Our Spiritual Natures

The indwelling of Christ and the divine nature(49 slides)

Creatively compiled by dr. michael farnworth

A paradigm shift invitation...

• Confusing religiosity (engaging in formulistic works) and spirituality (being grounded and connected your inner kingdom) can lead a person to believe that their life is just following mechanistic formulas.

• To make that mistake is to never get started on the inner spiritual path.

A paradigm shift from:

• Performance to surrender.

Divine nature defined:

• To be partakers of the divine nature of Christ is to receive of his light, glory and love; To be transformed and begotten in his image of truth, not in some information sort of way but in likeness and image of persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, love unfeigned and kindness. To know as we are known and see as we are seen.

Created versus begotten in his image...

• We are all created in the image of Christ as far as our bodies are concerned but what about our hearts?

• Have they been born again?

• Have they been begotten in Christ’s image?

• Or, are our hearts fashioned after the image of the world?

The Mormon work ethic

• Truman Madsen in his book: The Highest in Us, writes,

• “One supreme compliment to a member of the church is, ‘he is active.’ But so are falling rocks and billiard balls. The word the lord uses, and the question derived from it is, ‘are you a lively member?’ “Are you alive in Christ?”

Being active in the church is not the same thing as being alive in Christ and having his image burned within our hearts and

mind.

Being alive and the indwelling

• The indwelling of Christ is referred to as being “one”... D&C 93:3 “And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one-”

• D&C 93: 22 “And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same…”

The Christ spoke of these things...

• John 14: 10

• “Believest thou not that I am in the father, and the father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”

Works and the work ethic

• How many of us have been overwhelmed by all the commandments that need to be observed and kept?

• How many of us have gotten discouraged and felt like giving up? (Even though we know we never would).

The idea of perfection

• How many of us have been depressed at how far we have to go and all that we still fall short of, in our attempts to be perfect?

• How many of us keep the hope alive and believe that if we just keep trying that eventually we will get there!

1. What is the grace of Christ all about?

2. How many of us suffer from having too little faith in the grace of Christ and his power to save?

Please answer the two questions...

The issue of pride..

• Have any of us ever felt judged and condemned by others?• Why is there so much judging that occurs?

• Pride usually results from doing things better than others... Doesn’t it?

Maybe some Mormons

• ...Rely so much in their own efforts to be good that they can’t help this feeling of superiority by comparison...

• ...Do not “get it” when it comes to the grace part of our theology...

• ...Feel as if they can do it all by themselves, being independent of all...

Moroni’s last plea

• Moroni 10: 32,3

• “Yea come unto Christ, and be perfected in him... Then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ... If ye are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then ye are sanctified in Christ by the grace of God…”

The apostle Paul understood

• Philippians 2: 12, 13

• “...Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Christ taught...

• John 15:5

• “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.”

The Prophet Joseph understood... Lectures on faith, page 60

• “All those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; Possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all.”

C.S. Lewis understood God In The Dock, Page 112,113

• “The idea of reaching a good life without Christ is based on a double error.

• Firstly, we cannot do it; And secondly, in setting up a ‘good life’ as our final goal, we have missed the very point of our existence.

• Morality is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; And if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable air of the summit,

• Lacking those wings with which the rest of the journey has to be accomplished. For it is from there that the real ascent begins. The ropes and the axes are ‘done away’ and the rest is a matter of flying.”

Listen to Christ’s plea in his prayer to the father

• John 17: 21,23

• “That they all may be one; As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one…”

• One connects to the divine nature of Christ through the ordinances and by allowing the spirit to direct his/her affections and thoughts.

• The obedience is to the inner life as the spirit finds

residence in our hearts.

• It is an act of surrendering.

The ordinances and inner life... D&C 84: 20,21,22

The fruits of the indwelling

• Galatians 5: 22,23

• “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…”

• D&C 121:41,42

• “...Only by persuasion, by longsuffering, by gentleness and meekness and love unfeigned; by kindness and pure knowledge…”

Are you fruitful? Are you alive?

• Matthew 21: 17-19 The story is of a fig tree that had only leaves( signs of life) but bore no fruit...

