Post # 174 – The First
Vision: A Pattern for Personal Revelation
Dear Family
and Friends
I was
visiting with a friend the other day and her mother is facing her second bout
with cancer of her rectum. In visiting with her I am so grateful for my breast
cancer😊 that may sound crazy, but her mom is
suffering so much. I am also very grateful for Priesthood blessings, which I am
sure are the biggest part of why I am able to manage my journey with stage four
breast cancer as well as I am😊😊😊
So, my challenge
to you, no matter what your situation may be in your life at this time, know
that the Lord is ever mindful of you and what you are going through. You
should, you need to call on Him!!! 😊 Know that your Heavenly Father loves
you. He knows you, individually. He knows the desires of your hearts. He is
there for you. He is only a prayer away😊
And I know
from my own personal experience that He will bless you so that your burdens may
e light that you too will be able to bear them. And as my mother taught me, I
know that He will not give you any more than He knows that you can handle…with
His help!!! Please do remember that last part – with His help😊😊😊 it is so important for you to learn of your Heavenly
Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
He, who is
your Savior, and He paid the price for my sins and transgressions as well as
for each one of your sins and transgressions!! Have you ever thought about all
that your Savior went through for each of you individually? Your Savior loves
each on of us individually,
He loves us – each one of you so much that He
willingly gave up His life to Atone for each of our sins and transgressions. He
wants to for give us, and you can watch a video called ‘He Wants To Forgive’
here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/2014-04-004-the-savior-wants-to-forgive?lang=eng
Remember, I told you that I would share with you more
about preparing for the upcoming General Conference. In today’s post I would
like to share a talk by President Henry B. Eyring titled: The First Vision: A Pattern for
Personal Revelation,
I hope that you enjoy learning from this talk with me.
By President Henry B. Eyring - Second
Counselor in the First Presidency
The Prophet Joseph Smith
taught from his experience in the Sacred Grove how we can receive personal
revelation as a part of our daily lives.
The 200th anniversary of
what we call “Joseph Smith’s First Vision” is a great opportunity for us to
increase our faith in his prophetic mission and to learn from his example how
to increase our own capacity to receive personal revelation from God.
When 14-year-old Joseph
Smith walked out of a grove of trees in Palmyra, New York, USA, he knew for
himself that God communicates with His children in mortality. He believed
the words he had read in his Bible:
“If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and
it shall be given him.
“But let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with
the wind and tossed” (James 1:5–6).
Joseph Smith acted
fearlessly on that promise, as can we all. President Russell M. Nelson
has said this about our opportunity: “If Joseph Smith’s transcendent experience
in the Sacred Grove teaches us anything, it is that the heavens are open and
that God speaks to His children.”1
God keeps His promise to
communicate with His children in mortality if they ask and qualify to receive
that communication. The Prophet
Joseph Smith taught from his experience in the First Vision, and from the
great flood of revelation that came to him through the Restoration, how we
can receive personal revelation as a part of our daily lives.
Well guys I don’t know about all of you,
but I have often felt like I lack wisdom in many situations in my life☹ These
verses teach us that we can ask our Heavenly Father for wisdom when we need it.
So, in essence we can ask for personal revelation, which I believe is guidance
for our individual lives😊
I am so very grateful that we each ca have this opportunity to
talk with our Heavenly Father in prayer and that He talks to us through the
Holy Ghost when we are reading our scriptures, listening to conference, reading
the words of the living prophet just to name a few.
I remembered from another talk what Elder L. Lionel Kendrick, Of
the Seventy, said about personal revelation in his talk titled ‘Personal
Revelation’:
“It is a tender
experience to petition our Heavenly Father in sincere, heartfelt prayer and
look to Him for personal guidance.”
