I think that some of the best disciples of Christ I have ever seen haven’t really said a word to me about Jesus Christ. Well, maybe sometimes, but for the most part they testify of the love and goodness of God in a vastly different way. Most of the world calls these children “special needs”, I prefer special spirits. Some may not share the same opinions of gratitude for children who are born with a different set of parameters on life than most of us. Some would see this as a sign that God does not love us, that just like war, famine, and a host of other difficult things in this life, these children are somehow evidence that Heavenly Father is not aware of us.

I would tend to disagree. Yes, when I found out my son was “different” it was heartbreaking for me. I had hopes and dreams for him that I didn’t know if the future could ever fulfill. Mostly, I was scared. God was trusting me with something very unique and special and I had no clue what I was supposed to do for him. It’s a long process, but it’s one I’d go through again and again just to have my son come up to me daily and just say “hello”, or try to crush me with a “hug”. No, my days are not always easy. I’ve seen many with much greater challenges than mine. It is hard, but there is a special reward that comes with it: their spirit. Sure, we may see them as different, we may be sad for what we perceive as their lost futures, we may fall into bed feeling helpless, hopeless and exhausted, but we also get to see them smile.

See, that’s the thing I’ve noticed about special needs individuals. For the most part, these special spirits are happy. They are not mourning over who they are. They get frustrated, just like we do, when their world is off kilter, but there is often a sense of peace, joy, and love that surrounds them. I see the goodness of God in them. Each smile is a huge testimony to me that life is wonderful, that I am loved, that the kind and good life our Savior has asked us to pursue can be accomplished. When I look at them, I notice the warmth of ministering angles that stay close by and watch over those with challenges in this life.

This week I had the chance to take my special needs son to his sports introduction program. It was kind of fun to sit back and watch all the different special needs kids with their different personalities running around with hockey sticks. There was something else I was watching as well. I was watching their coaches. They were as different as the children, coming from all walks of life, but they had one thing in common: they were truly happy to be right where they were, doing what they were doing. That’s what I’m most grateful for today.

Just as there are those whose special spirits are more obvious to the world, there are also those with special spirits that most of us don’t notice very often. You see, Heavenly Father place a great portion of His spirit in each one of those special needs children, but He also understood the challenges they and those around them would face. He placed a select measure of His spirit in others, which draws them to those that are mentally, physically, or socially challenged. He placed in them the patience and love that these children need. He’s watching out for His most special children. He’s gently guiding some of us to do the same.

I watched the children shine with God’s love and I watched that light be reflected in the faces of their coaches as they ran, laughed, guided, and cheered. So, I just wanted to share my gratitude for them, for reminding me that there is true joy in service. When we find where we can be the most effective servant in the hands of God, whether that’s what we think we’re looking for or not, there is joy. There is love. There is God. There is peace. There is home.

In all the times of history that prophets lived on the earth, those prophets caused new scripture to be created. The words of the prophets were written down and some of them were gathered into books of scriptures. The Bible wasn’t just one book initially. It was a collection of writings that in time were gathered together and men decided which writings should be part of the scripture.

The Jewish people initially had only small portions of what is today called the Bible. They had the writings of whichever prophets had lived to that point. More was regularly added to that cannon. The people were not expected to keep only the words of Moses and to consider that enough.

Early in the Bible, we read of a warning to the people:

1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.

2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4 in the King James version of the Bible)

This is similar to a warning given in the Book of Revelation, which is in the New Testament of the Bible:

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: (Revelation 22:18)

Needless to say, a great deal had been added to the Bible between the writings in Deuteronomy and the writings in Revelations. And, of course, although Revelations is the last book in our Bible, it wasn’t the last one written. So what did the prophets mean when they said not to add to the scriptures?

They meant that we must not add the teachings of men to the teachings of God. The prophets might be entitled to their own opinions on subjects, but what they wrote must be God’s word, not theirs, and must be written only with God’s permission. In other words, the scriptures must be purely the word of God, not a commentary that sometimes thinks to quote God.

Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle of God, explained, concerning the verse in Revelations:

“However, there is now overwhelming consensus among virtually all biblical scholars that this verse applies only to the book of Revelation, not the whole Bible. Those scholars of our day acknowledge a number of New Testament “books” that were almost certainly written after John’s revelation on the Isle of Patmos was received. Included in this category are at least the books of Jude, the three Epistles of John, and probably the entire Gospel of John itself. Perhaps there are even more than these.

