This weekend is General Conference. Twice a year, we Latter-Day Saints have the privilege of listening to Prophets and Apostles share inspired messages with us. Twice a year, members and officers of the church gather to Salt Lake City from all over the world to hear the voice of the Lord through His servants. While this is a regular occurrence for us, I use the term "regular" to say that it happens regularly, not to imply that this is a normal event. In fact, I wonder exactly how abnormal General Conference is.
If you were to ask me what the main difference is between the LDS church and most other churches, I would say that our church believes in continued revelation whereas other churches typically don't. (There are other differences, too, of course, but continuing revelation is a big one.) I'm not sure why that is. If God still lives and still loves us, and we still need His guidance, wouldn't He still guide us as He has always led His church, with revelation through prophets? How do people think they can get by without divine guidance?
I am, personally, very grateful for revelation and General Conference. I'm grateful for personal revelation (especially when I actually manage to follow it). And I'm grateful for Prophets and Apostles sharing inspired messages with us loud and clear, just in case we find receiving personal revelation difficult. I love the promise given at the end of this video.
"If we teach by the Spirit, and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal, little, prophetic epistle just to you." -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
It is my testimony that God wants to speak with us, and He does so through Prophets, scriptures, sermons on Sundays, and feelings in our own hearts. We have many opportunities to hear or read or feel the word of the Lord, but none of those miracles will matter if we're not really listening. We, as Latter-Day Saints, are more abundantly blessed with the word of the Lord than any other people on Earth. We have more scriptures, more inspired messages through our church leaders, and more access the personal revelation through the Holy Spirit. Is it making any difference? We have the potential to be the most inspired people on the planet. Are we?
In April 2011, President Uchtdorf told the story of a man who bought a ticket on a cruise line, and, not knowing that many of amenities available on the cruise had been included in the price of the ticket, he mostly stayed in his cabin and ate food he brought from home. At the end of the cruise, the man learned too late that he had been living far beneath his privileges.
As I watched the video associated with that story, I heard I quote from President Uchtdorf that I'd like to share with you now. "As you read the scriptures and listen to the words of the prophets with all your heart and mind, the Lord will tell you how to live up to your privileges."
Very soon, we will have an opportunity to listen to the words of prophets, but in truth, we already have a similar opportunity right now. I heard the voice of a prophet when I pulled up that cruise-story video. You heard the voices of prophets as you watched the video I posted above. Any one of us can go on LDS.org or even Youtube to hear the words of prophets almost any time we want to. We have great opportunities and privileges as Latter-Day Saints. May we take full advantage of them by doing what President Uchtdorf suggested: by "read[ing] the scriptures and listen[ing] to the words of the prophets with all [our] heart[s] and mind[s]" Let's try to really listen to General Conference. Let's see what the Lord has to say.
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