For the next couple of weeks, the lessons in Gospel Doctrine discuss personal revelation and the Holy Ghost. As I have prepared to teach this week, I have gotten a bit sidetracked with some thoughts that I decided to share with you.
Over the past few years, I have noticed several of our church leaders mention the idea that, as members, or priesthood holders, we are “living beneath our privileges.” (Holland, Uchtdorf, Wirthlin)
I was thinking of how this idea applied to our interaction with the Holy Ghost, and stumbled upon this quote by Elder Joseph Wirthlin: “I fear that some members of the Lord’s Church live far beneath our privileges with regard to the Holy Ghost.” (Link) I couldn’t agree more – and it is always nice to let an Apostle make your point for you.
Part of the great Plan of Happiness entails that the Holy Ghost would be available to help us through this mortal existence. His role is to testify of truth, to guide us, to comfort us, and myriad other things. Having the Holy Ghost with us is so important that God made this quest the key part of our weekly Sunday worship. God wants us to always have His Spirit to be with us.
But as I study and learn more about the Holy Ghost, the more I believe that we sometimes limit ourselves, and make it harder than it needs to be to receive personal revelation from the Spirit- we live beneath our privileges.
And here is where I need to be careful: I believe that our focus on some of the most important events and scriptures from the Restoration can actually get in our way as we seek Divine guidance. No, I am not a heretic – but I would like to talk about three deeply ingrained teachings that should, perhaps, be taught with an asterisk.
1) A Burning in Your Bosom.
When Oliver Cowdery was given an opportunity to translate the Book of Mormon, the Lord told him that the way he would know that things were correct would be that he would feel a “burning in his bosom.” Here is the scripture from Doctrine & Covenants 9:8.
“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.”
This sensation of a burning in his bosom was, and is, a sign from the Holy Ghost for many people, including Oliver Cowdery – but not for everyone. Many people experience the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in completely different ways. Joseph Smith called it “peace and joy.” Others feel a calmness, or an infusion of pure intelligence. Some feel goosebumps, others butterflies.
I have learned over the years that the way the Holy Ghost manifested himself to Oliver Cowdery is not the way he communicates with me. Although it has happened to me on occasion, the sensations I feel would rarely be described as a burning.
Here’s my worry: If we are looking for a burning, and only a burning, we might completely ignore what feelings the Holy Ghost is sharing with us. One of the more important things we can do in this life is to recognize what the Spirit feels like to each of us, and become familiar with it – or we might spend our lives in search of a burning that might not ever come.
2) Joseph found his answer in the sacred grove.
I testify to you that this is true, and that it actually happened in 1820. The heavens were parted, and God the Father and Jesus Christ personally visited Joseph Smith in answer to his prayer. I am even loath to call it a “vision,” for it was actually a visitation.
We have heard many times that we need to have a quiet place of reflection – our personal “Sacred Grove” – where we can seek the Lord and personal revelation. This is true, but not always applicable.
Sometimes that inspiration needs to come when we are sitting around the dinner table, or at a Board meeting, or driving a kid to school, or when our hands are placed on someone’s head. Sometimes we need the guidance of the Spirit at the most inopportune times – and we can’t always make a run for the grove, or our closet.
My fear is that sometimes we limit ourselves by assuming that the only time we can receive answers to our prayers is when we are in a place of solitude, on a mountain top, or in the temple. The Lord wants us to have His Spirit with us always – not only when it is geographically convenient.
3) Joseph found his answer on his knees.
True. Joseph did find many answers on his knees, but I imagine he found many when he wasn’t kneeling as well. In my personal experience, I don’t get much inspiration when I’m on my knees. There was a point many years ago that this used to bother me – even to the point where I asked a leader about it. I was a young Elder’s Quorum President, serving an exploding quorum of over 140 elders. I was in a PPI with my Stake President and expressed concern that I didn’t feel like I was getting the answers I needed as I was seeking guidance through prayer. My wise Stake President made a simple comment that solved my dilemma – and I was happy to hear Elder Dallin Oaks say the exact same thing years later:
“Revelation comes when we are on the move.” (link)
Amen to that.
