Prophets: An Answer Man

I copied this from the bloggersphere. I thought it was worth reposting.

"The Burden placed upon true prophets (Priests and Kings) is great. Prophets are mighty in spirit and knowledge because they have paid the price in discipleship, being careful to always do good. Since the purpose of the gospel is to make of us an holy nation of priests and kings, for a prophet to serve as a strongman or an answer man stunts the development of others

Humans are, at their cores, economically driven beings, which should be obvious to the most casual of observers. If a person wants to know whether there are multiple mortal probation's, for example, he could call upon the Lord in mighty prayer and faith for maybe years, being careful to bring forth good works in diligence and with an eye single to the glory of God and thus obtain the answer directly by the spirit of prophecy.

OR he could be a lazy faithless bum and ask a prophet for the answer. After all, one may more easily weary a human into answering one and thus satisfy one’s lust of curiosity than one can weary God. God is notorious for not answering to satisfy curiosity. 

Which course entails the lower price? Obviously, asking the prophet. Which way therefore do we expect more people to choose? Obviously, asking the prophet. Which way have people historically chosen? Obviously, asking the prophet – and we have now got a whole church dedicated to that course, and quite a shortage of prophets.

As an aside – sign-seekers cannot be satisfied. Their hearts are divided from God or else they would get the answer from God. They don’t trust the prophet of whom they inquire, so they cannot trust any answer he gives, even if it happens to be straight from God’s mouth – they can’t tell that because they have not the Spirit to discern. So they pester the prophet and provoke him continually until they have, as they suppose, cause to find fault and reject him, no matter how trivial in reality that cause is. Then they denounce him and congratulate themselves on their wisdom."