The Brain is Not a Secondary Organ!

In Sunday School today, we studied the first few chapters of The Acts, and we spent several minutes on this verse:

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? (The Acts 2:37)

Someone made a comment about the importance of feeling the Spirit in your heart. In fact, he said it's more important to feel a prompting in your heart than to think it in your mind. The gist was that you can overthink or talk yourself out of something, but you can't deny a prick in your heart.

His comment took me back to my early twenties, when I doubted my ability to recognize spiritual promptings.* At that time, I thought God must speak to everyone in their heart. With a feeling. A burning in the bosom. A gut instinct. But I didn't have many of those, and I certainly hadn't had any since my childhood. Maybe one. Maybe.

What was I to do? Was there something wrong with me? Was I past feeling? Was my heart hardened against God? I knew it wasn't, but I didn't know why I didn't recognize or receive revelation the way so many other people seemed to. So I prayed and I read scripture and I studied books and the words of modern-day prophets. I kept coming back to Doctrine and Covenants Chapter 9, verse 8:

But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

Before anything else, the Lord tells us that we must study. Thought goes hand-in-hand with feeling, and for my part, I actually think it is superior to what I feel in my heart. I suspect everyone is a bit different, but I also suspect that more often than not, people forget about the brain.

Let's look at Nephi, one of the greatest prophets in the Latter-day Saint canon. He is associated with everything good and right; his older brothers Laman and Lemuel are associated with almost everything bad and wrong. They complain, they ridicule, they physically abuse, and they attempt to kill their brother on multiple occasions. In any given Sunday School class, you'll hear that Nephi was simply better than his brothers. He listened to the Spirit and followed promptings more than his brothers. And you might walk away from class thinking that Nature was too strong in Laman and Lemuel. That at his core, Nephi was––to quote "Sleepless in Seattle"––"younger and purer and more in touch with cosmic forces."

This couldn't be further from the truth. In The Book of Mormon, we read that Nephi pored over The Bible. He asked questions of his father and of the Lord, and he pondered the answers. We know that he quoted scripture with ease and gave detailed accounts of Biblical peoples. And in addition to his knowledge of spiritual things, we can assume he had a vast knowledge of secular subjects as well. Daryl pointed out to me this afternoon that when Nephi was commanded to construct a ship, he asked, "Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which though hast shown unto me?" (1 Nephi 17:9) If the Lord commanded me to construct a ship, I would've needed him to show me everything, but Nephi didn't need that. He already knew how to get started.

The Spirit of the Lord can't work with nothing. That's why we are supposed to provide the materials. We do that by reading a LOT and by talking to others and listening to others and being knowledgeable about the world around us. We have to stuff our minds with all the knowledge available to us, so the Spirit has something to work with. There may be times when a prompting comes out of nowhere, but I suspect those promptings are few and far between.

Finally, I'll say this: I think it's nearly impossible to separate the head and the heart. Feelings are usually accompanied by thoughts and vice versa. In regard to revelation, this head-and-heart duo is particularly effective at leading us to action. To dismiss one and embrace the other is an imbalance that will keep us from progressing over time.

Thing I'm thankful for: a husband to bounce ideas around with

*Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that God continues to reveal many great and important things to people, including the president of the Church and common individuals. We believe he speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.