The third checklist category is
“Teach by the Spirit.” Now, please
consider these questions.
Do I prepare myself spiritually
to teach?
Do I respond to spiritual promptings
about the needs of learners?
Do I create settings and opportunities
for learners to be taught by the Holy Ghost? Do I
help learners seek, recognize, and act on
personal revelation?
Do I bear testimony often and encourage
learners to do the same?
I try to remind myself often that in
all my efforts to teach the gospel and bring people to Jesus Christ,
I cannot convert anyone.
Only the Holy Ghost can do that.
We can speak the words, but conversion
is a matter of the Spirit. It happens when the Holy Ghost
touches the heart and the person responds to His influence
by following the Savior.
Our job is not to convert. That
is not our responsibility.
But what is our job? To teach the good news of Jesus Christ and His
gospel that has been restored in our time. And it is our job to validate and
support our words with our honest
and sincere deeds, our life, how we live and act. Whether someone
responds to what we teach is between them and God. But we can be the bridge
that connects them with the Holy Ghost.
We can be the window through which the Holy Spirit will enter
into their lives.
Our words and our actions can teach
the doctrine of Christ in a way that helps students experience
the intercession of the Holy Ghost.
But if the Holy Spirit speaks to your
soul, to my soul, you and I,
we cannot forget it because it
changes you. It changes us.
Remember what Joseph Smith said after
reading James one, verse five.
“Never did any passage of scripture
come with more power to the heart of man than this
did at this time to mine.”
The Spirit can take an
ordinary thought, spoken in an ordinary way and
cause it to burn like fire.
Another person's conversion is not
dependent upon our eloquence
or command of scripture. It’s not
dependent on how well we teach or defend doctrine. It's not dependent
upon our intelligence, charisma,
or command of the language. All we need
to work on is to know for ourselves.
Then our Heavenly Father invites us
to open our mouths at all times, declaring His Gospel with
the sound of rejoicing.
And if we do that, the Holy Spirit
will testify of the truth.
If we do our part, the
Spirit will do His.
That is the way we teach by the Spirit.