Hopefully this guy won't turn you completely off,LDS Anarchist wrote: ↑October 14th, 2017, 3:35 pmLook, my experience with revelation isn't going to be like that of another, because I also have the gift of discerning of spirits. For example, the first time I had a revelation, at the age of nine, I believed it, but I didn't know it was a revelation. In my nine year old words, "It was like a puzzle with all its pieces scattered around the floor had suddenly come together so that I could finally and perfectly see the picture." I got perfect understanding of the thing communicated. But I didn't know it was a revelation. Then the Lord gave me the gift of the discerning of spirits. Then afterward He gave me another revelation. This time I could discern that the whole thing was divine.Jonesy wrote: ↑October 13th, 2017, 9:29 pmThat makes sense, but what in the heck do you mean by "intellectual feelings". Like an "aha" moment? So, you're saying whenever the scriptures relate feelings to the Spirit then it is talking about this intellectual feeling? Do you suppose some people are just more prone to express emotionally when they have the Spirit? For example, President Eyring?LDS Anarchist wrote: ↑October 13th, 2017, 8:53 pm Revelation doesn't come from emotional feelings, but from intellectual feelings.
I could ask you questions all day, too. But I'd rather know how you get this gift. I'm stuck in a hole and tired of my apparent inability to discern.
So, if I describe how it works with me, even if you have the gift of the word of knowledge, it doesn't do you any good, because what I can now notice about all these gifts comes from the use of the discerning of spirits. Without that gift, I'd be clueless to explain what goes on with the other gifts. And without that gift, you would not be able to discern the same things I discern, even if I give you a description of the process. In other words, even if I tell you the whole process, and you go and get a revelation, you still wouldn't be able to go through the same experience and discern all the nuances, unless you also had the discerning of the spirits.
But, as you asked, I'll tell you anyway.
There are five senses, right? Sight, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. When the voice of the Spirit speaks, it acts just like a normal voice. Normal voices can make things vibrate, right? And you can see a thing vibrate, right? So, when the Spirit speaks, sometimes a person with the gift of the word of knowledge will say, "I see that that is right," or "That doesn't look right to me." There is an "appearance" in their mind, in their brain, of right or wrong, when the Spirit manifests. And when voices speak and cause things to vibrate, sometimes you can hear a hum, right? The thing vibrating makes a sound, right? And so, someone who receives a revelation may say, "That sounds right to me," or, "That doesn't sound right." And when voices speak and cause things to vibrate, if you place your hand upon the vibrating thing you can feel the vibration through your hand, right? And so, someone who receives a revelation may say, "That feels right to me," or "That doesn't feel right to me." It's not an emotional feeling that is being described. It is something that is happening in the brain. Specifically, if you want me to be precise, in both the left prefontal lobe and the right prefrontal lobe. The information itself is deposited into the left prefrontal lobe and with the right prefrontal lobe the vibration is felt, or the vibration is observed or the hum of the vibration is perceived. It's not done with the eyes or ears or skin, but with the senses of the person's spirit body.
In other words, the Spirit's voice causes a resonance to occur on a human's own personal spirit body, and the voice information is deposited into that person's left prefrontal lobe, while the vibratory effects are perceived by the right prefrontal lobe.
Now, our emotions also come from the right prefrontal lobe, hence people's confusion about emotions being the voice of the Spirit. But these aren't emotional feelings I'm describing, but perceptive feelings or senses, our spirits directly perceiving the Spirit's voice.
Again, none of this is useful to you unless you have the discerning of spirits and can directly discern your own spirit vibrating at the Spirit's resonant frequency and resonant amplitude, when the Spirit speaks, like I can. This gift allows me to directly discern both my own spirit, and everyone else's spirit around me, to perceive foreign spirits acting upon them, or their thoughts and feelings, etc.
Now, tasting and smelling don't apply to the Spirit's voice. Do you taste someone's voice when he speaks, or smell his voice? No, it's just the sound you hear and the effects of that sound upon objects (the vibration and secondary humming it causes.) So, when the Spirit speaks, you don't taste anything or smell anything, and anyone who says he does is pulling your leg.
When the scriptures talk of feeling the Spirit, such as being past feeling, they are not speaking of emotional feeling, but of perceptive feeling. If your skin is numb, you can't feel anything. The skin is "past feeling." The blindness spoken of in the scriptures is not a physical blindness, but a spiritual blindness (blindness of mind), in which you cannot use your brain to spiritually perceive the vibration caused by the voice of the Spirit. Hardness of heart is yet another spiritual condition, not a physical condition, in which you cannot use your brain to spiritually feel the vibration caused by the voice of the Spirit. Those whose ears are closed are spiritually deaf, in which they cannot use their brains to spiritually hear the vibratory hum caused by the voice of the Spirit. All such people are past feeling, that is, their spiritual perceptions have gone dark (sight), deaf (hearing) and numb (tactile sensations.) It doesn't mean that they are incapable of feeling emotions.
The "fruit of the Spirit" spoken of in the scriptures, which is used by missionaries to "prove" that investigators are feeling the Spirit, are secondary effects of the voice.
So, when a person receives the Spirit, the Spirit will begin to make changes to that person, so that they become more loving, begin to experience joy, feel at peace, become longsuffering, become gentle, become good, increase in faith, meekness and temperance. Merely being loving, longsuffering, gentle and so forth, doesn't mean that the Spirit is upon you. Some of the most wicked people on earth still love their children and treat them with kindness and gentleness, etc., and yet they don't have the Spirit.But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
I honestly don't know why people choke up and sob when expressing gospel truth. I certainly don't do it. To me it appears to be a show, an act. The Lord doesn't care that you are crying when speaking of the gospel. We are to cry to the Lord. We are to wet our pillows in our prayers to Him, not to cry and sob towards others. We are to mourn for the wicked and lost and dead, but there is no requirement that we put up such a display when teaching or preaching the gospel. However, if one's desire is strong, then emotions can well up towards others. But welled-up emotions doesn't indicate the Spirit is manifesting. As a missionary I preached my companions and the local priests and reverends and pastors under the table, without shedding a tear. But I will cry an ocean of tears to my God in prayer. So, there are times when the Spirit causes one to cry, and those moments are appropriate, but there are moments when it's inappropriate to cry, when it gets in the way, or when one is doing it out of habit or as an act. In those times, it detracts from the message. It then becomes a substitute for the Spirit, a fake "Spirit," a means to say to others, "Look how righteous I am! See how much sobbing I do?"
Me personally, I don't want to see someone teach me a gospel principle with crying, or preach me a sermon through tears. I am listening to feast upon the gospel, not to watch your crying act. I don't like being one of the audience of your one-man show. For example, I'm sure Elder Hales was a great, great man, but he was unwatchable to me. No matter his topic, he got choked up about it, and it turned me completely off. I turn off the cryers. I'll read their messages later, without the tears, thank you very much.
As for how to obtain this or other gifts, you just have to ask God for it until you get it. I'm not sure what else I can say about it.
21 And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.
22 And when he had done this he wept again;
41 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard?