Knowing For Sure

I was afraid when I started college. I was afraid because I didn’t know The Book of Mormon was true yet. I was afraid because I would be going out on a mission soon to testify about a book when I still had questions about it. Sure, it felt good to read it. But I didn’t know. It troubled my soul so deeply. So for weeks on end as a freshman at college I read from its pages in my dorm room. I would kneel and beg the Lord to know if what I had just read was true. Then I would sit up and read some more. Then I would kneel and pray again. I did this day after day for weeks. One evening while I was walking alone through campus, it happened. As I was praying again in my heart to know the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon, the clouds in my heart and in my head suddenly lifted. A warm feeling burst through my soul and pierced my heart, just like an exploding star. I started to cry. I knew immediately it was a personal revelation from the Lord. It was as real as I sit here and type this entry. All my senses were suddenly accentuated by the wave that had just enveloped me. The warmth and its penetration stayed with me for days. I gloried in the Lord for the gift I had been given. It was equally real for me as it was for Alma or Nephi to see an angel, as real as Joseph Smith having the First Vision. It was real because it was so physical, and there was no room for doubt. Like Joseph Smith, I knew it, I knew God knew that I knew it, and I could not deny it. The feelings of this personal revelation slowly faded after a couple of weeks. But it has never fully gone away. It guides me in all truth, for my spiritual antenna recognizes and knows what to look for. It continues to do so to this day.

  Moroni 10:4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

LESSON LEARNED:  A personal witness of The Book of Mormon, received through the Holy Ghost, is a real and obtainable thing.

FEEDBACK:  HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED THIS TO SOME DEGREE IN YOUR LIFE YET?