“Words of the Living Prophet,” Liahona, Aug. 2001, 8
Words of the Living Prophet
The Cause of God
“This is the cause and kingdom of God. This is His work restored in these latter days, held from the world through centuries of time to come forth in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, when all that pertained in all previous dispensations has been brought together in one, when the curtains were parted and the Father and the Son appeared to a boy and spoke to him. There is nothing like it in all the world. There is no cause like this cause. This is the Church and kingdom of the Father. Believe in it. Accept its teachings. Be obedient to its counsel. Work in it. Give of your strength and energy and means to move it forward, and the Lord will bless you and bring a joy into your lives the like of which you have never before known.”1
Humility
“Be humble. There is no place for arrogance in our lives. There is no place for conceit in our lives. There is no place for egotism in our lives. We have work to do. We have things to accomplish. … ‘Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers’ (D&C 112:10). People ask me what is my favorite scripture, and I say I have many of them. But that is one of them. ‘Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.’”2
What Will This Church Do for a Man?
“What will this Church do for a man? Every worthy man may hold the priesthood of God and speak in the name of God, even the Savior of the world. What a precious and marvelous and wonderful boon that is, my brethren, to be able so to do.
“It offers the blessing of governance in the Church, the power and the authority and the gift to lead out in the affairs of the Church, and in so doing to develop leadership and strength of personality and rise above the ordinary things of life and walk as a son of God in the authority of His divine priesthood. That is what this Church will do for men. It will give them opportunity to serve, to teach, to grow in many ways, to read the precious things the Lord has revealed and make them a part of his store of knowledge.”3
What Will This Church Do for a Woman?
“What will this Church do for a woman? It will add dignity to her life. It will add purpose to her life. It will add an outlook to her life that will not come in any other way. She will become a member of the great Relief Society organization, an organization of women four million strong, with their own presidency, their own board, their courses of study, their great humanitarian work—all of these things which become so important and beautiful and wonderful and will add development to her life and give her a new outlook and a new purpose.”4
What Will This Church Do for Children?
“[This Church] will cast their parents in a new light, a new perspective. There will grow in their hearts a respect and love for their parents. Where the gospel reigns in the home, there is peace, there is love, there is harmony, there is growth, there is development. This Church will impel children in the direction of education.”5
Keep the Faith
“I see men and women—not many, I’m grateful to say—who serve in the Church with valiance, who love the Lord apparently, and seek to do His work, then they’re released from service and somehow they drift away and fail to keep the faith. … Walk with integrity; in storm and sunshine, be faithful; in richness or in poverty, be faithful; in youth or old age, be faithful. This is the work of the Almighty. … God has spoken from the heavens in declaration of the truth of this, His work. And there is no voice greater than His voice. His Son has spoken to man upon the earth and declared His identity, His reality, His great and divine place in the scheme of His Father, as the Redeemer and the Savior of the world. And those truths will last as long as the earth lasts. Keep the faith in those great and sacred truths. … Hold out till the end and God will bless you and crown your days with sweetness and peace and love.”6
Future of the Kingdom
“What we [in the Church] have seen in the past just indicates something remarkable and glorious and wonderful for the future. I think no man living today can comprehend what it will become. There is no reason why it shouldn’t go on growing. It must go on growing. It has to go forward to its accomplished purpose and the destiny which the Lord has set for it. Our job is to just keep moving forward.”7
Photograph by Jed Clark
Photo illustration by Welden C. Andersen