Doctrinal Mastery: Finding Answers to My Questions: Lesson 162

Seeking Personal Revelation for My Questions

Understanding How the Lord Speaks to You

Heavenly Father wants to reveal His mind and will to His children. Knowing this can help as we search for answers to our questions, make important decisions, and strive to become better disciples of Jesus Christ. This lesson can help students understand how they can receive guidance and revelation from Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost.

Student preparation: Invite students to read “Recognizing the Promptings of the Holy Ghost” from the “Revelation” section of Topics and Questions in Gospel Library. As students read, they could think about questions they have about receiving revelation from Heavenly Father. They could bring their questions to class. As an alternative to using Topics and Questions, students could read Joseph Smith—History 1:10–13 and look for what Joseph Smith did to seek and prepare to receive revelation.

Possible Learning Activities

Recognizing voices

As students come into class, assign a few of them a different number with the following instructions: “When I call your number, please say, ‘The Lord speaks to us through the Holy Ghost.’” Explain that when their number is called, they can choose to say the phrase in a whisper or a regular voice.

To begin class, invite students to close their eyes. Explain that they will try to identify their classmates by hearing their voices. Call out different numbers one at a time. After each student whose number you call says the phrase, invite the rest of the class to raise their hands if they know who spoke.

Then ask the following questions:

• Was it easy or difficult to identify who was speaking? Why?

• Why might it be difficult for a visitor in our class to identify who spoke?

Display the following self-assessment and invite students to think about their answers.

Ponder your answers to the following questions. You may want to record some of your thoughts in your study journal.

• How confident am I in recognizing the Lord’s voice in my life?

• What questions do I have about receiving revelation from Heavenly Father?

Consider testifying that Heavenly Father wants to speak to each of His children. Explain that as we seek revelation, He will help us increase our confidence in recognizing His voice and receiving answers and guidance from Him.

A still, small voice

While fleeing people who sought his life, Elijah the prophet hid in a cave (see 1 Kings 19:1–10). While there, the Lord spoke to him.

Read 1 Kings 19:9–12, looking for what Elijah learned about how the Lord can communicate with us.

• What do you learn about the Lord from Elijah’s experience?

Help students to identify that one of the ways the Lord communicates with us is through the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost.

Some students may wonder whether God really will speak to them and may not know how to recognize when He does. The following statement and study activity for 3 Nephi 11 help address these concerns.

President Russell M. Nelson taught:

We can pray to our Heavenly Father and receive guidance and direction…. If we will truly receive the Holy Ghost and learn to discern and understand His promptings, we will be guided in matters large and small.

…Does God really want to speak to you? Yes! (“Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 94–95)

Consider pairing students to read the following verses. To help students study, invite them to pause after reading each verse and discuss with their reading partner what they find that can help us hear and recognize revelation from God.

Read 3 Nephi 11:1–7, looking for what we can learn about hearing and recognizing revelation from God.

• What did you learn about receiving revelation from this account?

Recognizing revelation from God

Explain that one of the ways we can learn to recognize the Lord’s voice in our lives is to understand the different ways He can communicate with us. To help prepare students to learn how the Lord can communicate with us, consider showing them a smartphone or displaying a picture of one and writing the following question on the board.

• What are some ways you can receive messages through a smartphone?

  Possible answers include phone call, text messaging, in-app messaging, and even the images we choose to display on our phones. After a brief discussion on the question above, erase the phrase “a smartphone” and replace it with “the Holy Ghost.”

• What are some ways you can receive messages through the Holy Ghost?

• What are some ways that receiving messages from the Holy Ghost is different from receiving messages on a smartphone?

If you feel that the following scripture study activity may be difficult for your students, you may want to read the first passage and ask the class what the verse teaches about ways we can recognize when God is speaking to us through the Holy Ghost. If you read the passage, you could help students see from this verse that we can know He is communicating through the Holy Ghost when we feel an increase in wisdom, understanding, or knowledge. Students could then study some of the other scriptures that follow in pairs or small groups. Students do not have to study all of these scriptures.

Study some of the following scripture references. For each reference you study, identify ways we can recognize when God is speaking to us through the Holy Ghost. Write the references you studied and what you learned in your study journal.

Exodus 31:3

John 14:26–27

John 16:13

Galatians 5:22–23

2 Nephi 28:30

2 Nephi 32:5

Mosiah 5:2

Alma 18:35

Doctrine and Covenants 6:21–23

Doctrine and Covenants 8:2–3

Doctrine and Covenants 11:12–13

Joseph Smith—History 1:11–12

One way you could do the previous activity is to print off several copies of the accompanying handout and cut out individual images of smartphones. Write a different scripture reference on each smartphone and place them throughout the room. Invite students to walk around the room and study a few of them.

