The Vitally Important Part of #Hear Him That Members Are Completely Missing!

If you’ve been on social media at all you’ve seen the Church’s theme over the last year, #HearHim. They’ve had videos done by various apostles, devotionals, fireside, face2face events, Church magazine/website articles, and you’ve probably had lessons in Priesthood or Relief Society about it! #HearHim is everywhere! Ironically even with this emphasis on #HearHim, many members are completely missing the mark!

If I got ten dollars for every comment on my blog/Facebook or private/text message I get saying some variation of “President Nelson urged us to #HearHim and I am doing just that! God gave me and my revelation that I should do the opposite of what the Prophet urged us to do.” I would be able to retire!

That’s an exaggeration, but the point is, too many people are using President Nelson’s urging that we “Hear Him” as justification to do whatever they want! (And don’t even get me started on the irony that they follow this urging compared to other urgings). The point is, just like many quotes taken out of context, they’ve manipulated this quote out of context to justify false revelation to be disobedient. So what is #HearHim really all about?

The context of the invitation to #HearHim

In the April 2020 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson delivered a landmark talk #HearHim where he pled with us to do “whatever it takes” to learn how to Hear Him. He told us that Hearing Him was key to decerning deceptions (aka counterfeits) from Satan. The Prophet’s words exactly were:

“I renew my plea for you to do whatever it takes to increase your spiritual capacity to receive personal revelation.

Doing so will help you know how to move ahead with your life, what to do during times of crisis, and how to discern and avoid the temptations and the deceptions of the adversary.”

This quote has been used repeatedly in comments on my blog and Facebook page, to justify disobeying the Prophet. But, President Russell M. Nelson in the VERY NEXT SENTENCE gives the recipe for us to Hear Him… And that is to FOLLOW THE PROPHET.

“And, finally, we hear Him as we heed the words of prophets, seers, and revelators. Ordained Apostles of Jesus Christ always testify of Him. They point the way as we make our way through the heart-wrenching maze of our mortal experiences.”

Read that again! WE HEAR HIM AS WE HEED THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS!!! We legit were warned, ‘Learn how to Hear Him so you won’t be deceived by Satan, here is how you Hear Him, Follow the Prophet!!’ And now we have a bunch of people saying, “I am Hearing Him! And I was told I don’t need to follow the Prophet for XY or Z reasons.” How can we claim that we are “Hearing Him” if we are doing the exact opposite of what the Prophet told us to do to Hear Him? If we were obedient and truly able to truly Hear Him we would not be deceived with counterfeits of Satan (See When Satan Gives You a ‘Revelation’ That You Don’t Need to Follow Your Church Leaders).

Protestant Mormons

Just earlier this week I saw a post on Facebook where a member was struggling with following the prophet or following his personal revelation. They had asked what to do and countless answers advised him to follow his personal revelation as that was most important. Reading all these comments about how members believe their personal revelation trumps the prophet reminds me of the Protestants protesting the Pope.

The irony is that these Protestant Mormons cling to President Nelson saying we should “Hear Him” and still look forward to General Conference even though they plan on discarding everything the prophet says that disagrees with their revelations. I honestly wonder, why do they look forward to conference? If your personal revelation overrides the prophet then why even have a prophet?

In 1980 when the First Presidency publically opposed ERA a lot of members made the same claims, the Ensign rebutted their claims with, “But what if an individual feels his “confirmation” does not support the First Presidency statement? When the Apostle Paul was approached by members espousing their own interpretations, he resolved their dilemma by asking: “You saith I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor. 1:12–13)”.

Public disobedience: the pathway to apostasy

One of the craziest things I’ve witnessed in recent days is those who are advocating the notion that obedience to the prophet will lead to apostasy. This last week I had multiple people claiming on my Facebook page that the difference between us and the FLDS Church is they believe in following the prophet and we believe the prophet can be wrong and we should pray about it.

The great irony? The exact opposite is true! The FLDS Church as well as all other polygamist breakoff groups legit believe that Willford Woodruff was wrong and ‘prayed about it’ and that is why they broke off! Almost all the excuses I’ve heard about the First Presidency Letter, “They were pressured into issuing this,” “We need to decipher what the real message was”, “This is a false message meant to test the Saints and see who is in tune with revelation and can Hear Him.” All of these excuses are the same type of things that were said to Willford Woodruff’s announcement that the Church was stopping polygamy!

When we disobey the Prophet we are starting down a dangerous road. But disobedience alone is not apostasy. When we public broadcast our disobedience and encourage others to do so we are on the sure road of apostasy. And that is not just my opinion President George Q. Cannon taught it:

Testing personal revelation

Rather than trying to judge the prophet based upon our personal revelations (the Protestant Mormon method), we should judge our personal revelation by the revealed word of God. President Nelson in the above quotes taught that this is how we Hear Him. How does this help with us Hearing Him? That is simple: Obedience to God and His Prophets qualifies us for the Spirit that will then allow us to more fully Hear Him.

It is important that we understand how personal revelation works, because if we know the principles that govern personal revelation, then we can obey them and not be deceived. I wrote this article, Two Guiding Principles of Personal Revelation That Every Latter-day Saint Needs To Know. To help with members who kept claiming to have ‘personal revelations’ that were defying the guiding principles of personal revelation. When you are getting answers but are not obeying the principles that allow the Spirit to speak to you, your answers are from Satan.

The First Presidency taught this: “When visions, dreams, tongues, prophecy, impressions or any extraordinary gift or inspiration conveys something out of harmony with the accepted revelations of the Church or contrary to the decisions of its constituted authorities, Latter-day Saints may know that it is not of God… The Lord’s Church ‘is a house of order.’ It is not governed by individual gifts or manifestations, but by the order and power of the Holy Priesthood as sustained by the voice and vote of the Church in its appointed conferences.”
President Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, Charles W. Penrose 1913.
(Messages of the First Presidency, compiled by James R. Clark [Bookcraft, 19701, Vol. 4, pp. 285-86. emphasis added)

The blessings of following the prophet

After urging and pleading with us to do whatever is necessary to #HearHim (Obedience is what is necessary) and after he tells us that we #HearHim by obeying the Prophets. In the very next paragraph, the Prophet asks us what are the blessings of obedience?

“What will happen as you more intentionally hear, hearken, and heed what the Savior has said and what He is saying now through His prophets? I promise that you will be blessed with additional power to deal with temptation, struggles, and weakness. I promise miracles in your marriage, family relationships, and daily work. And I promise that your capacity to feel joy will increase even if turbulence increases in your life.”

What so many people are missing is the fact that the Prophet is not merely a nice man. Nor is he just a good man who is trying his best. The Prophet is the Lord’s mouthpiece on earth today. He is the watchman on the tower. He is an Especial Witness of Christ. What we think is personal revelation does not trump the Prophet of the Lord. We are NOT Protestant Mormons. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And we believe that God has called prophets to lead and guide us today. We believe in following the Prophet.

President Hartman Rector, Jr. a convert and one of the great general authorities of the Church declared, “Oh, if we could only learn this lesson and look to his living prophet on earth! In this day and time, following the living prophet is the only way that we can follow the Lord God and do his will.”

For more quotes on following the prophet see: 20+ Amazing Quotes on Following The Prophet and the Dangers of Disobeying!