I
love what Joseph taught us in that last line above: “When
we are ready to come to Him,” … “He is ready to come to us.”2 the heavens are open and as we speak to
Him and are ready, our Heavenly Father will speak to us through the Holy Ghost
as we read and study our scriptures, listen during sacrament meetings and our
Sunday classes, and during general conference and as we read the words of the
living prophets too😊
The Heavens Are Open
Our challenge is to
act so that we can receive the messages of truth Heavenly Father is ready to
send to us as revelation and to recognize what He has already sent. Joseph Smith’s experience provides an example of that. He
had likely read the book of James and other biblical books several times, as we
have. But one day, by the influence of the Holy Ghost, he recognized the
message that led him to the Sacred Grove. Here is his account of discovering a
message from God sent long before:
“While I was
laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties
of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and
fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it
shall be given him.
“Never did any
passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at
this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my
heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed
wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get
more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion
of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently
as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the
Bible” (Joseph Smith—History 1:11–12).
Joseph Smith’s
experience is a pattern we can follow to recognize personal messages from God. Why did a scriptural passage come with great power and enter with
great force into every feeling of his heart? And why did he reflect on it again
and again?
There may be many
reasons God could speak so powerfully to young Joseph, but a primary reason was
that his heart was ready.
This tells us that Joseph had probably read this passage of scripture many times before. Then one day it hit him with great power one day as he was prompted by the Holy Ghost😊It tells us that he reflected upon that passage of scripture again and again. He knew that he needed wisdom beyond his own and he truly believed that his Heavenly Father would answer his prayers, he had the faith that this would happen😊
A Broken Heart Is a Prepared Heart
Joseph had been prepared with faith that Jesus is the Christ, his
Savior. With that faith and with a humble heart, he was ready. He said of his feelings at that time, “I cried unto the Lord for
mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy.”3
He was prepared, as
we can be, to claim the promise of James. The flow of revelation that came
allowed the Lord to change Joseph’s life and bless the lives of all of Heavenly
Father’s children, and their families, who have come or will ever come into
mortality.
A transcendent
blessing for you and me is that we can learn from Joseph’s example how to
receive light and knowledge from God. By following
Joseph’s example, we can bring lasting joy to those we love and serve for
the Lord. And then their example can pass the blessing of personal
revelation along in a chain whose end we cannot see but that Heavenly Father
can see.
We learn too that we can la claim to the
promise of James, that if we are lacking wisdom or anything else, we should ask
of God through prayer. Because the Lord will give liberally to those that ask
in faith without doubting, only believing that they will receive😊 We
are learning so much together!!!
Preparing Ourselves for Revelation
Joseph’s pattern of
preparation to receive personal revelation was simple and is easy to emulate,
but it is not necessarily a single set of steps, one leading to another. You
are a unique child of God, so you have different capacities for learning and
different ways of learning truth. Yet from Joseph’s example, you
can see how a few revelations of light and truth are essential to preparing
to receive continuing personal revelation. The Lord knew that fact when
He gave the sacrament prayers to each of us as a template for preparing to
receive personal revelation through the Holy Ghost.
When I hear the words
that I am to witness my willingness to “always remember him and keep his
commandments,” I feel a humbling need for repentance and forgiveness.
Then, when I hear the promise that I may have His Spirit to be with me
(see Doctrine and Covenants
20:77), I feel that it is true.
And every time, I feel light, peace, and confidence that I can hear revealed
messages from God.
Fourteen-year-old
Joseph Smith did not have the sacrament prayers when he was being
prepared for the personal revelations that came in the Sacred Grove and during
the rest of his life. But he followed
a pattern we can all follow to qualify for continuing personal revelation:
a pattern we can all follow to qualify for continuing personal revelation:
·
He studied the words
God had already revealed in the scriptures.
·
He pondered what he
had read and felt.
·
He returned to the
scriptures often and carefully.
·
Out of the faith he
gained by studying and pondering, he resolved to pray.
·
When revelation
came, he received truth and light, lived the truth he had been given, and
sought more truth.
·
He returned to the
scriptures again and received further revelation from God, which he wrote down.
