prophets continued...

So, I read a conference article this morning about obeying the prophet...
Elder Costa said: "It is a great blessing to receive the word, commandments, and guidance of the Lord in these difficult days of the earth.  The prophet can be inspired to see the future in benefit of mankind...the Lord will reveal to His prophet absolutely anything that He feels is necessary to communicate to us...The Lord promised that if we believe in the holy prophets, we should have eternal life."  Then, he later explains what belief in prophets means:  "to have faith and confidence in them and to follow and do what the prophets ask us to do."  Then he goes on to outline some principles given by President Ezra Taft Benson in a talk in 1980, called "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet."  Some of the things that stuck out to me are:  The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything; the living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works and dead prophets; the prophet will never lead the church astray, because the Lord won't let him; the prophet won't necessarily be popular or learned or have credentrials, and is not limited by men's reasoning; and my favorite, the prophet tells us what we NEED to know, not always what we want to know.  Costa ends with this testimony and counsel:  "Pay attention and follow their (the prophets) instruction and suggestions... and your life will be completely blessed." 
Awesome!  So, if we put in the effort to study and ask and then receive testimony of his divine calling, we can have confidence in the prophet to give us God's word, and we really do need to heed all of his words!  Practice faith; BELIEVE and obey!!!

So, on that topic of obeying prophets, I also read about a Nephite situation and thought I'd share.  Because of the problems going on in many countries right now with governments and uprisings and things, Ryan and I (and my dad who is here this weekend) have been talking about the signs of the times a lot.  We talked lately about Zion being the "center place" where righteous people will have to gather for strength and protection against enemies.  Well, in an account in the Book of Mormon in 3rd Nephi chapter 4, we are told that the Nephites knew the robbers were preparing to come against them, so they gathered all of their provisions and gathered together in one place that had been appointed.  These tens of thousands of people pooled all of their supplies, and had enough to last for 7 years!  So, later, when the robbers decided to lay siege and surround them to "cut them off," it was actually and advantage to the Nephites, because it was "impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any affect on them, because of their much provision which they had laid up in store."  They were blessed to be able to be preserved, because they followed their leader's command to prepare! 
So, in those very last days as our whole world is at war, and we are counselled to gather and pool our provisions, will we be prepared?  We've been told for many years now to get food storage and prepare our families and homes and supplies for a time that we may have to live on only what we have at home.  We should be listening and obeying NOW so that we will be prepared then!  And maybe we'll end up in a similar situation where the only way we are preserved is because we were more prepared than our enemies!!