Receiving Personal Revelation - The Brother of Jared’s Example
We must rejoice and be grateful for that which we receive of the Lord our God. If He gives to us by His Spirit we must be counted worthy to receive so we should rejoice therein.
The Brother of Jared, whose name is unknown in the record that bares his sacred account, was a great and mighty man. He had a desire to serve God and his people. Amongst all this, there was a space of time when he fell short; he got complacent, even to the point where he forgot to call upon God. The Lord sorely chastised him for “the evil which he had done” and told him to sin no more, or else, basically, he would lose the Spirit, become wicked, and then be wiped off of the face of the land.
The Brother of Jared had the love for God to repent. This brings us to the first work of revelation; we must be clean and pure to have the Spirit, and we need the Spirit to have revelation. Modern revelation tells us that “[we] are to be taught from on high. Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power…” (D&C 43:16) Revelation truly is an endowment from God, and we must be clean to receive it. We must beware not to be as many of the brethren at Zions Camp, for “they were slow to harken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers…” (D&C 101:7) we must keep the commandments of God to receive answers to our prayers and to be endowed. The Lord will forgive us and sanctify us as He did the Brother of Jared if we sincerely repent and obey.
We must rejoice and be grateful for that which we receive of the Lord our God. If He gives to us by His Spirit we must be counted worthy to receive so we should rejoice therein. (see D&C 50:34)
Be Clean to Receive the Spirit
The Brother of Jared then “went to work” to do what the Lord had asked, and he sought to be clean. We, too, must purify ourselves to be directed by the Lord. Our Redeemer, who is the man that overcame all things and was sanctified in his acts and mighty sacrifice, counseled; “But no man is possessor of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin. And if ye are purified and cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus, and it shall be done.” (D&C 50:28-29)
The Atonement is what will provide that power to overcome as well as the cleansing. As we apply the Atonement through faith in Christ, repentance, and obedience, we become pure. The Spirit will be with us when we are pure.
We must, as the Brother or Jared, go to work to provide the building up of God’s Kingdom. He sought fully the salvation of his people; both current as well as future. With that love and desire to serve he went to work building the ships and showing the people after what manner to build them. As we too serve we will receive revelations on what we can do to strengthen our brethren.
Always return and report! Generally, a revelation that is received includes God asking us to do something. Whenever He asks us to do something, we must report our labors to Him through calling upon His name.
If we need additional guidance, we must ask Him. He commands us to counsel with Him in all things; therefore, if there is more we need, we must go to Him. The people of Jared needed light and life (air). These things are a type of Christ. He took it to the Lord in humble prayer and the Lord counseled him to put holes in the top and bottom with plugs - that provided for the air to give life. But now they still could not see within the vessels, so the Brother of Jared went again to the Lord and asked; “Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness? (Eth 2:22)
The Lord then returned with a shocking reply to his plea and said, “What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?" (v. 23) It was the question from the heavens to ask mortal man what is God seeking here? Does he want advice or even need it? The Almighty has echoed His voice from the heavens many a time to ask of man. Does He not know all? Sure He does but He also knows how to teach us perfectly. in the garden, he called out to Adam “where art thou?” Here He asks the Brother of Jared to think for himself just as he will to all of us at many times. It is a sure key to gaining revelation.
Act In Faith
Our faith must be tested as Ether taught.
“Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith”
— Ether 12:6
Men need faith in Christ to receive revelation. How much faith do I need? Christ taught that of a grain of mustard seed (see Matt 17:20 & Luke 17:6) What does that phrase mean? As I read it and what I have learned about a mustard seed, and the plants that one seed will produce, it is the smallest seed of all herbs, but one of the largest plants. It has the power to start real small, but grow up to something that could fill an entire field. That is saving faith. That is guiding faith. That is the faith that will give us the revelation that was received by the Brother of Jared.
Why do we need faith? Joseph Smith taught that faith is both a principle of action as well as power. It is the action (works) to gain the revelation, become clean, and use the revelation. It is also the power to be one with God and the heavens above by use of the priesthood (see D&C 84 & 121)
Paul also taught that “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is a revealer of them who diligently seek him” (JST Heb 11:6). We must believe that we are going to get what we ask for.
Revelation only comes upon account of our faith. I refer to two scripture passages on this: first, D&C 63:9-10; “But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe. Yea, signs come by faith, not by the will of men, nor as they please, but by the will of God.” (see also v. 11); second, Ether 12:6, “…Wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” Thus, we must first grow our faith unto the drawing upon of the powers of heaven to receive guidance from the Almighty.
We show our faith just as Elder Russell M. Nelson described in his talk of the October 2000 General Conference.
