“The Voice of the Lord”

Church Educational System

[One] way by which we receive revelation is the way that the Prophet Enos spoke of. After he had gone up and received the great commission to carry on the work and to write the record, he penned this very significant statement in his record in the Book of Mormon. ‘And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the voice of the Lord came into my mind again, saying …’ (Enos 10.) In other words, sometimes we hear the voice of the Lord coming into our minds, and when it comes the impressions are just as strong as though he were talking as with a trumpet into our ear. Jeremiah says something like that in Jeremiah 1:4: ‘Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying …’ He was having the voice of the Lord into his mind, as Enos said.

In the story of the Book of Mormon we have Nephi upbraiding his brothers, calling them to repentance; and in his statement to them he gives voice to the same thought when he says, ‘And he hath spoken unto you in a still, small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words.’ (1 Nephi 17:45.) Thus the Lord, by revelation, brings into our minds as though a voice were speaking.

May I bear humble testimony, if I may be pardoned, to that fact? I was once in a situation where I needed help. The Lord knew I needed help and I was on an important mission. I was awakened in the hours of the morning—as though someone had wakened me to straighten me out on something that I had planned to do in a contrary course—and there was clearly mapped out before me as I lay there that morning, just as surely as though someone had sat on the edge of my bed and told me what to do. Yes, the voice of the Lord comes into our minds, and we are directed thereby.

(Harold B. Lee, “Divine Revelation” [address given to the Brigham Young University student body, 15 Oct. 1952], pp. 7–8)

Book of Mormon Student Manual (1996 Edition)

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