How to Take Inspired Action

Today's episode is called How to take inspired action.

We are talking about the law of success.

And from personal experience, what I, I have this, this challenge of, of always pushing, pushing, pushing and, and driving forward into this space of burnout.

There's a better way.

 I want to talk about that today and how we can have more fun in the things that we're doing and we can feel more inspired and more excited about the projects and the challenges that we're facing so that it doesn't feel so hard or so overwhelming.

So that we can grow our capacity.

The way that we do that is we get our direction and we get our inspiration from the Lord.

And this is a three-step process that we're going to cover today.

I want to start by telling kind of an embarrassing story.

I'm embarrassed because now I know better.

I would have never done this, but years ago when I was building my business, I had four jobs and four church callings and seven children and I I was so overwhelmed and under so much pressure and so stressed out.

Luckily, I had a husband who was so helpful and really picked up the slack in so many ways.

But I remember one day talking to him and saying it's not the actual tasks that need to get done that is hard.

I can do those.

It's the mental load that is killing me.

It's all of the things I have to worry about and all of the things I have to remember and all of the decisions that I have to make.

It just feels like it's too much.

And as I pondered and thought about it, I reached out to my Bishop and asked to be released from three of my callings.

That was a big relief in the pressure.

Then I was pretty serious about quitting some of those jobs and and individually 1 by 1.

I quit all of those extra jobs so that I just do the job that I have now, which I absolutely love.

But the point is, is I was working from a place of push and grind and we have to get this done and, and we can't sleep.

I've had years where I did my work and I would wake up in the middle of the night and I'd be like, Oh my gosh, I have to work.

I have to get this done.

And I'd work for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and then I'd go back to sleep and then get up again and work a 10 hour a day.

That is not God's plan for us.

He doesn't want us to have to push and work and try so hard, whether it's a business or it's a relationship or it's a personal challenge.

He wants us to partner with Him so that we can take those inspired actions that move us forward in powerful ways without relying so much on ourselves.

So let's start in the Scriptures.

We are going to go to 1st.

No, it's Joshua chapter 1, verses 8 and 9.

And so I'm going to read the verse and then I'm going to explain what it means.

The verse says the book, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate there in day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.

For then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success.

And then in verse 9, have I not commanded thee, Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.

For the Lord thy God is with thee, whether so ever thou goest.

All three steps are explained here.

Basically what he's telling Joshua is he's like he says, understand the law, meditate on it, think about it, ponder on it, and then take action.

Observe to do according to what the law says, and then have courage and be brave and do the things that feel hard and scary.

So our three steps are, first, we are going to ask, Second, we are going to take consistent small steps forward, and 3rd, we're going to choose to have faith and trust in the Lord and His ability to help us solve our problems.

So let's go look again in the Scriptures.

Recently, the Lord has actually reprimanded me for trying to figure it all out myself.

This is a habit that I've had for a long time and and I make progress and then I have to come back to it.

But he showed me twice in one week the verse Matthew chapter 21, verses 21 through 22.

These are beautiful verses.

I want you to listen for the action step, and then also listen for the promise.

If you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do that which is done to the fig tree, but also, if you shall say into this mountain be thou removed and be cast into the sea, it shall be done.

All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing you shall receive, and all things whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.

Right.

The Lord is saying that choosing faith and asking are going to help us to move forward.

So the thing that I was reminded was, is that we need to ask God.

The way that I've done this in my own personal life, as I've, as I've worked on stuff, I thought I've said to myself, what if, what if I overcame this health challenge?

What if I did this business step?

What if I had a better relationship with this other person?

What would that look like?

Then I do a brainstorming list and I'm pray about it and ponder over it.

And as I've done that, the Lord has helped me to find what my next steps are.

Let's go look at this again in the scriptures.

I love how all of these laws are tied into the scriptures.

Noah was commanded to build a ginormous boat.

It took him years and years to build it.

Before he built the boat, there had never been rain.

The people hated him.

They thought he was stupid.

They thought it was a dumb idea, but he kept on building it anyway.

What's really interesting is if you go to Genesis chapter 6, the Lord gives him specific direction on what that boat is supposed to look like.

He tells them the measurements.

He tells them how big the windows are supposed to be.

He gives him step by step instructions.

And Noah is brave enough and obedient enough to follow through on those directions.

In fact, in Genesis 6 chapter 22, it says thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

Imagine what your life would be like if you followed through all the time on the promptings the Holy Ghost is giving you pertaining to the challenges in your own personal life.

A lot of times we receive those inspirations, those nudges and we ignore it because we're like, oh, it's just all in my head or oh, I'll do that later.

Noah is a perfect example of somebody who actively quickly followed the direction the Lord was giving him.

We need to take those small steps daily.

And Alma 37, we learn it's by small and simple things.

Great things come to pass.

So many times we want to be like naman and do some great huge thing.

But the Lord is inviting us to do the boring little everyday things consistently.

He's inviting us to do simple small things.

What simple, small thing is God asking you to do that's going to shift a relationship or shift your health or shift your finances or move your business forward?

It's the tiny things.

We see that principle over and over and over again in the Scriptures.

