The Spirit of the Lord in Nephi's Vision

Nephi’s vision that he had of the things that his father had seen starts off with what seems to have been a very unique experience.  Nephi wrote, “I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain” (1 Nephi 11:1).  He then described a conversation he had directly with the Spirit, and Nephi said that “I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another” (1 Nephi 11:11).  Nephi only talked with the Spirit briefly and then after Nephi had been shown the tree that his father saw the Spirit left and an angel came to guide him throughout the rest of his vision.  So who exactly was he talking to?  The only two options that seem to be possible to me are that he was talking (1) directly with Jehovah (who came in the “spirit” body like he did the brother of Jared) or (2) directly with the Holy Ghost. 

If it were the first option, then this would perhaps help explain why the heavenly messenger left so suddenly.  The “Spirit of the Lord” left right before Nephi had the vision of the Savior’s birth and life, and it would make sense that if Nephi was getting to see the vision of Jesus’s life that the Lord Himself might feel it more appropriate for someone else to be beside Nephi.  But on the other hand, assuming that this messenger was Jesus the Son of God makes the initial conversation seem a bit odd when he said to Nephi: “And blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired” (1 Nephi 11:6).  Surely the Savior would have said “believest on me” if it had been Him.  It also seems unlikely that the Savior would have said about Himself in the above verse: “Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the earth, yea, even above all.”  That the “Spirit of the Lord” was the actual spirit body of the Lord seems fairly unlikely.    

It would appear then that Nephi must have been actually speaking to the Holy Ghost in spirit body form.  The book True to the Faith lists “the Spirit of the Lord” as one of the names by which the Holy Ghost and the phrase is used in numerous places that imply that it means the Holy Ghost (see 2 Nephi 4:12, Words of Mormon 1:7 for examples).  There is one other usage of the phrase that might be similar to 1 Nephi 11 is in the book of Moses: “And it came to pass, when the Lord had spoken with Adam, our father, that Adam cried unto the Lord, and he was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water” (Moses 6:64).  The way I read that verse is that the Holy Ghost was in some way responsible for baptizing Adam.  If that’s the case then it’s also possible that the Holy Ghost was there on that occasion in spirit body form as was the case of Nephi and was visible to Adam.  I don’t think we can know for sure from the text. 

At any rate, assuming that it was indeed the Holy Ghost that came in person to Nephi, the unusual encounter might at least be a symbolic experience for us to learn from.  Nephi prayed, pondered, sought, and desired to know that things that his father had seen.  And after his diligent seeking that likely was not a one-time request of the Lord, it was the Holy Ghost that came first to help him answer his questions.  As Nephi had promised, “the power of the Holy Ghost… is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him” (1 Nephi 10:17).  But what is most instructive perhaps is that the Holy Ghost did not give Nephi simple, direct answers.  He asked 3 questions or Nephi, and when Nephi requested to know “the interpretation” of his father’s vision, the Holy Ghost showed him a vision of the Savior but did not tell him the direct answer—he made Nephi figure it out under his guidance.  In that same light, it is the Holy Ghost that comes to answer our questions when we truly seek, but sometimes we don’t get clear direct answers.  Instead we are guided under the hand of the Spirit to find the right answer for ourselves—but this only happens if we are willing to pay the price in diligent seeking that is required.