Temple Bound
God's children are searching in greater numbers for answers and hoping for miracles as they look to Jesus Christ for relief. On 'Temple Bound,' hosted by Will Humphreys, explore how temples offer not just solace but also powerful tools for navigating these turbulent times through faith in Jesus Christ.
Tune in every Monday to hear Will Humphreys engage with guests who bring inspiring stories, profound teachings, and insights into accessing divine guidance through temple service.
Each episode promises to enrich your understanding and strengthen your connection to the Savior in unique and transformative ways.
Whether you're seeking answers, yearning for peace, or in need of a miracle, 'Temple Bound' is your weekly spiritual refuge, helping you anchor your soul to the Savior. Join us on this sacred journey to deepen your faith and discover the blessings of temple worship.
Temple Bound
Overcoming Negative Thoughts with Dennis Deaton Part 2
Unveiling God's Wisdom Through Faith with Dennis Deaton (Part 2)
In this episode, Dennis Deaton continues to share profound insights on how focusing on Christ in every thought can transform temple worship and daily life. Through regular temple attendance and obedience to prophetic counsel, Dennis explains how we can diminish the adversary's influence and invite more spiritual light and glory into our lives. Drawing from his book "Looking Unto Christ In Every Thought", Dennis explores the concept of mental warfare and how adversarial influences can challenge our spiritual intentions.
Key Takeaways:
- View the temple as the Lord’s University, a place for revelation and spiritual refinement through prayer and meditation.
- Learn how genuine intent and unwavering faith can lead to divine interventions, as seen in personal stories from Eastern Europe.
- Shift from “Why me?” to “What can I learn?” and trust in God’s wisdom and timing for personal growth.
- Understand the power of making and keeping covenants to invite divine blessings and turn trials into spiritual opportunities.
Welcome to part two of our interview with Dennis Deaton here on Temple Bound and thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1:If you're tuning into this episode and you missed last week's, please go listen to last week's first, because it was such a powerful discussion with our guest, dennis Deaton, a current stake patriarch who has a multiple times published author. We're reviewing his book Look into Christ in Every Thought and we tie this to the temple more so in today's episode of how looking to Christ in every thought plays into our daily living. It is a powerful realization in an empowering episode that's going to help inspire us to do these things with less resistance and with less difficulty, guys. So I'm so excited to finish part two We'll turn it over to Dennis. When we go to the temple and we have going back to the initial analogy of, like I'm trying to go to the temple, you know we hear things from the prophet about setting an appointment and keeping that appointment and once we show consistency with that, do you believe that there's a decrease of the influence from the adversary if we maintain that obedience?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely Every time. We are doing something in harmony with the admonitions, promises and teachings of the living apostles, the prophets, the church leaders, the men and women that Heavenly Fathers put at the head of the church were gaining light In the temple. What's always beautiful about it is that you're there often for a personal reason, but you can inevitably in any of the ordinances you're doing something vicariously for somebody else, and so it's grace for grace. We know that there's a law irrevocably decreed in the heavens upon which all blessings are predicated. When we receive any blessing from God, it's by obedience to that law upon which it's predicated. So there's sort of a mathematical equation here Certain law, certain amount of light and glory that's always the blessing.
Speaker 2:It's not waffle, irons and toes oh, we've been really blessed, we got a lot of appliances it's actually light and glory that's coming into us. So that experience of being in the temple brings us more light and we will inevitably feel joy, peace, happiness. Those are all facets of the same diamond, as I said, and it cannot not happen. However, I'd like to suggest that there's different levels of going to the temple, just like there's different levels of going to church, you know.
Speaker 1:Like I'm going to church, Like you can go to the temple, yeah.
Speaker 2:So there is absolutely and I don't want to, this isn't a judgment thing where I got to now worry about what grade of worship I'm going there.
