President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, bore powerful testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ, in his Sunday morning address during the October 2024 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“When we stand before Him and see the wounds in His hands and feet and side, we will begin to comprehend what it meant for Him to bear our sins and be acquainted with grief, to be completely obedient to the will of His Father — all out of pure love for us,” President Holland declared.
The Savior always aligned His will and behavior with that of His Heavenly Father, President Holland said, and sharing the words Christ uttered as He appeared to the Nephites: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ. … I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, … in the which I have suffered the will of the Father … from the beginning” (3 Nephi 11:10-11).
President Holland noted, “Of the myriad ways He could have introduced Himself, Jesus did so by declaring His obedience to the will of the Father.”
The sublime example of the Savior shared by President Holland was one of several references made by Church leaders during the five conference sessions on Oct. 5-6 about the need for meekness, humility or submissiveness to God’s will.
Beware of pride, rebellion
In his remarks on Saturday evening, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles warned Latter-day Saints of the “spiritual poison of pride.”
Those who pridefully focus only upon themselves develop spiritual blindness, Elder Bednar observed. “As we blindly ‘turn unto our own ways’ and follow destructive detours, we are inclined to lean upon our own understanding, boast in our own strength and depend upon our own wisdom.”
Elder Bednar warned, “If you or I do not believe we could be afflicted with and by pride, then we are vulnerable and in spiritual danger.”
If, however, individuals believe they could be afflicted with and by pride, then they consistently will do the small and simple things that will protect and help them, Elder Bednar said, quoting both Mosiah 3:19 — “becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us]” — and Alma 32:16 — “Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble.”
Elder Bednar testified that “as we walk in the meekness of the Lord’s Spirit, we will avoid and overcome pride and have peace in Him.”
During the Saturday afternoon session, Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles warned against forms of rebellion, specifically the “more insidious,” passive version of rebellion — ignoring God’s will.
“Many who would never consider active rebellion may still oppose the will and word of God by pursuing their own path without regard to divine direction.”
Singer Frank Sinatra once crooned the lyrics “I did it my way,” Elder Christofferson said. “Certainly, in life there is plenty of room for personal preference and individual choice, but when it comes to matters of salvation and eternal life, our theme song ought to be ‘I did it God’s way,’ because truly there is no other way.”
When the Lamanite converts of the sons of Mosiah buried their weapons of rebellion, they got rid of not only their literal weapons of war, “but also their disobedience to God and His commandments.”
Today, burying weapons of rebellion against God “simply means yielding to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, putting off the natural man and becoming ‘a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord’ (Mosiah 3:19). It means putting the first commandment first in our lives. If our love of God and our determination to serve Him with all our might, mind and strength become the touchstone by which we judge all things and make all our decisions, we will have buried our weapons of rebellion,” Elder Christofferson declared.
Submitting to God’s will
The title of Elder Ulisses Soares’ Saturday afternoon address was “Aligning Our Will With His.”
“We often wrestle with what we think we know, what we think is best and what we assume works for us, as opposed to comprehending what Heavenly Father actually knows, what is eternally best and what absolutely works for children within His plan,” said Elder Soares, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
A growing trend in the world is for people to proclaim, “I live my own truth or I do what works for me.”
Said Elder Soares, “This way of thinking is often justified as being ‘authentic’ by those who indulge in self-centered pursuits, personal preferences, or want to justify certain types of behavior that frequently don’t match God’s loving plan and His will for them.”
One of the most glorious moments of mortality occurs when individuals discover the joy that comes when doing those things that “work for and please the Lord,” and “what works for us” become one and the same, Elder Soares taught. “To decisively and unquestioningly make the Lord’s will our own requires majestic and heroic discipleship. At that sublime moment, we become consecrated to the Lord and we totally yield our wills to Him. Such spiritual submissiveness, so to speak, is beautiful, powerful and transformational. …
“I pray that each of us, in our time and turn, will be able to declare, with covenant confidence, to our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ that ‘what works for Thee, works for me.’”
In the Saturday morning session, Elder David P. Homer, a General Authority Seventy, quoted the late Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who taught, “the submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar.”
Elder Homer then added, “No wonder King Benjamin was so eager that his people become ‘as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father’” (Mosiah 3:19).
The Savior set the perfect example of submissiveness, Elder Homer said. “The choice to submit our will to God’s is an act of faith that lies at the heart of our discipleship. In making that choice, we discover that our agency is not diminished; rather, it is magnified and rewarded by the presence of the Holy Ghost, who brings purpose, joy, peace and hope we can find nowhere else.”
