The Familiarity of God

Brigham Young:

If any of us could now see the God we are striving to serve if we could see our Father who dwells in the heavens, we should learn that we are as well acquainted with him as we are with our earthly father; and he would be as familiar to us in the expression of his countenance, and we should be ready to embrace him and fall upon his neck and kiss him, if we had the privilege. And still we, unless the vision of the Spirit is opened to us, know nothing about God. You know much about him, if you did but realize it. And there is no other one item that will so much astound you, when your eyes are opened in eternity, as to think that you were so stupid in the body.
(Journal of Discourses, 8:30)

Ezra Taft Benson:

A few years ago we knew our Elder Brother well, and we knew his, and our, Father in heaven. We rejoiced at the upcoming opportunity for earth life that would make it possible for us to have a fullness of joy like they had. We could hardly wait to demonstrate to our Father and our Brother, the Lord, how much we loved them and how we would be obedient to them in spite of the earthly opposition of the evil one. And now we’re here—our memories are veiled—and we’re showing God and ourselves what we can do. And nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us. And then, President Young said, we’re going to wonder why we were so stupid in the flesh.
(Jesus Christ-Gifts and Expectations, New Era May 1975)

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)

Truman Madsen on Spirit Memories

The late President Joseph F. Smith, in speaking of the youth of Jesus, and in speaking of His self-awareness, in a very classic passage called spirit memories, says this as pertaining to the preexistence:

He surely knew who He was before He entered mortality. He would have known beforehand the mission that He had been committed to fulfill. We read that He solemnly and voluntarily gave himself in the Council in Heaven, and that the Plan of Salvation was made in His presence, and that we all sanctioned it. He would have known at least some of those with whom he would live while in mortality, his parents, his forbears. He would have known those who were to be called as his disciples and apostles, and would have anticipated the main events in His life.

And then said Joseph F. Smith,

If He knew, so did we.

And in a measure, therefore, there is locked in us, but far more profoundly in Him, a burgeoning awareness, and we have glimpses of our own potential early on, reinforced by the spirit of prophecy and revelation in those who surround us. So Jesus grew, as the scriptures say, and grew in both wisdom and knowledge, and grew into the likeness of the mission which He had been given. All this came home to me in a vivid way as I stood on the Shores of the Galilee and contemplated the question of how it was that Jesus could stand, look out to two fishermen, call them by name, and say, "Follow me." And says the record, "They straightway left their nets." I was standing there with President Hugh B. Brown, and expressed amazement at this sudden response and explained, as I supposed, that probably the record has been radically telescoped and that likely Jesus would have had to know and teach and work with these men for a long period before that occurred, and made a similar reference to the experience of John who apparently instantly recognized Jesus for whom he was. President Brown smiled and then told the following incident from his own life. He said,

I once was walking down a street in Salt Lake and saw in the distance on the sidewalk another man. He looked familiar to me though I did not know him. And that impression of familiarity grew as we approached. When we were side by side, it was almost like an electric shock. Each of us took a few steps, stopped, turned around and stared at the other, and then went on our way. Years later, I learned that that was Orson F. Whitney, who became a member of the Council of the Twelve as I became a member of the Council of the Twelve.

So his explanation for such familiarity was rooted in premortal considerations. And it was Orson F. Whitney, of whom he spoke, who wrote the following words:

One day, . . . on the subject of spirit memories, I was led to indulge these reflections. Why are we drawn towards certain persons, and they to us, as if we had always known each other? Is it a fact we always have? Is there something after all in the abused term affinity, and is this the basis of it’s claim? We believe that the ties formed in this life will continue in the life to come. Why not believe that we had similar ties before we came, and that some of them, at least, have been resumed in this state of existence? After meeting someone whom I had never met before on earth, I’ve wondered, "Why does that person’s face seem so familiar?" More than once on hearing a noble sentiment expressed though unable to recall that I’d ever heard of it until then, I found myself in sympathy with it, and felt as if I had always known it. The same is true with some strains of music; they are like echoes of eternity. I do not assert pre-acquaintance in all such cases, but as one thought suggests another, these queries arise in the mind. When it comes to the gospel, I feel more positive. Why did the Savior say, "My sheep know my voice?" Did a sheep know the voice of a shepherd it had never heard before? They who love the truth and to whom it most strongly appeals, were they not acquainted with it in a previous life? I think so. I believe we knew the gospel before we came here, and that is what gives to it a familiar sound. And so in other apostle’s words, "By the power of the Spirit, through obedience, we often catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul which lights up our whole being as with the glory of our former home."

Surely, if these experiences occur to men, they occurred to the growing teenage Jesus Christ.

