‘God is not silent,’ testifies Elder Clement M. Matswagothata to BYU–Idaho students

Clinging to one’s faith in Jesus Christ — no matter how much or how little faith — can help weather questions and doubts, said Elder Clement M. Matswagothata, a General Authority Seventy, at a BYU–Idaho devotional Tuesday, March 10, in Rexburg, Idaho.

Elder Matswagothata shared his experiences, teachings and testimony about navigating doubts and questions while still continuing to build faith.

He also emphasized the importance of building upon one’s faith and taking questions and doubts to the Lord. With patience in the Lord’s timing, these questions will be answered because “God is not silent.”

“Do not let one unanswered question cancel a hundred answered prayers,” Elder Matswagothata said. In times of trouble, “keep walking with Christ.”

‘Does God still speak?’

Growing up in Botswana, Elder Matswagothata had been raised in a place where heaven had “often felt close.”

Though Elder Matswagothata was not born into the Church, his family members had always been committed to the Lord. Through their firm faith, he learned his own.

With this conviction, Elder Matswagothata sought to deepen his knowledge of God. Reading passages from the Bible about prophets that spoke to their people, he wondered, “Does God still speak?”

This questioning resulted in an urgent search, leading him to contend with religious leaders about personal belief. But his faith was not won with words. ”I always walked away feeling empty inside,” he recalled.

While Elder Matswagothata was warned against meeting with missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he saw an opportunity.

“I asked them the same question I had asked many in the past: ‘Do you believe in a God who speaks — like He spoke to Adam, to Moses, to Isaiah, to Elijah and to my favorite prophet, Samuel?’”

The missionaries then relayed the experience of Joseph Smith, another young boy who had the same question.

Elder Matswagothata received a “settled, confident, personal witness” that “God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith and called him to be a Prophet.”

Learning by the Holy Ghost

Elder Matswagothata explained that testimony is “spiritual knowledge placed into a person’s heart and mind by God,” and it is not perfect knowledge.

“The Lord has never required omniscience as the price of discipleship,” he said.

To wondering disciples, he assured them that “faith and questions can coexist,” but they still require “some steps of faith.”

The real enemy to faith in Christ is not questioning, Elder Matswagothata said, but to “drift.”

This slow, turning away from the Savior happens when people “decide to skip once, then twice, then often — until what used to feel normal and natural, like praying daily and searching the scriptures, starts to feel distant,” he said.

To counter drift, covenants “keep us connected to Jesus Christ,” even when faced with spiritually turbulent times.

Elder Matswagothata then shared his own faith-testing experience.

As a missionary, he met with a man that pressed him on the Church’s restriction on priesthood and temple blessings, noting that Elder Matswagothata was of African descent. He had never heard of the restrictions before.

“It felt as if everything I had known about God, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the witness of the Holy Ghost was suddenly harder to reach,” he said.

Seeking comfort, Elder Matswagothata met with his mission president, who invited him to return and bear testimony to the man. He did.

In that moment, “I felt the Lord’s reassurance fill me — almost from head to toe — with ‘peace … which passeth all understanding,’” he said, citing Philippians 4:7.

This experience taught him that unknowns should “not erase what the Holy Ghost had already taught.”

Anchoring faith

“The adversary will always raise questions faster than we can answer them,” said Elder Matswagothata.

“A resilient testimony isn’t built by collecting perfect answers — it’s built by staying with Christ” through study, prayer and acting in faith “and allowing Him to teach you according to His will and timing.”

Elder Matswagothata offered three “anchors” of faith in Christ.

First, stay close to the Savior.

Second, stay grounded in truth by looking for it in “trustworthy places,” such as teachings of living prophets and apostles and scriptures.

And third, stay with the Spirit by choosing “music, media, friendships and habits that invite the Spirit to be with you.”

Elder Matswagothata cited Jesus’ words in John 6. When Jesus taught “a hard saying,” many disciples went away.

Jesus asked the twelve apostles, “Will ye also go away?”

“Everyone faces a ‘Will ye also go away?’ moment. How will you answer yours?” asked Elder Matswagothata.

God’s work will move forward–on a worldwide and personal level.

“Here I stand — a simple man from the African continent — bearing witness of eternal truths and watching that inspired prophecy unfold.”