Faith to receive revelation

Since 2011, it has been traditional to include my sacrament meeting talks on this blog. Here is the one I gave today, January 27, 2019.

I want to make sure I don't go ever so I give enough time to the elders quorum teacher. But that's me, so it doesn't matter.

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we value revelation. Our church began because a teenager asked a question and received an answer. Today, we are encouraged to receive personal revelation to receive our own testimony. Revelation is one of the fundamental parts of our religion. But in order to receive revelation, we need to have faith that we can receive it.

As I thought about examples of receiving revelation in the scriptures, I thought of Oliver Cowdery, who was serving as scribe with the translation of the Book of Mormon. He wanted to do some translating himself. As he prepared to translate, the Lord revealed Doctrine and Covenants 8: “Behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.”[1] But there was a caveat: “Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith.”[2]

Oliver’s attempt to translate did not go well. In response, the Lord revealed Doctrine and Covenants 9: “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.”[3] Not only is faith required, but so is action on our part.

As I was preparing for this talk, I found a quote from Elder Boyd K. Packer, which he delivered in a BYU devotional way back in 1975. It’s a little long and dated, but he has some good insights. He said:

Now, about revelation. We have all been taught that revelation is available to each of us individually. The question I’m most often asked about revelation is, “How do I know when I have received it? I’ve prayed about it and fasted over this problem and prayed about it and prayed about it, and I still don’t quite know what to do. How can I really tell whether I’m being inspired so I won’t make a mistake?” 

First, do you go to the Lord with a problem and ask Him to make your decision for you? Or do you work, read the revelations, and meditate and pray and then make a decision yourself? Measure the problem against what you know to be right and wrong, and then make the decision. Then ask Him if the decision is right or if it is wrong. Remember what He said to Oliver Cowdery about working it out in your mind.

Then he continued with an interesting insight:

I think I should mention one other thing, and I hope this won’t be misunderstood. We often find young people who will pray with great exertion over matters that they are free to decide for themselves. Suppose, if you will, that a couple had money available to build a house. [This is how we know this is an old talk.] Suppose they had prayed endlessly over whether they should build an Early American style, a ranch style, modern style architecture, or perhaps a Mediterranean style. Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps the Lord just plain doesn’t care? Let them build what they want to build. It’s their choice. In many things we can do just what we want.
 Now, there are some things he cares about very much. If you’re going to build that house, then be honest and pay for the material that goes into it and do a decent job of building it. When you move into it, live righteously in it. Those are the things that count.
 On occasions I’ve had to counsel people that the Lord would probably quite willingly approve the thing they intend to do even when they want to. It’s strange when they come and almost feel guilty about doing something because they want to, even when it’s righteous. The Lord is very generous with the freedom He gives us. The more we learn to follow the right, the more we are spiritually self-reliant, the more our freedom and our independence are affirmed. “If ye continue in my word,” he said, “then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31–32.)[4]

A long time ago, I was a missionary. I was in my hardest area, Hayden, Idaho, and the work was really difficult. Our investigators kept falling off, and the area was small, so it was frequently tracted out, both by us and by other denominations, so people were very quick to shut us down and didn’t want to talk to us. One day during personal study, I decided that I would really seek revelation on what I could do to help the area. I made my prayer a little more careful that morning, and I spent the personal study hour combing through the area books. I don’t know if missionaries still use area books; iPads weren’t released until I was home from my mission, but an area book is a binder full of teaching records, potential investigator lists, ward directories, and other documents. I hoped that in looking through the area book, a name would stick out to me. That didn’t happen.

However, that night I had a dream that I was in the house of a recent convert in a previous area, but the people who lived in the house were recent converts from a different area. That dream itself didn’t tell me what I should do, but the idea came to me: I should work with recent converts in this difficult area. So we began reaching out to recent converts and spending more time with them.

I can’t say anything dramatic happened, but the area definitely improved after that. I believe it was revelation. But I had to have faith to receive revelation before I got it. And it wasn’t enough simply to ask and go about my day; I was blessed with revelation because I was actively seeking an answer, even though the answer didn’t come in the way I expected it.

Years later, I was in college. (Again, that was a long time ago.) I had an internship at BYU Studies, an academic journal. One of my tasks was to write abstracts, or summaries, of older articles from back-issues of the journal. I was working on one batch of articles from the 1970s that were written by Hugh Nibley about the book of Abraham. In one of these articles, he praised the work of one Dee Jay Nelson, saying that the Latter-day Saints owed him a great debt of gratitude. I wrote that in my abstract, and I was done with it, ready to submit it to my supervisor. But something bothered me about it. I felt that I needed to do more research, which I didn't usually do for my other abstracts. As I began researching, I learned that the Latter-day Saints did not owe a great debt of gratitude to Dee Jay Nelson. He turned out to be an enemy to the Church. But even worse, he was a total fraud. He claimed to have a PhD, but his PhD was just a slip of paper from a company that would send fake degrees in the mail. I think BYU Studies planned to put it in an ebook, but I was able to flag the article as unreliable and outdated.

In that case, I wasn’t actively seeking revelation. But it came to me, and I had the faith to act on the prompting I received.

These are just experiences that I have had, but it won’t always be the same for you or for me. Elder Richard G. Scott said, “I am convinced that there is no simple formula or technique that would immediately allow you to master the ability to be guided by the voice of the Spirit. Our Father expects you to learn how to obtain that divine help by exercising faith in Him and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Were you to receive inspired guidance just for the asking, you would become weak and ever more dependent on Them. They know that essential personal growth will come as you struggle to learn how to be led by the Spirit.”[5]

The examples I shared from my own life are a bit more dramatic and obvious. But I believe that most of the time, our revelation comes more subtly and even incrementally. But that doesn’t mean we should become complacent in our ability to receive revelation. Last April, President Nelson instructed us:

I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” . . .
 Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.
 To be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient, expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek. Every blessing the Lord has for you—even miracles—will follow. That is what personal revelation will do for you.[6]

I will have you know that President Nelson is speaking in my home ward, but I couldn’t go because I am giving this talk. You’re welcome.

I know that as we exercise faith to receive revelation, we will receive it to strengthen our faith and to make wise decisions. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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[1] Doctrine and Covenants 8:2.

[2] Doctrine and Covenants 8:10.

[3] Doctrine and Covenants 9:7–8.

[4] Boyd K. Packer, “Self-Reliance,” Ensign, August 1975.

[5] Richard G. Scott, “To Acquire Spiritual Guidance,” Ensign, November 2009.

[6] Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign, May 2018.