Learn the Language of the Spirit, Elder Packer Teaches

Contributed By By Marianne Holman, Church News staff writer

  • 22 May 2013

Elder Allan F. Packer holds a missionary handbook during a devotional for LDS Business College held in the Assembly Hall on May 14.   Photo by Marianne Holman.

Article Highlights

  • Elder Allan F. Packer of the Seventy spoke to LDS Business College students during a devotional May 14.
  • He encouraged students to read the scriptures, continue learning, and make a list of standards that reflect things they would or would not do.
  • Cultivate having the Spirit so it can teach what is true and false and things that can’t be written or seen.

“Learn the doctrine of Christ and then act on the doctrine you have learned. … It is great to know the doctrine, better when applied.” —Elder Allan F. Packer of the Seventy

Elder Allan F. Packer told LDS Business College students they need to learn the language of the Spirit in order to create their own handbook for success in life.

A member of the Seventy, Elder Packer spoke to students May 14 during a devotional held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.

He said when he presided over the Spain Malaga Mission, from 2001 to 2004, he told missionaries as they completed their missions that just as they had a handbook to live by while serving as full-time missionaries, they must create a “handbook” to live by when they returned home.

“Learn the doctrine of Christ and then act on the doctrine you have learned,” he said. “It is great to know the doctrine, better when applied.”

Elder Packer shared with the students ideas to include in creating a personal “book to live by” that will help them on the path back to their Heavenly Father. He encouraged them to make reading the scriptures a priority, to continue learning even after a formal education, and to make a list of standards that reflect things they would or would not do, keeping in mind the consequences that come from the actions one pursues. It is through learning the language of the Spirit that they are guided in their education, he said.

“Many of you already know a foreign language,” Elder Packer commented. “Those languages require discipline for learning the words and phrases required to learn how to speak.” 

The language of the Spirit is how the Spirit communicates through the Holy Ghost and is the means by which individuals receive inspiration from the Teacher who knows all, he said. “He can teach us things that are not written or seen. We can know of things of the past, the present, and of the future.

“He can help us know the things that are true or things that are false. … Each of you will be faced with opportunities, with decisions where you will be asked to do something, and either you are or you are not [prepared]. … I challenge you to be prepared to have the language of the Spirit with you individually and to cultivate and develop that talent.”

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