Elder John A. McCune, a General Authority Seventy, spoke during the Sunday morning session of April 2025 general conference. He testified that as individuals deepen their relationship with the Father and the Son through covenant, their joy is enhanced. The following is a summary of what he said.
Elder McCune’s talk summary
“Because God and Jesus Christ love us, we are given the opportunity and privilege as true disciples to make covenants with Them. By doing so, our relationship with Christ is expanded.”
Those who make and keep covenants are blessed with spiritual power. “We are connected to Christ and God the Father in a special relationship and can experience Their love and joy in a measure reserved for those who have made and kept covenants.”
Through true covenant discipleship, individuals can better understand the nature of God and how He can still have a fullness of joy, even when some of His children are suffering.
“The answer lies in God’s perfect perspective and in His perfect plan. He sees us from the beginning to our glorious potential future. He has provided a way, through His Son, Jesus Christ, for all of us, His children, to overcome the pains, suffering, sins, guilt and loneliness of our mortality. God has provided for us the way and the choice.”
As individuals act as covenant disciples, their relationship with God is enriched, their joy enhanced and eternal perspective expanded. “We then are endowed with power and can feel joy in a measure reserved for God’s true covenant disciples.”
Read the full text of Elder McCune’s talk: ‘Joy Through Covenant Discipleship’
Notable quotes
“In Christ, we can understand better the perfect attributes of the Father and His plan. Through Christ, we are given the enabling power to overcome the tendencies of natural men and women so that we might become more like the Father.”
“As we make and keep covenants, we will naturally turn outward and have a desire to help others feel the measure of joy and love we feel in our covenantal relationships.”
“We can be part of the greatest cause on the earth today, the gathering of Israel. We can help to bring God’s children to Christ.”
Who is Elder McCune?
- Elder John A. McCune was one of 10 new General Authority Seventies sustained during the April 2019 general conference.
- He was serving as an Area Seventy in the Utah South Area at the time of his call. He served as a full-time missionary in the Japan Fukuoka Mission and as a bishop, stake president and leader of the Utah Provo Mission.
- Raised in Nyssa, Oregon, he grew up irrigating, bucking hay, fixing fences and working cattle.
- Elder McCune met his future wife, Debbra Ellen Kingsbury, at Ricks College before his mission. The two later reconnected at BYU when she helped him find housing in her same apartment complex.
Read more of Elder McCune’s general conference addresses.
