Your Pre-Mortal Existence and The Plan

Before our mortal life here on earth, each of us lived in a spiritual place called the Pre-Mortal Existence. We did not have physical bodies, but lived as spirits with our Heavenly Father, who has a perfect and immortal body. He who created the earth and countless creations, is the father of our spirits (Acts 17:29, Romans 8:16, Ephesians 4:6). Our greatest desire was to be with him and be like him, having all that he had, for in our spiritual state, we lacked the physical body that he had.

He held a council and presented a plan that would enable us to receive physical bodies and become exalted beings like him. This plan involved leaving his presence to be born on Earth without a memory of our pre-mortal existence. We would be given our agency to choose right from wrong, and required to live by faith and learn to overcome the weaknesses of this mortal life and return clean and perfected.

However, our Father knew we would not be able to overcome the weaknesses of this world on our own, and all would fall short of the perfection required of us to return to God’s presence.

Therefore, His plan involved one who would come down and live a sinless life, and then offer Himself as a ransom for our sins. This Savior would enable us to overcome our weaknesses and sins, and become perfected through His Grace. Our Elder Brother, Jesus, was chosen and volunteered to be our savior.

Another brother, Lucifer, desired the Father’s glory for himself and so he proposed a plan whereby all would be forced to be righteous. He promised that none would be lost, for all would be without sin and able to return to God’s presence. Most of God’s children recognized that though we would be sinless, we would not be changed, for growth comes from choosing, not from having the choice made for you, and so we would not have actually become like the Father, for we would not have learned anything.

A war of sorts ensued between Jesus and Lucifer, a war of words and testimonies, and Lucifer convinced 1/3 of our brothers and sisters to follow him. In the end, The Father cast Lucifer and his host out of his presence, they having chosen not to follow the Father’s plan, therefore they never received bodies, but live as spirits. Lucifer became Satan, the Father of Lies, for his plan was a lie from the beginning. He and his followers reside on the earth, where he seeks to thwart the Father’s plan and to make men miserable like him through cunningly devised lies and snares.

Those who accepted the Father’s plan received physical bodies through birth into a family on earth, where they gain experience and strive to overcome the foibles of this existence–doing so by faith and without a memory of the Pre-Mortal Life with the Father.

Thus, those who followed the plan received bodies and gained experience, and through the merciful Atonement of our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, we may return to live with the Father, and become like Him, having a perfected body through the power of Christ’s resurrection, and being exalted through His Atonement.

To learn more about your purpose here on Earth, click Your Godly Purpose on Earth

To learn about what happens after we die, click What Will Happen When I Die?