The Four Keys of Receiving Revelation - Introduction

Introduction

Several months ago I read a book entitled 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice, written by a Christian minister named Mark Virkler. In his book, he describes the struggle and learning curve he went through to learn how to prepare himself to hear the voice of God and how to then recognize the voice of the spirit. He was ultimately given a four-step process that has been for him a sure method for receiving revelation. Since then, he has traveled extensively giving seminars on how to hear God’s voice to various Christian congregations. The feedback he has received is that the four-step method has worked for everyone that has put in enough effort to test it.

The four keys that he received through diligent seeking and revelation are:

1) Be still

2) Use your imagination to picture yourself having a conversation with the Lord

3) Listen for the answers to your questions as flowing thoughts into your mind

4) Write down the thoughts that come into your mind in a prayer journal

He recommends that you share at least some of the entries of your prayer journal with a few trusted spiritual advisors, ideally with your spouse being of them, who can verify that what you receive is truly from God.

I had been exposed to every one of the four keys from my experience in the church and studying the scriptures; however, I had never seen them put into one “package”. I have been practicing the four keys during the past few months and have found them to be very effective for me personally to obtain revelation and guidance from the Lord.

As I read the book and listened to several of his recorded presentations I realized that every one of the four keys were at least as well supported if not better supported by scriptures of the restored gospel (the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price) and by teachings of modern LDS church leaders. I also found that there are other important aspects to receiving revelation that are not covered in the four keys.

The desire was sparked in me to adapt the message from 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice to an LDS audience, using scriptures of the restored gospel as well as teachings of LDS church leaders. The core of the teaching is based on the four keys and through my own study and prayer I have expanded it to include other principles.

This compilation of materials is a result of my efforts to create a fairly comprehensive body of knowledge on several of the principles of receiving revelation. To my knowledge, no book or other publication intended for an LDS audience has been compiled illustrating so many of these principles in one package. This is not intended to be a definitive work on how to receive revelation, but rather a sample of many scriptural principles on that topic.

I realize that people are different and prepare for and receive revelation differently. God manifests things to us in diverse ways (see Moroni 7:24). A formula for receiving revelation is provided here, parts of which may not resonate with everyone. Please feel free to incorporate those principles detailed here into your own practice of communing with God with which you feel most comfortable. Also please do not feel obligated to incorporate any principles with which you do not feel comfortable. However, it is my hope and conviction that anyone who happens to study this material and put the effort into practicing the principles of receiving revelation that speak most to them, will definitely develop their ability to more frequently and surely hear the voice of God.

Below you will see an overview of the contents of the material, which is essentially a table of contents. Almost every item in the overview or outline is a question. In the body of the material, every question is answered with scriptures and quotes mostly from articles and talks found on the lds.org website, and most of those are from LDS apostles and church presidents, along with a few quotes from other sources. Where portions of talks and articles are quoted, the reader is encouraged to find the full, original source (by using the link provided) and read the entire talk or article.