“Promptings in the Temple,” Liahona, July 2023.
Promptings in the Temple
The house of the Lord is a place of revelation. The more often we go to the temple, the more likely we are to receive revelation.
Photograph of Houston Texas Temple by Steve Scott Jackson
The house of the Lord is not only a sacred building where we do the work of salvation but also a place of revelation, where promptings big and small can occur, where wounds on our souls can be healed, and where the Lord can stir our hearts in unexpected ways.
A Distinctive Impression
When I was serving as an ordinance worker in the Houston Texas Temple, a group of motorcycle riders turned into our parking lot and asked if they could come into the temple. The temple president, Richard Sutton, explained to the group the purpose of the temple and the need for a temple recommend to enter the building. The lead rider and his companion were particularly attentive.
“I felt something when we passed by your building,” he said. “I can’t explain it, but it was such a distinctive impression that I wanted to find out what might have caused it.”
The couple wanted to know more, so President Sutton arranged for the missionaries to visit him.
More than a year and a half later, President Sutton had a knock on his office door in the temple. “You won’t recognize me, but a while back I came through here with some buddies on our motorcycles. Back then, I could only look from the outside.” Holding up a temple recommend, he continued, “Today I’m going to be looking from the inside.”
A Second Language
When Dean and Bonnie Hill were called to serve as senior missionaries in the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple, Bonnie was apprehensive. She had never studied Spanish and was uncertain about her ability to perform necessary ordinances or relate with others in an unfamiliar language. A priesthood blessing promised her that she would be able to communicate both verbally and spiritually in Spanish.
“I can’t really speak much Spanish outside the temple,” she says. “But in the house of the Lord, it seems to come easily to me.”
Even after she and her husband returned home and attended Spanish sessions in the Ogden Utah Temple, patrons remarked at her superb accent.
Do Something to Experience the Joy
President Russell M. Nelson said, “We can be inspired all day long about temple and family history experiences others have had. But we must do something to actually experience the joy ourselves.”1
Joy and inspiration as well as promptings and reassurances await us in the temple. There is a heavenly language spoken and understood there that is unavailable anywhere else on earth. We access revelation the Lord desires to give us in the temple when we not only attend the temple but also go there expecting to receive revelation. Here are some examples of inspiration received:
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Martin Goury of Cote d’Ivoire sought guidance in the temple on an important life matter and had a remarkable confirmation that he had already had his prayers answered about it. This is the principle the Lord taught Oliver Cowdery: “Cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart. … Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:22, 23).
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Randy Bronson lives near the Payson Utah Temple and has spent years doing family history research. “But I have a less-active son, and I’m not always sure what I can do for him. So I don’t just put his name on the prayer rolls, but I pray earnestly in the temple, trying to find out what I can do for him. I get inklings of what I can say or do for him.”
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“You are a good mother,” Stephanie Fackrell Hill said to a stranger in the Logan Utah Temple. “How do you know?” the young mother asked hesitantly. Sister Hill said, “I saw your children’s paint on your hands, and as I did, I felt prompted by the Spirit to tell you.” The young mother had been trying to hide her hands. Relieved, she now felt accepted rather than conspicuous.
The temple is a place not only to help save our ancestors but also to receive the kind of revelation that can guide us and others along the covenant path. President Nelson said, “Each one of us needs the ongoing spiritual strengthening and tutoring that is possible only in the house of the Lord.”2 These promptings and impressions received in His holy house teach us to see as Jesus sees, hear as He hears, and live as He lived.
The author lives in Utah, USA.