9 Minute Read

Saturday Morning Session of 2025 April General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Why are there different colored fonts? This is due to the organization of Study Aid, and here’s how it works:

• Organization, Stories, Narration, Etc.

• Doctrine/Principles

• Invitations

• Promised Blessings

• Words of Christ

• Clickable Links

Opening—Ten Lepers

• Ten lepers hollered to the Savior, “Have mercy on us.” And Jesus did. He told them to show themselves to the priest, and as they went, they were cleansed of the disease.
• And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, shouted praises to God. He returned to the Savior, fell at His feet, and expressed gratitude.
• And the Savior said to him who was thankful, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.”
• Jesus Christ had healed ten lepers. But one, coming back to the Savior, received something in addition. He was made whole.
  • Nine lepers were physically healed.
  • One was physically healed and made spiritually whole.

Spiritually Whole in Christ

• In pondering this story, I have wondered if the converse is true. If healing and wholeness are not the same, can one be made spiritually whole by Him but not yet physically and emotionally healed?
• The Master Healer will heal all our afflictions—physical and emotional—in His time. But in the waiting to be healed, can one be whole?
• What might it mean to be spiritually whole?
• We are whole in Jesus Christ when we exercise our agency to follow Him in faith, submit our hearts to Him so He can change them, keep His commandments, and enter a covenant relationship with Him, meekly enduring and learning from the challenges of this earthly estate until we return to His presence and are healed in every way. I can be whole while I wait for healing if I am wholehearted in my relationship with Him.
• Faith in Jesus Christ begets hope. I find hope in striving to be whole—a wholeness born of faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Him increases my hope for healing, and that hope reinforces my faith in Jesus Christ. It is a powerful cycle.
• The Lord told Enos his faith had made him “whole.” Wholeness came as Enos pondered on the words of his prophet-father, Jacob, as he hungered to understand the opportunity for eternal life, as he cried unto God in mighty prayer. And in that state of desire and humility, the voice of the Lord came to him, announcing his sins were forgiven. And Enos asked the Lord, “How is it done?” And the Lord responded, “Because of thy faith in Christ, … thy faith hath made thee whole.”
• Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we can seek to be spiritually whole while we wait and hope for physical and emotional healing.
• By virtue of His atoning sacrifice, and when we sincerely repent, the Savior heals us from sin, as He did with Enos. His infinite Atonement also reaches our griefs and sorrows.
• But He may not provide healing from illness and disease—chronic pain, autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis, cancer, anxiety, depression, and the like. That kind of healing is on the Lord’s time. And in the meantime, we can choose to be made whole by exercising our faith in Him!
• To be whole means to be complete and full. Much like the five wise virgins who had their lamps full with oil when the bridegroom came, we can be whole in Jesus Christ as we fill our lamps with the nourishing oil of conversion to Him. In that way, we are prepared for the symbolic wedding supper, His Second Coming.

Parable of the Ten Virgins

• In the parable all ten of the virgins were in the right location, awaiting the bridegroom. Every one of them came with a lamp.
• But when He came, at the unexpected midnight hour, the five foolish did not have sufficient oil for their lamps. They were not described as wicked but rather as foolish. The foolish failed to adequately prepare to keep their lamps burning with the oil of conversion.
• And so, in response to their petition to be permitted to enter the wedding supper, the bridegroom responded, “Ye know me not.”
• Implying, then, that the five wise virgins did know Him. They were whole in Him.
• Their lamps were full of the precious oil of conversion, which allowed the wise virgins to enter the marriage feast on the right hand of the bridegroom.
• As expressed by the Savior, “Be faithful, praying always, having your lamps trimmed and burning, and oil with you, that you may be ready at the coming of the Bridegroom.”

• A magnificent sculpture depicting the five wise virgins was recently placed on Temple Square, just outside the doors to the Relief Society Building and in the shadow of the Salt Lake Temple.
• It is a location befitting application of the parable. Because when we make and keep covenants, particularly those available in the house of the Lord, we fill our lamps with the oil of conversion.

• While the women represented as the five wise virgins are not sharing the oil of their conversion, they are sharing their light as they hold up their lamps, which are full of oil and burning brightly. Significantly they are depicted supporting one another—shoulder to shoulder, an arm around another, making eye contact and beckoning others to come to the light.

“Ye are the Light of the World”

• Indeed, “[we] are the light of the world.” The Savior declared:
  • “I give unto you to be the light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
  • “… Do [we] light a candle and put it under a bushel? Nay, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light [unto] all that are in the house;
  • “Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father [which] is in heaven.”
• We are commanded to share His light. So keep your lamp full of the oil of conversion to Jesus Christ and be prepared to keep your lamp trimmed and burning bright. Then let that light shine. When we share our light, we bring the relief of Jesus Christ to others, our conversion to Him is deepened, and we can be whole even while we wait for healing. And as we let our light shine brightly, we can be joyful even while we wait.

Waiting on the Lord

• A scriptural example is useful in reinforcing the principle that we can be whole as we are converted to Jesus Christ and draw strength from Him, even while we wait for healing.
• The Apostle Paul had some kind of affliction—what he described as a “thorn in the flesh,” which three times he had asked the Lord to remove. And the Lord said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” To which Paul declared:
  • “Most gladly therefore will I … glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
  • “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, … in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
• Paul’s example suggests that even in our weakness, our strength in Jesus Christ can be made perfect—that is, complete and whole. Those who wrestle with mortal struggles and turn to God in faith like Paul can receive the blessings of becoming acquainted with God.
• Paul was not healed of his affliction, but he was spiritually whole in Jesus Christ. And even in his adversity, the light of his conversion to and strength from Jesus Christ was shining, and he was joyful. In his Epistle to the Philippians, he exclaimed, “Rejoice in the Lord alway[s]: and again I say, Rejoice.”

Choosing to be Whole in Christ

• Sisters and brothers, the answer is yes, we can be spiritually whole, even while we wait for physical and emotional healing. Wholeness does not necessarily mean physical and emotional restoration in this life. Wholeness is born of faith in and conversion to Jesus Christ and in letting the light of that conversion shine.
• “Many are called, but few [choose to be] chosen.”
• All will be physically and emotionally healed in the Resurrection. But will you choose now to be whole in Him?
• I declare with joy that I am converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am striving to be whole in Him. I am sure that all things will be restored and healing will come, in His time, because He lives.
• Mary Magdalene was a woman healed of Jesus Christ. And she was a woman whole in Jesus Christ. As His disciple, she followed the Savior throughout Galilee and ministered to Him.
• She was present at the foot of the cross, a witness to His death.
• She went to His tomb to complete the burial preparations and discovered that the stone covering had been taken away, that the Lord’s body was gone. Mary was at the tomb weeping when she was asked, first by the angels and then by the Savior Himself, “Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?”
• Mary cried, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.”
• And Jesus tenderly called her by name, “Mary.” And she recognized Him and reverently replied, “Rabboni; … Master.”
• Prophesying of the Savior, Isaiah said, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.”
• His Resurrection allowed Mary’s tears to be wiped away. Surely He will wipe away yours too.
• Mary was the first witness of the resurrected Savior. And she was the first to witness to others of what she had seen.

Closing

• I humbly add my testimony to Mary’s. He is risen. Jesus Christ lives. Ultimately all will be healed, physically and emotionally, in Him. And in the waiting for that healing, faith in the Master Healer will make us spiritually whole.

In the name Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Link to the Original Talk