- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a devotional at Brigham Young University in 1999.
- He expressed his love for the university and its students.
- He discussed the lesson from Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision, highlighting the presence of adversity and darkness before great spiritual moments.
- He mentioned the role of Satan in opposing the good things that God has in store for us.
- He emphasized the importance of not letting our guard down after receiving revelations or spiritual experiences.
- He used the example of Moses facing opposition from Satan after seeing God face to face.
- He encouraged the audience to be prepared for opposition even after making enlightened decisions and experiencing moments of revelation and conviction.

- The speaker reflects on the challenges of marriage and the fight that comes with it.
- He mentions Paul's counsel to new members of the Church to not lose confidence and endure afflictions.
- The speaker talks about the opposition and challenges that arise in various aspects of life, such as education, missions, and relationships.
- He emphasizes the importance of not giving up when faced with pressure and challenges.
- The speaker refers to the formula for revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants and the combination of mind and heart in receiving guidance.
- He discusses the example of Moses crossing the Red Sea as a representation of the spirit of revelation.
- The speaker suggests that revelation often comes in response to urgent questions and provides special information.
- He relates this to the fights of affliction mentioned by Paul and the challenges faced in life.

- Seeking information urgently, faithfully, and humbly is important in matters of great consequence.
- The adversary can try to dissuade us from a righteous path, but if we seek with real intent, we can overcome.
- Fear often plays a destructive role in the process of revelation and making important decisions.
- Holding fast to earlier illumination is important in overcoming fear and doubts.
- We should not forget the miracles and experiences that have brought us to where we are.
- After receiving revelation, we should go forward without fear, vacillation, or doubt.
- God will provide the means and power to achieve the purposes He has revealed to us.
- Trust in God's grace and His ability to lead us out of bondage.

- The speaker encourages listeners to not lose hope and have faith in God's plan for them.
- They believe that God reveals His plan to individuals in different ways, and although it may not be as clear as it was for biblical figures, it is enough for them to understand God's will and love.
- The speaker acknowledges that the adversary tries to oppose and darken these experiences, but this is not in line with the gospel.
- They emphasize the importance of fighting through darkness and despair and seeking the light.
- The speaker urges listeners to maintain their confidence and patience in order to receive God's promises.
- They acknowledge the reality of opposition and adversity but bear witness to the power of God and the hope of a bright future.
- The speaker promises that God lives and loves each individual and has set limits to the powers of darkness.
- They testify that Jesus is the Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and restored.
- The speaker encourages listeners to not fear and trust that the Lord will fight for them.
- The message is concluded in the name of Jesus Christ.

- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a devotional at Brigham Young University in 1999, expressing his love for the university and its students.
- He discussed the lesson from Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision, highlighting the presence of adversity and darkness before great spiritual moments.
- He emphasized the importance of not letting our guard down after receiving revelations or spiritual experiences, using the example of Moses facing opposition from Satan after seeing God face to face.
- The speaker discussed the opposition and challenges that arise in various aspects of life and emphasized the importance of not giving up when faced with pressure and challenges.
- Seeking information urgently, faithfully, and humbly is important in matters of great consequence, and holding fast to earlier illumination is important in overcoming fear and doubts.
- After receiving revelation, we should go forward without fear, vacillation, or doubt, trusting in God's grace and His ability to lead us out of bondage.
- The speaker encourages listeners to not lose hope and have faith in God's plan for them, acknowledging the reality of opposition and adversity but bearing witness to the power of God and the hope of a bright future.
- The message concludes with a testimony that God lives and loves each individual, Jesus is the Christ, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and restored.

Trust in a perfect God gives us the confidence to act in faith, even when faced with difficult decisions or paralyzing fear.

Read and download his devotional on the BYU Speeches website: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland_cast-not-away-therefore-your-confidence/

Jeffrey R. Holland was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was delivered at BYU on 2 March 1999.

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"To help us make our way through these experiences, these important junctures in our lives, let me draw from another scriptural reference to Moses. It was given in the early days of this dispensation when revelation was needed, when a true course was being set and had to be continued.

