When prayer confirmations conflict

A couple of years ago, I nearly receiverd two callings. Our bishopric prayed about a new calling for me and felt inspired that God wanted me in that calling. Our stake presidency prayed about a different calling for me and felt inspired that God wanted me in that calling.

How can both have received a confirmation regarding each calling?

4 thoughts on “When prayer confirmations conflict

    1. Great post!

      In my case, my bishop at the time acquiesced to the stake president. It seems to follow under the the priesthood leadership camp.

      However, your post doesn’t seem to address the logistics of my situation. Our bishopric prayed regarding putting me in a ward position. They claimed to have received divine confirmation that they should proceed with it. Because I was serving as executive secretary, they had to inform the stake that I had to be replaced. The stake presidency used the opportunity to pray about using me to fill a vacancy in a stake calling. They prayed about it and received what they claimed was divine confirmation about a week after our bishopric had.

      Our bishopric wasn’t praying for something outside of their stewardship.

  1. Based on my experience in a bishopric, I think you’ve worded the question wrong. As a bishopric, we decided that our inspiration was limited to what calls to issue. We did not assume that meant the Lord necessarily wanted that person to serve in that position. We found that the Lord, in his wisdom, occasionally wanted us to issue calls even when the person in question was not the right person for the position. Sometimes, we learned things about the people that we would not have learned had we not issued the call. Other times, the people learned that they had their own conduit to God–they just needed something to drive them to their knees. In your case, it sounds like the bishopric’s action served as a catalyst for the stake presidency’s action. Had they not made the inquiry, your name might never have come up. No contradiction there, as far as I am concerned.

    Now, an entirely different take on the matter. I once met a brother who was planning to get married after his fiancee had served a mission. Being a boundary-challenged missionary at the time, I asked him if he had prayed about it. He replied that he had not–his fiance had prayed about it and he was perfectly satisfied with her answer, so why should he risk getting a different one?

Comments are closed.