A Practical and Powerful Way to Obtain the Holy Spirit

[Finrock]

Right off the bat let me say that these ideas are borrowed from the LDS Addiction Recovery Program. After you read that, please don't disregard the content because you say to yourself, "Well, I'm not an addict or I'm not addicted to cigarettes, to drugs, or to alcohol, so this doesn't apply to me..." If you were to think such a thing, you would be making a big mistake. Someone once told me that the Addiction Recovery Program can most assuredly be renamed the Advanced Repentance Program. Having said that, I encourage all to consider the principle of action identified below and further to carefully consider and to apply all of the 12 steps found in the LDS Addiction Recovery Program. Also understand that I present this from a position of experience, not from a position of theory.

So, on to the principle that I am identifying today:

Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself

This has probably been one of the hardest steps to take when we decide to turn our lives over to God. It requires great courage and even greater honesty. It requires for us to confront our true selves, which quite often, is not always a pretty thing to behold. Let me quote directly from the ARP manual with some empahsis:

You make a searching and fearless written inventory of your life, surveying or summarizing the thoughts, events, emotions, and actions of your life, making your inventory as complete as possible.

Doing a fearless and thorough inventory of your life will not be easy. When we say fearless, we do not mean you will have no feelings of fear. You will likely experience many emotions as you survey your life, including embarrassment or shame or fear. Fearless means you will not let your fears stop you from being thorough in the inventory process. In step 4, it means you commit to rigorous honesty as you focus on events in your life, including your own weaknesses, and not on anyone else’s weaknesses.

In the past you probably justified bad behavior and blamed other people, places, or things for the problems you had created. Now you will begin to take responsibility for past and current actions, even though you may need to acknowledge painful, embarrassing, or difficult events, thoughts, emotions, or actions.

If the thought of making a searching and fearless inventory of yourself feels overwhelming, know you are not alone. Our hearts go out to you. We remember our struggles to find the willingness to complete this step. Many of us wondered if we might skip step 4 entirely and still overcome our addictions. Eventually we had to believe the words of those who went before us: “Without a searching and fearless moral inventory, . . . the faith which really works in daily living is still out of reach” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions [1981], 43).

Until we have taken a rigorous, thorough, and honest look at our own lives, our own feelings, our own emotions, motivations, and so forth, we will never be able to identify the things that we need to change and to work on, or in other words, to repent of, in order to allow for the Spirit to have complete sway in our lives.

As you do your inventory, look beyond your past behaviors and examine the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that led to your behavior. Your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are actually the roots of your addictive behaviors. Unless you examine all your tendencies toward fear, pride, resentment, anger, self-will, and self-pity, your abstinence [from past behaviors or addictions] will be shaky at best.

So often in life we tend to blame others, circumstance, or both for our actions, our behaviors, our dispositions, and/or our continued struggles and mistakes. When we make a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves we begin the step of truly being free and allowing God to heal us and to change us completely.

When doing your inventory it is critical that you trust in God. Pray to Him and ask Him to help you see yourself as you truly are. Don't neglect the positive things as well. We are more than just our mistakes. We should acknowledge and recognize the good aspects and the good qualities we have as well. God will also help you to overcome any hesitancy you might have in doing this inventory. He will help you to overcome any tendency to procrastinate.

Also, it is important that you find someone that you can trust to share you inventory with. This can seem extremely scary, especially if we have these dark places in our lives, because we are afraid of how others might judge us. However, this part of the inventory is important because it helps us to be humble and the person we share it with can be an impartial observer of your inventory. Ideally the person you share with will have experience doing an inventory themselves. Just be sure that the person you pick will be trustworthy and will respect you and what it is you are trying to accomplish.

If you want to find ideas on how to start your written moral inventory of yourself, to get more details, and for quotes from prophets and apostles dealing with this idea, please check out this link: https://addictionrecovery.lds.org/steps/4?lang=eng

This has been an important part of my life. It has allowed me to really find out about myself, what drivers me, what motivates me, what bothers me, where am I lacking, and what I need to improve on. Its helped me to recognize how much I truly need God in my life. As I've done this step I have found that I have had greater access to the Holy Spirit because I have been able to repent and to let go of past mistakes and begin to replace them with new habits, new ways of thinking, and new ways of being. God and Christ has been central to this process. Doing a searching and fearless written moral inventory of myself has been one of the most powerful tools that I have used in order to gain access to having the Holy Ghost with me as my constant companion and that is ultimately what I want because it has the fruit of producing true happiness, joy, and peace in life, even during troubled times and troubled circumstances.

