(MUSIC) NARRATOR: This Brigham Young University—
Idaho devotional address by Sheri Dew,
CEO of Deseret Book,
was given May 17th, 2016.
SHERI DEW: Brothers and sisters, it is such a privilege to be here today,
and especially to be here with President and Sister Gilbert.
They are dear and treasured friends and they're remarkable exemplars.
Now, we're not here today to listen to me speak,
we are here to receive revelation.
So I invite you to invite the Holy Ghost to speak to
you so that you will hear what you need to hear.
A couple of years ago, a reporter from
an international broadcasting network visited
Salt Lake City researching a story on women in the church.
She was intrigued that a female was leading
a church owned media company and asked me for an interview.
I liked this reporter.
She had done her homework and she asked good questions,
though one of them was very predictable.
"How do you feel about not being eligible for priesthood ordination?" She asked.
I outlined the extensive leadership opportunities that women have in the church,
and then explained that as a woman endowed with power in the temple,
I had complete access to God's power or priesthood power for my own life.
And I explained that my focus had long
been on learning how to gain full access to that power.
She paused then and she asked,
"Are you saying that you believe you have more access to God's power than I do?"
Okay, that's a loaded question.
(LAUGHTER) My brain began to spin in search of a truthful but politically correct answer.
But that day, I could not bring myself to sell
our doctrine or our privileges as women short,
so finally I said,
"Well, actually, yes."
Now, do not misunderstand what I'm saying.
I quickly added, "I am not saying the Lord loves me more than He loves you,
and I'm not saying that I'm better than you.
I'm not saying that He's more likely to bless me than you,
but if you're asking,
if I believe that I have greater access to God's power than you do,
then the answer has to be yes.
That's one of the blessings of joining this church.
That's why we join the church.
We believe that when we make promises to God to follow His son,
He in turn makes promises to us.
And one of those promises is that He will give us greater access to His power."
As I spoke, the Spirit filled the room and it disarmed her.
Her demeanor softened noticeably.
And then she asked if I would tell her how the gospel has affected me personally.
In other words, she basically opened the door for me to bear my testimony.
I told her that Jesus Christ hasn't just made a difference in my life,
He's made all the difference;
that every good thing that has ever happened to me has come because of my membership in
His church; and that I have experienced the Savior's healing,
enabling, strengthening power again and again.
At that point, the spirit flooded the room and we were both in tears.
She finally could speak and she said,
"That's beautiful, I wish I could say that about my church."
And I said, "Well, we could help you with that."
(LAUGHTER) That day I experienced
the sublime beauty of standing as a witness and bearing witness of truth.
Consider the miracle of it: through the power of the Holy Ghost,
we can know what is true with enough confidence and enough surety to testify of truth.
We can only bear witness of what we know.
We can't testify of a wish or a hope or even a belief.
We can express a hope, a wish,
or a belief, but we cannot stand as witnesses of
Jesus Christ unless we can bear witness of Him.
We can defend the faith only if we have faith.
Our society seems determined to set aside any semblance of faith or right and wrong.
But the world's condition today is no surprise to the Lord
who told the Prophet Joseph that we are living in the 11th hour,
that this is the last time He will call laborers into His vineyard,
and that His vineyard has become corrupted.
But the Lord also declared that in the midst of all this moral and spiritual chaos,
the fullness of His gospel would be proclaimed by the
weak and the simple and to the ends of the world,
and He promised that if we would open our mouths,
they would be filled.
You and I are the weak and the simple,
but we're not here now by accident or without the Lord's endorsement.
President George Q. Cannon,
who served as a counselor to four Presidents of the Church, taught that
"because of the magnitude of the work to be accomplished,
it has required apparently the most valiant men and women to come forth now.
God has reserved spirits for this dispensation
who have the courage and determination to face the world
and all the powers of the evil one and to build up the Zion of our God
fearless of all consequences."
Make no mistake about it.
You're here now because in the beginning,
our Father chose you to be here now, and He has hard work for you to do.
How then do we strengthen our faith so that we can defend the faith?
Four years ago, a marvelous young woman who had just graduated
with honors from BYU called me, absolutely distraught.
Through sobs, she blurted out,
"I'm just not sure I believe the Church is true anymore, and I'm scared.
What if my family really isn't going to be together forever?"
I asked her, "Do you want to have a testimony?"
"Yes." She said.
"Are you willing to work for it?"
Again, "yes." And she was.
She went to work. She had a great bishop and an off-the-charts Relief Society president,
both of whom worked with her.
Friends and family came to her rescue, and
she and I began to meet for gospel study sessions.
I told her, bring your scriptures and every question you have.
Questions are good. Let's see what the Lord will teach us together.
