Unknown: Paisley.
Paisley: Hey everybody, Paisley, imperfect. And today we're going
to talk about miracles. It's a topic that's been on my mind a
lot lately, but I think it's because of what we've been
reading in Come follow me and where we're at in the Book of
Mormon. And just real quick, in case you're behind, we are at
the very beginning of third Nephi. So many of us know that
the Savior comes in third Nephi, chapter 11, and Samuel, the
Lamanite, comes at the very end of Helaman. Oh my goodness. So
Samuel the Lamanite comes and he says that in five years, Jesus
is going to be born, right? And then we have all of the signs
and all of the things, and then the people can't decide what
they're going to do between the time that the Savior is born and
the time that He's crucified. They go back and forth and up
and down and in circles and all over the place. They can't
decide if they're going to be good or not. But when they are
good, there are lots of miracles that happen. I know that
President Nelson has been talking a lot about miracles
lately, and it seems like a lot of the apostles have been it
might just be me, which is fine, that happens too, but it just,
it just feels like there's a lot of buzz in the air about the
miracles of the last days. I didn't want to take the
traditional approach and just share a bunch of stories. I
didn't want to do that because I think we're all aware of that.
What I wanted to do was take it from the perspective of, how do
we recognize a miracle? How what are the what are the telltale
signs of a miracle? I will say, however, that the more I read,
the more I understood why, when people talk about miracles, they
share their own experiences. And I'll get to that in a little
bit. Before I get there, I wanted to share some other
things that I found first. So on the church's website, you may or
may not be aware, but on the church's website, up in the top
navigation, if you click on Libraries, there's a section
there called topics and questions. And within the topics
and questions, there's a section on miracles. And I'm going to
start with a few things that I found there. It says miracles
represent moments when God works with his power on behalf of his
children, that's pretty simply put. So God uses his power on
our behalf, and that, to me, that tells us how a miracle
works, but it doesn't tell us how to recognize one, at least
not super obviously, you know me by now, maybe, hopefully, I am a
logical pragmatist. So when I read that, when I read miracles,
represent moments when God works with his power on behalf of his
children, my brain changed it to when God uses his power to do
something for me that's a miracle. Later on on that page,
there's a quote from elder Ronald A Rasband, and he said,
The Lord performs miracles to remind us of His power, His love
for us, his reach from the heavens to our mortal
experience, and his desire to teach of that which is of most
worth. Now, again, the logical pragmatist in my brain heard God
uses miracles to remind me that he's there, that he's aware of
me, my specific circumstances, no matter how insignificant I
may feel. I'm going to switch that just a little bit and say
God uses miracles to remind us that he's there, that he is
aware of us and our specific circumstances, no matter how
insignificant we may feel later on. There's another quote from
elder Rasband. He said, many of you have witnessed miracles more
than you realize, they may seem small in comparison to Jesus
raising the dead, but the magnitude does not distinguish a
miracle only that it came from God. Not all miracles are big.
Some are tiny, but size does not a miracle make. Here's another
nugget from that same page. Some miracles take place quietly,
such as when a person gains a testimony of God's truth, that's
a miracle, experiences a mighty change of heart, obtains
forgiveness from the Lord, or is blessed with peace and strength
during a difficult. Time, those are seemingly small and
significant experiences. Do we all consider them a miracle? I
do now, and now I'm going to ask another rhetorical question, are
we looking for miracles in all the wrong places? Those of us
who don't think we witness them? Are we just not seeing them
because we're looking for big things when really the miracles
in our lives are smaller things? Are we expecting angelic choirs
with trumpets to announce the arrival of a miracle? What are
we expecting? What are we looking for? I found another
really good source for info for this episode in 2001 then Elder
Dallin H oaks. He gave a talk at a church educational system
fireside in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, titled miracles. He
gives us a pretty good definition. He talks about
different types of miracles, but he gives us kind of an overall
umbrella definition of what a miracle is. He said a miracle
has been defined as a beneficial event brought about through
divine power that mortals do not understand and of themselves
cannot duplicate. So there's three things. There are three
qualifications, if you will, within that definition for
something to be considered a miracle. Number one, it's
brought about by divine power. Number two, mortals do not
understand. And number three, mortals cannot duplicate. And I
have to share this quote from this, this talk, because it's so
it's just, it's classic President oaks, he said the word
miracle is used in different ways. We sometimes say that
anything happening we cannot explain is a miracle. To me, a
computer is a miracle. So our cell phones and space travel.
