Teaching Others How to Receive Revelation | An Interview with Loren Dalton

Loren Grant Dalton graduated from the Harvard Business School and
has served as the President or CEO of five different companies. One
of his greatest loves is missionary work and he has served in a
full-time mission for over 16 years of his life—as a missionary,
president, or in a mission presidency, both in the U.S. and
Brazil). He is married to his high school sweetheart, Annette
Nielsen, and they are the parents of four children. While serving
as mission president, Loren saw far too many missionaries and
members who felt that they had never had a prompting through the
Spirit. They wondered what was wrong with them. He was determined
to help and wrote You Are Receiving Revelation: Now Act on It.
Highlights 03:20 Loren speaks on being in a mission presidency and
a mission president. 05:50 Speaking at Stake Conference and how he
prepared to speak 08:00 Loren recently came out with his first
book, You Are Receiving Revelation: Now Act on It. He talks about
why he felt inspired to write it. 11:00 We all receive revelation
in different ways. Many feel like we aren’t hearing the spirit
because we don’t have these huge revelatory moments. We need to
teach the youth how the spirit typically talks to us. 13:30 Kurt
shares his own personal experience receiving revelation and how he
doesn’t have these huge overwhelming moments. 14:20 The Holy Ghost
is speaking to us spirit to spirit but as physical beings we’ve
forgotten how the Spirit communicates. We have to relate to it as a
physical being. A lot of times we miss the promptings we are having
because we think it’s our own thought. 15:45 Was that the Spirit or
was that me? Maybe it wasn’t the Spirit but we can still act on our
promptings. Each time we act on the first prompting it’s like we
are tuning in our celestial radio and each time we act on a
prompting it gets easier to recognize. 17:00 Kurt shares his
struggle listening to content constantly, such as a podcast or
book. There is always something playing and he forgets to let his
spirit and brain breathe and actually be able to listen to the Holy
Spirit. 18:15 One thing that Loren used to tell the missionaries is
not to just pop up after saying amen after your prayer. Take a
minute and actually let God respond to you. 19:20 Teaching those
that we lead how to receive revelation. How can we better teach
this principle? 23:00 We also need to keep in mind that Satan is
also a spirit and he can give us promptings. We need to recognize
the difference between the Spirit and Satan. Follow your FIRST
prompting. Satan will normally come second. 29:45 Even if they have
sinned, God will still talk to them. Satan makes us feel like we
are out of the reach of God because we sinned. 31:40 Kurt shares an
experience that he had as a bishop helping a member know that God
still loved him and wanted to speak to him even though he had made
some bad choices and had been disfellowshipped. God doesn’t give
anyone the silent treatment. 32:50 Well-intentioned family members
and church leaders can accidentally be the voice of the adversary.
33:30 Remember that Satan is the second voice that comes and tries
to convince us not to follow the first voice. Another way to
recognize Satan is that he talks in the first person. Negative self
talk is not us. It’s the adversary. 38:10 God doesn’t need logic
but Satan uses logic to try to convince us not to follow God’s
promptings. It didn’t make sense to build an ark on dry ground or
cross the red sea but in the end people were able to see. 43:30 Act
on a prompting right way because you never know how urgent it is.
43:45 Basketball analogy. Loren believes that God uses bank shots.
The shots that are so far away that you are sure they will miss but
then they don’t. Sometimes God sends you a way that just doesn’t
make sense but then you see how God knew exactly what he was doing
and makes the shot. 44:10 Loren shares inspiring stories of
following the Spirit from the missionaries.