Chapter 8
Trekking that Trying,
Trembling, Tremendous Trail
toward Testimony or
How to Come to Know “I Know!”
Jack S. Marshall
If a person has a problem with the Word of Wisdom, chastity, paying tithing, keeping the Sabbath, inactivity—whatever the problem is, that’s not the problem; it’s a symptom of the problem. Similarly, if you have a runny nose, coughing, sneezing, and drippy eyes, those things are not the problem; they are symptoms of the problem. The problem is that you have a cold. The runny nose and other things are manifestations of that cold. So if a person has problems keeping the commandments, the real problem is the level of the person’s faith and testimony.
I’d like to share with you some ways to distinguish where you are in your testimony and how to increase your faith. As you do, you’ll find better actions in your life and have greater joy and hope as you work through this schooling period called mortality.
The study of faith and testimony can be complex. I want to make it simple. Modern Christianity has taken too many wonderfully simple concepts and made them unrecognizable. I read in a newspaper not too long ago a small article that says so very well what modern Christendom has done to many wonderful, simple concepts. It spoke of graffiti on a wall at a religious university that read: “Jesus said unto them, Who do you say that I am? And they replied: You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our interpersonal relationship. And Jesus said: What?”
Let’s study about faith and testimony and make it simple so there’s no misunderstanding. Faith as defined in the Book of Mormon “is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” (Alma 32:21.)
Here’s the hypothesis, then: We are taught some things that are true or real but that are unseen to us, and faith is to develop a hope or belief in those unseen realities. Simple enough?
What are some of those unseen realities you’re taught to believe in? In fact, you’re banking your whole life on the fact that they are true, though you do not see them. How about God the Father and Jesus Christ? If you’ve seen them lately, you can stop reading this chapter on how to develop faith. Other unseen realities to you may be the resurrection, the three degrees of glory, and the fact that families are forever.
There are three elements that will enable you to develop faith and testimony. First, you must have hope that what you’re taught is true. Second, you must act on the truth. Jesus said: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:17.) James said “Faith, if it hath not works, is dead.” (James 2:17.) There must be action. By acting upon the teaching, we come to know if it is true or not.
The third element is best described in D&C 82:10: “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” The promise is that if we do what we should, Father is bound to give us evidences of unseen things, assurances of those unseen realities. In short, we’ll receive confirmations that will increase our hope of unseen things, which will in turn increase our proper actions.
There you have it, the way to develop testimony and faith. The three key ingredients are hope, proper actions, and receiving confirmations.
There are four levels as we grow in knowledge of those unseen things. The first level begins with the hope that the gospel is true—we don’t know it’s true—we just hope it is.
When I was nineteen years old and lived in Japan, two wonderful young men in dark suits knocked on my door and introduced themselves. They both had the same first name, Elder and Elder. I invited them in. That night, they taught me where I came from, why I was here, and what I could accomplish by living certain principles.
They taught me about a young man named Joseph Smith who had prayed fervently and come to know that God the Father and Jesus Christ existed and about the restoration of the gospel. As they left that evening, I realized I had never before heard such wonderful things.
Did I know what they said was true? No! I thought to myself, “That’s marvelous! I hope it’s true!” That’s the beginning of faith and testimony.
Now the action level. Alma talks about certain actions that will help faith grow. He says, “Awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words… even if you can no more than desire, let this desire work in you.” (Alma 32:27.) Exercise a particle of faith, for only after the action will you receive confirmation of these unseen realities.
Not too long ago, I was teaching at a Know Your Religion conference in Northern California. I had finished up on Saturday night, and on Sunday I went to church before returning home. It was a marvelous fast and testimony meeting.
As I was sitting in this meeting, Saints stood up and bore their witness, and then we had a wonderful experience. There was a black man in the audience. He got up and walked to the pulpit, his eyes brimming with tears. He started to speak and immediately caught our attention because he spoke with a thick accent in broken English. He was from Ethiopia. The first thing he said was, “I am not a member of your church.” (I was seated next to the full-time elders in the congregation. Their eyes kind of bulged out of their heads.) He continued: “I will tell you why I am here today. Two nights ago, late at night, I am driving home. I see a man and a woman. They are standing by their car doing like this.” (He motioned with his thumb as if he were hitchhiking.) “I did not pick them up because I was afraid if I picked them up they would beat upon my face.” (He was afraid of getting mugged. He had been taught that you don’t pick up strangers. But this was a very isolated road, and we later learned that the couple’s car had broken down and the only way they could get home was for this man to pick them up.) “I did not pick them up. But a voice, it speaks to my mind. It says go and pick them up. So I go and pick them up.”
