Editor’s Note: A book to help you develop your spiritual nature. See the Introduction and Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, Part 1 and Chapter 2, Part 2
The Secret Springs of Power: The Nature of Holy Spirit
If men do not comprehend the character of God they do not comprehend themselves. Joseph Smith 1
Knowest thou not, that thou art a spark of Deity, struck from the fire of his eternal blaze, and brought forth in the midst of eternal burnings?
John Taylor 2
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels [Hebrew: gods], and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Psalm 8:3–5
Part One
“What is man?” the Psalmist wonders—“for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). One morning I caught a glimpse of the answer. It lasted only a moment, but sitting in my rocker by the window, the warm sunlight steeping on me, scriptures open on my lap, I saw of a sudden the truth of my being and felt the confirmation that we are indeed made of supernal stuff. “Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth” (D&C 93:23). So brief, but in that flash, scripture became experience.
Let us consider here what Man brings with him from the eternal world. Our purpose will be to refresh us, Travelers in the Wilderness, with a vision of the luster of our own soul, that we may be strengthened in the truth of our being. Then, perhaps we can “by the power of the Spirit … catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul, which lights up our whole being as with the glory of our former home.”3 What might it mean to us to capture who we really are as we make our way through the Wilderness?
In this chapter we will explore Man’s spiritual origin and physics.
Stuff of Life
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
(Genesis 1:1–3)
The Spirit of God, this creative light, brooded over the vast abyss and, under the direction of the Gods, began its organizing work.4 With a perfect and eternal love, the radiant heavenly lamps were hung in the firmament and began to beam their Light into the earth:
The light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes … [and] your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things. (D&C 88:11–13)
This radiant light-element streams visibly and invisibly from the throne of God, permeating all Creation as a subtle, refined, elastic, fluid-like element which is endowed with divine attributes of intelligence and love and the very powers of life. It infuses the entire Cosmos, holds Creation together, yet is fully integrated to one Will as it flows from the Divine Throne to manifest itself in an infinite variety of life forms. All of the dancing forces of Nature—heat, light, electricity, and all her varied and grand displays—“are but the tremblings, the vibrations, the energetic powers of [this] living, all-pervading, and most wonderful fluid, full of wisdom and knowledge, called the Holy Spirit.”5 That spirit “exists wherever there is a particle of material substance; that spirit is round about it, and in it, and through it.”6 It has greater powers of speed and penetration than other elements in Nature because its refined particles penetrate all other substances.7 This infinite spirit is “an inexhaustible quantity of pure, living, intelligent, powerful Substance, diffused through all worlds in boundless space and capable of filling myriads of tabernacles.”8 Under its influence, all Creation vibrates as it arranges, combines, re-combines, harmonizes, and moves its materials, organizing them into “vegetables, animals, worlds. … These are some of the outward and more common exhibitions of its glory; while its invisible workings, its secret springs of power, and the fulness of its eternal glory, are withheld from the gaze of mortals.”9
This holy substance is very fine matter: “All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes” (d&c 131:7). In fact, spirit is not only matter, but also energy.
As science has demonstrated, all matter, in its most basic components, is energy. We live in a universe where even the most inanimate-seeming substance vibrates. We ourselves are vibrating energy systems capable of different levels of vibration, depending on decisions we make.
Inspired men have known since the foundations of the earth about the secret springs of the universe’s power, while science has sought this knowledge in ingenious experiments, and then in elegant mathematical formulas when technology will take them no farther. With such means science searches out things-as-they-really-are. A prominent physicist, seeking the most basic unit of matter and energy, explains the foundations of string theory and its apparently indivisible, vibrating components:
Everything at its most microscopic level consists of combinations of vibrating strands. … Just as the strings on a violin or on a piano have resonant frequencies at which they prefer to vibrate—patterns that our ears sense as various musical notes and their higher harmonics—the same holds true for the loops of string theory. … Each of the … mass and force charges are determined by the string’s oscillatory pattern. … Everything, all matter and all forces, is unified under the same rubric of microscopic string oscillations—the “notes” that strings can play.10
Perhaps this theory begins to describe holy spirit in its enlivening work with the most basic units of creative material, as it sets it to vibrating. Everything in the Cosmos is playing music based on its particular configuration and vibration. The spheres are full of music. The elements of our physical world play the music given them by their Creator, but in the course of this chapter we shall see that Man can choose to a degree the energy by which he will vibrate and the music that he will play.
This holy spirit with its infinite sound and light is known by various names in scripture: the Light of Christ, the Light of Truth, the Light of God, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, even the Voice of God, as well as holy spirit, written here in lower case, to distinguish it from the third member of the Godhead, known as the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.
11 It is, in fact, the Holy Ghost who administers this holy spirit in Man’s behalf. The use in this chapter of holy spirit, Light of Christ, and even Holy Ghost will sometimes overlap, as they seem to do in scripture also, since they are in essence the same power.
Gifts of Holy Spirit
Manifesting itself in many grades and forms, from high to low, this omnipresent spirit may be compared to a spectrum of light where, as:
- • as sunlight, it quickens life in the plant kingdom
- • as the light of instinct, it quickens and governs life among animals, birds, and fish
- • as the light of Man’s physical functions, it operates to enable respiration, circulation, reproduction, etc.
- • as the light of human reason, it quickens Man’s intellect, giving him reason and analytical power, judgment, recognition of truth, and a conscience (see 2 Nephi 2:5).
Higher up the scale, holy spirit, as administered by the Holy Ghost, develops godly attributes and powers in Man.12 The gift of the Holy Ghost is a greater quantity of holy spirit, perhaps even a higher form, than could be enjoyed without the laying on of hands for that gift. Conferred through the covenant process, the power of the Holy Ghost opens access to the fullness of Truth. Its functions also include not only the faith to bring things to pass, but also the power by which they are realized; it provides true understanding of scripture, as well as revelations and visions from the eternal world; it bestows myriad gifts of the Spirit; it is the power which enables Priesthood; 13 its enabling power is also known as “grace,” as in Moroni 10:32, which perfecting power flows from the Atonement. This Spirit is that which provides life “more abundantly,” as the Savior promised His disciples (see John 10:10). It is described in scripture both as fire and as water: as a flaming fire, it fills the heart with “that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory” (Helaman 5:44); as living water it fills the Seeker with the mysteries of the kingdom.14
In addition to its activity on the spectrum of life, holy spirit exists throughout the Cosmos as a sort of network and is used by the Holy Ghost “to order things according to the perfect will of God.”15 Through this network God enjoys unimpeded communion with all particles and entities of the infinite micro and macrocosm and sustains the most intimate communication with all Creation. The Psalmist senses the omnipresence of the Great Creator and exclaims with admiration and wonder, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalm 139:7).
Through this spiritual network that connects all the Heavens and Earth, God comprehends and embraces all things; it is the means by which “all things are before him” and “round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things;” and the way in which “all things are by him, and of him” (D&C 88:41). As a result, He has a perfect knowledge “of things as they are, and as they were,and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24); His perceptions of past, present, and future converge in “one eternal ‘now.’”16
Therefore, one definition of a God might be: One who has obtained full control over all holy spirit, wherever it may be, byvirtue of His perfect obedience to eternal law. Holy spirit composes the very matrix of the Lord’s own being and radiates from Him as the Light of Christ. By this Light or Spirit the Lord sheds His love abroad throughout the spiritual network (see 1 Nephi 11:22; Romans 5:5), consciously extending Himself into all Creation, even moment to moment, to uphold it—and not only into Creation, but into us: “I am the true light that is in you, and you are in me; otherwise ye could not abound” (D&C 88:50).
Yet, He is little perceived. Man walks about in the midst of heavenly forces unaware; he does not know that his ability to move or think or breathe comes to him through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that “God … has created you, and has kept and preserved you, … 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” (Mosiah 2:20–21). Man’s life, wholly beyond his power to create, is sustained moment to moment by the Heavens through the free gift of the Love and Light of Christ.
It becomes apparent that all Man’s functions are gifts of the living Light of Christ: reasoning, language, reading, invention, bright ideas, creativity, musical talent, even athletic ability. We may think that we perform these rational feats by our own prowess; but it can humble us and open our eyes to realize that all these are present-moment, revelatory gifts of the Light of Christ.
