Still Small Voice

Yesterday I wrote about examples in the scriptures of clear and direct revelation that prophets and others have received for very specific circumstances.  Despite this, often it seems that revelation doesn’t come in that direct, clear, quotable manner that we hope for.  I believe the scriptural account suggests that this often will indeed be the case.  Perhaps the most famous verse we use to talk about the Spirit is this one from the life of Elijah: “And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12).  This suggests that instead of speaking in dramatic and very noticeable ways, the Lord’s voice will usually be small and quiet.  Nephi used similar language when speaking to his brothers: “He hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder” (1 Nephi 17:45).  Sometimes the Lord did have to speak very loudly and unmistakably—shaking the very earth—to get Laman and Lemuel’s attention, but His preferred method of communication, it would appear, is that “still small voice” that we can all too easily miss.    

               Other scriptural accounts show that the Lord will often speak in a small, less distinct voice in contrast to the word for word kinds of revelations the prophets sometimes receive.  For example, in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord described the process of revelation to Oliver Cowdery with the phrase, “I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right” (D&C 9:8).  He also told him that the Holy Ghost comes to both our mind and heart, but that it will “dwell in your heart” (D&C 8:2).  The heart is associated with what we feel, and so this seems to be suggesting that the Lord will send us feelings as revelations more often than the kind of very clear specific directions that I wrote about yesterday.  When Alma compared the word to a seed, he spoke of how the Spirit will “begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul” (Alma 32:28).  Again, here he seemed to be describing the process by which we feel revelation as opposed to hear it word for word.  The Lord will guide us through “swelling motions” that help us recognize or feel that something is good.  This is I think the kind of revelation that Mormon described when he told us about putting the small plates with his record: “And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will” (Words of Mormon 1:7).  He felt that the plates needed to be included, but he hadn’t received a clear indication as to why he should do that.

                 President Packer confirmed that the Lord usually communicates with us through feelings as opposed to hearing a precise quotable voice.  He said, “Perhaps the single greatest thing I learned from reading the Book of Mormon is that the voice of the Spirit comes as a feeling rather than a sound.  You will learn, as I have learned, to ‘listen’ for that voice that is felt rather than heard.”  Of course we cannot limit how the Lord will speak to us—it is in His own way and time, but we should not be surprised if it is through general feelings more often than the kind of word for word dictation by which Joseph Smith received the revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants.  And this means that receiving revelation is not easy; we must learn little by little to hear and understand those feelings He sends and have the faith to act upon them.