A vibrant beauty from within marks not only our accomplishments in life, but the inner enlightenment we call wisdom. Many of us, at time, try to resolve life’s challenges ourselves, without seeking the intervention of the Lord in our lives. We try to carry the burden alone. As some are faced with trials and afflictions, they say, “Why will not God help me?” Some have even struggles with doubts about their prayers and their personal worthiness and say, “Perhaps prayer does not work.” Others who have suffered with infirmary, discouragement, financial crisis, rejection, disappointment, and even loss of loved ones may say, “Why will the Lord not heal me or help me with my son? Does life have to be this unhappy?” Yes, one might even cry out, “God, where art thou? How long shall thy hand be overruled?” However, through his grace, the Lord can and does continually assist us in our daily lives and in our physical and psychological distress, pain, transgression, and even in all of our infirmities. In order to pass successfully through the trials we encounter, we must keep our eyes and heart centered on God. Even with your vision firmly in place, we will not achieve the results we desire unless we put ourselves in a creative frame of mind. We should have great hope in knowing, however, unworthy we may feel or weak we may be, that if we will do all we can, God will come to our assistance and provide for us whatever we may lack. That is what grace is. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Grace is a divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of God. It is an enabling power. Most research on activating the creative process suggests that changing the way we think is more important than any other factor in determining our ability to be creative. It we can obtain the grace of God, that divine enabling power to assists us, we will triumph in this life and be exalted in the life to come. The proof of any creative endeavor is its outcome. At some point we must decide which combination of ideas will yield the best results. Too often we dismiss ripe ideas too quickly; sometime a good but seemingly unworkable idea needs nothing more than to have the idea of faith applied to its implementation. This is especially true when two attractive ideas seem impossible to pursue at the same time. Many ideas that seem mutually exclusive at first can yield superior results if we bring to idea selection and implementation the same faith we brought to idea generation. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God by whom also we have access by faith into this grace. Paradoxes seduce us into thinking the only resolution to a problem is win-lose. It takes practice to break out of this mental trap and see that there are unlimited opportunities to bled the strength of the two opposites. Whenever you find yourself trapped into pursuing one idea at the expense of another, be enticed to pause. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
How many times as we have prayed for assistance or help with our problems, have we severed ourselves from the power of God because of doubt of fear, and thus could not obtain this enabling power of God? Confidence in the creative process is, for many of us, the most difficult aspect of inviting God. For too many people grow up receiving recurring messages that they lack the faith. Recall some of the negative messages you may have received from others or yourself in the past: “You cannot even draw a straight line!” “You have never had an original idea.” “There is no God in your body.” “When God was passing out talent you must have been absent.” If you want to supplant those messages, you must learn to build faith and encourage your creative potential. Repentance is the key. The grace of God through the Atonement can both cleanse us of sin and assist us in perfecting ourselves through trials, infirmary, and even character defects. We are both sanctified and justified though the grace of the Lord. Remember, God can repair our flaws and failings that otherwise are not repairable. Select a time in your recent past when you had the triumph upon discovering something. This triumph may have come from solving complex problem especially quickly or clearly. It might have been an unexpected insight into a relationship dilemma, a business challenge, or even a golf match, or backgammon game. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Give yourself and God credit. Write a short story that describes the steps you went through to deal with the situation. Report on your state of mind just before you solved the problem. How did you feel? What factors kept you engaged in trying to solve the problems? Were you using faith and logic? Did your imagination also help? Review the actual moment you had your insight. What conditions support God’s grace helping you? Conclude the report with a rousing description of how your solution spawned benefits for you and others. That great truth out to fill us all with hope, a long as we are quick to remember that the effect of grace in our lives is conditioned upon repenting of our sins. Therefore, blessed are they who will repent. And may God grant that people might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works. A repentant heart and good works are the very conditions required to have grace restored to us. When someone pleads fervently in prayer for answer, the answer may be more conditioned on repentance of personal sins than any other factors. Jamie Reagan, 33, was laid off from his job as a lawyer last year. Reagan faced all the usual concerns of a man out of work: How will I pay my bills if I do not get a job right away? I do good work; why did I get fired? However, Reagan has another worry: How would he keep the respect of his son? #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Reagan’s breakthrough came when he realized that adversity was a face of life. “It came to me that how a man coped with adversity was the measure of that man,” relates Reagan. “I might have lost my job, but I am still a good role model. A good father. I asked my son to come into the den for a heart-to-heart discussion and told him just how I felt. That one of my goals while I looked for a new job was to make him proud of how I coped.” Reagan’s son took the role of student with gusto. He would ask his father questions about how he felt. “I wanted to be sure he kept his energy and spirits up,” said Tyler. Before long Reagan admitted to himself that his family’s love and support would be the most important factor in his getting a new job. “I will never forget the day I finally found a new position,” smiled Reagan. “Tyler came into the den and shook my hand. Man to man. And he said thanks. I felt like a million buck—and it had nothing to do with the new job!” There are many ways to honor the wisdom of God and recognize our new status in life and empower our future. “And if people come unto me I will show them their weakness. I give unto people weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all people that humble themselves before me,” reports Ether 12.27. The mind is the many different ways in which one can explore and expand this faith, using it to help one decide what one wants in life and how to get it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
By building faith in God on a regular basis, one will develop concrete mental skills that have an obvious application to daily life. More important, one’s work will actually promote neurological change, which can increase the rate and depth of one’s growth. Faith in God facilitates our understanding of complex issues in our personal life. In pursuing faith in God, we are laying the foundation for other areas of growth. If one’s mind is sharp, one will have an easier time understanding the paradoxes of spirituality, or the fundamentals of interpersonal effectiveness. Express your gratitude to the Universe. Allow yourself to be proud. Channel your energies into a formulaic magazine that might offer some opportunities to expand your visions. Doing all we can in our own power, and knowing what defines us and what our values are, means that any upgrade of the story of our life requires a change in our work focus. Yes, works alone cannot bring that divine gift, but they are a key condition upon which the gift is received. “For we know that it is truly by grace that we are saved, after all we can do,” reports 2 Nephi 25.23. Thus, unless one has done all in one’s own power, one cannot expect the grace of God to be manifest. What a glorious principle to understand the Lord’s assistance to us. A soul-oriented spirituality begins in a reevaluation of the qualities of soul: subtlety, complexity, ripening, Worldliness, incompleteness, ambiguity, wonder. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Once we have given all we can, then God assists us through his grace. To obtain grace, one does not have to be perfect, but one does have to be trying to keep the commandments the best that we can. Then the Lord will allow us to receive that power. If we deny ourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all our might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for us, that by his grace we may be perfect in God. What glorious gospel news in understanding this doctrine of grace, which persuades us to more fully center our faith and hope upon God. We will grow in grace and knowledge of the truth. For our labor, we will receive the grace of God, that we might wax strong in the spirit, that we might teach with power and authority from God. We will not fall from grace. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Educator, be gracious to thy children. Educator, Father, Guide of Heaven, give to us, who follow thy command, to fulfill the likeness of thy image, and to see, according to the strength, the God who is both a good God ad a Judge who is not harsh. Do thou thyself bestow all things on us who dwell in peace, who have been placed in thy city, who sail the sea of sin unruffled, that we may be made tranquil and supported by the Holy Spirit, the unutterable Wisdom, by night and day, unto the perfect day, to sing eternal thanksgiving to the one only Father, the Educator and Teacher with the Holy Spirit. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Our spiritual growth is usually imperceptible expect through the rearview lens of time. Our cells have been instilled with our memories; thus, to receive someone else’s cells is to receive their memories at the same time. People who delve into the details of whatever ignites their passion will always impress others with their mental vitality. The way our unconscious mind works, we are actually attracted to—moved psychologically toward—what we think about. Most of us seek a connection with a higher power at crucial moments in life—marriage, divorce, birth, and death. Many people are seeking out personal spiritual counselors who help them become more themselves by rewriting the terms in which they see their lives. The goal here is not to examine and change, but to find a story that makes individuals comfortable with who and what they are. The rise of the conforming individual is altering the traditional business model of treating your employees like people who work for your company. Consultants insist that to succeed, employers must treat employees as friends. Ask them how they feel, what they want, and make sure they can grow on the job. The goal is to reshape the narrative of their working life around their own sense of worth and identity. It is suggested that employees are told that the job is not about profits and success, it is to help you grow as a person and learn skills that will make us all successful. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
When people believe that their jobs are about personal growth, it helps to retain them as an employee. It keeps them loyal and motivated. A new corporate language has been invented to support people’s need to believe that their work is actually an endless quest for originality. The corporate culture is changing to help people operate from a more soulful place because in the past people were bleeding, their souls were bleeding in the workplace, people were suffering at work, before they even leave the front door. Companies are realizing that what is affecting the bottom line is the attitude and discontent of their employees. And now, there is a much more beneficial approach, more consciousness around how leaders are managing their people. Mistakes are a fact of life. Learning to skillfully play the piano is essentially impossible without making thousands of mistakes—maybe even a million. Success is not the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. We are increasingly zealous about standing out, announcing ourselves as special. We refuse to have our lives subsumed by antediluvian tradition. However, the more we strike out on our own, the more we feel truly alone. On our own, we are less able to find meaning in what we do and be satisfied with who we are. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Unwavering faith will help us go from failure to failure until we finally obtain success. We are seldom prepared to go it alone: The vast majority of us still want to be recognized in business, noticed at church, and redeemed by marriage. This fantasy has altered our relationship to work, family, faith, education—almost every institutional structure that exists. The fantasy of total freedom seems to constantly undermine our lives to the extent that a successful entrepreneur and family person is always dissatisfied, convinced that to move forward one must be more creative, bolder, willing to completely reinvent one’s life today, tomorrow, next year, or next month. The Lord knows that these things shall give us experience, and shall be for our good. God allows us to take the bitter, that we may know to prize the good. Also, the battle is the Lord’s, and it is only by his grace that we can accomplish his work and become like him. The trials we face are to hep us develop and hone scores of Godlike attributes that cannot be refined except through opposition and in the furnace of affliction. Visualization works best when we associate ourselves with the optimistic expression of what we want rather than the negative aspects. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Think of visualization as the power of successful thinking. We are not only anticipating the best, you are allying ourselves with it. For that reason, when we encounter the inevitable barriers on our way to our goal, we will tend to look at the problem from the winner’s side. While we are grateful for second chances following mistakes, or failures of the mind, we stand all amazed at the Savior’s grace in giving us second chances in overcoming sin, or failures of the heart. Most people improve their attitudes and dispositions significantly when they envision someone helping them. This is a simple yet powerful demonstration of how maintaining a vision of what we desire will support us in accomplishing our goals. No one is more on our side than the Savior. He allows us to take and keep retaking his exams. To become like him will require countless second chances in our daily struggles with the natural humans, such as controlling appetites, learning patience and forgiveness, overcoming slothfulness, and avoiding sins of omission, just to name a few. If to err is human nature, how many failures will it take us until our nature is no longer human but divine? Thousands? More likely a million. The proof of any creative endeavor is its outcome. At some point we must decide which combination of ideas will yield the best results. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Knowing that the strait and narrow path would be strewn with trials and that failures would be a daily occurrence for us, the Savior paid an infinite price to give us as many chances as it would take to successfully pass our mortal probation. The opposition which he allows can often seem insurmountable and almost impossible to bear, yet God does not leave us without hope. This is what faith does for us as long as it is sincere. However, even here, the clearance will not be complete if we continue to worry over the question of salvation and the ultimate well-being of the soul. This, too, must have a clearance, a redemption, and a new birth. There is a power for good which is responding to us and bringing into our experiences everything that is necessary to our unfoldment, to our happiness, to our peace, to our health, and to our success. There is a power of God that enables us to help others and to bless the whole World. To keep our hope resilient as we face life’s trials, the Savior’s grace is ever ready and ever present. His grace is a divine means of help or strength, an enabling power that allows people to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after we have expended our own best efforts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
God’s grace and his loving eyes are upon us throughout our entire journey as he inspires, lightens burdens, strengthens, delivers, protects, heals, and otherwise succors his people, even as they stumble along the strait and narrow path. Repentance is God’s ever accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. Sovereign and almighty Lord, bless all thy people, and all thy flock. Give thy peace, thy help, thy love unto us they children, the obedient of thy fold, that we may be united in the bond of peace and love, one body and one spirit, in one hope of calling, in thy divine and boundless love. Lord, be with us this day, within us to purify us; above us to draw us up; beneath us to sustain us; before us to lead us; behind us to restrain us; around us to protect us. A change of mind and heart that brings a fresh attitude toward God, oneself, and in life is general is what we gain through repentance. That kind of change results in spiritual growth. Our success, then, is not going from failure to failure, but from growing from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. In our weakness, God reassures us, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” The is a World of its own that lives in the heart, not in the head. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6 
It is knowledge that helps you read situations correctly and get what you want. Someone has said that we used to think we had to be well in order to be happy, but now we know that we must be happy if we wish to be well. Happiness must be based on an inward sense of security, a sense of belonging to life and to each other; a desire to give, to be kind and compassionate, and to be able to empathize with other people. Most of our unhappiness comes from our relationships with others. If we cannot be happy unless some other individual or some group of individuals admires and loves us, we have not yet realized that every person is complete within oneself. For when we reach back to the true self, which is God in us, we shall have penetrated to the inner most depths of all people. Most people have families or some kind of support system, which can help them financially and emotionally, but not everyone does. Chris Langan had a heartbreaking story, he was in college, but his mother forgot to fill out the parents’ financial statement for the renewal of his scholarship, so it was not renewed. He left Reed College before his final exams, leaving him with failing grades in ever class for that semester on his transcript. However, in the first semester he had earned As. Chris went back home and worked in construction and as a forest services firefighter for a year and a half, and ten enrolled at Montana State University. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Chris Langan did not let life’s hardships discourage him, he kept trying and took a few more classes at Montana State University. However, he was living thirteen miles out of town, and the transmission fell out of his car. He did not have the money to repair the car, so he went to his adviser and the dean to explain his problem and see if he could get into classes that started in the afternoon instead of the morning. The adviser replied, “Well, son, after looking at your transcript from Reed college, I see tat you have yet to learn that everyone has to make sacrifices to get an education. Request denied.” Chris Lagan had a deep intellectual mind and he had dreamed of becoming an academic. People thought once he got into the University environment he would prosper. Without a degree Chris became a floater, taking whatever jobs he could get to get by. Chris was actually a very smart guy, too. He often was skipped a head grades and could answer difficult questions. Later on in life, Chris was approached by Disney Research and went on to work with them. His IQ was estimate to be between 190 and 200, and he was labeled the smartest man in America. Sometimes we do not receive the type of opportunities we deserve and have to take alternative routes, but like Chris, keep trying until you make it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Happiness is never external. All the money in the World will not make a person happy. The highest position of dignity or trust cannot make one happy. Many times, when you accept a paycheck from people, it is going to come down to what you want to do and what you feel is right versus what your employers say you can do to receive another paycheck. What shall it profit an individual, if one shall gain the whole World, and lose one’s own soul? Of course we are not referring to any actual loss of the soul, because the soul is the incarnation of the spirit within. We trace the human back to it divine source, which is God, and rest in the security of being enfolded in infinite love and wisdom, and kept by an infinite law of God. It is true that we cannot be well unless we are mentally and emotionally happy. To a much greater extent than we realize, the physical body reflects our mental attitude. Our food neither digests nor assimilates properly when we are filled with unhappiness and fear. The stream of life flows fully and freely from the innermost recesses of our being only when we are happy. Children are happy because they have not learned to be afraid; there can be no happiness where fear is. Why should we have to be so cold and indifferent, harsh and critical, so troubled over living? If we are to have happiness, security, and peace, we must regain our lost ground. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
