Skip to main content

he Lord can't reveal to you and I what we can't understand (Brigham Young)

 “The Lord can't reveal to you and I [what] we can't understand;…for instance when Joseph first received revelation, The Lord could not tell him what he was going to do. He didn't tell him he was going to call him to be a prophet, seer, revelator, high priest and founder of [the] Kingdom of God on the earth. Joseph would have said… ‘just what does that mean? You are talking that I can't understand.’ He could merely revealed to him that the Lord is pleased to bless him and forgive his sins and there was a work for him to do on the earth…

The first time He sent [an] angel to visit him, he could lead his mind a little further. He could reveal to him that there were certain records deposited on in the earth to be brought forth for the benefit of [the] inhabitants of the earth. He could reveal after this that Joseph could get them; then he could reveal that he should have power to translate the records from the language and characters in which it was written and give it to the people in the English language, but this was not taught him first…

After this he could tell him that he could receive the high priest had organized the church and so on. This is the way the Lord has to instruct all people on the earth. I make mention of this to show you that…the Lord can't teach all things to people at once. He gives [a] little here and a little there, revelation upon revelation upon revelation, a precept today, tomorrow another, the next day another. If the people make good use of it and improve upon what the Lord gives them he is ready to bestow more.” 

Brigham Young, Discourse 25 March 1855, Papers of George D. Watt, MS 4534, box 3, disk 1 images 142-53, transcribed by LaJean Purcell Carruth)(emphasis added)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The God of the 4th Watch (S. Michael Wilcox)

The scriptures are our Father in Heaven’s letters; only He knows more than I did as a father what you and I would need.  There are times in our lives when we need to open the letter and communicate with our Father in Heaven, and understand what He is like and His concern for us.  I would like to share this morning, with you, four letters from my Father in Heaven that have been very important to me—that I hope will be indicative of the power that the scriptures can be for us as we face different trials and challenges of our lives.  The first letter is called "The Fourth Watch." That letter comes from the sixth chapter of Mark.  The Savior has fed the five thousand that day, and in the late afternoon, early evening, He is sending his apostles down into the ship. He will dismiss the multitude. He wishes to pray that evening, and then He will meet the apostles a little later on the shore and they are to pick Him up.  In late afternoon, early evening, the apostles...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brigham's confidence in Joseph Smith (Brigham Young)

I can tell the people that once in my life I felt a want of confidence in brother Joseph Smith, soon after I became acquainted with him. It was not concerning religious matters—it was not about his revelations—but it was in relation to his financiering—to his managing the temporal affairs which he undertook. A feeling came ever me that Joseph was not right in his financial management, though I presume the feeling did not last sixty seconds, and perhaps not thirty. But that feeling came on me once and once only, from the time I first knew him to the day of his death. It gave me sorrow of heart, and I clearly saw and understood, by the spirit of revelation manifested to me, that if I was to harbor a thought in my heart that Joseph could be wrong in anything, I would begin to lose confidence in him, and that feeling would grow from step to step, and from one degree to another, until at last I would have the same lack of confidence in his being the mouthpiece for the Almighty, and I would ...
Post a Comment
Read more

pray for gifts to overcome weaknesses (George Q. Cannon)

If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind. Am I an envious man? It is my duty to seek for charity, which envieth not. So with all the gifts of the gospel. They are intended for this purpose. No man ought to say, “Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.” He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives these gifts and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order that they may be a perfect people upo...
Post a Comment
Read more