Scripture study is about so much more than reading words on a page. As we make an effort to study the scriptures, we invite the Holy Ghost into our lives. So when we diligently study the scriptures every day, we can have a revelatory experience every day.1
The Lord preserved the scriptures for us
When Jesus Christ visited the American Continent after His resurrection, He asked the prophet Nephi to bring Him their records.2 After reviewing the records, the Savior asked Nephi why they hadn’t written some of Samuel the Lamanite’s prophecies, then He commanded Nephi to write them.3
This interaction shows us how much the Savior cares for the scriptures. He has inspired His prophets to teach and testify. He has also inspired them to write and to preserve those records.
The scriptures are preserved for our benefit, so it is no wonder that the Savior has commanded us to search the scriptures diligently.4
It is easier to study diligently if we love the scriptures
The scriptures can be hard, and it is easier to search them if we learn to love them.
In this last general conference, Elder David A. Bednar said that enduring to the end is not merely a relentless determination to grit our teeth and hold on to the limits of our mental capacity. He said it is the joyous quest of a lifetime.5
Using that principle, scripture study shouldn’t cause us to grit our teeth or be stretched to the limits of our mental capacity. It should be a joyous quest. However, that requires some effort and a process of self-discovery.
I learned to love the scriptures by realizing I love scripture stories
In 2013, I learned how self-discovery can help us learn to love the scriptures.
That year I set a goal to read the Doctrine and Covenants. I turned 39 in 2013, and although I had read and enjoyed the Bible and the Book of Mormon, I had never read the Doctrine and Covenants, mainly because I thought it was boring, so I never really liked it. In addition to setting a goal to read it, I prayed that I could learn to love it.
The first couple of months were drudgery. But I pressed forward, and I supplemented my study with various Church resources, such as the seminary and institute manuals. In February 2013, I started actively studying Church history, and I very quickly began to enjoy the Doctrine and Covenants.
That experience taught me something about myself. I need to know the scripture stories. I struggle with abstract concepts, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to be lived. Scripture stories give us concrete examples of how to live the gospel, so those stories help me better understand the doctrines. As I made an effort to study Church history together with the Doctrine and Covenants, I found the stories, and I did learn to love the Doctrine and Covenants.
Studying the scriptures is easier if we enjoy it. If you are struggling to find joy in your study of the scriptures, I invite you to use the Church’s resources, both in the gospel library app and on the Church’s website. Make the effort to discover what you love about the scriptures.
Daily scripture study leads to daily revelatory experiences
As we learn to love studying the scriptures, and as we make an effort to study, we will receive great blessings. Our daily scripture study can become a personal tutoring session through the Holy Ghost.
In discussing the gift of the Holy Ghost, Elder Bednar taught that the wording of the ordinance, which is “receive the Holy Ghost,” is not a passive pronouncement, but is a priesthood injunction to seek, to work, and to live in a way that we invite the Holy Ghost into our lives.6
The Lord loves effort,7 and our effort to study the scriptures every day is one way to actively invite the Holy Ghost into our lives.
The Holy Ghost is a revelator,8 and as we invite the Holy Ghost into our lives by studying the scriptures, we will have revelatory experiences.
Through scripture study, we experience principles of revelation
Shortly after I graduated from high school, I had an experience that helped me realize that time spent studying the scriptures was time when I could learn how to receive revelation.
In my first semester at BYU, I took a Book of Mormon class. At BYU, religion classes are required, and they count toward your GPA. So I did something in that Book of Mormon class I never did in Seminary: I studied.
Early in the semester, I was reading 1 Nephi 13, and the last few words caught my attention: “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.”9
A big part of our grade was to keep a scripture journal, so after reading those words, I wrote something in my scripture journal like, “the last on earth will be first in heaven, and the first on earth will be last in heaven,” then I moved on to finish the assigned reading for that day.
But as I tried to continue, I couldn’t focus. Those words, “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last,” echoed in my mind. I kept having to start chapter 14 over, because I couldn’t remember what I was reading.
