“Lesson 165—Seeking Personal Revelation for My Questions,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual (2025)
“Seeking Personal Revelation for My Questions,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual
Lesson 165: Doctrinal Mastery: Finding Answers to My Questions
Seeking Personal Revelation for My Questions
Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge, Part 1
Heavenly Father loves His children and wants us to become like Him. As we seek to learn about Him, Heavenly Father has promised to reveal truth to our minds and hearts through the Holy Ghost (see Doctrine and Covenants 8:2; Moroni 10:5). This lesson can help students understand how they can receive guidance and revelation from God through the Holy Ghost.
Possible Learning Activities
Surviving spiritually
Consider beginning the lesson by drawing a stick figure on the board that represents a teenager. Students could also copy this stick figure in their study journals. Students might enjoy coming up with a name for the stick figure, as well as some basic characteristics such as age, hobbies, and favorite foods.
As students answer the first of the following questions, write their answers around the stick figure on the board.
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What can make it difficult for teenagers to survive spiritually in today’s world?
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What can help us overcome these challenges or influences?
President Russell M. Nelson shared one way we can spiritually survive the challenges and influences we face:
The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation. …
… In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.
My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. (Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 96)
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What words or phrases from this statement were especially meaningful to you? Why?
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Why do you think receiving revelation from the Holy Ghost is essential for us to survive spiritually in our world?
Invite students to ponder their own need for revelation. You might invite them to record in their journal questions they have or reasons they need revelation right now in their lives. Or you could even have students share some of their questions or challenges they have faced as they have sought revelation in the past.
Encourage them as they study today to look for teachings and invitations that can help them prepare to receive revelation from God for their lives.
Receiving guidance and revelation from God
Read Mosiah 4:9 and Doctrine and Covenants 38:1–3, looking for characteristics about God that can help us desire His guidance.
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What do these scriptures teach you about God?
Give multiple students an opportunity to answer the previous question. Among the many responses students could give, they might mention a truth similar to the following: God has all wisdom and knows all things.
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How can knowing these characteristics of God impact your desire for Him to guide and teach you?
Write the following heading on the board: How can I receive answers from God?
Study paragraphs 1–3 of the “Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge” section in the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document (2023). Underline words or phrases that describe what you can do to receive answers from God to our spiritual questions.
In addition to studying from the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document, you could also invite students to search the scriptures for teachings that describe what we can do to receive answers from God. Examples of scriptures you might invite students to study include 2 Nephi 32:3–5; Moroni 10:4–5; Doctrine and Covenants 9:7–9; 42:61.
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What did you learn about what we can do to increase our ability to receive answers to our questions from God?
You could invite students to list on the board what they found.
Rather than asking the following question, you could ask various students to choose one of the words or phrases on the board that seems especially significant to them. They could then explain why they feel that word or phrase is an important way for us to prepare to receive answers to our questions.
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Why do you think these actions are important ways to prepare us to receive revelation through the Holy Ghost?
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What experiences have you had with receiving personal revelation? What actions helped prepare you to receive it?
Help students understand that they should not share anything that is too personal or sacred. You could also consider sharing an experience from your own life.
Applying it to your life
Invite the students to think about what they have learned today that could help them with the questions they have. Then share the following to help students apply the teachings they have learned today.
Recall the counsel from President Nelson that you studied at the beginning of the lesson: “I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation” (“Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” 96).
Consider what you have learned and felt today that can help you follow this counsel. Write in your study journal about what you will do to increase your ability to receive personal revelation through the Holy Ghost.
When the students have finished writing in their study journals, consider asking a few volunteers to share their plans with the class.
If there is sufficient time, you may want to let students know that in future lessons they will learn about three principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge that will also help them receive answers to their questions. You may already have some students that know the three principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge. Consider asking them to share if they know or having students find them in the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document. Assure them that they will have opportunities in seminary to increase their ability to receive revelation.