She took me at my word and brought one thorny question after another.
Honestly, she brought questions I'd never thought of in my life.
We searched the scriptures and the teachings of prophets for answers.
Little by little, she began to realize that just
because she had questions didn't mean she didn't have a testimony—
the scriptures are filled with accounts of prophets who had questions—
and she began to recognize when the Spirit was bearing witness to her,
including and especially, bearing witness that prophets,
seers, and revelators are truly prophets.
Her testimony began to grow, and over time the crisis passed.
Then about a year ago, she called again. "Sister Dew,
I wanted you to be one of the first to know that
I'm holding in my hand a temple recommend.
Will you come when I received my endowment?"
Then she added, "Do you know what you said,
that helped me the most?"
Well, I had absolutely no clue.
She said, "You told me that questions are good, and that
allowed me to see myself as a seeker rather than a doubter."
I was just overjoyed with that conversation.
But then two days later,
I received a much different call from another BYU graduate.
"Sister Dew, " she said.
"Before you hear it from someone else,
I want you to hear it from me and to know that I am pregnant."
She was not married.
She said that for several years she had doubted
the truthfulness of the gospel and had finally
decided there was no reason to keep living the law of chastity.
I told her that I was not her judge, and that I loved her.
Then I asked her if she would like to have a testimony.
"No, I don't think so, "
she said. The contrast was stunning.
At about the same time,
these two young women had questions that threatened their testimonies.
One of them sent out a cry for help, and
family, friends and leaders followed President Monson's counsel and went to her rescue.
The other girl nursed her doubt and convinced
herself that her immoral choices were acceptable.
I love and deeply care about this girl,
but for now, she has chosen a spiritually perilous path.
One girl's questions propelled her to become a seeker of truth.
The other girl used her questions to justify her immorality.
My dear friends, my message today is simply, questions are good.
Questions are good if they are inspired questions,
asked in faith, and asked of credible sources where
the Spirit will direct and confirm the answer.
Nephi asked an inspired question in faith
when he asked the Lord if he could see what his father saw.
The Lord responded by showing Nephi the tree of life,
the iron rod, the great and spacious building and
mists of darkness, and the fruit of the tree,
which is sweet above all that is sweet.
And then the vision didn't stop there.
Nephi saw the birth, ministry, and crucifixion of the Savior.
He saw the coming forth of Latter-day scripture,
the Restoration, and the building of Latter-day Zion.
Nephi saw all this and much more,
only to return to his father's tent and find Laman and
Lemuel arguing about the meaning of their father's vision.
When Nephi ask them,
"Have ye inquired of the Lord, "
they gave the classic response of doubters:
"We have not, for the Lord maketh no such thing known
unto us" as though nothing was required of them.
None of us are entitled to revelation without effort on our part.
Answers from God don't just magically appear.
If we want to grow spiritually,
the Lord expects us to ask questions and seek answers.
"If thou shalt ask," he promised,
"thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge."
How much clearer can it be?
The Lord loves inspired questions asked in faith because they lead to knowledge,
to revelation, and to greater faith.
We all have questions.
Some are doctrinal, historical, or procedural.
Some are simply intensely personal.
Here are just a few questions that men and women your age have asked me recently.
Why am I the only one in my family who struggles to believe?
Should I serve a mission if my parents don't want me to?
Why did I spend all that time on a mission and not convert anyone?
Why can't I find the one? Yeah, tell me about it. (LAUGHTER)
We don't have time to go into that one.
(LAUGHTER) If I go
to graduate school, will the Lord think that means I don't want to get married?
Will I be able to provide for a family today?
Will the Lord ever forgive me for breaking my covenants?
I came home early from my mission, what do I do now?
How does the Lord feel about me?
Is a prophet infallible?
Did Joseph Smith really have more than one wife?
How do I know if I'm receiving revelation?
Do I dare get serious with a guy who has struggled with pornography?
Why can't women be ordained to the priesthood?
What's that about?
What if the Church's position on gay marriage bothers me?
How do I understand the temple when I can't even ask questions about it?
May I answer these questions and
frankly any questions you may have by posing a question?
Are you willing to engage in the wrestle—
in an ongoing spiritual wrestle?
Enos described the wrestle that he had before God to obtain a remission of his sins,
and Alma wrestled with God in mighty prayer.
Now, champion wrestlers tell me that it isn't
necessarily the strongest wrestler with the biggest muscles who wins.
It's the wrestler who knows how to leverage his strength to overpower his opponent.
Spiritual wrestling leverages the strength of true doctrine to overpower our weaknesses,
our wavering faith and our lack of knowledge.
Spiritual wrestlers are seekers.