Virtually everyone in the room knows the formula for revelation given in section 9 of the Doctrine and Covenants—you know, the verses about studying it out in your mind and the Lord promising to confirm or deny. What most of us don’t read in conjunction with this is the section that precedes it—section 8. In that revelation the Lord defined revelation:

I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. [I love the combination there of both mind and heart. God will teach us in a reasonable way and in a revelatory way—mind and heart combined, by the Holy Ghost.]

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 8:2–3; emphasis added]

Question: Why would the Lord use the example of crossing the Red Sea as the classic example of “the spirit of revelation”? Why didn’t he use the First Vision? Or the example from the book of Moses we just used? Or the vision of the brother of Jared? Well, he could have used any of these, but he didn’t. Here he had another purpose in mind.

Usually we think of revelation as information. Just open the books to us, Lord, like: What was the political significance of the Louisiana Purchase or the essence of the second law of thermodynamics? It is obvious that when you see those kinds of questions on a test paper, you need revelation. Someone said prayer will never be eliminated from the schools so long as there are final examinations. But aside from the fact that you probably aren’t going to get that kind of revelation—because in this Church we do not believe in ex nihilo creation, especially in exams—this is too narrow a concept of revelation. May I suggest how section 8 broadens our understanding of section 9, particularly in light of these “fights of affliction” that Paul spoke of and that I have been discussing.

First of all, revelation almost always comes in response to a question, usually an urgent question—not always, but usually. In that sense it does provide information, but it is urgently needed information, special information. Moses’ challenge was how to get himself and the children of Israel out of this horrible predicament they were in. There were chariots behind them, sand dunes on every side, and just a lot of water immediately ahead. He needed information all right—what to do—but it wasn’t a casual thing he was asking. 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). If you can seek that way, and stay in that mode, not much that the adversary can counter with will dissuade you from a righteous path. You can hang on, whatever the assault and affliction, because you have paid the price to—figuratively, at least—see the face of God and live.

Like Moses in his vision, there may come after the fact some competing doubts and some confusion, but they will pale when you measure them against the real thing. Remember the real thing. 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 does have power to hedge up the way, to marshal Pharaoh’s forces and dog our escape right to the water’s edge, but he can’t produce the real thing. He 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."- Jeffrey R. Holland

This Brigham Young University devotional by Elder Jeffrey R.

Thank you, President Bateman, very, very much, and thanks to all of you.

I didn't think the day could be more beautiful than it has been outside today.

And somehow I walk in here and see all of you, and it's even more beautiful.

It is impossible for you to know how much I love this university and how much I love you, how much I love what Brigham Young University means, what it's meant to me, and a debt that I will never, ever be able to repay.

Thank you, every 1 of you, for coming, including my mother, who has never felt I could go off to school since I was 6 years old without her.

With that opening hymn and chorale group and that beautiful prayer as a backdrop.

May I begin by noting that there is a lesson in the Prophet Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision, which virtually everyone in this audience has had occasion to experience or 1 day soon will.

It is the plain and very sobering truth that before great moments, certainly before great spiritual moments, there can come adversity, opposition, and darkness.

Life has some of those moments for us, and occasionally they come just as we are approaching an important decision or a significant step in our life.

In that marvelous account, which I think we read too seldom, Joseph said he had scarcely begun his prayer when he felt a power of astonishing influence come over him.

Thick darkness, as he described it, gathered around him and seemed bent on his utter destruction.

But he exerted all his powers to call upon God to deliver him out of the power of this enemy.

And as he did so, a pillar of light brighter than the noonday sun descended gradually until it rested upon him.

At the very moment of the light's appearance he found himself delivered from the destructive power which had held him bound.

What then followed is the greatest epiphany since the events surrounding the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ in the meridian of time.

The Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith, and the dispensation of the fulness of times had begun.

Most of us do not need any more reminders than we've already had that there is 1 who personifies opposition in all things, that an angel of God fell from heaven and in so doing became miserable forever.

Because this is Lucifer's fate, he sought also the misery of all mankind.

Surely this must be the original ecclesiastical source for that homely little adage that misery loves company.

A morning's devotional could be devoted to this subject of the adversary's strong, preliminary, anticipatory opposition to many of the good things that God has in store for us.

