“And again, it is given by the Holy Ghost to some to know the diversities of operations, whether they be of God, that the manifestations of the Spirit may be given to every man to profit withal.” (D&C 46:16). In the poultry industry, it is very important for chicken farmers to determine as soon as possible if their chicks are male or female. After all, female chickens lay eggs, but males do not. Chicken farmers do not want to have to waste valuable resources on male chicks that won’t end up being productive. The problem is it’s almost impossible to tell male and female chicks apart until they’re quite a bit bigger, but there are certain experts who are employed to quickly determine the gender of newly born chicks. They may handle hundreds of chicks a day and they get so good that they can separate the chicks almost entirely by instinct. In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, an enemy sows a bunch of tares in among the wheat, but while the wheat and the tares are still young, like the male and female chicks, it is almost impossible to tell them apart. One of the challenges in this life is that there are many good things that both seem good and are good, and many things that do seem bad but are actually good for us, and many things that seem good but are bad for us. Even in our own mind we get flooded with so many thoughts that it is sometimes hard to determine which thoughts are spiritual promptings that lead us to to good, and which are temptations, rationalizations, or unfounded fears. But what if we train ourselves to become experts in noticing the differences between the wheat and the tares? This is the gift to know the diversities of operations, whether they be of God or not. As we watch ourselves, and our thoughts and our words and our deeds, and really pay attention to whether our ideas and choices lead to an increase in long term happiness and peace and a greater sense of freedom, or to an increase in long term misery and chaos and captivity, then it will become almost second nature for us to determine whether something is coming from God or from Satan, whether something is a wheat or a tare. It is true that by our fruits we shall know whether something is good or bad, but at a certain point we’ve got to stop letting every single seed that falls into our soil grow all the way up until it's bearing fruit. We don’t have the time or the energy to test out every possible choice all the way to the end. We need to develop the gift to know whether something comes from God and works together for our good or not. That way we can leave more room for the wheat to grow and bring forth thirty, sixty or a hundred fold as we quickly and instinctually isolate the tares right when they start to crop up. I know that we can all increase our capacity to know what things come from God and what things do not.
