Prayer, Revelation, and Supporting Church Leaders

This week in my personal scripture study, I read in the book of Numbers. I was particularly struck by Numbers chapter 11, in which Moses approached the Lord in prayer about his struggle in leading the Church and the children of Israel on his own. The Lord answered Moses’ prayer by commanding him to bring seventy Israelite men to come unto Him and the Lord’s Spirit came upon them and they prophesied.

This simple story taught me a couple different lessons. The first is the power of prayer. The Lord is concerned about our needs and wants to help and bless us if we will just reach out to Him. Elder Richard G. Scott said, “Prayer is a supernal gift of our Father in Heaven to every soul. Think of it: the absolute Supreme Being, the most all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful personage, encourages you and me, as insignificant as we are, to converse with Him as our Father.” What a powerful message!

The second lesson I learned from this story is that the Lord blesses us with gifts, such a revelation, to help carry out the work of His Church here on the earth. In the Doctrine and Covenants we learn that the Lord continues to guide the Church through revelation to latter-day prophets. Prophets are the only people that can receive revelation for the Church as a whole, but they are not the only people who can receive revelation. Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, “Only the president of the Church receives revelation to guide the entire Church. Only the stake president receives revelation for the special guidance of the stake. The person who receives revelation for the ward is the bishop. For a family, it is the priesthood leadership of the family. Leaders receive revelation for their own stewardships. Individuals can receive revelation to guide their own lives.” Moses received revelation from the Lord to choose seventy elders to help him bear the burden of leading the Church. Individuals receive revelation in today’s day and age to help lead and guide the Church as well, according to the Lord’s will.

The final lesson that I learned from this story comes from Numbers chapter 12. In this chapter, certain individuals became prideful and viewed themselves as being better than those who had been called to preside over them. This story teaches the importance of sustaining and supporting our Church leaders. The Lord calls prophets and apostles, through inspiration, to lead His Church. The Lord has given these leaders the authority to call others to serve in the Church. Remembering that all callings come from the Lord can help individuals resist becoming prideful, and be willing to subject to the priesthood leaders God has chosen to preside over us.