Sunday, April 6, 2014

Numbers 11:27-29 -- On All People as Prophets

"And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.
And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!"
Numbers 11:27-29


This is an interesting story of Moses.  The Lord was sharing his spirit with more than one person, and others were prophesying, and it wasn't what they were used to, and weren't sure what to do, so Joshua asked Moses to stop it.  And, if they had been trying to take Moses' place and lead the people or if they had been falsely prophesying, perhaps he would have.  But God was really speaking to them, and Moses wished that it could happen to everyone.
What a wish, right?  Imagine a world where everyone had that kind of access to God.  It could be a world of peace, a world where we all learned directly from the Almighty.  A world where we didn't wander so much, where we spoke the same spiritual language, and a world where we could learn so much more than the basics.  A world of better choices and much more happiness.
Except, wait.  I think we've forgotten that we *do* have this kind of access to God, if we want it and we work for it.  It is available to all.  We can all receive revelation, and God *wants* us to be that close to him.  ... Of course we can't all lead the church.  That would be very confusing. :)  But we *can* all have that gift of prophecy and revelation for our own lives.  Moses wanted everyone to have it, God wants everyone to have it... so why aren't we there?  Why haven't we accepted that gift; why don't we have the spirit of prophecy and revelation guiding us all the time?
It takes dedication and devotion to have the spirit consistently in our lives.  Alma 17:3 tells us that we have to dedicate ourselves to "much prayer, and fasting" in order to have this gift.  But as we see in the scriptures from the examples of Moses and Nephi and Jonah and many others, perfection is not required to call upon God or to receive his spirit in our lives.  We only have to have faith... we have to dedicate ourselves to act on our desire, and talk to God about it.  We have to work to be the kinds of people that the Lord can trust.  We have to *listen* to him, and act on the messages that he gives us.  Many of us have probably felt inspiration in our lives from God.  At those times, if we have faith, if we act, if we learn to recognize those promptings, then they grow stronger and we are better able to recognize and act on them the next time.  We build trust with the Lord that we'll listen and do as he asks.  And all of us can have that guidance and that closeness and that love in our lives.  Today, let's remember all that God wants to bless us with, and live our lives closer to the spirit.

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