Chapter 28

Increasing My Ability to Receive and Recognize Revelation
II. Reduce the Inner Noise and Draw Closer

"Their ears are dull of hearing" (Matthew 13:15).

A Family Party

Now that we have seen some of the major causes of inner noise, let us discuss what we can do to reduce that kind of noise and create a state of inner stillness, or inner quiet. Some years ago I had an experience that provides a useful analogy in this regard.

We were having an extended family party at our home. About twenty people—mostly adults and teens with one or two older children and a couple of infants—were gathered in the large downstairs family room. In a nearby room, a children's video was booming. Down the hall other children were laughing and playing games. In the family room, half a dozen conversations were going on simultaneously.

I was sitting across the room from my niece and her mother, who were seated together on a couch. We were separated by perhaps ten or fifteen feet. She was attending Brigham Young University at the time, and so I asked her how things were going there. As she responded, her mother broke in and said, "Tell him about that experience you had in your religion class." That immediately caught my interest, so I leaned forward. My niece is somewhat soft-spoken, and with all the noise I was having difficulty hearing her.

What could I have done to make sure I heard her? As I look back on it now, I can see four possibilities:

• I could have asked her
to speak more loudly. Obviously that option wouldn't apply if we were talking about revelation. It is not our privilege to request louder—more distinct and more recognizable—forms of revelation from the Lord.
• I could have turned down or
eliminated some of the other noise by turning off the movie, sending the kids outside, and so forth.
• I could have
moved closer to her.
• I could have
concentrated and focused on her and what she was saying, trying to screen out some of the other noise.

That provides a simple pattern for us to follow as we seek to increase our ability to receive and recognize the voice of the Lord when we live in a world filled with noise and distraction.

Reduce the Noise

In the previous chapter, we identified seven important sources of inner noise: unworthiness, pride, contention, busyness, irreverence, the cares of the world, having our wants too high.

To turn down the noise, we reduce the power and influence of those seven qualities in our lives.

If we are guilty of serious transgression, the road will be challenging and extended. It may require counsel from a bishop. It may involve leaving friends or romantic interests. It may involve professional counseling. But the way is still repentance. Fortunately, we are not left alone in this process. When we even begin to turn back to the Lord, we begin to open our heart to the Spirit. And the Spirit will help us win the battle.

For those who are struggling with the more common failings that grieve the Spirit, the same course of action is required. Do we speak too harshly to our children? Are we too concerned with the things of the world—clothes, cars, position, fame? Is watching television more important than spending time with our spouse and children? Are we spending an inordinate amount of time playing video games? Is our language offensive to the Lord? Do we speak unkindly of our spouse? Do we shade the truth just a little when contracting business? Do we let our frustrations boil over when we are on the freeway and mutter unkind comments or uncomplimentary names about other drivers?

All of us do things that create spiritual noise in our lives. Let us be sensitive to them. Let us ask the Lord what things we need to change and then change them!

The example of Joseph Smith mentioned earlier is a good model. The moment he sat down to translate, he knew something was wrong and he recognized what it was. He didn't think it was Emma's problem and wait for her to change. He immediately went downstairs, prayed to the Lord, and then apologized to Emma. He reaffirmed his love for her. Only then was he able to return to the work of translation.

Draw Closer

Another application we can draw from the analogy of our family party is that we need to draw closer to the Lord. At the party I could have moved my chair or had my niece move hers closer to me. So it is with us. We need to do things that either move us closer to Him or draw the Spirit closer to us. As we talk about how to do that, we will find little that is new or surprising. These are things we already know, but we often forget what a tremendous impact they can have on revelation.

Another way to think of this is that the things we listed under the sources of spiritual noise in the previous chapter could be considered to be things that grieve the Spirit. Why are they so grievous? Because they deaden and harden the mind and heart. Thus, when the Spirit tries to bring us light and truth, He can only come unto the heart, not into it (see 2 Nephi 33:1).

Now we will look at things that please the Spirit and cause Him to draw closer. These things are gate openers and heart softeners. They allow the Spirit to draw closer because we use our agency to open more widely the gateway to the heart and allow Him to come into it, not just unto it.

Humility and Meekness

The condition of humility and meekness is closely connected to our ability to receive and recognize revelation. It is, of course, the opposite of pride. Often when the scriptures talk about a "softening" of the heart, they refer to a pushing aside of pride, a willingness to submit our will to the Lord's.

The ultimate expression of humility is to acknowledge God's divine perfections as being so infinitely superior to our own attributes that we, of our own free will, surrender our hearts to Him. As Abinadi noted, in the Savior we have the perfect model for humility, for "the will of the Son [was] swallowed up in the will of the Father" (Mosiah 15:7).

