At the Spring 2024 Prospective Missionary Devotional on the evening of February 28th, Elder Ahmad Corbitt and his wife, Sister Jayne Corbitt, addressed a large gathering of Latter-day Saints in the ballroom of BYU’s Wilkinson Student Center. These two wonderful people shared much wisdom, and I encourage you to watch the devotional. A video recording of the devotional can be found here.
Sister Corbitt began by quoting Doctrine & Covenants, Section 4: “Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.” She reflected on how many missionaries memorize this scripture and her own memories of memorizing this D&C section as a missionary many years ago.
Sister Corbitt spoke of her gratitude for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the missionaries who shared the glad tidings with her. She said, “I bless the missionaries who taught me, because there was no way that I could stand blameless before God at the last day without the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” She continued by sharing how her gratitude for her Savior motivated her to serve a mission of her own and to continue serving throughout her life.
Her message was focused on Christ, and her invitation rang clear like the words in the beautiful musical number that had been performed prior to her remarks: “Because I have been given much, I too must give.” She quoted President Nelson and emphasized his invitation in which he invited all to take part in the gathering of Israel, “the most important work taking place on the earth today.”
Sister Corbitt finished with these thoughts: She noted how sometimes, as we are serving, we feel we are sacrificing much to go on a mission or accept another call from the Lord. “But from nearly fifty years of serving the Lord,” Sister Corbitt testified, “I can tell you that it is only a sacrifice if we do not serve Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength; because when we do, it is only a blessing. When we do serve . . . with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, . . . He will bless us, and nothing will seem like a sacrifice.”
Following Sister Corbitt’s remarks, Elder Corbitt then led an interactive discussion intertwined with his remarks on the topic of how the first principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ would help us to gather Israel. He began in Alma 5:15 with this question: ”Do you look forward with an eye of faith and [see the Lord’s promise fulfilled]?” Taking answers from the audience, he led a discussion using this question. I will summarize some of his key points.
As we look forward with faith, we choose to have an eternal perspective and trust in the Lord’s will and His own timing. Using his own life’s learning experiences, Elder Corbitt taught that we must be careful to not superimpose our own timing and wishes upon the Lord’s revelation. The Lord’s promises will be fulfilled; but as God’s ways are not man’s ways, the fulfillment of those promises will likely not be in the way we think, and we must be careful not to misinterpret the Lord’s promises as we look forward to their fulfillment.
To look forward with an eye of faith, we cannot be stuck in the past. Elder Corbitt taught that “being stuck in the past interrupts our faith.” When we are unwilling to forgive ourselves or others, when we have grudges or animosity towards another, or when we are unwilling to repent and change, we are stuck in the past, and our faith is diminished.
Faith in the Book of Mormon
Elder Corbitt used Book of Mormon stories to illustrate how one can look forward with an eye of faith and see the promise of the Lord fulfilled. He referenced Mosiah 3, which includes the teachings of King Benjamin. King Benjamin promised His people that “whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them” (Mosiah 3:13). In Mosiah 4, the people pray, saying, “O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified” (Mosiah 4:2).
Elder Corbitt then asked, “Did Jesus Christ have blood yet? No, no body and no blood.” And yet, “These people, on the basis of a prophetic promise, are praying for the effects of that blood.” The Book of Mormon prophets spoke of Christ’s Atonement as if it had already happened, and they taught the blessings of redemption that are possible with the enabling power of Christ, despite the fact that it would still be many years before the birth of Jesus Christ and His completion of His divine mission.
And then, Elder Corbitt made this important point: Why were the Book of Mormon prophets speaking like this? “Because Jesus Christ had risen from the dead and broken the bands of death and performed His Atonement in [their hearts and minds]. [These prophets] received a promise of the Lord that Jesus Christ would do these things. [They] looked forward with an eye of faith and saw the Lord’s promise fulfilled.”
All of the Book of Mormon prophets are witnesses of Christ and His promises. When God promises something, it’s as if that thing has already happened. Elder Corbitt referenced the words of other prophets and went on to say, “That’s the pattern of the Book of Mormon. All of these people had faith in something that hadn’t yet happened. How can we get that faith?”
The War in Heaven
His final remarks were centered on the War in Heaven and the fact that the War in Heaven continues on earth today: “That was the premortal theater. We’re in the mortal theater. [It’s the] same war.”
He went to Revelation 12:11 which reads, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” This scripture reveals how we overcame Satan. “Why would Jesus reveal how we won the War in Heaven? To give us hope and help us win here and keep winning. Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father want us to keep winning.”
“God wants us to know who we are.”
Elder Corbitt asked everyone in the room to list out the traits of the spirits who overcame Lucifer in the premortal realm by the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony, the spirits who were “willing to go headlong into mortality even though they wouldn’t be able to save themselves from physical or spiritual death.”
In coming to earth, “we would rely entirely on Jesus Christ to come and rescue us and redeem us, to overcome physical death and to take upon Himself all of our sins, overcoming spiritual death for us on the condition that we follow Him. Wow. People who would do that are what?” The audience listed out several attributes: as spirits in the premortal realm, we were faithful, committed, called of God, brave, valiant, meek, humble, strong, obedient, trusting, loyal, diligent, persistent, steadfast, worthy, and the list goes on. In heaven, we were those great spirits with those attributes. “God wants us to know who we are.”
The Power of a Testimony
Elder Corbitt emphasized the power of testimony in winning the war against evil: “We overcame Lucifer by our testimonies! As you go out on your missions, you will bear testimony . . . multiple times a day. I bear witness that as we bear testimony, we win. So we must open our mouths, not be afraid, and go forward with faith.”
“What was our testimony [in the premortal realm]? Our faith!” Our trust in God. “We looked forward with an eye of faith and saw the Lord’s promise fulfilled. We exercised exceedingly great faith in the premortal world. You and I exercised Book of Mormon faith.” We had the faith of King Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma, Lehi, and President Nelson. “We were able to receive a promise of the Lord and to exercise faith as if it had already happened, and we were unstoppable.”
The Book of Mormon brings to our remembrance the exceedingly great faith we exercised in the premortal realm to win the War in Heaven. “The Book of Mormon is so uniquely composed with all of these examples of this pattern. The Book of Mormon helps us understand how we exercised faith in the premortal world to overcome Lucifer so that we can do it again today and gather Israel from everywhere all over the world.”
How can we act?
Thank you, Elder and Sister Corbitt, for your inspired words. There are many things we can do to act on what they taught us. We must actively put our trust in God. We must learn to exercise greater faith and reawaken the great faith we had prior to our coming to earth. As I listened to Elder Corbitt’s invitations, President Nelson’s words also echoed in my mind. God’s latter-day prophet has invited us to increase our faith: “My dear brothers and sisters, my call to you . . . is to start today to increase your faith. Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.”
Let us continue striving to be faithful sons and daughters of God, just as we were faithful spirit sons and daughters in the premortal realm. Our faith in God moved mountains then, and it can in this world as well.
Written by: Eliza Andersen
Lead Editor and Contributor at the Cougar Chronicle
The opinions in this article are those of the author.
The Cougar Chronicle is an independent student-run newspaper and is not affiliated with Brigham Young University or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
