What Can I do to Increase My Spirituality?

 I often ask myself and ask in my prayers, "What can I do to increase my spirituality?" so I can receive more help from my Heavenly Father in my daily life. Over the years, I find that the things I need to work on can be grouped into the following categories. These ideas have come from the teachings of living apostles and prophets, so I have included their teachings below.

1. Focus on Jesus Christ
2. Prayer
• Focused, vocal prayer
• Spiritually plan my day
3. Scripture study
• Daily Read from the Book of Mormon
• Pray before reading
• Ponder and listen after
4. Temple covenants
5. Repentance & humility
6. Recognize and Record impressions
• Ask each day, “Have I seen the Hand of the Lord today?”
• Ask more – listen longer, His ways are higher

President Nelson, "Let God Prevail," Oct. 2020, “The only way to survive spiritually is to be determined to let God prevail in our lives, to learn to hear His voice and to use our energy to help gather Israel.”

President Russell M. Nelson, "Spiritual Treasures," Oct. 2019 Examine your life meticulously and regularly. As you do so, the Holy Ghost will prompt you about what is no longer needful, what is no longer worthy of your time and energy.

1. Focus on Jesus Christ

a.       Read and underline every verse cited about Jesus Christ

Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into our Lives - President Russell M. Nelson’s Challenge

Earlier this year, I asked the young adults of the Church to consecrate a portion of their time each week to study everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the standard works. I invited them to let the scriptural citations about Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide become their personal core curriculum. I gave that challenge because I had already accepted it myself. I read and underlined every verse cited about Jesus Christ, as listed under the main heading and the 57 subtitles in the Topical Guide. When I finished that exciting exercise, my wife asked me what impact it had on me. I told her, “I am a different man!” I felt a renewed devotion to Him as I read again in the Book of Mormon the Savior’s own statement about His mission in mortality.

2. Prayer

a.      Focused, vocal prayer

Elder Jeffery R. Holland, To “Hear Him” Is the Essence of the Restoration, Nov. 2020  

I Hear Him through Determined Prayer. 

There is a great lesson in [Joseph’s prayer] about muscular, urgent, determined prayer to fight through, whether it is the adversary’s opposition, the cares of the day, or the distractions of our mind. We have many things that can keep us from having that divine experience. And we, like Joseph, will have to exert all our power to have the magnificent experience that God wants us to have.

 

I Hear Him by Making Quality Time to Pray Vocally.

As Joseph did, I believe it is important for us to pray out loud. It is basic to what God intends for us in our communication with Him. He invites a conversation, if you will, and wants so much to “hear us.” We should make every effort to let Him hear us—literally.

 

The scriptures occasionally talk about the Lord speaking, and they sometimes describe His voice. Sometimes it is a soft voice. Sometimes it is a loud voice. But it is always a penetrating voice. It is always a voice that captivates and engages the whole soul. For me, to say out loud the words of my prayer is to make it crisp and almost visible. Prayer takes on a meaning and a life that is not quite the same when I am just thinking words or mumbling a bit. When we communicate clearly to Him, we can expect to “hear Him” more clearly in return.

 

If you wait until midnight, when you are exhausted, and then say your prayers, it might be only a half-hearted effort before you tumble into bed. Consider moving that prayer up to earlier in the evening, when you are alert and attentive and can make it more powerful. Prayer time ought to be quality time, not just time that happens to be left over when everything else is done—the last gasp of the day, so to speak.

 b.     Spiritually plan my day

3. Scripture study

a.      Daily Read from the Book of Mormon 

 Pray before reading

b.     Ponder and listen after

Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, Nov. 2010 Our humility and our faith that invite spiritual gifts are increased by our reading, studying, and pondering the scriptures. We have all heard those words. Yet we may read a few lines or pages of scripture every day and hope that will be enough. But reading, studying, and pondering are not the same. We read words and we may get ideas. We study and we may discover patterns and connections in scripture. But when we ponder, we invite revelation by the Spirit. Pondering, to me, is the thinking and the praying I do after reading and studying in the scriptures carefully.

 

4. Temple covenants

5. Repentance & humility

Elder Neil L. Anderson, The Gift of Forgiveness, Liahona, Feb. 2021

In prayer we review the happenings of the day, asking,

• “Where did I see the Lord’s hand in my life?
• How did my actions reveal honesty and unselfishness?
• What more could I have done?
• What thoughts and emotions do I need to control?
• How could I have better followed the example of the Savior?
• How could I have been more kind, more loving, more forgiving, and more merciful toward others?
• In what ways was I less than my Heavenly Father would want me to be?”

In prayer we review the happenings of the day… Then we pause and listen. Our personal prayers open the window to personal revelation from our Heavenly Father.

Our repentance, followed by forgiveness from the Savior of the world, is the foundation of our prayers and efforts to return to our heavenly home.

With faith in Jesus Christ, we openly acknowledge to our Heavenly Father

• our mistakes,
• oversights,
• and unthoughtful actions toward others.

We humbly ask for forgiveness, listen to the quiet impressions of the Spirit, and promise our Heavenly Father that we will be more attentive to those things we can improve. We confess our sins and we forsake them (see Doctrine and Covenants 58:43). We restore that which we can restore to those we have hurt or offended. It may be an apology to a spouse or a child, a message to a friend or coworker, or a resolve to follow a neglected spiritual impression.

Repentance becomes a continual thought, a constant effort.

President Russell M. Nelson has said:

“Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. …

“… Experience the strengthening power of daily repentance—of doing and being a little better each day.”

 

6. Recognize and Record impressions

a.      How to #HearHim

President Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives, Apr. 2018 Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.” Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.

 

President Nelson, Hear Him, Apr. 2020

I promise that as you increase your time in temple and family history work, you will increase and improve your ability to hear Him.

 

Elder Jeffery R. Holland, To “Hear Him” Is the Essence of the Restoration, Nov. 2020  

 I Hear Him by Trusting My Feelings

Another way I “hear Him” is to trust what I feel. I often get asked, “How do I know that what I am feeling is coming from the Lord?” We don’t always get a written, certified statement issued in response to our prayers, but if your searching is honorable and true and clean and noble, trust the feelings that come. I encourage people to act on those feelings and to believe that their instincts can be founded on truth. At that point you do not have to ask, “Did it come from Him?” He will make sure that it doesn’t come from an evil source.

 

God wants us to be like Him. We mature, and with effort we become more like God. We think more of His thoughts and feel more of His feelings. We are one with Him, and our impressions ought to be indistinguishable from His promptings. That unity is one of the things the Savior prayed for. By striving to live as one with Him, you will be more like God and you will “hear Him” and trust Him, even as you trust your own feelings when praying to Him.

 

b.     Ask each day, “Have I seen the Hand of the Lord today?”

c.      Ask more – listen longer, His ways are higher