Note: This post was a collaborative effort.
Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out of her midst, be clean, you that bear the vessels of the Lord. For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
I.
When one immerses themselves In the doctrine of Christ, signs (assurance) will follow, confirming their hope. Evidencing belief in Christ’s words with action leads to wonders and miracles, and creates unshakeable faith in Christ, in His eternal presence and union with mankind.
II.
If a person experiments on the “Word,” meaning the doctrine of Christ, blessing even one “adversary,” (just a little is enough), they will learn to see wondrous and miraculous results; for they will be coached from above to look for how God speaks and will have the assurance and faith to act in the future. When this process has happened for someone, it will eventually become second nature to them, and will result in the discovery of diverse gifts, including healing others and more.
III.
As this faith in Christ and his doctrine grows, it creates a connected circuit. Every new blessing bestowed on an adversary adds to one's faith and power, thus enabling them to bless to an even greater degree. This power allows gods to create entire worlds, because they seek to bless freely, without taking "righteousness" or "wickedness" into account, only what is best for that person.
IV.
Creation only exists because of the desire to bless others. Without that desire there is no existence. Creation happens because of a constant appreciation and interest for all things, without categorizing them into lists of "good" or "bad."
V.
All the power that God has because of his faith in blessing others is entirely within the reach of man - today. Everything endowed by God to men has been an attempt to teach this concept. His love is shed forth abroad, and his music rings in the hearts of the children of men, which is why his power is instantly accessible by everyone in any moment. There are those among us who can testify of the wonders of his works.
VI.
Once the mind and heart have been genuinely tuned to the Lord's doctrine then literally nothing is impossible. One who is immersed in His love will have the same power as the gods, for they will only be thinking of blessing others, which will in turn enable them to do anything necessary to bless.
VII.
We have accounts of the desire to bless given to us in the Book of Mormon. Rather than cursing and condemning the people of Ammonihah, Alma and Amulek chose to bless them, even at the cost of many lives. Nephi and Lehi also chose blessing their captors when they were immersed with the Holy Spirit and with fire rather than seeking judgment for them. Finally, we can see in the Brother of Jared that the desire to bless others can result in the moving of mountains and other miracles.
VIII.
All of God's power of creation and world-building is a direct result of His desire to bless others. Unorganized and organized matter responds to this call to go and do something for another.This power can be utilized by men in precisely the same way.
Opus Second
I.
If the chaos of the universe responds to the pure desire to bless others, God is the One who continually maintains that pure desire and therefore He is the One we turn to in order to receive life-giving blessings. He is the One who teaches us how to have the same pure desire that He has.
II.
Since we fell from the Tree of Life and we somehow lost that pure desire, we now have a double mind--a carnal mind that judges and puts things into categories of “good” and “bad,” “best” and “worst,” “right” and “wrong.” We therefore cannot even make our own life flourish, let alone create more outside ourselves.
God is at one with His own Self and His creations through His pure desire to bless. We can therefore look to Him to receive our life-giving blessings, but even if we don’t look to Him, He sends us His blessings regardless. We also look to Him to help us realize our true nature we thought we lost, but in truth always retained, though it may lay dormant. Through rediscovery, restoration, and most importantly, belief, we will realize that we may truly be as the gods who simply bless, and thus create.
III.
God’s children were given “dominion” or stewardship over life. In the previous opus we learned that God’s position as Lord only comes from the pure desire to bless. That is what gives Him His power. So it is with man. We inherited that exact same pure desire to bless everything, and thus the same power that God possesses.
God specifically endowed us with the capacity to create more versions of ourselves to bless them, just as we are more versions of Himself. We are like God in every way.
IV.
When you spend your life blessing, you always receive more in return, even if it is not "deserved." Love begets love. We are invited to partake freely of the fruits belonging to the trees that have 'seeds' in them which perpetuate that tree.
If the Tree of Life contains seed-bearing fruit, consider the possibility that what falls from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is seedless and cannot perpetuate love. Once that fruit gets consumed, it is the end of it. Partaking of that fruit is the same thing as separating yourself from the infinite life-giving Spirit of God.
V.
From the first opus we learned that all of our power to live and create comes from the pure desire to bless others. So, to make it possible to die, partaking of the bitter fruit must be the same thing as losing that pure desire to bless others. It is a choice to divide, categorize, accuse, judge, curse or punish the things that we do not consider “good” or deserving of blessings. It is a desire to withhold blessings or "reward" from some because they do not “qualify” for things determined to be "good." And thus, partaking from the Tree of Knowledge is like a serpent consuming its own tail.
VI.
Adam was told to “dress” and “keep” the garden, which included the entire earth and all the animals in it. So in this part we see Adam becoming intimately acquainted (at one) with creation -- the creation that he desires to bless. Such a desire to bless requires unity and familiarity.
VII.
God only seeks to bless with great bounty. That is how man started. That is how we started. We were given all good things in abundance, and we were to bless creation with all good things. And because of that desire, we had a perfect connection with God.
