Gaining spiritual truths is an interesting process. It requires different skills than we’re sometimes used to using when we learn things. D&C 8: 2-3 says the following in regards to learning via the spirit: “Yea, Behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holgy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation.”
It’s one thing to ‘feel’ something in your heart and think it might be a nice idea. It’s another thing to rely on those feeling for the learning of essential eternal truth. Fortunately, we are told that the spirit speaks to both our minds and our hearts. The process is spiritual and intellectual. We are to know and also to feel the truth. There is a definite language of the spirit by which we are to learn. The Lord would not leave such an essential process up to guessing.
Plato (who lived from 429 to 347 B.C.) wrote the well known book, The Republic. Though it is largely a political commentary with some philosophical overtones, he also discusses some other issues concerning knowledge and truth. He makes an analogy of the cave that I believe is applicable to our understanding of spiritual truths. The analogy is somewhat lengthy, and I summarize it as follows:
Several people are born in a cave with only the dimmest flame as light by which to see. Those people do not even face the flame. They are forced to sit in a position all of their lives where they can see only the wall, and whatever is happening behind them they can see only as the faint shadows that are cast upon the wall. If you were to take one of these individuals at adulthood and suddenly bring him outside into the light at noonday, he would essentially be blind. His eyes would not at first be able to comprehend the light there. He might even retreat back into the cave. After a while, however, he would be accustomed to the light and his whole world would be changed. After a time in this light, if you were to again face him toward the wall in the cave, he would not be able to perceive the shadows as well as he once did. The others facing the wall might even mock him for having lost his skill at seeing shadows on the wall, but that man would likely not care, having seen the greater light and existence without the cave.
The obvious application here is to learning spiritual truths. We can receive spiritual promptings, or see the light of day as Plato put it, and not comprehend them. If we don’t persist in trying to comprehend the spirit, we might even shy away from them and back into our cave of spiritual ignorance. However, once we have become more accustomed to the spirit, and living a life which allows for revelation, we would never want to retreat back into the cave. If we visit our old lives, the people there might even mock us for having moved on to other things. But the spirit still speaks the truth.
How do we expect to comprehend God (who we are to know, in order to receive eternal life, John 17:4), if we do not even comprehend the spirit by which he speaks? If we shun spiritual learning and impressions, we cannot hope to draw closer to God. God is a God of truth (Ether 3:12). Being perfect, we can assume that he does things in the best way possible that we can learn and grow. The best way that we have to learn from God and about Him, is through spiritual means. Learning the language of the spirit will
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