Over the years, I have gathered any quotes that I come across in General Conference or in my Gospel Study time about how to understand personal revelation. I have posted some of those quotes in various posts on this blog, but I wanted to have them all in one place because I find it helps me to review them often to see how our Church leaders describe what the Holy Ghost feels like. In the past few months, President Nelson has encouraged us to study how we #HearHim.
PERSONAL REVELATION
THE IMPORTANCE OF RECEIVING REVELATION
Said President Lorenzo Snow, “This is the grand privilege of
every Latter-day Saint … that it is our right to have the manifestations of the
Spirit every day of our lives.” If we will truly receive the Holy Ghost and
learn to discern and understand His promptings, we will be guided in matters
large and small.
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.
But
in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the
guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. I
plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.
Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost
and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.
Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the
Articles of Faith, p. 253
Men ought—above all things in this
world—to seek for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There is no price too high,
no struggle too severe, no sacrifice too great, if out of it all we enjoy the
gift of the Holy Ghost.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, p. 32
There is no doubt, if a person
lives according to the revelations given to God’s people, he may have the
Spirit of the Lord to signify to him His will, and to guide and to direct him
in the discharge of his duties, in his temporal as well as his spiritual exercises. I am satisfied, however, that in this
respect, we live far beneath our privileges.
Our Father in Heaven knew that in mortality we would face
challenges, tribulation, and turmoil; He knew we would wrestle with questions,
disappointments, temptations, and weaknesses. To give us mortal strength and
divine guidance, He provided the Holy Spirit, another name for the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost binds us to the Lord. By divine assignment, He
inspires, testifies, teaches, and prompts us to walk in the light of the Lord. We have the sacred responsibility to learn
to recognize His influence in our lives and respond.
We must act on the first prompting. Remember the words of Nephi. “I was led by the Spirit, not
knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless,” he said, “I
went forth.”16 And so must we. We must be confident in our
first promptings. Sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a
spiritual impression or if it is just our own thoughts. When we begin to
second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings—and we all have—we are dismissing
the Spirit; we are questioning divine counsel. The Prophet Joseph Smith
taught that if you will listen to the first promptings, you will get it right
nine times out of ten.17
THOUGHTS TO
THE MIND
1. 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; that
is, those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will
come to pass; and thus by learning [to recognize] the Spirit of God and
understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you
become perfect in Christ Jesus." TPJS, p. 151
2. "When there
comes to you things that your mind does not know, when you have a sudden
thought that comes to your mind, if you will learn to give heed to these
things that come from the Lord, you will learn to walk by the spirit of
revelation" (Harold B. Lee, in Conference Report, Mexico City Area
Conference 1972, p. 49).
3. On one occasion in a meeting I heard President Marion G.
Romney say, "I always know when I am speaking under the inspiration of the
Holy Ghost because I always learn
something from what I've said. Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p.357
4) It is so simple
and so precise that we often pass it by, thinking that it is just our own idea
or a passing thought, not revelation.
Joseph B. Wirthlin, Finding Peace in our Lives, 174
A FEELING
OF LIGHT or DARK:
1) The Holy Ghost
is the Spirit of Truth. You feel peace,
hope, and joy when it speaks to your heart and mind that something is true.
Almost always I have also felt a
sensation of light. Any feeling I may have had of darkness is dispelled.
And the desire to do right grows. “Gifts
of the Spirit for Hard Times,“ Elder Henry B. Eyring CES Fireside 9/10/2006
2) It can come as
positive or negative feelings about how to act. Dallin H. Oaks
2) As the
elevator doors quietly opened, there stood President Joseph Fielding Smith.
There was a moment of surprise in seeing him, since his office is on a lower
floor. As I saw him framed in the doorway, there fell upon me a powerful
witness—there stands the prophet of God. That sweet voice of Spirit that is
akin to light, that has something to do with pure intelligence, affirmed to me
that this was the prophet of God. Elder Boyd K. Packer Gen Con April 1971
A THOUGHT
PRESSES ON YOUR MIND
True to the Faith: Sometimes the
Holy Ghost will help you understand a gospel truth or give you a prompting that
“seems to occupy [your] mind, and press itself upon [your] feelings” (D&C
128:1).