But these wonders are explainable by physical laws and
understood by some mortals. I call them miracles because I do
not personally understand them and therefore cannot duplicate
them at will. Super classic President oaks, right? Like you
guys probably know how this works. He's an incredibly smart
man. He's an attorney like he's he's an incredibly smart person,
and he's just like to me a computer and a cell phone, those
are miracles because I don't understand how they work. I
can't make them work. I can't duplicate them. To me, that is a
miracle. I just I had to share it because it was so classic
President oaks. But a little bit later on in the talk, he says, I
will now describe two types of genuine miracles. These two fit
all of the elements of the definition. They are brought
about by divine power. Mortals do not understand them, and
mortals cannot duplicate them of themselves. And then the two
types of miracles that he lists are miracles brought about by
the priesthood and miracles worked through the power of
faith without specifically invoking the power of the
priesthood. As always, I recommend that you go read the
talk in its entirety. I cannot, in 20 How long are we going?
We've only been eight minutes so far. I cannot, in 20 to 30
minutes go through all of the different points in this talk,
it would take a lot longer than that. So please, please, please,
go read the talk. I'll make sure that it's linked out in the
notes, but go read it for yourselves, because he gives a
little bit more detail than I'm going to share here. So two
types of miracles. Miracles worked by the power of the
priesthood, and miracles work through the power of faith
without specifically invoking the power of the priesthood. And
he talks about how miracles are not miracles are I don't
remember exactly how he puts it, but the the gist of it is
miracles are not exclusive to one group of people. You do not
have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints to receive or participate in or see a miracle
in your own life. You don't even have to be religious. Miracles
happen to everyone. Go read the talk. He talks about macro
miracles and micro miracles, and this is when I started to
understand why people share, why people share the stories of the
miracles that have happened in their own lives, to try and
explain how to see them in your own macro miracles are ones that
affect lots of people. So he gives two, I think he gives
three examples. I'm going to share. Oh, I'm going to share
all three. Jesus's triumph over physical and spiritual death was
number one. So the Atonement is a miracle. The second one is
the willingness of the youth, the young adults who. Their
1819, year olds, the their willingness to put their
education, their sports, their whatever they have going on in
their lives, to put that aside for a year and a half to two
years, to go serve a mission and share the gospel with others.
That is a miracle. And then the third one. Now remember this
quote or this this talk was from 2001 and the third one that he
talks about is the amount of genealogy that was done in just
the first year that Family Search had launched. He gives
some really interesting statistics on missionary, I hate
to say this, missionary fatalities. He gives some really
interesting statistics on that, and he gives some interesting
stats on on Family Search and what happened during its first
year. You should definitely go check those out. It's worth
going back to read. So that's macro miracles. Macro miracles,
lots of lots and lots of people the second so micro miracles are
the kinds that impact only a few people. And he quotes President
Kimball and says, what kinds of miracles do we have? All kinds,
excuse me, Revelations, visions, tongues, healings, special
guidance and directions evil spirits cast out. Where are
they? Recorded in the records of the church, in journals, in news
and magazine articles and in the minds and memories of many
people. So he was quoting President Kimball from the late
80s when he said that late 80s, early 80s. Okay, micro, macro
miracles, lots of people, micro miracles, just a few people,
maybe only one. Now, I don't know if you're seeing what I'm
seeing, but as I, as I said before, as I start, as I've been
going through all of these things, I'm starting to
understand why people share examples of miracles to help
teach us how to see them. When we share a story that the Savior
taught in parables stories, right, when the stories are
shared, we get the message that we need for ourselves. So when
people are sharing examples of miracles, they are pointing out
something that potentially has happened in your life that you
can now recognize as a miracle. Duh, because we're all
different. That means all of our miracles are different too. It's
like how we talked about a few episodes back about how the
spirit talks to us. The Spirit talks to us in different ways.
Our miracles are going to be different. Our earthly
experience is going to be different because we are
different. It's supposed to be that way, and we have we have to
be careful about sharing our experiences with miracles.
People share experiences, not to brag about them, but to show us
that if we have a similar experience, it was our own
miracle, there is a section in that talk that is called when
miracles don't happen. We're going to come back to sharing
miracles in a second, but I want to just touch on this point
really quick. President oaks, he says most of us have offered
prayers that were not answered with the miracle request we
requested at the time we desired. And that actually makes
me think of elder Holland, and we have in Relief Society coming
up. We're using elder Holland's talk, the one from the most
recent conference. And now I can't remember. My brain is just
not working today, apparently. But elder Holland is talking
about how his prayers for the life of his wife were not
answered in the way that he hoped. Right? President oaks,
most of us have offered prayers that were not answered with the
miracles we requested at the time we desired miracles are not
available for the asking. We know this from the Lord's
revelation directing that the elders should be called to lay
hands on and bless the sick. And then he quotes Doctrine and
Covenants. Section 42 verse 48 he says, It shall come to pass
that he that hath faith in me to be healed and is not appointed
unto death shall be healed. He continues the will of the Lord
is always paramount. The priesthood of the Lord cannot be
used to work a miracle contrary to the will of the Lord. We must
also remember that even when a miracle is to occur, it will not
occur in our desired schedule, the revelations teach that
miraculous experiences occur in his own time and in his own way.
