The barrier of your ability to obey
Too many Christians believe that they can endlessly learn more about God without actually living up to what they know. Gospel study is meant to be a battle plan, not a pastime. You are judged according to the law you live, not the law you like.
God will not reveal to us more about himself than we are able to obey. God has promised that he will not give us commandments beyond our ability to obey.1 This requires that he withhold from us any demonstration of himself that exceeds our present ability to emulate.2
Greater truth is harder to perceive as true and harder to obey than lesser truth. There is no greater truth than how God is. You should expect greater revelations of the character of Christ to constantly test the limits of your capacity. Each individual has a different capacity,3 and God will only reveal himself to each individual up to their capability.4 The Lord has to step down truths to the magnitude and pace that you can bear.5 His willingness and ability to do this is a great blessing that allows you to receive as many blessings as possible as early as possible, but it does not create a way to receive a higher blessing while living a lower law. While many truths can be reduced in a way where at least some benefit can be enjoyed before you are ready to receive a fuller version, there are many things that cannot be revealed in an easier or partial way.6 God cannot reveal himself to us beyond our ability to fully implement what he shows us about himself in our own lives.
Your ability to obey is something that you can increase. Discipline is a muscle. The more discipline you exercise, the more capable you will become. You will find yourself with the strength to go and do7 whatever God will command by going and doing what God has already commanded.
Footnotes
- 1. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. (1 Nephi 3:7) ↩
- 2. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. (John 16:12) 32 ↩
- 3. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. (1 Corinthians 3:2) ↩
- 4. For they cannot bear meat now, but milk they must receive; wherefore, they must not know these things, lest they perish. (D&C 19:22) ↩
- 5. Therefore, be ye as wise as serpents and yet without sin; and I will order all things for your good, as fast as ye are able to receive them. Amen. (D&C 111:11) ↩
- 6. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:12-15) ↩
- 7. See 1 Nephi 3:7, quoted previously. ↩