There are two primary states of being, known by many names. In one, you are connected to the infinite and eternal source of life we call God, having totally surrendered any facet of self to become His avatar. In the other you are cut off from the source, like an unplugged phone, left to your finite and limited body. Like Christ said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
One holds the key to unending life, the other is in a constant state of decay. One is life, the other is death. One is infinite and eternal, the other is finite and time-bound. One is “saved,” the other is “damned.” One is in a state of childlike connectedness to God, with no awareness or concept for “self”; the other is self-conscious, self-aware, and self-preserving. One has been called the “true self”—that version of you through which truth flows—and the other the “false self”—the distortion you develop in a state of disconnectedness. One is in a state of justification, the other is in a state of sin. One is good, the other is evil.
In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve dwelt in a state of perfect connectedness to God. They had total childlike trust in Him, enjoyed the communion of His open presence, were at perfect peace and rest, and were in a state of unending life. When they partook of the forbidden fruit their eyes were “opened,” bringing about an acute awareness of their nakedness. In a word, they became “self-conscious,” pulling their focus away from God and towards themselves. This focus on “self” disconnected them from the source, making them finite, fearful, and subject to death.
As Alma taught, “But behold, it was appointed unto man to die—therefore, as they were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth—and man became lost forever, yea, they became fallen man. And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own will. (Alma 42:6-7)
This then becomes the defining state of the earth and everyone in it. It is a finite sphere, like an unplugged phone. Every person on it is also finite, self-conscious, self-preserving, and in a state of atrophy. This is the fall of man. It is unwittingly the pattern Nietchze fulfilled when he concluded “God is dead,” and people would need to learn to create their own values. It is the root of focusing on self-care, self-love, self-esteem, and self-discovery. It’s our attempt to cover up our discovered nakedness with fig leaves.
Instead of being filled with life eternal, all we have learned is to consume the finite life in others. It’s the way we kill to eat, seek popularity, or demand the attention and affirmation of others. It’s what Cain called “the great secret”: “that I may murder and get gain” (Moses 5:31). This is the instinct of the natural man. It sustains us for a short period of time, but will always leave us wanting.
By default, you are born onto a branch cut off from the tree of life. Finitude and weakness is the inheritance of this mortal body. Unless we can connect to and be filled by the source of life, we will move from consuming one finite body to another trying to sustain ourselves until we eventually give way to death. We cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Anything we come up with on our own, no matter how genius, is subject to the same limitations we are. It’s a tower of babel. Because we are finite and limited, “salvation” necessarily requires yielding ourselves to something beyond us.
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved” (2 Nephi 10:24).
“For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23).
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
“Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things” (Jacob 4:7).
“All we can do” is put ourselves in a position to receive through the total surrender of self to God. As King Benjamin taught, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19). By yielding our hearts to God’s voice at all times, holding nothing back, we can receive of His Spirit and be transformed. Coming into this state of total surrender is what the scriptures call being “born again” (see Alma 22:15-18).
Life swells within us as we persist in this state of self-surrender, eventually coming to a fulness. What begins as a spiritual connection nourishes your body until in every sense you return to a state of connection with God akin to Eden; from power over temptation and moments of “flow” to “Satan is bound and time is no longer” (D&C 84:100). From the “renewing” of your body to translation and resurrection. There will be no form of death or finitude as we grow in oneness with God.
This is a pattern that applies in all things on all levels. We must properly orient ourselves to receive any form of enduring success. Just as the heavens are above the earth, so must the head be above the body; that is to say, so should the body yield to the head, and the Church to Christ. When the body (or church) tries to lead itself, it ends in disharmony and failure. When you’re riding a bike, you find the rhythm of it by looking ahead at your desired destination. Too much inward focus on maintaining your balance, pedaling, turning, breaking, etc. will keep you from ever getting too far. As you look ahead, you find the immediate concerns have a way of working themselves out. Similarly, when you’re performing or speaking, the imbalance comes when your attention turns inward.
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:31-33).
When we’re properly oriented, all things flow to us (D&C 121:46). Temporal concerns are met. We’re given what we need. Weakness is resolved. Temptation subsides. Knowledge is given. We don’t come to any of these things by seeking them directly, but rather receive them as a consequence of being united in heart with God. We cannot translate ourselves; we cannot perfect ourselves; we cannot come to a knowledge of truth by our own wit, or conjure up revelation; these are the gifts of God that come as we “offer up our whole souls as an offering” (Omni 1:26). Any person who tries to seek these things as ends in and of themselves will inevitably find them just out of reach, or slipping through their fingers (Helaman 13:31).
Similarly, any person who first obtains these things as gifts from God by walking the ordained path, but then comes to believe they obtained them by their own merit, will reap the same fate. This is analogous to plucking a flower to keep it for oneself. The moment you take it away from the source to pretend it is yours, it will begin to die. This is true for purity, righteousness, knowledge, temporal welfare, and more. We must always remember that the attributes of Christ are fruits of the Spirit, not skills we developed of our own strength (Galatians 5:22-23; Jacob 4:7). Truth is not something we obtain by our own reason and deduction, it is revealed (Job 11:7; Jacob 4:8; Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Corinthians 2:4-5). Though truth is certainly reasonable, understanding why it is so is a fruit of receiving it—not the other way around.
To the extent we ever sense our weakness, exhaustion, ignorance, or impurity, we are sensing the finitude that comes from being cut off from the infinite source of Life. The solution is to lift our focus up from ourselves and have an eye single to God (D&C 88:67); to stop resisting His grace but surrender entirely to it. When we do this, life swells within. Eternity swells within. Power, light, love, knowledge, glory, and joy swell within, until at last the Lord has opened our eyes to every layer of flesh we must offer up, receiving His fulness.
Establishing the Cause of Zion 