This week is a guest post from Stephen Anderson:
I have recently pondered a question. It is one of the most important questions we could ever ask ourselves. That question is, “Why do I believe the things that I believe?” Or in other words, “How can I really say I have a relationship with an all-knowing and all powerful being that I have never touched or seen?”
I can’t recall a time where I didn’t believe, or when I seriously questioned my assurance of what was truth. From the time I was young, I knew there was a God, and I knew I had a personal and tangible relationship with Him. Even from the time I was a child, I have felt His presence.
Feelings of knowing God and feeling His influence in our lives are both forms of revelation. Revelation is any form of communication from Heavenly Father to us – His children. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know that God still speaks. We also know that God’s voice is not only available to Latter-day Saints.
Approximately a week before I was baptized a member of the church, I met with my Bishop (the leader of my local congregation) to determine if I was ready to be baptized. Most members who grow up within the church are baptized at the age of eight (the age at which we become accountable to God for our thoughts and actions). Baptism is essentially a way we show God we are committed to living our lives in harmony with His will. After the Bishop invited me into his office, he looked at me and asked, “Stephen, why do you want to be baptized?”
I can’t recall seriously pondering that question before that moment. I responded, “Because I know it’s what God wants me to do. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus, and I want to do what they want me to do.” I understood very little as an 8 year old. But even as a young child I had always known in my heart that God wanted me to be baptized, and I wanted to do what was right.
A week later I was baptized. As I was lifted out of the water, I felt the presence of God like I had never before felt. I knew that He was there, and I knew that He knew me. In that moment of incredible peace and warmth, I remember telling myself, “This is what God feels like.” As I have lived my life, I have always tried to live in such a way that will allow me to feel the same closeness to God that I felt that day.
In 1820, a young boy by the name of Joseph Smith wanted to know God and to understand His will. He prayed with a desire to know the will of God and act in accordance with God’s will. As Joseph prayed, God and the Savior appeared to Joseph. They knew his name, and they knew what he needed. This event would lead to the formation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When I was 21, I had the opportunity to go to the very place where Joseph saw God and Jesus Christ. I cannot describe the peace I felt as I prayed there with a similar desire to understand the will of God. As I prayed, I was directed to a verse in the Book of Mormon: “O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good” (Alma 32:35).
You can have the same knowledge and assurance that He exists. If you will ask with a sincere desire to know, you will feel Him in your life. Your literal Father in Heaven desperately wants to have a personal and tangible relationship with you. He will speak to you through feelings of love, joy, peace, and understanding. You will know that these feelings come from God.
I don’t know everything. It is easy to understand why many people have questions and doubts about God. There probably isn’t a member of the church that doesn’t have questions – myself included. But, when the doubts and questions come, I rely on what I know in my heart. I know what is real because I have prayed, I have studied, and I have pleaded with God for understanding. He has spoken to me. I have felt the presence of God in my life with such clarity that I can confidently say that I know Him.
And I know that you can know Him too.
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