"It Came From God": Preparing for a Revelatory Experience During Fall 2020 LDS General Conference

(Published via Facebook September 30, 2020.)

LDS General Conference (an extended worship service) is this weekend and I’m so excited to hear the inspired words of leaders.

Last fall conference, I was struggling a lot. Luckily, my desperation led me to prepare for conference more than I ever had. And as a result of that diligent preparation, I received many personal answers to my questions and challenges. I can still go back to my journal and see notes/answers that related perfectly to the struggles I was experiencing. The theme of that last conference (which has continued on in other church publications/posts) was “Hear Him”. And that year, I gained a deeply personal testimony of that statement. I’m so grateful to have a God who wants to talk to His children! Furthermore, I’m grateful for a Heavenly Father who knows exactly what we need to hear, and when we need to hear it.

I truly believe that General Conference can be a revelatory experience. Because I want to have the same experience I had last fall, I’ve been trying to prepare a lot. For the Lord loves effort; Christ stated many times that we must “prepare [our] minds”(2 Nephi 17:3) to receive his revelations and will. The culmination of some recent stresses and frustrations helped me create several questions about myself and my progression that I want to take into General Conference. I’ve been trying to study my scriptures in a way that helps me understand these questions and my growth. And the little answers I’ve received leading up to this conference have been small but so powerful. They’re more personal than I’d like to share but I will say that God really does speak to us. It’s not just my drifting cognition or errant thoughts. It’s not coincidence. I’ve found answers and peace and LASTING happiness through seeking His word. Thus, scriptures surrounding preparation and revelation have really impacted me recently. As I’ve received little pieces to my puzzling problems, I’ve gained a better testimony of scripture that emphasizes preparation, and the blessings of revelation.

3 Nephi 12:6 states: “And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” This is a direct quote from Christ! He wants us to recognize that spiritual hunger, that need for upliftment. While everyone experiences this differently, I often feel that a “thirst after righteousness” is apparent through general dissatisfaction. If you’re feeling purposeless or confused, that can be a result of spiritual starvation! So reach out to Christ with real intent, and you will be able to access the Holy Ghost, which provides us with guidance and answers to any of life’s troubles.

Seeking Christ requires sincere effort. That journey is different for everyone but it often involves consistently practicing spiritual habits like studying scriptures, praying, and repenting.

But Deuteronomy 4:29-31 promises us that our efforts will produce fruit: 29: "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord they God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 30: When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31: (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee".

When we seek God with everything we have; when we genuinely seek Him and desire to follow His guidance, we will find him. He will not forsake His children! He loves us to an incomprehensible degree and wants to aid us in our mortal struggles.

Many, many other scriptures reaffirm the importance of seeking the Lord with our whole heart (Jeremiah 29:13-14, Doctrine and Covenants 88:63, 3 Nephi 18:20, etc.). But I would now like to talk about the results of revelation.

The blessings of seeking God exceeds mild peace or vague answers. Revelation provides us with undeniable experiences so specific to our situation that we cannot ignore them. After receiving a particularly powerful revelation on the degrees of heaven, Joseph Smith stated:

“Nothing could be more pleasing to the Saint…than the light which burst upon the world, through the foregoing vision...The sublimity of the ideas; the purity of the language; the scope for action; the continued duration for completion, in order that the heirs of salvation, may confess the Lord and bow the knee; The rewards for faithfulness & the punishments for sins, are so much beyond the narrow mindedness of men, that every honest man is constrained to exclaim; It came from God.”

I love this quote so much. Its immediate reference to light helps us understand that revelation illuminates our minds and hearts. Revelation provides us with powerful and magnificent ideas, realizations, desires, and understandings. It can be "so much beyond the narrowmindedness of men" that we can't help but exclaim: 'it came from God".

When Christ was resurrected, he visited the Americas and taught the people there. During this ministry, the people declared:

“The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and hear Jesus speak” “And no tongue can speak, neither can the hearts of man conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and hear Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time.”

These ancient people each received a personal witness of Christ’s gospel. And it was truly unlike anything they had ever heard and seen. Even their most brilliant minds could not create speech or ideas as beautiful and marvelous Jesus’s teachings. Furthermore, the joy he brought to their souls was inexplicable and incomparable.

During conference, everyone has the chance to receive a personal witness of the existence and love of God. We can receive answers, understandings, peace, clarity, paradigm shifts, realizations, and righteous desires that are beyond man’s comprehension or creation. This conference, I hope we all can have an experience that causes us to utter with absolute certainty: “It came from God.”