During the days leading up to the dedication of the Cebu City Philippines Temple this past June, taxis stopped at a hotel doorway to pick up passengers going to the temple or its ancillary buildings.

Many drivers displayed some knowledge of the Church. One asked his passenger, "Who is this man people talk about, this man Monson?"

The passenger told him that Thomas S. Monson is the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Silent for a few moments, the driver then asked, "Is 'president' the same as 'prophet'?"

The passenger, realizing that too simple an answer had been given to the first query, explained that President Monson is, indeed, a prophet. A discussion ensued about prophets and how the Lord reveals His word through them, as declared in the Old Testament: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).

The distance to the temple was too short to allow an in-depth discussion. Paying the fare, the passenger invited the driver to come back when he was off duty and walk around the temple grounds where he would meet missionaries who would answer his questions and give a more thorough explanation about the Church and its prophet today.

In many of our Church meetings, we sing a favorite hymn, "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet." The hymn's text was written by William Fowler who, after he was baptized in 1849, was fired from his job at a steel mill in England.

Describing Fowler's writing of the hymn, President Gordon B. Hinckley wrote in the September 1991 issue of the Ensign, out of "an overflowing spirit of gratitude, he penned these moving lines. They have become a grateful expression of appreciation for millions over the earth. I have heard them sung in many different languages as a reverent prayer of thanksgiving for divine revelation."

William Fowler's words bore testimony of Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration. The Lord, as He did anciently, has given the keys of the priesthood to each of the 97 apostles called since the Restoration. Only 15 have succeeded Joseph Smith to the office of President of the Church; only the President of the Church may use these keys (or authorize others to use them) on behalf of the entire Church.

Except during the age of apostasy, specially called men have served as "prophetic oracles who have tuned in over the centuries to the 'celestial transmitting stations,' with a responsibility to relay the Lord's word to others," said Elder James E. Faust in his October 1989 general conference address. "The principal qualifications of a prophet in any age are not wealth, title, position, physical stature, scholarship or intellectual attainment. The two qualifications are that a prophet must be called as such by God, by open prophecy, and ordained by one known to have legal and spiritual authority, and he must receive and declare revelation from God (see Doctrine and Covenants 42:11). No man knows the ways of God except they be revealed unto him" (see Jacob 4:8).

The Lord's words are specific to each people and place. John Taylor, the third president of the Church, said: "Adam's revelation did not instruct Noah to build his ark; nor did Noah's revelation tell Lot to forsake Sodom; nor did either of these speak of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt. These all had revelations for themselves" (Millennial Star, Nov. 1, 1847, p. 3; cited by President James E. Faust, October 1989 general conference).

President Monson, the 16th president of the Church, is the Lord's prophet relaying the Lord's words for the people on earth today.

He wasn't just a boy who "was raised between the tracks" in a west Salt Lake City neighborhood, as he has described himself. He was raised up by the Lord to be His mouthpiece, His spokesman — His prophet. Latter-day Saints in full harmony with the Lord sustain him as such.

May we subscribe to Jehoshaphat's admonition: "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper" (2 Chronicles 20:20).