AT THE HELM

In 1980 President Benson spoke at a BYU devotional in which he outlined 14 Fundamentals in Following the Prophet.  Below are the headings of the 14 points:

1.  The Prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2.  The living prophet is more vital to us than standard works.
3.  The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4.  The prophet will never lead the church astray.
5.  The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any   subjects or act on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
6.  The Prophet does not have to say "thus saith the Lord" to give us scripture.
7.  The Prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8.  The Prophet is not limited by man's reasoning.
9.  The Prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The Prophet may be involved in civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following a prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The Prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The Prophet and his counsellors make up the First Presidency, the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The Prophet and the presidency - the living prophet and the First Presidency - follow them and be blessed - reject them and suffer.

I am so grateful that I belong to a church who has a living prophet at its' head, who speaks on behalf of God through the power of the Holy Ghost and to know that if I follow his counsel I will not be led astray. 

I was reading D&C Section 21 this morning about the organisation of the Church and my admiration and appreciation for the Prophet Joseph Smith was once again renewed.  Verses 7-9 read:
"For thus saith the Lord God: Him have I inspired to move the cause of Zion in mighty power for good and his diligence I know and his prayers I have heard.
Yea, his weeping for Zion I have seen and I will cause that he shall mourn for her no longer; for his days of rejoicing are come unto the remission of his sins and the manifestations of my blessings upon his works."
When I read these two verses I so wanted to be like Joseph who wept for Zion and despite his trials and persecutions he received for his dedication to the work that was allotted to him and I wanted to receive the same blessings he received for the work he performed.  Then I read further and was so overjoyed with what came next:
"For behold I will bless ALL THOSE who labor in my vineyard with a mighty blessing......" 
That's us I thought!  We are labouring just the same but in different ways.  We all have a part in building of the kingdom but we need to always look to the head because of what comes next in the rest of the verse 9:
"....and they shall believe on his words, which are given him through me by the Comforter, which manifesteth that Jesus was crucified by sinful men for the sins of the world, yea, for the remission of sins unto the contrite heart."

Why do we need to always look to the prophet at the helm?  Because we need to believe on his words which are given him by the Father through the Comforter, being the Holy Ghost.  Tomorrow we will talk more about that.