Editor’s note: To support personal and family gospel learning, the Church News is publishing articles on messages from April 2025 general conference. It is recommended to listen to or read the full address in addition to reviewing these resources.
About this talk
- “Divine Helps for Mortality”
- President Dallin H. Oaks | First counselor in the First Presidency
- Sunday morning session of April 2025 general conference.
- Theme: A loving Heavenly Father provides mortal helps, gifts and assistance to guide His children in the plan of happiness.
Read the full message here.
Read a summary of President Oaks’ message here.
Outline
I.
- To help His spirit children progress, God decided to create an earth on which they could receive a body, learn, develop divine attributes and keep commandments. He chose His Only Begotten Son to be the Savior. Satan was denied the privilege of mortal life but permitted to attempt to deceive mortals.
- Opposition is essential for mortal growth. Those who choose good progress toward their eternal destiny, while those who choose evil need saving help, which God designed to provide.
II.
- God’s strongest mortal help, by far, was His provision of a Savior, Jesus Christ, who through His Atonement erases repented sins and succors followers.
- The plan of a loving Father in Heaven provides many gifts to protect His children. Mortal life begins with a father and a mother, who ideally are both present to guide growth, but their absence is opposition to overcome.
III.
- Heavenly Father’s plan provides helps and merciful protections to guide mortal journeys.
- The Light or Spirit of Christ is given to everyone on earth to know good from evil and find light and truth.
- Commandments define the path Heavenly Father has marked out to progress toward eternal life. Ordinances and covenants are part of the law that defines that path, as required steps and essential guardrails.
- Manifestations of the Holy Ghost are God-given helps for making right choices. The Holy Ghost testifies of the Father and the Son, teaches, brings all things to remembrance and guides into all truth.
- The gift of the Holy Ghost, formally conferred after repentance and baptism by water, is an abiding testimony as a companion through life. Those with a remission of sins, who then regularly renew their cleansing, qualify to have the Holy Ghost always with them.
IV.
- So many remain unprepared to meet the Savior, despite so many powerful helps to guide them in their mortal journeys.
- Many deviations from the covenant path occur after failing to have personal prayer, regular scripture study and frequent repentance. Humility and trust in the Lord are needed for those who wrongly measure God’s commandments and prophetic teachings against the wisdom of man.
- Trust Heavenly Father, and seek and use divine helps, most notably the Savior’s Atonement.
Reflection questions
What other “divine helps” has God given us through this mortal life?
What makes the Savior and His Atonement our “strongest mortal help”?
When have commandments, ordinances and covenants helped you choose what was right?
How has the gift of the Holy Ghost been a blessing in your life?
What “divine helps” can you better use to guide your mortal journey?
Speaker quotes
- “By far, God’s strongest mortal help was His provision of a Savior, Jesus Christ, who would suffer to pay the price and provide forgiveness for repented sins. That merciful and glorious Atonement explains why faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel.”
- “Beyond that glorious erasing of sins committed and being forgiven, the plan of a loving Father in Heaven provides many other gifts to protect us, including protecting us from sinning in the first place.”
- “Our Heavenly Father desires all of His children to return to the celestial kingdom, where God and our Savior reside, and to have the kind of life of those who reside in that celestial glory.”
Reference scriptures
- “Mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.”
- “For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.”
- “Yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.”
Invitations and promises
- “Commandments define the path our Heavenly Father has marked out for us to progress toward eternal life. People who imagine commandments as the way God decides who to punish fail to understand this purpose of God’s loving plan of happiness. On that path, we can gradually achieve the needed relationship with our Savior and qualify for an increase of His power to help us on our way to the destination He desires for all of us.”
- “Trusting in the Lord is a particular need for all who wrongly measure the commandments of God and the teachings of His prophets against the latest findings and wisdom of man.”
- “I have spoken of the many mortal helps our loving Father in Heaven has given to help His children return to Him. Our part in this divine plan is to trust in God and seek and use these divine helps, most notably the Atonement of His Beloved Son, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.”
Stories
- In the pre-earth life, everyone existed as God’s spirit children. Because He wanted to help them progress, He decided to create an earth on which they could receive a body, learn, develop divine attributes and keep commandments. He chose His Only Begotten Son to be the Savior. Satan was denied the privilege of mortal life but permitted to attempt to deceive mortals. Those who choose good progress toward their eternal destiny. Those who choose evil — as all would in various temptations — need saving help, which God designed to provide.
- Despite so many powerful helps to guide them in their mortal journeys, so many remain unprepared for their appointed meeting with the Savior. In His parable of the ten virgins, only half of those invited to meet the bridegroom were prepared (see Matthew 25:1-13).
- “We all know examples of the unprepared.” This could be returned missionaries with periods of inactivity, youth separating themselves from Church teaching or men postponing their ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Many deviations from the covenant path occur after failing to follow the “fundamental spiritual maintenance plan” of personal prayer, regular scripture study and frequent repentance.
Additional resources
- Related image: “Christ Walking on the Water” by Robert T. Barrett
- Related video: “God Is in Relentless Pursuit of You”
- Related hymn: No. 1013, “God’s Gracious Love”
Recent conference talks on the plan of salvation
- Elder James R. Rasband: “The Plan of Mercy” (April 2025)
- Elder Brook P. Hales: “Mortality Works!” (October 2024)
- Elder Patrick Kearon: “God’s Intent Is To Bring You Home” (April 2024)
Who is President Oaks?
- President Dallin H. Oaks was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1984 and as the first counselor in the First Presidency in January 2018. President Oaks was a law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren in the U.S. Supreme Court and served as a Utah Supreme Court justice until his call to apostleship in 1984.
