From Larry W. Tippetts and his book ‘Receiving Personal Revelation’.
“I am learning that the Spirit cannot always be felt or heard ‘on demand’, so to speak. There are times when we are almost desperate to feel God’s guidance and we feel nothing! I have experienced those times and have sought an explanation, one that will satisfy me, as well as others who may be more skeptical of the revelatory process. It may have something to do with our desperateness. We can become so exercised emotionally that we can’t seem to discern the Spirit. It is there, but we cannot feel it. I don’t understand why emotional intensity might be a barrier at such times. Usually the reverse is true. That is, our emotions tend to intensify the spiritual communications we are having and we have to guard against being swept up in emotion as a substitute for true spirituality.
“We often teach in the Church that a loving Father in Heaven will always come to our aid in a time of crisis or great need. Why do some seem to feel His Spirit so easily while others find the heavens like brass? Perhaps it has something to do with our agency and the rules of mortality. I have learned that in times of need for comfort or guidance when I feel nothing specific in response to my pleas, it helps if I will just relax somewhat and go forward in faith. The Spirit soon comes in the normal course of moving forward. Little flashes of insight, peace or reassurance come when we are open to them but do not try to force them.
“That is not to say that there are not occasions when the Spirit comes with great force at the moment of desperation and fills us with peace, faith and resolve. I have had such profound and immediate answers to my pleas. But more frequently I have to wait on the Lord. Elder Scott once said most of our prayers are answered when we get up from our knees. Perhaps that is what it means, at least in part, to ‘walk by faith.'” (December 2, 2003) ~Larry W. Tippetts (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, 2017). 189
