3.009 Pure Intelligences

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Have you ever been called a name by somebody else that you just didn't like? Me too. Now, before we get into a therapy session here, I won't have a therapy session on Savory Salt, but I do want to take you down a road for just a second that I think we've all been on at some point in our lives.

We are reading this week Moses chapter 1 and Abraham chapter 3, and we're going to continue going through Abraham chapter 3 here. There's some deep stuff, and we don't have time to dive into the deep stuff, but we do want to make sure that we're taking these segments out that help us be a little bit more savory on our personal path of righteousness. So, let's talk about these names we've all been called before.

I'll tell you one personally for me before we get into our verse for today. One of my least favorite ones happened when I was actually just an adult, right? But I was called by a boss that was really close to me.

I was called the worst employee he had ever had. This was in a moment of anger and frustration. And that one really, I try my best when I'm working, whether it's employment, whether it's self-employment, whatever it is, I try to bring my best self all the time.

And so that one just really struck me. Now, whether it's a name you've been called, you know, in high school or middle school or elementary school, or it's a name that you got called, the verse we have today is such an interesting verse to bring in and perhaps change our perspective of self. Let's call it that.

While Abraham is having this vision with the Lord, he's seeing a lot. The Lord is showing him different planets and structures, and he's talking about time and how time's different in all these places. And it's kind of hard to follow in some of these areas, but then we get to a very, very common one, which especially for us as Latter-day Saints, helps us understand pre-earth life as we get to the tail end of Abraham chapter 3.

What I want to look at is Abraham 3 verse 22, but I want you to be aware to basically take time to go through 22 all the way to the end of Abraham chapter 3. Here's our verse. Let's see if we can connect it to names we've been called that we don't like.

It says in verse 22, "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones." Now, I talked about Citation Index before. I want you to go to Citation Index and look at all of the ways that General Conference Talks have referenced Abraham chapter 3, verse 22, and the other surrounding verses. There, all the way back to Joseph Smith talking about this verse, and all the way up to President Oaks talking about this verse.

But I want to point out the term that Abraham used — we used to talk about these premortal souls or spirits. He didn't call them spirits. He didn't call them souls.

He said, "The Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was." My friends, those intelligences were you and me and others that were among the noble and great ones. We were there as intelligences, and our Heavenly Father organized us into spirit children of His. He was further developed than we were.

This is coming from Joseph Smith, right? He was further developed than we were and gave us an opportunity to continue to develop and grow and be like Him. But what does that mean for us as we're listening to these names that people call us that don't help in those moments?

Perhaps an opportunity to shift the perspective for each one of us is a chance to realize not that we were once, but a chance to realize that in our purest form we are intelligences. We are intelligences, my friends. Our spirits are in their purest form intelligences.

That should be very empowering to each one of us so that on our difficult days, whether it's a loved one that calls us a name that we don't like, whether it's ourselves calling us names that we shouldn't be calling ourselves, or whether it's just some random person that decides to call us a name that we don't like, I hope that this provides an incredible new perspective to hold on to for you and for me. We truly are in our purest form intelligences, and we were organized before the world was. And we were among, and many of us probably counted as, the noble and great ones if we listen to prophets of our day talking to each one of us.

I am so grateful for the understanding that I have that at my core, when I'm at my best self, I am intelligence, and you are as well. That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith, and let's be savory salt. We'll be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.