The Spirit of Prophecy

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 1996 Conference.

I've been thinking about prophecy this week because of learning about Joseph's dreams (and interpretations of dreams) in Come Follow Me. It's intriguing to me that Joseph, at 17 years old, had access to such specific prophecy about his future life—although I don't know how deeply he understood it. I suppose there might be people who have similar prophecies in their patriarchal blessings. But it made wonder if we, as normal members of the church not ordained to special prophetic callings, ever have "the spirit of prophecy" ourselves? My own experiences have dealt more with fleeting glimpses than prophecies, but occasionally in a personal conversation I will hear of a prophetic dream or an impression of a specific outcome—so I think it is possible. I even had my bishop say something to me recently that had the ring of prophecy to it…at least I'm claiming it as such.

I guess I'm not sure, either, if there's a difference between a prophecy and a promise. I hear a lot of prophetic promises during Conference and I cling to them!

These thoughts led me to notice what Elder L. Aldin Porter said about prophecy:

Some years ago I enjoyed a stake conference assignment as a junior companion to Elder LeGrand Richards, who had, under the influence of this directing Spirit, reorganized a stake presidency. We were driving home; he was very pensive. After a rather long period of silence, I asked him if there was something he would like to teach me. Quietly he said, “We have too many in the Church who deny the spirit of prophecy and of revelation.” That was it—he said no more about it. As I reminisced about the calling of the new stake president that day, it occurred to me then that this Church could not function for even one day without the spirit of prophecy and revelation.

But ours is a day of dwindling faith and increasing skepticism about sacred things. Our time reminds me of the period just prior to the coming of the resurrected Savior to this continent. They were very dark days.

Mormon recorded the roots of the problems that beset Nephite society when he said, “And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, it was because of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the hungry, withholding their clothing from the naked, and smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and of revelation.”

Later Mormon continues: “And because of their iniquity the church had begun to dwindle; and they began to disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy and in the spirit of revelation; and the judgments of God did stare them in the face.”

We boldly assert that the spirit of revelation rests upon the Lord’s living prophets, seers, and revelators.

I have no doubt that the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles have the spirit of prophecy for our church, and maybe that's all that matters. But I do think Mormon's sweeping statements are interesting , that "disbelief in the spirit of prophecy" was an indication of wickedness. It seems like disbelieving prophecy and disbelieving in the spirit of prophecy might be different things. The latter seems to mean we don't believe in even the possibility that we might be guided about future events; that we don't even think the Spirit can reveal future truths to us. And that seems obviously tied to a lack of faith and hope as well.

As I prepare for the upcoming April 2022 Conference, I want to have faith in "the spirit of prophecy"—not just that the prophets can prophesy about future events, but that they can see what I need and where I should be going. And I'm going to pay attention to glimpses that might be called prophecy in my own personal revelations from the Holy Ghost.