Indeed, this Spirit may have a primarily revelatory action; just by its very presence in the life around us, small and great truths can leak through from the other world. Truth shines, says the scripture (see d&c 88:7), radiating knowledge of things-asthey-really-are into Man’s mind and environment. Therefore, we would not be surprised to know that through the history of the world many have picked up these signals and thus might know even years in advance of the coming restoration of the gospel, might even perceive the true origin and destiny of Man, might experience healings and great revelations. Even without the gift of the Holy Ghost, many have sought diligently in the Light of Christ to obtain the truth of unseen spiritual realities. We might expect to see marvels and miracles come from any quarter on this earth, since miracles are characteristic not only of the true Church, but also of the activity of holy spirit as it circulates in all life. Human experience abounds with occurrences in which the other world seems to penetrate this one with its Light. Often their divine origin is not perceived.
A simple example: I happened recently onto a conversation between two people talking about “ah-ha!” moments. The first person had been reading a popular book on the new physics. He said, “As I read, I had something of a conceptual breakthrough. I suddenly felt as if I understood in a holistic way what quantum mechanics and virtual particles and so on were all about.” He then got interrupted, had to leave his reading, and wasn’t able to return to his book until later. As he went back to his reading, he began to think about his revelation, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. “I read the section I had been reading again and again, but I just could not recapture whatever insight it was I thought I had. I’ve never been able to.” His friend said in response: “Yes! Sometimes I experience the same thing! I could be reading a book, eating, or in a conversation when suddenly my mind feels uplifted, and I feel happy, and then this feeling is followed by me making some great connection about the secrets of space and time.
But once this state of euphoria is over (and these moments last only seconds, but feel like time has stopped), and I start to fully analyze my discovery, I can’t remember what I discovered. I can only remember discovering something and my soul felt happy for this added knowledge.” The feeling of happiness and elevated light coming into the mind are the sure sign of the activity of the Light of Christ.
There may be more than random activity at work in these moments when the light seems to break through from the other world. One of the purposes of the Light of Christ is to draw one’s attention to the other world so as to provoke inquiry into spiritual things. We remember that the whole Creation is upheld by the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus Christ and is organized specifically for the salvation of the souls of men. Therefore, all spiritual activity works toward that end.
Elder Boyd K. Packer says that if we understand the reality of the Light of Christ in everyone we see and within ourselves “we will have courage and inspiration beyond that which we have known heretofore.” Then he says with energy, “And it must be so! And it will be so! All of this is a dimension of gospel truth that too few understand.”17
He may have been referring to the spiritual sensitivity that every child of God has because of the Light of Christ in his or her being, in that “all men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil” (2 Nephi 2:5). This innate “instruction” enables each one to recognize and experience Truth. This truth discerning capacity may exist in very low levels in some people who live consistently against the truth of their being; but all possess it, and it is to this essence in Man that we may confidently address ourselves when we share Truth with others. Everyone’s spirit knows the Truth in some part of his being, for as the poet observed, “We dance around in a ring and suppose, / But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”18
Spiritual Possibilities
Looking into the new physics for what it might teach us about reality, one school of thought among string theorists finds that we live in a multi-dimensional universe; they identify ten (some find twenty-six) possible dimensions, seven or more of which exist beyond Man’s current perception.19 Elder Bruce R. McConkie opens our understanding about the many dimensions hidden from our gaze. Speaking to a group of BYU students, he says:
Now for instance, this great fieldhouse in which we are assembled is full of revelation at this moment. All the revelations of eternity are here, but you and I who have assembled in the devotional are probably not receiving them. This fieldhouse is full of the visions of eternity, and yet we are not viewing visions at this moment, but we could. … Now analogously, this great fieldhouse is full of great symphonies. There are symphonies played here, and our ears are not hearing them. There are sermons that are being preached, but we do not hear them. Yet if we had the means and the ability, we could tune in and hear the symphonies and see the visions.20
It is undoubtedly a blessing for Man in his current reduction of powers not to perceive all these things at once, but the possibility of expanding our “means and ability” to tune in is continually held out before us in scripture. For example, the prophet Joseph writes:
But great and marvelous are the works of the Lord, and the mysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpass all understanding in glory, and in might, and in dominion; which he commanded us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not lawful for man to utter; neither is man capable to make them known, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him; to whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves; that through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory. (D&C 76:114–18)
