Joseph Smith on Revelation

He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a revealer to those who diligently seek him. Now the doctrine of translation is a power which belongs to this priesthood, there are many things which belong to the powers of the priesthood and the keys thereof that have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world. (5 October 1840; Original Manuscript, in the hand of Robert B. Thompson; The Words of Joseph Smith 41)

The only way to obtain truth and wisdom, is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in prayer and obtain divine teaching. (3 October 1841; Times and Seasons 2:577-78; The Words of Joseph Smith 77)

The reason we do not have the secrets of the Lord revealed unto us is because we do not keep them but reveal them. (19 December 1841; Wilford Woodruff Journal; The Words of Joseph Smith 81)

Jesus in his teaching says upon this rock I will build my Church & the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What rock? Revelation. (22 January 1843; Wilford Woodruff Journal; The Words of Joseph Smith 158)

Verily brethren there are things in the bosom of the Father, that have been hid from the foundation of the world, that are not Known neither can be except by direct Revelation. (21 May 1843; Howard and Martha Coray Notebook; The Words of Joseph Smith 206)

Reading the experience of others, or the revelations given to them, can never give us a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God. Knowledge of these things, can only be obtained by experience in these things, through the ordinance of God set forth for that purpose. He remarked that the disappointment of hopes and expectations at the resurrection, would be indescribably dreadful. . . . . He assured the saints that truth in reference to these matters, can, and may be known, through the revelations of God in the way of his ordinances, and in answer to prayer. The Hebrew church "came unto the spirits of just men made perfect, and unto an innumerable company of angels, unto God the Father of all, and to Jesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant;" but what they learned, has not been, and could not have been written. (9 October 1843; Times and Seasons 4:331-32; The Words of Joseph Smith 253)

I shall take the broad ground then that if we have or can receive a portion of knowledge from God by immediate revelation by the same source we can receive all knowledge. (21 January 1844; Wilford Woodruff Journal; The Words of Joseph Smith 318)

On Keeping Spiritual Confidences

Joseph Smith:

The reason we do not have the secrets of the Lord revealed unto us, is because we do not keep them but reveal them; we do not keep our own secrets, but reveal our difficulties to the world, even to our enemies, then how would we keep the secrets of the Lord? I can keep a secret till Doomsday. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 195)

Brigham Young:

Should you receive a vision or revelation from the Almighty, one that the Lord gave you concerning yourselves, or this people, but which you are not to reveal on account of your not being the proper person or because it ought not to be known by the people at present, you should shut it up and seal it as close, and lock it as tight as heaven is to you, and make it as secret as the grave. The Lord has no confidence in those who reveal secrets, for he cannot safely reveal himself to such persons. (Discourses of Brigham Young, 40-41)

Brigham Young:

The man who cannot know things without telling any other living being upon the earth, who cannot keep his secrets and those that God reveals to him never can receive the voice of his Lord to dictate him. (Discourses of Brigham Young, 41)

Boyd K. Packer:

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 us to use them to the blessing of others. I am ever mindful of Alma's words: “It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.” (Alma 12:9.) I heard President 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." We are, I believe, to keep these things and ponder them in our hearts, as Luke said Mary did of the supernal events that surrounded the birth of Jesus. (See Luke 2:19.) (The Candle of the Lord, Ensign January 1983)

Boyd K. Packer:

There are some things just too sacred to discuss. . . . . It is not that they are secret, but they are sacred; not to be discussed, but to be harbored and to be protected and regarded with the deepest of reverence.” (Conference Report, April 1971, Tuesday Morning)

Harold B. Lee:

I bear you that sacred testimony, that I know with a witness that is more powerful than sight. Sometime, if the spirit prompts me, I may feel free to tell you more, but may I say to you that I know as though I had seen, that He lives, that He is real, that God the Father and his Son are living realities, personalities with bodies, parts, and passions—glorified beings. (“Be Loyal to the Royal Within You,” Speeches of the Year, 1973 [Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1973])

Neal A. Maxwell:

Dear Robbie: You asked whether God gives signs only to those who do not need them. I would put it otherwise. God gives signs only to those who will not misuse or misread them. Brigham Young cautioned about the need for confidentiality in such sacred matters, noting that, if we prove trustworthy, "there is an eternity of them to bestow upon you." But we should learn "to have integrity . . . and know when to speak and what to speak, what to reveal."

On another occasion he waxed introspective on this very topic: “And I will say, as I have before said, if guilt before my God and my brethren rests upon me in the least it is in this one thing that I have revealed too much concerning God and his kingdom, and the designs of our Father in heaven. If my skirts are stained in the least with wrong, it is because I have been too free in telling what God is, how he lives, the nature of his providences and designs in creating the world, in bringing forth the human family on the earth, his designs concerning them, &c.”

Having apparently heard someone who seemed to delight in telling of his, you also asked about spiritual experiences. President Marion G. Romney observed that we would have more spiritual experiences if we did not talk about them so much!

As if having them were more important than benefitting from them, some lust after spiritual experiences rather than desiring the substance of such experiences: "Ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, . . . but that ye will serve the true and living God" (Mormon 9:28).

Perhaps, in recounting their spiritual experiences, some may unconsciously wish to demonstrate their ascendancy; just as some academics, in a sort of intellectual imperialism, enjoy the knowing more than they enjoy utilizing what is known. This illustrates the old problem of the desire for preeminence, which can take many forms.