Speaker 2:I got to now worry about what grade of level of worship I'm going there. But I just want to suggest that if you have been studying something in the gospel and you have a sense that you're not really fully getting the whole nugget of truth there, or you have a question about a doctrine, or you have a question about something in dealing with one of your children, and so forth, we've been admonished to take a question to conference and you'll have it answered. I think we want to often be taking a question to the temple, something specific that we've been pondering, we've been doing. It's not going to be an idle question, just like you know where are the 10 tribes these days. We just if you're putting some effort, some fasting and prayer, even with it, you'll have a revelatory experience in the temple within the first two or three times you're taking that question there. I'm pretty sure I can promise you that and you will, I think, find that the temple I think it might have been John A Witzow who likened it to it's the Lord's University.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you get to decide what course you want to be taking and getting what you want to be taught, and so I encourage worshipers to go there. But I also am a temple worker. I've been an officiator in the Mesa Temple now when we moved to Queen Creek now in the Gilbert Temple and been there a number of years. To Queen Creek now in the Gilbert Temple and been there a number of years when I was about the first or second day that I was in the temple in Mesa. The president of the temple at that time was J Brent Hatch and he stood up and he said brothers and sisters, as you're in the temple, you'll be in the middle of an ordinance. Your mind's going to be focused on that, but there's other times when you're free. You're in between one of the assignments you have, or you might even have a break scheduled or so forth.
Speaker 2:He said a lot of us can find some conversations, we can strike up with our fellow workers. They're fine, and yet we're probably missing an opportunity. And then he made this statement and it's just stayed riveted to me and even today, whether I'm worshiping or I'm there as a worker, I think about it. He says some of you would rather talk than be taught. Wow, and where the Spirit took me in my thinking there is that I don't have to be in sitting in an endowment session or in the initiatory booth to be getting revelation. Anytime I'm in the temple, I can be getting revelation. Anytime I'm in the temple, I can be being taught, and so I can tell you that I prefer to spend my time in the temple, not in the break room, talking about fishing trips and vacations with the other workers, and I want to find some place where I can just be there with my thoughts and presenting Heavenly Father some of my requests about understanding more about His gospel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think oftentimes we forget when we talk about prayer, meditation is usually coupled with it Prayer and meditation, and meditation can look like different things to people.
Speaker 1:But what you described is my experience and where I started getting more value by being more attentive to what the thoughts I had in the temple. I don't remember who gave this analogy, but the analogy of going to the temple for our souls is like a ship in the ocean that has barnacles on it being put in fresh water. There's ways you can scrape off those barnacles and that's super hard when you're in saltwater, but if you just put the boat in fresh water long enough, the barnacles fall off. But the key to that formula is time. So for me that looks different for everybody and I tell people very adamantly on this podcast it's about progress, not perfection. Progress becomes perfection through our Savior. So in the mortal life it's about progress. So if I'm going three times a year, maybe I go six. Just set that target, make a calendar, invite, because that alone will increase by some significant measure and allow the Spirit to enter my life and bless me.
Speaker 1:Now I'm at a point where when I'm in the temple, I'm trying not to rush because I'm trying to go more frequently, and so what it looks like to me to be taught is to sit in the celestial room and to have prayer, like an unclosed prayer, where I talk and then I just sit back and watch my thoughts.
Speaker 1:And to me it's interesting because it's not like every thought that comes through my head in those moments is inspirational. It's like, oh yeah, and after this I've got to pick up the laundry. Those things are still bubbling up inside of me, but just creating that mental space to sit back and watch the cars go by and all of a sudden there'll be something that shows up for me, and oftentimes it's something. Really, how does the Spirit talk to us, these quiet, simple ways of it's not like you should do this Will? It's this thought to usually serve somebody, no matter how painful my struggle is and there has been painful moments for me in that temple there are times where the thought comes to me to go do something for somebody else, and when that occurs to me in those moments of service is when I'll get the inspiration.
Speaker 1:And sometimes I don't even get the inspiration, the problem just resolves or someone else gets an inspiration to serve me in a way that has just shown me the Lord's hand, if I'm willing to sit back and just be quietly attentive to what he wants to teach me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and by serving somebody you receive grace for grace. I started a concept there and I didn't really finish or tie it together. A grace is doing something for someone that they can't do for themselves. In section 93, it clearly tells us that the way Christ progressed to his ultimate perfection, to be one with the Father, was grace for grace. If I obey a small law, I get a small endowment of glory or light of Christ, but with grace there's no quantifying here. Heavenly Father can just back up the truck and just unload it on you, and so that's why service is really the biggest key of it all. The more you're serving, the greater will be the quantity of light that will be coming into you.
