The thought came to be the other day regarding the importance of increasing our awareness of things as they really are. This telestial world is a world of lower level truth mixed with a lot of deception. By this I mean that almost everything around us that we think is noble and worthwhile and good may very well be foolishness and vanity when viewed from a terrestrial vantage point and this is especially the case when viewed from a celestial vantage point.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55)
This concept makes it all the more important to see things as they really are. Why? So that we can reconcile our lives to greater truth. This is what repentance is under ideal circumstances. It is learning the good which comes from God and abandoning lower levels of behaviors, thoughts, actions etc. Although there are gradations of sin however all sin and rebellion will have to be abandoned if one wishes to be in the presence of God.
So as we ascend higher and closer to the divine, we learn of His ways more and more and we have the opportunity to reconcile our life to His greater truths. Thus awareness necessitates repentance and true repentance begets further awareness and the cycle repeats itself until we are complete and have found ourselves transformed into Christ’s likeness and image or we quit and settle for something less.
This process of ascension is only possible by the Grace of the Father and his Anointed One in helping us along the way, for without them, we can do nothing. Thus it really is by grace that we are saved after all we can do. Most people choose for themselves much less than what is available to them as Jesus taught:
For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know me. (D&C 132:22)
If we receive Christ in this life it means that we have chosen to become as He is and also to suffer in a similar way as He did. Granted nobody can suffer the magnitude of what He did and retain their mortal life however the way that leads to exaltation and becoming one with God is the way of loneliness, sorrow, suffering, persecution and sacrifice. This is the lot that every single person chooses when they wish to receive greater light and truth while abiding in a telestial existence.
One who obtains truth is under divine mandate to teach others and this stirs up the darkness and chaos in the world to the point that you will be fought against and rejected; very few will believe your report. Most people love a lie. They love this life and the false comforts it can bring. We are called upon to hate our lesser false lives and lose the deceptions that most think constitutes their whole lives in exchange for a more clear sense of what is really true and real.
Here are a few examples to show these concepts:
24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.
36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
37 Light and truth forsake that evil one. (D&C 93, selected)
19 And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. (Abraham 4)
From these scriptures we learn various important concepts that can help us progress and draw closer to God.
We learn that when God uses the word intelligence that what He means by that is light and truth. We also have a definition of what is truth which is in essence reality, or in other words things as they really are, not as we wish them to be or in our limited understanding reason them to be; but as they really are or were or are to come. We learn that God has received and reconciled His life to the greatest amount of truth and so He is the most intelligent of beings. We learn that His knowledge and ways are so much higher than ours.
If we will learn from Him then this necessarily means that we will be exposed to the limits of what we think we know. We will learn that what we thought we knew was either wrong or severely limited and incomplete. This may be uncomfortable to some however to the pure in heart they will rejoice in correction and relish the opportunity for improvement.
How do we get more light and truth? We seek for greater awareness of reality then we repent and reconcile our lives to this greater awareness. As we do this we will receive more commandments to live by. When we see the commandments for what they really are, opportunities to become more like God, we can keep them and live by them with more enthusiasm and purpose. This is how we grow in intelligence and is in fact the only thing we can take with us when we leave this life. This mortal life is the appointed time for us to receive truth and inasmuch as it is within our power to help others to receive it as well. This should be our principal labor of mortality. Jesus taught that:
4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. (John 9:4)
Alma expounded this concept when teaching the Zoramites:
32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. (Alma 34)
Joseph Smith taught us that:
18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 130)
So based on these concepts the most expedient thing for us mortals to do is to search for light and truth, then repent and reconcile our lives to it by obedience and continue to strive to receive more. One who lives their life in this way will continually find that the things they previously thought were true are incomplete in many ways. Much like the allegory of Plato’s cave, the shadows on the wall are real and true but are not a complete representation of reality. In order to know more than what’s experienced in the cave we must venture outside and risk having the our reality turned inside out, and risk having the blinding light of the sun shine forth and expose our ignorance.
That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. (D&C 93:24)
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)
May we live our lives so that we can always recognize the Light, reconcile our life to it by repentance, that we may be one with Christ as He is with His Father and fulfill the great prayer that He desired for us is my invitation to all who may come across these words.