My Thoughts on Personal Preparation to Guidance

Although I do not hold the priesthood, I believe that the concepts President Eyring is teaching about personal guidance and revelation still apply to me.  I know that the Spirit can guide us and give us specific instructions for our individual circumstances and callings, but we have to be living worthily to have this spiritual guidance.  Not only must we be keeping the commandments, but we also have to be putting in the time and the effort to pray and study and make that personal connection with the Lord.  The more we do this the more clear his promptings, warnings, and instruction will become to us.  The Lord is constantly trying to speak to us and trying to give us guidance.  We have to fine-tune our receptors so that we learn how to hear and heed His communications to us.  If we do this we can become better tools in His hands to help and lift His other children as well as ensuring our own spiritual safety and growth.

Companionship of Holy Ghost

“You will not survive spiritually without the protection of the companionship of the Holy Ghost in your daily life.  You must pray for it and work to have it. Only with that guide will you be able to find your way along the strait and narrow path through the mists of evil. The Holy Ghost will be your guide as He reveals truth when you study the words of prophets.  Getting that guidance will take more than casual listening and reading. You will need to pray and work in faith to put the words of truth down into your heart. You must pray that God will bless you with His Spirit, that He will lead you into all truth and show you the right way. That is how He will warn and guide you into the right path in your life and in your priesthood service.”


“President Henry B. Eyring - April 2015 General Conference "Priesthood and Personal Prayer” 
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/priesthood-and-personal-prayer?lang=eng 

Sincere Prayer

"We do not have to cry unto him with many words. We do not have to weary him with long prayers. What we do need, and what we should do as Latter-day Saints, for our own good, is to go before him often, to witness unto him that we remember him and that we are willing to take upon us his name, keep his commandments, work righteousness; and that we desire his Spirit to help us. Then, if we are in trouble, let us go to the Lord and ask him directly and specifically to help us out of the trouble that we are in; and let the prayer come from the heart, let it not be in words that are worn into ruts in the beaten tracks of common use, without thought or feeling in the use of those words."

Joseph F. Smith - Teachings:Joseph F. Smith, Chapter 3
https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-joseph-f-smith/chapter-3?lang=eng&query=cry+unto+him+with+many+words