COME LISTEN TO A PROPHET'S VOICE

Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah

 

The 182nd Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will convene in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday and Sunday, October 6-7, 2012. The Conference Center, located across the street to the north of the Salt Lake Temple, was completed in April of 2000. This massive building seats approximately 21,000 in the main auditorium. It is constructed of stone from the same quarry which provided the granite for the Salt Lake Temple.

 

The General Conference of the Church, which is held twice each year in April and October, not only attracts members from around the world to Salt Lake City, but among the 14,441,346 latter-day saints, millions will also participate through satellite broadcast to Church buildings internationally or at home via satellite, television, or Internet.

 

Sister Lindsay and I have had the privilege of attending General Conference several times in Utah; but while we are serving our mission here in Baltimore, Maryland, we will watch the conference sessions in a local Church facility.

 

What does it mean to come listen to a prophet's voice? Among the thirteen Articles of Faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there are four (Articles 6 through 9) that reference prophets, the written Word of God, as well as the need and reality of continuous revelation from God to man through living prophets. Ponder this verse of scripture from the Old Testament of the Bible:

 

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7)

 

If God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, which He must be or He would cease to be God, then He must continue to speak to the sons and daughters of men today through prophets and apostles as has been the case in earlier dispensations of time. God is no respecter of persons, and surely He loves those of His children who live on the earth today as much as those who have lived in times past.

 

Referencing the Articles of Faith mentioned previously . . .

 

Article 6:  We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

 

Article 7: We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

 

Article 8: We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

 

Article 9: We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

 

Listening to the inspired words of living prophets and apostles during the General Conference of the Church provides all of us with the direction and counsel that Heavenly Father wants us to hear for the next six months, so we can keep our lives in harmony with the Holy Spirit as we prepare for the Second Coming of the Lord.