A Man without Eloquence

"...When a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men."

~2 Nephi 33:1

From this scripture we learn that there are dual requirements for learning the things of God. The first requirement requires that the speaker allows the Spirit to speak through them by not getting in its way. And the second requirement requires the hearer to allow the message from the Spirit to come into their hearts. 

On my mission in England I learned about the importance of getting out of the way of the Spirit and allowing it to preform it's sacred role as the teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many times I was stubborn and attempted to teach others with my own learning and understanding, striving to prove the scriptures to them.  However every time I did this I got in the way of the Spirit teaching and the results were always frustration  and a lack of edification on both sides. 

On the contrary when I acknowledged my weaknesses and allowed the Spirit to speak through me without trying to interrupt it's message both I and the listeners were edified together. Many times the Spirit even taught me truths as I spoke.

President Brigham Young illustrates a perfect example of how a man without eloquence created a pure channel for the Spirit to speak through, resulting in President Young's own conversion.

Paul reiterates this first prerequisite requirement in his epistle to the Corinthians and then also mentions what keeps us from accomplishing the second requirement for learning the things of God:

"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God....

"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God....

"For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, except he has the Spirit of God.

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

"Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

~1 Corinthians 2:1, 4-5, JST 11, 12-14

Thus to learn by the Spirit and allow its teachings into our hearts we must put off the natural man. King Benjamin teaches us how:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

~Mosiah 3:19