In fact, one of my favorite principles that we learn about not only in the Scriptures but as universal law, is that things happen for us line upon line, precept upon precept.

The challenge that we have, though, is that we have social media and there's so many advertisements of people who lost 30 lbs in six weeks or people who made $1,000,000 in one month, or people who changed their relationship by all of a sudden saying this one phrase to their spouse.

That's not how real life is.

Real life is line upon line, precept upon precept.

Here a little, there a little.

It's the tiny little boring steps that we take every day that overtime consistently change our lives.

And  there's a lot of hope in that because it doesn't have to be overwhelming.

 

It can be something small that can move us forward in a big way.

So as a quick reminder, the thing that Noah did was first he listened to God's direction and then he acted consistently on that instruction.

And he trusted what God was inviting him to do over the voices of all the people around him were who were telling him he was a crazy person.

He had success and he ended up saving his family because he did it.

And all the animals so that we can have animals, right?

So as a reminder, we go back to Matthew chapter 21.

Remember it talked about how we can move the mountains in our lives.

And President Nielsen has said something about that.

He said, start today to increase your faith.

Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability.

Let me repeat that phrase again.

Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability.

 

I want to stop right there because he's not saying he's going to take away all your problems.

He's going to make everything better.

He's going to increase your ability.

Here's the rest of the quote to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.

There's so many principles here, right?

First, faith is power.

Second, God wants to increase our capacity.

And 3rd, we're still required to act.

Your action, your choice, your agency is what's going to bring you this success in whatever area it is that you're struggling with.

And the best way to use your agency is not to grind and get up in the middle of the night like I was, but instead to trust what the Lord is inviting you to do and take those tiny steps as guided by the Holy Ghost.

So our third step goes right along with this.

It's to worry less and have more faith and to remember promises like we read about in Matthew chapter 21 that God will answer our prayers and help us to be delivered.

We can see that again in Mosiah chapter 24, and we can see it again in the in the prophet when he said, look, God's going to help you choose faith.

Let's look at another scripture.

In first Corinthians 1510, Paul tells us where he gets his power and how he grows his capacity.

And this is a beautiful verse.

He says by by the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace which bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all wait.

How did he work so hard because of grace, yet not I but the grace of God which was in me.

I love this verse, right?

It's God who's going to empower us to do what feels impossible.

We follow the instructions and we choose faith, and that moves us towards the success in our lives.

One of my very favorite verses of all time is in Doctrine and Covenants chapter 123.

Verses 16 and 17 and 16 talks about a big, huge boat in a storm and how it's able to move by a teeny tiny little helm, right?

It's speaking to those small and simple things that we've already discussed.

And then in verse 17, it says, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then let us stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

There's a powerful principle here that we are, we are, we are yoking with our Savior, Jesus Christ Christ.

We are connecting to our heavenly Father.

We are listening to the Holy Ghost.

And as we do that, then we have more power, more capacity than we ever could on our own to accomplish what needs to be done so that we can be successful not only in our relationships, in our finances, in our health, but we can fulfill the mission and purpose we were called to do to be here on the earth.

When you think about the, all I have to do is tiny little things, then it feels doable.

It feels like maybe I can do this again.

I just want to remind you that I recently the Lord actually reprimanded me.

He's only reprimanded me three times in my life that I know of.

And his favorite way, I guess is scripture is because I love scripture and he reminded me of two scriptures. 1 isn't a lady.

I can't even say the name or maybe it's not a lady, it's a man, Haggai.

In chapter 1, it talks about that we need to consider our ways, that we are working, but we're not getting anything out of it.

We're collecting money, but we're putting it in a bag of holes.

Then we need to consider our ways.

The other scripture was in Acts Chapter 9, verse 5, which talks about kicking against the pricks, which is about resistance.

And I'm like, wait a minute, I'm how am I being resistant?

How am I not doing what I'm supposed to be doing?

 I had a really neat experience where the Lord explained to me as I was journaling that I am only focusing on problems, that I'm not looking at all of the ways that the Lord is currently blessing me and my family and all the miracles that are currently happening in my life.

He invited me to release and let go of the responsibility of solving all the problems myself.

 I'm like, OK, then what's my part?

And God said to me, Julie, it's all mine.

All of it's mine.

You have two jobs.

Your job is to follow the Holy Ghost and love people.

 I can do that, right?

That's what I tell my missionaries all the time.

All you have to do is follow the Holy Ghost and love people.

When we break it down to that simple, then it feels like maybe we're not so overwhelmed.

Maybe we can actually do it.

And when we remember it's the tiny little things that we do.

It's not these great big, huge, massive things that move the needle forward, Then we have hope.

And we especially have hope when we trust Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:13, right?

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

That's the law of success is we're not doing it by ourselves.

We're receiving the inspired action and then having the courage to move forward knowing that God is actively working in our lives.

So my invitation to you today is I want you to think about the things that we've talked about and I want you to reflect what mountain in your life could move if you trusted God's grace and you acted on inspiration.

Take a minute and journal what the one step is that God is inviting you to move forward.

What is it?

Pray about it, ask for it, and then write it down so that you can remember it.

Thank you so much for being here.

I appreciate you so much.

Will you please do me a favor and share this with somebody that you love?

Again, thanks for being here.