Doctrine & Covenants Lesson # 6
“I Will Tell You in Your Mind and in Your Heart, by the Holy Ghost”
Please take this quick survey (7 questions and you can skip any of them you don't have time for) about revelation before class:
https://goo.gl/forms/jHbQq6yy9e4BjwiR2
It is anonymous and more to help you think about where you are at and what your questions are.
I remember one Sunday in primary, I was probably about 9 years old. We were having a lesson on the gift of the holy ghost. Our teacher asked us what the spirit felt like. I raised my hand and tried to describe it. The best way I could think to describe it was by saying that it felt like warm goosebumps.
In Doctrine and Covenants 9:8-9 it says:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/
The First Presidency said:
It is anonymous and more to help you think about where you are at and what your questions are.
I remember one Sunday in primary, I was probably about 9 years old. We were having a lesson on the gift of the holy ghost. Our teacher asked us what the spirit felt like. I raised my hand and tried to describe it. The best way I could think to describe it was by saying that it felt like warm goosebumps.
This week we are going to be focusing on what the spirit feels like, how we can recognize answers from God, and even how to ask the right questions.
Elder Oaks gave a talk in 2004 about personal revelation. He talked about 8 ways in which we can receive it.
Search your own experience. You have already received revelations, and you can receive more revelations because communication from God to men and women is a reality. President Lorenzo Snow (1814–1901) declared that it is “the grand privilege of every Latter-day Saint … to have the manifestations of the spirit every day of our lives.”
As I review the following eight purposes of revelation, I hope you will recognize the extent to which you have already received revelation or inspiration and resolve to cultivate this spiritual gift for more frequent use in the future.
1. The testimony or witness of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ and that the gospel is true is a revelation from God.
When the Apostle Peter affirmed that Jesus Christ was the Son of the living God, the Savior called him blessed, “for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17).
2. Prophecy is another purpose or function of revelation.
Speaking under the influence of the Holy Ghost and within the limits of his or her responsibility, a person may be inspired to predict what will come to pass in the future. The one who holds the office of the prophet, seer, and revelator prophesies for the Church, as when Joseph Smith prophesied concerning the American Civil War (see D&C 87) and foretold that the Saints would become a mighty people in the Rocky Mountains. Prophecy is part of the calling of a patriarch. Each of us is also privileged occasionally to receive prophetic revelation illuminating future events in our lives, like a Church calling we are to receive.
3. A third purpose of revelation is to give comfort.
Such a revelation came to the Prophet Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. After many months in deplorable conditions, he cried out in agony and loneliness, pleading for the Lord to remember him and the persecuted Saints. The comforting answer came:
“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes” (D&C 121:7–8).
In that same revelation the Lord declared that no matter what tragedies or injustices should befall the Prophet, “Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7).
A revelation of comfort can also come in connection with a blessing of the priesthood, either from the words spoken or simply from the feeling communicated in connection with the blessing.
Another type of comforting revelation is the assurance received that a sin has been forgiven. This revelation, which comes when a person has completed all the steps of repentance, gives assurance that the price has been paid, that God has heard the repentant sinner, and that his or her sins are forgiven.
4. Closely related to the feeling of comfort is the fourth purpose or function of revelation, to uplift.
At some time in our lives each of us needs to be lifted up from a depression, from a sense of foreboding or inadequacy, or just from a plateau of spiritual mediocrity. Because it raises our spirits and helps us resist evil and seek good, I believe that the feeling of uplift that is communicated by reading the scriptures or by enjoying wholesome music, art, or literature is a distinct purpose of revelation.
5. The fifth purpose of revelation is to inform.
This may consist of inspiration giving a person the words to speak on a particular occasion, such as in the blessings pronounced by a patriarch or in sermons or other words spoken under the influence of the Holy Ghost. The Lord commanded Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon to lift up their voices and speak the thoughts that would be put into their hearts, “for it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say” (D&C 100:6; see also D&C 84:85; D&C 124:97).
In other circumstances, needed information is communicated by the quiet whisperings of the Spirit. A child loses a treasured possession, prays for help, and is inspired to find it; an adult has a problem at work, at home, or in family history research, prays, and is led to the information necessary to resolve it; a Church leader prays to know whom the Lord would have him call to fill a position, and the Spirit whispers a name. In all of these examples, familiar to each of us, the Holy Ghost acts in His office as a teacher and revelator, communicating information and truths for the edification and guidance of the recipient.
6. The sixth type or purpose of revelation is to restrain us from doing something.
The revelation that restrains is one of the most common forms of revelation. It often comes by surprise, when we have not asked for revelation or guidance on a particular subject. But if we are keeping the commandments of God and living in tune with His Spirit, a restraining force will steer us away from things we should not do.