The Lord uses his power for the benefit of his children in his
time and in his way to provide miracles for us. A. And then
President oaks counsels us. This is when the whole sharing thing
comes in. He counsels us about when to share and when not to
share our own miracles. He says, Why don't our talks in general
conference and local meetings say more about the miracles we
have seen? Most of the miracles we experience are not to be
shared consistent with the teachings of the scriptures, we
hold them sacred and share them only when the Spirit prompts us
to do so. And I'm not going to read them here, but he he quotes
four different scriptures, and you should definitely go look
those up. He warns that us sharing our miracles at the at
the wrong time could be a very bad thing, and this is what he
says, it is usually inappropriate to recite
miraculous circumstances to a general audience, that includes
people with very different levels of spiritual maturity. To
a general audience, miracles will be faith reinforcing for
some, but an inappropriate sign for others. He talks about
earlier, earlier in this talk, he talks about what
inappropriate signs are, and he talks like he talks about fake
miracles and the adversaries counterfeit for a true miracle
that comes from our Heavenly Father. And so when you put that
together with sharing our miracles, we have to be careful,
because while they may be while us sharing our miracle may be
faith promoting for some people, it may be an inappropriate sign
for other people. Please go back and read it, because it also
talks about it also goes into a really good explanation about
the difference between seeking miracles and asking for a sign.
And I don't know that I had ever put those two together, but it
makes sense. Are we looking for miracles, and why are we looking
for why are we looking for miracles? Are we looking for
miracles as faith promoting and faith reinforcing, or are we
looking for miracles as a faith starter? And I think I think
back to like Layman and Lemuel. How many angels did those guys
see? And they still didn't get it. They still wouldn't listen
and so. But then Mary Magdalene, waiting outside or going to the
tomb of the Savior, sees him. She in my own brain, that is and
I think of corihor too, like asking for a sign, and what
happens when we ask for a sign and versus what happens when we
are seeking miracles, what happens when we are looking for
something to give us faith, versus looking for something to
reinforce the faith that we already have. And elder pres
elder then elder President oaks goes into a much better
explanation of that. Please, please, please, go read it. Also
in this talk, he shares a ton of stories, of miracles, some from
his own life, some that have been recorded. So even though,
like he's counseled us to be to be careful, to not share our
miracles, unless, and this is what he says, although we are
generally counseled not to speak of sacred things like the
miracles we have witnessed, there are times when the Spirit
prompts us to share these experiences, sometimes even in a
setting where where our account will be published, the miracles
written in the Scriptures were obviously intended to be shared,
usually to strengthen the faith of those who already believed.
Modern servants of the Lord have also felt impressed to describe
miraculous events to strengthen the faith of believers. Many of
these have been published, and then after, he says that he
shares a whole bunch of different miracles, and they're
really cool. Go read them.
But then towards the very end, so after he shares all of these
miracles about changing bodies, bringing people back to life,
saving temples, all of these things, he says this at the end,
changing bodies or protecting temples are miracles, but an
even greater miracle is a mighty change of heart by a son or
daughter of God. A change of heart, including new attitudes,
priorities and desires, is greater and more important than
any miracle involving the body. I repeat, the body will be
resurrected in any event. But a change affecting what the
Scripture calls the heart of a spirit, son or daughter of God,
is a change whose effect is eternal, if of the right kind.
This change opens the door to the process of repentance that
cleanses us to dwell in the presence of God. It introduces
the perspective and priorities that lead us to make the choices
that qualify us for eternal life, the greatest of all the
gifts of God. So the biggest miracle that you and I can
witness in our own lives is the change of our own hearts,
aligning our will with the will of our Father in heaven.
Sometimes we have to do that over and over again. We've been
talking about humility and repentance, and it's a process.
It's not something that just magically happens, right? So we
need to continually try to experience daily repentance and
and be able to see that as the miracle that it is. So maybe we
have been looking for miracles in all the wrong places. The
biggest ones often happen within our own hearts. Thank you for
being here with me. I apologize for that weird little video
switch there at the end. I recorded my entire video earlier
today, and somehow the end didn't record, so I'm recording
it again tonight. That still is my favorite quote, and I
appreciate your patience. Thank you for being here with me. Keep
learning, keep growing, keep repenting and keep going and be
of good cheer until next time you.