Elder Dallin H. Oaks said,
“[A person may have] a strong desire to be led by the Spirit of the Lord but . . .
unwisely extends that desire to the point of wanting to be led in all things. A
desire to be led by the Lord is a strength, but it needs to be accompanied by an
understanding that our Heavenly Father leaves many decisions for our personal
choices. Personal decision making is one of the sources of the growth we are
meant to experience in mortality. Persons who try to shift all decision making to
the Lord and plead for revelation in every choice will soon find circumstances in
which they pray for guidance and don't receive it. For example, this is likely to
occur in those numerous circumstances in which the choices are trivial or either
choice is acceptable.
“We should study things out in our minds, using the reasoning powers our Creator
has placed within us. Then we should pray for guidance and act upon it if we
receive it. If we do not receive guidance, we should act upon our best judgment.
Persons who persist in seeking revelatory guidance on subjects on which the Lord
has not chosen to direct us may concoct an answer out of their own fantasy or
bias, or they may even receive an answer through the medium of false revelation”
(“Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall,” Ensign, Oct. 1994, 13–14).
Don't always look for revelation, but make sure you follow it when it comes. Make your own descisions, or your are just flipping coins for whose influence you are following.
This post will draw on the game of Pokemon. If you are unfamiliar with the game I will try to give you enough knowledge for it to make sense.
The most important part is that you are trying to Knock Out your opponent's Pokemon before they Knock out yours. You do so by using attacks that are specific to each Pokemon.
We will be using four Pokemon for this demonstration. Hopefully Prayer and Revelation will be more understood than before.
Each Pokemon has a specific type of Energy that it uses.
We all have our own strengths, talents, and abilities that God has given us to use in order to help others.
Sawk - Praying and Doing
So if Prayer is wat you use to Energize your Spirit, having Energy (or Praying) doesn't exactly help much unless you have a specific course of action that you are going to do.
Sawk is capable of doing up to 100 points of damage, but it all depends on a coin flip. If we pray and receive Energy from the Lord, but then we don't make our own decisions and act of our own will, we will probably not reach our full potential.
"Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself."
-- 2 Nephi 2:16
Gothita - Prayer and Sincerity
Gothita is able to put the defending Pokemon to sleep with a single Energy, but won't do any damage. With two energy you have the chance to do damage to the opponent.
If I only prayed a little bit, or when I was in trouble with something or someone, I can put down an Energy, which would allow me to deal with something that bothered me in the moment, but I will never win because I can't defeat the enemy that is attacking me. With more sincere Prayer I would have more Spiritual Energy, and thereby be capable of withstanding the advances of Satan.
Armor of God - Ephesians 6:10-18
Psyduck and Golduck
Praying for guindance all the time without working out your own solution is kinda like loading up a Psyduck with extra power. No matter how much you pray you will still only be able to use the same attack, which only needs one energy, and half the time you hurt yourself.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed,
not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Some personal effort makes it so you can heal yourself but without prayer you still dont get anywhere.
Golduck becomes more powerful as you give him Energy. Having done the required effort on your part by evolving, Energizing your Spirit through prayer will help you come off Conqueror.
"Pray always, that you may come off conqueror;
yea, that you may conquer Satan,
and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan
that do uphold his work."
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