One of the great challenges facing us today is to develop sufficient wisdom, understanding, and inner strength so that we can live happily and successfully in our complex and difficult World and not be caught up in the mad scramble for the material things and pleasures. “Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then you shall be made rich. Behold, one that has eternal life is rich,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 6.7. It might be interesting to note that frequently, even when we seek after wisdom rather than riches, the Lord blesses us with wisdom and riches as he did King Solomon. When this occurs, we have the great opportunity and responsibility to use our material wealth in the building up of the Kingdom of God. One of the great needs today is increased love and solidarity within families. It is our responsibility to set an example in our own home as home teachers to encourage and motivate our families to do likewise. When there is unity in a home, people can testify that there is greater love between parents, between parents and the children, and between the children. They are more appreciating the purpose of life and are finding happiness and peace beyond their expectations, as a greater understanding of their needs are obtained. This allows them to accept callings of responsibility and blossom into outstanding leaders much like Chris Langan did. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
May we so live that we may be worthy of the blessings of wisdom, happiness, peace, and eternal life. Scriptures teach that the glory of God is intelligence. They also teach that individual intelligences were organized before the World was. Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine. Our God, God of all people, God of Heaven and Earth, seas and rivers, God of Sun and Moon, of all of the stars, God of high mountain and lowly valley, God over Heaven, and in Heaven, and under Heaven. He has a dwelling in Heaven and Earth and sea and in all thing that are in them. He inspires all things, he quickens all things. God is over all things, he supports all things. God makes the light of the Sun to shine, he surrounds the Moon and the Stars. God has made wells in the arid Earth, placed dry islands in the sea. Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love; because you have redeemed me, I owe you the whole of myself; because you have promised so much, I owe you my whole being. Moreover, I owe you as much more love than myself as you are greater than I, for whom you gave yourself and to whom you promised yourself. I pray you, Lord, make me taste by love what I taste by knowledge let me know by love what I know by understanding. I owe you more than my whole self, but I have no more and by myself I cannot render the whole of it to you. Draw me to you, Lord, in the fullness of your love. I am wholly yours by creation; make me all yours, too, in love. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
We should seek the direction of the spirit to guide us in our own life and to inspire us in our education efforts. Once darkened, a society loses its capacity to distinguish between right and wrong and the will to declare that somethings are incorrect intrinsically. The United States of America is ultra-religious, 78 percent of people believe in God and 68 percent are Christians. However, a number of people are unaffiliated, and many of those people do feel that they are also looking for some deeper meaning in life. A sense of belonging is larger than ourselves, the feeling of the presence of God is what we want. When we commune with God, we are able to foster an environment of equality and equal opportunity; a combination community center and a place of non-judgmental worship. After prayer, we go home feeling just a little bit less lonely. The idea is that one can be who they want, do what they want, and the only rule is that you have to take personal responsibility for one’s actions. Each person should know how much he or she is needed. Everyone has something important to contribute and has unique talents and abilities that help move the important work of God along. We must stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places. A society which permits anything, even when they know it is wrong or unlawful, will eventually lose everything. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Therefore, recognize or not, the public has an enormous stake in private morality! Yet today there is so much hedonism and shouted justification with so little quiet shame. Bad deeds are viewed as nobody’s fault and everything as excusable on one basis or another. Amid such inversion, no wonder victims are often neglected and the guilty sometimes glorified. Gross sins arise ominously and steadily out of the swamp of self-indulgence and self-pity. However, the smaller sins breed there, too, like insects in the mud, including coarsening of language. Life must be expansive and expressive. One is not happy unless one has a purpose in living. Too frequently, people become frustrated because there is no longer anything to engage their attention. They must find something to take up their time, whether it be gardening or reading a book. Any activity that engages the attention and produces gratification of outward self-expression is not only good, but necessary. There is no monotony in nature. The individual life must avoid monotony and self-centeredness through self-expression. Consequently, after we have come to self-awareness we must start expressing again, no matter what our age. Engaged in the joy of living, and do it with others. The well-integrated person gets along with other people, not by tolerance but through cooperation. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
These are momentous times in which we are living as Saints of the Most High. Let us go on rearing our children in righteousness and truth. Let us be good neighbors and good friends. Of course, self-restraint is better than censorship, but urging self-restraint on some is like discouraging Dracula from hanging around the blood bank! Biblical morality tends to rank the themes of divine authority and human duty in conjunction with the essential goodness of human nature. The power of human choice and the possibility of self-acceptance are the result. The unfolding of the Universe reassures us of our freedom to choose our own God, our own labors, and our own ultimate ends, whatever they may be. The tendency to strike back whenever we are offended makes us brusque and rude, as if others were functions, not as brothers and sisters. Thus, excess of ego is like a spreading, toxic spill from which flow all the deadly sins. Young parents know how a mere half cup of spilled milk seems to cover half a kitchen floor. Small sins spread like that, too. God is the way to the truth, and the way to eternal life. The Lord can ease the burdens, and also our psychological and physical capacity can be made strong enough that we are able to endure our trials. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Walking uprightly before the Lord includes becoming a responsible individual in all aspects of life. When one is mindful, one takes no situation for granted, not even routines. Mindfulness means being vigilant, looking at what is happening from multiple angles, being open to new information and willing to revise one’s understanding of the way the World works. Paying attention to the eternal perspective and to the details of one’s experience allows us to seek diligently and teach one another words of wisdom. As important as human physical needs are, the spiritual ones also. Being mindful in our daily life choices can increase self-knowledge while decreasing the likelihood of depression. Reflect on the consequences of each option. What impact did your choices have on you? Your healthy? Your happiness? Your relationships? Your productivity? We do not know why the Lord commands us to do certain things. God’s ways are not the same as human ways. However, this much we do know—God’s paths are righteous. If we have been disobedient in the past, let us commit today to repent and to put our house in order. When people are comfortable with making all life choices as conscious once, we will acquire a surprising mental sharpness. Any of us can use this gift to pursue wisdom. All we have to do to become wiser is to listen to our own internal rhythms and use them in our daily loves. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Wisdom is not a goal, but a process. It is important that we commit to actions that will help us capitalize on the ways which we learn best. We must take steps to put ourselves in situations where we tend to learn best. Before we can become an expert in anything, we have to have the opportunity to learn how to be an expert. It requires that we use our imaginations and take our minds in as many different directions as possible. Our ability to learn new information, solve problems, and remember things depends on the connection between our brain cells, not the number of brain cells we have. Although we do lose some brain cells over time, the cells that remain amply compensate for this by growing more interconnections, or neurons. We actually grow more brain tissues and increase the number of neural connections as we age. The average adult is blessed with a hundred billion neurons that produce more interconnections than the number of stars in the Universe. A typical neuron can make ten thousand interconnections with other cells, yielding over ten trillion synapses (the gap between one nerve fiber and another). From birth to our senior years, we are biologically equipped to take in one thousand independent units of information per second, but most people use only a minuscule percentage of their capacity. It is not our brainpower that fails us as we age, it is our expectation of declining intellectual performance that lets us down. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Crystallized intelligence refers to how well we solve practical problems in everyday life and how well we reason through interpersonal dilemmas involving strong emotional content. To use crystallized intelligence, we depend on our storehouse of facts, as well as our verbal comprehension, word fluency, and numerical abilities. This practical yet complex aspect of human intelligence either remains stable through life or continues to grow as we age. Making it grow involves nothing more than staying mentally challenged. A person acquires pragmatic intelligence by living; thus, your crystallized intelligence is programmed by your experience. “And as all have not faith, seek diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; seek out the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 88.118. Nearly fifteen years of cognitive research investigating the effects of aging on intelligence shows that without specialized training, the mechanical operations of IQ do begin to decline at about age thirty. Nonetheless, we now have substantial evidence that if you are willing to put forth the effort, you can improve the functioning of your intellectual hardware by engaging in relatively brief training. The gains one will reap in IQ intelligence after training are roughly equal to what one would lose between the age of sixty and eighty if one did not practice. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Our time, our talents, our property, are responsibilities we are blessed with and give us the opportunity to respond by participating in the divine plan of saving human’s souls. The way to stimulate crystallized intelligence and sustain IQ is through learning. We can rise our crystallized intelligence quotient by tackling ever more complex problems in our profession, or by becoming an avid bridge or chess players. Challenges such as these requires us to reconcile contradictory evidence, deal with uncertainty, revise earlier decision, and simplify complexity without becoming too rigid. Continuous improvement in this aspect of our intelligence typically results in strong emotional and interpersonal mastery. If we wish to prevent declines in IQ, we need to stay in shape by practicing memory-enhancement techniques and information-processing strategies. For example, memorizing lines of poetry or the names of flora and fauna give us powers of inputting and recalling information as a good workout. Learning more about subjects that interest us, with an emphasis on absorbing greater quantities of information at a growing pace, is a sure way to strengthen our IQ. Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. If you commit, prepare, and with a willing heart go forth to serve God, great will be your blessing and reward. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The tendency to wrongly identify ourselves is something many people do when they are facing difficulty beyond their comprehension. Even though all of our problems are not resolved, we are making progress and should be grateful and somewhat amazed by that. I am certain that our Heavenly Father is displeased when we refer to ourselves as nobody. How fair is it when we classify ourselves as nobody? How fair are we to our families? How fair are we to our God? When we allow ourselves, through tragedy, misfortune, challenge, discouragement, or whatever Earthly situation, to so identify ourselves as worthless, we do ourselves a great injustice. We cannot find any justification to label ourselves as nobody. We have to meet situations as they come along, without fear and without in any way trying to avoid them. For every issues of life must be met right where it is, and what is wrong must be made right. As children of God we are somebody. He will build us, mold us, and magnify us if we will but hold our heads up, our arms out, and walk with him. What a great blessing it is to be created in God’s image and know of our true potential in and through him. We have the ability to perform complex tasks with unconscious competence, assume leadership and mentor roles in the areas where we have particular strengths, and to make significant contributions to the wider World based upon our unique talents and desire. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
What a great blessing it is to know that in God’s strength we can do all things. God has provided us with many mighty miracles, which allow us to contemplate in ever greater depth the mysteries of the Universe, achieve a new found sense of awe, reverence, and continuity with him. Sometimes humankind is prone to identify someone they are unfamiliar with as unknown or nobody. Often this is done for self-convenience and an unwillingness to listen. When we have time for serious reflection, it should become clear to us that we all have a unique personal destiny, and that we have to appreciate our own wholeness and worthy, and it is important to love oneself, one’s life, and one’s fate. Once we learn to do this, we will grow farther and faster as we calculate specific objectives within our journey, see our new capabilities, and understand what goals hold the most interest for us. We will discover new prizes along our specific pathways that captures our imagination. This coming to understand our psychological difficulties, and how to clear the passageway in order that the original source of life may flow through us unobstructed, in its most comprehensive sense is called self-awareness. It means a clearing-up in the mind of the unconscious repressions and conflicts which are so deeply buried that we are aware of them only because they re-echo in everything we do, say, and think. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
God help us to realize that one of our greatest responsibilities and privileges is to life a self-labeled nobody to a somebody, who is wanted, needed, and desirable. “I am nobody” is a destructive philosophy. It is a tool of the deceiver. Coming to one’s self, coming to awareness, coming to understand why and how we started on the wrong path emotionally, explaining this to the self—this is what is meant by self-awareness. However, self-awareness alone is not enough, for this reason: There is an incessant urge back of everything to create, to express life, to come to the gratification of happiness, peace, joy, and self-expression. Self-awareness is not enough. It is merely clearing the track for right action. Something has to be done with self-awareness. We are not seeking a way to escape from life or living, for this would be the exact opposite of the whole purpose of existence, which is to express the self. The journey began when we felt the first stirrings of change in our heart and mind. The more we commune with God and set goals, the more we will release our inborn potential to grow deeper, wiser, and more resilient. Along the way, it is important to celebrate and continue our accomplishments, as well as sharing our success with others and encouraging them in their own journeys. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Many heroes of great art and literature also embark upon journeys, which allow them to fulfill their greatest potential. Epic heroes face immense challenges that are metaphors for the challenges we must face in our day-to-day lives, as well as metaphors for coming to terms with the biggest challenge of all: eternal life. To mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, and children everywhere, we declare that regardless of your present station in life you are someone special. Each person grows at a different pace during every stage of life. Use your knowledge acquired from self-renewal to hold the promise of specific gifts in your mind and heart to encourage yourself. Expect that whatever you discover will delight you once you understand why things happen the way they do. Do not allow yourself to be self-condemning. Avoid discouragement. Teach yourself correct principles and govern yourself with honor. As we develop proper self-image in ourselves and others, I promise you the nobody attitude will completely disappear. Choose your companion with care. You will reveal many of your inner truths to this person. He or she must be a good listener and must be secure enough not to be affected by jealousy of your progress, anger at your pace, or worry over how your growth might change the relationship. God lives. He too is someone—real and eternal—and he wants us to be someone with him. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