• How many of us look alive (with all our activity) but bare no fruit of the spirit because we are not alive in Christ...

• How many of us try to all the stuff we are suppose to do and still are defended, proud, grandiose, vain, and know in our hearts that we have come up short...

• How many of us, despite our efforts still find absent from our hearts love, compassion, gentleness and long-suffering?

Can we work our way into heaven?

A question...

• 1. If you were able to keep all the commandments, would you need Christ and the atonement? Why or why not?

The prophet Joseph taught...Teachings of page 137

• “...The things of God are of deep import; And time, and experience, and careful ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind... must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity- thou must commune with God.”

Active or alive

• And how does one know if their life is not connected to the true vine?

• How do you tell if you think you are accepting of the the spirit but really are just going through the motions?

The prophet Joseph again... Teachings of ,page 241

• “... It is the doctrine of the devil to retard the human mind, and hinder our progress, by filling us with self-righteousness. The nearer we get to our heavenly father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls... If you would have god have mercy on you, have mercy on one another.”

A more recent condemnation..

• D&C 84: 55,56 quoted by Ezra Taft Bensen in calling the church to repentance

• “Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation. And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.”

Many times we don’t get it because of our traditions...

• Traditions like the work ethic, competition, feminine value, puritan attitudes about bodies, religious values of a passionless and bodiless god.

D&C 93: 39

• “And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.”

These traditions blind us and shackle us to values and paradigms which misguide and direct us.

They prevent us from feeling who we really are!

“If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.”

Joseph Smith, Teachings, page 343

• The privilege of a lifetime.

• Of an eternity, is being who God sent you here to be.

• Your life is your royal birthright.

What Christ would have of us

• Our Christ wants our hearts, not feigned outward behaviors based in our vain and fruitless preoccupation with what our culture considers appropriate.

• His invitation to come unto me is a gentle solicitation to partake of the living waters of eternal life.

• To be begotten in his image is a great spiritual journey.

The reason I put this lesson together...

• My fear is that some of you actually believe that all you have to do to have a good marriage and family is to keep the commandments.

• You may do all that and still be a hard hearted and mean spirited, prideful person.

• Coming unto Christ and being spiritually begotten is a whole different paradigm!

The spiritual pathway of stewardship parenting

• Conscious parenting becomes a spiritual pathway; A healing journey where ordinary tasks and everyday conversations and interactions become the medium of spiritual and emotional growth. It can be one of the most sacred and intimate experiences possible. Give reverence to its holy nature.

The refiners fire.

• The family is a spiritual adventure to purge out the dross of a selfish and pride filled personality.

• Surrendering to this transforming arena may be the best thing that could happen.

• If you do not hide from the ordeal.

The wounding

• We are all in need of a healing.

• Being made whole again is what the Physician can do if we but come unto him.

• Christ never sinned but he was wounded again and again, he knows how to succor and to heal us from our wounds.

Alma 7: 11,12

• “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; And this that the word might be fulfilled...And he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy... That he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

Please consider the invitation:

“Yea, come unto Christ and be perfected in him.”

As personal and necessary in your spiritual life...

A song: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson

Come, thou fount of every blessingTune my heart to sing thy grace.Streams of mercy never ceasingCall for songs of loudest praise.Teach me some melodious sonnetSung by flaming tongues above; Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it.Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer,Hither by thy help I'm come;And I hope by thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.Prone to wander Lord, I feel it.Prone to leave the God I love;Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,Seal it for thy courts above.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,Wandering from the fold of God;He, to rescue me from danger,Interposed his precious blood.Prone to wander Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love;Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,Seal it for thy courts above.

O to grace, how great a debtorDaily I'm constrained to be!Let thy goodness, like a fetter,Bind my wandering heart to thee.Prone to wander Lord, I feel it.Prone to leave the God I love.Here’s my heart, Oh take and seal it,Seal it for thy courts above.

Seal it for thy courts above.

May we all have the faith and the courage to embrace the gospel of Christ in our lives- by coming unto him and drinking of the waters of life

and grace...

Is his imaged burned within our countenance...?

the end