“You cultivate such revelatory experiences by living according to the light already given you and by searching the scriptures with pure motives - with real intent to ‘come unto Christ’ (Moroni 10:32-33). As you do so, your confidence will ‘wax strong in the presence of God,' and the Holy Ghost will be your constant companion (D&C 121:45-46).”
The Lord promised to Moroni (who wrote to all of us), “And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are.” (Ether 4:7; see also D&C 76:6-10). If we have the faith, we can receive it all.
The brother of Jared then acted upon his faith, though he thought it small, and again went to work. As he labored diligently, he “did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones” (Eth 3:1). He then brought these before the Lord in complete humility. He had a sincere desire to serve the Lord and be able to provide light for his people. With that desire, or hope, coupled with both faith and humility, he approached the Lord again atop the holy mountain. We must always go to the Lord in His holy house to seek guidance from Him.
“As regards knowledge, the highest priority religious knowledge is what we receive in the temple. That knowledge is obtained from the explicit and symbolic teachings of the endowment, and from the whisperings of the Spirit that come as we are desirous to seek and receptive to hear the revelation available to us in that sacred place.”
— Dallin H. Oaks, April 2001
As we attend the temple, just as the ancients met the Lord upon the tops of mountains, we too can receive direct revelation from the Almighty. It is a place of peace apart from the world that we can go. “And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel [His] power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that [He] hast sanctified it, and that it is [God’s] house, a place of [His] holiness.” (D&C 109:13) It is a place to come unto the Lord and feel of His power and know that He is. We must expect revelations within the temple. It is the House of the Lord dedicated unto Him for the building up of His Kingdom.
Seek Humility
Upon this mount, the Brother of Jared, knowing his weakness (see Jacob 4:7 & Ether 12:27), approaches the Lord in supplicative prayer and worship. With the stones in hand he speaks some very humble words and I will focus on a few; “Do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee”. He knows that to his power he is “weak and simple” (see D&C 1:17-28). For we all have weakness and are less than the dust of the earth. “We know that thou art holy and… we are unworthy before thee”. We are fallen man and must understand such to be able to be exalted.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught that “All progress in spiritual things is conditioned upon the prior attainment of humility. Pride, conceit, haughtiness, and vainglory are of the world and stand as a bar to the receipt of spiritual gifts.” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 370). President Ezra Taft Benson, in his famous talk on pride, stated, “The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives.” (CR, Apr 1989, p 7). Thus, we must be humble as King Benjamin taught us (see Mosiah 2:24-28, 4:9-12).
Pray
“Thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee”. Pray always! The Lord will provide a way that we can do that which He asks of us (see 1 Nephi 3:7). It is necessary to ask to get something. When we were children, we always went to mom and dad to receive answers as well as temporal goods such as clothes, food, money, and transportation. We once relied upon them so heavily, and maybe still do, but why not show such a sincere reliance upon God? We need Him and will not get through this life without receiving of His mighty revelations. He is our source and guide to all truth, so let us follow the counsel of the Master and “watch and pray always” (3 Ne 18:18) and “ask and it shall be given unto you” (3 Ne 14:7).
We must ask of God! Alma counseled his son, Helaman, to “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good…if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.” (Alma 37:37) If we do not ask and take it to Him we are damned and we cannot progress in our eternal progression. We can do nothing without our Beloved Father in Heaven. Thus, we must call upon Him daily for guidance and direction.
“For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the devil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” (2 Ne 32:8-9)
When we call upon the Lord, we yield to the Spirit and put off the natural man to progress unto godhood. To become like our Father, we must know all that He knows, but to know all that He knows, which is everything, we must learn from Him through the power of the Holy Ghost and the revelations of Jesus Christ to our soul. For the Holy Ghost will teach us nothing but that which He receives of the Son that we might glorify the Savior of all mankind. The Spirit will “guide [us] into all truth” because he is sent from the Father (see John 16:13-15).
In the first days of the restoration, the Great Jehovah spoke to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by the power of the Spirit and said these words, “And if thou wilt inquire, thou shalt know mysteries which are great and marvelous.” (D&C 6:11) Those are the things that God will teach us - the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Those are received by revelation from the Almighty to us. Hugh W. Nibley taught that “A teleiōtēs is a person who has been initiated into some degree or other of the mysteries, and the completion of the degree qualifies him as complete or ‘perfect’” (Temple and Cosmos, p. 28).
Let us continually seek out revelation from God by calling upon His Holy Name just as the brother of Jared. It is through prayer that I will grow grace for grace until I receive of a fullness in the Kingdom of my Father (see D&C 93). Pray always unto the Lord and seek His face.