Brigham Young urged us to keep spiritual confidences, saying: "Just as fast as you will prove before your God that you are worthy to receive the mysteries, if you please to call them so, of the kingdom of heaven that you are full of confidence in God that you will never betray a thing that God tells you that you will never reveal to your neighbor that which ought not be revealed, as quick as you prepare to be entrusted with the things of God, there is an eternity of them to bestow upon you.”

President John Taylor observed that prophets often know more than they are free to say. He noted that Joseph Smith said that "he felt himself shut up in a nutshell . . . it was difficult for him to reveal and communicate the things of God, because there was no place to receive them. What he had to communicate was so much more comprehensive, enlightened, and dignified than that which the people generally knew and comprehended, it was difficult for him to speak; he felt lettered and bound, so to speak, in every move he made, and so it is to the present time.”

Our readiness to receive is gauged by God, but sometimes we are pushy. President Young wisely counseled: "We are like children who want the looking glass to play with, and who cry for the sharp razor and for the moon they see reflected in the water, desiring them for play things. Let us take such a course that God will have confidence in us, and then we shall receive all we need, all we desire and ask for.”

Eternal love,

Grandfather

(That Ye May Believe, 70-72)

Wilford Woodruff saw and conversed with Joseph Smith and others in dreams

In the October 10, 1880 general conference, Wilford Woodruff related several experiences that he had in seeing and conversing with late prophets and apostles. His account follows.

After the death of Joseph Smith I saw and conversed with him many times in my dreams in the night season. On one occasion he and his brother Hyrum met me when on the sea going on a mission to England. I had Dan Jones with me. He received his mission from Joseph Smith before his death; and the prophet talked freely to me about the mission I was then going to perform. And he also talked to me with regard to the mission of the Twelve Apostles in the flesh, and he laid before me the work they had to perform; and he also spoke of the reward they would receive after death. And there were many other things he laid before me in his interview on that occasion. And when I awoke many of the things he had told me were taken from me, I could not comprehend them. I have had many interviews with Brother Joseph until the last 15 or 20 years of my life; I have not seen him for that length of time. But during my travels in the southern country last winter I had many interviews with President Young, and with Heber C. Kimball, and Geo. A. Smith, and Jedediah M. Grant, and many others who are dead. They attended our conference, they attended our meetings. And on one occasion, I saw Brother Brigham and Brother Heber ride in carriage ahead of the carriage in which I rode when I was on my way to attend conference; and they were dressed in the most priestly robes. When we arrived at our destination I asked President Young if he would preach to us. He said, "No, I have finished my testimony in the flesh I shall not talk to this people any more. But (said he) I have come to see you; I have come to watch over you, and to see what the people are doing. Then (said he) I want you to teach the people—and I want you to follow this counsel yourself—that they must labor and so live as to obtain the Holy Spirit, for without this you cannot build up the kingdom; without the spirit of God you are in danger of walking in the dark, and in danger of failing to accomplish your calling as apostles and as elders in the church and kingdom of God. And, said he, Brother Joseph taught me this principle. "And I will here say, I have heard him refer to that while he was living. But what I was going to say is this: the thought came to me that Brother Joseph had left the work of watching over this church and kingdom to others, and that he had gone ahead, and that he had left this work to men who have lived and labored with us since he left us. This idea manifested itself to me, that such men advance in the spirit world. And I believe myself that these men who have died and gone into the spirit world had this mission left with them, that is, a certain portion of them, to watch over the Latter-day Saints.

Journal Of Discourses 21:317-318

Brigham Young saw Joseph Smith in a dream after Joseph's Death

Brigham Young recorded the following dream in which he saw the Prophet Joseph Smith after Joseph's death:

While sick and asleep about noonday of the 17th inst., I dreamed that I went to see Joseph. He looked perfectly natural, sitting with his feet on the lower round of his chair. I took hold of his right hand and kissed him many times, and said to him: "Why is it that we cannot be together as we used to be? You have been from us a long time, and we want your society and I do not like to be separated from you."

Joseph rising from his chair and looking at me with his usual earnest, expressive and pleasing countenance replied, "It is all right."

I said, "I do not like to be away from you."

Joseph said, "It is all right; we cannot be together yet; we shall be by and by; but you will have to do without me a while, and then we shall be together again." I then discovered there was a hand rail between us, Joseph stood by a window and to the southwest of him it was very light. I was in the twilight and to the north of me it was very dark; I said, "Brother Joseph, the brethren you know well, better than I do; you raised them up, and brought the Priesthood to us. The brethren have a great anxiety to understand the law of adoption or sealing principles; and if you have a word of counsel for me, I should be glad to receive it."

Joseph stepped toward me, and looking very earnestly, yet pleasantly said, "Tell the people to be humble and faithful, and be sure to keep the spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach you what to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom. Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction, so that when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it. They can tell the Spirit of the Lord from all other spirits; it will whisper peace and joy to their souls; it will take malice, hatred, strife and all evil from their hearts; and their whole desire will be to do good, bring forth righteousness and build up the kingdom of God. Tell the brethren if they will follow the spirit of the Lord, they will go right. Be sure to tell the people to keep the Spirit of the Lord; and if they will, they will find themselves just as they were organized by our Father in Heaven before they came into the world. Our Father in Heaven organized the human family, but they are all disorganized and in great confusion."

Joseph then showed me the pattern, how they were in the beginning. This I cannot describe, but I saw it, and saw where the Priesthood had been taken from the earth and how it must be joined together, so that there would be a perfect chain from Father Adam to his latest posterity. Joseph again said, "Tell the people to be sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and follow it, and it will lead them just right."

Manuscript History of Brigham Young, pp. 119-20.