Your standing with the Lord

Recently, I attended an Institute class with my wife in which the instructor said that personal revelation can enlighten us as to our standing before the Lord. This statement greatly intrigued me.

 It had never occurred to me that the Lord would reveal to me my standing before Him through personal revelation. I always thought that I could perhaps gauge my standing with Him based on my level of obedience, my involvement in the Church, my commitment to service, and my scripture study.

But there is no meter or indicator that I can attach to my finger to measure my righteousness. There is no sweeping dial that can indicate my level of humility, my love of the gospel, my integrity, or my willingness to follow counsel.


As in all things, if we rely on our own judgment to determine our standing before the Lord, we will probably err.

So a very specific kind of personal revelation is needed. We need communication from the Lord that lets us understand our progress toward the goal; that lets us know how closely we are tracking to the path the Savior trod for us. We can receive such revelation because our God is a personal God. He knows our names, our needs, our wants, our temptations, our struggles, our pains, our sins, and our repentance. Only He can judge our standing. Joseph Smith said:

“When you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.” (italics added)

Grow into the principle of revelation? So how do we do this? How do we recognize the “sudden strokes of ideas” that come from the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)? It must be possible, because The Prophet of the restoration told us we could learn to do so. Hebrews 11:4-6 tells us (bold for emphasis):

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Verse 4 explains that God (Jehovah or Jesus Christ) testified to Abel of his gifts and gave him a witness of his righteousness. Verse 5 tells us that before his translation, Enoch received a testimony that he pleased God. Verse 6 tells us that God rewards them that diligently seek him. “diligently seeking” is explained in a conversation the Lord had through the Prophet, with Oliver Cowdery: In Section 10 of the Doctrine and Covenants verses 7 and 8, Oliver, and by inference, we, were told:

"Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right."

So it would seem that more is involved in “growing into” personal revelation than just a simple request for information. Seeking personal revelation is a process involving study (searching the scriptures), pondering (studying it out in your mind), and prayer (asking if it be right), and then recognizing the burning in your bosom (the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost). In Section 8 of the Doctrine and Covenants verses 1-3, Oliver is told:

"Oliver Cowdery, (substitute your name) verily, verily, I say unto you, that assuredly as the Lord liveth, who is your God and your Redeemer, even so surely shall you receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive a knowledge…Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground."

The Lord tells us that none other than the prophet Moses experienced the joy of both personal revelation and revelation for the whole of the Children of Israel. Based on these instructions to Oliver (and to us), and on countless other accounts of personal revelation in scriptures, journals, histories, and talks, we can say without equivocation that personal revelation is possible. So if Abel and Enoch and many others could receive personal revelation about their standing with the Lord, then it is possible for us to do so too. Bruce R. McConkie, in Mormon Doctrine, pg 644, says:

"Every devoted, obedient, and righteous person on earth has and does receive revelation from God. Revelation is the natural inheritance of all the faithful. "No man can receive the Holy Ghost," the Prophet said, "without receiving revelations. The Holy Ghost is a revelator." (Teachings, p. 328)"

Robert L. Millet, in his book, Alive in Christ: The Miracle of Spiritual Rebirth, pg 171 says:

"There is, then, a sense in which we can know our standing with the Lord. If we are living in such a way that the Holy Ghost can dwell with us, then we are in covenant, on course, in Christ. If we are doing all we can to cultivate the gift and gifts of the Spirit, we are living in what might be called a saved condition."

We can infer from this statement that if we are doing those things, we can receive personal revelation about out standing with the Lord. Elder William H. Mendenhall., in October 1918 General Conference, said:

"The privilege of knowing our standing before the Lord, and what the Lord expects of us as members of the Church, is within our right, and we have a right to go before the Lord and ask him, and receive from him inspiration and revelation pertaining to our own selves and the work that we should perform as members of the Church."

So exercising this right to know our standing depends on our obedience, devotion, and righteousness. We could even say that worthiness to receive personal revelation, to become what Anne Osborn Poelman, in her book The Simeon Solution: One Woman's Spiritual Odyssey, calls “prophets or prophetesses. With a small 'p’…” can give us an impression of our standing with the Lord.

You can become your own personal prophet. Live the gospel. Love the Lord. Become his witness in whatsoever difficult circumstances we may be in for the word's sake (D&C 6:18). Do so and the Lord will bless you with personal revelation about your standing in the gospel.