Paisley: Hey everybody, Paisley, imperfect, and here I am, back
again. I'm going to be up front with you. Today's episode is a
bit more for me than it is for you.
Just like anybody else with a YouTube channel or podcast, I
check my stats, right? I check to see if I have new
subscribers, I look at the stats on the Facebook and Instagram
posts to see what messages are really resonating with the
audience, what people like, what they're looking for, those types
of things.
And the other day, I was getting a little discouraged. I
because it just doesn't seem like my channel's growing very
fast, right? So I was a little disappointed I'm a marketer by
trade. So and I had this thought whispered into my head as I'm
looking at my stats. I had this thought whispered that, you
know, how does it look that you're a marketer? And you have
so few followers and that your channel is growing so slowly?
And I mean, like I said, I'm a marketer, I know how to tell
people what they want to hear.
So that thought kind of stung a little bit. But then, as I was
watching General Conference on Sunday,
sweet President Eyring addressed my concerns perfectly,
and what he said, I can't quote what he said right now, because
the written version of conference isn't up yet as of
the time that I'm recording this,
so I can't quote President Eyring, but I did actually find
this other talk from then elder oaks, and he addressed it in his
very
bold and direct way, as only elder or President oaks could
Do. So it's from 1989
pre social media. It's called alternate voices. I'm not going
to lie. It's a bit intense.
In this talk, he addresses three different types of voices that
we hear.
The first kind, he says, some voices speak of the things of
the world, providing useful information we need to make our
way in mortality. So in other words, helpful voices that
provide useful information for us just to be able to make it
through this life, right?
They are helpful and useful, but not necessarily critical to our
eternal salvation.
And then he he mentions
a second type of voice that he splits into two different
categories, which is where the three comes from. So he says
voices that speak of God, of His commandments and of the
doctrines, ordinances and practices of his church. And
that group is split into two. The first is those who have been
called and given divine authority to do so, so those who
have been specifically called to speak of God, of His
commandments, of the doctrines, ordinances and practices of the
church, and what he calls the second group, alternate voices,
or the third group, alternate voices, who speak on these
subjects without calling or authority. Now to be perfectly
clear, I am fully aware that I am in that third group. I
have not been given a calling to have a YouTube channel or a
podcast or a Facebook page or an Instagram page or anything
that's not a calling. I have not been called or given authority
to speak on behalf of or for the church. I do not do that. I
speak on behalf of myself.
I but I am an alternate voice.
So as I'm sure you're aware, there are 1000s of alternate
voices out there, and elder oaks categorizes us for you,
and he breaks that down in further into four different
groups. Some alternate voices are those of well, this is a
quote. Some alternate voices are those of well motivated men and
women who are merely trying to serve their brothers and sisters
and further the cause of Zion, their efforts fit within the
Lord's teaching that his servants should not have to be
commanded in all things, but should be anxiously engaged in a
good cause and do many things of their own free will and bring to
pass much righteousness. He's quoting Doctrine and Covenants.
5827 there at the end too.
I like to think that I fit in that group. Well motivated, and
I'll add well intentioned men and women who I'm just trying to
serve others.
And help others
find their Savior, perhaps see see him more clearly without
having been called to do so. And honestly, I hope that if I stray
from that, that one of you will tell me, or that two of you, all
of you will tell me that I have strayed from that path. Please
tell me. Here's the second group, the next group that elder
oaks, he says they are pursuing selfish personal interests such
as property, pride, prominence or power. Now to me, those are
the people who are likely well intentioned, but they might be
missing the mark just a little bit. They're overly concerned
with subscribers, influence and income, and to be completely
fair, there is a very gray fine line in between those two, those
two voices, the third one, another group of voices, he
explains, quote, are the bleedings of Lost Souls who
cannot hear the voice of the shepherd and trot about trying
to find their way without his guidance. Some of these voices
call out guidance for others, the lost, leading the lost. In
my opinion, this group is loud and they're getting they're
getting louder. This, my opinion. I'm not trying to put
words in 1989 President oaks his mouth. This group of voices
includes those who have left the church claiming that they never
felt anything or that the culture was just too toxic. I
want to be very careful here and not be dismissive of their
experiences. We've all experienced different things
relative to the to the culture of the church. I lived in Utah
for a couple of years, right out of high school, going to
college, and I had some really negative experiences with two of
the three wards that I was in while I was up there. And had I
not already had a pretty strong foundation, it would have been
shaking. I have seen some of what these people have
experienced, though I have not experienced fully those same
things, and so I want to acknowledge it without being
dismissive of it. President oaks or elder oaks does a good job of
like they are. Their voices. They're loud ish. They're not
quite as loud as the fourth group, which we're going to get
to in just a second. Anyway. I just, I don't want to be
dismissive of it, but they are, in my own opinion, they can be
lost and leading others who are also lost, as he put it, the
loss leading the lost. They aren't necessarily, they aren't
necessarily helpful, spite or, I'm sorry, hateful. They aren't
necessarily hateful, spiteful, resentful or mean. They're just
struggling, and they're trying to find their way through it,
and they're trying to find their way through it vocally, which is
how some of us need to do it, myself included, again. So
anyway, I'm gonna move on the fourth group. Is that group, but
taken to the extreme? So about the last group? Elder oaks says
some alternate voices are of those whose avowed or secret
object is to deceive and devour the flock. The Good Shepherd
warned Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. And he's
quoting both Matthew 715, and third, Nephi 1415, there. These
are the ones that are obviously out to hurt and destroy. Many of
them believe that they are just out to hurt and destroy the
church. But you cannot hurt and destroy a church that big
without hurting and destroying its members. You just can't so
in their efforts to try and heal from their own pain, perhaps, or
maybe they just have some sort of ingrown or taught hatred
towards the church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints.
