Recently, we’ve heard a lot from President Nelson about the importance of personal revelation, and in hearing the voice of the Lord.  In fact, there was an entire campaign with the tag line of HearHim leading up to the conference, which has hopefully carried into these interesting COVID related times where some of us are still doing at home church, or a hybrid version of at home and in person church.  This, in conjunction with the Come Follow Me initiative has all of us hopefully striving to really hear the voice of the Lord among all the noise.  

For most of us, hearing someone speak is a very simple process, especially when they speak our language (common, everyday english).  But revelation is a different type of language altogether right, so it makes sense to review a few helpful rules about what it takes to learn and speak and understand a new language.  

1. There are no secrets and no shortcuts.
2. Connect with a native speaker.  The best way to learn a new language is to speak it.  Too often, people spend time studying grammar and memorizing lists of words instead of actually practicing.  
3. Study the language every day.  If you want to learn a new language, you have to commit to studying the language – every day.  Language learning is based on repetition (hammering something into your brain over and over again) until you remember it. 
4. Carry a dictionary at all times.  You need to be able to consult it quickly, whenever you need a word (or some insight).  In addition, looking up a word (or principle) and using it immediately in a sentence will help you commit the word (or principle) to memory. 
5. Watch, listen, read, and write in your chosen language.  Immersing yourself in a language means doing ALL of the activities you would normally do in your native tongue, through the eyes of your new language.  Change your language settings completely….
6. Visit a place where your new language is spoken.  Visit, and spend time there.  Force yourself to interact, or by simply saying hello. You will gain a new appreciation of the language and it’s speakers (those who have spent the time necessary to learn this new language).

A Key Word

There is a key word that will help us understand how this new language can be learned and understood (and maybe more importantly, how long this process should take and what it may look or feel like).  That key word is wrought.  This word is used in several different passages of scripture, and very often is used when defining exactly how the spirit worked on an individual, or influenced an individual’s actions – over time.  

This is helpful because sometimes we read the scriptures and it says something like ‘and it came to pass that the Lord spoke unto me and said’…. or indicates a set of instructions that were given and we may think the voice of the Lord came to these prophets in a conversational dialogue similar to how we humans and friends talk to each other. While that does and has happened, and is sometimes very specific – it is probably very rare. The more likely case is that these prophets condensed a significant amount of questioning, pondering, searching, and time that passed into a single verse years after the actual event occurred (they weren’t engraving the plates in real time on a day to say basis). In other words, the “and it came to pass” is just as important as what follows it, and the characters that we all love in scripture had to learn this language as well.

Some examples of this principle and this key word include:

1 Ne. 13:12 the Spirit came down and wrought upon (the man)…

Ether 12:14-16,18 it was faith that wrought a change upon the Lamanites

Mormon 9:16-19, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes?

4 Ne. 1:5,13,29, there were great and marvelous works wrought by the disciples of Jesus

Moroni 7:37, it is by faith that miracles are wrought

Alma 5:12-13, there was a mighty change wrought in his heart

Moroni 6:4, wrought upon and cleansed

That is just a few of the many many examples of that word being used in a very specific and very consistent way throughout the scriptures.  Pay attention as you read and you’ll be surprised at how often that particular word is used.  

We probably all know what wrought means (generally), but what does it mean specifically?

The definition of ‘wrought’ is 

1. (in metal work) = beaten out, or shaped by hammering.  
2. (material or mixture) = bring to a desired shape or consistency by hammering, kneading, or some other method.
3. Move or cause to move gradually or with difficulty into another position, typically by means of constant movement or pressure
4. (joints in a wooden ship) = loosen and flex under repeated stress

This doesn’t sound to me like it works immediately or is touched one time and molded into the perfect shape. In fact, it sounds like it requires quite a bit of consistent hammering, kneading, pressure, beating, loosening and flexing, etc.  In other words, learning what is being said in this language is oftentimes a slow, gradual mistake prone process that gets closer and closer to the desired shape as time goes on.  Of course it is, and understanding this or any other language in its fullness or becoming fluent takes even longer and more practice.

This key word important because it is used so consistently as it relates to how the spirit influences us and how things and changes are accomplished; and because “the words and the way they are used in the Book of Mormon should become our source of understanding and should be used by us in teaching gospel principles”² (Ezra Taft Benson)

Conclusion:

If you’ve ever learned a new language, the beginning stages are completely awkward and foreign, and you initially feel like there is literally no way and no hope of ever understanding a single word.  Yet, as time passes, and your effort remains consistent, soon you find yourself understanding a few things here or there, and then eventually you recognize things instantaneously rather than having to translate this new language word by word.  So, as we begin this process, and as we try our best to learn this new language, let’s remember the rules…. And the key word, that it is being wrought upon us.

But this time think of them as learning to recognize the language of revelation.  

1. There are no secrets and no shortcuts.
2. Connect with a native speaker.  The best way to learn a new language is to speak it.  Too often, people spend time studying grammar and memorizing lists of words instead of actually practicing.  
3. Study the language every day.  If you want to learn a new language, you have to commit to studying the language – every day.  Language learning is based on repetition (hammering something into your brain over and over again) until you remember it.  (i.e. being wrought) 
4. Carry a dictionary at all times.  You need to be able to consult it quickly, whenever you need a word (or some insight).  In addition, looking up a word (or principle) and using it immediately in a sentence will help you commit the word (or principle) to memory.  Can you think of a dictionary for the language revelation? I can.
5. Watch, listen, read, and write in your chosen language.  Immersing yourself in a language means doing ALL of the activities you would normally do in your native tongue, through the eyes of your new language.  Change your language settings completely….
6. Visit a place where your new language is spoken.  Visit, and spend time there.  Force yourself to interact, or by simply saying hello. You will gain a new appreciation of the language and it’s speakers (those who have spent the time necessary to learn this new language).  

So, if you’d like to start learning this new language, and if you’d like some hints on numbers 1- 6 above, or to review some of the material used by those best at this process – I’ll finish with this quote:  

“I think that people who study the scriptures get a dimension to their life that nobody else gets and that can’t be gained in any way except by a study of the scriptures….a feeling of inspiration and understanding that comes to people who study the gospel… and who ponder the principles, that can’t come in any other way.”       -Bruce R. McConkie

Extra Credit

This post is primarily about learning a new language as it refers to revelation in general, but for extra credit, let’s go this same exact process, but with the assumption that the language I’d like to learn is symbolism.  After all, “God teaches with symbols; it is his favorite way of teaching.”  (Orson F. Whitney)

If that is true, then we not only need to learn the language of revelation, but we need to learn the language that God uses to teach us.  Yes they are connected, and revelation is also required to understand that language, but if I had to give any one person one challenge for their entire life (after the challenge to read the Book of Mormon every day) – it’s this one.  Learn this language.  As you go through the process of trying to learn how to speak that language – things will never be the same.  At some point, I will expand my post from Oct. 2018 to include more on this, but the idea of things being “hidden in a manner that the people did find them” is most appropriate.  

Notes

1 – Watch this video.  It is incredible, and I include it here as a note to make sure that you don’t think I am discounting the possibility of and encouragement for continuous revelation, because as Elder Bednar indicates, it is in fact much more attainable (and even expected) than we may think.  

2 – I have many, but this particular quote is probably my all time favorite. At some point I will have an entire entry (or series of entries) dedicated just to this quote (and what it has meant to me personally over the years), but hopefully the reader can review some of my previous posts and recognize how I’ve used certain words or phrases in my writing that have also been influenced by this idea.