·
He continued to pray
and obey, thus receiving even further light and instructions.
President Nelson has
described the wonderful opportunity that comes as we follow the example of
Joseph Smith: “In like manner, what will your seeking open for you? What
wisdom do you lack? What do you feel an urgent need to know or understand?
Follow the example of the Prophet Joseph. 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.”4
This section teaches us that we can
follow Joseph’s example of preparation even though “You are a unique child of
God, so you have different capacities for learning and different ways of
learning truth.” I believe that each of our preparation will be individually
tailored by the Lord😊
We learn that it is essential for us to
have a few revelations of light and truth in preparing to receive continuing
personal revelation from our Father in heaven😊 we also learn that the
Lord knew that fact when He gave the sacrament prayers to each of us as a
template for preparing to receive personal revelation through the Holy Ghost.
We can follow Joseph’s example to receive
continuing personal revelation in our lives😊Are
you each studying the words of God that He has already revealed to you in the
scriptures? Do you ponder 0r think about what you have read in the scriptures?
Do you think about the feelings that come to you as you are reading and
studying your scriptures?
Do you return to the scriptures often and
study them carefully? Has your faith been strengthened as you have read and
studied His words? When revelation has come, do you like Joseph, receive the
truth and light that is given you? And then do you live that truth that you
have been given? And do you earnestly seek for more truth and light?
Do you continue to pray each day at least
morning when you rise for the day and each evening before you retire to your
beds? Do you obey the Lord’s commands that He has given and the revelation He
has given personally to you? By our acting upon what we are given is showing
the Lord that we are ready and able to receive more personal revelation😊
Satan Opposes Revelation
As you follow the example of Joseph Smith, you will study carefully
his example of courage and persistence. You may not encounter the resistance he
faced in the Sacred Grove as you pray, but you would be wise to remember it.
Joseph described that resistance this way:
“After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed
to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and
began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when
immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had
such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not
speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if
I were doomed to sudden destruction.
“But, exerting
all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy
which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink
into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin,
but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous
power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of
great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness
of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me” (Joseph Smith—History 1:15–16).
That terrible
opposition, which continued throughout Joseph’s life, came because Lucifer
wanted to stop the revelation that would lead to the Restoration of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Your prayers for revelation from God will face lesser
opposition, but you need to follow Joseph’s example of courage and persistence.
Satan will likely
use more subtle means to oppose your efforts to receive and retain personal
revelation. One way will be his intent to send you lies, his method of
false revelation. He will try to reach you with
messages intended to make you believe that there is no God, no resurrected
Jesus Christ, no living prophets or revelation, that Joseph Smith was deluded,
and that your feelings and the whisperings from the Holy Ghost are the delusion
of “a frenzied mind” (Alma 30:16).
He will launch those
lies at you, just as he assailed
Joseph Smith, at the very moment you are about to pray and again after you
have received revelation. I have found two ways to escape those attacks.
First, never
delay an impression to pray. Leave no opening for doubts to arise.
President Brigham Young (1801–77) said that the person who waits to feel like
praying is less likely to pray.5
Second, quickly
write down the messages you receive from God. I have found that the
spiritual impression that was clear one minute can be blurred or gone a few
minutes later. Even in the middle of the night, I have learned to get up
and write down impressions. Otherwise they may be lost.
In this, Joseph
provides another lesson for us. He wrote down the experience of his First
Vision several times, and he described it to several people over the years.
Like other prophets, even the Prophet Joseph learned the importance, and
difficulty, of capturing revealed truth in words.
Now in this section we have learned about
the ways that Satan will use to gain power in our lives to cause great
opposition and strife in our lives. He will try to make us believe that there
is no God, there is no resurrected Jesus Christ He doesn’t want us to believe
that there truly are living prophets upon the earth today. He wants us to think
that there are no living prophets.
