Prophetic Priorities
- bryceggorrell
- Oct 10
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 12
The following questions are an invitation to learn by reflection, a valuable exercise I’ve learned more powerfully through my Jesuit education.
This method allows for an individual to consider and apply prior teachings, and enjoy great personal responsibility for their own learning.
It is totally free from any accusation of wrongdoing, while allowing for quick and decisive insight into a person’s needs for change and improvement.
The lessons to be applied are often deeply personal and individually suited to the student.
Reflecting allows for recognition of the need to continue learning, as we see areas we'd like to continue exploring, or which are only partially understood.
This Ignatian method of teaching is in perfect harmony with latter-day revelation regarding the role of the Holy Ghost in gospel instruction. (Doc. & Cov. 50)
I love seeing the wonderful gathering together of all things in one, in Christ, which is evident to me in the ideas and practices revealed to and developed by many people of many faiths, in many periods of time. (Ephesians 1: 10)
Of course, the most masterful employment of this technique is seen in the life of the Savior, who often used questions to prompt deeply meaningful experiences, both for the enlightened truth seeker, and for the darkened detractor. (See Matthew 5: 43-47; 7: 1-5; 8: 23-26; 9: 2-7, 14-15, 27-29; 10: 29-31; 11: 7-9; 12: 3-5, 11-12, 26-29, 34; 15: 1-9, 16; 16: 1-3, 8-12; 13-17, 26; 17: 17, 24-27; 18: 11-13; 19: 3-6, 16-17; 20: 30-34; 21: 15-16; 21: 23-27; 28-31; 33-45; 22: 15-22; 23-33, 41-46; 23: 17, 19, 33; 24: 1-2, 44-46; 26: 40, 50-55; 27: 46; also Alma 5)
-----
Are you aligned with Prophetic Priorities?
Is there a consistent pattern in prophetic teachings and leadership style over time and generations?
What kinds of prophetic teachings have taken their place among time-honored treasures of wisdom?
What are the Lord’s chosen servants teaching right now?
Do prophets engage in sensationalism or indulge in loud attention-grabbing?
Are you distracted by good things taking too much of your time, energy and attention away from the best things?
Are you distracted by worldly ambition toward other pursuits?
Are you seeking to gratify vain ambition, even (indeed especially) if done in the name of God and His kingdom?
Are you distracted by your own pet projects you’ve taken upon yourself and categorized under the work of the Lord?
Are you aligned with what the Lord has been revealing to all of us collectively through His chosen prophets, or do you believe your claim to personal or positional revelation trumps that need to obey?
If in a position of spiritual leadership, are you feeding your flock, or merely seeking to drive them? Do you lead from the front, or do you kick from the rear? (See Matthew 24: 42-26; John 10: 11-15, 27-30)
Do you indulge in fearmongering, rather than dealing in faith, repentance, and covenant-keeping, the currency of true righteousness?
Are you nourishing yourself and others with the word of God, or are you substituting esoteric references or irrationally narrow emphases for the well-rounded doctrinal smorgasbord made available by Jesus Christ?
What fruits are beginning to ripen as a result of your ministry? Are they sweet, or bitter?
Are priesthood keys an absolute license to order and impose any whim decreed by the holder thereof as divine?
If a holder of priesthood keys, do those keys authorize you to dictate personal and family matters to your followers?
Is a priesthood key holder free to disregard direction from those who hold keys directing his exercise of the priesthood, and of his priesthood keys?
Does holding some keys mean that one holds all keys?
Did the unfolding of the Great Apostasy begin when a Bishop assumed to hold Apostolic keys?
Judge ye.
See also, all by Dallin H. Oaks:
