Nephi and the Spirit of the Lord

I have written before about the first twelve verses of 1 Nephi 11 and how it appears that the “Spirit of the Lord” to whom Nephi was talking was the Holy Ghost in personage form.  This kind of direct communication between a person and the Holy Ghost isn’t recorded anywhere else in scripture as far as I’m aware, but assuming this is the correct interpretation I believe the exchange emphasizes the Holy Ghost’s important roles.  First, the mission of the Holy Ghost is to testify of the Father, which he did here to Nephi: “Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the earth, yea, even above all.”  Next, the Holy Ghost testifies of the Savior, and this is what he did next to Nephi: “Blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou believest in the Son of the most high God…. thou shalt also behold a man descending out of heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God” (1 Nephi 11:6-7).  In this short interchange he was primarily pointing Nephi to the Savior and prefacing the whole vision he was about to have to make sure he understood that Christ was at the center of it. His final word before disappearing was “Look!” Nephi did, and what he beheld was the birth and life of the Savior.  One of the key missions of the Holy Ghost is to help us see the Savior and to point us to Him, and that’s exactly what happened here for Nephi. 

              There are perhaps a few other lessons we can learn about the role of the Holy Ghost in these verses at the beginning of Nephi’s vision.  Twice he said to Nephi, “What desirest thou?” In response to the first Nephi requested to see the things his father had saw, and he was subsequently shown the tree in the vision.  Then in response the same question again Nephi requested “to know the interpretation thereof,” and that too he ultimately received in the continued experience with the angel.  It was through the Holy Ghost that Nephi obtained his most earnest spiritual desires, and surely the same goes for us: that which we sincerely desire to know and understand and spiritually see can be granted to us by the Holy Ghost if it is in accordance with God’s will.  But we must truly desire it first like Nephi.  The other prerequisite for him was faith in what had already been revealed.  Before granting him anything, the Spirit said, “Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken?”  In other words, he was asking Nephi, “Do you believe what the prophet has already revealed?”  To receive more spiritual knowledge from the Holy Ghost we must show that we believe and cherish what has already been revealed.  Another lesson here seems to be that the Holy Ghost will often not give us “easy” answers.  He made Nephi figure things out on his own, with the help of divine guidance.  Twice he said to Nephi to “look”—he didn’t just spoon feed Nephi with answers but invited him to learn for himself.  When Nephi sought to know the interpretation of the tree, the Spirit did not give him the answer directly but had him look, and ultimately Nephi understood and figured it out based on what he saw.  Surely for us too, as we seek for knowledge and understanding from the Lord, the answer may be that we need to look harder, to keep searching, and that eventually the knowledge we seek will be opened unto us and made clear.  This story of Nephi’s vision is an invitation for us to earnestly seek spiritual truths from the Holy Ghost like he did, and his promise is that “he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost” (1 Nephi 10:19).