7. A common way to seek revelation is to propose a particular course of action and then to pray for inspiration to confirm it.
The Lord explained the confirming type of revelation when Oliver Cowdery failed in his efforts to translate the Book of Mormon:
“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.
“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” (D&C 9:7–8).
Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stressed our responsibility to do all that we can before we seek a revelation: “We’re expected to use the gifts and talents and abilities, the sense and judgment and agency with which we are endowed. … We’re expected to do everything in our power that we can, and then to seek an answer from the Lord, a confirming seal that we’ve reached the right conclusion.”
8. The eighth purpose or type of revelation consists of those instances where the Spirit impels a person to action.Have you felt revelation in any of these ways before? I say felt instead of heard because of what Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve taught:
This is not a case where a person proposes to take a particular action and the Spirit either confirms or restrains. This is a case where revelation comes when it is not being sought and impels some action not proposed. This type of revelation is obviously less common than other types, but its rarity makes it all the more significant.
These delicate, refined spiritual communications are not seen with our eyes nor heard with our ears. And even though it is described as a voice, it is a voice that one feels more than one hears (That All May Be Edified [1982], 335).
Well how do we feel it?
In Doctrine and Covenants 9:8-9 it says:
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.What does a burning in the bosom feel like? President Boyd K. Packer explained:
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.
This burning in the bosom is not purely a physical sensation. It is more like a warm light shining within your being (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 77; or Ensign, Nov. 1994, 60).
Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:
I have met persons who told me they have never had a witness from the Holy Ghost because they have never felt their bosom ‘burn within’ them. What does a ‘burning in the bosom’ mean? Does it need to be a feeling of caloric heat, like the burning produced by combustion? If that is the meaning, I have never had a burning in the bosom. Surely, the word ‘burning’ in this scripture signifies a feeling of comfort and serenity (Ensign,Mar. 1997, 13).I love the phrase, 'stupor of thought.' Have you ever felt that before?
When does revelation come? Elder Richard G. Scott said:
“When we seek inspiration to help make decisions, the Lord gives gentle promptings. These require us to think, to exercise faith, to work, to struggle at times, and to act. Seldom does the whole answer to a decisively important matter or complex problem come all at once. More often, it comes a piece at a time, without the end in sight” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1989, 40; or Ensign, Nov. 1989, 32).Elder Boyd K. Packer said:
“Sometimes you may struggle with a problem and not get an answer. What could be wrong? It may be that you are not doing anything wrong. It may be that you have not done the right things long enough. Remember, you cannot force spiritual things. Sometimes we are confused simply because we won’t take no for an answer. …I love this quote by Sister Patricia Holland (Elder Holland's wife find her full talk here:
“Put difficult questions in the back of your minds and go about your lives. Ponder and pray quietly and persistently about them.
“The answer may not come as a lightning bolt. It may come as a little inspiration here and a little there, ‘line upon line, precept upon precept’ (D&C 98:12).
“Some answers will come from reading the scriptures, some from hearing speakers. And, occasionally, when it is important, some will come by very direct and powerful inspiration. The promptings will be clear and unmistakable” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1979, 29–30; or Ensign, Nov. 1979, 21).
https://www.lds.org/ensign/
For me, prayer is the key to the first box. We kneel to ask help for our tasks and then arise to find that the first lock is now open. But this ought not to seem just a convenient and contrived miracle, for if we are to search for real light and eternal certainties, we have to pray as the ancients prayed. We are women now, not children, and we are expected to pray with maturity. The words most often used to describe urgent, prayerful labor are wrestle, plead, cry, and hunger. In some sense, prayer may be the hardest work we ever will engage in, and perhaps it should be. It is pivotal protection against becoming so involved with worldly possessions and honors and status that we no longer desire to undertake the search for our soul.We are going to be going into these concepts more in class, but there is one more aspect of personal revelation I wanted to cover. We need to be careful. We need to make sure it is coming from the right source and a red flag that Joseph Smith taught about was:
It is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the Church, or any one, to receive instruction for those in authority, higher than themselves (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 21).
The First Presidency said:
When … inspiration conveys something out of harmony with the accepted revelations of the Church or contrary to the decisions of its constituted authorities, Latter-day Saints may know that it is not of God, no matter how plausible it may appear. … Anything at discord with that which comes from God through the head of the Church is not to be received as authoritative or reliable (in James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [1965–75], 4:285).I am so excited to help you with your personal revelation on Sunday. Please come prepared so you can have the faith that you will receive the help that you need in class!
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