He would have us believe that Joseph was
a crazy man who did not know what he was talking about so there could not have
been a restoration. And above all Satan would have each of us believe that the
whisperings of the Holy Ghost are not real, it is only something that we made
up in our minds☹
President Eyring has said that he has
found two ways to break Satan’s attacks on us:
First, he says that we should never
dismiss a prompting to pray. He says that we should not leave room for any
doubt to creep into our minds in our delay to pray. He said that ‘President
Brigham Young said that the person who waits to feel like praying is less
likely to pray.’ So I believe that when we don’t feel like praying that is just
the time that we need to get on our knees and pray!
The Second thing that President Eyring
teaches us is that we should write down quickly the massages that we receive
from our Heavenly Father. He further states that he has learned through
experience that revelation can be very clear one moment and sometimes gone in
the next, so it is best for us to write it down as soon as we receive it. And
that we should do this even if that revelation comes to us in the middle of the
night, we must get up and write it down because otherwise it will be lost to us☹
Revelation Blesses Our Posterity
Like Joseph Smith, we can bless our children and our children’s
children with words of revelation we receive from God. Because we are
individuals with unique needs, perhaps only some of the revelation we receive
for ourselves will apply to those for whom we are responsible to God. But the
written evidence that God has spoken to us can be to them the same blessing the
Prophet Joseph gave to us.
The First Vision shows us that the heavens are open. God listens to
our prayers. He reveals Himself and His Son to us. The Holy Ghost speaks to the
hearts of those who are prepared to hear and feel the still, small voice. We can pass those lessons
and that message on to those we love and who will follow us.
Thanks be to our benevolent Father in Heaven, who loves us, hears
our prayers, and said of the Savior in our day, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear
Him!” (Joseph Smith—History 1:17). Thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ, who restored His Church
through the Prophet Joseph Smith. And thanks be to the Holy Ghost, who is eager
to be our constant companion.
I testify that the
answer is “Yes” to the child’s prayer:
Heavenly Father, are you really there?
I pray that we will,
as did the Prophet Joseph Smith and as does our living prophet today, accept
the invitation from our loving Heavenly Father, from our Savior, and from the
Holy Ghost to receive the light and truth of personal revelation every day of
our lives.
I want to add my voice to that of
President Eyring’s in that we – each of you and I will, as did the Prophet
Joseph Smith and as does our living prophet today, that we – you and I will ‘accept
the invitation from our loving Heavenly Father, from our Savior’, Jesus Christ
and from ‘the Holy Ghost to receive the light and truth of personal revelation every day of our lives’😊
And as for me I hope and I pray that I can
recognize the Holy Ghost better whenever He speaks to me😊 I
am afraid that I have the tendency to second guess myself – to wonder if the
thoughts are mine and not that they are messages from the Holy Ghost☹ I
am working on becoming a better listener😊
You see, I know there are times when I am
positive that what I feel or thoughts and impressions that come to my mind are from
the Holy Ghost. Other times I am not sure that I am sure receiving messages
from the Holy Ghost of if the thoughts and feelings are simply that, thoughts
and feelings. 😊
I am working on it though. I truly do
want to get better at recognizing when what I am feeling or the thoughts and
impressions that I get are from the Holy Ghost😊 I
am not sure if I am making much sense here, but I do hope someone understands
what I am trying to explain here with my ramblings? I guess what I wanted to
say is hat if you are like me and struggle to know when you are receiving
whisperings from the Holy Ghost you need to learn His frequency😊
I found a handout that was created for
YW/YM that could be helpful for your and /or your family members and friends
that you can find here: http://thethingsilovemost.com/2014/04/may-young-women-young-mens-handouts.html
In fact, they have a few handouts and
quotes here that may be beneficial for your family study group. You will need
to check it out to decide if what is there will be truly beneficial for you and
your family members and friends😊lso found a very useful handout here:
http://ldshandouts.blogspot.com/2013/05/prophets-revelation-how-do-i-receive.html
this one can help us to recognize the Spirit of the Lord😊
until my next post, please make it a great week😊
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