But there is a simpler answer as to why that passage in the final book of the current New Testament cannot apply to the whole Bible. That is because the whole Bible as we know it—one collection of texts bound in a single volume—did not exist when that verse was written. For centuries after John produced his writing, the individual books of the New Testament were in circulation singly or perhaps in combinations with a few other texts but almost never as a complete collection. Of the entire corpus of 5,366 known Greek New Testament manuscripts, only 35 contain the whole New Testament as we now know it, and 34 of those were compiled after a.d. 1000.” Jeffrey R. Holland, My Words … Never Cease’,” Ensign, May 2008, 91–94

And so, God was not saying we had to rip all the pages out of our Bible that were written after Deuteronomy, or that we can’t treasure the words of John. He meant only that we can’t put our own doctrines into the scriptures.

The Savior said he had more people than just the Jews. He was not only the God of the Jews. He was the Savior of us all. Modern day revelation tells us Jesus appeared to others between his death and resurrection, and we have the records of one of those groups. This record is the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon tells of several groups of people who immigrated from the Holy Lands. The primary group was the family and friends of a prophet named Lehi. Lehi was called of God to preach to the people of Jerusalem around 600 BC. When the people rejected his words, as they did the other prophets of the time, God instructed him to take his family and flee. In time, God led them to the American continent. They brought with them religious scriptures, those that had been written to that time.

Lehi’s son, Nephi, succeeded him as prophet and was commanded to begin keeping a record of God’s dealings with the people. Future prophets added to it. As a result, when the Savior came to these people between his death and resurrection, the visit was recorded. It stands today as a testimony that Jesus is indeed our Savior, the Savior of all people everywhere. The book stands as a testimony that the Bible is true, since it reinforces the message of the Bible concerning the Savior.

Unfortunately, many people prefer to think God is unwilling to talk to anyone but the ancient Jews of Jerusalem, and that He has closed his dealings with us. The Book of Mormon predicted this very event, with a gentle reminder not to think God can’t do something. He is God…He can do everything.

3 And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. (2 Nephi 29)

8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.

10 Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written. (2 Nephi 29)

Some people reject the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because they have a prophet who continues to share with them God’s messages for them. The Book of Mormon, which they read as Holy Scripture hand-in-Hand with the Bible, foretold of this challenge:

26 Yea, wo be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost!

27 Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we need no more!

28 And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall.

29 Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough!

30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. (2 Nephi 28)

On a personal level, I’ve always found this hard to understand. I was so excited when I found out there God continued to talk with us. I had always believed He ought to be talking to us, long before I joined the church. When I attended classes on the Old Testament as a child, I would wonder why God didn’t want to talk to us anymore. If we needed Him to prepare for the first coming, shouldn’t we also need Him to prepare us for the Second Coming of the Savior?

Shouldn’t we be thrilled to learn God continues to talk to us today, that we’re not cut off from Him until our deaths? I was. If God has things He wants us to know, I want to hear them. I love God’s words, and can’t get enough of them.

What is a prophet? Prophets have been on the earth since the very beginning. Adam spoke with God and taught His children what God taught him. Throughout all the Old Testament, God spoke often with His chosen prophets, men who were called of God to hear God’s words directly from God Himself, and then to teach the people. It wasn’t enough to have only one prophet. Adam was not the only prophet. Why did God continue to send prophets after Adam? Why wasn’t one prophet enough?

Prophets were necessary throughout all the Old Testament in order to help us continue to learn God’s word. As the verse above says, God teaches us line upon line, precept on precept. He doesn’t give us the entire gospel all at once. Imagine if the Israelites had received all the law of Moses at once. Can you picture the confusion as they tried to internalize so many rules in a few moments? There were only Ten Commandments when Moses came down from the mountain. The people could learn to internalize ten rules at once. As those became a way of life, more was added.

In the same way, gospel truths were presented a few at a time. No student in school is taught all of physics the first day. The teachers present a little more each day, and classes build upon the preparatory classes taken before. This is how God works with us. He teaches us what we can handle, and adds to it gradually. He also adapts certain things to the needs of the people—building boats when boats are needed, but not commanding boats when it isn’t going to rain, for instance.

Why do we still need prophets today? Just as we don’t have to build an ark because the entire earth isn’t going to flood soon, there are needs we have today that the people of ancient times didn’t have. The world has changed dramatically, and God wants us to navigate it successfully. The wickedness of the larger part of the people brought about a loss of prophecy, but God always promised to return it to us, and now He has.

Celebrate and listen. God is talking. His current prophet is Thomas S. Monson. Learn more about him by following the link on his name.