Teaching Help for "How Can I Receive an Outpouring of the Lord’s Spirit?"
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Let's go over some ways that you can teach the gospel of Jesus Christ with the Come Follow Me lesson, “How Can I Receive an Outpouring of the Lord’s Spirit?” This lesson goes in conjunction with Joel 2:28, specifically, where it talks about the outpouring of the Spirit with even the sons and the daughters prophesizing. This scripture is also quoted during the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts. Angel Moroni also quotes this verse in Joel when he's talking to Joseph Smith that one night where he appears to him several times and tells them about the Book of Mormon. President Russell M. Nelson has told us countless times how essential it is to have the Spirit with us for our spiritual survival. Let's jump in and talk about ways that we can increase our capacity for feeling the Spirit.
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Pour It Out
This idea is inspired from the Come Follow Me manual which is full of great ideas. Definitely go and check it out and don't just rely on me. You will need a pitcher of water, a few containers that might hold the water from the pitcher, and a tray to catch any water you may spill. Display the various vessels in front of your class and ask somebody to pick which one might hold all the water from the pitcher. Ask them why they pick that container then try it out and see how it goes. Keep trying until you find the right vessel.
For this object lesson, you can pick containers that are all similar in size, but maybe only one actually works or containers that are drastically different depending on what symbolism you want to focus on. One of the things that you could bring up though is if we picked the smallest vessel, how can we increase its capacity to hold more? We can only keep what we can actually hold onto. Invite your class to reflect back on their participation during General Conference. How long did it take before you were feeling sleepy or distracted? We have to be able to prepare ourselves to actually receive all of the outpourings of the Spirit the Lord is trying to give us. It can still be exhausting, but the more we practice, the easier it is to receive all of it.
You can also start with a dropper or even a straw to transfer the water and see how long it takes to demonstrate the difference between pouring and dripping or a trickle.
Unimaginable Things
In the Come Follow Me manual for this lesson, it mentions a talk by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf and how he shares that God has something unimaginable for us. This immediately made me think of President Nelson's quote from his October 2022 General Conference talk about overcoming the world. Again, it ties right back into Joel 2:28. President Nelson says,
“So many wonderful things are ahead. In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns ‘with power and great glory,’ He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.”
Again, we need the right kind of vessel in order to receive these things for ourselves. We can't even imagine what God has prepared for us. This is a great opportunity to think about the past things that God has done, things that we've learned through the Old Testament this year, and the other scriptures as we continue to study. When we think about the unimaginable, what has God already done? Brainstorm as a class (invite someone to be your scribe on the board). Have you thought about this is the God who:
Parted the Red Sea with Moses
Turned the stones into light for the brother of Jared
Moved mountains
Healed countless people.
What God has in store for us is beyond these already amazing events. There's so much more waiting for us. How are we going to have the eyes to see those things and the heart to accept them as miracles and not just rationalize them away? How does knowing this make us feel? What are some things that we maybe have witnessed for ourselves, some miracles in our own lives? What do we feel prompted to do because of these words from President Nelson and in the book of Joel?
President Nelson has several things in his talk about overcoming the world that will help us prepare to receive the outpouring of the Spirit better. Go through that talk together as a class- divide it up, cut it up, review it a little bit. For example:
The reward for keeping our covenants with God is heavenly power so we need to be a covenant-making and covenant-keeping people.
We need to choose to refrain from anything that drives the Spirit away.
We need to give away our favorite sins.
We need to partake of the sacrament every week.
Talk about some of the amazing things that God has already done for us, some of the unimaginable things that are ahead for us, how we can prepare ourselves, how it makes us feel, and what we can do about it because of what we feel and where we feel we are. How we can we follow the prophet?
Prayer Journals
Another way that President Nelson encouraged us to be more open to the promptings of the Spirit was to:
“Record the thoughts that come to you as you pray. Then follow through diligently.”
This could be a great activity the week before you teach this lesson (or do it after). Make prayer journals (pssttt… decorate them with my gospel stickers)! Then put them to the test and invite your class to write down their promptings as they pray. It's kind of a new experience for a lot of people, to write as they pray. Come back on that Sunday and return and report about some of the experiences or thoughts of how it made them feel as they were writing these things down.
if you didn't have the time to do the activity, that's okay. Consider these questions:
Why do you think President Nelson recommends writing down the thoughts that come as you pray?
