Digital Only: Young Adults
General Conference: Our Modern-day Manna
Through modern-day prophets and apostles, God has given us a way to find the spiritual nourishment we seek.
Whether a wilderness of heat and sand or an apostasy of confusion and doubt, there was a hunger following the Exodus in Egypt and a hunger following the death of Jesus Christ.
One hunger was physical, the other, spiritual.
To satisfy the physical needs of His children, God sent manna. To those after the great apostasy, He sent a spiritual likeness of this sustenance: the word of God given through a living prophet to lead us to the manna, Jesus Christ.
Just as the Israelites were taught to expect physical manna, we can expect spiritual manna today.
Our Spiritual Manna from God
While the Israelites wandered in a wilderness, those during the great apostasy wandered “from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east … to seek the word of the Lord, and [did] not find it” (Amos 8:12).
This wandering eventually led to Jesus Christ restoring His gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Just as the Lord revealed where the people of Israel would find their physical manna, He has also revealed to us where we can find true spiritual nourishment: from the scriptures and the words of our modern-day prophets who teach us of the true manna—Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life—and His restored gospel and truths.
We don’t need to wander in search of truth, because we have been given a promise that “surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).
President Russell M. Nelson taught, “It is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it!”1 The Lord’s counsel, taught by prophets and apostles in the scriptures and in general conference, will bring us lasting joy and true sustenance. Just as the children of Israel would have been exhausted and disappointed trying to find food to stay alive, we too will be exhausted and disappointed if we run to other sources in search of truth.
Finding Manna through Obedience
Just as the Israelites had to obey God to be physically fed, we need to follow Him to be spiritually fed.
“Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no” (Exodus 16:4; emphasis added).
The Lord used manna as an opportunity to discover whether the Israelites would be obedient to all His commandments. Likewise, general conference is an opportunity for us to prove our obedience to Him through our willingness to hearken to His prophets. And just like the Israelites could not pick and choose what to obey and what to ignore and still expect promised blessings, neither can we.
The people of Israel learned quickly that the manna would sustain them if they gathered it according to God’s instructions—it had to be gathered daily. We too learn that listening to God’s chosen servants will spiritually sustain us as we heed what is taught. The manna of Jesus Christ’s words given during general conference is not to be consumed in just one weekend alone. As we continue to revisit conference talks, incorporating their precious truths into our daily studies, we will find that we are continuously nourished.
The True Manna We Seek
The children of Israel knew that this miraculous manna came from God. And we can know with certainty that general conference messages come from God as we go to Him in prayer and invite the Spirit into our lives each day. As Moroni taught, “By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5).
We can know this because of what prophets and apostles teach, whom they constantly teach and testify of, and whom they ultimately represent and stand in place of—Jesus Christ.
Just as God sent manna, He sends living prophets.
Both represent His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the manna that the Israelites sought and who we also seek today.
“Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
“For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
“Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger” (John 6:31–35).
Prophets help us to partake of the Bread of Life—to partake of our Savior Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. As we consistently listen to and heed their teachings, we will be spiritually fed, filled, and strengthened.
I hope all of us will tune in to general conference.