If you got a text message saying you won $1,000,000 dollars and you just need to enter your bank info would you? Of course not! What if you got a letter in the mail saying that you owe the IRS money asking you to wire money to an account? Would you? No! But surely if you got a phone call about your car’s extended warranty that is about to expire you would renew it… Right? No! But why not? Why would you not respond as directed in these communications? Because they are scams!
Some scams are super easy to detect, others are far more difficult. For example, elaborate scammers sometimes create an entire fake website that looks like your bank’s website, they then send out a phishing email that will take you to the fake website in hopes that you will enter your login information into it so they can steal it. What does any of this have to do with Hear Him? Everything! Just like scammers rely on false communications (emails/letters/texts/phone calls) to defraud people, Satan also relies upon false communications, also known as counterfeit personal revelation.
You catch a scammer in real life by authenticating your communication, if you got a letter from the IRS telling you to call a number you would google that number. If it pulls up as a valid office number for the IRS then you better call them! But if it turns out to be a scam number, you would ignore that letter. The same basic principles of authentication apply to personal revelation. To ensure personal revelation is from God and that you are hearing Him, and not from Satan and are being deceived by him.
Here are a few tests to authenticate your personal revelation:
1st Test: Bias
Why do people fall for get-rich-quick schemes? Well, first off they want to get rich quick! The scam simply offers them what they already want. This is a very common tactic of false communication. It often tells us what we want to hear. The same applies to personal revelation. President Dallin H. Oaks warned of bias and personal revelation when he taught: “Each of us is influenced strongly by our own desires and preferences. We may even mistake these influences as the ratification or prompting of the Holy Ghost.”
President Oaks goes on to explain that “It is therefore significant when we feel prompted to do something contrary to our personal preference. That is good evidence of authenticity.” and that “Conversely, a feeling that seems to confirm a person in some action he or she strongly desires should be received with caution and subjected to more than one test of validity.”
Whenever we receive a personal communication that tells us what we want to hear, it should raise a red flag. It does not mean that it is false, but it does mean that we must be extremely thorough in our authentication process.
2nd Test: Emotion
Many scams rely on emotion. They evoke fear by name-dropping the IRS or telling you this is your last chance for something. When it comes to hearing the voice of the Spirit, President Boyd K. Packer taught that “even though it is described as a voice, it is a voice that one feels, more than one hears.” Because most of our communication with the Spirit is through feelings we must take extra care to ensure personal revelation passes the emotion test. President Packer continued to teach that “The spiritual part of us and the emotional part of us are so closely linked that is possible to mistake an emotional impulse for something spiritual. We occasionally find people who receive what they assume to be spiritual promptings from God, when those promptings are either centered in the emotions or are from the adversary.”
In times or situations of heightened emotion, we must be careful to ensure that our personal revelation is an authentic revelation and not merely our emotions or the adversary. To do so first ask yourself what type of emotions are you feeling? Are they the fruits of the Spirit? Light, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness? Or are the feelings of animosity, darkness, contempt, anger, or pride? Jesus taught us that “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:20.) Revelation from God will bring the emotional fruits of the Spirit whereas Satan will bring emptiness and darkness.
NOTE: This includes hormones. We see this often when those dating desire to get married so desperately that they ‘receive revelation’ that the other person should marry them. Elder Gerald N. Lund referred to this as, “hormonal revelation.” (See 7 Principles Of Personal Revelation Every Latter-day Saint Needs To Know!)
3rd Test: Content
I get scam calls all the time telling me that my student loans are overdue. The only problem? I don’t have any student debt. The content of the communication is one of the clearest ways to decern authenticity. The content of personal revelation is what it is telling you to do. It is important to remember that the Lord said, “Mine house is a house of order” (D&C 132:8). And that Christ is not divided. (1 Cor. 1:12–13). This means that God is consistent.
Regarding the content of our personal revelation, President Dallin H. Oaks declares that “His message, like truth itself, will be consistent. God will not prompt his children to sin or go contrary to the specific direction or counsel of the leaders he has called and inspired to teach them. For this reason, we can often distinguish the promptings of the Holy Ghost from spurious signals by their consistency or lack of consistency with the commandments or counsel God has given us or all his children at an earlier time.”
A note about prophets:
We have the repeated promise that the Lord will not allow the prophet to lead us astray. (See 25+ Times we Have Been Promised That The Prophet Will Not Lead us Astray). That means that the words of the prophets are a fixed point. We verify that our personal revelation is authentic by comparing it with the scriptures, words, teachings, and counsel of the prophets. President Henrey B. Eyring taught that to avoid the pitfalls of counterfeit revelation “it is crucial that any personal revelation we receive be consonant with the teachings of the Lord and His prophets.” Like the sights of a gun, if we ensure our personal revelation aligns with prophetic teachings we will not miss the mark.
NOTE: It is important to know that we do NOT believe in prophetic infallibility. Prophets like all people can give their personal opinions. But we do believe that when acting in their official capacity their words are authoritative. I wrote this guide to help figure out if a quote you’ve heard or found is authoritative and therefore can be used to authenticate your personal revelation. “How Can I Tell if a Quote From a General Authority is Authoritative?“
Therefore what?
It is so vital that we learn how to hear Him. Because Satan gladly gives us false revelations, it is vital that we not only HEAR but that we also DISCERN who we are listening to. These three tests are not the only tests, but they are the cardinal tests. Ensuring our revelation is able to pass all three of these tests will verify that we are hearing Him.