The responsibility to endure is uniquely yours. However, you are never alone. The lifting power of the Lord can be yours. Energy is always required to provide lift over opposing forces. These same laws apply in our personal lives. Whenever an undertaking is begun, both the energy and the will to endure are essential. Blessings bestowed by God are always predicated upon obedience to the law. Think about the word promise. When did you make your first promise? What promises do you find hardest to keep? Do you promise frequently? What are your expectations when someone makes you a promise? “Eternal purposes of the Lord to roll on until all his promises are fulfilled,” reports Mormon 8.22. Promises are sacred: I promise to love, honor, and cherish you all the days of my life. Promises arise from deep loyalty: I pledge allegiance. Promise is another word for mission. It signifies what you intend to make happen. God’s word is filled with promises from our Creator to provide and deliver, and God is faithful to all of his promises. One of the blessings and gifts that God promises to provide for those whom believe in him is eternal life. It is in the Bible, 1 John 2.25: And this is the promise that God has promised us—eternal life. Things which are impossible with humans are possible with God. Whatever our work maybe, we must endure at the beginning, endure through opposing forces along the way, and endure to the end. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Any job must be completed before we can enjoy the result for which we are working. Adult life holds out the promise of personal growth. However, we have to fulfill a promise before we can reap the rewards of adulthood’s promise; we must take our journey seriously. Most often, intense physical challenges are accompanied by spiritual challenges as well. The Lord’s ultimate concern is for the salvation and exaltation of each soul. Keeping the gifts of the covenants we have made with God in mind will help us stay the long and sometimes arduous course along our pathway in life. If we turn our hearts and lives to God he will give us the ability to capitalize on our accumulated knowledge and experience, unifying our analytical and intuitive powers of reasoning, in order to use our great discernment for the creation of innovative solutions to complex problems, which will show our wisdom. God is the father of our spirits, and he loves us. How comforting and reassuring it is each day as we behold the wonders of the Universe and this beautiful World on which we live. We can see God’s hand in the matchless order with which the Heavenly bodies move and the delicate beauty of the flowers and trees and other growing things, all of them bearing silent witness to God’s existence. How stimulating and edifying to approach God in prayer each morning and evening and feel his nearness and his love as we acknowledge his hand, and our need, seek his help. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
What a blessing to be able to approach the source of life and light and be strengthened and renewed by just humbling seeking and asking. God will give of the ability to savor sensory experience without distractions, to maintain sound physical health, to sustain high energy levels, to end to foster total well-being. Even in tragedy God is there. When traumatic challenges come and life hangs in the balance or is hopelessly marred and the future is dark and hope grows dim and time seems long—God is there. His reassuring feeling comes through, giving u the ability to bounce back quickly from disturbing evens, to connect vibrantly with the pleasures of existence, freeing ourselves from the bondage of painful episodes of the past, and enriching our connections to people and events allowing the story of our lives to convey a new aura of specialness. In some countries, people are submitting themselves to risky, painful, and expensive operations to add inched to their height. In a country where height is associated with status, and where institutions often use stature as a criterion for hiring (males must be at least five foot seven to apply to the Chinese foreign ministry), people are undergoing lengthy procedures to stretch and straighten their limbs. However, God is telling us there is something more real than this, but something which contains everything necessary to living in this World. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
There is hardly a desire more widespread in the World today than to lead a life of your own. It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that the daily struggle for a life of one’s own has become the collective experience of the World. God knows that we need food and clothing and shelter. He is not saying that the divine will imposes suffering upon us, but rather than when we fail to alive in accord with the divine we bring suffering on ourselves. People are getting further and further away from God by trying to propagate a harmful blueprint version of themselves that they think is acceptable to others and will define them as an individual. So we see that giving our lives over to God, or making great surrender to the spirit, does not mean losing anything worthwhile, but getting rid of those things which deny the presence and the power of the spirit right here on Earth. It is the great negations of life that we have to surrender, the doubts and fears and uncertainties, the coldness of unkindness, the lack of love. All of these negative things are called sins. However, the word sin has been misinterpreted and misconstrued, for the original meaning of sin was to miss the mark, to make a mistake, to err in judgment, or to do something that separates us from the conscious daily realization that we already are one with the supreme giver of life. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
As Worldliness spreads, our problems as a society change. No longer are we trying to escape the confinement of restrictive parents, education, religions, and communities. Instead, growing numbers of people are trying to find situations in which we can replicate a sense of belonging. People want to be noticed for being who we are and we want to be told, gently, who we should be. God is love and we cannot get close to the nature of love while we hate. It is the hate we have to surrender and not the love. You have to lose your hate if you wish to find love; you have to let go of everything that is unkind if you wish to discover kindness; you even have to surrender fear if you wish to discover faith. Everything that denies faith and love and life and truth and beauty is called a sin, a mistake, missing the mark. It is not easy to make this surrender, because we are in the habit of thinking of ourselves as being such strong, self-reliant personalities that we can sweep everything before us. It is not easy to be meek. There is a quaint desire of the ordinary to be recognized as somebody, which has lead to people demanding to people recognized not for who they are, but for who they think they should be. People are unable to truly express themselves as individuals. Arranged, monitored, controlled, we cannot find real elation, real excitement. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
People are now looking to what they can buy to make them special. They even go as far as to share other people’s stories and accomplishments to feel like they have personally achieved a golden star. The result is the faux individuality. The feeling of perpetual stress that one has not come up with a good enough storyline and it sows the seeds of fear, depression, and even insanity. We want peace of mind and an inward sense of security, but are we willing to follow the word of God. We have to resist evil. We are full of resistance and combativeness and antagonism. And the reason we are over-aggressive is because we feel insecure. We put up a great big bluff and make a big noise and throw ourselves around because of this feeling of insecurity. We have to discover the secret, which is simplicity itself. Those who have made this surrender have found real peace of mind, happiness, and wholeness in the only place where in can be found, which is within themselves. Life is a gift of God and not of humans. Once we understand this principle we can establish the ability for having caring relationships with others on the basis of their full range of strengths and weaknesses, which will unify the masculine and feminine aspects of our own personality. Yes, this life is a time of testing. It is not the reward time. That will come later. We are here being tested. God wants to know how we feel in our hearts. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement. We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And, most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we play as a society in determining who makes it and who does not. We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the World in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society do not matter at all. The true ingredients of success at the highest level: God, passion, talent, and hard work. However, when are hearts are not right, the Lord withholds his spirit. If people and nations did reach up to God with all their hearts, war would cease. If love of God were in the hearts of people, we would have no desire to destroy another person. There would be no dishonesty if the love of God were in the Heart. Lord, thou have given us thy word for a light to shine upon our path; grant us so to meditate on that word, and to follow its teaching, that we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day. May God the Father bless us; may God take care of us; the Holy Ghost enlighten us all the days of our life. The Lord be our defender and keeper of body and soul, both now and forever, to the ages of ages. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Heavenly Father does not want us to be held captive by unrighteous influences, by threats of reprisal, or by fear of repercussion from an abuser. Trust that the Lord will lead you to a solution. Ask in faith, nothing doubting. Search for reliable ways of overcoming adversity and finding value in crisis. One approach many be studying people who have been successful in making sense of their suffering and who put what they learned to good use. It is also important to persist in the reflection process because unless we find the courage to confront our pain, it will haunt us forever. It may take time for the process to begin to work. Several weeks of silent soul-searching and reconstructing the losses we face in life will unburden us and renew our energy, allowing for a sense of optimism. The worst day of the pain many face will be over the day we give up looking at the past and start focusing on the future. You cannot think about how long the situation has been going on and where you could have been by now otherwise. The goal is to say this is my life, what can I do about it, how can I righteously get to where I want to be? Look forward to the future with a different sense of self—stronger, more self-confident, and know that God is on your side and working things out at this very moment. In the eternal plan, in the Lord’s timetable, those injuries can be made right as we do our part. Strive to comprehend the commandments of God and follow them. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
Thanks to our level of maturity, we are better equipped to detect and take advantage of the opportunities we are provided with than we were in our younger days. Whether one has faced a traumatic loss, feel the vague emptiness of life unfulfilled, or are simply not sure what to do with the rest of one’s life, the first step in mapping a safe journey through life is to follow one’s instincts and listen to one’s conscious that is prodding one towards change. So many people ignore the indicators that it is time to make a change. Because they are so unaware of what to do, in response to the pressures in life, most people fall into despair, and hope the storm will pass. In the long run, denial can be more painful than facing reality. However, we already have many of the resources we need to begin to make beneficial changes in our lives. The idea for growth can often erase sadness, and before long, it will help us find joy. In justice, and to compensate, the Lord has provided a way for us to overcome the destructive results of others’ acts against our will. Know that the wicked choice of others cannot completely destroy one’s agency unless one permits it. Their acts may cause pain, anguish, even physical harm, but they cannot destroy one’s eternal possibilities in this crucial life on Earth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
Our attitude can control the change for good in life. An individual can do nothing for oneself unless God directs one in the right way. We can regain self-confidence and self-esteem to begin the process of renewal. With renewal practice, our mind, heart, and spirit mimic the wisdom of the body, exchanging aspects of ourselves that are no longer useful for newer, more helpful ones. Self-renewal is as endlessly possible in our personality, capacity for creativity, and our relationships as it is in cell life. The successful of self-renewal depends almost entirely upon our willingness to intentionally penetrate our lives. Our brains are trying to make sense of things as many of us start to question life and why things are the way they are. It may be a good idea to abandon preconceptions, find unused talents, gifts, and desires, and absorb what happens. Through trial and error, we learn new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. The on-setting comfort in large measure can come through increased communion with the spirit of God. This can bring spiritual healing by providing insight into who we are, who we are not, and who we can become. Illumination cannot be programmed; it happens spontaneously as a stage of enlightenment, of exciting breakthroughs in self-understanding, and of gaining a deeper sense of self-worth. We believe in the gift of healing. This gift extends to the healing of both the body and the spirit. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
The spirit of God speaks peace to the soul. This spiritual solace comes by invoking spiritual gifts, which are claimed and manifested in many ways. They are rich, and full, and abundant in our lives today. They flow from the proper and humble use of a testimony. The Lord has provided many avenues by which we may receive this healing influence. Ongoing periods of transforming our insights into vision, committed actions, and optimistic self-identity help to heal the broken heart, and bind up their wounds. Many people are no longer content to be simple observers in life, and are putting themselves to the World as individuals dedicated to the establishment of their own fleeting narratives and recorded legacies. By regularly pursing activities that function primarily as channels to proclaim harmony, maxing ongoing strategies with their everyday responsibilities, and deliberately seeking a place for themselves in global mass culture, people are intentionally signaling their specialness. The spirit of the Lord comes and permeates their homes, and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase, mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow and the spirit of contention will depart. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of God—will abound in our homes and lives bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
The Word of Wisdom promises that those who remember to keep this counsel and walk in obedience to the commandments shall receive health in their nave and marrow to their bones. Marrow has long been a symbol of vibrant, healthful living. The promises for those who keep the Word of Wisdom shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. People need to find a true community, shared values, and a place to express benevolent aspects of their personality. However, for a great many people, it is no longer enough to be simply goof at what you do. One also has to be a public figure, noticed, and celebrated, and preferably televised. And 74 percent of college seniors expect to one day become millionaires. We cannot all be millionaire executives or have the good luck to get notoriety for talents, or turn our hobby into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Nonetheless, it seems many people are not looking for a connection, but they want to get a response from life, to be noticed for being someone special—anybody special. Still, no one needs an unhealthy lifestyle; it is important to understand who we are, and the proper image of oneself to reflect back through the mind’s eye. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
If we are to be spared, we do indeed need to be fortified against the many destroying agents at work in the World today. In many cases, there is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success. What is the question we always ask about the successful? We want to know what they are like—what kind of personalities they have, or how intelligent they are, or what kind of lifestyles they have, or what special talents they might be born with. And we assume that it is those personal qualities that explain how that individual reached the top. People do not rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. However, they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the World in ways others cannot. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It is not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who does not. Spiritual healing also comes from bearing and hearing of humble testimonies. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
A witness given in a spirit of contrition, thankfulness for divine providence, and submission to divine providence, and submission to divine guidance is a powerful remedy to relieve the anguish and concern of our hearts. Biologist often talk about the ecology of an organism: the tallest oak in for forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked it Sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its barks as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured. We all know that successful people come from hardy seeds. However, do we know enough about the Sunlight that warmed them, the soil in which they put down the roots, and the rabbits and lumberjacks they were lucky enough to avoid? Every person’s search is for something that will make one whole and happy, something that will cause one to feel safe and secure, and, we believe, something that will make one certain that one is going to live forever somewhere. We cannot believe that the divine intelligence which created everything, including ourselves, could possibly have done so without at the same time providing a way for us to live as happy and whole human divine beings. We are spiritual beings living in a spiritual Universe, right now. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
Love alone can beget love. If we wish to have joy we must give it; it is a subtle pronouncement of the law of cause and effect. Separateness, mortality, and renewal have always been the friends of evolutionary progress. The strong implication has to be that it is only in a World where it has been practicable for living things to maintain and defend the physical, temporal and spiritual boundaries of their minds and bodies, that all the beauty and variety of life and culture could have come into existence. It is not always easy to be an individual. There are probably times when every one of us finds it an absurdity that we do in fact have boundaries that we do: that we have been fated to live here rather than there, now rather than then, in this body rather than another. What we make of the World as it really exists, depends on how we look at it. We can be the optimist who brightly believes this is the best of all possible Worlds, or the pessimist who gloomily nods one’s head and says, “How true!” Freedom is the recognition of necessity. Our mental gaze should be upward and inward and not external, for this is the secret of the secret place of the Most High. We are still alive, awake, and aware. We are still conscious, and consciously conscious. We are not less but more ourselves. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
The purpose of scripture or the doctrines of religion is to keep people from dwindling in unbelief and to ultimately help bring their souls into a state of cleanliness, that they may dwell with their Father in Heaven in the eternities. Of course, most of the gifts of life are not just handed to us; we have to work for them. We know instinctively that it takes more than cosmetic cures to be attractive, but many of us still search outside of ourselves for the fountain of youth because we are not sure what else to look for. The true source of attractiveness is actually found through inner exploration. In order to glow with life from the inside out, we have to learn to release untapped talents, banished longings, and passionate desires; expand our skills in solving complex problems; and attune ourselves to the secrets of our souls. We cannot grow without doing this work. Left to our own devices, most of us harvest only a small percentage of what can keep us feeling and looking alive. Even when we glimpse a pathway into our inner World (through flashes of insight, nightmares, episodes of depression or intense joy, spiritual awakenings, or encounters with intimacy), we fail to make the most of it, because no one every taught us how to cultivate those mysterious aspects of ourselves. It is important to understand that unless we are a truly unusual individual, we are likely to be completely clueless about how to handle challenges that we face. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Full-scale rituals evolve when even more people need and use the methods. Rituals are formalized in words and in actions, the meaning and experience of the truth being represented. For example, many religious welcome new members into their ranks by performing a physical cleansing (with water) to symbolize spiritual cleansing. Rituals are powerful only so long as the people practicing them are aware of their underlying meaning. Certain natural and necessary restrictions are laid upon us. They are merely those restrictions that keep us from using the gift destructively. They are not restrictions of limitations or bondage. They are merely such restrictions as must necessarily be consistent with a Universe of Law, of Order, of Harmony, of Unity, and of Love. We cannot consider them as being restrictions, since we know that Peace, Joy, and Happiness go with the gift. Surely, if we had a friend who was such a giver we should think of that individual as being no less than Divine. Few people have good role models in their adult life and beyond. Some people cannot even name five people they know who have aged successfully (i.e., happily). They usually can only name one or two. So at this point in our society, and in our lives in particular, there are very few places to turn for information on facing the challenges of aging. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Should we not feel that we have the most wonderful companion imaginable? Should we not spend some time in daily communion with this companion? Leaving all external confusion and fear outside, should we not enter this sacredness and, meditating before the Ark of the Covenant, should we not each in, unroll the scroll, and dead from it the divine message: “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear,” reports Isaiah 65.24. As we grow older, prizes from the outer World often begin to hold less fascination. It becomes clear that growing up is a fallacy. We begin to feel in our hearts that we are not now, nor will ever be, grown-up. Adulthood is a phase of development like any other, fraught with ascents and descents into ever-changing arenas of human potential. Learning to conquer the challenges of our soul with as much strength as we mastered the trials of the World at large is the prime objective of adult life. Sometimes we might feel fragmented, with everyone and everything out there claiming a piece of us. At times we may feel burned out, restless, unsure of who we are, and stuck by the emptiness of externally defined success. This is the price of maturity, and a sign that now is the time to get back in touch with our innermost drives, talents, and desires. That sense that things are just not being right is nature’s way of telling us it is time to change. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Now, as you can tell, this is not a sugar-coated presentation, it is Clorox, and I hope you are not offended. We must no longer have just a light-wired job. We must have the conduit of all the powers of God upon us, and then when someone calls upon us to give a blessing of any kind, when they call upon us to speak, we will be as conduits and speak as God would have us speak. Now, the Lord bless you. It seems that there are many words of eternal life that have proceeded forth from the mouth of God to which we must give more diligent heed if we are to receive the promised blessings. However, if we have sought to do wickedly in the days of our mortal probation, then we will be found unclean before the judgment seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, we must be cast off forever. The Kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot be any unclean thing enter into the Kingdom of God. Be clean and be the vessels of the Lord. Know that you are the temple of God. The wonderful gifts you will find on your journey will provide an inner resource you already have at your disposal in claiming the rewards nature intended you to have, and we will learn new strategies we can use to bring our extraordinary abilities to the surface until the sea itself flows in our veins, till we are clothes with the Heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive ourselves to be the sole heir of the whole World, and more than so, because people are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as we are. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Lord, it is good for us to be here. I pray that the same sweet spirit which has prevailed will continue with us. People require the promise of the paranormal to make sense of their lives. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, exclusively on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be built. In the interior of our consciousness, each of us has a private hall of fame reserved exclusively for the real leaders who have influenced the direction of our lives. Perhaps, instead of meekly assuming that the World we live in is so much poorer a place than we would have liked, our lives so much less meaningful and our prospects so much less promising, we shall have to try to show that the real World—a World with soul-power—is after all unsurpassably rich, and the alternative World—the World without soul-power—is nothing more than a snare and a delusion. We need to distance ourselves from all those beautiful lamentations about humanity’s sad plight. This evolution of life on Earth—and all that we hold dear about ourselves as living beings—has depended primarily on divine guidance, which provides the sources of control for self-improvement, a stable character, and a truly successful life. God determined us to be pleased by benevolent actions. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The burden of life arises from the belief that we have neither the power nor the intelligence to solve our problems. However, it is highly doubtful that there is even one soul upon Earth, regardless of station or age, who does not have ample room for personal growth and improvement. If we are no better tomorrow than we are today, we are not very useful. The sad part of humanity seems to be the utter lack of desire, in the lives of many, to really do something about enlarging the vistas of their vistas of their existence. We must rely on the divine guidance to speak the right word into law. The word of trust executes itself. Our acknowledgement of good becomes the faith in the future, and we recognize the challenge to grow and change. The word of God is faithful and true, and protection—his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. The word of truth is based upon the changeless principle of reality. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made. Thus, our divine partnership with its divine guidance transfers the burden and lifts the load of life. Our part is to plant the right seed; to know that the law flows from the word; to know that the word is the starting point of every creation; to know that ideas are things; to know that the entire physical Universe is a thing of thought. We do not know the nation until we know its pleasure of life, just as we do not know a person until we know how he or she spends one’s leisure. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Have you ever thought much about how your leisure gives you away? I used to know a man who was head of a very large commercial empire. Beginning with nothing but ambition, he became a multimillionaire and, finally, retired as head of his successful company. He bought a large and magnificent yacht with which to cruise the World. And do you know what he did with his free time? He watched salacious stories about celebrity gossip, produced fake news, and got falling-down drunk and have to be carried to bed, unconscious, every night. He is now dead. His leisure gave him away. There was nothing there…just nothing at all. He was a one idea man. Once he was away from that idea, he was a lost soul in a white squall. He did not enjoy his yacht and travel meant nothing to him. He was a pitiful, unhappy cypher. Not because he was rich…there are thousands, millions just like him in every walk of life. It was just that his millions, which gave him access to the whole World, were worthless to him and accentuated his nothingness. When we have transferred the burden into the law, and when we have cosigned our own soul to peace, we shall have a new interest and a fresh outlook, for we shall be entering into the spirit of life, into the livingness of life, and into the joy of that livingness. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
In our individual World we have the power and the knowledge to create these individual experiences which makes life worthwhile. And there is no limit to the evolution of these experiences, for one conclusion will lead to another. This is the symbolism of the octave, which means that the end of any particular creative series is but the beginning of a new creative series. In our social and cultural evolution, in a World of competing ideas no less in the World of bodies and genes separate development is essential to success: independence and solitude are the schools of genius, privacy is needed to shelter the tender shoots of innovation, virgin minds are the seedbeds of originality. Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought content. Selection can only be effective provided that each of the hundred flowers is allowed the opportunity to bloom its own fashion, each of the hundred schools of thought is given space to mature in its own way. Provided too that, when each flower or school has undergone its test of fitness and proved itself more or less successful, there is the opportunity for new generations to take the field and start over again. Change is what it will take to bring any individual out of the dilemma of living with principles of error. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