Life is constantly moving, and we should be anxiously engaged. It is not feasible, nor expected, that we remain indefinitely on our knees until we get the answers we seek. If that were the case, precious little would ever get done.
Of course kneeling in prayer is one of the key tenets of our faith, but it is not the only time and place to receive personal revelation. I fear is that sometimes we underestimate the Spirit’s ability to reach us under any circumstance. For example have been taught many times that we are more apt to receive revelation while immersed in the scriptures. Some have gone as far as to say, “We ask the Lord through prayer, He answers us through the scriptures.” I wouldn’t go that far, but you get the idea.
Sometimes we need inspiration and don’t even know it. Elder Richard G. Scott said:
“Impressions of the Spirit can come in response to urgent prayer, or unsolicited when needed. Sometimes the Lord reveals truth to you when you are not actively seeking it, such as when you are in danger and do not know it.” (link)
I would be curious to know what places each of you are more apt to receive personal revelation that would not be considered “normal.” At the risk of being ridiculed, I will share one of mine: Mowing the lawn. For some reason, as I am walking back and forth pushing the lawn mower, I have a clarity of mind, and an increased accessibility to promptings of the Spirit. Maybe it’s the drone of the engine, or maybe because I can’t hear or speak, or maybe because I am now accustomed to that process. Whatever the reason, it works for me – and I’m not on my knees.
There is so much to learn about personal revelation, and I need to study it more. I am more convinced than ever that many of us live “beneath our privileges” in regards to our communication with the Spirit. I do know that God wants us to be familiar with the voice of the Spirit, and learn to rely on it, and I hope that we can understand that each of us are unique in how that happens.
–one more thing–
As I was studying, I came across a wonderful story by the Apostle D. Todd Christofferson that touches on these subjects. It is from an article in the New Era where he answers questions about prayer. (link)
We ought to remember we don’t dictate to God the timing of His answers to us and the content of what comes in response to our prayers. I learned this when I was about 16. I was in the pageant at Hill Cumorah. I lived in New Jersey at the time, and they had some of the youth from New Jersey and New York as participants. I thought I had a deep belief in the ProphetJoseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and felt that they were true and that the First Vision was as he described it. I thought, “This is the perfect chance. I’ll go to the Sacred Grove one night after the performance and get the final confirmation I need there.”
So I did. I went there late one night. It was a beautiful summer evening. Nobody else was there—perfectly reverent and peaceful. And I prayed. I didn’t ask for anything specific. I just said, “Can I have some confirmation of my belief?” Really I wanted a testimony of my feeling about the Prophet and the Book of Mormon.
Nothing happened. I prayed a long time—I’m sure more than an hour. Nothing. I was really disappointed. I said, “What did I do wrong? Why didn’t the Lord answer me? Wasn’t it the perfect place, the perfect time? What should I have done that I didn’t do?”
Later, what I was looking for came, but it was at home in a quiet moment when I was reading the Book of Mormon. That witness from the Holy Ghost flooded over me, and I knew. I knew I knew. And when I looked back on the experience, I said, “Why didn’t He answer my prayer then? Why was it later?” I learned two important lessons from that:
First, you don’t have to be any place special for the Lord to answer your prayer. You don’t have to make a pilgrimage to Palmyra or Jerusalem or anything like that. He knows where you are. He knows your name. He can answer you right here, right now, any moment.
And second, you don’t dictate to God. You just don’t tell Him what and when. That comes according to His will and His timing and His wisdom. He loves us; He knows what’s best for us, and our job is to be open. Our job is always to be willing and ready to receive. Then He knows what’s best and when to answer us and how to answer us. So, after all is said and done, we still have to live by faith.
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A while back, I came to the conclusion that the Lord speaks to me through his timing. When I “coincidentally” bump up against the same thing from different sources and in different arenas in a short span of time, I think it’s time to really pay attention; that maybe the Spirit is trying to tell me something.
