Doug Tales 51: Are You Teachable?

Doug Mendenhall constantly asked questions about everything. Scriptures, traditions, experiences, opinions, and anything coming through spiritual veils—all were fodder for Doug’s perennial, “Why?” “What about?” “How come?” “What else?” He discusses your and my teachability in I See…Awake! (2015), pp. 27-29:

The second point is are you are teachable? Do you know that you don’t know? Will you admit it? Your ability to learn is dependent on your open-mindedness or close-mindedness. Low teachability comes from arrogance and rigid skepticism, but also from naiveté and gullibility. High teachability derives from a balance of healthy skepticism and an open-minded willingness to learn and probably change. It requires becoming like a little child in our search for truth. Denver Snuffer put it this way in Remembering the Covenant, Vol. 3:

“Children are open to change and willing to learn. They welcome new ideas for all ideas are new to them. The world is new to them. They feel their ignorance and are anxious to fill it with information and understanding. They know they are unable to cope with the world they live in unless they obtain more understanding than they have. So they relentlessly search to know more.

“On the other hand, adults are generally closed. They believe they already know something, and therefore are unwilling to receive more.

“The Gospel…requires us to surrender our arrogance and foolishness and come as a child to learn anew everything about life and truth. This is why the gospel begins with creation, informs of the Fall, and preaches the Atonement.” (pp. 1002-1003)

“Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough!” (2 Nephi 28:29)

It is important to have the mindset to listen to everything and not to challenge it by disagreeing, but also never to blindly follow the information. A good attitude to have is this: “I’m going to believe what you’re saying is true but I’m going to question it until I understand why it’s true.” This leaves the door open to learn more truth.

We might also say, “I will not judge anything you say while you are saying it. I will sit here, listen, and take notes. Then I will go home and think about these things, ask the Spirit to speak to me and teach me. Then I will take all of it to my Father in Heaven for a witness of its truthfulness or not.” We must look into things for ourselves, not believing blindly, and not trusting the arm of flesh because flesh is weak and will fail. The only one to trust is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Look into your heart to see if what was taught resonates with truth—like Joseph who asked, “Does it taste good?” Then go to Him with all of our questions to get a witness of the truthfulness of what was taught, just as the scriptures tell us to do. “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:5)

Remember, God wants us to learn. Political bodies, schools, universities, religions, science, etc. all create boxes for consciousness and are limiters of perception and thought. They act as mind control influences making it hard to fit new truths into our existing framework of false notions and ideas. The Lord had this to say about this concept:

“And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.” (Mark 2:22)

Of course the biggest mind control influence and religion in the world is money—the god of this world. It is what the Adversary uses most to control and influence us.