D&C 6, 8-9

Historical Background:

Oliver taught school near the Joseph Smith Senior home. Oliver was slight of build, about five feet five inches.

While studying at the Smiths, he learned of the plates. He prayed privately, meditated and confided in Joseph Smith Sr. and desired to have the privilege of writing for Joseph Smith Jr., who he had not yet met.

Oliver left to meet Joseph and two days after meeting him began to work with Joseph as his scribe.

Emma helped scribe when she could. Joseph had been praying for a scribe just three days prior to Oliver’s arrival.

D&C 6 “Arrival of Oliver Cowdery”

D&C 6:2 “Quick and Powerful, Sharper Than A Two-Edged Sword!”

A two-edged sword cuts regardless of which way it is swung.

There is no place a person may touch it without feeling the effect it does or could do.

Likewise, the word of God will have a positive or negative affect upon whomever it contacts (1 Nephi 16:2).

D&C 6:7 “Mysteries”

Mysteries are a truth that cannot be known except through revelation. The things the Lord has not reveled in plainness.

Joseph Smith taught that we should leave mysteries alone, lest we be overthrown. Never meddle with the visions of beasts and subjects you do not understand (Teachings, 292).

D&C 6:12-13 Trifle not with sacred things. (Virtue)

D&C 6:14-16

Oliver received a revelation to assure him that he had already received a revelation!

As an evidence that he had been responding to the Spirit, the Lord told him, “If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

President Lorenzo Snow declared that it is “the grand privilege of every Latter-day Saint…to have the manifestations of the spirit every day of our lives” (C.R., April 1899, 52).

President Harold B. Lee taught:

“Every man has the privilege to exercise these gifts and these privileges in the conduct of his own affairs; in bringing up his children in the way they should go; in the management of his business, or whatever he does. It is his right to enjoy the spirit of revelation and inspiration to do the right thing, to be wise and prudent, just and good, in everything that he does” (Stand Ye in Holy Places, 141-42).

D&C 6:22-24 Peace! (Mosiah 4:3)

No other word is consistently used in scriptural descriptions of the presence of angels, the Lord, or is Spirit, than “peace.” It was also important for Oliver to learn how easily the spirit of revelation can be overlooked or missed if we do not learn to pay attention to it. Oliver was being prompted, directed, and enlightened, without even being conscious of it. These quiet operations of the Spirit provide a marked contrast with the feelings of spiritual ecstasy so often professed in spiritual counterfeits.

D&C 6:29-31

“They can do no more to you than to me”

President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote the following concerning Oliver Cowdery and the martyrdom of Hyrum Smith:

“Had Oliver Cowdery remained true, had he been faithful to his testimony and his calling as the ‘Second Elder’ and Assistant President of the Church, I am just as satisfied as I am that I am here that Oliver Cowdery would have gone to Carthage with the prophet Joseph Smith and laid down his life instead of Hyrum Smith. That would have been his right. Maybe it sounds a little strange to speak of the martyrdom as being a right, but it was a right. Oliver Cowdery lost it and Hyrum Smith received it. According to the law of witnesses --and this is a divine law --- it had to be” (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:221-22).

D&C 6:36-37

“Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not.”

“Studying the Church…through the eyes of its defectors,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, is “like interviewing Judas to understand Jesus. Defectors always tell us more about themselves than about that from which they have departed” (Maxwell, “All Hell is Moved” (Brigham Young University devotional, Nov. 8, 1977).

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said: “First doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Come, Join with Us,” Ensign, Nov. 2013, 23).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said: “This is a divine work in process, with the manifestations and blessings of it abounding in every direction, so please don’t hyperventilate if from time to time issues arise that need to be examined, understood, and resolved. They do and they will. In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know” (“Lord, I Believe,” Ensign, May 2013, 94).

President Henry B. Eyring, in speaking about those with doubts, said: “In your love for them you may decide to try to give them what they ask. You may be tempted to go with them through their doubts, with the hope that you can find proof or reasoning to dispel their doubts. Persons with doubts often want to talk about what they think are the facts or the arguments that have caused their doubts, and about how much it hurts….

“You and I can do better if we do not stay long with what our students see as the source of their doubts….Their problem does not lie in what they think they see….We do best if we turn the conversation soon to the things of the heart, those changes of the heart that open spiritual eyes” (“’ And Thus We See’: address to Church Educational System religious educators, Feb. 5, 1993, 3-4).

D&C 8:2-3 & 9:7-9

Revelations of heaven are not granted to one in mindless stupor; rather, they embrace the complete use of all heavenly given endowments. Man, who has been created in the image of God, has been given heart and mind, both divine attributes, as sources of knowing the divine heart and mind.

Having paid the tuition of effort, you have claim upon an answer. The understanding comes not with the blare of heavenly trumpets, but as a feeling. Truth is a feeling! As Joseph Smith subsequently said, “It tastes good” (Teachings, 355).