These are the voices that he talks about being avowed or
secret. Who's avowed or secret object is to deceive and devour
the flock. Now, again, the lines between some of these groups
gets rather blurred. Some are wider than others, some are
grayer than others, and some are really, really blurry. We're.
Right?
Honestly, I find myself getting stuck in that gray space between
groups number one and groups number two. What is my purpose?
Am I here to gain followers? That's not that was not my
original intention. I try to help, and I sincerely, my
efforts are sincerely trying to help further the cause of Zion.
Okay, now, because these lines are so blurred, and because
there are so many 1000s of voices out there, how do we know
which ones to listen to? Or how do we know which ones are okay
to listen to? And of course, elder oaks addresses this too.
The first thing he does is he assures us that things that are
published by or endorsed by the church are okay. And he puts it
like this quote, we have procedures to ensure approved
content for materials published in the name of the church or
used for instructions in its classes. These procedures can be
somewhat slow and cumbersome, but they have an important
benefit. They provide a spiritual quality control that
allows members to rely on the truth of what is said. Members
who listen to the voice of the church need not be on guard
against being misled. They have no such assurance for what they
hear from alternate voices. So if it comes out from the church,
know that it has gone through a rigorous approval process. I
realize, again, this was 1989 along Long time ago, but the
approval process hasn't changed. It may have been quickened, and
there may be some technology that has, excuse me, been
adapted, or that the process has been adapted to include to make
it go a little bit faster, but in general, stuff that is
published by the church we can trust for things that are not
officially published by the church. How do we know what we
can trust? He said this quote, as Latter Day Saints consider
their personal relationship to various alternate voices, they
will be helped by considering the ways we acquire knowledge,
especially knowledge of sacred things. I'm going to pause right
here for just a second. I did not originally add this quote
into my notes, but I'm and I'm I don't have the quote up in front
of me, but he does talk about how the church does not tell the
members you can't listen to other voices. You cannot you
can't be an alternate voice, or you can't listen to an alternate
voice. The Church does not do that. We talked about being an
alternate voice up above, right? We talked about how there are
those of us who are not called to do this, but we do it because
we have a sincere desire and pure intent to help further the
cause of Zion, to help push the gospel out to the entire world.
So being one of those voices and listening to those voices is
okay, as long as you know how to distinguish between truth and
not truth. Okay, and he's telling us how to do that,
considering the ways we acquire knowledge, especially knowledge
of sacred things. In modern Revelation, the Lord has told us
to seek learning by study and also by faith that comes from
Doctrine and Covenants. 109, verse seven, he continues. We
seek learning by studying the accumulated wisdom of various
disciplines and by using the powers of reasoning placed in us
by our Creator. So we read things and then we reason those
things. He continues. We should also seek learning by faith in
God, the giver of Revelation, I believe that many of the great
discoveries and achievements in science and the arts have
resulted from a God given revelation. Seekers who have
paid the price in perspiration have been magnified by
inspiration. Now remember, too when we talked about inspiration
before members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day,
saints, we are not the only people who are entitled to
Revelation, personal revelation. And so he's talking about this
right here, right Heavenly Father is the giver of
Revelation, and people who put in the time through perspiration
are magnified by inspiration. So seek learning by study and also
by faith. This is how we can begin to discern the voices that
we should listen to versus the voices that we shouldn't. He
gives a little bit more on this. The correct relationship between
study and faith is. In the receipt of sacred knowledge is
illustrated in Oliver cowdery's attempt to translate ancient
records, and he quotes a little bit from Doctrine and Covenants
section nine, Oliver failed because he took no thought, but
only asked God. The Lord told him he should have studied it
out in his mind, and then asked if it was right, only then would
the Lord reveal whether the translation was correct or not,
and only on receiving that revelation could the text be
written, because you cannot write that which is sacred, save
it be given you from me in the acquisition of sacred knowledge,
scholarship and reason are not alternatives to Revelation. They
are a means to an end, and the end is revelation from God. So
in other words, we study it out in scholarly ways, books,
trustworthy, online, resources, things like that. Then we mull
it over in our minds and in our hearts, and we pay attention to
how it makes us feel. That's key, and then when we know how
it makes us feel, we ask God if that feeling is correct. So we
trust our feelings and verify with our Father in heaven that
what we think and feel is accurate and in accordance with
His teachings. Now that process is available to everybody, not
just us as baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ, of
Latter Day Saints, that process is available to everybody. And
it's available for everything that we do in our life, our
professional life, our personal life, our spiritual life. That
process is available in all aspects of our lives. Now that
process can also sound like it's going to take forever, right?