IN YOUR
MIND & HEART:
1) “In that revelation the Lord defined revelation: 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. [I love the combination there of
both mind and heart. God will teach us in a reasonable way and in a revelatory
way--mind and heart combined, by the Holy Ghost.] Jeffrey R. Holland "Cast Not Away
Therefore Your Confidence" BYU, 2 March 1999
2) “An impression to
the mind is very specific. Detailed
words can be heard or felt and written as though the instruction were being
dictated. A communication to the heart
is a more general impression. The Lord
often begins by giving impressions.
Where there is a recognition of their importance and they are obeyed, one
gains more capacity to receive more detailed instruction to the mind. An impression to the heart, if followed, is
fortified by a more specific instruction to the mind.” --Richard G. Scott, BYU Symposium 1998
3) The Savior defines two separate ways: "I will tell
you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost." Answers to the
mind and heart are messages from the Holy Ghost to our spirits. For me,
response to the mind is very specific, like dictated words, while response to
the heart is generalized, like a feeling to pray more.” Elder Richard G. Scott
“Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer” Ensign, May 2007
FEELINGS or
FEELING OF PEACE:
1). It is not unusual for one to have received the gift and
not really know it.
I fear this supernal
gift is being obscured by programs and activities and schedules and so many
meetings. There are so many places to go, so many things to do in this
noisy world. We can be too busy to pay
attention to the promptings of the Spirit. The voice of the Spirit is a
still, small voice—a voice that is felt rather than heard. It is a spiritual
voice that comes into the mind as a thought put into your heart. Boyd K.
Packer, Apr. 2000
2) “The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking
us with a heavy hand. Rather it whispers.
It caresses so gently, that if we
are preoccupied, we may not feel it at all.” Boyd K. Packer, Candle of the
Lord, Ensign. Jan. 83
2) “That voice of inspiration is so quiet and still that it
can be explained away. It is easy to be
disobedient to that voice. It often
takes great courage to follow it. But to
Latter-day Saints it is a clear signal.”
Boyd K Packer Let Not Your Heart be Troubled, p. 232
3) “Answers from the Lord come quietly—ever so quietly. In
fact, few hear his answers audibly with their ears. We must be listening so
carefully or we will never recognize them. Most answers from the Lord are felt
in our heart as a warm comfortable expression, or they may come as thoughts to
our mind. They come to those who are prepared and who are patient” H. Burke
Peterson, Ens. Jan 1974
4) " You must study it out in your mind; then . . . ask
me if it be right, and if it is right . . . your bosom shall burn . . . ;
therefore, you shall feel that it is right." Then
the answer comes as a feeling with an accompanying conviction. Oliver
Cowdery was taught another way in which positive answers come: "Did I not
speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?"12 The feeling of peace is the most common confirming witness that I
personally experience. When I have been very concerned about an important
matter, struggling to resolve it without success, I continued those efforts in
faith. Later, an all-pervading peace has come, settling my concerns, as He has
promised. Elder Richard G. Scott “Using
the Supernal Gift of Prayer” Ensign, May 2007
5) “When confronted with a problem I prayerfully weigh in my
mind alternative solutions and come to a conclusion as to which of them is
best. Then in prayer I submit to the Lord my problem, tell him I desire to make
the right choice, what is, in my judgment, the right course. Then I ask him if
I have made the right decision to give me the burning in my bosom that He
promised Oliver Cowdery. When
enlightenment and peace come into my mind, I know the Lord is saying yes. If I
have a ‘stupor of thought,’ I know he is saying no, and I try again, following
the same procedure. I repeat: I know
when and how the Lord answers my prayers by the way I feel” Marion G.
Romney, New Era, Oct. 1975, 34–35
6) For many it is hard to accept as revelation those
numerous ones in Moses' time, in Joseph's time, and in our own year--those
revelations which come to prophets as deep, unassailable impressions settling
down on the prophet's mind and heart as dew from heaven or as the dawn
dissipates the darkness of night.
Expecting the spectacular, one may not be fully alerted to the constant
flow of revealed communication. Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, May 1977
7) “Most often what
we have chosen to do is right. He
[Heavenly Father] will confirm the correctness of our choices His way. That confirmation generally comes through
packets of help found along the way. We
discover them by being spiritually sensitive.
They are like notes from a loving Father as evidence of His
approval. If, in trust, we begin
something which is not right, He will let us know before we have gone too
far. We sense that help by recognizing
troubled or uneasy feelings.” Richard G. Scott, Nov. 89
BURNING IN
THE BOSOM:
1) “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.
That is the witness many receive. That is the way revelation works.” Dallin H. Oaks, “Teaching and Learning by the
Spirit”, Ens. Mar. 97
2) “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;
emphasis added).
