God's Many Works, Part 3

This brings us to King Benjamin's explanation of our relationship with God. He explained our utter dependence in these words:

I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another— I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. (Mosiah 2: 20-21.)

Is God the one who "created you?" If He "created you" then what of mankind is co-eternal with God? (D&C 93: 29; see also TPJS p. 353: "The mind or intelligence which man possesses is co-equal with God himself.") But what is "intelligence" or the mind of man? Intelligence is co-equal with the Father because it flows from Him in His exalted state. It is His glory. "Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made" because it exists as a part of the Father's existence. (D&C 93: 29.)

Intelligence is God's glory or His power. "The glory of God is intelligence." (D&C 93: 36.) This glory is also called "light and truth." (Id.) Or, in other words, light and truth emanates from God the Father, and is co-extensive with Him. This light and truth is also called intelligence. This is what conscience is made from. This is the power by which man comes into existence. It is as eternal as the Father Himself because it exists as part of His glory.

According to King Benjamin, God the Father created you "from the beginning." What does it mean to have created you "from the beginning?" Whose beginning? Ours? What does it mean that He has "kept and preserved you?" What does it mean that He has "granted that ye should live?" Without the Father's power would we no longer live? 

What does it mean that God is "preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath?" Could we not breathe without borrowing the power to do so from God?

What does it mean that we are able to "live" because of God's power? How dependent on God are we if we use His power to "live and move?" How utterly reliant are we on His power if it is Him who is "even supporting you from one moment to another?"

What is this relationship between God's power, which proceeds forth from Him, and sustains not only planets, stars and our sun, but also us so that we live?

This power is:
-preserving us,
-comes from the Father, and
-causes everything to exist by its power.
Therefore, the "light of Christ," which is in and through all things, is co-extensive with the Father's "glory," or "intelligence," or in other words "light and truth." (D&C 93: 36.)

This "light of Christ" or Holy Spirit, or intelligence, or glory of God, or power, or light and truth, or mechanism is important to recognize. But until you recognize it is the power by which you exist, that sustains you from moment to moment and lends you the power to live and breathe, you haven't yet appreciated the concept you are trying to assign a word. It is only vocabulary. The underlying idea remains hidden even if you have a vocabulary for it.

Coming next is the other part of the equation.