I Am One With The Force, The Force is With Me

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”(John 17:21–23)

These were the words Christ offered up to the Father in the Great Intercessory Prayer just before He went into the Garden of Gethsemane to atone for the sins of the world.  In this prayer, Jesus Christ explains the whole purpose and intent of why He is about to partake of the bitter cup and perform the atonement. It is to make us AT-ONE with Him and God the Father. The whole purpose of the Doctrine of Christ is to receive the Holy Ghost so that you can become AT-ONE with God. 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost. And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one."(3 Nephi 11:35–36; emphasis mine)

Oneness With the Force

The Atonement is more than just about receiving coverage, or forgiveness, for your sins.  We short-sell the atonement when we view it that way.  The atonement is about becoming ONE with God.   Christ forgives us because it is in His character to do so, but it is through the atonement, or the blood of Jesus, that we are changed and become one with God.  How does it change us so that we can become one with God?  It sanctifies us.  The blood which Jesus bled out from every pore while he suffered through the atonement is the blood that sanctifies you, for it is by the blood ye are sanctified.  (Moses 6:60) In the Intercessory Prayer Jesus says:

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”(John 17:17–19)

Jesus first sanctified himself so that we may be sanctified.  Because no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God, you cannot become one with God unless you are first sanctified.  This sanctification does not come from your own works, because no matter how hard you try, you will always fall short of the Glory of God if you seek to obtain perfection by yourself.  You need the Mediator Jesus Christ in order to be sanctified.  The Lord is the “true vine” and ye are the “branches” (see John 15:1-8)  If the branch is not connected to the vine, it will not bring forth fruit, but will shrivel up and die.  If you do not abide in Christ, you cannot be sanctified.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is NOT yet complete. The Lord declares in the Doctrine and Covenants concerning His experience of drinking the bitter cup in Gethsemane:  

“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:19; emphasis mine)

Christ only finished his “preparations” for us.  Christ is still continuing to make us one with Him.  Listen to Alma's testimony of the atonement:

“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.”(Alma 7:11–13; emphasis mine)

In Gethsemane the Lord took upon himself the sins of the ENTIRE world.  He suffered pains, afflictions, and temptations of EVERY kind.  He experienced EVERYTHING!  Every possible human experience any of us can go through, Christ actually went through first hand through the atonement, thus making Him omniscient (all-knowing).  (Don’t ask me to explain the quantum physics behind Christ’s agony, go ponder it and learn it from God if you desire) Because Jesus became omniscient, he now knows according to the flesh, how to succor his people according to their infirmities. 

“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”(Isaiah 53:11; emphasis mine)

Because the Light of Christ (energy) is in all things, (D&C 88:6-13) Jesus Christ is omnipresent.  (Dued 30:9-14, Lectures on Faith 2:2).  Because Jesus is everywhere He can lead, instruct, and teach you directly if you will have Him.  Because He has experienced everything, he knows EXACTLY what you are going through and how to help you. Our God, just like a good father is to his children, is a very personal teacher.   God’s knowledge of all things, especially concerning us, is what makes Him Holy! (2 Nephi 9:20) Surely by His knowledge shall the Lord justify many.  Will He justify you? Will you allow Him to sanctify you?  

The Jedi Master Will Teach You How to be One With The Force

How do we get sanctified by Jesus?  3 simple words:  Come unto Christ.  

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.”(Moroni 10:32–33; emphasis mine)

When you come unto Christ with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy or deception before God, and a broken heart and contrite spirit with the willingness to sacrifice all things for the truth’s sake, choosing this day to make Jesus Christ your master and Lord, (2^nd Ne 31:13, Ether 4:15, Lectures on Faith 6:7, Lordship) Then will His grace be sufficient for you, then will you be sanctified in Him.  When you are sanctified in Him and can dwell in His presence, He will TEACH you DIRECTLY.

 

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”(Matthew 11:28–30; emphasis mine)

What does Jesus really want to teach you? He wants to teach you how to access the powers of heaven.  He wants to teach you how to be more godly and holy, He wants to teach you how to become a god yourself so that you can be just like him.   When you are just like him, you are At-ONE with Him, for Christ said concerning those who follow Him:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”(John 14:12)

And he has said by the mouth of His servant Joseph Smith: 

“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.”(Teachings of The Prophet Joseph Smith pg 346)

If you think you can become a god just by belonging to a church and going through a ceremony you are going to be very disappointed on the day of judgment.  Just as Christ was taught directly by the Father and only did what He saw the Father do,(see John 5:17-22) you must likewise let Jesus be your master to be taught and trained directly by Christ to become exactly as He is, to be AT-ONE with Him.  If not, you cannot be saved.  

