Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence

I just commented on another blog and I really wanted to excerpt a bit more from a talk by Elder Holland that I love. It is titled, "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence." Elder Holland had a wonderful insight in that talk which I've loved since I heard it. I'll have to abridge ruthlessly. And still look how much remains that I couldn't bear to chop.

Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. [D&C 8:3]

Question: Why would the Lord use the example of crossing the Red Sea as the classic example of "the spirit of revelation"? ...

Usually we think of revelation as information. ...This is too narrow a concept of revelation....

First of all, revelation almost always comes in response to a question, usually an urgent question.... In this case it was literally a matter of life and death.

You will need information, too, but in matters of great consequence it is not likely to come unless you want it urgently, faithfully, humbly. Moroni calls it seeking "with real intent" (Moroni 10:4)....

...Remember how urgently you have needed help in earlier times and that you got it. The Red Sea will open to the honest seeker of revelation. The adversary ... cannot conquer if we will it otherwise. "Exerting all [our] powers to call upon God," the light will again come, the darkness will again retreat, the safety will again be sure. That is lesson number one about crossing the Red Sea, your Red Seas, by the spirit of revelation.

Lesson number two is closely related to it. It is that in the process of revelation and in making important decisions, fear almost always plays a destructive, sometimes paralyzing role. ...

That is exactly the problem that beset the children of Israel at the edge of the Red Sea. That is lesson number two. It has everything to do with holding fast to earlier illumination. The record says, "And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid."

...What [some] actually said to Moses was, "Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? . . . It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness" (Exodus 14:10–12).

And I have to say, "What about that which has already happened? What about the miracles that got you here? What about the frogs and the lice? What about the rod and the serpent, the river and the blood? What about the hail, the locusts, the fire, and the firstborn sons?"

How soon we forget. It would not have been better to stay and serve the Egyptians, and it is not better to remain outside the Church nor to reject a mission call nor to put off marriage and so on and so on forever. ...

"And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. . . . The Lord shall fight for you."
...
That is the second lesson of the spirit of revelation. After you have gotten the message, after you have paid the price to feel his love and hear the word of the Lord, "go forward." Don't fear, don't vacillate, don't quibble, don't whine. ...

The third lesson from the Lord's spirit of revelation in the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea is that...God will also provide the means and power to achieve that purpose. Trust in that eternal truth. ...

God's grace is sufficient!

The entire talk is absolutely delicious and I wholly recommend it.