But today I want to move past that observation To another truth we may not recognize so readily.

This is a lesson in the parlance of the athletic contest that reminds us it isn't over till it's over.

It is the reminder that the fight goes on.

Unfortunately, we must not think that Satan is defeated with that first strong breakthrough which so dramatically brought the light and moved us forward.

To make my point a little more vividly, may I go to another passage of scripture, indeed to another vision.

You will recall that the book of Moses begins with him being taken up to an exceedingly high mountain where the scripture says, he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses.

What then followed was what happens to prophets who are taken to high mountains.

The Lord said to Moses, Look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands.

Moses looked and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it.

There was not a particle of it that he did not behold, discerning it by the Spirit of God.

And he beheld also the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul which he beheld not." This experience is remarkable by every standard.

It is 1 of the great revelations given in human history.

It stands with the greatest accounts we have of any prophet's experience with divinity.

But Moses' message to you today is, don't let your guard down.

Don't assume that a great revelation, some marvelous, illuminating moment, the opening of an inspired path, is the end of it.

What happens to Moses next, after his revelatory moment, would be ludicrous if it were not so dangerous and so absolutely true to form.

In an effort to continue his opposition, in his unfailing effort to get his licks in later, if not sooner, Lucifer appears and shouts in equal portions of anger and petulance after God has revealed himself to the prophet, saying, Moses, worship me.

He has just seen the real thing, and by comparison this sort of performance is pretty dismal.

Moses looked upon Satan and said, Who art thou?

Where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?

For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me.

But I can look upon thee in the natural man.

For it is darkness unto me, and I can judge between thee and God.

Deceive me not." The record then depicts a reaction that is both pathetic and frightening.

And now when Moses had said these words, Satan cried with a loud voice and ranted upon the earth, and commanded, saying, I am the only begotten, worship me.

And It came to pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly, and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell.

Nevertheless, calling upon God, the very phrase used by Joseph Smith, he received strength, and he commanded, saying, Depart from me, Satan, for this 1 God only will I worship, which is the God of glory.

Satan began to tremble, and the earth shook.

And it came to pass that he cried with a loud voice, with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and he departed hence." Always we should quickly add, to come again.

But always to again be defeated by the God of glory.

I wish to encourage every 1 of you today regarding opposition that so often comes after enlightened decisions have been made, after moments of revelation and conviction have given us a peace and an assurance that we thought we'd never lose.

In his letter to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul was trying to encourage new members who had just joined the Church, who undoubtedly had had spiritual experiences and received the pure light of testimony, only to discover that Not only had their troubles not ended, some of them had only begun.

It reminds me a little of President Hugh B.

He said he'd always been told that when he got married he would come to the end of his troubles.

So we got married only to discover they were speaking about the front end.

Now, that nervous laughter from returned missionaries, I'll be back to you before the morning is over.

Paul pled with these new members about the way President Hinckley is pleading with new members today.

The reminder is that we cannot sign on for a moment of such eternal significance and everlasting consequence without knowing it will be a fight—a good fight and a winning fight—but a fight nevertheless.

Paul says to those who thought a new testimony, a personal conversion, a spiritual baptismal experience would put them beyond trouble, to these he says, Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, then this tremendous counsel, which is at the heart of my counsel to you and the title of my remarks this morning, cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

For you have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye receive the promise.

If any man draw back, he warns, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

We are not of them who draw back into perdition." In LDS talk, I think that is to say, sure, it's tough.

Before you join the Church, while you're trying to join it, and after you've joined it.

That's the way it's always been, but don't draw back.

That tenacity is what saved Moses when the adversary confronted him, and it is what will save you.

I suppose every returned missionary—and probably every convert within the sound of my voice knows exactly what I am talking about.

Appointments for discussions cancelled, the Book of Mormon in a plastic bag hanging from the front doorknob, baptismal dates not met, and so it goes through the teaching period, through the commitments, through the baptism, through the first weeks and months and, I suppose, years in the Church—more or less forever.

At least the adversary would pursue it forever if he thought he could see any weakening of your resolve or any chink in your honor, even if it is after the fact.

This opposition turns up almost any place something good has happened.

