Joseph Smith's Teachings on Spiritual Gifts and Revelation

How Joseph Smith framed divine gifts as available to believers and what he meant by ongoing revelation from God.

By Garret Merkley · Explainer · Jun 15, 2026

Branched from How Early Mormon Women Exercised Prophecy and Healing Without Formal Authority

Quick take

Smith taught that spiritual gifts—prophecy, healing, tongues, visions—were active powers available to believers, not confined to biblical times.
He grounded these gifts in a theology of ongoing revelation: God still speaks directly to individuals and the Church through living prophets and members.
This framework gave ordinary members (including women) scriptural permission to claim spiritual experiences, even without formal ordination or institutional approval.

Joseph Smith taught that spiritual gifts—extraordinary abilities like prophecy, healing, speaking in tongues, and receiving visions—were not relics of the ancient church but living, active powers available to believers in his own time. Central to his theology was the conviction that God had not stopped speaking to humanity. Revelation, in Smith's view, was an ongoing process: God communicated directly to prophets, to members of the church, and potentially to any person who sought divine guidance. This doctrine of continuous revelation, combined with an expansive understanding of spiritual gifts, created theological space for ordinary people—especially women—to claim direct spiritual authority without needing formal institutional permission.

The Doctrine of Ongoing Revelation

Smith's foundational claim was that the heavens remained open. In contrast to Protestant Christianity, which generally held that revelation had ended with the apostles, Smith insisted God continued to speak to living prophets. He presented himself as the primary conduit—the prophet-president who received divine instruction for the church—but he explicitly taught that revelation was not limited to him. In the Doctrine and Covenants (a text of Smith's revelations), God addresses members collectively and individually, promising that anyone who asks in faith could receive divine knowledge. This democratization of access to revelation meant that a farmer, a woman, or a child could theoretically claim a direct word from God.

Spiritual Gifts as Distributed Powers

Smith grounded his understanding of spiritual gifts in Paul's letters to the Corinthians, where the apostle describes the Holy Ghost distributing various gifts—prophecy, healing, interpretation of tongues, discernment—to different members of the body of Christ. Smith taught that these gifts were not ceremonial honors but genuine spiritual powers. A person with the gift of healing could lay hands on the sick and expect divine intervention. Someone with prophecy could receive visions or spoken messages from God. Importantly, Smith taught that these gifts were distributed by divine will, not by human appointment. A woman might possess the gift of prophecy even if she held no official position in the church hierarchy.

Smith also emphasized that spiritual gifts required faith and righteousness to operate effectively. They were not magical or automatic; they functioned as signs that followed believers who lived according to divine law. He warned against counterfeits—false spirits or demonic imitations—which meant that discernment became crucial. Members had to learn to distinguish genuine spiritual gifts from deception, a skill that required spiritual maturity and alignment with church doctrine.

Why This Mattered for Authority and Gender

Smith's theology created a crucial distinction between institutional authority and spiritual power. Formal authority in the church—ordination to the priesthood, assignment to leadership—was gendered male and hierarchical. But spiritual gifts operated on a different plane. A woman could not be ordained to the priesthood under Smith's system, yet she could claim prophecy, healing, or divine visions based on her direct relationship with God. This gap between institutional structure and spiritual experience became the opening through which women like Eliza R. Snow and others exercised genuine spiritual authority, conducting healing circles, receiving revelations, and directing spiritual work without formal permission. Smith's teachings provided the scriptural and theological justification for these practices, even as they existed outside official channels.

This framework also meant that spiritual gifts could not be easily suppressed or controlled by institutional gatekeepers. If a woman claimed the gift of prophecy, denying her required either proving her unworthy or contradicting the doctrine of ongoing revelation itself. Smith had created a theological system in which the Spirit's movement could exceed institutional boundaries—a tension that would persist in Mormonism long after his death.

Key Texts on Spiritual Gifts in Early Mormonism

Doctrine and Covenants 46: Smith's revelation listing specific spiritual gifts and teaching that they come through the Holy Ghost.
Joseph Smith's 1842 discourse on the gift of the Holy Ghost: emphasized that the gift was available to all believers, not just leaders.
Early Mormon periodicals: accounts of women healers and prophetesses, presented as evidence of spiritual gifts operating in the church.

Tensions and Limits

Smith's openness to spiritual gifts and revelation was not unlimited. He taught that gifts must align with church doctrine and that false gifts could be identified by their fruits. He also maintained that the president of the church—himself—held ultimate authority to judge and validate spiritual experiences. This created an inherent tension: spiritual gifts were theoretically available to all, but their legitimacy could be determined by hierarchy. Over time, and especially after Smith's death, church leaders would become more cautious about independent spiritual claims, particularly from women, tightening institutional control over what counted as valid revelation or genuine gifts.

Did Joseph Smith teach that women could receive revelations?

Yes, explicitly. Smith taught that the Holy Ghost distributed gifts without regard to gender, and that revelation was available to any person who sought it in faith. However, he reserved the role of prophet-president for himself, and later church leaders became more restrictive about women claiming prophetic authority.

What was the difference between a spiritual gift and priesthood authority?

Priesthood authority was an institutional office granted through ordination and hierarchy, restricted to men in Smith's system. Spiritual gifts were divine powers distributed by the Holy Ghost based on individual faith and righteousness, theoretically available to anyone. A woman could exercise the gift of healing without holding priesthood office.

How did Smith distinguish genuine spiritual gifts from false ones?

Smith taught that genuine gifts produced good fruits and aligned with church doctrine. He also emphasized the role of discernment—a gift itself—to identify counterfeits. Ultimately, he reserved judgment to himself as prophet, though he encouraged members to test spirits against scripture and doctrine.

Did Smith's teachings on spiritual gifts come from scripture or from his own ideas?

Smith rooted his teachings in New Testament passages, especially Paul's letters on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12–14. However, his expansion of these ideas—particularly his claim that gifts were actively operating in his own time—was his own theological innovation, presented as revealed doctrine.

How did later Mormon leaders respond to Smith's teachings on spiritual gifts?

Early successors generally affirmed the doctrine, but gradually emphasized institutional control and male priesthood authority more heavily. By the late 19th century, women's independent spiritual practices (like healing circles) were increasingly discouraged or brought under male supervision.

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants 46, Joseph Smith's revelation on spiritual gifts (1831).
Jed Woodworth, 'The Womanhood of the Priesthood: Relief Society, Endowment, and Mormon Motherhood, 1835–1856,' Journal of Mormon History, 2002.
Danel W. Bachman and Ronald E. Barr, 'The Spiritual Wifery of Joseph Smith,' in New Perspectives on the Book of Mormon, 1988.