Topic: Hard Heart (resist/deny the impressions and feelings of the Holy Ghost):

2 Timothy 3:8 > The Acts 7:51 > Romans 13:1-2 > 1 John 5:7 > Alma 30:46 > 2 Nephi 33:2 > Job 9:2-4 > Mark 3:4-5 > Mark 6:52 > Mark 8:14-21 > Mark 16:14 > Alma 12:10 > Ephesians 4:17-19 > 1 Nephi 14:7 > Helaman 6:35 > Helaman 13:8 > Doctrine and Covenants 20:15 > Doctrine and Covenants 45:28-29 > Doctrine and Covenants 29:7 > Hebrews 4:7

A hardened heart is quite prevalent in the world today. In my work among many different people, I see two types of hard hearts. One is the person who simply refuses to have any type of discussion about religion, their own spirituality, or anything near to it. The second type of person hardens their hearts against the feelings and promptings of the Holy Ghost. These people love to sit down and discuss the scriptures, religious topics, ideas and so forth, but when it comes to allowing the feelings and promptings of the Holy Ghost to enter their hearts and minds, they are quick to block any such spiritual communications. In other words, they harden their hearts against the Holy Ghost. Their reasoning is this: You cannot trust your feelings. Feelings will deceive you; you must only trust the written word of God.

Yes, sometimes it is true that we cannot trust our feelings; yes sometimes it is true that our feelings may deceive us; and yes, it is true, we must trust the written Word of God; however, as we have learned in past Scripture Trains, the Word of God comes from the living servants of God, too. And, only those who have never learned how to judge their own feelings, which feelings to trust and which not to trust will fall to deceit and faulty judgment. How can a man who will not allow himself to trust his feelings ever know love and how will he ever be able to trust the feeling of love, if he has not learned to discriminate between love and lust? A man who has not learned which feelings to trust and which not to trust, is a man who does not know himself, the world around him or how the Holy Ghost communicates with mankind. Feelings are a major part of the human soul! What are the feelings of a man or a woman when they hold their own child in their arms for the first time? What are the feelings of a man or a woman when they hold their dying mother in their arms for the last time? Or, what are the feelings of a man or a woman when they hold their dying spouse in their arms for the last time after a lifetime together? We cannot deny our feelings any more than we should deny the tender communications, which come from the Holy Ghost, which usually come as impressions or feelings. For example, if I am searching for a way to communicate something very important to my son and seek God’s help, then the things I need to tell him will come by way of impressions from the Holy Ghost. If I seek to learn and know religious truth, I must seek it from the source of truth, even God. I should do all I can to study and investigate and when I have found what I believe in my mind and feel in my heart is true, then I need to ask God if what I think and feel is indeed true. The answer will come via divine revelation even by way of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will communicate to us through our feelings. If what we have found and what we believe to be true is indeed true, then He will bless us with feelings of warmth or comfort, we will feel completely at peace with what we have found. Those who harden their heart against these feelings will of course never feel them and thus will never come to know the truth by revelation through the Holy Ghost. Not only do we suffer from hard heartedness today, but so did the people who lived anciently in Christ’s day! In 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 8, we see that men withstood Moses, God’s Oracle. If you reject God’s Oracle, you reject God too. In Acts chapter 7 verse 51, we learn that people resisted, or hardened their hearts against the Holy Ghost then too. The scriptures call those who resist the Holy Ghost stiff-necked, or uncircumcised in heart and ears. Someone who is stiff-necked will not bow to the will of God. He who is uncircumcised in heart is hard hearted; they have not cut away the fat to allow the Word of God to enter. The uncircumcised in ear is anyone who will not listen, or as we said in the previous Scripture Train, they will not hearken, or listen and obey.

