Our Spiritual Litmus Tests

There are a handful of scriptures that I believe can help act as sort of litmus tests in understanding our standing before God and how well we are following the Savior.  Perhaps the most obvious is simply the Sacrament prayers; we know that if we keeping our promises to the Lord of following the commandments and remembering Him then we will “always have his Spirit to be with [us]” (D&C 20:77).  The measure of how much we feel the Spirit with us can help us understand I believe how we are doing spiritually.  Alma taught us that those who “humble themselves and do walk after the holy order of God” will be “sanctified by the Holy Spirit,” and in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord also taught that covenant keepers are “sanctified by the Spirit” (D&C 84:33).  Having the Spirit with us, as the Sacramental prayers promise us, is a sign that we are being purified and coming closer to the Savior.  It means we are on the right path. 

               I think it can be hard sometimes though to know if we really have the Spirit with us.  The Savior spoke of how the Lamanites at one time after their conversion “were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not” (3 Nephi 9:20).  Surely if that was the case for those converts it may sometimes be the case for us.  I think there are some other scriptures that give us different ways of measuring our success as a disciple of the Savior.  The Lord gave us this measure of a disciple in our dispensation: “He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple, and shall be cast out from among you” (D&C 41:5).  The Lord basically gave the same description of His disciples when He gave the Sermon on the Mount: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21).  So one simple question we can ask ourselves to understand our spiritual standing is this: “When I receive some instruction which I know comes from the Lord, do I do it?”  The Savior gave another way to determine our discipleship when He said this near the end of His life: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).  Love is one of the defining characteristics of a disciple of Christ.  Without love we cannot be true followers of Him.  In our dispensation the Lord put it in perhaps more practical terms:

“And remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, for he that doeth not these things, the same is not my disciple” (D&C 52:40).  If we really have love, we will be lead to care for those in need around us; if we don’t seek to help others we aren’t true disciples.  The Lord also told us, “Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me” (Mark 9:37).  Again the theme here is love; if we love children then we are receiving the Savior.  

               Joseph Smith taught in the Lectures on Faith that we need to understand that “the course of life which [one] is pursuing is according to [God’s] will.”  These scriptures help us understand that if we have the Spirit with us or are consistently trying to follow the commandments or if we truly feel love for others, then these are all good indicators that we are indeed living in accordance to God’s will.