Speaker 1:It's amazing to watch that in the lives of other people, especially in our children. You know, you see when your children make those decisions to serve. I have a son on a mission right now and it's been so powerful to me to see how his love increases and how much joy he has in the face of serious challenge. You know, this is not something that's easy and I think that maybe it looks easy for other people and whatever, but when they're going through it and you see them serve people, just their countenance, it literally changes, going back to the idea of our spirit being matter and having matter. It's like some people who are just, they seem to radiate that it's because they are, they are radiating, they are literally radiating light.
Speaker 2:Yeah, joseph went into a minute detail maybe minute's a little too strong there, but significant detail in describing Moroni's appearance the night of May 23rd 1823. He talks about the whole room was full of light. But then he says but not as bright as immediately around his presence. So he's arrived in a conduit of light, but when he arrives he's displaying his own glory. And if it was just like a room, here we've got a light over our head. It's most intense. Around the source of the light you get over here in the corners of the room it's not as intense. Well, moroni has. By being faithful and true to the commandments and serving and all of the things that he did, he now is in possession of this light and truth. Of this light and truth and ultimately, when we get to be as the Savior, as John says, we'll be as he is.
Speaker 1:We'll be joint heirs with Christ, one with the Father, sharing this fullness of light, glory and power, and it's so powerful to think about that we can literally develop that in this life and carry it with us Right? One of the things I remember you told me years ago that really stayed with me is that oftentimes we think that you know, we should try our best to be good and all these things, and some people end up like having these really intense spiritual experiences where the veil is parted, even for a short little bit. I remember you telling me you're like well, any one of us can have that and that should be the goal. Not like this thing of like maybe it happens to some, but it's like. No, we should intentionally look out and seek that by making those decisions, to become more like our Savior.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some people say we're not supposed to seek after a sign. But a sign is from a disbeliever who wants to know, without any work, effort or repentance, that something's right or true, and so they're not going to get an answer. The sincere heart, real intent, means that if you answer this prayer, heavenly Father, I will do what it takes. I will follow through on this, father. I will do what it takes, I will follow through on this. Any investigator who will read the book and then say if you'll tell me this book is true, I will form new friendships. I'll change my profession if I have to. I might lose even contact with some of my relatives, but I will follow through. I will be baptized and I'll do my best to grow in truth and light. They will get an answer. That's the promise that can't be denied. So sometimes I think you said, or I've had people say to me, that the book Looking Unto Christ and Every.
Speaker 2:Thought Found them, the book Found them. I've had that experience many times. A book finds me, that I'll just suddenly come and somebody will recommend it, and I'll immediately know. And they're just saying it offhanded, and I'll just really know I'm supposed to get that book and so I'll get it. So one of those was Yearning for the Living God. It's essentially the biography of Epinzio Busce. He was a general authority, his German heritage, before President Dirk took over. The leading figure. There is our German shepherd.
Speaker 1:He was our German shepherd. Right, he was the previous German shepherd. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, in his book it's not a chronological thing, it takes chapters. It just talks about his spiritual experiences. So I'm going to read one that is pretty thought-provoking here.
Speaker 2:At a Christmas social once I was sitting next to a woman from a recently opened country in Eastern Europe who was in the West for the first time. She was a convert of a little over a year. I asked her how she liked America and she was very enthusiastic and positive and had many good things to say. Suddenly she stopped and said I wish I could invite all the members of my Salt Lake ward to come to my home branch, members of my Salt Lake ward to come to my home branch. I asked her about her branch. She told me about the poor circumstances they were all living in and about how difficult it was for the members to get to their Sunday meetings and the many sacrifices they joyfully made. She said the most inspiring time for the members in her branch was testimony meeting.
Speaker 2:Inspiring time for the members in her branch was testimony meeting. They all looked forward to hearing their fellow members' report about the Lord's workings in their lives. They, of course, would not part until everyone had given a testimony, because they were all anxious to share the many miracles happening around them. They could not say enough about the love and most gracious care of the Lord. Then she said Once in a while we have holy angels visit and comfort and strengthen us. She added with a smile Can you imagine? I have found people in Salt Lake City who have never seen an angel. She laughed as if it were the strangest thing she had ever heard, isn't that?