It’s funny that you spoke of the young man who sought his answer to prayer in the Sacred Grove. I am a convert who KNEW Spencer W. Kimball was a TRUE PROPHET OF GOD; but I only knew Joseph Smith was a Prophet because he HAD to be in order for Pres. Kimball to be. It was an “Intellectual” knowledge. I prayed for that “BURNING” knowledge everyone talked about… for 11 years. I had decided He would reveal this to me when it was time but for now I was fine just knowing he was a Prophet because he HAD to be one. So, 11 years after I was baptized, in 1988, my husband took our son & I to Palmyra, NY. Without going into details that are too sacred to me, He revealed to me & my family, that Joseph Smith IS a Prophet & the one who restored the Gospel. I had MY “Brother Joseph!”
I wanted to thank you for the post. I remember sitting in a meeting once and being chastised because I “obviously wasn’t feeling the Spirit enough” because I was the only one who didn’t tear up during a church film. For the record I had been quietly (and dry-eyed) reflecting on the film and was feeling the quiet warmth I often feel from the Spirit. I think it is important to recognize that the Spirit speaks to each of us differently.
Thanks for your post! I am teaching this Sunday and have been tossing around many of the same thoughts. Thanks for organizing my head for me 🙂
I can honestly say that I’ve never gotten an answer to a prayer inside the temple. I’m ok with that. I do get answers, but they seem to come to me when I’m using my agency the best way I can. Also, and I’m surprised no one has mentioned it, I get many answers from my EC. I have more faith in her ability to get answers than my own. When we pray together for something, even if it is mainly for my benefit, she often receives the answer. I’m ok with that too. I often think most of my blessings are more for her benefit than my own anyway.
I find when I am working with my hands my mind is free to ponder. Such as when I am doing the dishes or crocheting.
Example: Last May I was doing the dishes and thinking about the disadvantaged children my husband had seen in the ER recently when I realized that I was being selfish for not thinking about having more children. How could I deny a spirit child of God a home where he/she would be taught the gospel? Where she would be loved and taught how to reach her potential? There are so many children being born in homes where they will not have the gospel, and I felt very strongly that I needed to get comfortable with the idea of adding to my family. I hadn’t been thinking about having more kids, I was overwhelmed with one. But the Lord needed to prepare me to bring another spirit to this earth, and quickly.
A month later I had another experience where I was praying and thanking my Father for the blessings he has given me, and suddenly knew that there was a spirit waiting to join my family. It wasn’t something I was searching for, but the Lord made it known to me quite plainly that it was time. I was pregnant two months later.
I believe that when we are obedient and open our hearts and minds the Lord will inspire us in whatever situation will allow His message to reach us.
Thannk you. My Sunday School class spent much of January (youth Sunday School topic: The Godhead) trying to better understand the Holy Ghost and how to recognize His influence.
I feel very blessed that by the time I left home, I knew how the Spirit spoke to me, and that was the one main thing I felt I needed to teach our own children. It was great to have that decision confirmed by Sister Beck in general conference a few years ago. (“The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.” — April 2010 general conference) So, a lot of our family night lessons were geared to helping them learn that skill.
Most of the time I receive inspiration while reading the scriptures or general conference talks and praying, but I often hear the Spirit speak to me while weeding in the yard, washing dishes, ironing, talking with family and friends, and even in the middle of the night. Music is wonderful as well, and in fact it was while singing or listening to hymns as a teenager that I first realized I had a testimony and learned how the Spirit spoke to me.
Great post! I would like to add something to this. So many members of the church think that when they pray to get a testimony, that it will come in one big fell swoop. My experience is that more often it comes in little drops that fill our testimony “bucket” one drop at a time. We may not have one all consuming moment when we receive our testimony. Instead, we may feel the Spirit as we sing a hymn, or as we listen to a talk, read the scriptures, or bear our testimony. Too many people expect one moment of angels singing, when instead it may be many moments of the spirit whispering.
