The scriptures provide this interesting formula, placing Christ squarely at the center of all revelation:
"After ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels.... And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost? Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do" (2 Ne. 32:2 – 3, emphasis added).
The scriptures tell us that everyone that is of the truth hears Christ's voice (see John 18:37). Once you hear it, his voice is unmistakable and it attracts the whole soul's attention like a sheep hearing the voice of its shepherd (sheep only respond to the voice of the shepherd with whom they have been brought up). This is why the scriptures say:
"The good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, to the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd" (Alma 5:38).
The voice of the good shepherd transcends the usual familiarizing aspects of human voice such as tone and pitch. The quality of Christ's voice is not to be measured in terms of phonetic value but in terms of his words—his message—which is always the truth. Of course he has a real, identifiable human voice that is unique to his body; but His voice also has unfamiliar qualities toward us mere mortals: it pierces the soul and cuts to our very centers (see Rev. 1:16 and 1 Ne. 16:2), and that because he speaks only that portion of the truth that we need to hear. His word is like the missing piece to the soul's puzzle every time it is spoken to us.
That angels speak the words of Christ is manifest in the Book of Revelation when John mistakes an angel for Christ:
"I knelt at the feet of the angel and began to worship him. But the angel said, 'Don't do that! I am a servant, just like you and everyone else who tells about Jesus. Don't worship anyone but God. Everyone who tells about Jesus does it by the power of the [Holy Ghost]'" (Rev. 19: 10, CEV, emphasis added).
Why would John, the beloved disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ—who knew him as personally as any one could possibly have known him in mortality—confuse a mere angel for Christ? Because 'angels speak...the words of Christ' literally, and the reaction of the soul that knows the voice of the good shepherd is to recognize his voice—in other words, John felt the voice of Christ through the angel and recognized the presence in spirit of his beloved master; the fact that the words were coming from a different looking body made little difference. This is the true power of the influence of the Holy Ghost (as opposed to the personage):
"[Christ] being the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fulness of the glory of the Father—possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit, [or Holy Ghost,] that bears record of the Father and the Son.... Which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments: and all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all: being filled with the fulness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one" (Lectures on Faith 5:2, emphasis added).
When you prophesy and otherwise speak by the tongue of angels, you are literally saying the words Christ would say if he were present. And those present who know his voice will feel that it is true.
If we are unfamiliar with angelic ministration we may be inclined to not take these lessons as literally as we ought. If there was a contemporary English version of the passage first quoted above, it could be rendered as follows:
"After you've received the Holy Ghost, you can speak just like the angels do.... And how could anyone speak like the angels unless they were led in doing so by the Holy Ghost? Because when angels speak they are led by the Holy Ghost in order to channel Christ; that's why the words they speak are the very words of Christ, as if he were speaking through them. And that is why I have said that we need to feast on the words of Christ—they will tell you personally the truth of what you need to do in your life" (2 Ne. 32:2 – 3, JTV).
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