Increasing Faith and Testimony

Increasing Faith and Testimony

Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the day at a flea market trying to sell some inventory from a business that never really panned out. The day before, I loaded up one of our vehicles with the inventory and then setting up the table so that I would be ready the following morning. I was so tired that all that I wanted to do when I got home was to go to bed and sleep for a week. Didn't happen. Very light sleep for an hour and then nothing else got done except supper and the dishes.

This evening, my topic is “Increasing Faith and Testimony”. I originally wrote this in 2012 for presentation in Sacrament meeting.

First of all, we need to understand a couple of things.  First, if you don’t have faith, you can’t have a testimony.  Secondly, you need to understand what faith is and what a testimony is.  So, my talk will consist of two parts, the meaning of faith and testimony, then, how do we increase our faith and testimony?

Faith and testimony have different meanings.

Faith is more than just believing.  The meaning of faith is taught in the Scriptures in both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon.  The Apostle Paul taught in Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 1: “Faith is the substance assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Alma taught the same principle in different words in Alma Chapter 32 verse 21: “And now as I said concerning the flesh – faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.”  Both of these men lived in vastly different places and times.  We also need to realize that faith is a principle of action and power.

What is a testimony?  For this, I went to LDS.org to find the definition.  I found that “a testimony is a spiritual witness given by the Holy Ghost.”  Dallin H. Oaks actually went a little farther when he said, “A testimony of the gospel is a personal witness borne to our souls by the Holy Ghost that certain facts of eternal significance are true and that we know them to be true. Such facts include the nature of the Godhead and our relationship to its three members, the effectiveness of the Atonement, and the reality of the Restoration.”

I sincerely pray that everyone has a better understanding of what faith and testimony are.

In order to endure to the end as we have been admonished, we need to have a strong foundation in our lives of both faith and testimony.  President Dieter F. Uchtdorf told us at General Conference in April this year that “we need to be constantly reminded of the eternal reasons behind the things we are commanded to do.  The basic gospel principles need to be part of our life’s fabric, even if it means learning them over and over again.”

Establishing and increasing our faith starts with a desire to do so.  President Henry B. Eyring taught that “A foundation of faith…takes time to build.”  President Eyring was comparing building faith to the building of a house.  You need a good foundation for a house to stand for many years.  It’s the same with faith, you need a good foundation and it takes time to build that good foundation of faith.  President Eyring goes on to say “if the foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts, the power to endure will crumble.”  Faith has been compare to the muscles in your body, if you don’t exercise faith, your faith can and will grow weak.

How can we exercise our faith?  We can do all of the usual things, pray, be obedient, make our choices with care, scripture study, etc.  We have to be careful that we are not just going through the motions.  We need to have a real desire to do this.  We need to be receptive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  We need to not only read but study the scriptures as well as the words of latter-day prophets.  We know that we need faith to be lead to salvation, but some people forget that the faith needs to be centered on Jesus Christ.  We need to have that assurance that He exists and that the work that He did was for us.  We need to have a correct idea of His character, that He loves us but he does give us our agency to accept or reject His salvation.  We need to accept the fact that it is Christ that provides our salvation in order to progress.  We need to try our best to live the way that Christ would have us live.  We need to trust Him completely in everything even if we don’t understand it.  Christ has suffered everything for us and knows how to help us through our trials big or small.  We need to show our faith by the way we live.

Increasing faith is obtained through individual obedience and righteous action.  You cannot increase my faith through your actions nor can I increase your faith by my actions.  You can teach me ways to increase my faith, but it’s up to me whether I accept your teaching and adapt it to my circumstances or not.  I stand or fall on my own merits. Not my parents’ actions or faith, but my own.