Amen to all of this. And in answer to your question, I get a lot of answers or personal revelation early in the morning when I’m in the shower, but I think the key is being willing to hear at any time, and recognizing when you do hear.
I had the same experience As Elder Christofferson. At youth conferences and my mission. It seemed I was trying too hard when the Spirit was testifying and revealing to me all along in other ways and other times. I recognize that now but it was painful back then.
I used to get answers running but it seems now I’m either worrying about a dog, stroller or treadmill so not As often now. Lately I’ve received many answers, reminders or revelations at church and I am loving it! It doesn’t seem to matter how little I may be able to listen to sacrament talks or whether the lesson is amazing or mediocre, somehow I am hearing the Spirit and I am loving it!
I had the thought as I read your take on Joseph finding his answer in the sacred grove that maybe we focus on verses 15-17 in JS-History too much and not enough on verses 11-12? Yes, Joseph received a visitation in answer to his vocal prayer in the sacred grove, but I think we forget that he received a very powerful spiritual prompting to his ongoing “serious reflection and great uneasiness” while simply reading his scriptures. I think frequently we receive answers when we are least expecting it-although we are simply in tune to the spirit at that moment. Which for me means that I need to do better at being in tune more on purpose than by accident 🙂
Tom
before I read your sentence about when you receive revelation, I thought of mine and had to laugh when yours was just as mundane as mine.
Mine come while driving the car or sitting with one of my children on my lap and the like.
Great post. I have been thinking some of those same thoughts lately. I’ve been re-reading the book by President Eyring “Drawing Closer to God” where he states that “..we need to learn how to call blessings down from Heaven”. As I have pondered what that means, I have been thinking of certain blessings included in the Temple, or blessings included in taking the sacrament. If all we did was concentrated on accessing those blessings, we would be so blessed.
Also, I generally don’t get answers on my knees. It comes through scripture study, pondering or counsel from someone else. Even sometimes from MMM’s blog. So, thank you. 🙂
The issue I commonly have with personal revelation is not getting it, it is doing it anyway despite opposition from family members to not do as I ave just been instructed. Everything from my mental stability to my worthiness has been attacked to stop me from making the right decisions that are clear instructions from the Lord and have led to not only important progress for the church but import healing within our family. All I can do is just keep focused.
I was worried about being “ridiculed”….to quote you…….but thankfully it looks like I’m not the only one who receives most of my personal inspiration or revelations in the shower. It’s my most quiet “think tank” I’ve got around here and usually about 2:00 or 3:00 am.
Great post. I hope you don’t mind me quoting you in several spots this coming Sunday. I am the gospel doctrine teacher in my ward.
Thanks!
Loved this. In fact I see a FHE about what inspiration feels like in my near future.
For several years I regularly received inspiration in the shower. When I started to notice that the shower was always my inspiration place, I was kind of startled. Maybe even a little freaked out. (Aren’t you supposed to be dressed to receive inspiration?? Though I have since heard the same from other people.)
And then I realized that it had been a long long time since I’d had any personal revelation in the shower. At first I thought (and I am not kidding, though it is funny) that there was something wrong, that I had changed my shower routine in some way that kept me from hearing the spirit. But then one day I realized what it must have been–those years when I heard the spirit in the shower were the couple of years after my triplets were born. Quite literally, there may have been no other place that my brain was still enough and yet still awake to receive inspiration. When things calmed down, I could hear the spirit at other times.
First off I have to shout out to my Ann Arbor Stake Sistah Stacey ! I live in A2 as well, but I’m in the Saline Ward. How bizarre to meet here!!!
In response to this OUTSTANDING post, I’ve observed that one big way many of us live beneath our privileges is around priesthood blessings. Some women don’t have a priesthood holder in their home so they feel like they are intruding if they ask for one, others feel like there’s some kind of imaginative quota in place. My husband’s father is not a member, so during a particularly difficult month last year he received daily p-hood blessings from worthy brethren in the ward (HT, Bishop, Stake Patriarch), all of whom were delighted to help him.
