To guide His people God sends to them prophets who are His messengers and representatives.
From the beginning of recorded time such prophets have made known God's character, His will, and His commandments. To those who have forsaken God's ways, prophets must also decry sinful behavior, teach repentance, and strive to restore righteous living.It is incumbent on all God's children to recognize those whom He has called, and in accepting them, follow their admonitions. Dire consequences await those who ignore, mock, or scorn God's prophets.
We have just concluded another great general conference of the Church. Once again the mind and the will of God has been proclaimed by His chosen prophets.
The burden now rests on us to bring into our lives the wise counsel we have been given, to modify our behavior, if necessary, and to emulate even more fully the divine requirements placed upon us.
How vital it is that we put our lives in harmony with those whom God has called. The ancient prophet Amos counseled the Israelites: "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3.) It should be the desire of every true Latter-day Saint to be in agreement with the prophets of our day and walk in harmony with them.
We might prepare a list of "action items" to help guide our lives. Such a list, from the messages of conference speakers, could include these few selected items:
Do not let our faith be shaken by critics who never seem to recognize that knowledge of things divine comes by the power
of the Spirit and not of the wisdom of
men.
The doors of celestial glory are open to all who will accept divine truth and obey its precepts.
Our responsibility is not to please the world, but rather, to do the will of the Lord.
The primary place to build a value system is in the homes of the people.
Each person must realize his own potential and what our Heavenly Father expects of him, and in so doing have a determination to live proper standards, to be true one's best self, and to act always in accordance with a high sense of true values from which will follow incomparable joy and lasting peace.
Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life's fight, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome.
The laws that govern life were instituted from before the foundation of the world. They are eternal, as are the consequences for either obeying or disobeying them. They are not based on social or political consideration. They cannot be changed. No pressure, no protest, no legislation can alter them.
As we face the many decisions in life, the easy and popular messages of the world will not be the right ones to choose, and it will take much courage to choose the right.
The Lord needs messengers to match His message. He needs those who are able to wield the mighty and eternal influence that He will place in their hands.
We must be loyal to the leadership who have been called to preside over us.
There is a certain arrogance in thinking that any of us may be more spiritually intelligent, more learned, or more righteous than the councils of the Church that are called to preside over us.
In our desire to be broad-minded, to be accepted, to be liked and admired, let us not trifle with the doctrines and the covenants which have been revealed to us, nor with the pronouncements of those who have the keys of the kingdom of God on earth.
Let us be wary about accommodating revealed theology to conventional wisdom. Let us lovingly nourish ourselves, our families, and Church flocks spiritually, so that we are not wearied and faint in our minds.
Gratitude for the gospel should be expressed by striving to become, attribute by attribute, more and more as Jesus is. By so living, ours will not then be a mere appreciation of Jesus, nor a modest admiration of Him. Rather, ours will be an adoration of Jesus expressed by our emulation of Him.
We are solemnly responsible to God for the destruction or misuse of the creative powers He has placed within us.
In a world that is filled with sin, conflict, and confusion, we can find peace and safety in knowing and living the revealed truths of the gospel.
To acquire spiritual knowledge and to obey it with wisdom, one must, in humility, seek divine light, exercise faith in Jesus Christ, hearken to His counsel, and keep His commandments.
Resolve now to internalize the messages of this conference and walk in harmony with those who bore them so fervently to us.
