Essay

Prophets Among the Voices

Why Should I Trust Prophets More Than Influencers?

You can hear thousands of confident opinions in a single week. Podcasters tell you how to think about relationships and happiness. Professors and experts explain the world through their fields of study. Celebrities, political figures, authors, and social-media creators weigh in on identity, morality, marriage, sexuality, family, money, and almost everything else.

Many of those people may be intelligent, sincere, and genuinely helpful. So why should the words of living prophets carry more weight than all those other voices? And what should you do when a prophet teaches something that is harder to accept than what almost everyone else seems to be saying?

Those are fair questions. The answer begins with Jesus Christ. Living prophets and apostles are not simply religious commentators with another opinion to add to the conversation. They are called by Jesus Christ as prophets, seers, and revelators to teach His gospel and guide His Church (Ephesians 4:11–14).

There are many intelligent and influential people in the world. But no influencer, professor, podcaster, celebrity, or commentator has been given that same divine calling and responsibility from Jesus Christ.

What Does It Mean That a Prophet Is a Seer?

In the Book of Mormon, King Limhi wanted to understand ancient records his people had discovered but could not translate. Ammon explained that a seer has a gift from God that reaches beyond ordinary human knowledge. Through revelation, a seer can know and make known things that people could not otherwise discover (Mosiah 8:16–18).

That does not mean prophets know everything or that they replace experts in every field. Their calling is different. Their guidance ultimately comes through revelation rather than popularity, algorithms, polling, professional credentials, or cultural consensus. The Lord has always followed the pattern of revealing His purposes through prophets (Amos 3:7).

In her devotional “Prophets Can See Around Corners,” Sheri Dew described this gift in practical language. Prophets can sometimes recognize dangers we cannot yet see and opportunities we do not yet understand. That is one reason prophetic counsel may make more sense years after it is first given.

You may not always understand a prophet’s counsel immediately. Faith sometimes means trusting that the Lord can see farther down the road than you can.

What If I Don’t Agree at First?

That can become much more difficult when prophetic counsel touches something personal.

Sheri Dew has described an experience when an Apostle taught something about women and motherhood that bothered her deeply. She did not immediately understand or agree with what she heard. But rather than deciding that her first reaction settled the question, she kept studying.

She searched the scriptures, worshipped in the temple, prayed, and continued trying to understand the doctrine. Over time, her understanding changed. She eventually came to believe that the underlying teaching was true and later taught the same principle herself.

Her experience gives us a useful pattern. Trusting prophets does not mean pretending every teaching immediately feels comfortable or makes perfect sense. It means giving revelation a different kind of weight than our first reaction and being willing to seek understanding from God before deciding that a prophetic teaching must be wrong. The Lord Himself taught His Saints to receive prophetic counsel “in all patience and faith,” with a promise of spiritual protection as they do (Doctrine and Covenants 21:4–6).

Where Does the Prophet Rank Among the Voices You Follow?

There is a question worth asking honestly: Where does the living prophet rank among the people you turn to when you want to know what is true?

Think about an ordinary week. You may spend hours hearing from podcasters, influencers, professors, friends, commentators, or people whose content appears repeatedly in your feed. When questions arise about identity, marriage, sexuality, morality, family, faith, or your future, those voices can begin shaping how you interpret the question before you ever look at what prophets have taught.

That does not mean those voices have nothing useful to offer. An economist may understand economics better than you do. A psychologist may offer valuable insight into human behavior. A thoughtful friend may give excellent advice.

But expertise and popularity are not the same thing as prophetic authority.

Prophets have been given a different responsibility: to testify of Jesus Christ, teach revealed doctrine, warn against spiritual danger, exercise priesthood keys, and help God’s children remain on the covenant path. The Lord made the connection between His voice and the words of His authorized servants remarkably direct: “whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:38).

This short clip asks you to consider where the living prophet actually ranks among the voices you listen to:

Why Other Voices Can Sometimes Feel Easier to Trust

There is a reason other voices can become more persuasive.

Algorithms keep showing you things that hold your attention. Creators often succeed because people like, share, and return to what they say. And when someone already sees the world the way you do, listening to that person can feel reassuring.

Prophets have a different responsibility. Sometimes they will tell us something we would rather not hear.

That pattern runs throughout scripture. Prophets repeatedly warned people about choices and beliefs that had become normal in their culture. Often those warnings were unpopular precisely because people had become accustomed to thinking another way. Scripture even warns about being gradually “pacified” into spiritual security when everything around us seems comfortable and normal (2 Nephi 28:21).

The same thing can happen now. When you hear one cultural message hundreds of times and prophetic teaching only occasionally, the cultural message can begin to feel obvious while revelation starts to feel unusual.

That is one way the adversary can work through ordinary habits of attention. He does not need every influencer to be deliberately opposing God. He only needs other voices to become so authoritative in our minds that we automatically judge prophetic counsel by whether it agrees with them.

