The role of a teacher in a Church setting is to prepare the way for the Spirit to touch the hearts of the students. The role of the students is to prepare so that their hearts can be touched.
Elder Gene R. Cook of the Quorums of the Seventy and an executive director of the Church Curriculum Department said the listener has to have the Spirit of the Lord with him or he will not be edified. In an address presented to faculty and staff members of BYU's Department of Religious Instruction, Elder Cook outlined four skills the student must have in order to learn by the Spirit:
-Prayer. Elder Cook cited D&C 32:4 - "And they shall give heed to that which is written, and pretend to no other revelation; and they shall pray always that I may unfold the same to their understanding."
"And if I don't pray always?" asked Elder Cook. "I won't get it. If a studentT is not praying in his heart, what is the conclusion? He won't get it because spiritual things are not to be understood the way worldly things are understood."
Elder Cook said he has been saddened to hear people say, "I've tried to read the scriptures. I just don't get them. I've tried, but I don't like to read them."
"If you will learn the skills," said Elder Cook, "the Lord will speak to you through impressions of the Spirit each time you pick up the scriptures to read."
-Humble self. "One of my favorite scriptures is in D&C 136:32," said Elder Cook: "Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear."
Elder Cook said the student should look for the Lord's definition of wisdom, not the world's. He asked what the world would say to the question, `How do you learn wisdom?' The world's answers might include: go to the university, study, research and learn from experiences.
"Interestingly, none of those are the answer the Lord gives to this question," said Elder Cook. "In fact, they have little to do with His answer. The Lord says one is to learn wisdom by: (a) ` . . . humbling himself,' (b) `and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear. For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite.' " (D&C 136:32-33.)
-Be believing. "And whosoever shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him will I confirm all my words, even unto the ends of the earth." (Mormon 9:23.)
"He will confirm His words to the believing - those who believe and doubt not," said Elder Cook. "We cannot doubt. "We've got to get off that neutral line when we read the scriptures and believe that they are scriptures. If you stand on the neutral line, the way the world has taught, then the Lord will not speak to you.' Listen to another key passage in Mosiah 26:3:
" `And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened.' Unbelief causes a hard heart," Elder Cook noted.
-Seek to apply truths/seek to repent. "The Lord gives us truths on the basis of how fast we apply them," declared Elder Cook. "If you will put them into your life - changing self, repenting - the Lord will continue to give you more and more."