They are men and women of faith who want to understand more than they presently do,
and who are serious about increasing the light and knowledge in their lives.
I recently engaged in a wrestle. When the policy was announced that the children of
gay parents might not be eligible for baptism at age eight, I was confused.
I did not question the brethren or doubt their inspiration,
but neither did I understand the doctrinal basis for the policy.
So I asked the Lord to teach me.
I prayed, searched the scriptures,
studied the teachings of prophets,
and pondered my question in the temple.
This went on for several months.
Then one day, a colleague made a statement that sparked a new thought for me.
And in that moment, the Spirit illuminated the doctrine in my heart and mind.
Now, I consider that answer that day,
personal revelation and not something I shouldn't necessarily teach.
I'll admit that I have wept with friends to whom this policy directly applies.
But understanding the doctrine gave me peace.
When we have unresolved questions,
our challenge doesn't lie in what we think we know.
It lies in what we don't yet know.
The Lord has promised to open the eyes of our understandings and to reveal all mysteries,
but he isn't likely to do any of these things unless we seek to know.
Dr. Truman Madsen taught that he could find
"nothing in the scriptures to excuse anyone from brain sweat,
and from the arduous lifetime burden of seeking
'revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge'."
He was describing an ongoing spiritual wrestle.
The Lord wants us to ask every probing question we can muster,
because not asking questions can be far more dangerous than asking them.
In other words, sin makes you stupid,
and so does refusing to seek after truth.
Remember my friend who thought she'd lost her testimony?
Her doubt was triggered by
a television drama featuring a scientist who didn't believe in God.
I said, "Wait,
are you telling me that a fictional character fabricated by
a Hollywood writer has obliterated 24 years of gospel teaching?"
"But that woman is so smart," my friend said.
There have always been and will always be charismatic men and
women who can launch what sound like on the surface
reasoned arguments against the Father and the Son,
the Restoration, the Prophet Joseph,
the Book of Mormon, and living prophets.
But doubters and pundits never tell
the whole story because they don't know the whole story, and they don't want to know.
They opt for clever soundbites,
hoping no one digs deeper than they have.
Soundbites will never lead to a testimony.
As seekers of truth, our safety lies in asking
the right questions in faith and of the right sources,
meaning asking those who only speak truth,
such as the scriptures,
prophets, and the Lord through the Holy Ghost.
President Spencer W. Kimball declared this:
"Why. oh, why do people think they can fathom
the most complex spiritual depths without
the necessary work accompanied by compliance with the laws that govern it?
Absurd it is, but you will find popular personalities, who seem never to
have lived a single law of God, discoursing about religion.
How ridiculous for such persons to attempt to outline for the world a way of life.
One cannot know God nor understand his works or
plans unless he follows the laws which govern."
Questions are not just good,
they are vital because the ensuing spiritual wrestle leads to answers,
to knowledge, and to revelation,
and it also leads to greater faith.
That's important because men and women of faith are expected to have faith.
While the Lord will reveal many things to us,
He's never told His covenant people everything about everything.
We're admonished to doubt not, but be believing.
But doubting not does not mean understanding everything.
Doubting is not synonymous with having questions,
to doubt is to reject truth and faith.
As covenant sons and daughters,
we are required to have faith,
to live by faith, to ask in faith,
nothing wavering, and to overcome by faith.
Learning by faith is as crucial as learning by study,
because there are some things we simply cannot learn from a book.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks underscored this truth in the recent general conference:
"After all we can publish,
our members are sometimes left with basic questions that cannot be resolved by study.
Some things can be learned only by faith.
Our ultimate reliance must be on faith in
the witness we have received from the Holy Ghost."
Thus, once the Spirit has borne witness to you
that God is our Father and Jesus is the Christ,
that Joseph Smith was a prophet called to restore
the gospel, and that we are led by a prophet today,
then you know the gospel is true because
the Spirit has borne witness of the foundational truths that comprise a testimony.
You have a testimony.
At that point, when questions arise or when
blessings you've been pleading for remain unfulfilled,
they are not an indication that you don't have a testimony or that the gospel isn't true.
They are an invitation for you to grow spiritually.
I repeat, once you have received
a spiritual witness of the truths that form a testimony,
even your thorniest questions about our doctrine, history,
positions on sensitive issues,
or the aching desires of your hearts are about personal growth.
They are opportunities for you to receive personal revelation and to increase your faith.
We don't have to have answers to every question in order to receive a witness,
bear witness, and stand as a witness.
But questions, especially the tough ones,
will propel us to engage in
a spiritual wrestle so that the Lord can continue to lead us along.
Without plain old spiritual work,
even God can't make us grow,
or at least He won't.
My life has been filled with spiritual wrestling.
