Sunday Talk

I gave a talk this past Sunday about inspiration. I wasn't as prepared as I could've been as far as organizing my thoughts, but I was pleased to be greeted by several friends who appreciated some new insights they had. I wanted to list some keypoints I learned with my preparations:
-If you are seeking inspiration from the Lord, ask yourself these questions
*Am I counseling with the Lord? (see Alma 37:36-37)
*Is my heart in the right place? (see Moroni 10:3-5)
*Could there be something in my life that is interfering with my spiritual connection?
*Do I understand how the Spirit speaks to me? (see D&C 8:2)
*Am I creating the appropriate balance between agency and inspiration? (D&C 9:8-9)
-"If you feel that God has not answered your prayers, then carefully look for evidence in your own life of His having already answered you." (Elder Scott)
-We are taught correct principles and then we are expected to govern ourselves.
-"Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves." (D&C 58:27-28)
-"There's a fine balance between agency and inspiration. We're expected to do in our power and then to seek an answer from the Lord, a confirming seal that we've reached the right conclusion; and sometimes, happily, in addition, we get added truths and knowledge that we hadn't even supposed." (Elder McConkie)
-"All I did was pray to the Lord and ask for some guidance and direction in connection with the decision that I'd reached. A more perfect thing to have done would have been to counsel with him relative to the decision and get a spiritual confirmation that the conclusion, which I by my agency and faculties had arrived at, was the right one." (Elder McConkie)
-"We're entitled to the spirit of revelation, but what I'm attempting to teach is that there's a proper way and a procedure, and there are conditions that we must meet before we get the spirit. It is our obligation to go to work on our problems and then counsel with the Lord and get the ratifying seal of the Holy Spirit on the conclusions that we've reached; and that ratifying seal is the spirit of revelation." (Elder McConkie)
-"When we receive help from our Father in Heaven, it is in response to faith, obedience, and the proper use of agency." (Elder Scott)
-Learning how to recognize and obtain revelation is a lifetime process.
-"By learning and understanding the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation." (President Packer)
-"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:16-18)

Inspiration works a little differently with each individual. What remains the same is God's love for you and his desire to bless your life. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."