“This Is the Spirit of Revelation”

Lesson 5 D&C 6, 8, 9, Joseph Smith—History 1:8-17

This lesson should help us prepare to receive personal revelation.

“God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 149)

• The Lord does not require us to be prophets to receive revelation. We will not receive revelation to guide the Church, but we will receive personal revelation to guide our choices in life and to give us personal knowledge that will help us understand the gospel and gospel principles.

Personal revelation is a great blessing in our lives:

• The Lord communicates with us
• The heavens are open to us as we seek the truth

“No one of us can survive in the world of today, much less in what it soon will become, without personal inspiration.” – Elder Boyd K. Packer (Ensign, Nov. 1991, 23)

Personal revelation and inspiration are important for us because:

• Revelation is the way we receive our testimony of the Savior, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Church.
• It allows us to learn divine truths
• It allows us to receive guidance and to understand answers to life’s challenges and difficult choices.

Consider the personal benefits for you in receiving personal revelations.

The D&C teaches us how to prepare ourselves for revelations.

References:

D&C 9:8 and Joseph Smith—History 1:8-10 teaches us to study matters out in our own minds

• Practice serious reflection
• Reflect upon your feelings
• Gather knowledge that is available
• Invest time and effort in your study
• Actively study the scriptures
• Seek the answer for as long as it takes…do not set a time limit on heavenly knowledge and inspiration
• Use your agency properly

D&C 138: 1-11; Joseph Smith—History 1:11-12

• Elder Dallin H. Oaks: “Scripture reading may…lead to current revelation on whatever [subject] the Lord wishes to communicate to the reader at that time. We do not overstate the point when we say that the scriptures can be a Urim and Thummim to assist each of us to receive personal revelation. Because we believe that scripture reading can help us receive revelation, we are encouraged to read the scriptures again and again. By this means, we obtain access to what our Heavenly Father would have us know and do in our personal lives today. That is one reason Latter-day Saints believe in daily scripture study.” (Ensign, Jan. 1995, 8)

D&C 6:5, 14; 8:1; 42:61; 88:63-64 teaches us to inquire of the Lord in faith and believe that you will receive.

• Elder Boyd K. Packer: “No message appears in scripture more times, in more ways than ’Ask, and ye shall receive’” (Ensign Nov. 1991, 21)
• President Spencer W. Kimball: “Do you offer a few trite words and worn-out phrases, or do you talk intimately to the Lord? Do you pray occasionally when you should be praying regularly, often, constantly?…When you pray, do you just speak, or do you also listen?…Do you give thanks or merely ask for favors?” (New Era, Mar. 1978, 17)
• D&C 8:1 Ask “with an honest heart”

- Honestly seek to understand the Lord’s will

- Ask only those things that are in accordance with the Lord’s will

- Be sure your motives are pure

- Be sure that you are repentant

• Joseph Smith—History 1: 13-16 teaches us some important lessons about prayer

- Pray vocally

- Kneel in humility

- Be sincere and speak from the heart

- Exert all your powers in calling upon Heavenly Father

• D&C 6:14; 42:61 contain promises from the Lord

- We can receive instruction of the Spirit

- We can receive revelation and knowledge, know mysteries, and peaceable things and have joy

• D&C 63:23; 76:5-10; 93:1, 28; 101:7-8 teaches us to be obedient and serve our Heavenly Father

- Elder Dallin H. Oaks: “The way to revelation is righteousness.” (The Lords’ Way,[1991], 34)

- He also taught “We cannot have the companionship of the Holy Ghost—the medium of individual revelation—if we are angry or if we are in rebellion against God’s chosen authorities” (Ensign, Mar. 1997)

• D&C 5:24; 19:23; 112:10; 136:32-33 teaches us to be meek and humble

- David Whitmer recalled this about one morning when Joseph Smith was preparing to resume translating the Book of Mormon: “…something went wrong about the house and he was put out about it. Something that Emma, his wife, had done. Oliver and I went upstairs and Joseph came up soon after to continue the translation but he could not do anything. He could not translate a single syllable. He went downstairs, out into the orchard, and made supplication to the Lord; was gone about an hour—came back to the house, and asked Emma’s forgiveness and then came upstairs where we were and the the translation went on all right. He could do nothing save he were humble and faithful” (quoted in B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:131).

• D&C 25:10; 30:2 teaches us to focus on the things of God rather than worldly concerns.

- Elder Boyd K. Packer: “Inspiration comes more easily in peaceful settings. Such words as quiet, still, peaceable, Comforter abound in the scriptures… The world grows increasingly noisy. Clothing and grooming and conduct are looser and sloppier and more disheveled. Raucous music, with obscene lyrics blasted through amplifiers while lights flash psychedelic colors, characterizes the drug culture. Variations o fthese things are gaining wide acceptance and influence over our youth… This trend to more noise, more excitement, more contention, less restraint, less dignity, less formality is not coincidental nor innocent nor harmless. The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer. Irreverence suits the purposes of the adversary by obstructing the delicate channels of revelation in both mind and spirit” (Ensign, Nov. 1991, 21-22)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: “Divine guidance is so crucial…that we need to go out of our way to put ourselves in a situation in which such special help can be given.” May we remember that as we seek personal revelation.