It can happen when you are trying to get an education.

It can hit you after your first month in a new mission field.

It certainly happens in matters of love and marriage.

Now I'm back to those returned missionaries.

I'd like to have a dollar for every person in a courtship who knew he or she had felt the guidance of the Lord in that relationship, had prayed about the experience enough to know it was the will of the Lord, people who loved each other, enjoyed each other's company, saw a wonderful lifetime of compatibility ahead—only to panic, get a brain cramp, have total catatonic fear sweep over them, and they draw back, as Paul said, if not into perdition, at least into marital paralysis.

I am not saying you shouldn't be very careful about something as significant and serious as marriage, and I am certainly not saying that a young man can get a revelation that he is to marry a certain person without that young woman getting the same confirmation.

I've seen a lot of those one-way revelations.

There are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been genuine illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing.

If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it's right now.

You can sell your harmonica and therein fund 1 more meal.

Certainly don't give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness.

He wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself.

Cast not away, therefore, your confidence.

Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you.

To help us make our way through these experiences, these very important junctures in our lives, let me draw from another scriptural reference to Moses.

It was given in the early days of this dispensation, when revelation was needed, when a true course was being sent, and it had to be continued.

Virtually everyone in the room knows the formula for revelation given in section 9 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

You know the verses about studying it out in your mind and the Lord promising to confirm or deny.

What most of us don't read in conjunction with this is the section which precedes it, section 8.

In that revelation the Lord defines revelation.

He says, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart by the Holy Ghost which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart." I love that combination of both mind and heart.

God will teach us in a reasonable way and in a revelatory way.

Mind and heart combined by the Holy Ghost.

Now continuing the quote, He continues, 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." Now question, why would the Lord use the example of crossing the Red Sea as the classic example of the Spirit of Revelation.

Why didn't he use the first vision, or the example from the book of Moses we just used, or the vision of the brother of Jared?

Well, I'm sure he could have, but he didn't.

Here he seems to have had another purpose in mind.

Usually we think of revelation as information.

Just open the books to us, Lord, like What's the Political significance of the Louisiana Purchase or the essence of the second law of thermodynamics, it's obvious that when you see those questions on a test paper, you need revelation.

Someone has said that prayer will never be eliminated from the nation's school so long as there are examinations.

But aside from the fact that you probably aren't going to get that kind of revelation because in this Church we do not believe in ex nihilo creation, especially in exams.

But aside from all of that, this is too narrow a concept of revelation.

May I suggest how section 8 broadens our understanding of section 9, particularly in light of these fights of affliction that Paul spoke of and that we have been discussing.

First of all, revelation almost always comes in response to a question, usually an urgent question—not always, but usually.

In that sense, it does provide information, but it is urgently needed information, special information.

Moses' challenge was how to get himself and the children of Israel out of this horrible predicament.

There were chariots behind them, sand dunes on every side, and a lot of water immediately ahead.

He needed information, all right—what to do.

But it wasn't a casual thing he was asking.

In this case, it was literally a matter of life and death.

You will need information, too, in matters of great consequence.

But it is not likely that it will come unless you really want it urgently, faithfully, and humbly.

Moroni calls it seeking with real intent.

If you can seek that way and stay in that mode, not much the adversary can counter with will dissuade you from a righteous path.

You can hang on, whatever the assault and the affliction, because you have paid the price to figuratively at least see the face of God and live.

Like Moses in his vision, there may come after the fact some competing doubts and some confusion, But it will pale when you measure it against the real thing.

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 does have power to hedge up the way, to marshal Pharaoh's forces, and to dog our escape right to the water's edge, but he can't produce the real thing.

He cannot conquer if we will it otherwise.

Exerting all our powers, the light will again come, the darkness will again retreat, our safety will again be sure.

That is lesson number 1 about crossing the Red Sea, your Red Seas, by the spirit of revelation.

Lesson number 2 is closely related to it.

It is that in the process of revelation and making important decisions, fear almost always plays a destructive, sometimes paralyzing, role.

To Oliver Cowdery, who missed the opportunity of a lifetime because he didn't seize it in the lifetime of the opportunity, the Lord said, you did not continue as you commenced.

