences–feelings, insights, premonitions, and encounters which they are left to their own conclusions to decipher. It is not unusual for people to conclude from such experiences that God is their God, that He is nearby, or that something associated with that experience is God’s will. Often in the Church we encourage people to look for such feelings and experiences as evidence of God’s hand, or of the truthfulness of the Church’s message. Yet people from many religious backgrounds can have such experiences. How do the goose bumps and tearfulness I experience when someone speaks in a testimony meeting differ from the goose bumps and tearfulness I experience when the 4:00 parade begins at Disneyland?
…[H]ow do we decide what to believe? No simple formula exists that easily applies to all situations, but there is a language of the Spirit that we learn through experience, practice, and attention, and that uses both feelings and reason to communicate.
Long ago in yonder city, I was a missionary, and it was zone conference time. I always enjoyed zone conferences. They were fun, uplifting, and spiritual. This one particular conference, however, provided me with an education outside the words from my mission president. The conference proceeded as all conferences did – I remember nothing remarkable about it – and then we were sent on our way to return to our areas.
Very soon after we left, I felt an incredible contrast between what I was experiencing at that moment, and what I had experienced at zone conference. It was as though we had fallen from a higher spiritual plane into the lone and dreary world. It was a shocking contrast. I did not remember feeling like I was on a particularly spiritual high during the conference as opposed to other similar situations, nor did anything happen in those few minutes we had been driving that should bring me down (all we’d done was drive a few miles in suburban America), and yet there was indeed an incredible contrast. It was surprising and unusual. It provided a fascinating clarity on what the Spirit feels like.
When Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith three times that one night, repeating his message each time, I wonder if one of the lessons of that night was on identifying the Spirit and what was truth. The repetitive presence and departure of a heavenly messenger may have provided Joseph with a bright contrast with which to judge further experiences, helping him as he learned to recognize what inspiration and revelation felt like.
I agree with Wendy Ulrich – experience and attention to those experiences can help us learn to decipher what the Spirit feels like, allowing us to identify what is real.
One method for the “avergage joe” to help in identifying spiritual experiences or spiritual promptings is to keep a journal exclusively for promptings. As soon as possible after a prompting (don’t try to determine what kind) record in your journal what you were prompted to do. Ponder a bit about the prompting then decide whether you will follow it. Whether you follow the prompting or not record this in your journal. Leave some space in your journal (before starting another entry). After a few days or weeks (whatever is appropriate to prompting) record in your journal (in the space you left) the consequences of following (or not following) your prompting. Occasionally re-read older journal entries. You might be able to discern which promptings were emotional and which were spiritual. YMMV
Daylan, that’s excellent advice. I’ve done that (journaling), and found out you can also learn from the times when you ignore a prompting. Negative feedback is still feedback, and can be used for course corrections.
I’ve also found that my ability to recognize spiritual experiences, and to both discern and obey promptings is directly tied to personal purity and righteousness. Any degree of sin or slacking off clouds the channel of communication. And it seems like the threshhold of compliance needed for clear communication keeps increasing. Failure to progress is the same as going backwards.
Daylan, I really like that idea. I think I’d like to try that.
Bookslinger, definitely agree about the failure to progress thing. I’ve found when I’m stagnating that it is just as bad for me spiritually as when I’m going backwards.