“He treated my communication not only lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, that there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and that there would never be any more of them.” (1:21)

Though our church encourages personal revelation, and I know of DC 28:2, I’ve sometimes felt frustrated over the question I titled this post. A guy in the group I ran, I think said it best. He said something like, “Why do we tell people to pray to get answers, when so often we act as though the right answer is prescribed (what leaders have declared)? If the person has no freedom to get a different answer, then why even bother to go through the prayer process?” (He was only expressing a frustration, not a cynical or bitter rejection of the church).

Leader’s did make a statement on gay marriage that members can differ, but that seemed to create some confusion over what the EXACT policy on differing is, and I think we can agree that “follow the brethren and local leaders” is quite important. And I do think there is also a norm of looking askance at a member saying he or she got a different answer.

I HAVE had what I considered kind and helpful discussions with local church leaders on these issues, and that is appreciated. Of course, we do allow for personal revelation, so we’re different than the Methodist minister talking to Smith after his visions, but I have heard talk from leaders similar to what the guy in the group noted: as though leaders are saying “you are only allowed to receive these handful of prescribed answers. Otherwise your answer isn’t real, is deception, etc.”

And at times like that I do feel some frustration. I mentioned on the last comment of the first post in this series that I’ve come to the point that I don’t give ultimate authority to others to interpret my spiritual experiences. Yes, those experiences can be confusing and I do appreciate insights from others. Yet like I said in that comment, I don’t find it very helpful if the guidance is something like, “I declare your spiritual expertise invalid because it doesn’t fit MY (the advice giver’s) theology.”

I noted in an earlier post that I see such absolute claims of knowledge of God’s thoughts and policies as problematic. In my experience, our human understanding of God and his purposes is less clear than such certain people will state, so if such a person or even leader makes such a declaration to me, then I think of the point I made in my last comment: I’m the one who experienced it. I’m happy for advice, but don’t tell me what I did or did not experience, since I experienced it, not you. Though this process can be confusing, it does remind me of verse 25, especially the end about not wanting to deny what he’d seen/experienced.

So I do find claims that only prescribed experiences and answers are allowed frustrating. Does God really need to follow OUR (humans’) rules if he wants to talk to us?