If we want to obtain the highest degree of glory, we must keep the covenants we made.  Faith can motivate obedience to the prophets.  Alma taught this in Alma Chapter 32 verses 26 to 43.  Paraphrasing it says “The word of God helps strengthen faith.  Comparing the word to a seed, he said that the ‘desire to believe’ can lead us to ‘give place’ for the word to be ‘planted in our hearts.’  Then we will feel that the word is good, for it will begin to enlarge or souls and enlighten our understanding.  This will strengthen our faith.  As we continually nurture the word in our hearts, ‘with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.”  “Increasing our faith requires trusting the Lord with our whole souls and striving to act as He would in all circumstances.”

As with all things from Heavenly Father, there are blessings given to us when we obey the principle of faith.  Moroni 10:20 tells us “Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith, there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.”  Moroni 7:42 tells us: “Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.”  Faith in God and in His guidance through the Holy Spirit will sustain us in an increasingly more challenging world.  Only when our faith is aligned with the will of our Heavenly Father will we be empowered to receive the blessings we seek.  There is one other blessing that I should mention.  President Eyring says it best: “It is never too late to strengthen the foundation of faith…. You can do it wherever you are and however alone and deserted you may feel.  If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing.  We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service because we never are.  We can feel the love of God.  The Saviour has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up and He always keeps His word.

As I said before, faith will lead to testimony.  As we recall, a testimony is a spiritual witness given by the Holy Ghost.  I would like to tell you a story from President Eyring: “When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day.  I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day.  Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?”  As I kept at it, something began to happen.  As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day.  As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to Show me what He had done.  More than gratitude began to grow in my heart.  Testimony grew.  I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.  I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Saviour Jesus Christ.  And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance – even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.”  President Eyring continues on to say that the Holy Ghost will help us to recognize and remember God’s kindness and will help to build our testimonies.  In order to do this, we need to accept the Holy Ghost as a companion.  President Eyring also challenges us to ask these questions of ourselves every night:

• 1.    Did God send a message that was just for me?
• 2.    Did I see His hand in my life?

I am adding one more question:

• 3.    How can we preserve the memory?

Doctrine and Covenants Section 76 verses 51, 74, 79 and 101 teach the following:

The foundation of a testimony is the knowledge that Heavenly Father lives and loves His children; that Jesus Christ lives, that He is the Son of God, and that He carried out the infinite Atonement; that Joseph Smith is the prophet of God who was called to restore the gospel; that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have the sacred opportunity and responsibility to obtain their own testimonies.  Having obtained a testimony, each member has a duty to nurture it throughout life.  Happiness in this life and throughout eternity depends largely on whether individuals are ‘valiant in the testimony of Jesus”.

I have done some reading on increasing my testimony and found that testimony needs the application of the following principles:

• 1.    The quest for a testimony begins with a righteous, sincere desire
• 2.    Testimony comes through the quiet influence of the Holy Ghost
• 3.    Testimony grows gradually through experiences
• 4.    Testimony grows as individuals show willingness to serve in the Church and to study, pray, and learn.
• 5.    Testimony grows as individuals obey God’s commandments
• 6.    Part of a testimony’s development comes when it is shared.

Alma taught a group of people who did not have any testimonies yet in Alma Chapter 32 verse 27: “If ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.”  Alma challenged those whom he taught to try to believe.

Joseph Smith was asked what the fundamental principles of our religion were.  His reply was: “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”

As you can see, faith and testimony are tied together.  You cannot have a testimony without faith.  The ways to increase your testimony are the same as those to increase your faith and vice versa.  In both instances, the first step is the same.  You need to want to increase your faith and testimony.  Without that desire, you will not put the effort required to accomplish the work you want to do.  You need to do this with a sincere and contrite heart. 

President Eyring has given us some counsel on faith during the last General Conference: “That particle of faith most precious and which you should protect and use to whatever extent you can is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Moroni taught the power of that faith this way: ‘And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God’.”

Faith is very important in our lives and in our futures.  Faith will help us get through any difficulties that we may encounter on our journey.  Faith will gain our place in the eternities if we just exercise it.