Hi Lori! Nice to meet you here, too! 🙂
You were spot on with this post today, MMM. Thanks for the great read; it was a really great follow-up to specific discussions we had in Sunday School today in Ann Arbor, MI.
Thursday night I was sitting in the audience during a performance by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. It was an unlikely (and swingin’!) time to have something about motherhood hit me so hard but I am glad I was able to receive the revelation I did. Other times for me have been while grocery shopping or while I am doing dishes.
Beautiful post, MMM… it reminds me of Doctrine and Covenants 6.. the Lord says “remember” how He spoke to Oliver… a good reminder (I always put my name in there when I read it)– He speaks to each of us in a way that we will understand. I OFTEN say, in my prayers begging for answers, “And you know that I need a frying pan upside the head to be able to trust that it’s an answer and not wishful thinking, so please give me the frying pan.” And my merciful and loving Heavenly Father who knows his daughter well, usually does give me the frying pan 🙂
Excellent post, MMM! I really needed to read it today, so thank you.
I am also one that received my promptings in many different ways, and in many different places. I’m a “word girl,” and I can process my promptings more easily when they can be formed into words. Unfortunately, I resort to getting priesthood blessings from my husband too often for this reason.
I have found that if I write down my impressions after I pray, that they are more easy for me, personally, to understand. The cool thing is, our Father in Heaven knows this quirk of mine, and loves me anyway! (Even if I am a little dense, Spirit-wise….) It took me years to figure this out, but it has really helped me.
Again, wonderful post. I am grateful for it, especially since I’m home from church sick today.
Your friend,
Mama Rachel
I have had the Lord answer prayers in the Temple, just as readily as he will answer while I am folding laundry. I have had some unique experiences with the spirit, and everyone has been special. He wantsour feeback more than we think he does, and desires to gives what we want so badly. hE LOVES US SO MUCH.
Well written.
Driving to and from work, in the shower and sometimes late at night when I’m trying to fall asleep.
Perfect. Thanks!
Dreams.
While reading scriptures and the prophets.
Mowing the lawn too.
While my children are telling me about their day.
While I’m praying.
Singing hymns.
And then the unexpected one’s like reaching for medicine and the Spirit loudly says to me, ‘Don’t take that.’
One of my favorite posts of late. On point MMM.
We had a stake president once promise us answers to our prayers if we would attend the temple. He was careful to expound that we wouldn’t necessarily recieve the answers RIGHT IN THE TEMPLE, but they might come while we stood at the kitchen sink cleaning dishes. If we had an open heart, were doing what the Lord asks, the answers will come when we need them to come.
I usually find my most insightful and best place for communion is in the car on a long drive. I have had more spiritual experiences, more clarity of mind and more answers given to me on the stretch of I-15 between SLC and ST George than probably anywhere else.
Finally, I agree on the burning bosom. I believed as a young girl that was what I was supposed to feel. In my twenties as a young mother and I finally decided I needed to know if I was going to embrace and live the gospel or not, I read the Book of Mormon and then prayed (not on my knees do to a back injury) and fully expected some magnificent manifestation similar to Joseph’s. Instead, came thoughts of “You already know this is true. You knew it back on page 12, and page 257 and all through the final page. You knew it, you just needed to be reminded.”
Nothing mystical, nothing burning, no big pillars of light or indesribable joy. Just feelings of remembrance.
Love the post – perfect for me to start my Sunday with, thank you!
Mowing the lawn is still kinda new for me. Not routine enough yet to be mindless. Driving without the radio on has been a great time for me to ponder things and feel peace and inspiration and comfort… and protection when driving with blurry vision from leaking eyes.
Thank you for sharing a lot of things I have pondered myself, over the years. I get a lot of answers while driving. I get others when I blog (as I am typing). Sometimes they leap out at me from the pages of a book. I am currently reading Elder Holland’s book on solace from the Psalms. One essay in particular was just what I needed to know. I have difficulty kneeling, and greater difficulty getting up, so the vast majority of my prayers are sitting or standing, while I kneel in my heart. Mostly I just keep moving, knowing that Heaven will nudge me in the right direction as I go.
