Seeking Revelation Leads Us to Unity With God

 A passage I love sharing with others is John 17:20-22.  In John 17, the Savior prayed to the Father (in what we sometimes term the "intercessory prayer), and in verses 20-22 He said this: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one".  It is our Savior's great desire that we, His followers, be one with Him and the Father as they are united.  One of the most important aspects of such unity is submission of our will to that of the Father, modeled by our Redeemer in the Garden of Gethsemane as He said, "not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42)

Perhaps it seems to be not immediately related at first, but in recent years, President Nelson has put a lot of emphasis on seeking personal revelation.  In the April 2018 general conference, in what I would consider the most profound statement to have been made in the last decade (at least), he said, "in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.  My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation."  (from the talk Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives)  In the general conference that was broadcast less than a month ago, he spoke of the importance of full-time missions work for young people (and the responsibility young men have to serve), and encouraged them to pray about it.  "Pray to know if the Lord would have you serve a mission, and the Holy Ghost will respond to your heart and mind."

He also referred to it as a "decision", because it always is, but encouraged us to pray to know God's will about it.

I remember being encouraged to pray to God about the same thing, and I remember my response.  I don't remember who I was speaking with or what else occurred in that conversation, but the general question was along the lines of "are you going to serve a full-time mission?"  The other person said I should pray about it.  In response, I basically said, "Well, I already know what the answer will be."  I don't think I had as much familiarity with seeking answers to pray at that younger age, but I did recognize that God would give me an answer to my prayer, and in that case I knew what it would be.  But knowing God's will isn't all that we need; the choice remained for me then, and still remains for me now, whether I will choose to do His will.  It is definitely a crucial decision to demonstrate our faith and submissiveness to God through such choices.

As Jesus Christ said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)  And as King Benjamin taught, "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19)

Even in merely considering the act of discovering God's will through prayer, I begin making a decision about whether I will follow my own desires or submit to that higher will.  Seeking revelation from God tends to provide us not merely with general knowledge, but especially a knowledge of what we should do.  As we seek and open ourselves to His answers, we find opportunity to follow His will, and thus we make steps toward greater unity with Him and with our Savior, who enables us to repent and become more than we already are.  Earnestly seeking revelation is thus a major part of exaltation.

Last thoughts for now:
I intend for personal revelation to constantly be a part of my life.  There will be times when it will be easier or more difficult in some way for me to do things I know God desires of me, but I know that I can seek God's will through prayer in the name of Christ, and that in doing so I can reform my own will.  I hope to do so often.

The Strategy

I don't know if this strategy actually works, and the strategy for it's own sake would miss the point.  However, I'm willing to keep going on the assumption that it does work to an extent.

Bear with me as I preface the strategy.  I'll start with an age-old philosopher's question: Why do bad things happen to good people?  Or, why do bad things happen to anybody?  Why does God allow it?

Firstly, because ultimately bad things happening to people don't interfere with God's plan.  That is, bad circumstances or events don't really harm them eternally.

In the classic passage of Moses 1:39, we read, "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." The immortality part has been taken care of via the resurrection.  We're covered there.  Eternal life is the part that remains.  Eternal life is more than endless living; it's life like that of the Eternal One, with all the glory of God.  It's exaltation.  We can receive it only through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, continual reliance on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and being true to our covenants.

No outside force can stop us from receiving eternal life.  Nothing short of our own choices can harm us eternally.  No illness, injury, or loss, or even death, can take away our exaltation.  Take Job for an example.  He lost his wealth, his home, his family, his credibility with his friends, and maybe even more though I don't remember the whole story, but he stayed strong in his faith.

Hard times are painful for us, and our loving Heavenly Father surely doesn't enjoy seeing us experience that pain, but they don't impede His plan.  (And frankly, no matter how rough the rough times are, they amount to little when viewed from an eternal perspective.)

Secondly, trials give us the opportunity to grow if we bear them well.  We can very effectively gain patience, humility, sympathy, wisdom, purification, and strength through faithfully enduring trials.  So, in addition to tribulations and trials not being really, eternally bad for us, they can be very good for us eternally if we handle them well.

So, to the strategy.  Consider humility.  That's a big one.  I have certainly been humbled more than once by my trials and difficulties, particularly when I recognized that my own mistakes or immaturity brought those trials to me.  Trials also bring purification, at least in the sense that they help us to filter out unimportant things from our life.  However, I have also found that service brings humility, and it also helps us to let go of our selfish pursuits.

Consider, for example, that we go to care for someone who is suffering from a disablingly painful disease.  As we do so, we realize that our own problems are relatively small, and that we have an easy life compared to the poor soul in the hospital bed. Instant and refreshing humility.  Also, by dedicating our time to serving others, we drop less necessary things from our life.  While attending to the sick person, we don't have time for watching sports, or playing online games, or even good and productive activities that are simply less important.

If I'm going to learn to be like God, as I've been commanded (Matthew 5:48), I need to learn humility and be willing to let go of selfish or unimportant pursuits.  My strategy then is to gain that humility and purification through service, rather than having God feel it necessary to give me these things through trials.

Of course, that's not really my reason for dedicating myself to serving others.  The real reason is charity, the pure love of Christ, and a desire to obey my God.  At the same time, though, if I can reduce my personal need for trials, well, I'm all for it.

Last thoughts for now:
I don't know if our dedication to service really causes God to give us fewer trials in life, and I'm sure it won't prevent all of them.  Perhaps, though, it's really a matter of changing the nature of some of our trials.  Service, after all, is still a challenge, and there is plenty of room for sorrow and exhaustion in service, but how much better to experience the difficulties because we're helping others rather than because we're being unwise?  Service to God and His children (Mosiah 2:17) brings us joy and helps us to forget our own problems, but it also helps us to become like Him.  I hope to learn this lesson more and more.