He turned the car around, went back, and offered them a ride. As he offered them a ride, the woman stepped behind her husband for protection from the stranger in the car. He could read the non-verbal communication. Quickly he responded, “Do not be afraid. I am a Christian.” Only after he had announced he was a Christian did the couple feel comfortable enough to get into the car with him. Now this incident wasn’t coincidence—the couple just happened to be Latterday Saints. What a great opportunity to do some missionary work!
As they drove into town, the husband said, “You say you’re a Christian; what church do you belong to?”
“I don’t belong to any church; I love studying the life of Jesus Christ from the holy scriptures.”
He replied, “While you’re here in America, would you like to attend our church?”
“I would be honored.”
Then, as only Latter-day Saints can, the couple took out a sheet of paper and quickly wrote down the address of the LDS meetinghouse and the times sacrament meeting began. They said, “Go at this time; if you don’t like this time, go at this time; and if you don’t like that time, go at this time; and if you don’t like that time …”
We love meetings in this church. If we had a 14th Article of Faith, it would most likely read: “We believe in meetings, we hope for meetings, we have endured many meetings and hope to be able to endure all meetings. If there is any reason, excuse, or justification for having a meeting, we seek after it.”
Now a few days later, this marvelous man stood up in a testimony meeting so touched by what he had heard as others had born their testimonies. With tears brimming, he said, “That which I have heard you say today, oh, I want this to be true. Oh, I hope this is true.” That’s the beginning of a testimony and faith—“Oh, I hope this message is true.”
When the amen was said to that meeting, those elders I was seated next to went after him like a teenager for the phone. You know very well what they did with him! They gave him a Book of Mormon and a million Church pamphlets. They said, “Would you pray about this, would you read this Book of Mormon, would you get down on your knees and ask with sincerity and real intent?” Then they promised him that by the power of the Holy Ghost, the truth would be manifested to him.
Those actions of reading and praying are vitally important. The prophet Alma said, “Awake and arouse your faculties… experiment upon my words… if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you.” (Alma 32:27.) If we exercise a particle of faith, the Savior then responds, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say.” (D&C 82:10.) If we put forth the proper actions, he will give proper confirmation, so that even though we don’t see him, we will know he is there.
About six months after that experience, I was in that same area participating in a youth conference. I finished on Saturday and again went to church on Sunday before I returned home. While in church, I sensed that I was in a familiar setting. I thought, “I’ve been here before.” I couldn’t figure out when, though. I started racking my brain, and it suddenly dawned on me that I had been there in that impressive testimony meeting.
After the sacrament meeting, I pulled a ward member aside and said, “I was here about six months ago and heard a man stand and bear his testimony as a nonmember.” I shared the story, and a grin came onto the face of the person I was speaking to. “I was there as well,” he said. “He’s been baptized. He blesses our stake.” Our nonmember visitor had tested the gospel principles. He had put forth proper actions and gained a confirmation of the truth.
Level 2 is when we say, “I believe this is true.” We begin to act upon this belief, and our righteous actions increase. After the missionaries taught me in Japan, I hesitated to be baptized for several months. I had a good bishop who understood that there must be proper confirmations to increase testimony. He called me into his office one Sunday and challenged me, “Jack, you believe enough about this gospel; you ought to be baptized.” I gulped. “You believe don’t you?”
“Yes, I do, Bishop.”
“You know enough! You get baptized!”
I quickly replied, “Okay, I’ll get baptized.”
Baptism is a great act of faith; it brings forth greater confirmation.
Some weeks later the bishop called me into his office again. “Jack, I’ve been checking our records; you haven’t been paying your tithing.”
When I was baptized I hadn’t understood the principle as I should have. He took out the scriptures and taught me. When I somewhat understood, I said, “You want my money?”
“The Lord wants his money,” he said. So I started paying my tithing.
Greater actions bring forth greater confirmations, which increase hope. A couple of weeks later, the bishop called me into his office again. “Jack, you don’t have a job in the Church; where do you want to serve?”
“Anywhere but with the Scouts,” I replied.
He called me to be the deacons quorum advisor and assistant cubmaster. Greater actions, in this case a supreme sacrifice, brought greater confirmations.
Before long, I was back in the bishop’s office. “Jack,” he said, “you haven’t been paying your budget.”
“What’s budget?” I asked cautiously. He again took out the scriptures and taught me about offerings!
“You want more money?”
“The Lord wants more.” I paid my budget, and my testimony grew.
Sometime later in the hallway by the sign-up sheet for the blood drive, the bishop said, “Jack, your name isn’t on the blood drive!”
“You want my blood, too?”
“The Lord wants your blood.”
I gave, and so did the Lord. I received greater confirmations.
Joseph Smith taught that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power to produce the faith necessary to lead us to salvation. Though we may never be asked to sacrifice all, we must be willing to.
Young people want to know the gospel is true; they want to know like their mother, father, bishop, and stake president. They, like you, may have also asked, “How do I know I’m coming to know?” or “Will I ever know it’s true?” If you are troubled over that, remember what the Savior taught: “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say.” (D&C 82:10.) You don’t have to worry about the confirmations coming; come they will. You need only to worry about taking care of your own actions.
President Joseph Fielding Smith spoke about those proper actions when he said, “I’m going to say something that maybe I cannot prove, but I believe this is true: that we have a great many members of this Church who have never received a manifestation through the Holy Ghost. Why? Because they have not made their lives conform to the truth. The Holy Ghost will not dwell in unclean tabernacles or disobedient tabernacles. The Holy Ghost will not dwell with that person who is unwilling to obey and keep his commandments…. That great gift of testimony comes through humility, faith, and obedience.”
Where we might get into problems is where we take an action the Lord has prescribed and put question marks by it. Do I really need to live the Word of Wisdom? Is it really expected of me to live the law of chastity? Does the Lord really mean every young man should prepare himself for a mission? Remember, without the proper actions, confirmations are slow in coming.
As a person matures spiritually by righteous actions and those confirmations, he or she arrives at level three. That which was once “I hope this is true” becomes “I believe this is true” and then through diligent effort becomes “I know this is true.” At this level, that of knowing, there is no such thing as blind faith. We may not understand how Heavenly Father will help us accomplish our goals or overcome our challenges, but we’re assured of his help; we’ve seen it so many times before. Because of that assurance, we observe tremendous actions of sacrifice.
The following is from a letter from a student I taught in seminary, a good young man trying to live the gospel by serving a mission in Guatemala. Listen to his actions, his sacrifices, then the confirmations:
“Dear Brother Marshall: It’s been a while since I last wrote, and for that I’m sorry. I want to let you know that I’m alive and doing fine. I can’t say that it’s been easy, because it hasn’t. In the past two and a half months, I feel like I’ve been tested a little. It started when they had to operate on my toe and take the toenail off. That hurt! Just as my toe was getting better, one night our house was shot at, and three bullets came into our room. About two weeks after that, a dog bit me, and I had to get rabies shots. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been one or two in the arm, but it was ten shots in the stomach. After about half of the series of shots, I received a good old Dear John letter from my girlfriend. This might sound like a lot of trials to you, but it doesn’t matter to me. Through all this, I haven’t forgotten who I am and why I am here. If anything, my testimony has grown from all this. I’ve learned what is important and what isn’t. I know that God and his Son live, and I’ll continue to preach the gospel faithfully. May God bless you. Elder Cisneros.”
What knowledge from a twenty-year-old young man! When many of his peers in the world are trying to figure out what life is all about, this young man knows the gospel is true through sacrifice.
It is interesting to note that the Greek word for testimony or witness shares a common Greek root with our English word martyr. A martyr is one who sacrifies his life for a cause. Though we may never be required to give our life as a sacrifice for the cause of the gospel, in order to come to know the truth of the gospel we will be required to sacrifice time and talents and means for the cause of truth.