Speaker 1:amazing Kapow. There's something about intentionality in our worship right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Like we think about the famous scripture in James. If any of you lack wisdom, right, but we often forget the second verse. But let him. I'm going to get it wrong, but let him ask with nothing wavering, for he that that will. It can be like the waves of the sea being tossed to and fro. So we can do, we can do the right thing, we can ask the right question. But if we're ever feeling lost I know this is for me personally there have been times where I felt like I'd been moved back and forth, right, like I've been tossed back and throw. But it's because I'm not going to church, right. I feel the impression to not go and I go and I always feel better and I'm glad. But what if I really went?
Speaker 2:What if I?
Speaker 1:really went to the temple. What if I went with a burning question and I am focused and I'm convinced that the Lord's going to help me with it? And you know what? It may not show up the way I think it is, and it may not even show up in the temple, but it's going to show. That kind of intentionality is what you're talking about here, because here's this woman who's having all these—it's common for them to have these parting of the veil experiences.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because they were focused, there was nothing wavering.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they asked, doubting nothing there. You know you said something there that triggered something that's just really become significant breakthrough in my own life, so let me kind of share that Please. In the opening chapter in the book, we answered the question who is God, or who God is, or described that and based it on the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith in the latter part of his ministry and so forth, as I pointed out there, and we really got to get in our mind what a loving parent, in the highest loving form we can possibly conceive, our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother really are. When Christ was teaching the Sermon on the Mount in the old world and the Sermon at the Temple in the new world, he was trying to get us to really know where God's coming from. We often are praying with an underlying platform of doubt. I'm going to ask this question. I hope that he'll answer it and maybe, if I ask it enough times, then he'll answer.
Speaker 2:Jesus said which parent among you and I'm paraphrasing here too who his child asked for a fig would give him a thorn Right. Or if he asked for an egg would give him a serpent. And the obvious answer is no good parent would do that. He says if ye, then, being imperfect fallen beings, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly Father know how to give gifts unto you? And so if we can get the idea that we're asking the most loving being for help, assistance, strength, guidance, answers to prayers and so forth, why should we waver that it's coming. He gets to decide the timing.
Speaker 2:But I think what Jesus was saying there is that he always answers yes, he answers every prayer, and he answers with a yes or he gives you something better. People say, well, he doesn't answer every prayer, he doesn't answer my prayer. He hears and answers every prayer, but he gets to decide the timing. And if he wants, he can be more generous than you're asking for Right. And how many of us have not had the experience of asking Heavenly Father for something and not having it happen? And, down the road a period of time, we look back over and we go oh man, I'm so glad it didn't answer that, because look what happened you know Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's like that song Unanswered Prayers Garth Brooks talks about in the story. He's a storyteller musician talking about how he was dating a girl and he prayed every night that they would be married. Then, years later, he's introducing his wife to his then-girlfriend and he just realized, you know, the Lord did answer his prayer in the way that was so much more than he could have ever imagined at that point and I think that's the hardest thing.
Speaker 1:I love what you said, dennis, because for me, I think what I really struggle with sometimes is that not recognizing the adversary's thought in my head around why things aren't getting better at times. Well, it's because I'm not faithful enough or I'm not praying with more intentionality All the things that people are probably hearing in their own heads as they're listening to us talk that are absolutely the adversary trying to cut us off in this discussion, right or?
Speaker 2:in the working through of this difficult situation, we have to get more revelation and closer to our Heavenly Father, and we are building strength. We have to overcome resistance to build strength. So Heavenly Father is not going to take away a lot of the adversities that we're facing. We may well have even agreed that we would be facing this adversity in our premortal plan with him, but the point I want to make here is that if we're really trusting that our Heavenly Father's in charge and that something that's occurring in our life probably has a higher meaning to it, we go to him. Instead of saying why me? We're saying what did I want to learn from this? What are you trying to teach me? And it also emphasizes to me the reason why keeping our covenants, making and keeping covenants is so important and what it allows Heavenly Father to do. That's this. When you're keeping your covenants, doing everything you can to fulfill those, then that's when you get these back up the track moments where he really lays it on.
Speaker 2:And it struck me one time and this thought was really distilling in my mind and settling in is that I had been reading a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants entirely from the wrong point of view, it's section 82, verse 10. This is I, the Lord God, am bound when you do what I say. But if you do not what I say, you have no promise. And I used to hear that as though it was kind of an ultimatum, almost a threat Right, do it or else. Yeah, if you don't, obey, I can't. But now I picture him kind of with a tear in his eye, maybe even a lump in his throat, saying I, the Lord God, am bound. When you do what I say, I have no choice, and if you do not what I say, you have no promise. Please obey, let me back up the truck.
