Who decides who the prophet is?

After a long pause in my scripture study, and after realizing that my spiritual meter has taken a long pause as well, I have decided to make a change. Words with Friends is a good game - nothing wrong with it - but when it replaces the time I use to build myself and my soul, it becomes a problem.

Credit: inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com

I found Helaman today. The Book of Mormon generally is just easy reading for me. There's something extra direct about the word of God in that book. I opened to Helaman 13 verse 24. Helaman is the first Lamanite prophet. Up until that time, the Lamanites were the wayward guys - the offspring of the children who didn't get it. The Nephites were the good guys - or they had been. Here's the Lamanite prophesying to the Nephites. I'm sure they took one look at him, and even at the color of his skin perhaps, and decided that someone like that couldn't be a prophet.

They didn't know what a prophet was, and most of us don't either. He said "wo unto this people...ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity...". Then he went on to describe what they decided was a prophet: "behold, if a man come among you and shall say: Do this and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer...ye will receive him and say that he is a prophet".

So they, and we basically decide that if what is being said appeals to our existing lifestyle, and allows us to sink deeper into our own comfortable pit, then that guy is a prophet. I'd say that perhaps the dude is not a prophet, but an excuse.

So how do you find a prophet? First off, a man is a prophet not because of what any person says or thinks. He's a prophet because the Lord made him one. If Joe and John both say that they are prophets, and billions of people think it's Joe, that still doesn't make him a prophet. If John gets one vote from the Lord, he's the prophet.

So if it's the Lord that makes the decision, how do we know? We're not going to appeal to the opinions of others, or even to our own physical or mental opinion. That's all coming from muscle patterns and neurons. Physical stuff doesn't get us there. Truth comes from the soul.

One of the greatest battles I run into is individuals who believe they can think their way into believing Christ and the gospel. This is like trying to hear a smell. Like trying to see a sound. You can try to describe using the wrong sense, but at best it's still an approximation.

To know if a man is a prophet, we must use our soul. If the vessel is pure, if the gift is not blocked, then the Lord will tell us who the prophet is. Then our duty is not just to know that guy is a prophet, but to seek and follow his words. There's not much use knowing that a shovel is a shovel, then not use it if you need to dig a hole.

Prophets speak to worldwide audiences twice a year. One of those moments is coming up. It's up to me to make sure I listen, knowing that they are prophets.