Does God Always Have to Spell Things out For us?

I wrote this in response to a specific question, in which the person sought advice on how to know when (and whether it is appropriate) to make your own decisions out of your own knowledge without asking God for specific instructions or permission every single time.  They made the point that not only do we have the right to make our own decisions, but that God insists on it.  They also wanted to know what to do when the answer to your prayer is "I trust you. You decide."

I approached my response with these two seemingly contradictory passages of scripture in mind:

Psalms 3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

D&C 58:26-28  For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.  Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;  For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves.  And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

Here is my response(with slight editing for clarity's sake):

A:  This is a principle that requires a degree of spiritual maturity to truly master. I think that the Lord expects each of us to "do many things of [our] own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness" because he knows that it is important for our personal and spiritual growth that we learn to act as "agents unto ourselves". Indeed, in many cases God may leave each of us to follow our own natural inclination, but our natural inclination is not (at least initially) always to seek the right thing, or the things of God, and so this necessitates that we first experience a profound change of heart. It becomes our responsibility to change our nature (through Christ) in order to correctly apply this principle, because only as a true disciple of Christ can we gain enough knowledge through the practice of faithful and persistent obedience to recognize and act upon the right choice without needing to be told.  As we gain this knowledge we will be better equipped to recognize when our natural inclinations are in line with God's own will (and what is right) and when they are not.

"If You're So Righteous Why Aren't You Rich?" and other dumb ideas about how God's blessings work.

This post is divided into three parts, each one dealing with a common misconception about how prayer and blessings work, and about our relationship with God.  The one dealing with riches and righteousness is number two, however I recommend that you read each part in order, as I intended each point to build off of each preceding principle.

1) God owes me blessings because I earned them through my own obedience.

This one is tricky because it arises out of a true statement made in D&C 130:20-21 which says:

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

This scripture is a fairly straightforward statement that says that if you want to experience the blessings that come from living the law of tithing, or the Word of Wisdom, or Temple worship or any other law of God then you have to be willing to obey that particular principle before you can enjoy said blessing. What this statement DOES NOT say is that God owes us blessings for obedience, whether that be obedience in general or obedience to a particular principle.

The Priesthood and Women: Are men and women equal in the church? What role does the priesthood play in a strong marriage?

Q: "Does it say in 1 Timothy that women should not be pastors?"

A friend of mine sent me this question some time ago in the wake of some controversy among a group of conservative churches concerning the role of women in the ministry. At the time she was interested in hearing what the Bible had to say on the question of whether or not women can hold the priesthood, and she was interested to see if my interpretation of certain passages coincided with that of certain factions within the debate. Recently I revisted my answer and expanded it to address an issue which more directly relates to women as they approach the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (both from within and from without). Namely the relationship between women and the priesthood (both in the time of Christ and His apostles as well as in this day and age), and the question of whether or not the seeming "exclusivity" of the priesthood constitutes sexism or gender discrimination. This is an issue that this particular friend had before she joined the church, and I know that she is certainly not alone in these misgivings. As I sought to address this question, I found that gaining an understanding of the role and function of the priesthood in an eternal marriage is crucial to finding the answer to these questions.