Trust In That Spirit

D&C 11:12 And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit.

This, to me, is a comforting assurance. I often can't tell whether a thought is inspired by God or whether it's just one of my own thoughts. I'm not good at distinguishing between what God is actually saying and what I merely imagine Him saying. However, one lesson I take away from this verse is that, under some circumstances, the difference doesn't matter. If an impression or voice or spirit "leadeth to do good," trust it. If a voice in your head suggests doing a good thing, then it's probably a good idea to listen. Sometimes, this means trusting God and the Holy Ghost, and sometimes, this means trusting ourselves to make good decisions. Either way, we will, more often than not, be trusting in a spirit that leadeth to do good.

And while there is an important distinction to make there, and we should make that distinction when we can, the difference between God's Spirit and our own should get smaller and smaller and less and less important. As we become better, more Christlike people, the voice of our spirits will come to sound more and more like the voice of the Holy Ghost, because they'll be saying similar things and granting similar feelings of peace. The ultimate goal is for our own hearts, consciences, and spirits to give us guidance that's just as good as that which we get from the Spirit of God Himself. It would be great to have our hearts so in-tune with the Spirit that they're not just in harmony with each other, but playing the same note.

I want to be able to hear and recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit, but I also want my own Spirit to be just as good of a guiding influence in my life. Right now, I struggle to distinguish between these spirits because I lack discernment. As I improve, I hope that it remains difficult to distinguish between the two spirits because they both lead me to do good. In the meantime, I'm going to try to worry less about which spirit is saying what and instead focus on trusting whichever spirit is leading me to do good.