“We think that it will not be a matter of dispute, that two beings who are unlike each other cannot both be saved; for whatever constitutes the salvation of one, will constitute the salvation of every creature which will be saved. And if we find one saved being in all existence, we may see what all others must be, or else not be saved. We ask then, where is the prototype? Or where is the saved being? We conclude as to the answer of this question there will be no dispute among those who believe the Bible, that it is Christ.”(Lectures on Faith 7:9)

You must become precisely like Christ, become Love, Mercy, Just, Truth, Righteous, Holy, ect... You will need to go through the process to become that.  It’s a refining process which will sanctify you. It can be very hard and painful and will surely require the sacrifice of all things (See Lectures on Faith 6). If you think being God is all easy fun and games think again. Are you willing to go through the sanctification process to be perfected into Godhood?  

This is why Christ has commanded:

“Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.”(3 Nephi 12:48)

Jesus Christ is a celestial being.  If you want to have a place in the Celestial Kingdom, you need to LITERALLY become a celestial being yourself.  Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants states the requirement concerning the those who will inherit Celestial glory:

"These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood. These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical."
(Doctrine and Covenants 76:69–70)

Wait? Do we really need to be perfect? We are human, and it is impossible to be perfect!  Aren’t we are saved by grace which is a free, unmerited gift?  

Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37) Perfection is attainable through Him. It is true we are saved by grace; however, it is grace that transforms and changes you.  It is by the grace of God you are perfect in Christ. (Moroni 10:32) Grace is not a free hall pass into heaven.   Grace is the Spirit of God at work in your life.  If you haven’t experienced a mighty change of heart, if your life doesn’t mirror or have similarities to the prophets in the scriptures where you are witnessing miracles and the hand of God in your life, if you aren’t any different of a person from the day you first professed to come unto Christ, you are doing something very wrong.  You aren't experiencing the grace of God,  you haven’t unwrapped that free, unmerited gift.  

You see, Christ give us the capacity to change.  Returning to the Intercessory Prayer, He states:

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one..."(John 17:20–23; emphasis added)

If you read D&C 93:24,36, and 84:85 you will see that:
 Glory= Intelligence=Light=Truth=Knowledge.
These words are synonymous.

 So, when Jesus says ”… the glory which thou gavest me I have given them” he means the knowledge which the Father gave Jesus, Jesus gives to us.  This is the knowledge we must obtain from Christ directly in order to be like Him and AT-ONE with Him. Through this knowledge we will be made perfect, in one, with God.  

 This is why Joseph Smith taught: 

“A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and consequently more power than many men who are on the earth. Hence it needs revelation to assist us, and give us knowledge of the things of God.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 217)

I am One with the Force, The Force is with Me

When you follow the doctrine of Christ with exactness and become sanctified by the blood of Jesus you receive the greatest gift:  The Gift of the Holy Ghost, or you could say you are quickened in the inner man and your ghost/spirit and soul becomes Holy.  (Moses 6:52,65) The Holy Ghost shall become your CONSTANT companion, given to abide in you the Record of Heaven. (D&C 121:46, Moses 6:61)  The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Record of Heaven because it is the actual mind of God, not a being like the Father and Christ (Lectures on Faith 5:2; seriously, study that lecture, shatter your paradigm as you unlock the beautiful paradoxes of the mysteries of God!) A closely held belief many have is that the Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead, and its rumored that the Holy Ghost is a Jehovah-in-training.  This may be true if you consider that we have got to learn to become gods ourselves.  When you achieve that complete AT-ONE-ness with God by partaking in the fullness of the gospel, or in other words the fullness of God’s glory, intelligence, or mind, you become that third member of the Godhead, and therefore a Jehovah-in-training.  Perhaps this is why the promise and power of “asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you” is given after you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

"And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you."(Moses 6:52; emphasis mine)

Another promise that is given to us when we partake of the glory of God is the promise of the Second Comforter. The Lord states in the 14^th chapter of John

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."(John 14:16–18)

Joseph Smith teachings us the following concerning this promise:

"Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions--Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn."(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg. 150; emphasis mine)

John 14 continues:

"At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him… If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."(John 14:20–23 emphasis mine)

Again John 14 is clarified in the Doctrine and Covenants:

"John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false."(Doctrine and Covenants 130:3)

When you become AT-ONE with God you will be just like him.  Your heart will be pure and your body will be celestial, just as His heart is pure and His body is celestial.   Because you will be like him you will be able to SEE him.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."(1 John 3:2–3; emphasis mine, see also Moroni 7:48)

This is why:

"Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am"(Doctrine and Covenants 93:1)
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."
(Matthew 5:8)

And again, in Joseph Smith’s account of the three degrees of glory we see the promise of John 14:23 of Christ making his abode with us, to teach us and impart of his glory directly when we love Him:

"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."(Doctrine and Covenants 76:114–118)

Being the presence of Jesus Christ and beholding him face to face, while in the flesh, is to be taken literally, and is an open invitation for all, and a requirement for exhalation, salvation, and redemption. 

"And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said:Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you."(Ether 3:13; emphasis mine)

When you are one with the force, the force is with you.

When you are one with God, God is with you.