The question, then, is not whether you should stop learning from everyone except prophets. It is which voices you allow to define truth when the voices disagree.

Why Prophets Deserve a Different Kind of Trust

Jesus Christ is the head of His Church. He calls Apostles and gives them priesthood authority and responsibility for His work. Speaking to His authorized disciples, the Savior taught, “He that heareth you heareth me” (Luke 10:16).

That means following prophetic counsel is ultimately an act of trust in Christ rather than a claim that prophets are the world’s greatest experts on every subject. You can respect scholarship, learn from thoughtful people, and seek good professional advice while still recognizing that none of those sources has been commissioned to reveal God’s will for His entire Church.

Prophets also have a different purpose from most public voices. They are not trying to build your loyalty to themselves. Their calling is to point you toward Jesus Christ, covenants, repentance, temple worship, eternal family, and eternal life.

Sometimes that means they will tell you what you need to hear rather than what is easiest to hear.

What Research Teaches About Trust and Compassionate Motives

Research on trust consistently identifies benevolence as a key factor in determining whether people see a leader as trustworthy. Benevolence refers to the belief that a leader genuinely cares about your well-being rather than acting out of self-interest. Trust increases when people perceive that a leader has the ability to help them, acts with integrity, and sincerely seeks their good.

Researchers Roger Mayer, James Davis, and F. David Schoorman developed a widely used model of organizational trust in which they identify three core components: ability, integrity, and benevolence. Benevolence, in this model, means believing that a leader genuinely seeks your welfare rather than primarily pursuing personal gain. Read the study here.

This framework helps clarify why prophetic leadership is intended to be received differently from most public voices. When people evaluate leaders, they naturally consider whether those leaders are competent, honest, and motivated by genuine concern for their well-being. In the case of prophets, believers understand their calling as encompassing all three dimensions: divine authority (ability), covenant faithfulness (integrity), and a divinely assigned responsibility to seek the eternal welfare of God’s children (benevolence).

Jacob described this kind of motive in spiritual terms when he taught that God’s servants labor with “none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls” (2 Nephi 2:30).

This research does highlight an important question whenever you decide whom to trust: What does this person ultimately want from me?

Many public voices depend on attention, clicks, subscribers, customers, votes, or an audience. That does not make their ideas dishonest. But prophets have been charged with something fundamentally different—the everlasting welfare of God’s children. Jacob described the purpose of God’s servants as having “none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls” (2 Nephi 2:30).

That difference in purpose matters.

What If a Prophetic Teaching Is Hard for Me?

When something troubles you, begin by finding out what was actually taught. Read the prophet’s entire message rather than relying on a quote, headline, reaction video, or social-media summary.

Then take the question to God. Study related scriptures. Pray honestly. Worship in the temple. Ask the Holy Ghost to help you understand what you may not yet see. The Lord promises that the Holy Ghost can teach us truth and bring spiritual understanding (John 14:26).

Personal revelation matters enormously. But personal revelation and prophetic revelation come from the same God. The Lord does not require you to choose between sincerely seeking your own witness and trusting the servants He has called.

Sometimes understanding comes quickly. Sometimes it develops gradually. You can continue following Christ while that understanding grows.

A Few Questions Worth Thinking About

• When I have an important question, whose voice do I usually seek first?
• Which people receive the most attention from me each week, and how much authority have I started giving them?
• When prophetic counsel conflicts with something I have found online, do I sincerely seek understanding from God or mainly look for someone who agrees with me?
• Where does the living prophet actually rank among the voices shaping the way I see my life?

What Can You Do This Week?

Choose one question that matters to you. It might involve identity, dating, marriage, sexuality, family, faith, money, or your future. Find out what living prophets and apostles have actually taught about it. Read an original talk rather than someone’s interpretation of it.

Look at your media habits. Notice which voices receive the most hours of your attention. Ask whether the amount of influence they have in your thinking matches the authority you believe they actually possess.

Study Mosiah 8:16–18 and then read or listen to “Prophets Can See Around Corners.” Ask Heavenly Father to help you understand why He gives His children prophets and seers.

Then choose one prophetic invitation to act on. Jesus taught that understanding often deepens as we become willing to do God’s will (John 7:17). Prophetic counsel becomes much more meaningful when it moves from something you hear to something you actually live.

Following Prophets Leads Us to Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ has not left you alone to sort through every competing voice in the world. He has given you scripture, the Holy Ghost, covenants, and living prophets and apostles. Together, those gifts help you recognize truth and become more like Him.

You can learn from scholars, teachers, friends, and thoughtful people online. There is wisdom to be found in many places. But when another voice contradicts what the Lord has revealed through His authorized servants, you have a reason to give prophetic counsel greater weight.

As you study their teachings, seek confirmation from the Holy Ghost, and act on what the Lord asks you to do, your trust ultimately becomes deeper trust in Jesus Christ. And in a world where thousands of voices are competing to tell you who to be and how to live, that kind of spiritual steadiness is a powerful gift.