(July 27, 2014)
There
is a hierarchy to the Lord’s Kingdom that we sometimes need clarifying in our
mind. This hierarchy is traceable all the
way upward, and we are instructed to follow the highest instruction that we
receive. First, there is our own
wisdom. Then, we have the counsel of
those in direct stewardship over us (Quorum President, then Bishop, then Stake
President, and so on). Up the chain we
go in mortality until we reach the Prophet.
On any
given issue, we are to follow the highest hierarchical counsel we receive. If the counsel of our Bishop is contradicted
by the counsel of an Apostle, we follow the Apostle. If the wisdom of our hearts is contradicted by
our Stake President, we follow our Stake President.
But the
highest authority is always the Lord. When
we receive revelation on any issue, that should be the end of things no matter
whatever else people may say or do. Even
the Prophet’s counsel does not exceed direct revelation from the Lord. We must be very wise and very careful to be
certain that we are receiving revelation in such instances, but when we are
sure we must act on it.
In
these chapters, we see a righteous man who dies for failing to follow that
counsel. He receives instruction from
the Lord, but he follows a prophet instead of following the Lord’s words. As such, he is torn and killed. While it is likely extremely rare to have the
Lord contradict a prophet in our lives (maybe once or twice in a lifetime) and
while it is certain that receiving such inspiration does not authorize us in
any extent to argue against the prophet’s counsel in any application except to
our own in our particular, individual circumstance, we are still obligated to
follow the orders of our King even when those orders contradict the orders of
our Generals, the Prophets.
No comments:
Post a Comment