Speaker 1:I can't, take away your agency, I can't and yet he still does find ways to bless in my experience, even in the face of that. But it's nothing compared to the truck of me being obedient and having that just unload in that way. And, man, I think it's amazing to me that as we go through this journey of the Spirit, that we forget that a lot of times the things we're going through were pre-agreed upon. I really believe that when we were talking years ago, I had this revelation that a particular trial I was going through with one of my children was a pre-discussed experience. Pre-discussed experience and the reason I got that experience.
Speaker 1:I had that revelation come to me as I was attending the temple and doing those things that it was like no, there was a reason why you agreed to this. You don't remember why, but there must be something truly remarkable that you would have said fine, I will accept this because that result would be worth the pain I'm in right now. So I just want to remind the listeners, with whatever you're struggling with right now, if there's something that just seems unbelievably insurmountable as you're listening to this, to pray and ask if this is something, that was one of those key things we agreed to, because for me, that gave me this peace of mind of like well, not only must I have wanted the outcome, but I must have had confidence that I could do it yeah, that I could do it. With the Savior I could do it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it changes your whole energy about it. Yeah, and for those who kind of doubt this idea, and I would suggest that they read the instructions in the Doctrine and Covenants that Heavenly Father gives to his priesthood bearers. He cautions them about using unrighteous dominion. You can't coerce or force he talks about. Instead, if you do that, be amen to your priesthood. You're supposed to use love, persuasion, love unfeigned, and so he cannot be violating the very principles and qualities and characteristics virtues, that's the word I was fighting to find that he wants to see in his priesthood bearers. He, the head of the priesthood, has to be the very epitome of it.
Speaker 2:And so I picture it kind of like we were a guidance counselor saying this is what I want to be when I grow up, and I'm going to need to know this and need to know this, and I'm not very good at this. And then I could see a loving counsel saying well, you could experience something like this or like this or like that, and as you work through that, and we will be working with you, I'll be working with you in your mortality. You would wind up with that result you wanted. It seems to me that then we would have made an agreement. I even think it goes back to this intelligence always existed, but there came a point when it was tabernacled in a spirit body and became a spirit being. Yes, spirit body and became a spirit being that. I think that we even had to grant our choice for permission, as intelligences, to become Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother's children.
Speaker 1:Wow. And then later we progressed receiving this estate, yeah, then he opens up this field of possibilities of progression and you can do anything you want.
Speaker 2:Do you want to paint? Do you want to be a musician? Do you want to develop spirituality? It's all up to us.
Speaker 1:from that point, you hit something really powerful in this right now that I want to highlight for all the listeners and you hit this in the book as well is that oftentimes, another way the adversary will trap us is thinking that the path is this singular thing and what the Lord wants us to do is to make our own choices. So there's this idea of acting. So oftentimes in a trial we can feel stuck. So what do we do? We pray and then we get to work and we act, and we don't know which of those actions are going to benefit.
Speaker 1:For example, we had a health issue in my family with one of my kids and we went to multiple doctors that didn't help.
Speaker 1:We had multiple doctors that didn't help and as a parent, it was really easy to stay in action because I'm doing it for somebody else, right, and as I was continuing, eventually we found the thing and you look backwards and you see that trail of breadcrumbs and all that you learned and all the blessings that the Lord used against. But he wanted me to make those choices. So he doesn't always tell us what do we want to do for our vocation. He doesn't always tell us that what he wants us to do is to act. There was a whole chapter about that, you know, in your book, about taking action and recognizing that, like we're not going to have everything laid out for us, he's going to bless everything for our good. But I've learned as a side note is even our sins when we repent, we will leverage that as a blessing for our lives, and I've seen that more in the rearview mirror, of course, but can you speak on that the idea of how action plays into all that we're talking about today?
Speaker 2:Well, you don't know what you really believe until you're face of mercy and what actions you take. For one thing, it's the embodiment. The embodying of the intention is the word you use. I think it's a good one right here that really manifests to the Lord and to ourselves that we believe that and that's why we're acting in this way. And each time we do that again, we're receiving an influx of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and to empower us.
