From the a previous post, * The Natural Man. . . .So the natural man insists on being the pseudo orphan—be either does not hear or refuses the loving calls to come to his real Home! Even if, perchance, he should hear the voice of God, it will be regarded only as brief and interrupting thunder in the distance (John 12:29). The distraction passes; hence, so he can hurry back to the sand piles!
Our minds—and with them, desires—have to be changed. . . .(now continuing below)
Our minds according to . . . the Prophet Joseph Smith, represent a special portion of us, something which is eternal:
“I take my ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man—the immortal part, because it has no beginning. . . .So with the spirit of man.”8
In fact our minds can become much more like the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). The same apostle worried, for instance, that we might faint in [our] minds” or become shaken in mind” (Hebrews 12:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:2). One remedy is for us to be “renewed in the spirit of our mind[s]” (Ephesians 4:23). In this dispensation, too, the Lord has emphasized that we not be weary in mind” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:80).
A promise was given by God anciently to His covenant people that He would “put [His] law into their mind” (Hebrews 8:10). Does this somehow account for the spiritual resonance we sometimes feel and see? Or, does this tell us why the words of the Lord have a “more powerful affect upon the minds of the people” than anything else? (Alma 31:5) A meek mind responds to the doctrines of the Lord, because “my sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27).
When the mind is not firm, however, a range of reactions is seen: an individual can either be insistently indifferent or may instead be wrought up “by great tribulations of his mind” (Alma 15:3). This latter condition relates to the Prophet Joseph Smith’s observations about the special trial that “suspense” can constitute, observing that there is no pain so awful as the pain of suspense.” The Prophet was using the word suspense in the context of how knowledge does away with darkness, suspense and doubt. A lack of knowledge is one of the condemnations of the wicked, their hell being their unknowingness about such matters as their identities, destinies, and possibilities.
Since the Lord has told us that His ways are higher than man‘s ways, therefore, the process of repentance begins in our mind. It is a process that causes us to change our mind to reflect better the mind of Christ.10 If we are meek instead of bitter, our capacity for empathy, for example, is to a great extent rooted in our experiences and memories.
“[But trials] will only give us that knowledge to understand the minds of the Ancients. For my part I think I could have never felt as I now do if I had not suffered the wrongs that I have suffered. All things work together for good to them that love God.” 11
Thus we are encouraged to have a “willing mind” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:34). Our ultimate submissiveness is when our ”minds become single” and submissive to God by being “swallowed up in His will” (Mosiah 15:7, Doctrine and Covenants 88:68). Clearly excluded is the adversary who “knew not the mind of God (Moses 4:6).”
Of necessity, since agency reigns, Paul and all the prophets want people to “be fully persuaded in their own mind[s]” (Romans 14:5). However the shortcuts may seem, to persuade one against his will only requires more arduous backpacking and more backtracking!
How vital that our minds feast upon the words of Christ and that we be firm and unshaken as we encounter the challenges of life! Thus, if meek, our minds understandably reach out with regard to God: Is He really there? Enoch was mightily reassured! (Moses 7:30). Does God know me? Perfectly! Does He love me? Perfectly! Does he really have particular plans for me? Indeed! Such fundamental feelings and wonderments are responded to fully, as we come to know better the character, purposes, and the capacity of God.
To do His redemptive work daily thus requires understanding His doctrines and having them constantly refreshed and renewed, lest we faint in our minds or become weary in mind (Hebrews 12:3; Doctrine and covenants 84:80). Peter used the metaphor which urges us to gird up the loins of your mind (1 Peter 1:13). Therefore a one-time intellectual acceptance of doctrines to then be filed away is simply not enough. In discipleship there must be interactiveness of intellect and behavior.
There must likewise be a constancy in the nourishment of the mind by truth and by having your loins gird about with truth (Ephesians 6:14, Doctrine & Covenants 27:16). The dictionary defines gird as to bind, to make fast, to surround, and to prepare for action, suggesting anything but isolation, intellectual flabbiness, or lassitude. Our own capacity must grow if we are to emulate divine determination on our own scale of discipleship. After all, is not discipleship grounded in discipline? Faltering as we sometimes are, we are blessed to worship a loving Father God who mercifully is perfect in His long-suffering. ∼Neal A. Maxwell, The Promise of Discipleship (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2001). 42-45