3) “This may be
one of the most important and most misunderstood teachings in all the Doctrine
and Covenants. The teachings of the
Spirit often come as feelings. That fact is of the utmost importance, yet some
misunderstand what it means. I know of persons who think they have never
had a witness from the Holy Ghost because they have never felt their bosom
“burn within” them. The burning of the bosom, I suggest, is not a feeling of
caloric heat like combustion but a
feeling of peace and warmth and serenity and goodness.” –Elder Dallin H.
Oaks, “In His Own Time, In His Own Way.”
2) “His word will come into my mind through my thoughts,
accompanied by a feeling in the region of my bosom. It is a feeling which
cannot be described, but the nearest word we have is “burn” or “burning.”
Accompanying this always is a feeling of peace.” S. Dilworth Young, “The Still
Small Voice,” Ensign, May 1976
3) “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.” This burning in the bosom is not purely a physical sensation. It is more like a warm light shining within
your being. Describing the
promptings from the Holy Ghost to one who has not had them is very difficult.
Such promptings are personal and strictly private! Boyd K. Packer, “Personal
Revelation” Ensign, Nov 1994
VOICE IN
YOUR MIND
Just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving
you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.” --Pres. Henry B. Eyring,
2007 “O Remember, Remember”
Now I know, my brothers and sisters and friends, and bear
witness to the fact that revelation from the Lord comes through the spoken
word, by personal visitation, by messengers from the Lord, through dreams, and
by way of visions, and by the voice of the Lord coming into one’s mind. Most
often, however, revelation comes to us by means of the still, small voice.
Marion G. Romney, “Prayer and Revelation,” Ensign, May 1978, 48
https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-harold-b-lee/chapter-6?lang=eng
Another way by which we receive revelation was spoken of by
the prophet Enos. He pens this very significant statement in his record in the
Book of Mormon: “And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the
voice of the Lord came into my mind. …” [Enos 1:10.]
In other words, sometimes we hear the voice of the Lord
coming into our minds, and when it comes, the impressions are just as strong as
though He were sounding a trumpet in our ear. …
In a story in the Book of Mormon, Nephi upbraids his
brothers, calling them to repentance, and gives voice to the same thought when
he says: “… and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were
past feeling, that ye could not feel his words. …” (1 Nephi 17:45.)
Thus the Lord, by
revelation, brings thoughts into our minds as though a voice were speaking.
STUPOR OF
THOUGHT
Answers to the mind and heart are messages from the Holy
Ghost to our spirits. For me, response to the mind is very specific, like
dictated words, while response to the heart is generalized, like a feeling to
pray more.10 Then the Lord clarifies,
"But if [what you propose] be not right you . . . shall have a stupor of
thought."11 That, for me, is an
unsettling, discomforting feeling.
Elder Richard G. Scott “Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer” Ensign, May
2007
LINE UPON
LINE – Incremental
“Many of us typically assume we will receive an answer or a prompting to
our earnest prayers and pleadings. And we also frequently expect that such an
answer or a prompting will come immediately and all at
once. Thus, we tend to believe the Lord will give us A BIG ANSWER QUICKLY AND ALL AT
ONE TIME. However, the pattern repeatedly described in the
scriptures suggests we receive ‘line upon line, precept upon precept,’ or in
other words, many small answers over a period of time. Recognizing
and understanding this pattern is an important key to obtaining inspiration and
help from the Holy Ghost.”
“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” Elder
Boyd K. Packer “Prayers and Answers,” Ensign, Nov. 1979
HOW TO INCREASE RECEIVING REVELATION
I know that
good inspiration is based upon good information.
Find a quiet
place where you can regularly go. Humble yourself before God. Pour out your
heart to your Heavenly Father. Turn to Him for answers and for comfort. Pray in
the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes,
the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come
to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are
prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month,
year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.”
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,14
and regular time committed to temple and family history work.
SOMETIMES THE LORD WANTS US TO ACT ON OUR OWN
“We
should study things out in our minds, using the reasoning powers our Creator
has placed within us. Then we should pray for guidance and act upon it if we
receive it. If we do not receive guidance, we should act upon our best judgment.”
RECORD YOUR PROMPTINGS TO RECEIVE MORE
Pray
in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your
weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the
thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with
actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after
day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of
revelation.”
AVOID THE DISTRACTIONS
OF THE WORLD