Note how the Lord values this attribute and especially how often He links it directly to an increase in revelation:

• "Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers" (D&C 112:10).
• "They did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, . . . yielding their hearts unto God" (Helaman 3:35).
• "Because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost" (Moroni 8:26).
• "Walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me" (D&C 19:23).
• "I, the Lord, am not pleased with my servant Sidney Rigdon; he exalted himself in his heart, and received not counsel, but grieved the Spirit" (D&C 63:55).

Some expressions of humility could include:

• A willingness to patiently accept the divine tutorials the Lord may choose to put us through.
• Carefully avoiding "righteous" behavior only "to be seen of men" (Matthew 23:5).
• The recognition that while we may have been given special blessings or talents (wealth, intelligence, physical beauty, artistic ability, and so forth), these are gifts from the Lord and are to be used to bring glory to Him, not just to ourselves.
• Putting our wants way down on our list. Notice that I don't say push our wants away. Pushing our wants way down means that we trust in God sufficiently to say "Thy will be done" and truly mean it—not just mean it but want it. Our desire becomes to be in harmony with God's desire.

Prayer and Fasting

In chapters 24 and 25, we looked at the processes for learning by faith and using faith to increase our revelation. Earnestly seeking was one of the key actions discussed there. A major part of that seeking happens through prayer. In chapter 26, we further explored the power of asking as we looked at what is known as importuning the Lord.

Because both chapters 24 and 25 give much information on the power of prayer in helping us draw closer to God, we will not duplicate that information here. We will only note that prayer, fasting, and revelation are closely intertwined. (The following references teach this relationship clearly: 1 Nephi 10:17; 15:8; 2 Nephi 32:8; Alma 17:3, 9; D&C 6:11, 14; 19:38; 42:14.)

One thing we can specifically pray for is the gifts of the Spirit.

President George Q. Cannon wrote:

How many of you, my brethren and sisters, are seeking for these gifts that God has promised to bestow? How many of you, when you bow before your Heavenly Father in your family circle or in your secret places, contend for these gifts to be bestowed upon you? How many of you ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to manifest Himself to you through these powers and these gifts? Or do you go along day by day like a door turning on its hinges, without having any feeling on the subject, without exercising any faith whatever; content to be baptized and be members of the Church, and to rest there, thinking that your salvation is secure because you have done this? I say to you, in the name of the Lord, as one of His servants, that you have need to repent of this. You have need to repent of your hardness of heart, of your indifference, and of your carelessness. There is not that diligence, there is not that faith, there is not that seeking for the power of God that there should be among a people who have received the precious promises we have. ¹

Feast upon the Word

We all recognize the role the scriptures play in receiving revelation. They are like a well of living water that we can return to again and again. They provide a rich source of enlightenment, instruction, truth, comfort, solace, direction, warning, and confirmation. Tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints can testify of how they have been blessed by the scriptures.

As noted earlier, someone has said, "If you want to speak to the Lord, get down on your knees and pray. If you want the Lord to speak to you, open your scriptures." There is no question but what the written word becomes an important catalyst to revelation. Many of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants came as answers to questions that arose as Joseph and others were studying the scriptures. Note the promises offered if we use the scriptures in our search for gospel knowledge:

• "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105).
• "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
• "Hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul" (Jacob 2:8).
• "They had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God" (Alma 17:2).
• "First seek to obtain my word, and then . . . if you desire, you shall have my Spirit" (D&C 11:21).

Just as Oliver Cowdery was chided for taking no thought save it was to ask, so it is with us. If we want to draw on the "virtue of the word" (Alma 31:5) to help us in our quest for inner stillness, let it not be said of us that we took no thought save it was to read the scriptures.

A few verses tell us to read the scriptures (see Alma 33:14; 3 Nephi 27:5), but more often we are asked to do more than just read. Note the power of the verbs used in the following passages:

• "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night" (Joshua 1:8).
• "Feast upon the words of Christ" (2 Nephi 32:3).
• "Whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it" (1 Nephi 15:24).
• "Lay hold upon the word of God" (Helaman 3:29).
• "Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently" (3 Nephi 23:1; see also Mosiah 1:7).
• "Treasure up in your minds continually the words of life" (D&C 84:85).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie made this promise:

I think that people who study the scriptures get a dimension to their life that nobody else gets and that can't be gained in any way except by a study of the scriptures. There's an increase in faith and a desire to do what's right and a feeling of inspiration and understanding that comes to people who study the gospel—meaning particularly the standard works—and who ponder the principles, that can't come in any other way.²

The Sacramental Covenants

Virtually every week throughout the year, active Latter-day Saints receive a remarkable promise about revelation and the Holy Spirit. That promise is contained in the covenants of the sacrament.

