Sunday Talks 2

It's a few days late but here it is. I guess I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with two great talks at one time. I was wrong when I stated in my previous post that Nicole didn't want her talk posted, she really did want me to post it. Sometimes I don't listen like I am supposed to! But Nicole gave a great talk on Sunday and I hope you enjoy reading it!

We were asked to fill in and speak about revelation. Brother Fox wanted me to tell you a little bit about myself and my husband.

I grew up in Oregon and Brian grew up in Virginia where our respective families still live. We have been married about 3 and half years. We both graduated from UNLV last year with our bachelors and are now waiting to determine what law school or masters program Brian may go to. We also have two small dogs who are a lot of fun but a little crazy.

I’m going to talk about the purposes of personal revelation. When I think of the purpose of personal revelation I always think it is for warning or directing us, but as I studied personal revelation yesterday, I found that there are many more purposes.

Robert D. Hales said “Personal Revelation is the way we know for ourselves the most important truths of our existence: the living reality of God, our Eternal Father and his son Jesus Christ; the truthfulness of the restored gospel; and God’s purpose and direction for us”.

As I was trying to think of examples of personal revelation in my own life, I couldn’t really think of any grand example. Where if I didn’t listen to the spirit it would have been life threatening. So I searched LDS.org and came across a 2004 BYU devotion by Dallin H. Oaks on the eight ways God Can Speak to You. He Said, “As I review the following eight purposes of revelation, I hope you will recognize the extent to which you have already received revelation or inspiration and resolve to cultivate this spiritual gift for more frequent use in the future.”

I am going to briefly go over each of the eight purposes and relay to you how I have experienced them in my life.

1. For the purpose of our Testimony.

When you are being taught a new gospel principle and you come to know that it is true, that is a revelation from God testifying of the truthfulness of that gospel principle through the Holy Ghost. This purpose of personal revelation is very important in missionary work. 1.)Moroni 10:4-5. Each member of the church is a missionary and each of us can experience this through our personal missionary work.

2. For the purpose of Prophecy.

The Prophet can receive prophetic revelation for the church, a bishop can receive revelation for his ward and a father can receive revelation for his family. You too can also receive prophetic revelation for yourself. This was very hard for me to understand so I am just going to read to you want Dallin H. Oaks said, “Each of us is also privileged occasionally to receive prophetic revelation illuminating future events in our lives, like a church calling we are to receive”. So my question is, how do you know if you just want that calling or if that feeling is a prophetic revelation? 2.) 2 Nephi 25:7. You will not know for sure until that prophetic revelation has happened or until you get that calling.

3. For the purpose of giving comfort.

This revelation of comfort can come as comfort while in the midst of tragedy or injustice, come in connection with a blessing of the priesthood, or the assurance received that a sin has been forgiven. When I was a child I read the Madeline children’s books and there is one book when Madeline had to get her appendix removed. I know it was silly but I was very scared and would wake up with nightmares of having to have my own appendix removed. Then when I was in the 7^th grade I went to the hospital with what the doctors thought was appendicitis. Although I was older I was still very scared. I had to wait until the morning to have an ultrasound to confirm the doctor’s suspicions and so I received a priesthood blessing. I don’t remember what was said but after the blessing I was able to calm down enough to get some sleep. In the morning the ultrasound came back just fine and I didn’t have to have my appendix removed. I am very thankful that I was able to receive a revelation of comfort.

4. For the purpose to uplift.

Dallin H. Oaks explains this perfectly, “At some time in our lives each of us needs to be lifted up from depression, from a sense of foreboding or inadequacy. Because it raises our spirits and helps us resist evil and seek good, I believe that the feeling of uplift is communicated by reading the scriptures, or by enjoying wholesome music, art, or literature is a distinct purpose of revelation”. If we follow the words in the 13^th article of faith, “If there is anything virtuous lovely or of good report or praiseworthy we seek after these things”, we will be uplifted and revelation can and will help us seek out these things.

5. For the purpose to inform.

Personally, for me this is the most common experienced purpose of revelation. This is the Personal revelation that comes to you when you have asked. There are many examples of personal revelation to inform such as, when you lost something important and you need to find it, you have a problem and you don’t know what to do, when you must decide who to ask for a church calling or when you don’t know what to say. 3.)James 1:5. This is the personal revelation that comes to inform you, but you must first pray and ask.

6. For the purpose to restrain.

Unlike personal revelation to inform, where you have to ask first, the purpose to restrain usually comes as a surprise without asking. Dallin H. Oaks states that “if we are keeping the commandments of God and living tin tune with the spirit, a restraining force will steer us away from things we should not do”. My freshman year of college I went to school back east. I planned on going back for my sophomore year. It was about a week before I was to leave, I had registered for classes, paid for that semester of tuition and spoke to my new roommates on the phone many times. I remember sitting in my room packing when I really felt like I shouldn’t go back to school. I thought I just had so much fun over the summer at home that I wasn’t ready for it to be over. This feeling stayed with me for a couple of days, until I went to talk to my dad about the way I was feeling. He didn’t tell me why I was feeling this way or what to do about it, but I decided to not go back out to school. Nothing bad happened out there and to this day I don’t know the exact reason why I should not go out there. I ended up going to BYU-idaho after a semester at home working. My dad drove me out there and he helped me move in to my apartment. Once we were done moving all of my stuff in, a lady from the office came down and said that they were going to have to move me to a different apartment, she didn’t say her reason but just apologetically asked us to move. We were tired but moved my stuff anyways. That semester I had a roommate who had Brian as a Family Home Evening Brother a previous semester. Through her is how I met and now married Brian. I don’t believe in a one true love or soul mates, there are many people out there that I think could be happily married together, but many things did seem to be influenced by the personal revelation to restrain that allowed Brian and I to meet.

7. For the purpose to confirm.

This is a very common way to receive revelation. To receive this revelation we make a decision, such as what school to go to, whether to buy a certain house, what job to accept and then we pray about it to make sure it is with in the will of God and through the Holy Ghost he will confirm it. 4.) D&C 9:7-8.

8. For the purpose to Impel to action.

Similar to personal revelation for the purpose to restrain, this revelation comes when you are not asking for it and it may come as a surprise. This type of revelation impels some action not thought of by you. Dallin H. Oaks give an example of when his grandmother was watching the grandchildren and she had the personal revelation to take the children to higher ground, out of the empty riverbed they were playing in. There was no reason to do this and it seemed unnecessary or absurd, but she did it anyways and a few minutes later water from a storm in the mountains came rushing into that riverbed.

I am thankful for personal revelation in my life. It helps to guide me and helps me to testify that the teachings of this gospel are true and I hope that personal revelation has been made clearer for you as it had to me.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen