07. Spiritually Creating a Future Event with the Eye of Faith

Note: This is one of a series of posts devoted to the study of D&C 93:1, and the seventh examining the phrase "calleth on my name".


It is, in my opinion, one of the least-discussed, yet most profound and beautiful doctrines to be restored in the latter-days:

Spiritual Creation.

In a previous post, Elder Bednar explained how you can spiritually create your day prior to actually executing it.

This is just a tiny example, just a taste, of what you are capable of spiritually creating...today.  For I believe that you can spiritually create events in your future that will figuratively, then literally, bring you to the feet of the Master.

Spiritual Creation = Eye of Faith

"Alma 32 tells us about the spiritual creation, the temporal creation, and the eye of faith, meaning that you create in your mind first of all...the spiritual creation of that which you desire, and you concentrate your mind on it until it comes into reality in the real world.

Every idea, the exercising of faith, anything that has any value that I know of, is created first of all spiritually in the mind of man and then later, because of his exceeding great faith, he brings it about temporally -- he literally causes it to happen." (Elder Gene R. Cook, "Qualifications For The Work", Talk Given At The Missionary Training Center, June 7, 1983)

Alma encouraged you to look forward with an eye of faith (Alma 32:40-41).  In fact, he challenged you to:

"imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth" (Alma 5:15-16).

Elder Robert B. Harbertson of the First Quorum of the Seventy elaborated:

"What is this eye of faith?  What does it mean?  Can you actually see the things that can come to pass?  I believe that you can.  You must be willing, though, to spend enough time to think about what you want to do, what you want to be, how you will react and what you will say under given circumstances.  When you work on it hard enough and have it firmly planted in your mind with the eye of faith, you will actually see it happen.  You will make the right decisions, you will do the right things, and you will accomplish the goals you set for yourself, if you are willing to put forth the effort and have the faith." ("The Eye of Faith", Liahona, 1989).

Exercising the Eye of Faith

Look at the verses above (some may see the phrases in red font).  It is clear to me that Spiritual Creation = exercising your Eye of Faith = Visualizing = Imagining (or, SC = EoF = V = I).

"When you visualize, you’re exercising faith.  Visualizing is a powerful mental process, one of man’s unique endowments.  Most of us neglect this power." (Stephen R. Covey, "Likening the Scriptures Unto Ourselves", Ensign, Sept. 1974).

Unfortunately, most of us horribly neglect this creative power within us.  We live too much out of our memories, too little out of our imaginations.

I believe this does not need to be the case for you.

Let's be honest here: Nobody needs to teach you how to imagine an event. Whether you realize it or not, the power of imagination is not something you have to acquire; you have it already!  You think in images (even if you aren’t aware that you do), and you use imagination every single day of your life.

When you think about the future, you are imagining. When you worry about something, you are visualizing (albeit in a negative way).  Conversely, when you are excited about something, you are using your power of imagination (positively).

“There is a point where your spirituality has to go way beyond your intellect, and you can only access that way of thinking through wisdom, revelation, encounter and imagination with God.  The reason God gave you an imagination and the reason that He speaks to people in dreams and visions is because those things are not based in any kind of logic or rationale, but they open you up to a realm of thinking that logic is incapable of getting to.” (Graham Cooke)

It's no wonder that Elder Neal A. Maxwell said that those who see through the eye of faith "still see divine pattern and purpose" ("Brightness of Hope", October 1994 General Conference) and "gain a broader view and an eternal perspective" ("Turning to the Savior in Adversity", Ensign, 1999).