The update is coming! The update is coming! The Paul Revere’s of the advertising world are constantly poking and prodding us to remember that the newest thing is just around the corner. Whether it’s the newest mobile phone, the newest software system, the newest gadget, theres always something we lack. Pressure remains to act on “the new” right away before the deal ends and we’re stuck with something that works fine and fits your needs, but is pitifully outdated. Poor iOS 7. Poor iPhone 4S. Poor, sad outdated you. Now the advertising and mania over these upgrades are often silly and completely unnecessary, unreliable to gong through our day to day routines, but there are spiritual updates that are absolutely vital and make The Church of Jesus Christ stand apart from it’s counterparts all over the world.
Revelation from those with authority from our loving Heavenly Father.
We have the opportunity everyday to grow if we take advantage of the powerful gifts of both technology and revelatory priesthood power around us. These tools are essential in our continual building of our testimony and resisting the temptations and illusions in our very fallen world. Here are a few spiritual tools to help you with your spiritual updates: 
1. Sacrament Meeting (and other Church meetings)
Every week, we have the opportunity, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to renew our baptismal covenants (see Mosiah 18:8-10) and be cleansed from our sins through the power and grace of the atonement of Jesus Christ. This powerful spiritual update can sometimes be lost in the simplicity of the acts of taking the bread and water or, more prevalent, distractions. Cell phones and tablets are amazing spiritual tools with thousands of years of scriptures which remain as the witnesses of thousands more who sacrificed everything to make sure that we could have the teachings of Christ. Focusing on your Savior and your Redeemer can help bring you a revitalizing power, in thick or thin, that you can use to continually go out and conquer the world and shine as a reflection of the atoning love of Christ. Speakers in these meetings are, in most cases, doing their best to follow the council and guidance of the Spirit to help them know the right things to say to best help their audience. Listen prayerfully and attentively that the recharge you’ve been needing will fill you to the brim. 
2. General Conference
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are enormously blessed to know that our Heavenly Father’s priesthood authority has been restored among the children of men for our benefit. This power is used to help further the cause of the Lord including calling righteous individuals, men and women, to serve in the general offices and auxiliaries of the Church. We have the chance to listen to these people at General Conference twice a year. Prophets, seers and revelators who want nothing but to speak for our spiritual benefit and well-being come and speak to us whether it’s in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City or using the amazing powers of the internet and satellites to view it from almost anywhere in the world. The words of our prophet and the apostles and other leaders in General Conference have the power and authority of the Lord behind them. Going to Conference again and again by listening to or watching them on churchofjesuschrist.org and prayerfully looking for and writing down the messages your Father in Heaven is trying to give to you specifically will be a tremendous blessing in your life. 
3. Personal Prayer and Scripture Study
All in all, these opportunities for spiritual updates found in participating in church meetings are all based on how your Heavenly Father knows how to help and influence you most directly. But a lot of the time, we are most profoundly influenced by the personal time we dedicate to deity. Having a conversation with the Lord, expressing the thoughts and intents of your hearts to Him who knows you best is a spiritual upgrade you can experience everyday. Not a casual, muttered-from-memory prayer as you are dozing off. Make it be an effort. Make it be hard. Challenge yourself to come closer to God in what you say to Him and how you speak to Him everyday. As a companion to prayer, there is also scripture study. The Lord speaks directly to us through His prophets in the scriptures: The Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith Translation, General Conference addresses–on and on it goes. Depths of experiences that we can apply to ourselves in hopes of broadening our understanding of gospel principles, our Heavenly Father and our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. Like prayer, this experience can be degraded by our being too busy or too tired etc., etc. But by making the time and making the effort to be active in our pursuit of godliness will give us continual strength in the spiritual updates the Lord has in store for us.
These spiritual updates depend on you and me.
Our efforts, coupled with the gifts and resources our Father has blessed us with, give us ample opportunity for spiritual updates. In the end, it is our responsibility to take them in full stride or to allow them to fall by the wayside. We make the choice whether to upgrade or downgrade spiritually, so I hope we are all doing our best to sustain our testimonies so that we can be powerful witnesses of Christ in these the latter days. So here comes the question: what kind of update are you looking for? Are you as eager for a spiritual update as you are for the next iPhone?