Not because of any great valor on my part,
but because I have yearned to understand why
certain things were happening to me and why others were not.
For decades, I have fasted,
prayed, and pleaded for a husband.
I've asked who he is,
where he is, and when he's coming.
As of this very moment,
I still don't know the answer to any of those questions.
But, the ongoing spiritual wrestle has
blessed me with the knowledge that Jesus Christ is my Savior,
that His gospel is filled with power,
and that God will talk to me and direct me.
Growing spiritually and receiving answers to
our questions depends upon our ability to feel,
hear, and understand the whisperings of the Spirit.
It is worth engaging in
an ongoing spiritual wrestle to learn to receive personal revelation.
Because we can only know what is true when the Spirit bears witness
to our hearts and our minds as only the Holy Ghost can.
Revelation must include both
because intellect alone cannot produce a testimony.
You cannot think your way to conversion
because you cannot convince your mind of something your heart does not feel.
The Prophet Joseph declared that "The Holy Ghost comprehends more than all the world."
And then he said that we must all grow into the principle of revelation.
And President Henry B. Eyring added this:
"We all know that human judgment and logical thinking will not be
enough to get answers to the questions that matter most in life.
We need revelation from God.
We need not just one flash of light and comfort,
but we need the continuing blessing of communication with God."
Every truth-seeking member of the Church can and
should be receiving revelation for his or her life.
In my early 20s, I faced
a difficult decision and asked a friend for a priesthood blessing.
He asked what the Lord had already told me,
and I admitted that I could feel the presence of the Spirit,
but I couldn't discern specific revelation.
He then asked if I had ever asked the Lord to teach me
what it felt like when He was speaking to me.
Well, I hadn't.
But that night, I began to ask the Lord to teach me the language of revelation.
That was 40 years ago.
And over time, I have come to know that what President Boyd K. Packer taught is true.
That ''if all you know is what you can see with
your natural eyes and hear with your natural ears,
then you will not know very much."
Seekers have certain habits that are key to learning to communicate with God.
For starters, they engage in the wrestle,
meaning they work at it.
They immerse themselves regularly in the scriptures
because the scriptures are the textbook for the Lord's language.
They also work to be increasingly pure—
pure in their heart and thoughts;
pure in what they say,
watch, read, and listen to.
Purity invites the Spirit.
And then, pure seekers listen.
One of my former institute students periodically turns off everything electronic.
TV off, music off,
phone off, computer off, iPad off.
She says, "I like to let the Lord know, I'm listening."
As you cultivate these spiritual habits,
there are two questions—actually more than that—
but there are at least two questions that will help open the heavens.
First, ask the Lord to teach you what it feels and sounds like for
you when He is speaking to you via the Holy Ghost, and then watch how He tutors you.
And second, if you've never asked the Lord how He feels about you,
that is a great question to ask.
In time and over time,
He will tell you.
And as He does, you'll learn more and more about speaking His language.
When the Lord sees that you want to communicate with Him,
He will teach you how.
Recently, a friend working on her PhD received an impression
during a Relief Society Conference to shift the focus of her dissertation.
She also felt prompted during that conference to go
directly to the temple to ask the Lord further questions.
She said, "While there,
I was told how to make this new focus work and how I
could be both academically unbiased and spiritually honest.
I occasionally receive clear words from the Spirit," she said,
"but never have I been given such clear instructions.
The task ahead feels incredibly difficult,
but I know what direction to go and that the Lord expects it of me,
and that makes all the difference."
Receiving revelation is the key to receiving answers to our questions.
Joseph Smith promised that "even the least Saint may
know all things as fast as he is able to bear them."
My dear friends, make no mistake about it.
We are here now because we're supposed to be here now,
and we each have a mission to fulfill.
Part of that mission
—a really important part of that mission—is to stand as witnesses of truth.
And that means we must receive a witness that Jesus is
the Christ and that His gospel has been restored.
I invite you to decide
today that you will pay the price to wrestle with difficult questions,
to become lifetime seekers of truth,
to learn to speak the Lord's language,
and to receive a witness of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His gospel.
If you will,
you will have the privilege of helping prepare the Earth for His return.
You'll be able to defend the faith because of your ever increasing faith.
The Savior is going to come again.
May we stand for Him and with Him.
I testify that God is our Father,
that Jesus is the Christ.
This is His church,
it has been restored, and it is filled with His power,
and if we want to communicate with heaven and receive answers to our questions,
I testify the heavens will open, and we can learn
and stand as witnesses in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen. (MUSIC)
NARRATOR: For more information about this program,
please visit the BYU-Idaho website at www.byui.edu/devotionalsandspeeches.
(MUSIC)