Willing obedience is a very comprehensive subject. To cover all the aspects of obedience would take weeks of talking, and even then much would be left out. Today I am focusing on breaking down obedience into simple terms and ideas that should be easy to follow. I want to show how our agency is affected by our mortality, and how our ability to obey wisely makes all the difference between lasting happiness, and temporary happiness that turns into lasting sorrow.
Premortal obedience
Let’s start back where it all started, in the premortal world. In our premortal state as spirits we didn’t have the same capacity for disobedience that comes so naturally to us here. We had no body, so none of the habits and desires of the flesh were present.
True disobedience was not really an issue there. We lived in the presence of God. We could see and comprehend his might, power, and majesty. He was our father. We may not have understood all that he did or required of us, but His communication with us was perfect, because he is a perfect being.
So basically we were all pretty obedient as spirits. The only ones who openly rebelled against our Father in Heaven ended up here on earth as Satan and his minions. Since we now have mortal bodies, we know that we obeyed and supported the Lord’s cause in that conflict that resulted in the loss of a third part of God’s children.
I feel safe in stating that being disobedient was not something that came naturally to any of us. We were naturally obedient and compliant to the Lord and His commandments. It was difficult for us to truly understand fully what moral agency was and how it worked when we were living in the presence of the eternal law giver Himself.
To learn to exercise or use our agency in the same mature way our Father in Heaven uses His moral agency, we needed to be placed into a situation where we were truly free to choose good over evil without constraint. That is, without having to choose evil while staring down the giver of all eternal laws. We needed to have just as much freedom to choose disobedience as we were free to choose obedience.
If we were to be placed on the teeter totter of choice, with one end being complete obedience in all things, and the other end being complete and open rebellion, we needed to be placed dead center so we could choose to move gradually toward one end of the scale or the other without impediment or obstacles.
This is the whole purpose of earth life, of mortality. We are here to learn how to choose wisely. How we choose reveals to us and to God, our Father, where the true desires of our hearts lie. Since there is nothing to stop us from choosing evil over good, choosing good has to be done because we want it more than we want the corresponding evil choice. Almost all moral choices have a good or evil option. Every time we make a choice for good or for evil we have chosen the results of that choice. More on that in a moment.
Earthly appetites
Our spirits, who we naturally are, are accustomed to choosing good, or choosing the right. This is how we always lived in the presence of our Father. Our mortal bodies, on the other hand, have a nature that is in complete opposition to our spiritual state.
The mortal body loves to feel good. It is selfish and self serving. All it desires is physical pleasure, comfort. That is the nature of the physical body. This is why the natural man, the person who lives according to the desires of the flesh, is and always will be, an enemy to God.
The forgetfulness variable
If it isn’t difficult enough that we have come from a state of always living in obedience to God into a state of inhabiting a body that only feels the need to satisfy itself, in order for the Lord to place us squarely in the middle of the teeter totter of choice, He had to veil or mask our memory of our life with Him.
With our past life temporarily removed from our memories, we are now placed in the center of the board. We can move freely in either direction. We no longer have any memory of having to face our Father if we try to make a poor choice. We are now free to choose to satisfy the desires that come with our mortal flesh with few immediate consequences to persuade us not to.
Sources of pleasure
In mortality we can find “happiness” (and I put air quotes around the word happiness) from more than one source. When we lived with God happiness was defined by the way He lives. Happiness comes from serving others, thinking of the needs of others before our own. Happiness came from thinking higher thoughts and seeking beauty and refinement in character and behavior.
In mortality, “happiness” can also be found in excess – too much food, too much sex, too much sleeping, too much of this, too much of that, and too much of anything. And the body has the capacity, just like the spirit, to increase in capacity as we make choices to indulge it. If we take drugs, for example, we build up a tolerance, which requires we continue to need more drugs to get the same feeling the next time we take a hit.
Unfortunately, it is also the nature of the mortal body that once addicted to a substance or a behavior, it requires that greater dose until the death of the body is the result of the behavior. The body either demands more and more until death is the result or the body becomes so dependent on the behavior that it slowly wastes away, destroying any quality of life left to it. This is true for drugs, sex, eating, socially inappropriate behavior – anything that is attached to the desires of the flesh.