Speaker 1:So in taking action, one of the things that you say in your book, dennis, that I really loved as well, is how the adversary shows up on the back end as well, in a way that makes us second guess our action. That spoke to me in such a huge way, because I am known as the guy who feels inspired. We're all different. This is me.
Speaker 1:I get super inspired to do something right and it's not even like sometimes it's like in that domain of becoming like the savior, but sometimes it's professional. It's like I get super and I've recognized now it's the Holy Ghost, like I'll be working in my field professionally and I get super charged about you know what I'm going to create, because I own my own business. Like I'm going to do this thing and I get into it and it inevitably never works out the way I initially thought it would. And then I start second-guessing myself, and that second-guessing, I've learned, is oftentimes the adversary coming into play. So how people who are listening understand how the adversary uses our second-guessing to really throw us off course in this journey.
Speaker 2:Well, if you've undertaken something that's going to stretch you, you're not certain you have the capabilities. You need to have the help of the Lord. I really feel that you know. I'm going to use an example from my corporate training seminars and so forth. It was very prevalent to hear people talk about SMART goals. Prevalent to hear people talk about SMART goals and it's an acronym for something like specific and measurable actionable reasonable and time-bound, okay?
Speaker 2:Well, I tell them that's nonsense. What's reasonable or attainable is a value judgment, and it's based on your past experience. It's not about what your capabilities are, and so I challenged my clients. I want you to set a goal that you know is beyond your capability. You don't want to put it like I'm going to play shortstop for the St Louis Cardinals. The only way I'd be able to do that is if I bought the team.
Speaker 1:But it's possible, but you just identified a way you could do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even that. But what I want people to do is set a goal that it's going to require them to stretch and give everything they've got and it won't be enough, because when they get there, then the grace of Christ will be, that his miracles will take place, and then you'll have this wonderful combination of this feeling inside that you grew and you stretched and you became more than you were and it wasn't enough and he pulled through and you had this immense gratitude for Tim. So it's this wonderful high-pitched level of improved confidence and then just joy and loving the Lord for His graciousness and His goodness. And I'm going to share with you a few trade secret moments.
Speaker 2:There have been times when I've been in a seminar, especially a leadership seminar. We got a lot of high-powered people there and if the seminar goes well, it's going to mean a lot to our company and I'm going to be able to touch a lot more people. And I'd get all sorts of nightmares going into this that I'm going to fall on my face and they're going to laugh at you, they're going to chew you up and spit you out and so forth, and even the night before I'll often be flying in and all through the flight and that night in the hotel. Hardly can get anything out of there other than just this fear I talk about in the book. And how takes place? There? Is that inevitably, when I would be in that state of concern and fear that I would stand up and start talking and immediately the Spirit would come and the seminar would actually end up going better than I ever dreamed and hoped it would be. And people were coming up and saying afterwards oh, that was life-changing.
Speaker 1:Well, what I love about what you're saying, though, is that when you dream big, in every element of life, we're becoming more like Him. I think that oftentimes, I separate my professional world from my spiritual world and from my home world. This is one experience. I am one person, so if I have the freedom because a loving Holy Father wants me to grow to go create a business, for example, in my case then go big and be okay with that, and realize that, yeah, it's okay to even have financial targets that are large, because there's what do we read in Jacob? Because if we seek the Lord first, then we will use that monetarial advantage for the progression of the Lord's gospel.
Speaker 1:Right, like it's. So, for me, there's something almost inspiring around this idea that, like it's not, and there might be some vanity, because I'm imperfect there's going to be some vanity and maybe some even greediness to some elements of it, but that's not the main thing that I want the big thing, for it's because I want to make a difference, and so when I pick something big, I go forward. Then it's a matter of, like Satan coming in, going all right. So you're wanting to do this because you want to be like this podcast.
Speaker 1:This podcast is a perfect example of this I have. I felt like I needed to do this after falling in love is the only way to put it with the blessings of the temple and wanting to share that with the world. And then it was like, oh, but you're going to look. So you're not an expert, I am not, you're going to look. Ridiculous, who's going to listen to this? All these different things. And I sat on it.
