IT IS NO SMALL THING . . . TO HAVE A PROPHET OF GOD IN OUR MIDST. Elder M. Russell Ballard said: It is no small thing, my brothers and sisters, to have a prophet of God in our midst. Great and wonderful are the blessings that come into our lives as we listen to the word of the Lord given to us through him. . . . When we hear the counsel of the Lord expressed through the words of the President of the Church, our response should be positive and prompt. History has shown that there is safety, peace, prosperity, and happiness in responding to prophetic counsel as did Nephi of old: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded (1 Nephi 3:7). We know of the experience of Naaman, who was struck with leprosy and who eventually contacted the prophet Elisha and was instructed to go and wash in [the] Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean (2 Kings 5:10). At first, Naaman was unwilling to follow Elishas counsel. He couldnt understand the thing he had been asked to do—to wash seven times in the Jordan river. In other words, his pride and stubbornness were keeping him from receiving the Lords blessing through His prophet. Thankfully, he finally went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean (2 Kings 5:14). What a humbling thing it must have been for Naaman to realize how close he came to allowing his own pride and his unwillingness to listen to the counsel of the prophet to prevent him from receiving such a great, cleansing blessing. And what a humbling thing it is to contemplate how many of us might miss out on great and promised blessings because we do not listen and then do the relatively simple things our prophet is telling us to do today. (In Conference Report, Apr. 2001, 84; or Ensign, May 2001, 65–66.)
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 06:47:16 +0000
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