In Romans chapter 13 verses 1 and 2, we learn that those who resist the higher powers, or in other words, the Holy Ghost, for it is through the Holy Ghost that God communicates to His children, will receive to themselves damnation. How can a person be saved if they resist a member of the Godhead, even the Holy Ghost? It would be just the same as resisting God, Himself. Please see 1 John chapter 5 verse 7! In the Book of Mormon, Alma chapter 30 verse 46, Alma feels so grieved for a man by the name of Korihor because he is so willing to harden his heart against the Spirit of Truth (The Holy Ghost), and will do so even to his own destruction. This man, Korihor, is so hardened that he would rather be destroyed than open his heart to the impressions and promptings of the Holy Ghost. In 2 Nephi chapter 33 verse 2, we learn that to harden your heart against the Holy Ghost is to treat the things of God as worthless. In Job chapter 9 verses 2 through 4, we learn that he who hardens himself against God, or against any member of the Godhead, such as the Holy Ghost, will not prosper. We must assume that Job is referring to spiritual prosperity. In Mark chapter 3 verses 4 and 5, we learn that if the men of Jesus’ day would have softened their hearts toward Him, they would have learned that doing good on the Sabbath day is right and pleasing to God. However, they were so stuck on the letter of the law that they resisted the Holy Ghost and perished spiritually. In Mark chapter 6 verse 52, we learn something new about a hard heart; when our hearts are hardened against God, we fail to recognize His miracles; and I would say miracles, both large and small. I would also suggest that many of the hardhearted fail to recognize the beauty of a rainy day, a grand snowstorm, majestic mountains in all their color and splendor, the tiny buds of a budding fruit tree and many other beauties of God’s creations. I suggest this because I know many like this and so I assume that many more are. Even many of Jesus’ disciples were yet hardened for they also failed to recognize Jesus’ miracles as we read in Mark chapter 8 verses 14 through 21 and chapter 16 verse 14. Even the miracle of the resurrection when it was witnessed to them by those who knew they failed to believe, because they had not yet learned to give their hearts over to the impressions of the Holy Ghost.

In Alma chapter 12 verse 10, we learn that the hardhearted receive a lesser portion of the Word of God, while those who have learned to soften their heart and listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost receive a greater portion of the Word. At this point it is important to bring up an interesting irony. I mentioned previously that I have met many people who claim that we cannot trust our feelings, therefore they harden their hearts against the Holy Ghost and the feelings and impressions that come from Him. They claim that we should only rely on the written Word of God, meaning, of course, the Holy Bible. This brings forth the irony: A person who claims that they cannot have any other source of truth other than the Holy Bible, who completely shuts out the feelings and the impressions of the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost, is he not in fact someone who while claiming to hold fast to the Word of God, has lifted himself up in the pride of his heart relying upon his own understanding and denying the vary God, the Holy Ghost, through whom the scriptures and the testimonies thereof were revealed? He has made himself subject to receiving a lesser portion of the Word as Alma teaches.

Ephesians chapter 4 verses 17 through 19 testify of this very condition! Paul testifies, in the Lord, that the Gentiles who have blinded their hearts against the Word of God, in other words not giving place for the feelings and impressions of the Holy Ghost, which come to the heart, live in the vanity of their minds, which has caused their understandings to be darkened, alienating themselves from the light and life of God. He goes on to say that they are actually past feeling! Past feeling what? The feelings and impressions of the Holy Ghost! Nephi says in 1 Nephi chapter 14 verse 7 that the work of God will either work in man one of two things: One, either to convince them unto peace and life eternal, or two, unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds, which will bring them into captivity and destruction.

To summarize these references, we learn that the hardhearted are vain in their minds. While pretending to rely upon the Word of God they deny the power and gift of the Holy Ghost. In other words, they don’t need God, they do just fine interpreting scripture on their own; all their knowledge is attributable to their own genius and hard work.

In the book of Helaman chapter 6 verse 35, we learn that the Spirit of God withdraws from the hard hearted, thus leaving them to themselves. For this reason they are everlastingly separated from God and know only destruction and captivity. In Helaman chapter 13 verse 8, we see these same teachings with one other point to emphasize, the hearts of their brethren will turn against them. Brethren could mean associates, friends, family, neighbors and so forth. Obviously, the heard hearted, those who are lifted up in the pride of their hearts, become a people who lose the confidence and love of their brethren. They have become self absorbed, selfish and hardened.

In the final few references, we learn the following truths: Doctrine and Covenants section 20 verse 15, the hardhearted reject truth to their own condemnation; section 45 verses 28 through 29, if we listen to the precepts of men, rather than God, our hearts will be turned from light and truth for we will not perceive or recognize it; section 29 verse 7, we learn that God’s elect, those who He knows, will soften their hearts to His Word and will not harden their hearts against Him. Finally, in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 7, Paul exhorts us saying, “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Obviously, there is more to hearing the Word of God than just with our ears; we must hear with our hearts too, we must hear via the Holy Ghost. I pray, that you will not harden your heart, but allow the Holy Ghost to have place there so that He may teach you the truths of God. His teachings will come in the form of impressions to your mind and feelings to your heart. The impressions and feelings that will come to your heart will be familiar as if you had known these things already. The feelings that will come to your heart will invite warmth and comfort, peace and joy, satisfaction and desire for more.