[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by TripletDaddy

In one of my old EQs, there was a fellow who considered himself to be fairly bright (and probably was), except he could not get along with anyone. He always had a problem with someone in the ward. He and his wife would always complain that so-and-so was taking lightly his calling, or that such-and-such a sister is not diligent enough in her VTing.

In the middle of one of our EQ lessons, this Elder gets up and leaves. He was clearly offended by something. A few minutes later, I was pulled out of the meeting to talk to someone...so we are standing in the hallway discussing our topic...

The offended Elder comes back to the EQ class, goes back in, and sits down. A few minutes later, I am still outside in the hallway and I notice the Elder get up and leave again.

This time I pull him aside and ask if everything is okay.

He proceeds to explain to me that he was offended by some of the comments made in the class. He was also upset that, as a result of these offensive comments, the Spirit "left the room." So he left the class to head over to his wife's Primary class so that he could feel the Spirit again. Once he felt it, he decided to come back to class. Unfortunately, when he came back, he noticed almost immediately that the Spirit was not there, so he left again and when I stopped him, he was headed back to Primary to find the Spirit.

For a second, I wondered whether this guy was simply in tune to the Spirit on a higher level than anything I had previously seen or heard. After a second, I came to the conclusion that this guy was just an idiot. Maybe the Spirit confirmed this to me?

This is the sort of junk that comes from statements like "the spirit is here in the room right now." The spirit is an environmental presence, and not a link from one's heart to God.