Study the books, study the other books. Think about it, mull it
over, then go ask. But that's not necessarily the case if
you're trying to learn something new. If you're trying to learn
something that you've never learned before. Sure, it's going
to take some extra time, but in some cases, we will have already
done a lot of the studying, so we'll be able to fall back on
our foundation and the things that we've already learned and
know to be true. So we may already know how the Holy Ghost
speaks to us, and if we already know how the Holy Ghost speaks
to us, then we kind of know what we're listening for or what
we're looking for in response to the questions that we're asking
that can help save some time, right? If you're asking a
question about if you're asking a question about a temple
ordinance in your prayers, and you've been attending the temple
every week for a year, you're probably going to get the answer
pretty quickly. It may only take a couple of seconds to go
through that entire process, but if you're learning something
new, it's going to take some time, and there's nothing wrong
with taking time. Okay, so elder oaks closes with this last bit,
which I loved reading back in 1989 and this, it doesn't
exactly fit with what I'm talking about, but I can't not
put it in here, because back in 1989 he was looking forward to
it, and I feel like now he's actually living it. So this is
what he says. He says, I long for the day, prophesied by
Isaiah, when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord. In an inspired utterance, the Prophet Joseph Smith
described the Lord's pouring down knowledge from heaven upon
the heads of the Latter Day Saints. This will not happen for
those whose hearts are set so much upon the things of this
world and aspire to the honors of men. Those who fail to learn
and use principles of righteousness will be left to
themselves to kick against those in authority, to persecute the
saints and to fight against God. In contrast, the Lord makes this
great promise to the faithful, and then he quotes Doctrine and
Covenants. Section 121, verses 45 and 46 and that says, The
doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the
dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion
and thy scepter in an unchanging in sorry and thy scepter, and
unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth and thy
dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory
means, it shall flow unto thee forever and ever. So in 1989 he
was looking forward to the pouring down of knowledge from
heaven upon the heads of the Latter Day Saints. And I feel
like that's happening right now. There is so much information
coming at us from all different angles, and we get to choose. We
get to choose what information we're going to listen to, what
information we're going to share. We get to choose also,
I'm not sure if you actually got to hear President Eyring. Talk
during Sunday morning session, or elder cooks during Saturday
afternoon. But they were extremely applicable, so I would
recommend that you go check those out too. I will link them
in the description if they're up by the time I post this. If not,
you'll just have to go search. Sorry. Okay, before we close up
this episode, though. I also want to point out one more thing
I I can't talk about voices without talking about President
Kimball and President Nelson right. Voices was one of the
things on our list. It was on it was one of the things on the
list that President Kimball and President Nelson shared. El an
elder Oaks is not suggesting that we silently obey. In fact,
I think he's telling us what kinds of voices we have, and
he's telling us Sure. He's telling us what voices to listen
to or to watch out for, but he's also telling us what voices to
be careful of becoming we need to make sure that our voice is
the right kind of voice, that one that will not drag others
down or through the same mess that we've had to endure,
anything that you have been through that has been difficult.
One of the most difficult things for me, I know I've mentioned
this before, was my journey through infertility. That was
one of the most difficult things in my life. I do not wish for
anyone else to have to go through that. So my message
about going through infertility as a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints, I try to keep that
message uplifting and hopeful, rather than grabbing a whole
bunch of other people who have also struggled with infertility
and trying to turn it against the church and make it ugly and
mean we have to be careful of the voices that we share. We can
be the change that we want to see in the world. But the only
thing that comes from the only thing that comes from pushing
against God, is more hurt and more anger. It does not bring
healing. Only the Savior can bring healing Anyway, okay, be a
good voice. Keep learning, keep growing, keep speaking up, or
start speaking up and be of good cheer. Our Savior loves you.
Thanks, everybody until next time you.