As Scott and I walked next to the ocean beneath billowing dark clouds echoing back the thunderous sounds of the crashing surf I found it strangely comforting. It was as if my eyes were suddenly beholding the storm that has encompassed us for the past sixteen months. I could see the raging ocean with the massive waves that have repeatedly threatened to drown us, and still continue to batter us. No longer just feeling the darkness of the storm, I was seeing it as the ominous dark clouds above completely obscured the light and warmth of the sun.
From the very day Sarah left until today, Scott and I have consistently prayed asking the Lord for two specific things, strength to persevere and peace to endure. Recently in my weariness I felt both were waning. Using a piercing light in the midst of a dark storm and the journal of my sweet Sarah He answered my cry to hear His voice. He spoke His perfect Word to my weary heart, the exact Word I needed to hear at the exact moment.
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If you find yourself in a storm today, I pray Psalm 29 encourages you as well. I pray you, too, will hear His voice testify through His Word and His indwelling Holy Spirit that He will strengthen you to persevere and grant you peace to endure. He may not divert the storm, He never promised He would. But the omnipotent God of the Universe who powerfully stirs the seas with His voice is He who has promised to strengthen, sustain and preserve us. He is infinitely faithful and He can be trusted. All praise, glory and honor to Him alone, because He alone is worthy.
I so relate to everything you shared, Catherine. I am so, so sorry that you know the same pain, suffering and sorrow. My heart aches for you. I am thankful the Lord allows us to find one another so we can lock arms and trudge forward together on this journey. Praying for you right now. ?
The second scripture that tells us what the voice of the Lord is like is found in section 8, a revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery. In that section the Lord defined what revelation is and how it comes:
There is yet one other thing we need to note when we talk about what the voice of the Lord is like. It has to do with revelation that does not come from the Lord. Note what Elder Packer said about counterfeit revelation:
Be ever on guard lest you be deceived by inspiration from an unworthy source. You can be given false spiritual messages. There are counterfeit spirits just as there are counterfeit angels. . . .
If something is counterfeit, it means that it resembles the original so closely that it is difficult to distinguish which is the true and which is the false. So it is with counterfeit revelation. On the surface it may feel real. It may appear to be from the Lord. We may even have very strong feelings about what we have received. But this alone is not proof it is from God. Note that President Packer warns that we must ever be on guard against being deceived by our emotions or by revelation from an unworthy source. That suggests that counterfeit revelation is not a rare thing.
Personal revelation comes in many different ways and forms. It may vary from one person to another, and therefore it is difficult to set down rigid rules that cover every situation. But the Lord has not left us without guidance in this matter. Through the scriptures and the statements of his modern prophets, we find principles that can help us determine how to decide if revelation comes from the Lord or from another source. I would like to briefly outline five of those guidelines or principles to you today. There are others, but these have proven to be particularly helpful to me.
By definition, revelation is the communication of the mind and will of the Lord to his children. If you think about that for a moment, then you will understand that revelation is always unidirectional. It comes only from God to us. We may communicate back and forth with God in a two-way process, but revelation always comes in one direction. We never reveal anything to God.
Since all revelation comes from the Lord, then it is reasonable that he should set all of the parameters of that revelation. Those parameters include (a) to whom a revelation is given; (b) what content is given in the revelation; (c) when the revelation comes; and (d) in what form the revelation may be given. Sometimes, with the best of intentions, we inadvertently seek to tell the Lord how he should conduct his business. We may feel a particular urgency about a question and press the Lord for an answer by a certain deadline. Or we may strongly desire a particular kind of manifestation, such as one of the more dramatic forms of revelation, and be satisfied with nothing less. We may try to tell the Lord how to solve our problems or what answer we would like. But these are not our choices. All aspects of the revelation are determined by the Lord.
