“Exceeding Faith and Good Works”
Those designated in heavenly councils as “noble and great” had proven themselves even in the pre-earth estate. To suppose that in our spirit existence prior to mortal birth we walked exclusively by sight, never having to exercise faith, is to misunderstand the purpose of that existence as a training ground for mortality. Those born into this life with the gift of faith merited that blessing, for we are told that there is a law “irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated” (D&C 130:20). Good works were also requisite for such high and holy foreordinations. Surely there is no better preparation for exercising faith and doing good works in the second estate than actually exercising faith and doing good works in the first.
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