VIII.
Once we let go of the pure desire to bless others, it becomes difficult to conceive that others could want to bless us without getting something in return. So at that point, God becomes someone to be avoided. We second-guess His motives and the actions He wants to take. We fear Him and no longer seek unity with Him, only to make transactions with Him to earn His favor.
We know that He can see right through us (i.e. we are “naked”) and that scares us because we do not really like what we see inside of ourselves either. Our minds to judge and condemn are turned inwardly, and just as we would condemn those we deem unworthy to hell, we also condemn ourselves.
IX.
"And the Lord God said unto Adam, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree whereof I told you that you should not eat? If so, you should surely die? And the man said, The woman whom you gave me, and commanded that she should remain with me, gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat."
This provides us with a shred of hope. One reason given for the decision to fall (at least for the man in this story) is the desire to remain unified with his counterpart - the one who supposedly disobeyed first. Deep down Adam still has a desire to bless others, even when it comes with a high price, according to the economy of the Tree of Knowledge, at least.
X.
Eve (who represents all of us) did not "disobey" because she deliberately turned away from the pure desire to bless others. There were lies and misconceptions involved. This is all basically a misstep - a huge mistake. The desire to bless others is still there, dormant, but curiosity and misunderstanding got the better of her (and us). We all now perceive our sorrows, rather than our joy, multiplied in the act of conceiving an idea, a possibility, or even a child. This is the curse we brought upon ourselves.
XI.
If the ground is cursed for our sake, then the "cursing" is doing something productive. There is a process at work that is ultimately beneficial, including death itself.
This describes how it was for all of us at the beginning of our creation. We were all well acquainted with our Father and Mother. They educated and nourished us. They gave us everything we needed to learn and grow. The notion of blessing and helping others was embedded in all of us by Them, and still is part of our spiritual DNA.
We have retained our knowledge of our Divine Parents. Everything They taught us and equipped us with remains within us. It is accessible, somehow. And so we have the ability to manifest the pure desire to bless, as They showed us.
XII.
Since we chose to follow a different path from our Parents, knowledge of “good and evil” creates a dichotomy where we compare ourselves to Them, and therefore we become ashamed in Their presence. At some level, we know that we are not following the path of blessing. That knowledge comes to the forefront of our minds and is seared into our conscious thought whenever the Divine is manifested, leaving us regretful and distressed, and wanting to depart from the Divine presence. And so we did. And here we are.
XIII.
Another confirmation that we were created in God’s image is that we have the same “breath of life.” They gave it to us. The same power that moves Them moves us. Even though we voluntarily escaped the Divine presence because of our shame, we still seek manifestations from God. We still seek Their input.
It is evidence of our “double mind” that we cannot even agree with ourselves. Do we want to escape God or embrace Him? Are the gods malign or divine? We can choose from phantom fears, as if we are prisoners in chains, victims of venomous fate, or we can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice. This life is designed to use our Freewill and help us decide.
XIV.
If the desire to continually bless is embedded within us, how is it accessed? The answer is the easiest and lightest, or most complicated and burdensome one that can be imagined.
Christ summed it up in the Great Sermon:
The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is single, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in you be not darkness. If your whole body therefore is full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle lightens a room and does give you light in all the room.
We may well say, “When your eye is single, your whole mind and spirit are also full of light. But when your eye is double (good and evil), your mind and spirit are at odds with God and Self, because they are filled with contradictions, judgments, and assumptions.”
When we are at one with God (our eye is single), then there are an infinite number of ways that we can conceive of to bless others. It is left to our creativity, which as a reminder is inherited from God. But when our mind is duplicitous, our offerings become rigid, performed, tribalistic, adversarial, ritualized, fearful, and transactional.
XV.
The parable of Adam and Eve is the quintessential example of Man acting based on his understanding of the Tree of Knowledge. But let us relook at their method and see what other possibilities may have arisen had their eyes been single to God’s light.
XVI.
Adam’s approach to dominion over the beasts may not have been what the Lord had in mind. Man, too, currently has dominion over the beasts of the earth by killing massive amounts of them, whether to eat them, to defend ourselves against dangerous animals, or in the pursuit of protecting vulnerable species. When looking with a single eye, we realize that the "dominion" over the animals that the Lord conceived was much more peaceful and cooperative, like how the priesthood should work (gentless, kindness, meekness, love unfeigned, and so forth).
XVII.
Man currently tills the earth by forcing it to grow all sorts of modified plants, often replacing nutritional value with convenience in large-scale production. Our twisted economic system causes us to disrupt and corrupt massive areas of land to feed ourselves.
The single-minded way to till the earth involves cooperation with Her. She can help us and we can support Her to create the most beautiful garden once again. Bringing forth the earth’s “yield” does not mean that we are forcing her to yield to submission of our manipulating practices which harm her (and ultimately ourselves). Rather, in the original sense of the word, it is to cooperatively return blessing for blessing. It is love begetting more love, not as an exchange or trade, but because that is the creative nature of love.
