Revelation
- Nephi prays to the Lord and receives confirmation of his father's prophesies.
- Nephi's brothers don't pray, because the Lord does not reveal things to them. Nephi chastises them for failing to live so as to be able to receive revelation, and gets specific about the requirements.
- Be humble, exercise faith, and keep commandments.
- 18) And again Moses said: I will not cease to call upon God, I have other things to inquire of him: for his glory has been upon me, wherefore I can judge between him and thee. Depart hence, Satan.
- "We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth."
- "We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."
- 25) And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.
- 26) But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.
- 27) And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.
- 28) And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.
- 29) And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!
- Tad R. Callister, "The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration", p. 77
- Cites Papias in the early second century as follows:
- "For I imagined that what was to be got from books [the scriptures] was not so profitable to me as what came from the living and abiding voice."
- Cites Ralph Waldo Emerson (as cited by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "Prophets, Seers, and Revelators", p. 8) as follows:
- "It is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater [for] new revelation than now. The doctrine of inspiration is lost. ... Miracles, prophecy, ... the holy life, exist as ancient history [only]. ... Men have come to speak of ... revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. ... It is the office of a true teacher to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake."
- Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith", p. 18 (17-19)
- "I will inform you that it is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the Church, or any one, to receive instruction for those in authority, higher than themselves"
- "Spiritual Promptings", Ensign, September 2008, pp. 18-22
- Various personal experiences shared by members regarding personal revelation.
- President Eyring learns that he should have been praying about job offers and is guided to accept a position at Ricks.
- "the doctrines of the gospel are revealed through the Spirit to prophets, not through the intellect to scholars"
- Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith", pp. 111-112
- Revelations from God to the Church "are to come through the Presidency. This is the order of heaven ... It is also the privilege of any officer in this Church to obtain revelations, so far as relates to his particular calling..."
- Joseph Smith, "The King Follett Sermon"
- "There are but a very few beings in the world who understand rightly the character of God. The great majority of mankind do not comprehend anything, either that which is past, or that which is to come, as it respects their relationship to God. They do not know, neither do they understand the nature of that relationship; and consequently they know but little above the brute beast, or more than to eat, drink and sleep. This is all man knows about God and His existence, unless it is given by the inspiration of the Almighty."
- "If a man learns nothing more than to eat, drink and sleep, and does not comprehend any of the designs of God, the beast comprehends the same things. It eats, drinks, sleeps, and knows nothing more about God; yet it knows as much as we, unless we are able to comprehend by the inspiration of Almighty God. If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves."
- ...
Notes
An acquaintance of mine once shared this experience.
While Serving as the second counselor in his stake's presidency, they had the need to come up with a name to recommend to fill the place of a bishop.
The stake president suggested that the presidency all pray together to ask the Lord who should fill the vacancy. While praying, this friend of mine received the impression that he should fill the vacancy, which caused him no small distress. After the prayer the Stake President looked straight at him and asked him who the next bishop was to be, to which my friend responded rather timidly that it was to be himself. "Oh good!" was the response of the Stake President.
The Stake President and his counselor had already gotten together and prayed about the matter and received the same prompting. It was an unusual prompting and had caused the Stake President and his 1st Counselor some distress. My friend had already been the bishop before and to take a man who had already been bishop and been "advanced" so to speak, to the Stake Presidency and then send him back to being the Bishop of the same ward again was unheard of and simply not done. However, once they had gotten this confirmation, they phoned my friend's name out to get it reproved.
They were told that this was wrong, because such things were not supposed to be done that way. They responded that they had all been independently prompted with the same name, but despite this, they were rebuffed and told to try again. Again they prayed and again they all received the prompting that my friend was to be the new Bishop. Again they called in the name and again they were told it must be wrong. This time, however, it was conceded to take the matter up with the quorum of the twelve.
The response from the quorum of the twelve was to wait. It turned out that the quorum of the twelve had been facing a similar dilema in issuing a call. Soon thereafter the policy was changed and my friend was made the Bishop once again.