From his emphasis on the promise in James 1: 5 ("if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God ...and it shall be given him") leading to the First Vision, to the promise of Moroni 10: 4 ("I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and ... he will manifest the truth of it unto you"), to D&C 93: 1 ("It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandmetns, shall see my face and know that I am"), and in numerous other places throughout his ministry, Joseph reiterated both the possibility and imortance of each soul coming directly to God.
This is the role of a true messenger. It is to bring others into harmony with God. Not to titillate them with new information, leaving them without knowledge of God. When someone delivers a new message that does not include knowledge about how the audience may come to God themselves, then the primary intent is always to make others dependent on the messenger. It is vanity. It is prideful. It is to call attention to themselves in an effort to place themselves above their fellow man, and interject themselves between the person and God. It is priestcraft.
The "welfare of Zion" consists of teaching others how to come to God themselves, and receive the heavenly promises directly from God. (See 2 Ne. 26: 29) Zion will be composed exclusively of those who can endure the presence of God. Therefore, it is necessary for everyone to come up to the heavenly mount by their own repentance and remembrance of the Lord.
It is foolishness to separate information about the Lord's doings from instruction on how to become redeemed. It is vanity to spread new, and personal revelation about the afterlife, God, man, prophecy, visionary encounters, and spiritual experiences if the primary reason does not focus on instructing how the audience can come to God themselves. It is also dangerous to trust teachings which fail to give you guidance on how you can find God for yourself. If all that is delievered is a message about some great experience, the experience was not intended for you. It isn't important. It is the way to find God that will save you. Not someone else's new, and exciting spiritual manifestation.
I've shared almost nothing of the things I have learned. But I've tried to share everything about how you can "come and see" (John 1: 46). Still, however, there are very few who can detect the difference. Still there remain those who are tossed to and fro by the sleight of men. (Eph. 4: 14.)
Here's how things really work: New revelation for the church comes from the top. It is not binding upon anyone unless it comes through the correct channel, and then is sustained as binding upon the church. Whether you like that system or not, that is the system. HOWEVER, every church member is obligated to teach one another the doctrines of the kingdom. Expounding, exhorting, teaching, and instructing is a common obligation imposed upon us all. Therefore, everything I have written, all I have taught, and the things I have testified about are confined to elaborating upon the established doctrines of the church, the revelations in the Book of Mormon, the other standard works, and Joseph Smith's teachings. I've said almost nothing about my personal revelations because they were intended for me. They will not help you. They equip me to be able to preach, teach, exhort and expound, but just publishing what I know to the world will not aid any other person in their individual journey.
Salvation for you is a journey exactly like the journey undertaken by Joseph Smith. Which is also identical to the journey undertaken by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Which was modeled upon the pattern coming down through Noah. Who was a contemporary with Enoch, both of whom undertook the same journey. Which originated with Adam, who came back into God's presence three years previous to his death, and received "comfort" from the Lord (D&C 107: 53-55). The Lord is the promised Comforter who will come to all of us on the same conditions (John 14: 23, D&C 130: 3). I was asked, and wrote a manual on that process in the first book, The Second Comforter: Conversing With the Lord Through the Veil
. The purpose of the book has nothing to do with my own recognition or importance. Throughout the book my many failings are discussed. The book is about the reader, and how the reader can come to know God. Still people will go to great trouble, and spare no effort to find someone who will only give a titillating peek behind the veil, but who will do nothing to instruct you on how you can meet God here, be redeemed from the fall of man, and come back into God's presence. This is the purpose of the Gospel, and the definition of redemption. (Ether 3: 13.) Telling about personal experience cannot help another. Testifying to the process, however, is the burden of all true teaching.
I am a fool, and anyone who thinks otherwise is misled. My only relevance is the common obligation imposed upon us all to preach, teach, exhort and expound. I confine all I do to that obligation. The only thing I can offer anyone is to point them to the One who is filled with truth and light, which is intelligence. (D&C 93: 36.) And still there are those who cannot discern between what and how I teach, and how others who are practicing only priestcraft do so. I am saddened, not particulary surprised, but saddened. These are the times we live in. (Isa. 29: 9-10.)
What more could have been done than the Lord has already done? Is it not us, not He, upon whom the blame must be lain?
The Latter-day famine continues unabated still. Not because there isn't something worth consuming, but because we crave only the weakest of gruel, which cannot sustain life. Therefore, let us all feast away and still become famished until at last we perish without hope, having wasted the days of our probation. We didn't care much for Joseph's message in his day, and we fail to even notice it in ours.
