How the Book of Mormon Helps You Hear God More Clearly
What Isaiah Teaches About Finding God’s Voice in a Very Noisy World
You have probably never had more information available to you than you do right now.
That sounds like it should make life easier.
Sometimes it does.
Sometimes it makes everything harder.
You can ask one question and get fifty answers.
One friend says one thing.
Another friend says the opposite.
Your parents have an opinion.
Your teacher has another.
Someone on TikTok sounds absolutely certain.
Someone on YouTube sounds even more certain.
A comment section quickly proves that apparently everyone on earth is an expert.
And somewhere inside all of that noise, you are supposed to figure out:
What is true?
What should I do?
What does God think?
How do I know if an impression is really from Him?
Isaiah saw something remarkable centuries before the Book of Mormon came forth.
He described “the words of a book.”
Then he explained what those words would do.
“The deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.”
—Isaiah 29:18
That is fascinating.
Isaiah does not merely say a book would appear.
He says people would begin to hear.
People would begin to see.
Darkness would begin to become light.
And people would “increase their joy in the Lord.”
That sounds less like God giving us another book to finish and more like God giving us a way to see.
There is another detail in Isaiah 29 that I love.
Just before Isaiah talks about God doing “a marvellous work and a wonder,” he describes people who honor God with their lips but whose hearts are far from Him.
Then the next verse begins with one important word:
“Therefore.”
In other words:
There is a problem.
My children know religious language.
They may even say religious things.
But their hearts are drifting away.
Therefore, God says, I am going to do something.
I am going to perform a marvellous work.
That changes the way I think about the Book of Mormon.
It is not simply evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet.
It is that.
It is not simply another witness that Jesus is the Christ.
It is absolutely that.
But Isaiah suggests something deeply personal.
God gave us the words of the book because He wanted His children’s hearts back.
He knew we would live in a confusing world.
He knew there would be competing voices.
He knew deception would exist.
He knew we would sometimes struggle to see clearly.
So He gave us something designed to help us hear.
See.
Come out of darkness.
And find joy in Jesus Christ.
President Ezra Taft Benson taught that there is a power in the Book of Mormon that begins flowing into our lives when we seriously study it.
Not just read it.
Study it.
There is a difference.
You can read an entire chapter and never really listen.
You can finish four pages and have no idea what you just read.
I know.
I have done that.
Your eyes move.
Your brain apparently takes the evening off.
Then you reach the end and realize Nephi could have started a sandwich shop halfway through the chapter and you would have missed it.
Reading is not automatically the same thing as hearing God.
Sometimes the better question is not:
How much did I read?
It is:
What did I hear?
What stood out?
What made me think?
What did I feel?
What does this teach me about Jesus Christ?
Is there something here that speaks to what I am dealing with right now?
Those questions change scripture study.
I once trained a missionary whose father had sent him a large amount of material attacking the Church.
This young missionary was overwhelmed.
Confused.
He had questions he did not know how to answer.
Voices were pulling him in different directions, and he was trying to decide whether he should even remain on his mission.
I could have tried to answer every argument.
I probably could have answered some.
Others might have required study.
But I felt strongly that the most important thing he could do was something much simpler.
Read the Book of Mormon.
Not because questions do not matter.
They do.
Not because research is bad.
It is not.
But because underneath all those questions was a more important one:
Could he hear God?
So he read.
And gradually, something changed.
He gained his own testimony of the Book of Mormon.
He stayed.
He served a wonderful mission.
Later he married in the temple and built a faithful life.
Some of his children eventually served missions too.
Whenever I think about that experience, I think about Isaiah.
A person struggling to see opened the book Isaiah said would help eyes see.
A person surrounded by competing voices opened the book Isaiah said would help ears hear.
A heart that was uncertain began drawing nearer to God.
That is Isaiah 29 happening in somebody’s life.
I have experienced smaller versions of that many times myself.
Sometimes I open the Book of Mormon because I am preparing to teach.
Sometimes because I am preparing a podcast.
But some of my most meaningful experiences with it have happened because I needed something.
Perspective.
Direction.
Correction.
Reassurance.
Peace.
Jesus Christ.
There have been times when the Book of Mormon did not magically solve my problem.
It did something better.
It helped me see the problem differently.
That is an important distinction.
Think about headlights in fog.
Headlights do not remove the entire fog bank.
They give you enough light to see the next stretch of road.
Sometimes that is how revelation works.
You want God to illuminate the next ten years.
Instead, He illuminates Tuesday.
You want the entire answer.
Instead, one verse tells you the next right thing to do.
And that is enough.
Isaiah says the words of the book help us see “out of obscurity, and out of darkness.”
He does not say we instantly understand everything.
He says we begin to see.
That may be one of the greatest gifts God gives us.
Enough light to take the next faithful step.
There is another mistake we sometimes make with scripture study.
We treat the Book of Mormon like medicine that never leaves the bottle.
We say:
I know this can help me.
I know prophets say it has power.
I know I should read it.
I know it brings peace.
And then we never open it.
Medicine does not help much while sitting on the shelf.
Neither does scripture.
The Book of Mormon does not change your life because it exists.
It changes your life when its words begin interacting with your heart.
When you ask questions.
When you listen.
When you notice.
When you act.
When it leads you to Jesus Christ.
So maybe the goal is not merely to develop a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true.
That matters deeply.
But Isaiah gives us another invitation.
Discover that the Book of Mormon does what God said it would do.
Let it help you see.
Let it help you hear.
Let it lead you out of darkness.
Let it increase your joy in the Lord.
You do not have to take somebody else’s word for that.
You can test Isaiah’s promise yourself.
Scripture
“And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.”
—Isaiah 29:18
“The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord.”
—Isaiah 29:19
Reflection
What voices compete for your attention most often?
When do you have the hardest time knowing what is true?
Have you ever read something in the Book of Mormon that suddenly helped you see a situation differently?
What is the difference between finishing a scripture chapter and actually listening for God?
What question would you most like God’s help with right now?
Which of Isaiah’s promises do you need most?
To see?
To hear?
To come out of confusion?
To feel more joy in the Lord?
Today’s Challenge
Do not choose a certain number of pages to read today.
Choose a question.
Before opening the Book of Mormon, pray and tell Heavenly Father what you are actually wondering about.
Then read slowly enough to notice.
You are not necessarily looking for a verse that directly answers your question.
You are listening for anything that helps you:
see differently
understand truth more clearly
feel peace
recognize something you should change
remember Jesus Christ
know your next step
When something stands out, stop.
Write it down.
Think about it.
Ask:
“What might God be helping me see?”
That is a very different kind of scripture study.
Christ-Centered Thought
The purpose of the Book of Mormon has never been simply to produce people who know more facts about scripture.
Its central purpose is Jesus Christ.
Page after page points toward Him.
Prophets testify of Him.
Families learn to trust Him.
People fall and repent because of Him.
Nations rise and fall depending on whether they remember Him.
And near the end, Moroni places the book in our hands and essentially says:
Ask God.
Come unto Christ.
Find out for yourself.
Isaiah saw a world where people struggled to hear and see.
God’s answer was not simply louder noise.
It was “the words of the book.”
So when life feels confusing, do not underestimate the simple act of opening the Book of Mormon with a real question and an honest heart.
You may not receive every answer.
But you may begin to see.
You may begin to hear.
And sometimes seeing the next step is enough.
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