When we speak about teaching by the Spirit it is not about a mystical process which removes responsibility from the…teacher for prayerful and pondering preparation. Teaching by the Spirit is not the lazy equivalent of going on “automatic pilot.” We still need a carefully worked out “flight plan.” Studying out something in one’s own mind is, in itself, an invitation to the Spirit in our preparations as well as in our presentations. We must not err, like Oliver Cowdery, by taking no thought except to ask God for His Spirit (D&C 9:7). The Lord is especially willing to take the lead of an already informed mind in which things have been “studied out.” Additionally, if we already care about those to be taught, the Lord can inspire us with any customized counsel or emphasis which may be needed (The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book, 337-38).

D&C 9President Joseph Fielding Smith pointed out that “it seems probable that Oliver Cowdery desired to translate out of curiosity, and the Lord taught him his place by showing him that translating was not the easy thing he had thought it to be. In section 9 the explanation was made that Oliver’s failure came because he did not continue as he commenced, and the task being a difficult one, his faith disserted him. The lesson he learned was necessary, for he was shown that his place was to act as scribe for Joseph Smith and that it was the latter who was called and appointed by command of the Lord to do the translating. There must have been some desire on the part of Oliver Cowdery to be equal with the Prophet and some impatience in having to sit and act as scribe, but when he failed to master the gift of translating, he was willing to accept the will of the Lord (Church History and Modern Revelation,1:50-51).

Selected Quotes on Revelation:

Bruce R. McConkie said,

“Every devoted, obedient, and righteous person on earth has and does receive revelation from God. Revelation is the natural inheritance of all the faithful.” “Man can not receive the Holy Ghost, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, without receiving revelations.” The Holy Ghost is a revelator (Teachings, 328) (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. 1966, 644).

“A testimony is a personal revelation - one of the important gifts - and may be enjoyed by every soul who will pay the price” (Spencer W. Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 56).

“Salvation cannot come without revelation” (Teachings, 160).

“No man can be saved unless and until he receives revelation. Revelation is the rock foundation upon which true religion and personal salvation rest” (Bruce R. McConkie, C.R. Oct., 1969).

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Council of the Twelve:

“Visions do happen. Voices are heard from beyond the veil. I know this. But these experiences are exceptional. And those who have these great and exceptional experiences rarely speak of them publicly because we are instructed not to do so and because we understand that the channels of revelation will be closed if we show these things before the world.”

“Most of the revelation that comes to leaders and members of the Church comes by the still, small voice or by a feeling rather than by a vision or a voice that speaks specific words we can hear. I testify to the reality of that kind of revelation” (Ensign, Mar.1997, 14).

3 Nephi 11:3-5

What kind of voice does the lord use to speak to his people?

How do we open our ears?

The Lord told Elijah to “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. 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).

I have come to believe also that it is not wise to continually talk of unusual spiritual experiences. They are to be guarded with care and shared only when the Spirit itself prompts you to use them to the blessings of others.

I have learned that strong, impressive spiritual experiences do not come to us very frequently. And when they do, they are generally for our own edification, instruction, or correction.

The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all.

I have heard President Marion G. Romney once counsel mission presidents and their wives in Geneva, “I do not tell all I know; I have never told my wife all I know, for I found out that if I talked too lightly of sacred things, thereafter the Lord would not trust me.

Do not be impatient to gain great spiritual knowledge. Let it grow, help it grow, but do not force it or you will open the way to be misled.

“Dramatic and miraculous answers to prayer may come, but they are the exceptions. Even at the highest levels of responsibility in this kingdom of God, which is being built up upon the earth, the voice is still small… My testimony is that the Lord is speaking to you! But with the deafening decibels of today’s environment, all too often we fail to hear him” (Graham W. Doxey, Ensign, November 1991, 25).

Joseph Smith taught, “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” (Teachings, 149).

Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve said, “No one of us can survive in the world of today, much less in what it soon will become, without personal revelation” (CR, Oct. 1991, 29).

Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained: “Scripture reading may… lead to current revelation on whatever [subject] the Lord wishes to communicate to the reader at that time. We do not overstate the point when we say that the scriptures can be a Urim and Thummim to assist each of us to receive personal revelation. This is one reason Latter-day Saints believe in daily scripture study (“Scripture Reading and Revelation,” Ensign, Jan. 1995, 8).

While serving in the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: “Divine guidance is so crucial… that we need to go out of our way to put ourselves in a situation in which such special help can be given. President David O. McKay spoke of how the morning hours, before we are cluttered with the cares of the day, are especially conducive to inspiration. Others have felt that solitude and reading the scriptures can create an atmosphere conducive to the Spirit and can be developed. After all, to read the words of Christ already before us is a good thing to do before asking for more” (Wherefore, Ye Must Press Forward [1977], 121).