The True Love Dare: Dare 3

I’m hoping that since I wasn’t able to get to Dare Three until today that it gave you some extra time to work on the last assignment. That last assignment is a big one, if it takes you longer than even today, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The more you can discover from the last assignment, the more you will be able to apply in the Dares to come. 🙂 We are building our True Love foundation in these first five Dares. So take the time to establish it well.

2 Nephi 31:12-13

“And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism–yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.”

Dare Three:

Ask God how, when and where to manifest this truth, your truth.

Moroni 10:5-8

“And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is. And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.”

In the last two Dares we’ve covered that we must build on truth, and that when we connect to truth, our identity is made manifest.

I don’t know about you, but when you’ve spent years of hiding who you are, when you finally decide you’re going to be honest and be who you are when you connect to God’s truth, sometimes it can be rather scary. Hiding is all about fear. But, shining? Well, that’s all about being brave. There’s a lot of different kinds of bravery. For each person it’s different, because we are all different people, with different weaknesses and strengths. Add into that, that if you’re connected to truth, more truth is going to be brought to you, which means that God is going to be bringing you out of your present comfort box, out of what’s normal for you. Beth Moore tells a story on youtube that I absolutely love to illustrate this point. Take a few minutes and watch it, cause I want to build off a few things that she brings out.

Beth talks there about how “the Lord begins to compel” her heart. She knows He’s up to something! Have you ever felt something similar? I’ve felt that in a few different ways. When He’s compelling us like that, it’s because He wants us to resonate with Him and the Truth that He manifests and do what He would do in that moment. Since we’re not Him that can be a little uncomfortable at times.

In Beth Moore’s book Audacious she tells another story, where the Lord compels her, but in a quieter way. It starts on page 170 if you want to read it.

My point in bringing these things out, is that God is going to bring us to resonate with Him through a lot of various ways. Sometimes it takes time to learn how He communicates with us. Sometimes it involves risk. And sometimes we find out we were wrong. But it’s like that old saying goes: nothing ventured, nothing gained. It’s an adventure every day, full of laughs and tears, excitement and joy. But if we’re never willing to risk stepping outside of our comfort zone, we’ll never find the adventure that He has waiting for us.

Moroni 10:23-24

“And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me.

“And now I speak not all the ends of the earth–that if the day cometh that the power and the gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.”

If we want to be a part of manifesting God’s truth, and His power, we need to be willing to be influenced and enticed by His Spirit, even if it takes us outside of what we are presently comfortable with. As our faith and trust in God grows, the fear of putting ourselves out there will gradually diminish. If God’s asking us to do something and it brings up fear in us, that’s just a sign that our faith and trust still needs to be developed, because if we truly trust Him we will not fear. Fear also denotes that there is a truth that we need to resonate with that we aren’t in that moment.

2 Nephi 32:3-5

“Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast on the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

“Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.

“For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.”

I promise you that as you connect to God’s truth and follow what truth compels you to do, or, in other words, the Holy Ghost, you have an amazing adventure not worth missing ahead of you. This is a two part partnership that you apply in your life–God’s Spirit, even the Holy Ghost, and the word of God. The more you delve into God’s word, the more easily you will recognize when His Spirit is working with you.

Doctrine and Covenants 84:45-48

“For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father. And the Father teacheth him of the covenant which he has renewed and confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the whole world.”

I remember going to a fireside that my aunt was giving when I was a teenager. She wrote up on the white board a list of “Ways to Feel the Spirit”. I copied them down and have kept them with my scriptures ever since. Years later, after I was married I received a book entitled Personal Revelation: How to Recognize Promptings of the Spirit by JoAnn Hibbert Hamilton. Both of these things have really helped me to recognize more how God works in my life and how He communicates with me, sometimes in ways I didn’t realize before.

Several months back I decided to go on a treasure hunt, so to speak. I took all the references that I had from my aunt’s list and marked them in my scriptures with a blue highlighter. As I’ve been reading through the scriptures, whenever I find something that illustrates how God communicates with His children I mark that in blue as well. It’s been interesting to see what has come off the page at me as I’ve searched for those things.

This is an ongoing treasure hunt. I’m looking for it everywhere, not just in my scriptures, because the more I can recognize how God communicates with His children, the easier it will be to act on those communications and be apart of sharing the truth that He’s placed in the world for those who seek it. I can’t act on something I can’t recognize so I’m working on building up my awareness so that I can be a part of shining that light of truth.

Assignment for Dare Three:

Get a notebook or a pad of paper and write down all the ways that God communicates with you that you already recognize. You can include references and sources to help you when you need it fleshed out a little more. As you learn and discover more ways that God uses to communicate with you, add them to your list. You may be surprised with the variety of ways God uses to communicate with you!

~Thoughts From A Mother’s Heart