You might also consider placing short statements on some of the smartphones about how Heavenly Father communicates with us. Possible statements are found in Additional Resources of this lesson in the Gospel Library.

Organize students into small groups and invite them to share what stood out to them from the scripture references they studied. They could also share any experiences they have had hearing the voice of the Lord through the Holy Ghost. This could include answers to their questions, or other messages of comfort or direction. Remind them to not share details of sacred, overly personal experiences.

If helpful, you could watch “Receiving Revelation” (4:17), from time code 0:00–2:18 available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. In this video, several people answer the question “How does the Spirit send you revelation?”

• How can understanding different ways Heavenly Father communicates with us through the Holy Ghost help you recognize revelation from Him?

God speaks to you

To help students share their response to the following scenario, they could answer the question below with a partner. This will give each student the opportunity to share what they have learned.

Alternatively, you could invite two students to the front of the class to act out the scenario. One student could share his or her answer. The two students could then pick two new students to act out the scenario. You could repeat this a few times.

Imagine the following scenario takes place this Sunday:

During sacrament meeting, a speaker quoted President Russell M. Nelson when he said, “Does God really want to speak to you? Yes!” (“Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 95). As you leave the chapel after the meeting, your friend says: “I wish I could recognize guidance and revelation from God in my life, but I’m not sure how.”

• Based on what you have learned from and about the Holy Ghost today, what would you say to your friend?

Consider sharing your testimony about the Lord’s desire to speak to us through the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost.

Additional Resources

Why is it important to recognize how the Spirit speaks?

President Russell M. Nelson shared:

In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. (“Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 96)

How does the Holy Ghost speak to me?

Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained:

My experience has been that the Spirit most often communicates as a feeling. You feel it in words that are familiar to you, that make sense to you, that prompt you. … The voice of the Holy Spirit is still and small. (“Let the Holy Spirit Guide,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2017, 94)

Elder David P. Homer of the Seventy explained:

The Spirit speaks to different people in different ways, and He may speak to the same person in different ways at different times. As a result, learning the many ways He speaks to us is a lifelong quest. Sometimes, He speaks to our “mind and in [our] heart” (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2–3) in a voice that is small yet powerful, piercing “them that … hear to the center” (3 Nephi 11:3). Other times His impressions “occupy [our] mind[s]” or “press … upon [our] feelings” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:1). Other times our bosom will “burn within [us]” (Doctrine and Covenants 9:8). Still other times He fills our souls with joy, enlightens our minds, or speaks peace to our troubled hearts. (“Hearing His Voice,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2019, 42)

How do I know if the Holy Ghost is speaking to me or if it’s my own thoughts?

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained:

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alternate beginning

Before class, invite the parents of your students to call your cell phone and leave a message saying, “I am a child of God.” You could then play these messages one at a time and see if students can guess who left the message. Students could then respond to the following questions:

• Were you able to recognize the voice? Why or why not?

• What would increase your ability to recognize the voice?

Alternatively, you could show “Finding Strength in Challenging Times!” from time code 1:53 to 3:25. Elder Allan F. Packer of the Seventy shared how he could identify the voice of his football coach above the noise of fans and players in a football game. You could adapt the questions above to discuss Elder Packer’s experience.

Increase our capacity to receive revelation

If you feel your students would benefit from learning more about how they can receive revelation from Heavenly Father, consider displaying the following statement from President Russell M. Nelson.

I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation…. (Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 95)

Students could then look through some of the principles given in “Recognize That Revelation Is a Process” (Topics and Questions, Gospel Library) and identify things teenagers could do to improve their ability to receive revelation from Heavenly Father.

Smartphone example

If you feel students could benefit from making additional comparisons between a smartphone and the Holy Ghost, you could display the following after the question “What are some ways you can receive messages through a smartphone?” in the lesson:

• What can get in the way of receiving messages from a smartphone?

• What can increase your ability to receive messages on a smartphone?

Students could briefly answer each question before you change the ending to “the Holy Ghost.” Students could then spend some time answering the new questions. You could also invite them to reflect on how they might personally answer the questions.

Experiences of Church leaders

To help students see additional experiences of others with hearing Heavenly Father’s voice, you could watch experiences from Church leaders from the Hear Him video series on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

One example is “How I #HearHim: President Camille N. Johnson.” President Camille N. Johnson, Relief Society General President, shares how she heard the Lord’s voice through the words of others.