Speaker 1:And then I remember there was a point where I was listening to Elder Suarez's talk in April of this year, point where I was listening to Elder Suarez's talk in April of this year and he said the word temple bound In his temple talk. That is the actual name of the show. And the spirit from head to toe was like I want you to do this, but if you're not going to, someone else needs to. And that was it. I said, fine, I was able to get past that. So you say in the book when those thoughts come, take it as validation that you are doing the Lord's will. Maybe you're doing it in a way that Dennis would do and that's different than Will would do, but that's the point. It's a dream big to believe, because when we have that inspiration and that rejection or that invalidation coming from the adversary. He's going to get in front of those things in the earliest stages, because once we start reaping the benefits, he knows we're never going to stop and he's trying to develop the greatness in each one of us.
Speaker 2:He wants us to step up and step out and stretch. When I would be preparing for one of these major seminars, there was a tremendous amount riding on that. And there's several times when I had a full day seminar that I was going to give it to and I would have a lot of prepared there and I thought I've got more than ample energy, information and content. I'm ready to go, I won't run out of it. And there's been times when I've gotten to about three o'clock in the afternoon there's two more hours to go and I've You're depleted, I've depleted. I've gone through all of the material and you know we take a break, you know, and you always want the seminar to end with the biggest crescendo, because that's what they're going to really take. You know, remember you by Sure. And so I have gone into restrooms and I have— Please help me, Father, I need you. I don't know where to begin. How are we going to finish this? Please, please, please, be with me. And I don't immediately get the reassurance that's going to happen.
Speaker 2:I've now got to go out, walk out there, and I walk out there with faith now, like the children of Israel having to put their toe in the water before the priest had put their toe in the water before the Jordan split and I say, okay, we've gotten to this point in the seminar.
Speaker 2:And then the Spirit would come and often I'd be asking a question to get a discussion going and it would be something that somebody had really been hoping they'd talk about and they'd ask that and almost that second two hours it almost like it taught itself and I was just kind of directing traffic as people were putting together the stuff from the early part of the seminar and it did end in a great crescendo, powerful ending, and everybody walks away saying that was really a profitable day.
Speaker 2:Really, thank you for being here, and I'm on my way to the airport going, thank you, thank you, and I'm on my way to the airport going.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you. I think we forget that. That like 11th hour. It's like you know, there's an analogy of the workers in the field, right, and they come at different times to get paid the same. We are all of those workers. There are times where I'm in that 11th hour because of my lack of preparation, but I really like still lean on. I mean, how many times do we ever do that? I do all the time Like tell me, father, do that. I do all the time Like Heavenly Father, I've got to talk tomorrow. I have not done the work in on this. I'm so sorry, can you help me? Or other times I print tons of work in and then I hit some point where I need his help. I think that's the point is that by turning to him in every thought, you know, in all of those moments we have opportunities to be blessed and be enlightened. And I, dennis, this has been such an inspirational talk. I can't thank you enough for the time to be here, I would.
Speaker 1:I just want to go for hours, but I really think this is a great pausing point for this discussion that I'd like to have in continuation with you. But I'd like to close with a question. You know, one of the things that I felt inspired with this podcast is to build the temple and family and actually the family history of the person who's going to be my guest. So, as you're sitting before me, you know your descendants are going to see this and they're going to, and they've probably got because of your profession. They have various elements of you doing these things, but is there anything you would say to them regarding this topic that you'd want them to know?
Speaker 2:I think I would want them, I want to say to them trust the Lord, put your faith in Him, dream big and put something out there beyond your capabilities and let Him guide the process.
Speaker 2:And when you get to points where you think it's over, it's not going to work, you just stay with it. Pray a little bit harder and there'll be a miracle, a tender mercy that'll take place where suddenly something will fall into place and you'll be able to break into a whole new dimension or level of where you're heading. Heading. He is the author and the finisher of our faith is a phrase that Paul used and is echoed again in another place in our standard works. And you stop and think about that, he will inspire you, he'll author where he wants you to go, and then you've got to put in your effort and stretch and pray fast, all those kind of things, but in the end he will take care of it, he'll make sure it has a happy ending. He's the finisher of our faith and I know that he is, and I'm going to say that in the name of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. We want to hear from you what additional show ideas would you like to hear about? What questions do you have in your heart that we can help answer? Please leave those in the show notes of today's episode or over on Instagram. Thank you for your cooperation in helping make this show the best it can be. Until next time.
