Like an Overflowing Surge

The Prophet Joseph made this statement in April 1843: “It is my meditation all the day, and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind. Oh! how I would delight to bring before you things which you never thought of!” I thought that was a fitting quote for this week when we remember the visions of the night that young Joseph had on September 21, 1823 when he was visited by the prophet Moroni. He described the singular event this way: “While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant…. but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning” (JSH 1:30-32). What an incredible experience for a boy of only 17 years of age! He was indeed fulfilling in part the prophecy of Joel: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28). 

                One of the great messages of the Restoration, though, is that we can indeed all help with the fulfilment of that prophecy of Joel. Each of us is a part of “all flesh” and the Lord can pour out His Spirit upon us to prophesy and dream dreams and see visions. We may not have “visions that roll like an overflowing surge” before us, but Joseph gave us this promise, “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.” And so we each can try to follow this invitation of Jehovah in the Law: “But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29). As we seek the Lord with all our heart and soul, we can say with Moses, “I will not cease to call upon God, I have other things to inquire of him”  (Moses 1:18). We have this incredible promise about how we can indeed come unto Him: “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:1). Joseph saw the literal fulfillment of that as He had the great blessing of indeed seeing the face of the Lord. Each of us can continue to seek Him in our lives as another revelation invites us: “And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:38). With patience we continue to “seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in [us] forever” (Ether 12:41).