A covenant is a contract between the Lord and us. It involves a two-way promise. We covenant or promise to do certain things, and if we fulfill those covenants, the Lord promises to give us special blessings in return. To put it another way, it is as if covenants contain an if-then clause.

We find that structure in the sacrament prayers as well. Though we do not actually find the words if and then in the prayers, they are implied. It is contractual language. The prayers can be found in the Doctrine and Covenants (see 20:77, 79) and the Book of Mormon (see Moroni 4:3; 5:2). Here are the covenants we make:

If we are willing to:

• Take upon us the name of Christ,
• Always remember Him, and
• Keep His commandments, which He has given us;

Then we are promised that we:

May have His Spirit to be with us.

Few passages in all of scripture offer a more direct promise concerning the Holy Ghost. When it comes to drawing closer to the Lord so we can better receive and recognize His voice, the promises don't get much better than that.

However, when the Savior introduced the sacrament to the Nephites after His resurrection, He added a solemn warning. It gives some indication of how sacred the sacrament is in the eyes of the Lord:

And now behold, this is the commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall not suffer any one knowingly to partake of my flesh and blood unworthily, when ye shall minister it;

For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul. (3 Nephi 18:28–29; see also Mormon 9:29)

The Apostle Paul gave a similar warning to the Corinthian Saints (see 1 Corinthians 11:27–29).

The root meaning of the word damnation is "condemnation."³ That is sobering, for which of us ever feels completely worthy to partake of the emblems of the Savior's body and blood? While we have this marvelous promise found in the sacramental covenant, there is also a solemn warning against taking that covenant lightly.

So just how scrupulous should we be in deciding whether we are worthy each week? The consequences are serious enough that the question deserves careful thought. Elder Melvin J. Ballard gave some specific and helpful counsel in this regard:

I suggest that perhaps some of us are ashamed to come to the sacrament table because we feel unworthy and are afraid lest we eat and drink of these sacred emblems to our own condemnation. [But] we want every Latter-day Saint to come to the sacrament table because it is the place for self-investigation, for self-inspection, where we may learn to rectify our course and to make right our own lives, bringing ourselves into harmony with the teachings of the Church and with our brethren and sisters. It is the place where we become our own judges.

There may be some instances where the elders of the Church could say, properly, to one who, in transgression, stretches forth his hands to partake of the emblems: "You should not do this until you have made restitution"; but ordinarily we will be our own judges. If we are properly instructed, we know that it is not our privilege to partake of the emblems of the flesh and blood of the Lord in sin, in transgression, or having injured and holding feelings against our brethren and sisters. No man goes away from this Church and becomes an apostate in a week or in a month. It is a slow process. The one thing that would make for the safety of every man and woman would be to appear at the sacrament table every Sabbath day. We would not get very far away in one week—not so far away that, by the process of self-investigation, we could not rectify the wrongs we may have done. If we should refrain from partaking of the sacrament, condemned by ourselves as unworthy to receive these emblems, we could not endure that long, and we would soon, I am sure, have the spirit of repentance. The road to the sacrament table is the path of safety for Latter-day Saints.⁴

Two words associated with virtually every scripture that talks about the sacrament are remember and remembrance.* Both sacramental prayers state that we are partaking of the bread and water in "remembrance" of His body and His blood. Then we make a specific covenant to "always remember him" (D&C 20:77, 79). To the Nephites, He used language similar to our modern sacramental prayers (see 3 Nephi 18:7, 11).

It is in remembrance that we fulfill the covenant. We should covenant as we partake that during the coming week, we will diligently strive to remember Christ throughout the day and let thoughts of Him influence our behavior. Think what such a simple remembrance would do for profanity, muttering unkind things on the freeway, watching pornography, and so forth.

But we should also make a special effort to remember Him during the actual ordinance, with particular effort during the sacramental hymn, the sacramental prayers, and when we partake of the bread and water.

If we always remember Him, as we covenant to do, then He extends this promise: we will "always" have His Spirit with us (D&C 20:77).

Deepen Our Reverence

In the previous chapter, we discussed some common manifestations of irreverence among good and faithful members of the Church. If we wish to draw closer to God and to the Spirit, then we must eliminate those manifestations in our own lives. Here are some simple things we can do:

Determine that we will not speak lightly of sacred things, such as passing on jokes that demean sacred things or make light of the Savior, the Father, or the doctrines and principles of the gospel. This is what is meant by the charge to avoid light-mindedness.

A related injunction in the scriptures refers to "much laughter" or an "excess of laughter" (D&C 59:15; 88:69). This clearly is not suggesting that we go around with long faces or forced soberness. In the same verse where "much laughter" is cautioned against, the Lord asks that we do things with "cheerful hearts and countenances" and that we have "a glad heart and a cheerful countenance" (D&C 59:15).