Have you tried it before?
How do you think it might help?
One way to explain this is, it's kind of the difference between saying our prayers and actually praying, actually communicating with God. Another great comparison is reading the scriptures versus studying the scriptures. There's a difference. There's a difference in how we study our scriptures and there's a difference in actually praying versus just saying a prayer. Talk about those things. How we can improve our prayers?
Roles of the Holy Ghost in Your Life
There's a video in the Come Follow Me manual from President Nelson taken from his talk a few years ago. Watch that video first then jump into the activity. It's always a great idea to use different methods to help keep people's attention as well as to incorporate those different learning styles so if you have the time for a video, go for it.
Discuss the roles of the Holy Ghost. What are some ways the Holy Ghost helps us? List those up on the board or on different pieces of paper. This is another great opportunity to invite someone to be your scribe. Go to the Guide to the Scriptures found in the Study Helps in your Gospel Library app and look up Holy Ghost. It lists lots of those roles of the Holy Ghost with great scriptures to go along with those roles. On the board or your papers, write, “When did the Holy Ghost [one of his roles] to me this week?” For example: When did the Holy Ghost reveal truth to me this week? Some other roles include:
Comfort
Guide
Cleanse
Witness
Sanctify
Holy Spirit of Promise
Teach
There are all kinds that you could write down. Write those things on the papers and divide them up amongst your class, either individually or you can do a few per group. Look up those scriptures. Ponder some ways that you've experienced the Holy Ghost in that specific role. As we take the time to recognize and record our experiences, the more aware we will be. It’s also a great way to show our gratitude to the Lord and our willingness to hear, heed, and hearken to Him. Therefore, we will most likely, receive more outpourings of the Spirit.
Staying on Our Runway
Joseph Smith told us that the Holy Ghost is a revelator. He stated, “No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelation.” This brings to mind the wonderful talk from Elder Dale G. Relund this past October about the proper framework for receiving revelation. Again, get out that talk and study it together. A fun way that you can do so is by making paper airplanes as Elder Renlund talks about using our own runways for revelation. Write different parts of the talk or glue different pieces inside your airplane, fly it to different people and divide it up that way. This is a great talk to explore how we know if what we receive is actually from God and not just from ourselves or from the deceiver.
Some great points in this talk include:
Don't ask contrary to God's will. That's opening yourself up for not good things. We don't ask amiss.
Ask God in Christ's name, believing that you will receive your answer.
Only ask within your purview or within your runway. I can receive revelation for myself, for my family, and within my calling, but I cannot receive revelation for all the Latter-day Saints in Colorado. That's not my purview. Make sure that we are sticking to our runway and not being deceived in those matters.
All the revelation we receive will be in harmony with God's commandments and the covenants we have made. We should not pray contrary to those commandments and covenants. If we do, we are opening ourselves up to deception.
We need to recognize what revelation we have been given. Elder Renlund gives the example of Joseph Smith and Martin Harris with the lost pages. Recognize that you've already received that answer.
Be open to receiving additional revelation.
Remember that revelation is often given in increments. We might only get a small portion of our answer and when we follow through with that, we might get the next portion, and so on and so forth. Nephi was this way when he was building the boat. He would get a little bit at a time as he continued forward and so do we.
Add some of these things to your paper airplanes. After they share a little bit about their section of the talk and insights about the Holy Ghost, they can fly them for some extra fun. I recommend using footnote number 10 in Elder Renlund’s talk. He lists specific scriptures on how we can recognize the Holy Ghost. It’s always a great reminder as we continue to learn what it feels like to us. The Holy Ghost is:
Mild
Still
Simple
Plain
Piercing
Burning
Comes to our minds and our hearts
Brings joy
Never fearful
Not anxious
Doesn't bring worry
Enlightens
Not mystifying
Elder Renlund ends his talk with inviting us to have the confidence to claim personal revelation for ourselves, and we can end our lesson with that invitation as well.
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