After some studying I have been putting some concepts together that are worth sharing. First, lets talk about "Quickening"!
Back in October of 2015 I came across a scripture that mentioned "quick" which made me think of "quicken". Psalms 119 uses the word quite a bit: 25 "...quicken thou me according to thy word.", 37 "...quicken thou me in thy way.", 40 "...quicken me in thy righteousness.", 88 "Quicken me after thy lovingkindess..." et cetera. Now, I found no bible dictionary definition for quicken and dictionary.com was fairly obvious: "to make more rapid; accelerate; hasten... stir up, rouse, or stimulate... revive, restore life to". I am more than willing to accept that as the secular definition, but is that all for the scriptural meaning?
As I continued to study, I found that quite often quickening is caused by the Holy Ghost. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" (1 Peter 3:18) "For no man has seen God at any time in the flesh, except quickened by the Spirit of God." (Doctrine and Covenants 67:11). This got me thinking that maybe quickening is the Spirit changing our bodies. Reviving us. Restoring us, Stirring us up and accelerating us. Yet I think that it is more than simply giving us more energy. To enable us to stand in the presence of God, or even see God, it must be an actual change in our bodies from experiencing the Holy Ghost so intensely that we are molding into beings that can behold even a portion of His glory.
I rather enjoyed the Highlander movies, in particular, Highlander Endgame. Spoiler alert! You have been warned! Connor MacLeod forces Duncan MacLeod to slay him, absorbing his essence in an event called the quickening, in order to make Duncan powerful enough to kill the evil immortal Jacob Kell. When the stronger Duncan faces off with Jacob, Duncan's countenance suddenly changes as Connor's spirit acts with Duncan's and gives him the strength to slay Jacob. This would mean that the essence, at least part of it, was Connor's spirit.
This makes the "quickening" all the more fantastic to think that we can be quickened by the Holy Ghost and physically become stronger and more than what we are now. I have already had a post about terms, like "ghost" vs "spirit" to which I have determined that a ghost is a spirit interacting with the physical matter. Our spirits within ourselves become a ghost, thus when we die we give up the ghost. (Genesis 25:8) Also, the Holy Spirit of God becomes the Holy Ghost as He interacts with us.
With these definitions in mind, "ghost" being a spirit's interaction with physical matter, and "quicken" the Holy Ghost changing our hearts and bodies, we can continue.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:28-32
"They who are of the celestial spirit shall receive the same body which was a natural body; even ye shall receive your bodies, and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are quickened.
"Ye who are quickened by a portion of the celestial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
"And they who are quickened by a portion of the terrestrial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
"And also they who are quickened by a portion of the telestial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
"And they who remain shall also be quickened; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing ot enjoy that which they might have received.
Therefore, how much of the glory of God we allow to "quicken" us through the Holy Ghost is what we will receive further of hereafter. The glory of the celestial being compared to the sun, terrestrial to the moon, and telestial to the stars (1 Corinthians 15:40-42). I find it interesting that the sun produces light, like a candle, so be quickened by the celestial we have to let Christ's light shine through us (Matthew 5:14-16). Now the terrestrial is compared to that of the moon, which merely reflects the light from the sun. Thus those in the terrestrial reflect Christ's light, but it has little part in them. Now, stars, technically, produce their own light just like the sun, however, like Neil Degrasse Tyson said,
So, as we are quickened by these different proportions of God's glory, due to how much we let the Holy Ghost into our lives, our bodies will be at different degrees after the resurrection.
In The Teaching of the Prophet Brigham Young manual it says, "The blood he spille dupon Mount Calvary he did not receive again" referring to Christ, "into his veins. That was poured out, and when he was resurrected, another element took the place of the blood. It will be so with every person who receives a resurrection; the blood will not be resurrected with the body, being designed only to sustain the life of the present organization. When that is dissolved, and we again obtain our bodies by the power of the resurrection that which we now call the life of the body, and which is formed from the food we eat and the water we drink will be supplanted by another element; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God" (chapter 37)
The Life and Teaching of Jesus and His Apostles manual chapter 36 adds, quoting Howard W Hunter, "The natural body is flesh and blood, but quickened by the spirit instead of blood, it can and will enter the kingdom."
In the same chapter, Joseph Smith is quoted with this, "As concerning the resurrection,... all will be raised by the power of God, having spirit in their bodies and not blood."
I found that BYU (Brigham Young University) quoted Joseph Smith with a subtle clarifying change. "The resurrected body is tangible, but when the flesh is quickened by the Spirit there will be 'spirit in their [veins] and not blood'".
Thus with the resurrection, blood will be done away and will will have spirit matter of some kind coursing through our circulatory system, likely what ever type of glorified spirit matter that correlates with the glory we have accepted into us.
Now, what do we call this fluid. It is spirit matter, that is obviously interacting with our physical immortal bodies to sustain life. Spirit interacting with physical matter, that sounds like something ghostly... For those who are supernatural and paranormal enthusiasts, you have probably heard of the term ectoplasm.
I hope that you enjoyed this post, let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
Love,
Jacobugoth
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