Over the years I think I have come to better understand what concerns the Lord about "an excess" of laughter. This understanding typically has happened to me at parties or other social gatherings. The mood is light and happy. People are having a good time. Then someone tells a humorous experience or story. It is not inappropriate in any way. It is received with merriment and laughter. That reminds someone of another story. Then another and another. As that proceeds, something subtle begins to happen. The stories become a little more questionable. The laughter becomes forced and loud, even raucous. The mood undertakes an almost imperceptible change, and the original spirit of fun and fellowship becomes more strained and artificial. At those times, I have wondered if that is why the Lord has said that "much laughter" is a sin (D&C 59:15).

As for reverence in our meetings, I have learned a wonderful lesson from the example set in our General Authority and Area Seventy training sessions held before each general conference. The meetings officially start at 8:00 a.m. in an auditorium in the Church Office Building. However, the first of the brethren start arriving as early as 7:15. Even the last one to arrive is always there by 7:30 or 7:35 at the latest.

The association among the brethren is warm and open. Many have returned from service in international areas, so there is much greeting of old friends and associates, much renewing of previous ties. But even though as many as two hundred brethren eventually gather in the room, their greeting is always done in an appropriate way—not subdued but not loud or unrestrained either. As members of the Twelve arrive, they circulate among the group, shaking hands and extending greetings.

The fellowship among the brethren continues until about 7:45. Then, and usually without any signal, the talking stops, and everyone takes a seat. For the next ten to fifteen minutes, we sit quietly and listen to the prelude music. Even with that many people, the only sound is that of the quiet and reverent music. I personally can begin to sense the pushing back of the normal press of things in my mind. It is as if something inside the heart begins to gently settle and grow more "still." Finally, the person conducting the meeting stands (often around 7:55 a.m.), and the meeting begins. The result of that quiet time becomes clearly identifiable in the meetings that follow. The spirit of revelation follows the demonstration of reverence, just as President Packer has taught.

We can choose to set a similar pattern in our lives. We can arrive ten or fifteen minutes early at the chapel. We can restrict our greetings and conversations to the foyer or the hallways and then enter the chapel, find a seat, and sit quietly until the meeting begins. We can use that time to prepare our hearts for the spiritual meal that is to follow. And when it comes time for the sacrament, we can put all other things aside and use that time in the greatest reverence to renew our covenants with the One who gave His body and His blood that we might live and return to live with Him and Heavenly Father. Priesthood leaders have a special responsibility to work to improve reverence in our meetings. This doesn't just happen. It takes careful attention and constant monitoring, but the benefits are enormous.

Temple Worship

We cannot complete a discussion of things that help us draw closer to the Lord without mentioning the role of the temple in receiving personal revelation.

The power of temple ordinances lies in the process of making and keeping covenants, just as with the sacrament. The word endowment is not just a temple word. We speak of a university receiving an endowment from a wealthy donor. Through the centuries brides were either given a dowry or were required to give one to the husband's family. Dowry comes from the same root as endowment. An endowment is a gift, a grant of some kind or another.

So what gift are we given when we are endowed in the temple? The scriptures are perfectly clear; we are endowed "with power from on high" (D&C 38:32). That alone should give us an indication of how the temple can help us draw closer to the Lord and create a state of inner stillness. The power spoken of is spiritual power, and that is what we hope to receive.

Therefore, attending the temple worthily so that we can participate in the ordinances thereof, especially the ordinances of endowment and sealing, is a paramount step on our way to spiritual mastery.

But there is something more to be had there than the ordinances: an inner stillness that helps us hear the still, small voice. What we need is a quiet place that will help us hear that voice. This is why we go to such great lengths to maintain a reverential and hushed environment, to use only our "temple voices." We never know when someone nearby may be striving to find answers or to feel the Spirit. Temples provide a place of outer quiet so we can achieve inner stillness.

Is our desire to draw closer to the Lord? Then note this specific promise concerning temples.

And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it;

Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it (D&C 97:15–16).

What better place to draw closer to Him than in His own house?

Notes

Note: All emphasis in scriptures in this work has been added by the author.

* For example, in the gospel accounts of the Last Supper given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, only Luke’s account has the Savior using the word remembrance. But in the Joseph Smith Translation, “remember” or “remembrance” is restored to both of the other two accounts.

^ 1. George Q. Cannon, Millennial Star, April 1894, 260–61.

^ 2. Bruce R. McConkie, Church News, January 24, 1976, 4.

^ 3. Random House Dictionary, s.v. damn, 504.

^ 4. Bryant S. Hinckley, Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard, 150–51; emphasis added.