Organizing this blog entry has been a struggle. And I think the reason is that I have a tendency to have my own agenda. I put certain elements into the text only to have the Lord take them out.
It is hard to prepare something on personal revelation if you try to ignore the personal revelation you get in the middle of the preparation.
On March 19th I marked the 40th anniversary of my baptism. That means I have been learning about personal revelation for forty years and I'm convinced that I'm not done yet.
Forty years ago I was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and I began a process of learning and growth that continues to this day.
Joseph Smith said, “No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations. The Holy Ghost is a revelator.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 328; see also “Chapter 10: Prayer and Personal Revelation,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, (2007),125–34)
The Prophet made that statement long after his own struggles with inspiration. In fact, no talk on recognizing revelation is complete without a discussion of the translation of the Book of Mormon.
Behold, you have not understood...
I would like to paint you a picture of those early days. Do you remember when Moroni first appeared to Joseph Smith?
It was the night of 21 September 1823 – He saw the plates for the first time on the 22nd.
He saw them again on the 22nd of September 1824, 1825, and 1826
Four months later he married Emma Hale on the 18th January 1827
He got the plates eight months after that, on the 22nd of September 1827
No sooner did he get the plates than people wanted to steal them. So he moved back to his in-laws' house. Here I include a wonderful account by President George Q. Cannon:
“Joseph had leisure and safety, after establishing himself at the house of Isaac Hale, in Harmony, Susquehanna County, State of Pennsylvania, in the month of December, 1827, to examine the sacred history and treasure which had been committed to his [keeping]. And he very soon began a ... labor of copying [randomly] the different styles of strange characters found upon the plates and translating some of them by the aid of the Urim and Thummim. He thus prepared a considerable number of characters on sheets; some of them being accompanied by translations and others being alone. It does not appear that he had any more definite object in this superficial work than to seek, half-blindly, to fulfill the command delivered by the lips of Moroni, the angel of the record. But the purpose, wisely ordained, was later apparent.” (George Q. Cannon, The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, p.51)
The subsequent discussion is about the visit to Professor Charles Anthon. Now this information is found in Joseph Smith – History v.62-63 in a shorter form, but what I wanted to focus on is what the Prophet was doing when Martin Harris showed up at his door in February of 1828.
There were pieces of paper with characters everywhere. Imagine if the Prophet were doing this work today there would have been yellow sticky notes all over the place.
Let's move forward. Later in the Spring of that same year, 1828, Martin Harris made arrangements to come again and be a scribe. They translated 116 pages. And Martin lost them. Then Emma miscarried and Joseph took care of her. When he contacted Martin again and found out the pages were lost then his translation gift was taken away. It was all the way to the Spring of 1829 before Oliver Cowdery showed up. When he got there the plates had been returned to Joseph, the 116 pages were gone and who knows what happened to the “sticky notes”. But Oliver started to write and asked if he could also translate. By the time when Oliver came upon the scene Joseph had already spent months studying the characters and their meaning and more months in actual translation.
When Oliver failed to translate the Book of Mormon the Lord gave this explanation:
7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.
8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.
(Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9)
Now it wasn't Oliver's fault that he hadn't seen the process that Joseph had gone through. But we are the beneficiaries of the Lord's teaching moment with him.
This is the most important guideline we have and yet we often fail to see the lesson. At what point does the influence of the Spirit begin? Is it after we have studied and then ask if it be right? No. The Spirit influences our decision making in a way that is so subtle that the Lord allows us a confirmation. As we study things out and cast aside our own feelings and desires the power of the Holy Ghost nudges us in the right direction. And this is so subtle that we call it a still small voice.
Cooling Breezes
I had an opportunity to be in a meeting where President Spencer W. Kimball, then President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the visiting authority. He told of an experience of pondering for understanding which lead to a very special insight. He was reading in the third chapter of the Gospel of John where Nicodemus comes to the Savior by night. Nicodemus is thinking literally and can't grasp what the Lord means by being born again. In verse 8 the Lord says:
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
(John 3:8)
President Kimball said that he had never understood the meaning of this scripture until that particular day as he sat pondering. But he said, “Imagine sitting on a park bench on a nice sunny day. And you feel a cooling breeze across your face. You don't see any evidence of the little puff of wind in the leaves of the nearby trees. But you know that you are cooled and refreshed by something that is unseen. That is what it is like when someone who is born again receives inspiration. He or she is the only one who feels its cooling effects.”
Personal Revelation is Personal
Most of the time the messages that come in these small breezes are meant just for us. First and foremost personal revelations are personal. Only rarely should such things be shared. And we might want to ask advice from someone who is in authority over us to see if it would be appropriate to share a particular experience.
The Lord advised us to not cast our pearls before swine. This is because the swine wouldn't appreciate it. And also because they might ruin our pearls for us. One of the problems is trying to figure out who is a swine and who is not. In any given situation, no matter how righteous we are, we might all be swine when it comes to someone else's pearls.
Incorrect Answers
One of the things in this life that can really throw us for a loop is incorrectly interpreting the will of the Lord when we thought we had gone through the process to the best of our ability.
