HIDDEN RAYS OF GLORY

"And worlds without number have I created...."  Moses 1:33


"Being present at a 'Blessing Meeting' in the Temple, previous to his baptism into the Church; after listening to several patriarchal blessings pronounced upon the heads of different individuals with whose history Lorenzo Snow was acquainted, and of whom he knew the Patriarch was entirely ignorant, he was struck with astonishment to hear the peculiarities of those persons positively and plainly referred to in their blessings.
And, as he afterwards expressed, he was convinced that an influence, superior to human prescience, dictated the words of the one who officiated.

The Patriarch was the father of Joseph, the Prophet.  That was the first time Lorenzo had met him.  After the services, they were introduced, and Father Smith said to my brother that he would soon be convinced of the truth of the latter-day work, and be baptized, and he said: 'You will become as great as you can possibly wish - EVEN AS GREAT AS GOD, and you cannot wish to be greater'." (Eliza R. Snow, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, Salt Lake City: Deseret News Co., 1884, pp 9-10).

Lorenzo Snow was baptized a short time later and began his service in the Church.  In the spring of 1840 he was called to serve a mission in the British Isles.  Before his departure he was in the home of a Church member who was preaching a sermon on the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.  (Matt 20:1-16)  According to Elder Snow:

"While attentively listening to his explanation, the Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon me - the eyes of my understanding were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man.  i formed the following couplet which expresses the revelation, as it was shown me, and explains Father Smith's dark saying to me at a blessing meeting in the Kirtland Temple, prior to my baptism......

As man now is, God once was.
As God now is, man may be.

I felt this to be a sacred communication, which I related to no one except my sister Eliza, until I reached England, when in a confidential private conversation with President Brigham Young, in Manchester, I related to him this extraordinary manifestation." (Eliza R. Snow, pp 46-47)  Brigham Young was President of the Quorum of the Twelve at the time.

President Snow's son LeRoi later told that the Prophet Joseph Smith confirmed the validity of the revelation Elder Snow had received: "Soon after his return from England, in January, 1843, Lorenzo Snow related to the Prophet Joseph Smith his experience in Elder Sherwood's home.  This was in a confidential interview in Nauvoo.  The Prophet's reply was: 'Brother Snow, that is a true gospel doctrine and it is  a revelation from God to you'."  (LeRoi C. Snow, Improvement Era, June 1919, p. 656)
(Gerald N. Lund, "I have a Question", Ensign, Feb. 1982, pp 39, 40)

 When Moses had his experience with God sometime after the burning bush and before the Exodus, Jesus who appeared to him and spoke to him on behalf of the Father through 'divine investiture of authority' showed Moses all his creations and where man fitted in that plan. Moses who was brought up in Pharoah's court to believe that Pharoahs due to their birthright are gods, was astonished and said, 'Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed' (Moses 1:10).  It was right for Moses to be overwhelmed with all of God's creations.  In comparison to God and all his glory, man truly does appear extremely puny, except for one very important thing - man was created in God's image and within man are germinating seeds of divine destiny.  God wanted to impress that upon Moses so he showed him the same vision all over again but this time he finished it with the greatest statement that  ever was made:  "For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).  What the Lord tried to say to Moses was that Moses was wrong, that 'man is the underlying and overriding purpose of all His work, that man's success constitutes his glory, that man is everything'. (Ted Gibbons, OT Lesson 1)

Nothing speaks louder of the worth of souls than the structure of the plan of salvation and the end to which we were created first spiritually and then physically. This plan for us has always existed.  It is the same plan that will be presented to the children we are yet to create when we ourselves become gods. It is ludicrous to think that God created so many children randomly and then wondered what he should do with them, hence was born the plan to clothe us in mortality and exalt us.  The plan was never born out of random necessity, it was always there.  The beauty of this plan and pattern is what makes God a god; we, his children, his crowning glory.  The more of us that get exalted, the greater his glory.  The potential of godhood that lies within each of us is mind blowing.  The worth of each of us to ourselves and to God, priceless.

Being out in public and encountering people of all walks of life always intrigues me.  So many people, every one with the same body parts but each one so different.  And every one of us with hidden rays of glory coursing through our veins.  If only we knew who we really are and how powerful we can really be. Godhood at our fingertips for the taking yet so many of us don't take it seriously. We are so blinded by the dismal light of this telestial world and we invest ourselves in things of this world that we think can bring us some happiness and power.  But alas no glory!  As C.S. Lewis put it:

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased."
(C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, p. 1-2)

Mud pies in a slum can never be glorious because slums belong to this world and this world belongs to him who has no glory, a being who wanted to claim the glory of God  and ended up with no glory in a kingdom of no glory. (D&C 88:24, Ted Gibbons, OT Lesson 1)  The very thing which Satan thirsted for and fought for in pre-existence, we now stand to gain because we kept our first estate.  Instead of glory, he received darkness.  When he appeared to Moses and demanded that Moses worship him, the lack of his glory stood in stark contrast to the god of glory Moses had just witnessed.  Moses' retort of 'who are you that I should worship you?' was well earned.  Not only did Satan lack glory but he was filled with darkness (Moses 1:11-15).  And so is this world.  Devoid of glory and filled with darkness.

Jesus became a god in his own right before he even proved himself in mortality.  Just through sheer obedience.  No reinventing of the wheel for Him, He trusted the Father in all things and obeyed to the latter. And whilst in mortality He had a vision of the glory that awaited Him.  Consider the power and glory with which he was portrayed in a vision given to John the Revelator:

11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12.  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself.

13.  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God.

14.  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15.  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16.  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
(Revelation 19:11-16)

Contrast this to the pathetic figure Satan cuts when Moses refuses to worship him.  He throws a tantrum that describes the bitterness of hell where he 'cried with a loud voice' (Moses 1:19), 'ranted upon the earth' (Moses 1:19), 'began to tremble' (Moses 1:21) and engaged in 'weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth' (Moses 1:22).  Not only did he cunningly remove the Book of Moses from the Old Testament so that the world at large would not know about the plan of salvation but to hide his true character from the world.  Unlike the Saviour, who had a vision of the glory that awaited him, Satan has no such vision or hope because he has no future.  Isaiah sees him being brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit where they who see him shall look upon him narrowly and consider him saying "Is this the man that made the earth tremble, that did shake kingdoms?" (Isaiah 14:15,16).  In the end, he that wanted to be everything, will be nothing.  This is not someone we want to follow.  There is no reward in his discipleship, no future to invest in.

What is the Lord's purpose in creating and peopling worlds without number?  It is so that each one of us has the chance to attain a life of glory and godhood.

"Here, then is eternal life - to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power." (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 346-47)

So what must we do to one day sit in glory enthroned in everlasting power?  We must do as Jesus did.  And what did He do?  He did as the Father did for in the Father is all knowledge, wisdom, power and glory. The way the Father and the Son attained godhood is the path of utmost obedience, the path that is made possible for us through the atonement of Him who did no wrong, who gladly sacrificed Himself so we might live and live eternally in 'everlasting burnings' having been granted thrones, principalities and dominions in Celestial Kingdom with eternal increase therein.  Picture it, want it, thirst for it.  It's a life worth waiting for.