(Truman Madsen, Jesus Of Nazareth Vol. 2 cas. 2)

Perspectives on Promised Persecution

Howard W. Hunter:

We stand on the summit of 150 years of Church history; yet there are other summits to climb before the work of God is crowned with victory. There will be tribulations collectively and hardships personally–that resistance so essential to the eternal plan. What makes us imagine that we may be immune from the same experiences that refined the lives of former-day Saints? We must remember that the same forces of resistance which prevent our progress afford us also opportunities to overcome. God will have a tried people! I witness today this truth from a verse of one of our favorite hymns: When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine (Hymns no. 85). May God bless us to endure well the purpose for which we were sent. (Conference Report, April 1980, Saturday Afternoon)

Brigham Young:

God led this people in different parts of the United States, and the finger of scorn has been pointed at them . . . . The Lord has his design in this. You may ask what his design is. You all know that the Saints must be made pure, to enter into the celestial kingdom. It is recorded that Jesus was made perfect through suffering. Why should we imagine for a moment that we can be prepared to enter into the kingdom of rest with him and the Father, without passing through similar ordeals? (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, pg. 263-264)

Ezra Taft Benson:

Opposition has been and will be the lot of the Saints in the kingdom in any age. The finger of scorn has been pointed at us in the past, and we may expect it in the future. . . . . As the world drifts further away from God and standards of virtue and honor, we may expect opposition to the work of the Church. We may expect to see the time, as the Book of Mormon forecasts, when “multitudes. . . among all the nations of the Gentiles [will gather] to fight against the Lamb of God” (1 Ne. 14:13).The power of God and the righteousness of the Saints will be the means by which the Church will be spared (see 1 Ne. 14:14-15). Never before in our 150-year history has there been greater need for faithfulness among our members. . . . . Brothers and sisters, be faithful to the Church. Be strong in your callings. Keep your covenants, and God will bless you and preserve you in the trying days ahead. (Conference Report, April 1980, Saturday Afternoon)

Brigham Young:

Do I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in persecution? Yes, I do. It is one of the greatest blessings that could be conferred upon the people of God. I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in leveling His people to the dust of the earth, and reducing them to a state of abject poverty. (Journal of Discourses 2:7)

Bruce R. McConkie:

Nor are the days of our greatest sorrows and our deepest sufferings all behind us. They too lie ahead. We shall yet face greater perils, we shall yet be tested with more severe trials, and we shall yet weep more tears of sorrow than we have ever known before. . . . . But what we can see causes us to rejoice and to tremble. We tremble because of the sorrows and wars and plagues that shall cover the earth. We weep for those in the true Church who are weak and wayward and worldly and who fall by the wayside as the caravan of the kingdom rolls forward. We rejoice because of the glory and honor that awaits those who come forth out of all this tribulation with clean hands and pure hearts (seeps. 24:4). . . . . But the vision of the future is not all sweetness and light and peace. All that is yet to be shall go forward in the midst of greater evils and perils and desolations than have been known on earth at any time. . . . . The way ahead is dark and dreary and dreadful. There will yet be martyrs; the doors of Carthage shall again enclose the innocent. We have not been promised that the trials and evils of the world will entirely pass us by. (Conference Report, April 1980, Sunday Afternoon)

Brigham Young:

Well, do you think that persecution has done us good? Yes. I sit and laugh, and rejoice exceedingly when I see persecution. I care no more about it than I do about the whistling of the north wind, the croaking of the crane that flies over my head, or the crackling of the thorns under the pot. The Lord has all things in His hand; therefore let it come, for it will give me experience. Do you suppose I should have known what I now know, had I not been persecuted? (Journal of Discourses 2:8) Gordon B. Hinckley: “We know not what lies ahead of us. We know not what the coming days will bring. We live in a world of uncertainty. For some, there will be great accomplishment. For others, disappointment. For some, much of rejoicing and gladness, good health, and gracious living. For others, perhaps sickness and a measure of sorrow. We do not know. But one thing we do know. Like the polar star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives. He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith. In sunshine and in shadow we look to Him, and He is there to assure and smile upon us. (Conference Report, April 2002, Sunday Afternoon)

Robert D. Hales:

In recent decades the Church has largely been spared the terrible misunderstandings and persecutions experienced by the early Saints. It will not always be so. The world is moving away from the Lord faster and farther than ever before. The adversary has been loosed upon the earth. We watch, hear, read, study, and share the words of prophets to be forewarned and protected. (Conference Report, October 2013, Saturday Morning)

The Church Clarifies its History in Regard to Race Relations

Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.

Source: lds.org

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.