Sunday, May 8th

A wonderful lesson was given from Chapter 7 of our manual, Continuous Revelation through Living Prophets. After Pres. Hunter was sustained President of the Church in 1994, he shared some of his feelings. "He expalined that he found stregth and reassurance in his conviction that the Church is led not by men, but by Jesus Christ Himself, who prepares and inspires those He calls to preside."

In each dispensation, God has raised up prophets as His spokesmen. Throughout all time the Church has been lead by a prophet of God. This is evident as one studies the scriptures, Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon alike. Each prophet is a teacher, defender of the gospel, and of course bears witness of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. "God chose prophets long before they came to this mortal existence."

God provides guidance for His children through a living prophet today. Pres. Hunter says, "May our vision not be so narrow that we would relegate revelation to only the ancients. God is merciful and loves his children in all ages and has revealed himself to this time in history." Our guidance from God comes to us through a living prophet. This is the way the affairs of the Church are directed. The Savior reigns in our midst today through continuous revelation.

In this day of spiritual famine, we can find spiritual abundance by heeding the voice of the prophet. Pres. Hunter explains that we live in a day of spiritual famine, as Amos taught in Amos 8:11. The world is in a state of confusion and frustrations, but as faithful members of the Church who follow a living prophet we can find spiritual abundance. We only need to have the faith to follow our prophet.

If we follow the teachings of the living prophets, we will not go amiss. The most important prophet we can follow is the one we have guiding us today. "In each of the past dispensations, prophets have been raised up by the Lord as his spokement to the people of that particular age and for the specific problems of that age." We need to remember that only the President of the Church has the right to receive revelations for the entire Church. We will not go wrong if we heed to and follow our living prophet.

In general conference, we receive inspired counsel from prophets, seers, and revelators. Our teacher expounded on this principle of the lesson the most. We were able to share in class some of our thoughts and the blessings that come to us when we learn and are familiar with what was recently taught in conference. The messages are inspired and they should be a regular part of our personal study. How blessed we are to be able to re-read their inspired words.