The bandwidth
It is important to understand that total alignment with God is a functional requirement: it opens the gateway to greater flow of God’s goodness into your life. The Lord taught that:
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (Matthew 6:22)
This passage is recited more often than it is understood. The Greek words translated as “eye” and “single” are significant contributors to the confusion. “Single” here means united, whole, without complication or contradiction, and clear. To have a single eye is to be fully aware of what you want, why you want it, and how to get it. It requires working fully to obtain it, without any hidden motives or dishonest perspectives. To have an eye single to God is to be an integrated, honest person whose central, transcendent purpose is to learn and accomplish the will of God.
The bandwidth of the connection with God available to us spans an enormous range. While all people are born with a baseline connection to God,1 it is possible to expand this connection to such an extent as to have constant and complete access to the very next increment of anything God could possibly tell you.2
The bandwidth of the conduit between God and you is much like a riflescope: its usefulness depends on what you point it at and how well you align the scope to it. What you think, feel, and do are interrelated. The more they are aligned and focused on God, the faster you will grow in his knowledge, wisdom, and power. The more aligned you are with God, the more you will be able to do what others can’t. Jesus was able to do what others couldn’t3 because he was better aligned with the Father than anyone else. This is why Jesus was able to cast out devils that his disciples could not,4 and even as a child had greater wisdom than the most learned elders.5
The more aligned you are with God, the more God’s goodness will flow into you independent of whatever is happening outside or around you.6 God’s influence will enliven, improve, and enhance everything in your life. Everything will be better.7 You will feel greater strength to persevere when you are down,8 and when you feel good, you will feel better for longer.9
The more coherent you are in what you think feel, and do, the more you have aligned these with your understanding of God, and the more correct your understanding of God is, the greater your bandwidth with God will be.10 To the extent any of these tunings are lacking, you will see much less of God and receive much less from him.
Footnotes
- 1. And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. (D&C 84:46) ↩
- 2. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. (John 3:34) For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16) ↩
- 3. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. (John 15:24) ↩
- 4. These types only come out through prayers of the utmost sincerity. (Mark 9:29, Author’s Reflection) ↩
- 5. It isn’t that the Father had “taught him” all of those things through precept. It is that though these elders knew much more than their peers through a lifetime of perceptual learning, Jesus had spent his few years of life immersed in perceptual learning. Jesus had lived everything he had known with the objective of doing everything the Father would in his place, and through which he had already come to have a much fuller and more correct model of how the Father was. In this state, not only did he have greater knowledge than the elders in general, he was also able to instantly surpass any specific superiority they demonstrated by aggregating additional understanding above what they knew through his wisdom augmented by a higher bandwidth connection to the spirit of truth, as developed over years of continuous obedience to the best he could envision. ↩
- 6. Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever. (D&C 121:45-46) ↩
- 7. And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. (Isaiah 49:3) ↩
- 8. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) ↩
- 9. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. (Isaiah 51:11) ↩
- 10. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8) Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God. (D&C 97:16) ↩