On Sunday, January 29, 2017, Elder Gerald N. Lund gave a fireside at my YSA Stake in Orem. In it, he said, “Is it the Spirit? Or just me?” is one of the most asked questions to General Authorities of the church.
He told us, it is vital that we learn how to receive, recognize, and respond to personal revelation. He told us that revelation is communication from God through The Spirit to our spirit. Often it is through feelings to our hearts and minds that we receive personal revelation. If we want to receive a greater measure of the Spirit in our lives we must make room for it.
“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
Elder Lund then taught us the 7 principles that govern personal revelation and hearing the voice of the Lord. He told us these were so important that he would actually give us a hand out with them on it, it is from this handout and my notes that the following in comprised.
7 Principles That Govern Personal Revelation.
1. God decides all aspects of revelation: Who, How, When, Where, What.
D&C 88:68; Jacob 4:10.
When it comes to personal revelation we must acknowledge it is completely in God’s control. We cannot force the Spirit or spiritual experiences. God in his all-wise and all-knowing status decides and dictates the who, how, when, where, and what of revelation.
“You cannot force spiritual things. Such words as compel, coerce, constrain, pressure, demand, do not describe our privileges with the Spirit.”
Boyd K. Packer
2. There is ‘counterfeit’ revelation.
D&C 28:11; Revelations 12:9.
Satan knows we are seeking the Lord’s direction. He knows we can not survive without it, therefore Satan seeks to sabotage us with counterfeit revelation. With revelation we should refer to the litmus test of D&C 50:23 “And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.”
Ask yourself if this revelation is coming from God or Satan? Remember, God’s revelation will never conflict with the commandments and it always brings the Spirit. Satan’s revelations bring doubt and distrust. It is also possible to confuse emotion with spiritual promptings.
“The spiritual part of us and the emotional part of us are so closely linked that is possible to mistake an emotional impulse for something spiritual.”
Boyd K. Packer