-Finrock

[Finrock]

Here is something important to do when considering your past, events from your past, situations you've been in, your behavior, etc.

Self-examination. How did your character weaknesses or strengths affect the situation? Do you see any evidence of pride, self-pity, self-deception, or self-will in your attitudes and actions? Be sure to record also those times when you acted right.

The Holy Ghost can help you humble yourself and face the truth, even if the truth is painful. With the help of the Lord, you can recognize your strengths and weaknesses (see Ether 12:27). Questions like these may help:

• What outcome did I want in this situation and why?
• How did I try to control the situation?
• Was it any of my business?
• What actions did I take or omit to get what I wanted?
• Did I ignore reality?
• Were my expectations reasonable for myself and for others?
• Did I lie to myself or to others?
• Did I ignore the feelings of others and think only of myself?
• How did I act like a victim to control others, get attention and sympathy, be special, and so on?
• Did I resist help from God and others?
• Did I insist on being right?
• Did I feel slighted for lack of recognition or acknowledgment?

-Finrock

P.S. This is an "active" bump. ;)

[Matchmaker]

I think this program in the Church is the most amazing program! I have never been to one of these group meetings where I did not overwhelmingly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of one's degree of sin or weakness, serious participation in a twelve step program will change your life. If you are not there to help yourself, go there to help someone else. Things are said there honestly that will never be said in a Chapel meeting.

[Finrock]

I think this program in the Church is the most amazing program! I have never been to one of these group meetings where I did not overwhelmingly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of one's degree of sin or weakness, serious participation in a twelve step program will change your life. If you are not there to help yourself, go there to help someone else. Things are said there honestly that will never be said in a Chapel meeting.

The reason why the Spirit can be so strongly present in those meetings is because most who are in attendance have surrendered any pretense or attempts to appear more righteous than they are. Most people in these meetings are there because they have been humbled or because they are humble and are ready to receive. The Spirit loves such an atmosphere and will fill such people to the brim with goodness and truth.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

-Finrock

[Yahtzee]

Our ward just started a Sunday school class based on this program. It's phenomenal!! I wish more ward members would go. Maybe of I share your phrase "advanced repentance program" it'll be more popular. It really is for everyone.

[Finrock]

Our ward just started a Sunday school class based on this program. It's phenomenal!! I wish more ward members would go. Maybe of I share your phrase "advanced repentance program" it'll be more popular. It really is for everyone.

That's very good. Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that most all people could benefit from this program of the Church. So many people don't avail themselves of this program because they think it doesn't apply to them because they aren't hardcore drug addicts, don't struggle with pornography, etc. However, if there is anything in your life, any weakness, any behavior, that you have tried to overcome but find yourself eventually going back to the weakness or making the same mistake over and over again, then you can benefit from this. The principles that are taught truly will benefit all people. It gets to the very core of what it means to really, and truly repent and what it means to really and truly to trust in God and to turn your life over to Him.

I really believe the principles taught in this program or in the 12 Steps are true, practical, and powerful ways to implement and live the gospel of Jesus Christ. It takes one from just giving lip service to the gospel and dealing with it from a theoretical perspective and helps them to live it indeed and to begin to have real world experience with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

-Finrock

[True]

A while back I studied the book "He Did Deliver Me From Bondage", which a woman developed after going to AA meetings and thinking it could be done much better using the same principles but using the Book of Mormon. I think the church used that book for a while until it came up with its own.
It was one of my first close encounters with God. I think another good title for these programs is "how to come to Christ". It is definitely good for every person and not just for addictions to illicit things. It can be used to overcome those things that trip you up and place a barrier between you and God.

[h_p]

The reason why the Spirit can be so strongly present in those meetings is because most who are in attendance have surrendered any pretense or attempts to appear more righteous than they are. Most people in these meetings are there because they have been humbled or because they are humble and are ready to receive. The Spirit loves such an atmosphere and will fill such people to the brim with goodness and truth.

I've long said that if you want to know whether God is real and answers prayers, then pray for humility, and prepare yourself for pain. It's not because God is sadistic, but that's the first step to getting yourself into a place where you can hear Him and He can start working with you. Every time I've done this, it's been a miserable experience, but the spiritual reward afterwards has been worth every bit.