Pure Intelligence

One of my favorite quotes about revelation comes from the Prophet Joseph Smith: “A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.”  In the context of the Holy Ghost speaking to our “mind” and our “heart” as D&C 8:2 teaches us, Joseph here seemed to be speaking about the process by which we are taught in our minds.  What I take from the quote is this is that the Spirit can help us to have the ideas that we need to solve whatever challenges we face.  When we struggle with a child’s behavior and suddenly have an idea how to help them, or if we work through difficulties in a job and gradually thoughts come to us on how to solve the problems, this is the Holy Ghost giving us “pure intelligence” and “sudden strokes of ideas.”  I remember once struggling with a problem for a take home exam for school, and in the middle of a temple session while I was thinking about it, an idea for how to solve the problem came to me that proved to be the right one.  This was a testimony to me of the Holy Ghost’s ability to indeed speak truth to our minds.

          The scriptural word that I think encapsulates this process of the Lord speaking to our minds is “enlighten”.  One definition of the word is “to give intellectual or spiritual light to,” and the word is used in all of the standard works.  I think the appropriate the word because it gives an idea of lighting up a dark space; nothing is changed physically when light comes upon it, but our ability to see what we couldn’t before gives us the capacity to then change the situation for the better.  Elder Bednar taught about how revelation is indeed like light, either in the form of a gradual sunrise or a light bulb that is suddenly turned on.  The Lord employed the word enlighten several times in modern scriptures speaking particularly about how the Spirit works with our minds.  He told Oliver Cowdery about the spiritual experiences he had had: “Behold, thou knowest that thou hast inquired of me and I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee these things that thou mayest know that thou hast been enlightened by the Spirit of truth” (D&C 6:15).  In the same revelation in which He exhorted Hyrum to studying the gospel He promised, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy” (D&C 11:13).  Speaking of those who fear the Lord and serve Him, the Savior promised, “For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will” (D&C 76:10).  In the Book of Mormon we read that through faith the Spirit worketh such that our “understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and [our] mind doth begin to expand” (Alma 32:34).  Joseph also wrote about how he and Oliver were “filled with the Holy Ghost” which caused their “minds [to be then] enlightened” (JSH 1:74).  All of these verses show that the Holy Ghost will speak to our minds and bring us light in the form of knowledge and understanding.  We can indeed “pure intelligence” come to us as we are worthy to be enlightened by the voice of the Spirit in our minds.