The reason we get into this situation is because the voice we are listening for is still and small. And this voice is very much like our own thoughts.
There is an order to revelation. We do not get revelation for those in authority over us. We do not get revelation for our siblings. Or our neighbors. A good guideline is the phrase: “inspiration comes from above not from the side.” We should expect revelations for ourselves and our Church and family responsibilities.
We should make sure that our answer, the one we have studied out, is a reasonable one. The Lord will not ask us to do something that doesn't fit with currently revealed truth.
One problem is that when we want something badly enough we can convince ourselves that our own idea came from the Lord.
This is why we have the previously mentioned method of confirmation of the revelation based on the Lord's teaching moment with Oliver Cowdery.
A wonderful elaboration on this method was given by Elder Richard G. Scott in April Conference of 2007. His talk is called “Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer.” In it he says:
“Some misunderstandings about prayer can be clarified by realizing that the scriptures define principles for effective prayer, but they do not assure when a response will be given. Actually, He will reply in one of three ways. First, you can feel the peace, comfort, and assurance that confirm that your decision is right. Or second, you can sense that unsettled feeling, the stupor of thought, indicating that your choice is wrong. Or third—and this is the difficult one—you can feel no response.
“What do you do when you have prepared carefully, have prayed fervently, waited a reasonable time for a response, and still do not feel an answer? You may want to express thanks when that occurs, for it is an evidence of His trust. When you are living worthily and your choice is consistent with the Savior's teachings and you need to act, proceed with trust. As you are sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit, one of two things will certainly occur at the appropriate time: either the stupor of thought will come, indicating an improper choice, or the peace or the burning in the bosom will be felt, confirming that your choice was correct. When you are living righteously and are acting with trust, God will not let you proceed too far without a warning impression if you have made the wrong decision.”
You will notice that Elder Scott leaves the door open to the possibility that we will have to make our own choice and be disappointed later when the answer comes. We need to be willing to submit to whatever teaching process that our Heavenly Father knows is for our good.
Practice
If it is so easy to get confused about the true source of our inspiration how do the leaders of the Church get good answers? I think that the explanation is two-fold:
Our leaders are people who take their responsibilities from the Lord to serve us very seriously, and they are careful to do and say only what the Lord wants.
It is easier to get inspiration about people that we are called to serve than for ourselves.
We get used to the voice of the Lord by hearing it regularly. We should pray morning and night. We should study the scriptures for at least 10 minutes every day.
And the best way to be sure it is HIS voice is by our focusing on serving others.
We should pray about those we are assigned to visit. We should pray about our families. We should pray about our work. As we wait for answers for these things outside ourselves, we practice listening for the still, small voice of the Spirit.
To know the voice of the Lord we must know Him. In Mosiah 5:13, King Benjamin says:
13 For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?
If we serve the Lord and come to know Him we will know His voice. Then it is easier to know when it is an answer from Him, whether we are prompted to help someone else or for our own situation.
As we learn to recognize his voice, the Holy Ghost will whisper things for us to do or say. The more in tune we are and the more quickly we act on these whisperings the easier it is to see the hand of the Lord in all things. Joseph Smith taught:
“A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.151; see also “Chapter 10: Prayer and Personal Revelation,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, (2007),125–34)
Revelation all of the time
I would like to take a moment to talk about living in the Spirit, having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.
When my wife and I were newly married we had struggles as all couples do. During this time a new Bishop was called. He was someone who had just moved into the ward, and no one knew him. And because he didn't know us we asked for some time to talk to him. He interviewed my wife first, then he interviewed me. One of the telling questions that he asked me was, “When was the last time you had personal revelation?” I admitted that it had been a while. But the way he asked the question had an implicit statement, “You should be having personal revelation on a regular basis.” From that time on, a goal, a seed had been planted.
The Bishop then interviewed us together and said nothing of the problems that we had mentioned to him. Instead he told us to pray together, to thank the Lord for each other, and to study the scriptures together. He said that 90 percent of those who did those things never came back to his office because they solved their own problems. What he knew is that when a couple comes together and prays with one voice for guidance they become of one mind and one heart and their differences tend to melt away.
Conclusion
General Conference starts on Saturday, April 3rd this year. And you will hear the same old boring stuff or you will hear messages just for you, depending on what you bring with you to the meeting.
Every talk will be geared toward teaching us to pray, to study the scriptures, to serve one another, . . . to believe in the Savior, who gives us hope that we can be more than we are.
Every one of the things that we will be taught is intended to reach someone and convince him or her to get back to the basics. These basics will bring us closer to God and there is nothing else that matters. In Doctrine and Covenants, Section 88 verses 63, 67-68 the Lord says:
63 Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
67 And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.
68 Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.
Notice the word "become" implies a process.
That is why the message doesn't seem to change. Because there is nothing more important to hear. Even if you have been blessed with membership in the Church for forty years it is the same as if you were baptized just yesterday.
I testify that these things are true.
May the Lord bless us to hear His voice and receive the answers that we need, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
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