It is not wise to wrestle with the revelations with such insistence as to demand immediate answers or blessings to your liking. You cannot force spiritual things. Such words as compel, coerce, constrain, pressure, demand, do not describe our privileges with the Spirit. . . . You can create a climate to foster growth . . . ; but you cannot force or compel. . . .
We must learn to be content, not only with what the Lord decides to reveal to us but with what form he chooses to send that revelation. As Elder Packer warned, if we try to force a spiritual manifestation to our liking, we open the way for us to be deceived.
For behold, it is not meet [i.e., it is not proper, it is not good] that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. [D&C 58:26]
Striking the balance between trust in the Lord and spiritual self-reliance is a delicate matter, but it is clear that the Lord does not want us to be spiritual automatons who are afraid to move without first being told what to do.
Some time ago I was speaking at a Know Your Religion lecture in another part of the country. My topic was the same as it is today. Afterward a woman came up and told me that this was the first Church meeting she had been to in more than six years and that she had come only at the urging of a friend. Then she told me why. She and her husband had been unable to have children for several years after marriage. Finally she got pregnant, and they looked forward with great joy to having a child. Shortly before the baby was due, she went into terrible contractions and started to hemorrhage. Her husband rushed her to the hospital barely in time to save her life, but not in time to save the baby. You can imagine their devastation.
About a week after the funeral a sister from the ward came to visit this woman. This neighbor told the woman that she had had a dream the previous night in which it had been revealed to her that if the father had taken the time to give his wife a priesthood blessing before he had rushed her to the hospital, the baby would have lived.
That concludes the five principles that can serve as guidelines concerning personal revelation. I hope from these examples that you can see how they provide a standard by which we can judge and measure the processes of personal revelation. They help us better understand how the Lord works with us and also help us weigh which things are truly from the Lord and which may be counterfeit.
There are obviously many answers that could be given to that question: be worthy, earnestly seek the Lord, pray always, follow the Brethren. But I should like to answer in a little different way. To do that, I would like to conduct a brief experiment with you. Even though we are a large audience in a massive hall, I would like to have absolute silence for a few moments. Then I would like you to listen to the silence and see what you can hear.
Your problem and mine is not to get God to speak to us; few of us have reached the point where he has been compelled to turn away from us. Our problem is to hear. [Henry B. Eyring, To Draw Closer to God [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1997], p. 29; emphasis added]
In our little experiment, only in the silence did we begin to hear the more subtle and quieter sounds. And yet they were there all along. Other sounds cover, mask, or distract us from those quieter sounds. If the voice of the Lord is still and small and whispers to us, then we must find ways to reduce the inner noise in our lives and create times of inner stillness and quiet.
Anger and contention are a major source of inner noise. Remember the story of the Prophet Joseph during the days of translating the Book of Mormon? It was reported that one day he came up to the room to translate but could get nowhere. He then admitted that he and Emma had spoken some disagreeable words earlier. He excused himself and went to make his peace with his wife. After a time he returned and indicated he was now ready to proceed.
Leaders sometimes wonder why so many active members get themselves into such predicaments in life. Could it be that they do not feel what they need to feel because our meetings are less than they might be spiritually?
Thankfully, the scriptures and the prophets teach us how to reduce inner noise and create times of quiet and reverence. These will neither be new nor surprising ideas to you, but they are of great importance. I list only a few.
Reading and studying the word of God is a great source of inner quiet. There are many here who already understand that principle. Life has left you torn and troubled. Inside you feel like a churning, boiling cauldron of anxiety and unrest. Then you turn to the scriptures. Almost immediately you can feel things begin to change. The churning calms, the agitation melts away, and peace comes in its place. I have experienced that time and again in my own life.
If irreverence is a great source of static and noise, then we can deliberately set about to increase our own personal reverence. In sacrament meetings we can sit quietly and prepare for the covenant-making process offered there. We can sing the hymns, paying attention to the words so they become a prayer unto the Lord. We can focus on what the speaker is saying and try to understand how the principles being taught apply to us. 152ee80cbc
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