At level three, the confirmations become more and more direct and powerful. At this level, you will find great blessings, great administrations. Miracles are performed by those on this level. The confirmations at this level are powerful.
I had a marvelous sophomore student, a young woman who was conscientiously striving to live the gospel and doing a good job. She told me that while being baptized for the dead in the temple with her Mutual group, she saw a couple of kids who shouldn’t have been in the temple. Mom and dad, youth advisors, and bishops are sometimes the last to know what problems their youth are involved in. But for the most part, peers are aware of the problems. The girl knew what these kids had been doing and that they had not been totally honest with their bishop. She was feeling a bit frustrated.
She told me she wasn’t feeling judgmental, just confused: “I’ve really been trying to fight a good battle with temptation; they’ve compromised, but we were equal.” They were in the temple doing the same thing, being baptized for the dead. While she was being baptized, she wondered if it made any difference to the people for whom the work was being performed. “I wonder if it counts. Does it count if an unworthy person is involved in an ordinance?” She reasoned further. “Of course it counts; that’s what the 2nd Article of Faith is all about. We are punished for our own sins and not someone else’s.”
At the conclusion of her part in the baptism, even more confused and trying harder than ever to withold judgment, she turned to get out of the font. The ordinance worker, an elderly gentleman, held onto her elbow. She looked back at him. With a smile yet a piercing look, he said, “You’re a good Latter-day Saint young lady, aren’t you? You really love the gospel, don’t you?”
Somewhat surprised by such an unusual question, she paused and pondered it. In that moment, assured by her loyal and valiant actions, she replied, “Yes, I really am trying to live the gospel; I am a good Latter-day Saint.”
“I know,” he replied, “I can tell. The Spirit bore witness of that to me as I baptized you.” He gave her a little hug. “You just keep living the gospel and being a wonderful example.”
“Brother Marshall,” she said, “I floated out of the temple. Heavenly Father knew my thoughts and feelings in that moment while I was being baptized.” She had been frustrated and confused, but the Lord had blessed her with clarity and understanding. Proper actions bring great confirmations of those unseen realities we hope for.
Eventually, through proper actions and confirmations, we arrive at a fourth level of faith and testimony. It is best described in D&C 93:1: “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.” Notice the actions in those verses! A person at this level strives to live as Christ-like a life as possible.
Be patient with yourself. This is a process that takes a lifetime and sometimes more. The confirmation at this level is described in the end of the verse: those who strive to live a Christ-like life, the Lord says, “shall see my face and know that I am.” In this life or the life to come, we can achieve a perfect knowledge, no longer a hope of unseen things.
That which was years ago, “I hope this is true,” through proper action and confirmations becomes “I believe this is true.” Continued effort and witnesses bring “I know this is true.” Then, finally, through sacrifice and service and enduring to the end in this life or the hereafter, we come to know with a perfect knowledge that God is real and that his Son is the Christ. Arriving finally at our eternal destination of the ultimate confirmation, we become as they are, Gods and Goddesses.
This is a brief description of the pathway to testimony. Testimony means the principles have been tested and found true. That’s what we’re about. Much depends upon these tests, as Elder Robert L. Simpson put it so well: “May I suggest that this Church is not idly named. We are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These are the latter days; this is the final dispensation of time, and the programs of the Church are all moving toward a sort of finalization or culmination. There is an urgency as never before about what needs to be done; and be sure of this, what needs to be done will be done on schedule, we hope by those initially foreordained to the task. But just as surely as night follows day, if we choose not to accept our station, or if we grow weary along the way, placing less important things first, there will be substitutes raised to take our place, that the Lord’s time-plan and ultimate purposes will not be thwarted. Youth of Zion, stand up and be counted, have the courage of your convictions, and whatever you do, don’t allow someone else to be a substitute for you in the Kingdom of your Heavenly Father.”
Jack S. Marshall is an institute director in Pasadena, California. He is a popular speaker at youth programs and has published articles in the New Era, coauthored a book, and released two audio tapes of favorite talks. He and his wife, Liz, have five children.