Unorthodox Answers

Yes, I have had personal revelation that was not in line with general guidelines / policies / practices.

It depends on what you mean by “retribution”. I have had people not understand and disagree with me; I have had members tell me I was wrong; I have been told I shouldn’t believe or do something. However, retribution usually means “retaliation” and implies a response to something I have done TO someone else that harms them in some way – so I don’t think it applies to the things I have done and said.

My “revelation” experience was basically that I am accepted by God. I imagine it to be similar to the “Your sins are forgiven thee” moment experienced by many people throughout history.

It has caused me to to be much less concerned about self perfection and much more accepting of myself as a beautifully flawed and dynamic masterpiece in progress.

I now place less emphasis on “small stuff” (like holding a TR) that others believe is vitally important.

I am open to the possibility that my revelation came from within my deepest needs – but my perspective is permanently changed regardless.

I do get responses of disaproval from some – but the beauty of my position is that the approval of others is likewise less important than it once was.

Thanks for your responses everyone, and I loved the article you shared Orson. I had a bishop like that in a singles ward I was in years ago. He never got released after serving for years. His “release” was a heart attack in the night, and I have never been to a funeral with so many people. He was the most non-judgmental, and loving man. I have realized recently that repressing personal revelation, just because it wasn’t exactly in line with the common belief or teachings of the church, has been a huge cause of my anxiety issues. It was a bold move for me to finally say out loud to God that I just want to know the truth and to follow it no matter the costs, and I have stuck to that. I have had death anxiety ever since my son died five years ago. I couldn’t figure out why, after all, I had the gospel, right? I was going to the temple and doing all the list of things I was supposed to be doing, but I felt like I was missing something. Now I know. It was my constant efforts to turn off my conscience, or intuition, or the Spirit…whatever you want to call it. My inner voice was being ignored out of fear of being deemed “unworthy” from my husband, family, and other members. I wanted validation more than I wanted to do what was right. Even though I do not see things in such an orthodox way anymore, I have felt that fear slip away, and it is amazing! Sometime I may share what my “unorthodox” answers have been, but I am not sure I am ready yet. It’s a great story, but a long one. Again, thank you for the great advice and feedback!

See Denver Snuffer as the poster boy for somebody who’s personal revelation when contrary to the church, and he suffered retribution.

I have a had a few. For example, I felt it was right for my wife to go out to work rather than stay at home with my daughter as a baby and toddler. I won’t go into why, but I felt it was very necessary. My daughter was raised in a Montessori school during the day, and she blossomed. She is a pillar of organization as a result, loves sorting, organizing, cleaning — and she is extremely well-adjusted and confident. We got a lot of flack about this — at least, my wife did — but we kept on doing it. It worked out great.

I realize that in recent decades there is less emphasis on having a lot of children and the woman staying at home, but at the time, it was very much part of the culture, and my wife in particular suffered for it.

I’ve had experiences where I’ve received personal revelation, and it hasn’t been contrary to the express doctrines and policies of the church, but it was more about personal decisions, and I got those feelings that are supposed to indicate that I’m receiving revelation, but then if I shared them with anyone else, they would rush right in to try and convince me that it wasn’t. I always found it so odd that members of the church would try and dissuade me from my experience of personal revelation. I would think that, given our commitment to personal revelation as an essential principle of the gospel, that members of the church wouldn’t try and cast doubt on it and therefore interfere with it.