Inertia Confirmed

I did a little bit of study on the topic of desire the other day, and I came across this little gem in a talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell titled “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts”:

Each assertion of a righteous desire, each act of service, and each act of worship, however small and incremental, adds to our spiritual momentum. Like Newton’s Second Law, there is a transmitting of acceleration as well as a contagiousness associated with even the small acts of goodness.

This reminded me of one of my earlier blog posts about spiritual inertia, in which I said approximately the same thing:

Every right decision we make gives us a little push in the right direction, making it easier to make good decisions in the future. . . . Good decisions, even small ones, . . . help us build up powerful, positive, spiritual momentum.

I don't know if I had read Elder Maxwell's talk before writing that blog post. In fact, I doubt I had. But I'm confident that I was under the influence of the Holy Ghost as I wrote it, so it doesn't really surprise me that the ideas that came to my mind had also come to another inspired person's mind seventeen years prior. The Holy Ghost shares truths that are eternal, including truths about eternal principles, which apparently include the principle of spiritual momentum.

When we listen to the Holy Ghost, He teaches us the same truths and principles He teaches the prophets and inspires them to share. When we are in tune with the Spirit, and feel Him reveal something to us or confirm the truth or something we say or hear or read, then we can know that it's just as true as if a prophet had said it, or even God Himself. The Holy Ghost is God's messenger. When we learn something through the Holy Ghost, or when He confirms something we learned elsewhere, we can be certain that the message is true and from God.

However, there is one slight caveat I want to add to this blog post before I post it: It can sometimes be difficult to feel and recognize the Spirit, and as we seek revelation, we may mistake a lack of a response for a positive response, or may otherwise mistake what the Holy Ghost was trying to teach us. This is why we should try to confirm our impressions by checking them against the truths taught in the scriptures and by the prophets. Just because something feels true, we shouldn't automatically accept it as gospel truth.

The good news is that there have been a lot of prophets and apostles, and they've shared a lot of truths over the centuries. If the Holy Ghost teaches you something, a modern-day or ancient prophet or apostle probably taught it too. That's what I learned a day or two ago, when I discovered that the Holy Ghost had taught Elder Maxwell the same principle He had taught me. God shares truths through His prophets and apostles, but He also shares them through the Holy Spirit. We can learn truths by reading and listening to the words of the prophets, but if we're listening to the Spirit also, it shouldn't be too surprising if God shares some truths with us directly.