In general, separateness, mortality and renewal have always been the friends of evolutionary progress. The strong implications has to be that it is only in a World where it has been practicable for living things to maintain and defend the physical, temporal and spiritual boundaries of their minds and bodies, that all the beauty and variety of life and culture could have come into existence. Which means in effect that it could only have happened in a World of normal laws. There is in each one of us the will to live, to enjoy, to express and to unfold; this will is divine, and our will is in partnership with this divine will, and our mind with this divine mind. Thus, we expect and believe that all good shall come to us. As we transfer the load, a new meaning comes into life, a more spontaneous self-expression; sadness gives place to joy, and confusion surrenders itself to peace. Action robbed of friction moves without fatigue, and the endless drama of life presents us with inspiring scenes and ever-moving experiences. This is the New Heaven and the New Earth. And when that final transference shall take place from this World into the next, we shall exclaim, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” The evidence of the power of faith is clearly defined by the Savior. Faith in God will cause the miracle of change and set the course of action on the true purpose of life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Predictions made in advance may be and frequently cause someone to be in a difficult situation because reality is often unexpected, events occur even through nothing like them has ever been observed to happen in the past, unimagined contingencies do arise, seemingly absurd eventualities do come to pass. Repentance follows faith as naturally as the day follows dawn. The morning breaks, the shadows flee. Repentance is they very essence of change; it embodies the powerful principle of obedience to God’s law and discipline of self. When applied to our lives, it provides a cleansing joy which surges through us. We beseech thee, Master, to be our helper and protector. Save the afflicted among us; have mercy and compassion on the lowly; rise up the fallen; appear to the needy; heal the ungodly; restore the wanderers of thy people; feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners; raise up the sick; comfort the faint hearted. Lord, who hast mercy upon all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of thy Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore thee, a heart of delight in thee, to follow and enjoy thee. Disgrace clings to no one after repenting, any more than feet defiled with mud of the World, come yet soiled and polluted from the cleansing bath. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
God told us he would help us. Let us leave aside the $64,000.00 question of just how the communication will take place or how the forced will actually come into being (these being ultimately factual questions not logical ones). Faith, in general, can compared to the state of mind responsible for some form of wish request—a mental picture of a desired goal—and the spiritual and material change that occurs is in the direction of this goal. When one is caught up in a whirlpool of emotion, it is difficult to find a way out alone. Our Heavenly Father did not put us on Earth to fail but to succeed gloriously. When we pray, we are requesting qualification for power beyond our own capacity to do something. When a person wishes that a particular object shall be affected in a particular way, the result is not just that the wish has some kind of effect somewhere or other, it is that it has the wished-for effect at the targeted location. When a person comes to believe that some particular thing is happening to some particular object, this belief is not just the result of some kind of thing happening to some object or other, it is the result of the believed-in thing happening to the identified object. Communication with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter, it is a sacred privilege, and it is based upon unchanging principles. So why should we not imagine someone’s wish being transmitted by paranormal means and transformed into whatever kind of force-field required to actually make it happen? #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
When we receive help from our Father in Heaven, it is in response to faith, obedience, and the proper use of agency. You can only communicate in this sort of structured way when and if you—or whoever designed the communication line—know exactly what the characteristics of the channel are and what kind of receiver is on the other end. It is a mistake to assume that every prayer we offer will be answered immediately. Some prayers require considerable effort on our part. True, sometimes impressions come when we have not specifically sought them. They generally concern something we need to know and are not otherwise able to find out. We are here on Earth to gain experience we can obtain in no other way. We are given the opportunity to grow, to develop, and to gain spiritual maturity. To do that, we must learn to apply the truth. How we face challenges and resolve difficult problems is crucially important to our happiness. When we pray, we are approaching trustingly a loving, kind, wise, and understanding Heavenly Father, who wants us to succeed. Our thoughts are transformed into some kind of patterned energy field which is broadcast into the Universe and our brain is acting as some kind of resonator, which God tunes into. He hears every prayer and answers it in his way. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Trained, that is, to assign the same particular meanings to whatever particular thoughts are in the air—different brains come to assign the same meanings to the same fields of light or sound. In order for such training to occur there would have to be some way for the brain t obtain independent confirmation of where the input is coming from and what it signifies. There is nothing about us God does not know. He is conscious of our every need and could provide all of the answers. Yet, because God’s purpose is our eternal happiness, he encouraged us to make the correct choices. Be assured as the Lord lives, even so surely as you receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive. When we receive an impression in our heart, we can use our mind either to rationalize it away or to accomplish it. Be careful what you do with an impression from the Lord. Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith. According to your faith shall it be done. When we ask in faith, it means we ask in confidence in our Holy Father. A certain power to alter things indwells in the human soul and subordinates the other things to individuals, particularly when one is swept into a great excess of love or hate or the like. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
When therefore the soul of a person falls into a great excess of any passion it can be proved by experiment that it binds things and alters them in ways it wants. A wish can directly create the wished-for state of affairs in the outside World merely by setting this up as its goal. When we take things to God it makes a big difference. It is much like when you have a stomach ache that has been ongoing and different people tell you it is for a variety of reason and to try this and that. However, when you go to the doctor, he or she can tell you exactly what is going on and give you medication that can take care of it right away, and that way it takes away the pain and you are not asking the wrong sources for answers to questions they do not know. That is exactly how prayer and having faith in God works. He will start working on a remedy to our problems immediately. We just have to believe and live right. We are dealing with a dedicated communication channel where the transformation rules from input to output can be and evidently have been laid down in advance: a channel based as it happens on a set of fixed physical and spiritual pathways, permanently in place, whose parameters are preestablished, and for which there has been ample time (both over the course of evolution and within each individual’s life) to devise the protocols and install the requisite transducers. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
If you feel that God has not answered your prayers, ponder these scriptures—then carefully look for evidence in your own life of his having already answered you. To help each of us recognize answers given, the Lord said: “If you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things. Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?” (Doctrine and Covenants 6.22-23). A witness of truth comes by the power of the spirit. Look unto God and do good continually. There is no gift greater than salvation. Both nature and nurture have made a huge investment in designing and testing this mind-body relationship. Our lives depend on it. The crucial point is, however, that, of all the things in the World, our bodies are the only ones with which our minds can count on having a relationship anything like this. Keep trying and express faith that you will be helped. Refuse to be discouraged. Act with confidence in the Lord, be obedient, and properly use your agency, and you will receive guidance. You will be inspired step after step to success, and will be given power to accomplish the thing which the Lord has commanded. We are required to confide in God, exercise faith and act so that we can receive help along our journey. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We must act by following spiritual law, and it will give us inspiration and power. Sometimes answers to prayer are not recognized because we are too intent on wanting confirmation of our own desires. We fail to see that the Lord would have us do something else. Be careful to see God’s will. The only way to make the correct decision is where there is righteousness and trust in a Heavenly Father. Wen we seek inspiration to help make decisions, the Lord gives us gentle promptings. These require us to think, exercise faith, to work, to struggle at times, and to act. Seldom does the whole answer to a decisively important matter or complex problem come all at once. More often, it comes a piece at a time, without the end in sight. Our gratitude is also important. Our sincere efforts to thank our beloved Father in Heaven generates wondrous feelings of peace, self-worth, and love. No matter how challenging our circumstances, honest appreciation fills our mind to overflowing with gratitude. Look upon us, Lord, and let all of the darkness of our souls vanish before the beams of your brightness. Fill us with holy love, and open us to the treasures of your wisdom. All our desires are known unto thee, therefore perfect what you have begun, and what your spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer. We seek your face, turn your face unto us and show us your glory. Then shall our longing be satisfied, and our peace shall be perfect. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Randolph Harris II International Institute 