Story from the New Era “I Know the Feeling”
“Here I am, I thought, three months away from my mission and
I don’t even know how to feel the Spirit.
“The truth was that I had been a member of the Church for my
entire life, and I could never recall a time when I was certain that I had felt
the Spirit. I had a firm testimony of the Savior and the prophet, but somehow I
didn’t know what the Spirit felt like.
“So there I sat in Brother Durrant’s missionary preparation
class, as confused as ever. ‘It’s the Spirit that counts,’ he quoted President
Benson. Brother Durrant then began to speak of great missionaries like Alma and
Ammon, who were successful in their work because they followed the Spirit.
“How can I be a great missionary? I thought. I don’t even
understand the Spirit. I continued to listen intently, desperately hoping that
Brother Durrant could answer my question. I silently prayed that he could
relate to me just one important piece of wisdom—how the Spirit felt.
“Then my answer came, and not just from the teacher. It
didn’t come like an electric shock, and it didn’t come like fire. But my answer
did come, with its own gentle feeling only the Lord was capable of giving me.
It came when my teacher stopped speaking about Alma and said softly, ‘I feel
the Spirit so much. It makes me so happy. That’s when I know I feel the Spirit,
when I’m happy and I know God loves me.’
“As I thought about those simple words, I felt all of the
confusion settle into a sense of understanding. My chest didn’t roar with fire
and vigor, and my limbs didn’t sink without strength. Instead, I felt a calm
peace inside, and I realized that whenever I had felt warm inside while singing
a hymn in church, I had felt the Spirit. Whenever I felt good after a service
project, I had felt the Spirit. And when I had walked out of a Church class
feeling peaceful and happy, I had felt the Spirit. The feelings that I was
searching for were often there, but I just didn’t know what they were. I had
expected the Lord to present to me, in grand spectacle, an instant testimony of
his power. Instead, he was gently guiding me to find out for myself.”
(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/1995/10/i-know-the-feeling?lang=eng)
