Sustain or Dissent

When a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ calls for a sustaining vote, it does not mean that we are "voting on the proposed action." God has already voted. We are just raising our hand to sustain God in this thing.  We may choose to dissent, but that in no way changes God's Plan. Because agency was fully operational in the pre-Earth life, when God the Father presented His plan, we had the opportunity to sustain or dissent. 

The Father was not calling for plans in some sort of Celestial brainstorming session as some people believe.  They talk about Jehovah's plan or Lucifer's plan, but that is a misnomer.  There was simply the Father's Plan and we, as His spirit children were free to choose: we could support His plan with our sustaining affirmation, or we could reject His plan by dissent. Even those spirits who opted to reject the Father's Plan did not change the Plan.  They only removed themselves from the plan.  But is so doing, they not only removed themselves (or so they thought) from the responsibilities implicit in the covenant, but they also removed themselves from the blessings of the covenant.

The Lord taught Abraham that the role of Savior and Redeemer was key to the execution of His plan. He then asked, Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me.  And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first. (Abraham 3: 27-28)

In other scripture we learn that the first was Jehovah, the pre-mortal Jesus Christ.  The second was  Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. (Isaiah 14: 12)

The Lord later taught Moses the same thing and Moses recorded it in more detail:

And I, the Lord God, spoke unto Moses saying: That Satan, whom thou has commanded in the name     of my Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying - Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not    be lost, and surely, I will do it; wherefore give me thy honor.

But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me - Father, they will be done, and the glory be thine forever.  (Moses 4: 1-2) 

The contrast is clear.  Jehovah not only sustained the Father's plan, he also volunteered to execute it, retaining all glory for the Father, whose plan it was.  Lucifer, by presenting his ideas, rejected the Father's plan, sought to usurp both the Father's power and His glory.  Is it any wonder that God chose the first?

Wherefore, because Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord god, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him my own power, by the power of my Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and blind men, and to lead them captive to his will, even as many as would not hearken to my voice. (Moses 4: 3-4)

Those who sustained the Father and the Son remained in the Heavenly realms until it was time for them to be born into mortality, what God called their Second Estate.  Those who dissented with Satan were cast out of Heaven, never to gain a physical body nor participate in that Second Estate.

John, the Divine, would later write of this moment:

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12: 7-9)

And thus the stage was set for the Father to implement His plan through His Chosen Son.