Today were are singing “Come Unto Him” in sacrament meeting. If the congregation is paying attention to what they are singing, they will discover a lesson illustrating your first point. We often ignore these little reminders of how the the Lord communicates with us, as we search for the spectacular and unusual. How much we miss when we do that.
I, too, find mowing the lawn to be one of the best times for communion. The combination of being alone and the mindlessness of the task allows for me to be more suseptible to promptings.
Also, fulfilling my callings seems to be another way to receive revelation. When I go to that leadership training meeting (which I’d rather miss), or go home teaching, or just do what my calling requires, I am more likely to know what I need to do next, not only for my calling but also for me. It is interesting that these thoughts and feelings come while I am in the midst of doing these things. As you say, it’s when we are up and doing that these come.
What a great post! I often receive clarity in the shower. Sometimes when running or biking by myself.
In the shower for me,too. It used to weird me out until my husband said,”Don’t you think the messenger could be in our our back yard or farther away. They don’t have to be in the shower with you.” It made me feel better.
This is a great post. While I’ve read each of the experiences you’ve listed plenty of times in my young life, I suppose I’ve never limited myself or in this instance, lived “beneath our privileges” (perhaps I am in other areas?). Well, I might have expected the burning in the bosom when I was younger, but quickly learned how God answered my prayers. Now that I am older and married with I guess more important choices that need to be made, I have received answers in quite unique ways, at least in my opinion.
I’m getting emotional just thinking about it, but my husband and I had been praying for a little over 2 months (as well as fasting a few times) about adopting my teenaged sister’s unborn child. As one might imagine, her life is kind of a mess.
We lost a baby at 14 weeks gestation from an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy and have not been able to have children since. Being LDS and married for almost 7 years, I feel like an outcast.
During the months of praying and pleading to know if this life changing decision was right, I would cry a lot pondering if this was our only way to raise a child. I would think that if God told me no, I would just look for a rock to crawl under and be depressed for the rest of my life. Silly me.
After 2-ish months of praying, fasting, talking it out with one another and discussing it with our in-laws, I woke up one Sunday morning with an answer (no dreaming involved either). When I say I woke up with an answer, I mean, I was literally woken up with this thought in my head that my loving Heavenly Father said “no, this is not what I have planned for you”. And as I recalled my earlier feeling of wanting to crawl under a rock and be depressed if His answer was no, I felt the complete opposite. Peace.
Months later, she decided to keep the baby and had my husband and I emotionally invested in this decision, I knew my heart would have broken even more (it broke a little after the ectopic). I cried in gratitude knowing that Heavenly Father protected my heart and soul.
So, to answer your question. I awoke with an answer from Him. First time for this too.
This interesting thing is that my husband never felt anything; not a yes or a no. Just thought it was interesting. However, after I told him my experience and feelings, we prayed together and almost immediately felt a conformation about this. I’m rambling now.
Great post today!
Myndie, my heard aches for you. We struggled with infertility and wanting a child and knowing it was a righteous desire. That was one of the hardest things in my life. When we adopted our children, it helped heal my heart. In hindsight, all the waiting was a blessing, since our children are the same age as many of their cousins. If you can’t have lots of siblings, cousins are the next best thing!
I’m glad you were spared the pain of not getting that child. You will know when the right child comes for you, and you will be blessed. Hang in there!
Thank you Nancy.
In my car.
Lots of great points here. Thanks for gathering together these great resources. Another one of my favorite talks on this matter is about the 3 kinds of answers to prayers we get: yes, no, and nothing, and what are responsibilities are in each case. It is by Elder Scott, link below. I like your distinction that the yes comes in many ways. It even did for Oliver. In those sections of D&C, the Lord mentions mind and heart, speak peace to your mind, enlighten thy mind, by the Holy Ghost, stupor of thought, and yes, the burning in the bosom. I think this shows that he talks to all of us in differently, and even to one person in many different ways.
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/10/learning-to-recognize-answers-to-prayer?lang=eng