A Rewarder of Them That Diligently Seek Him

This week’s Come, Follow Me lesson includes section 66 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The manual gives this synopsis: “Shortly after joining the Church, William E. McLellin asked Joseph Smith to reveal God’s will for him. Joseph didn’t know it, but William had five personal questions he was hoping the Lord would answer through His Prophet. We don’t know what William’s questions were, but we do know that the revelation addressed to him, now Doctrine and Covenants 66, answered each question to William’s ‘full and entire satisfaction.’” It is an especially powerful witness given the fact that “even after he later fell away from the Church, McLellin stated that he still considered this revelation an evidence of Joseph’s prophetic calling, ‘which,’ he said, ‘I cannot refute.’” This new convert came to the prophet with questions he had posed to the Lord, and the revelation he received let him know with certainly the Lord does indeed know “all the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Alma 18:32).

Surely each of us who believe that God does indeed speak to His servants today would love to have a similar experience and ask the prophet for a personal revelation to answer the questions that we have taken to the Lord. Wouldn’t it be great to get a personalized revelation straight from the prophet?! As I pondered this idea, though, the thought occurred to me that indeed we can have something at least similar. Of course we can’t find President Nelson and ask him to give us personal counsel from the Savior, but we can take our questions to the Lord and then study the words of our modern prophets and apostles, as well as the scriptures, seeking for answers. We don’t each need a new revelation, for through His Spirit the Lord can give us revelations as we read the words He has already revealed. On the one hand we may look at the Doctrine and Covenants as a set of revelations to unknown individuals in the 1800s, one of the main messages that the Lord gave in so many of these revelations is that He wants to reveal truths to each of us. One of the revelations that William McLellin witnessed the Prophet Joseph dictate as he received it was the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants, section 1. In it the Lord expressed His desire that “the voice of the Lord is unto the ends of the earth, that all that will hear may hear” and that Christ wants that “every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world” (v20). If we will humble ourselves before Him, the promise is that we “might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time” (v28). I love this declaration in particular: “I the Lord am willing to make these things known unto all flesh” (v34). We don’t have to go to the prophet for a revelation—we can study the words of the Lord we already have and receive knowledge through His Spirit. I love this statement from the Prophet Joseph who said, “God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them, for the day must come when no man need say to his neighbor, Know ye the Lord; for all shall know Him … from the least to the greatest.” William McLellin’s experience showed him that the Lord knew him and that Joseph was indeed a revelator for the Lord. Each of us can similarly come to know that the Lord knows us personally and will likewise be for us “a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).