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On this Easter Sunday, our thoughts
turn to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
and to the empty tomb that gives every believer hope
in Christ's triumph over otherwise certain defeat.
I believe, with the Apostle Paul,
that just as God "raised up Christ from the dead [so]
shall [He] also quicken [our] mortal bodies by his Spirit
that dwelleth in [us]."
To quicken means to make alive.
Just as Christ brings our bodies back to life
after physical death through the power of His Resurrection,
so can He also quicken us, or make us alive,
from spiritual death.
In the book of Moses, we read of Adam undergoing this kind
of quickening: "[Adam] was baptized,
and the Spirit of God descended upon him,
and thus he was born of the Spirit,
and became quickened in the inner man."
What an incomparable gift comes to those who put
their faith in Jesus Christ.
That gift is the Holy Spirit giving us
what the New Testament calls "life in Christ."
But do we sometimes take for granted such a gift?
Brothers and sisters, it is an extraordinary privilege
to "have ... the Holy Spirit for [our] guide"--as demonstrated
by the following experience.
During the Korean War, Ensign Frank Blair
served on a troop transport ship stationed in Japan.
The ship wasn't large enough to have a formal chaplain,
so the captain asked Brother Blair to be the ship's
informal chaplain, having observed that the young man was
a person of faith and principle, highly respected
by the whole crew.
ENSIGN BLAIR WROTE: "Our ship was caught in a huge typhoon.
The waves were about 45 feet high.
I was on watch ... during which time one of our three engines
stopped working and a crack in the centerline of the ship was
reported.
We had two remaining engines, one of which
was only functioning at half power.
We were in serious trouble."
Ensign Blair finished his watch and was getting into bed
when the captain knocked on his door.
He asked, "Would you please pray for this ship?"
Of course, Ensign Blair agreed to do so.
At that point, Ensign Blair could have simply
prayed, "Heavenly Father, please bless our ship
and keep us safe," and then gone to bed.
Instead, he prayed to know if there
was something he could do to help
ensure the safety of the ship.
In response to Brother Blair's prayer,
the Holy Ghost prompted him to go to the bridge,
speak with the captain, and learn more.
He found that the captain was trying
to determine how fast to run the ship's remaining engines.
Ensign Blair returned to his cabin to pray again.
He prayed, "What can I do to help address
the problem with the engines?"
In response, the Holy Ghost whispered
that he needed to walk around the ship
and observe to gather more information.
He again returned to the captain and asked for permission
to walk around the deck.
Then, with a lifeline tied around his waist,
he went out into the storm.
Standing on the stern, he observed
the giant propellers as they came out of the water
when the ship crested a wave.
Only one was working fully, and it was spinning very fast.
After these observations, Ensign Blair once again prayed.
The clear answer he received was that the remaining good engine
was under too much strain and needed to be slowed down.
So he returned to the captain and made that recommendation.
The captain was surprised, telling him that
the ship's engineer had just suggested the opposite--that
they increase the speed of the good engine in order to outrun
the storm.
Nevertheless, the captain chose to follow Ensign Blair's
suggestion and slowed the engine down.
By dawn, the ship was safely in calm waters.
Only two hours later, the good engine
stopped working altogether.
With half power in the remaining engine,
the ship was able to limp into port.
The captain said to Ensign Blair,
"If we had not slowed that engine when we did,
we would have lost it in the middle of the storm."
Without that engine, there would have been no way to steer.
The ship would have overturned and been sunk.
The captain thanked the young LDS officer
and said he believed that following Ensign Blair's
spiritual impressions had saved the crew and the ship.
Now, this story is quite dramatic.
While we may be unlikely to face such dire circumstances,
this story contains important guidelines
about how we can receive the Spirit's guidance more
frequently.
First, when it comes to revelation,
we must properly tune our receiver to heaven's frequency.
Ensign Blair was living a clean and faithful life.
Had he not been obedient, he would not
have had the spiritual confidence
necessary to pray as he did for the safety of his ship
and to receive such specific guidance.
We must each be making the effort
to align our lives with God's commandments
in order to be directed by Him.
Sometimes we can't hear heaven's signal
because we are not worthy.
Repentance and obedience are the way
to achieve clear communication again.
The Old Testament word for repent means "to turn"
or "turn around."
When you feel far from God, you need only
make the decision to turn from sin
and face the Savior, where you will find Him waiting for you,
His arms outstretched.
He is eager to guide you, and you are just one prayer away
from receiving that guidance again.
Second, Ensign Blair did not just
ask the Lord to solve his problem.
He asked what he could do to be part of the solution.
Likewise we might ask, "Lord, what do I
need to do to be part of the solution?"
Instead of just listing our problems in prayer
and asking the Lord to solve them,
we ought to be seeking more proactive
ways of receiving the Lord's help
and committing to act according to the Spirit's guidance.
There is a third important lesson in Ensign Blair's story.
Could he have prayed with such calm assurance
if he had not received guidance from the Spirit
on previous occasions?
The arrival of a typhoon is no time
to dust off the gift of the Holy Ghost
and figure out how to use it.
This young man was clearly following a pattern
he had used many times before, including
as a full-time missionary.
We need the Holy Spirit as our guide in calm waters
so His voice will be unmistakable to us
in the fiercest storm.
Some may think we shouldn't expect daily guidance
from the Spirit because "it is not
meet that [God] should command in all things,"
lest we become slothful servants.
This scripture, however, was given
to some early missionaries who asked
Joseph Smith to obtain revelation they should
have received for themselves.
In a preceding verse, the Lord told
them to come to the mission field
"as they shall counsel between themselves and me."
These missionaries wanted a specific revelation
about their travel plans.
They hadn't yet learned to seek their own direction
in personal matters.
The Lord called this attitude what it is: sloth.
Early Church members may have been
so happy to have a true prophet that they
were in danger of failing to learn how to receive revelation
themselves.
Being spiritually self-reliant is
to be able to hear the Lord's voice through His Spirit
for one's own life.
Alma advised his son to "counsel with the Lord
in all thy doings."
To live in this way--what we often call "living
by the Spirit"--is a high privilege.
It brings a sense of calm and certainty
as well as fruits of the Spirit such as love, joy, and peace.
Ensign Blair's ability to receive revelation
saved him and his shipmates from a raging storm.
Other kinds of storms are raging today.
The Book of Mormon's parable of the tree of life
provides a powerful image of how to achieve spiritual safety
in such a world.
This dream tells of sudden mists of darkness arising
to bring spiritual destruction to members of the Church
walking on the path back to God.
In contemplating this image, I see in my mind's eye throngs
of people traveling that path, some with their hands
firmly gripping the iron rod, but many others simply
following the feet of the people in front of them.
This latter approach takes little thought or effort.
You can just do and think what others are doing and thinking.
This works fine in sunny weather.
But the storms of deception and the mists of falsehood
arise without warning.
In these situations, being familiar
with the voice of the Holy Ghost is a matter
of spiritual life and death.
Nephi's powerful promise is that "whoso would hearken unto
the word of God, and ... hold fast unto it ...
would never perish; neither could the temptations
and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto
blindness, to lead them away to destruction."
Following the feet of the people ahead of you on the path
is not enough.
We cannot just do and think what others are doing and thinking;
we must live a guided life.
We must each have our own hand on the iron rod.
Then we may go to the Lord with humble
confidence, knowing that He "shall lead [us] by the hand,
and give [us] answer to [our] prayers."
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.