Following personal spiritual direction in one's life can be a daunting and a difficult task. Sometimes you feel certain about going one way, and perhaps another day you feel to go another. Those who have tried to zealously follow every whim of what seems to be spiritual direction may have learned by frustrating experience that the path sometimes ends up being a circle back to where one started off. This can lead to abandonment of all spiritual guidance or at least a diminished trust and faith in one's ability to receive revelation. How can we follow the spirit yet avoid such pitfalls?
First, it must be understood that not every thought or vision that comes to a person is from God. Some things come from the heart of man, others may even come from the devil:
"Not every spirit, or vision, or singing, is of God. The devil is an orator; he is powerful; he took our Savior on to a pinnacle of the Temple, and kept Him in the wilderness for forty days.... The devil can speak in tongues; the adversary will come with his work; he can tempt all classes; can speak in English or Dutch" (Joseph Smith, STPJS, p. 162).
The key then is to recognize and become personally familiar with the fruits of the spirit of the Lord:
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. 5:22 – 23).
"Joseph said: 'Do you be sure and tell the people one thing. Do you be sure and tell the brethren that it is all important for them to keep the spirit of the Lord, to keep the quiet spirit of Jesus,' and he explained how the spirit of the Lord reflected on the spirit of man and set him to pondering on any subject, and also explained how to know the spirit of the Lord from the spirit of the enemy.
"He said: 'The mind of man must be open to receive all spirits, in order to be prepared, to receive the spirit of the Lord; otherwise it might be barred so as not to receive the spirit of the Lord, which always brings peace and makes one happy and takes away every other spirit. When the small still voice speaks always receive it, and if the people will do these things, when they come up to the father, all will be as in the beginning, and every person stand as at the first'" (Joseph Smith in vision to Brigham Young, Minutes of Meeting at Winter Quarters, 28 February 1847, MS, Brigham Young Papers, Church Archives, emphasis added).
Many interesting contemplations can be entered into that eventually lead a mind to believe that it has discovered something important. But these extraneous thoughts must not distract you to the point that you lose the way you were on when the Spirit of the Lord first directed you. Take the following as a parable:
There was once a young man who had to take a path through the woods. The woods were thick and easy to get lost in. In order to find his way, the young man relied upon large signs that were placed occasionally on trees pointing the way to go. The signs were far enough apart that if the young man were to get distracted investigating the surrounding trees and rocks, he could easily have lost his way to the next sign. At times it seemed that the signs were taking the young man on a longer route than needed based on what he could see of the terrain through the trees. But the young man was wise and ignored his suppositions, as logical as they appeared, and instead continued on the way pointed out by the signs. As he got to higher vantage points he could see that what he assumed were better or quicker routes would actually have gotten him lost or, at best, circling back to where he was. By and by, he found his way through thanks to his diligence in not taking directions from anything other than the designated signs.
Revelation from God should be recognized for its distinction from lesser forms of inspiration or mental distraction; those times hearing the 'quiet spirit of Jesus' should stand out as eternal moments, clear signposts against the usual terrain of life. Once such a signpost has been received, many spirits and interesting things may come to lure the mind and heart away from that divine objective or understanding. Do not change course for anything less than another signpost.
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