Under the right conditions, the “secret springs” of the barely perceived realities that circulate in and around us in this very moment can be tuned to. And the reason is that Man, with his two-part nature, straddles the spiritual and physical worlds; he has senses that operate in both spheres. His mandate and privilege here are to become more conscious, to wake up, and to discern more of the infinite world around him. Elder Parley P. Pratt inquires:
Who then can define the precise point … which divides between the physical and spiritual kingdoms? There are eyes which can discern the most refined particles of elementary existence. There are hands and fingers to whose refined touch all things are tangible. In the capacity of mortals, however, some of the elements are tangible, or visible, and others invisible. Those which are tangible to our senses, we call physical: those which are more subtle and refined, we call spiritual.21
Elder Packer strengthens our faith that we can perceive more of the spiritual world even as we pursue our journey in the flesh:
With the eyes of our understanding, we see things that are spiritual. With our spirits reaching out, we can touch things that are spiritual and feel them. Then we can see and we can feel things that are invisible to the physical senses.22
This knowledge about the nature and function of holy spirit could become life-changing as its personal implications are seen, because it could help us consciously to experience holy spirit, which, in view of its divinity, could fill our souls with a transcendent joy and a sense of onnectedness to all life. All the attributes and ability to experience holy spirit already reside in our own soul because, as we have seen, they form the essence of our being. We realize that there is a fountain of the most exquisite energy flowing through us and giving us life. To what extent do our own decisions either open our awareness or block our perception?
If holy spirit has particular attributes such as love, intelligence, and truth, then we can immediately think of emotions and thoughts that will “quicken” our perception, that is, will enliven or actually raise the vibration of our being to greater perception levels. The Lord says, for example, that “the power of my Spirit quickeneth all things” (D&C 33:16) and that “no man has seen God at any time in the flesh except quickened by the Spirit of God” (D&C 67:11). Our decisions actually affect what we can perceive of the activity of holy spirit and the holy love being shed around us.
In this life, many different kinds of stimuli vie for our attention and distract us from the experience of holy spirit. We tend to be sidetracked by such internal noise as anger, fear, desire, self-will, and depression, not to mention the commotion which may characterize much of our external life.
Holy spirit, on the other hand, whether as Light of Christ or Holy Ghost, is subtle and aligned with more sensitive awarenesses. These more subtle perceptions and feelings might include
1. That there is an infinite intelligence operating in the hidden inner recesses of my being and in my environment, and that it loves me and is supplying what I really need, day to day; that holy spirit at work in me is not an anonymous, mechanical thing; but rather, through the immediacy of the network of holy spirit, God is always present and always in charge and always striving with me, even though His present activity may lie beneath my awareness; that His aims for me are to evolve toward Him, and that all of my life is arranged, day to day, to bring that to pass. I could accept what comes with greater trust, quiet, even gratitude.
2. That I am more spirit than I am flesh, and so is everyone and every living thing around me; that I am primarily a sojourner and a pilgrim in this world (see D&C 45:13). That as I make a decision to live a consciously spiritual life, true to my being, holy spirit begins to reveal itself in the many forms of life around me, through spiritual senses perhaps hitherto dormant. I would sense it as it is mediated through Nature and through the preciousness of my fellow human beings. I would understand what the poet means when he says that in Nature “there lives the dearest freshness deep down things.”23 Reverence for life and for the earth is deeply evocative of holy spirit.
3. That, though I may have covered up this inner current, I can uncover it by being very still inside, by strengthening my inner awareness of the life-force in all parts of my body in quiet meditation, as it silently flows only with love and reverence for me, growing in sensation and luminosity before my inner eye; that this Light exists in a realm of my being that might be termed the “timeless” part of me. That this “real me” is the part to become more consistently aware of. That I can practice stepping into the timelessness of my most quiet mind to that still point inside. That I could learn to do this in any setting until, indeed, spiritfulness might become my primary awareness, while the noisy activity of my current life might fade into a sort of background music.
4. That were I to feel holy spirit in its purity, it would make me weep, so tender, so pure, so exquisite is it. Then I would understand something about the essence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Then I would know also my own essence and the truth of my own being.
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1. WJS, 340.
2. “Origin, Object, and Destiny of Women,” The Mormon, August 29, 1857.
3. Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1956), 14.
4. Allusion to John Milton’s Paradise Lost 1.19–22: “Thou from the first /
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread / Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss, / And mad’st it pregnant: What in me is dark, / Illumine, …”; the poet calls on the great Creative Spirit to enlighten him at the outset of his inspired epic poem, in the same manner that the Spirit brought light to the creation of the earth. The abyss was that darkness of uncreated material which was “without form, and void” and which would become the earth prepared for Man.
5. Orson Pratt, “The Holy Spirit,” Writings of an Apostle, (Salt Lake City:
Mormon Heritage Publishers, 1976), 56.
6. Charles W. Penrose, jd 26:24.
7. Parley P. Pratt, jd 1:8.
8. Orson Pratt, Writings, 56.
9. Ibid., 49–50.
10. Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, cited from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/everything. html; based on Greene’s
11. This distinction can be seen in comparing, for example, D&C 88:11–13, where what I am calling holy spirit is described as light flowing from the throne of God and filling the immensity of space, with 1 Nephi 11:11, where a personage is clearly indicated: “He was in the form of a man; yet … I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord.” Even in this example there has been a question as to whether it is the personage of the Holy Ghost or the spirit personage of Jesus Christ. Precise distinctions among the various references to this holy spirit, Holy Ghost, and the other members of the Godhead itself often seem to blur or overlap in scripture.
12. See Hyrum Andrus’s discussion of the Light of Christ in God, Man, and the Universe (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968), 248–65.
13. The prophet Joseph taught: “The Holy Ghost is God’s messenger toadminister in all those priesthoods” (HCc 5:555).
14. Examples of Spirit referred to as living water: John 7:37–39—“If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. … Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit. …)”; Revelation 22:1—“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (see also 1 Nephi 11:25 with Romans 5:5); Jeremiah 2:13—“They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters”; John 4:10—“He would have given thee living water”; Revelation 7:17—“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne … shall lead them unto living fountains of waters”; Revelation 21:6—“I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely”; d&c 63:23—“But unto him that keepeth my commandments I will give the mysteries of my kingdom, and the same shall be in him a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life.”
15. DS 1:54.
16. HC 4:597; see also D&C 130:9. Science describes the conditions under which the future can be known. Alvin K. Benson, BYU physics professor, in writing on traveling into the future, shows that in Einstein’s special theory of relativity knowledge of future events becomes available to an observer traveling at high speeds in a particular reference frame. He writes: “Thus, if spaceships were available to travel at relativistic speeds, a person could continually look into the future of the development of the earth by taking frequent flights.” With reference to God’s omniscience: “Being able to see the past, present, and future is a phenomenon associated with travel at very high velocities, approaching and exceeding the speed of light.
These conditions [seeing past, present and future] are described only for the celestial glory. Although we, as telestial beings, may not comprehend some of these concepts, they are certainly food for thought and keys to further understanding” (“Joseph Smith on Modern Science,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate, 158–60, available on Gospelink.com.).
17. “The Light of Christ,” Ensign, April 2005, 14.
18. Robert Frost, “The Secret Sits.”
19. Alvin K. Benson, speaking still of Einstein’s theory of relativity, mentions the fourth dimension of time. He writes, “Every object, every planet, every star, every galaxy, every person exists in a four-dimensional (four-vector) realm called the “space-time continuum” (“Joseph Smith on Modern Science,” 158).
In 1895, in his novel The Time Machine, H.G. Wells writes, “There is no difference between time and any of the three dimensions of space except that our consciousness moves along it.” He adds, “Scientific people … know very well that time is only a kind of space” (New York: Pocket Books, 2004, 5–6). We begin to question our personal perception of reality.
20. “Seek the Spirit,” BYU Speeches of the Year, 1964.
21. Key to the Science of Theology, 10th ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1966), 50.
22. “The Light of Christ,” 8–14.
23. Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur.” Hopkins (1844–1889) was a very devout worshipper of God. Part of the poem reads, alluding to Isaiah 6:3 (“the whole earth is full of his glory”): “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. / It will flame out, like shining from shook foil. … Nature is never spent; / There lives the dearest freshness deep down things. … Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.” His allusion in the last line is to Milton as cited at the beginning of the chapter.