After a couple of moments of that struggle, I went back to chapter 13 to take a look at those words again and see if they meant something different than what I had written in my scripture journal. I re-read the last verse of chapter 13, I re-read a few verses before it, and I took just a moment to think about what that phrase might mean.
Then, all of a sudden, I understood. It was like a lightbulb turned on. That phrase wasn’t talking about the final judgment. It was teaching about the restoration of the Savior’s church in the latter days. His church was first organized among the Jews, but in the latter days it would be restored first to the Gentiles, who would then take it to the Jews.
That experience is a foundation of my faith. Not necessarily because of what I learned, but how I learned it. I had experienced for myself a principle of revelation taught in Doctrine and Covenants section 9.
We learn principles of revelation by experience
During the translation of the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery wanted to try and translate. The Lord gave him the chance, but he wasn’t able to do it. Section 9 of the Doctrine and Covenants is a revelation in which the Lord explained to Oliver why he wasn’t able to translate. He said:
[Y]ou have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.
But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong.10
That night, as I was studying the Book of Mormon as a freshman at BYU, I experienced for myself what the Lord taught to Oliver Cowdery. My struggle to focus as I tried to read chapter 14 is how I experienced that stupor of thought. That sudden insight,11 together with that feeling of rightness as I understood the meaning of those words, is how I experienced the burning in the bosom.
That principle of revelation was no longer an abstract concept for me. I didn’t have to wonder what a “burning in the bosom” or “stupor of thought” felt like, because I had experienced it.
The power in scripture study comes as we receive the Holy Ghost
When we diligently search the scriptures, we learn so much more than just words on a page. We learn principles of revelation.
As we consider what it means to have a revelatory experience, we must consider Elijah’s experience when the Lord was not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but a still small voice.12 Having a revelatory experience every day during our scripture study does not mean we will gain groundbreaking knowledge or have miraculous manifestations. However, it does mean that we can experience the comfort, peace, strength, and healing power of the Holy Ghost every day.
President Oaks has said that the Holy Ghost is the “greatest gift we can receive in mortality.”13 It is through the Holy Ghost that we can know the truth of all things. It is through the Holy Ghost that we can receive answers to our questions. It is through the Holy Ghost that we strengthen our faith and our testimony, that we resolve doubts, that we are cleansed and sanctified. And it is through the Holy Ghost that we develop a personal relationship with the Savior.
All those blessings can be ours as we make time to study the scriptures every day.
I testify of the reality of the Holy Ghost. I know it is real, primarily because of the effort I have made to study the scriptures. I promise that as you make an effort to study the scriptures every day, you can have a revelatory experience through the Holy Ghost every day.
References
- This is a talk I gave at stake conference on August 23, 2026. ↩︎
- 3 Nephi 23:7, “Bring forth the record which ye have kept.” ↩︎
- 3 Nephi 23:8-13, “How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them? . . . Jesus commanded that it should be written.” ↩︎
- 3 Nephi 23:1, “[Y]e ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently.” ↩︎
- David A. Bednar, “All Who Have Endured Valiantly,” April 2026, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2026/04/16bednar?lang=eng. ↩︎
- David A. Bednar, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” October 2010, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2010/10/receive-the-holy-ghost?lang=eng. ↩︎
- Joy D. Jones, “An Especially Noble Calling,” April 2020, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/04/14jones?lang=eng. ↩︎
- David A. Bednar, “The Spirit of Revelation,” April 2011, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2011/04/the-spirit-of-revelation?lang=eng. ↩︎
- 1 Nephi 13:42. ↩︎
- Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9. ↩︎
- Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, “Chapter 10, Prayer and Personal Revelation,” “A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas.” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-10?lang=eng&id=p24#p24. ↩︎
- 1 Kings 19:11-12. ↩︎
- Dallin H. Oaks, “Always Have His Spirit,” October 1996, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1996/10/always-have-his-spirit?lang=eng. ↩︎
