2 And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest unto the prophet by the voice of the Spirit; for by the Spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of men according to the flesh.
The Spirit of God, or the Holy Ghost, is the key to all
revelation from God. He is the revealer, the testifier, and in some cases the
protector. By that I mean protection from too spiritual an experience normally,
as in the case of a personal visitation from the other members of the Godhead
(see Moses 1: 11 for example). At other times being filled with the Spirit of
God is so exhausting as to render a person without strength (see 1 Nephi 17:
4–7, and Joseph Smith-History 1: 20).
So Nephi is telling his brethren that all revelation is
spiritual on one level or another, because it comes from the Spirit. This is
how God works, and even if we receive the word or some message from God through
one of His earthly servants, such as a prophet or other priesthood leader, the
Spirit is what carries that message to our hearts or convictions. One of the
things the Spirit reveals is what will “come upon the children of men according
to the flesh.” So just because the revelations are spiritual does not mean they
are confined to only the spiritual
realm. They can apply to the temporal as well.
- Numbers 11: 29
- Amos 3: 7