XVIII.
Adam was told that he will eat his bread by the sweat of his brow. We look at this as a punishment for Adam and Eve behaving badly in the garden, and now we have to earn and work hard for everything we receive, through work that is usually considered drudgery.
Currently we toil endlessly at our jobs to make enough money to feed ourselves. We think that is the sweat of our brow. But perhaps it could and ought to be different. We can conceive of enjoyable things that cause us to sweat. For some it would be sports. For others, dance. Or hiking, running, or any of innumerable ways that exercise our bodies or minds, literally or figuratively. These activities often require a great deal of work, preparation, and/or concentration.
XIX.
Are not all of these things creative acts that could enable us to “eat our bread”, or rather, eat the “bread of life?” Now, if all of those things that God told Adam to do are being done in a double-minded way, then they would appear to be the Lord cursing us. But if the light of our eye is single, then what we deemed as a curse is in reality a blessing without measure. If our minds are open, we can conceive of a path where God has been blessing us all along.
XX.
Men conspire to overthrow and oppress. We use violence to control others through fear. Because our double minds often respond to fear, the fear elicited from us can often reverberate and echo through time and space, moving generationally forward and backward. Our fear-based responses arm those with whom we interact, or those we blame and denigrate, with even more fear, creating a vicious cycle that cannot be healed by propagation.
What are we to do when fear reigns and love is seemingly nowhere to be found? How can love beget love and be creatively expressed and multiplied in a world where it is being suffocated and there is so little of it?
XXI.
Being double-minded persons of faith, we follow a pattern: first we recognize our weakness and “repent.” Then we engage in transactional covenants with God in order to secure His blessings, as a sort of contract to bind Him.
But our fear-based motives -- ie, “If I don’t live up to every promise made I will be under the power of the adversary” -- eventually cause us to justify ourselves in cursing others (which only curses ourselves). As a result, we drink the dregs of a bitter cup. Then the process repeats. We believe we are on a path to ascension when in reality, it is the never-ending circle of a grinding mill.
How can we step out of this cycle and truly link ourselves with Heaven directly rather than through a pact we made with God? Is there a different path that we are overlooking?
XXII.
The answer to all these questions lies in our innate abilities inherited from our Heavenly Parents. As discussed in Opus First, organized and unorganized matter responds to our pure desire to bless others. Organized matter represents divine creations already constructed through love. Unorganized matter represents chaotic elements consumed with and divided by fear. We have the power, like God has, to start with any small seed of love and utilize both kinds of matter to bless and beautify anything under our stewardship.
XXIII.
Divine creations that are already present offer wonderful resources from which we can draw when we choose to extend our love to others, but it is much less obvious that fear is the other asset to employ when we go about blessing.
Fear is simply the inversion of love, which is why it cannot occupy the same space as love. Fear fractures and increases entropy while love constantly builds and brings things and people together.
Our divinely-inherited power allows us to reclaim fear and invert it into that most useful tool of the gods - Love. The path we have been missing is receiving bitterness with one hand and turning it into blessings that freely come out of the other. It is the first step out of a transactional mindset based on fear and need, and draws us closer to an association with the Powers of Heaven.
XXIV.
This ability must be embraced. Relying exclusively on the love that is already present to build beautiful things is limiting, or as the Lord said, “For if you love only them who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans the same?”
If we only love those who love us, inevitably it results in tribalism and the need to retreat. We become adversaries of those who cause fear and want to escape from them. What we do not understand is that the fears projected by others provide us extraordinary opportunities.
Accepting our full range of gifts and making use of the fear that surrounds us by engaging it and converting it into love allows us to act, rather than be acted upon. It will reverse our constant need to use lifeboats to escape sinking ships and allow us to extend the reach of our love indefinitely. When enough people use the full potential of their gifts and inspire others to do the same, it will create a circuit that will eventually light the entire world in Divine Love.
XXV.
The implementation of this gift of converting fear into love is up to the creativity of each individual. It starts small, as we reform the darkness of our own inner conflict into a temple of light. We then move to the people closest to us, usually our family members. Because this gift and power extends forward and backward through time, it can even heal familial trauma that was instigated by our ancestors or mortal conflicts with living or now-deceased immediate family members.
Cooperation with Heaven is essential as They can guide us in our abilities. As we extend even a very small portion of love for those whom we would normally condemn and flee, we will find ourselves inspired by sudden ideas.Those ideas will be confirmed by signs and connections that only each individual will recognize. Diving in and acting on our inspired ideas is the leap into darkness that will result in an increased amount of light showing the way to proceed.
Ultimately we will find ourselves dancing a very spontaneous waltz, customized to our unique situations. Heaven will sing with us, as the swords we once swung at an “adversary” will again be thrown to the refiner’s fire and molded into ploughshares, which we can then use to sow more seeds of love. The windows of Heaven will then pour us out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