Does that sound familiar to those who have been illuminated and then knuckled under to second thoughts and fears and returning doubts?

It is not expedient, the Lord said, that you should translate now.

That must have been language very, very hard for Oliver to hear.

Behold, it was expedient when you commenced, but you feared.

And the time has passed, and it's not expedient now.

But did you catch the line I tried to emphasize as I read that rather long account from The Pearl of Great Price?

For a moment in that confrontation, Moses began to fear exceedingly, and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell.

That's when you'll see it—when you are afraid.

That is exactly the problem that beset the children of Israel at the edge of the Red Sea.

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.

Some, just like those Paul had described earlier, said, Let's go back.

That probably wasn't the right spirit telling us to leave Egypt.

What they actually said to Moses was, Wherefore hast thou dealt 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.

And I have to say, what about that which has already happened?

What about the miracles that got you here?

What about the rod and the serpent, the river and the blood?

What about the hail and the locusts and the fire and the firstborn sons?

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 and so on forever.

Of course our faith will be tested as we fight through self-doubts and second thoughts.

Some days we will be miraculously led out of Egypt, seemingly free, seemingly on our way, only to come to yet another confrontation, like all that water lying before us.

At those times we must resist the temptation to panic and to give up.

At those times fear will be the strongest of the adversary's weapons against us.

And Moses said to the people, fear ye not.

Stand still and see the revelation of the Lord.

In confirmation, the great Jehovah said, speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.

That's the second lesson of the spirit of revelation.

After you've gotten the message, After you've 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.

You may, like Alma, going to Ammonihah, have to find a route that leads an unusual way.

But that's exactly what the Lord is doing here for the children of Israel.

Nobody has ever crossed the Red Sea this way, but so what?

With the spirit of revelation, dismiss your fears and wade in with both feet.

In the words of Joseph Smith, brethren, and I would add sisters, shall we not go on in so great a cause?

Courage on, on to the victory." The third lesson from the Lord's spirit of revelation in the miracle of crossing the Red Sea is that along with the illuminating revelation that points us toward a righteous purpose or duty, God will also provide the means and power to achieve that purpose.

Please, if God has told you something is right, if something is indeed true for you, He will provide the way for you to accomplish it.

It is true of getting an education, of going on a mission, of getting married—any of a hundred worthy tasks in your young lives.

Remember what the Savior said to the Prophet Joseph in the sacred grove.

Why was Joseph not to join any other Church?

It was at least in part because, quote, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.

The Lord would tell Joseph again and again through those early, difficult days that, just as in the days of old, these modern children of Israel would be led out of bondage by power and with a stretched-out arm.

Mine angels shall go before you, and also my presence.

And in time ye shall possess the goodly land." possess the goodly land." What goodly land?

Your goodly land, your promised land, your New Jerusalem, your own little acre flowing with milk and honey, your future, your dreams, your destiny.

I believe that in our own individual ways God takes us to the grove or the mountain or the temple, sometimes the privacy of our own bedroom or closet, and there shows us the wonder of what His plan is for us.

We may not see it as fully as Moses or Nephi or the brother of Jared did, but we see as much as we need to see in order to know the Lord's will for us and to know that He loves us beyond mortal comprehension.

I also believe that the adversary and his pinched, calculating little minions try to oppose such experiences and then try to darken it after the fact.

That is not the way of a Latter-day Saint who claims as the fundamental fact of the Restoration the spirit of revelation.

Fighting through darkness and despair and pleading for the light is what opened this dispensation.

It is what keeps it going, and it is what will keep you going.

With Paul I say to all of you this morning, cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

For you have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God ye receive the promise.

I acknowledge the reality of opposition and adversity, but I bear witness of the God of glory, of the redeeming Son of God, of light and hope and a bright future.

I promise you that God lives and loves you, each 1 of you, and that he has set bounds and limits to the opposing powers of darkness.

I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the victor over death and hell and the fallen 1 who schemes there.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and it has been restored, Just as we have sung and testified this morning, Fear ye not, and when the second and the third And the fourth blows come, fear ye not.

In the sacred and holy name of our Protector and Redeemer, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence | Jeffrey R. Holland