It can take a lifetime to learn perfectly how to receive and recognize personal revelation. It takes faith and trust and experience as we learn how God talks to us. If this is a subject in which you are very interested, I suggest you do as I did and study talks and books and scriptures on Personal Revelation because there are various ways that different people receive revelation. This blog is about my experience with personal revelation. I am far from perfect at it yet, but I have learned through the years that I am more likely to receive an answer I recognize, if I go to God in faith and humility, truly willing to do what he wants me to do.
We need to remember that the voice of the spirit is still and small. That means it's easier to feel his voice when we are in a quiet place and relaxed. For me it works best if I don’t start talking immediately after kneeling but quiet my thoughts and try to feel the spirit before I begin praying. When I don’t wait to feel his spirit it sometimes feels like I’m calling someone but start talking before I finish dialing the number. In the beginning this would sometimes take 5-10 minutes or more. For this purpose I always kneel on a pillow so that I am comfortable. Otherwise my thoughts may go to my discomfort rather than feeling the spirit. In the beginning I found that concentrating on my breathing helped me to quiet my thoughts. As I have become better at recognizing the spirit, it now usually only takes a few seconds.
When I am completely ready and listening, His voice can then speak to my mind and to my heart sometimes actually guiding my prayer. My prayers are more meaningful as I speak from my heart those things that I'm really thankful for and then those things I'm concerned about or need help with. I try not to say the same things every time in the same way. If after I ask a question, I wait and just listen, thoughts will come to my mind. Then if I ask if that’s the answer, the spirit gives me a feeling of peace and assurance if it’s the right answer. If it’s not the right answer I don’t get that assurance, and I will wait until a different thought comes to me and ask again. Sometimes I have found that the thought was incomplete and I needed to ponder on it some more to get the full answer.
I have also learned that it sometimes takes more than just a few minutes on my knees to get an answer. I discovered that praying for at least 15 minutes or more at a time would help me connect with God better and though it was hard at first, I loved how I felt when I was taking the time to really communicate with Him. When I still had lots of kids at home and had a pressing need to talk to my Heavenly Father during the day, occasionally I would leave the kids with my husband or older child and drive to the back of an empty parking lot where I could pray vocally and cry and pour my heart out to Him. Sometimes it took an hour or so to finally get to the place where I was in tune and ready to receive the answers I was seeking. Sometimes I would pray vocally while I was driving somewhere alone in the car (if I didn’t have to think too hard about my driving of course!) I find that praying vocally can be really helpful and meaningful. Sometimes the answer will come as I’m reading the scriptures, when a verse will pop out at me with an insight I hadn’t thought of before. And sometimes it takes several days of pondering and meditating before the answers come, but if I’m patient, they always come in the Lord’s time.
And sometimes we have to learn from false revelation how to discern between our own emotions and the spirit. This has happened to me from time to time through the years, and I admit it was discouraging to me but it was also a learning experience. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago when I was doing Family History. I was attaching sources and knew that I should be able to receive the spirit to help me with this work so I asked for revelation to know if a certain source should be attached to the family I was working on. I felt emotion, and immediately thought that was a yes answer and went ahead and attached it. Then I felt like I should look at the source closer and discovered it was for a black man, and both of the parents I was working on were white! I then realized that what I felt wasn’t the spirit. It was emotion because I had such a deep desire to have the help of the spirit in doing my Family History. I then remembered what it felt like to me when I truly have felt the spirit. I would feel peace, joy and a deep assurance that it was right. Looking back, I realized that that isn’t how I felt. I'm just grateful that I listened well enough to know I needed to take a second look at the source because I didn't feel the assurance that it was right. I am still learning how to discern better between my own emotions and the spirit of God.
I have had so many experiences with personal revelation that they have strengthened my testimony that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and is interested in the details of my life. I feel that I can trust Him because when I follow the promptings he gives me, things always turn out well. When I have a concern, and He gives me a feeling of peace, I know I don’t need to worry about it any more. This happened when I was worried about one of my teenagers who didn’t come home at the time expected. After praying for them, I felt the peace and knew they were safe and would come home soon, which they did. His spirit has felt to me like a warm blanket wrapped around me on a cold night. I have felt His love. I feel like He knows me better than I know myself and knows what experiences I need for my highest good and development. I'm grateful for this understanding because it gives me peace and joy and allows me to relax and trust in Him when trials come. I have the assurance that he will lead me to know what to do and everything will turn out okay. I can’t imagine living without the help of His spirit guiding me through this life.
