What does it mean to have a change of heart?
> Before the fire, before the flood,
> We stood with hearts of stone and blood.
> But lo, the Spirit moved within,
> And broke the chain of death and sin.
> Now with one voice, we rise and sing,
> Reborn in light, made new by King.
> No more desire for evil’s way—
> We walk in truth, and love, and day.
📜 2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.
A “change of heart” in the scriptural sense—especially as Mosiah 5:2 describes—is not just an emotional shift, but a deep transformation of will, desire, and identity. Let’s break it down in a way that honors the text’s poetic and spiritual weight:
- Inner Transformation: The people testify that the Spirit of the Lord has wrought a mighty change in them. This isn’t surface-level; it’s a re-creation of the inner person.
- Shift in Disposition: They no longer want to do evil. Their natural inclinations have been altered so that goodness becomes their continual pursuit.
- Alignment with God: Their hearts are now tuned to divine will, so belief and action flow together. Faith is not abstract—it reshapes behavior.
- From Belief to Knowing: They move from hearing words to knowing their surety and truth. The Spirit confirms reality beyond doubt.
- From Compulsion to Desire: Instead of being forced to obey, they want to do good. Obedience becomes joy.
- From Fragmentation to Unity: They cry out with one voice. A change of heart is communal as well as personal—it binds people together in covenant.
- Heart as Center: In scripture, the heart is the seat of will, love, and identity. A change of heart means a new creation at the very core of being.
- Mighty Work of the Spirit: The passage emphasizes that this is not self-generated. It is wrought by God’s Spirit—grace reshaping nature.
- Continual Goodness: The phrase to do good continually suggests permanence. This isn’t a fleeting feeling but a lasting reorientation.
To have a change of heart is to:
- See the world differently, through the lens of divine truth.
- Desire righteousness more than sin, not out of fear but out of love.
- Live in covenantal unity, where personal transformation strengthens communal witness.
By President Gordon B. Hinckley
President of the Church
October 1997 General Conference
It’s less about a single moment of emotion and more about a permanent re-creation of the soul’s compass—turning from self toward God, from evil toward good, from isolation toward unity.
Let's deepen the dive on Mosiah 5:2
Let's take a look at the key focus words in this scripture verse.
📜 31 ¶ Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
📕 Romans 8
📜 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
🗝📜2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
📜 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
📜 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
📒 Alma 5
📜 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
📒 Alma 13
📜 12 Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God.
📜 16 And behold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of me, even of water and of the Spirit—
📚 Moses 6
📜 59 That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;
📜 65 And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man.
The word change in Mosiah 5:2 echoes the prophetic call in Ezekiel to receive a new heart and new spirit (Ezekiel 18:31; 36:26). It is not cosmetic but transformative—God removes the stony heart and replaces it with one of flesh, tender and responsive. Paul in Romans 8 describes this as walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit, liberated from sin and death by Christ. Alma 5 presses the question: Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? It is the rebirth of the soul, sanctified by the Holy Ghost (Alma 13:12), visited by the Spirit (D&C 5:16), and quickened in the inner man (Moses 6:65). This change is covenantal, communal, and enduring—receiving God’s image in our countenances and becoming spiritually reborn.
📒 Alma 19
📜 33 And it came to pass that when Ammon arose he also administered unto them, and also did all the servants of Lamoni; and they did all declare unto the people the selfsame thing—that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil.
The word evil highlights the reversal of desire. In Mosiah 5:2, the people declare they have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. Alma 19:33 confirms this same witness: hearts changed, desires transformed, evil abandoned. The Spirit does not merely restrain sin—it alters appetite, so that sin becomes abhorrent and goodness becomes natural.
Mosiah 5:2 teaches that a change of heart is a mighty, Spirit-wrought rebirth. It is the exchange of hardness for tenderness, flesh for Spirit, condemnation for freedom, sin for sanctification. This change is not only inward but outward, manifest in continual goodness and communal unity. To have no more desire to do evil is the sure sign of being spiritually reborn, sanctified, and aligned with Christ’s life-giving Spirit.
The mighty change of heart is the Spirit’s work of rebirth, transforming stony hearts into living flesh and freeing souls from the law of sin and death. Ezekiel foresaw it as a new heart and new spirit, Paul testified of it as walking after the Spirit, and Alma pressed the question of whether we have received God’s image in our countenance. This change is not fleeting but sanctifying, making sin abhorrent and goodness continual, binding believers in covenant unity. To have no more disposition to do evil is the sure witness of being spiritually reborn, visited by the Spirit, cleansed by Christ’s blood, and quickened in the inner man. It is the mark of discipleship: hearts aligned with God, desires purified, and lives lived in covenantal light.
> A stony heart made flesh,
> A spirit born anew,
> No more desire for evil,
> Only goodness breaking through.
> Freed by Christ’s own life,
> Bound in covenant’s light,
> We walk as one in Spirit,
> Doing good both day and night.
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