The choice (earthly pleasures or heavenly pleasures)
The difference between spiritual choices, those choices that strengthen our spirit and our natural resolve to do and be more good, and the choices of mortality that satisfy the flesh, is that the choices of the natural man all eventually lead to sorrow and loss, while the spirit-centered choices all lead to increased capacity, greater sensitivity, and a more godly life.
The problem is that the earthly choices feel good right now. Though it might be only temporary, these choices make us physically feel good at the moment. Often spiritual choices don’t bring a rush of physical sensations or that endorphin high that so many seek to feel better about themselves. Spiritual choices make us feel good over the long haul.
It is the nature of spiritual choices, the kind of choices we make when we keep a commandment, that we have to choose that choice first, then after we have deliberately lived that way for a while, the Lord will give us the spiritual confirmation that what we have done is right. It is then that the Spirit gives us a testimony or assurance of the goodness of that behavior. This also comes with sensations of pleasure, but of a different kind from normal pleasures of the body.
Living a spirit-centered life has to be done deliberately. We have to consciously make the choice to choose to live according to what we are taught is the will of God, whom we cannot see and we cannot remember. But it is by making these choices that our lives are gradually filled with the same natural joy that fills God’s life.
The commandments are the same kind of laws He lives. They are the laws of happiness. Living them results in happiness. But because our Father in Heaven is an eternal being, the laws he lives by are also eternal in nature, and result in eternal happiness. We are even told that our Father in Heaven’s goal and desire is for us to experience joy. 2 Nephi 2:25 says “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”
This is why we are here in mortality. This is our testing ground. The scriptures tell us that we have the ability to choose eternal life or eternal death. That always sounded rather drastic to me, but that is exactly what is happening to us each time we choose to live the commandments or do what makes us feel good right now. In 2 Nephi 2:27 Jacob tells us this:
Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
Remember that Satan has power only here in mortality, not in the eternities. His object is to get each of us to choose captivity and death. In other words, to choose to be natural men and women, slaves to our fleshly desires. If he can keep us from choosing to obey the commandments our Father in Heaven has given us then he prevents us from accessing the Savior’s atoning sacrifice that provides the only way to overcome the power of the fleshly desires within each of us. The atonement of Christ makes the spirit the more powerful of the two parts that make up the soul.
When we choose to keep the commandments and learn to find joy in the things that are spiritual or eternal in nature, our body is actually changed. It adapts to accepting the glory that comes to us with each visit of the Holy Ghost.
This is the secret nobody talks about. Not only can the body be degenerative as it is lavished with earthly behaviors, but it can also adapt to the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, and become more refined and pure through the cleansing power of the Atonement. It is this very ability for the body to move in either direction that makes it possible for this weak vessel to eventually become the host for a celestial being.
Final Thoughts
Our mortal bodies may not seem like much to look at, but they are the vessels, the temples of our spirits. Our purpose in mortality is to choose one course or the other. Either we will ultimately choose the earthly, natural man path for our body, living only to please ourselves when and while we can, and letting our spirits starve, or we will choose to subject the desires of our flesh to the commandments and lifestyle we are given by our Father in Heaven. His lifestyle leads us to being able to experience all the joy and have all the power that comes with godhood.
It doesn’t all come in mortality, but we begin the process by choosing to keep the commandments. This takes an eternal perspective. As long as we only see this moment, the flesh will win out. It is when we keep in mind what we are working and living towards that we are able to find the strength to be obedient and have joy in that obedience. The rewards of the spirit are not temporary, and they are not base, like the physical pleasures. Spiritual rewards are the opening of our mind’s eye to the glories of eternity. It is the giving of hope, and the softening of the heart. The rewards of the Spirit teach us to think, and feel, and behave like our Father in Heaven. This is what Jacob meant when he said that we can choose “liberty and eternal life.”
We see some of these basics differently. Perhaps I can express my perspective and compare and discuss.
You wrote: ” In our premortal state as spirits we didn’t have the same capacity for disobedience that comes so naturally to us here. We had no body, so none of the habits and desires of the flesh were present.”
As I understand the premortal spirit, somehow an eternal “intelligence” was joined with a spirit body, begotten by Heavenly Parents. A body, spiritual or physical, has great potential and power. How that potential and power is made manifest is the result of the character that is part of the intelligence. It is like an F-16 jet. The jet is not good or bad. It can do good or bad, depending who is at the controls.
Our capacity for disobedience, and our capacity for obedience surfaced, or was revealed as we began our growth with our Spiritual Parents. Such characteristic differences are the individual’s earmarks of the level of pride and selfishness, as contrasted by humility and selflessness. I am confident that Heavenly Father knew beforehand how each intelligence would respond in any given circumstance, but WE did not know. The trials and challenges we encounter are to prove to US what we are truly made of, so we can never doubt or protest that God judged us unfairly or not righteously.
Earth life is much like a flight simulator, where we can learn to properly use the features and power of that F-16 within the design and purpose of its creation. Pride and selfishness tends to make us misuse and abuse such power for self gratification in many ways (as your article outlined). In a flight simulator, we can make mistakes. We can crash and burn without permanent harm or damage. The atonement of our Savior enables us to reset the program, and by learning from our previous mistakes, we can do it right. Genuine repentance with Godly sorrow will be the key to resetting the program, and this process over the years of our life will purge the pride and selfishness from us, the very same negative characteristics that were original to our intelligence. That is the change of heart, or true conversion.
In our premortal realm, we made choices that reflected our character. Some were so rebellious that they were righteously judged to not progress to this earthly sojourn. But that does not mean that those who did keep their first estate were always obedient. As long as they/we did not reject the plan of the Father, we were graduated to this phase (the second estate) of His plan. Earthly opportunities differ, that we chose to accept for this life. The program, as I see it, is that the Father prepared the way for each of us to develop to the fullness of our potential, if we would accept the refinement that purges our pride. I am sure that the Father communicated what we were capable of and made wise recommendations for us. Perhaps some of us shrank and chose less that we were capable of. Perhaps some of us (Judas?) chose greater glory than we were capable of. For the plan to work, the choice has to be ours after having been sufficiently taught and understanding the results of our choices.
The flight simulator I spoke of is programmed differently for each individual, including the individual refinement needs that differ from person to person. We are given weakness that are geared to make us humble, with the promise that the weaknesses will be made strong. We do best not to speculate on the weakness of others, but to faithfully address our own weakness.
I feel the importance to realize that we cannot attribute our shortcomings to the weakness of the flesh. The flesh is what opens our eyes to the weakness of our own eternal intelligence, that small “I am” within all of us. the part of us that God did not create, but somehow adopted us into His family so we might have joy. This intelligence, which is now one with our spirit, is the focus of refinement that must receive that mighty change so that we can fully submit our will to the Father’s.
I hope this did not sound wacky, … it is difficult to put into words the many things that we see as we try to piece together the puzzle of doctrine and the gospel. However, we study the shapes and colors, … only the Holy Ghost can show us how they fit.
Darell,
I absolutely agree with most of what you have written, and I enjoyed reading your prose, it is well thought out. My departure from what you have written is in two places. First, Alma 13:3-5 tells us that we were all able to choose both good and evil in the premortal world. And choosing one over the other has real consequences. We may not have been able to choose good and evil there in the same way we are able to choose it here, but choose we did. And the first time someone came out in open rebellion against God they were evicted from heaven.
You mention that mortality is like a flight simulator that allows us to “crash and burn” without consequences, because it allows us to try again to get it right on the next try. But our choices here in mortality have even greater consequences then they did in the first estate. Your scenario is tempting to accept because it paints a picture of no negative consequences, but an unlimited number of opportunities to try again to get it right. But life doesn’t work like that. Our bodies truly do have desires of their own, most of which are in opposition to the commandments of God. If we don’t subject the will of our flesh to the will of God then we will suffer estrangement from God for eternity.
My two points of departure from what you wrote are 1- the body, and the desires that come with it, are an enemy to God. And 2 – the choices we make in mortality are not without profound consequences. If we crash and burn we can repent, true. But the consequences of our actions that caused that crash may follow us for the rest of our physical lives. The only way we can minimize the consequences of following the desires of the flesh is to focus on obedience to the Lord and to live according to the commandments. This is the only path we can follow that will enable the Lord to bless us with the strength and power we need to learn to be like Him.
Perhaps I was ambiguous, or did not express myself properly. I did not mean to communicate that there are no consequences for our wrong choices that we make. I said: ” In a flight simulator, we can make mistakes. We can crash and burn without permanent harm or damage.” In other words, we WILL be harmed or damaged. Just like the Savior, we too learn obedience by the things we suffer. (But He learned perfectly!) Our wrong choices will cause us to suffer. Suffering can humble us, and cause us to search for the better ways that avoid suffering. With genuine repentance, the harm or damage we suffer can be repaired and then we can try again. Without repentance, we cannot simply reset that flight simulator program and try again.
As for our bodies, let me take another approach. Everything that God creates is good, as He has declared. And everything He creates is done so for a specific purpose. God did not create evil. It is the misuse, and abuse of God’s creations that creates evil. It is taking and applying God’s creations and altering the purpose for which they are created that is evil. Our bodies are what can bring us the ultimate joy that God has. Our desires are an integral part of our bodies that make such joy possible.
The bodies were designed for a spirit to inhabit. But because our spirits have not yet been refined (which per my previous post means that the negative characteristics of the intelligence that was permanently combined with our spirits still has pride and selfishness), our spirits are going to struggle in utilizing this body per the design and purpose for which God created them. Therefore, God could not introduce His spirit children into a glorified and eternal body directly. Without the time and experience to learn how to manage these bodies, the first time we “crashed and burned” would be fatal and permanent. So we were given a preparatory time in mortality with a non glorified temporary body (or the flight simulator). The experience would prove to ourselves (because God already knows) if we would allow the spirit to rule our bodies, or if the carnal nature (which we can overcome) would dominate our bodies.
The bodies and its desires are not an enemy to God. The natural man is an enemy to God. The natural man will misuse the body and its desires pridefully and selfishly. The spiritually minded man will properly use the same humbly and selflessly, according to the design and purpose that God created them for, and will find joy. By this, it fulfills your quote. “Our ability to obey wisely makes all the difference between lasting happiness, and temporary happiness that turns into lasting sorrow.”
I just thought of something that may help get my perspective into better light. When going to a job interview, the applicant carefully prepares his resume to show his best side that will influence the employer to hire him. He is not too likely going to volunteer the negative characteristics that would shine bad light on his chances of getting the job. I wonder if it may have been like that in the premortal life, that we wanted these glorified and eternal bodies, and though we had knowledge of our negative characteristics, many of us would not admit to such faults. Or maybe we didn’t understand them, and how they could harm us and wreak havoc in the Celestial Kingdom, if the same spirit that has power to rule is in this life were to rise and have power to rule us in the life to come.
This cannot be in the Celsetial Kingdom. No unclean thing can enter. God cannot accept a resume that does not disclose all the attributes of the applicant. But God does want to accept each and every application, so He created a special school where each applicant will come to know his attributes that must be perfected and thus properly included in his resume. These wonderful bodies, with their beautiful desires (when properly understood and perceived spiritually) would be the means to teach us what our weakness are, and provide the refinement, if we would endure the heat of the fire in our trials. The bodies do not cause us to sin. We cause the sin by misusing the bodies, and by so doing, we learn and understand the pride and selfishness we have that cannot go on that resume.
I see the fine line of difference in our perspectives, and how hard it can be to distinguish. If we must see the bodies as the cause of sin, then we also must see the bodies as the means to overcome sin. The wheat must be separated from the tares, and the criteria of that, as I see it, is what separates those who will allow this refinement process to use our wonderful bodies righteously. Many will not. But that does not prevent them from obtaining a kingdom of glory. Instead of an F-16, they may be qualified to fly a Cessna 150. Or maybe a wooden glider with a rubber band powered propeller. It all depends on the laws they will choose to obey that govern the kingdom they inherit.
Thank you Darell. I do see the differences you clarified. I am not sure I am totally on board with the body being a completely neutral creation, let alone a creation that is inherently “good.” Although I do agree that it certainly does have the capacity to support us all the way to the celestial kingdom if we just learn to make good choices while occupying our bodies. The human body does have great capacity.
I really appreciate your perspective. It has helped me see things in a new light I had not considered before. Thanks!
Thank you Darell. I do see the differences you clarified. I am not sure I am totally on board with the body being a completely neutral creation, let alone a creation that is inherently “good.” Although I do agree that it certainly does have the capacity to support us all the way to the celestial kingdom if we just learn to make good choices while occupying our bodies. The human body does have great capacity.
I really appreciate your perspective. It has helped me see things in a new light I had not considered before. Thanks!