God’s Glory Is Intelligence - Seek to Constantly Grow Intelectually

God’s glory isn’t wealth. It isn’t raw power. It’s intelligence, light, and truth and that single idea can change how you treat learning, creativity, and ambition as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I challenge the belief that “getting more spiritual” means caring less about education, innovation, and building meaningful things. Heaven teaches the opposite: the more we learn, the more prepared we are to become like Him and to bless His children. 

We dig into modern scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 93 and 88 to show why God ties spiritual strength to intellectual growth, and why “study and faith” belong together. I talk about how faith without study can become shallow, how study without faith can become prideful, and how combining both produces wisdom you can actually use in real life. I also share why creation is divine and why building, writing, inventing, and solving problems can be expressions of discipleship when your motives are righteous. 

From the brother of Jared proposing a solution before the miracle, to the parable of the talents warning against burying gifts, the pattern is consistent: God partners with creators. We also look at how inspired innovation has blessed the world, and why comfort and fear are often the real enemies of spiritual progress. Then I leave you with practical invitations for the week, including daily study, naming your hidden dreams, praying for a solution you can develop, and creating something that increases your capacity to serve. 

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Transcript

Spirituality Needs A Sharper Mind

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Welcome back to Todd Talk Spirit by Design, where I help you develop your spirituality so that you will be ready for the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this episode, today, we're going to talk about the intellect, intelligence, intellectual growth, invention, dreams. Are you a dreamer? Today I want to challenge an idea that holds a lot of disciples back. Some people believe that becoming more spiritual means becoming less concerned with education, innovation, creativity, building great things. They think of the monk giving up everything to focus only on spiritual things. They think of the wise person sitting on the top of a mountain that they would go to. That has no worth, no earthly possessions, no earthly things. Heaven teaches something a little different. Actually, the opposite of that. He is all-knowing, and he works off of universal principles, universal laws. In order for us to become closer to being like Him, the more we learn, the better we are prepared. Today we're going to explore why God commands us to develop our minds, why inventors and dreamers have always moved his work forward, and why your next inspired idea may be one of the ways God blesses his children. So one of the greatest revelations in modern scripture comes from Doctrine and Covenants, where it says in 93, verse 36, the glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth. Notice what God didn't say. He didn't say his glory is power. He didn't say his glory is wealth. He didn't even say his glory is miracles. He said his glory is intelligence. Think about that. The closer we move toward intelligence, the closer we move toward becoming like him. In the same revelation, later he declares, light and truth forsake that evil one. Ignorance gives Satan room to deceive. Truth pushes darkness away. Every time you learn something true, whether it is about the gospel, leadership, medicine, engineering, finance, psychology, aviation, relationships, you are increasing light. Ignorance is not bliss. We came to Earth to become creators. One of the defining characteristics of God is that He creates. He organized worlds, he organized matter, he organized life. Everything he does is creative. Genesis begins with the creation, not destruction. He took chaotic matter and organized it. Creation is divine. When

Education And Creation As Divine Work

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we invent, build, write, compose, engineer, discover, solve problems, or improve the lives of others, we are practicing one of Heavenly Father's greatest attributes. President Russell M. Nelson once taught that learning is a lifelong responsibility, encouraged members to obtain as much education as possible because the Lord can use educated disciples to bless the world. Education isn't merely preparation for a career, it's preparation for eternity. Now, I'm not saying strictly university education, because I've talked a lot about how the universities are being used for Satan's purposes, corrupting minds, and how you don't need a degree to be faithful. Education is different. There are millions upon millions of books. Inside the little phone that is in your hand, there are libraries filled with knowledge. There are courses online that you can learn just about anything. YouTube is fascinating for being able to learn. Seek learning. That's the key. The Lord leaves no doubt. Doctrine Covenants 88 says, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom. Seek learning even by study and also by faith. No those two words that go together: study and faith. God never separated them. People do. People separate them. In fact, quite often the book learned at the universities become atheistic because they take their wisdom over faith. But faith without study becomes shallow. You don't know enough. How can you talk with somebody and teach them if you don't know anything? You just have faith in it. Study without faith becomes prideful, it becomes atheistic. But together, faith and study become wisdom. Imagine trying to fly an airplane. Faith tells you it can fly, study teaches you how. Without both, you may probably won't get off the ground. God has never asked us to choose between our brains and our testimony, it asks us to consecrate both. Now,

Dreamers In Scripture Build With God

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I'm a dreamer. I've always been a dreamer. Whether it is actual dreams or whether it is, as my wife says, I dream big. And that is true. But many of the greatest people ever dreamed. Nephi dreamed, Joseph dreamed, Daniel dreamed, John the Revelator saw visions. The brother of Jared imagined something no one had imagined before. He didn't simply ask the Lord to solve every problem, he proposed a solution. He brought 16 stones and asked the Lord to touch them, and the Lord did. Notice the pattern. God often waits for us to think first. President David O. McKay famously taught, the greatest battles of the world are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul. I just did a podcast a few episodes ago entitled, Is it Me or Is It The Lord? Where I talked about how the Spirit teaches us and reaches us and gives us ideas, gives us revelation that we then act on. If it is good, it comes from the Lord. We are taught that all things are created spiritually before they are created physically. So the brother of Jared had to come up with a solution. The barges had no light that they were going to cross the ocean in. The Lord asked, What will ye that I should do? The Lord already knew the answer. He wanted the brother of Jared to think, to create, to imagine, to solve. The brother of Jared didn't wait for heaven to hand him every detail. He simply climbed a mountain, molded some stones, presented an idea, and then the Lord magnified it. This may be one of the greatest entrepreneurial stories in scripture. God partners with creators. Think about the inventions that have blessed humanity. The printing press made scriptures widely available. Modern transportation allowed missionaries to cover the earth. The internet enables the gospel to reach nations in seconds. Medical advances save millions of lives. Airplanes shrink the continents. Artificial intelligence can help people learn, create, and solve problems faster than ever before when used wisely. God often works through inspired minds. Not every inventor is a prophet, but every good gift ultimately comes from God. And he giveth the man knowledge, line upon line, precept on precept, one invention on top of another invention. Slowly we progress. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. That's what James taught. Innovation that blesses humanity reflects divine influence. Who doesn't enjoy divine influence? Could it be Satan? As we said, as was said in Saturday Night Live of the eighties.

Comfort Is A Lie That Shrinks

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One of Satan's favorite lies is stay comfortable, don't dream, don't try, you'll fail. Mediocrity is safer. You ever heard that? It's not for you. Only crazy people dream big. The Holy Ghost speaks differently. He says, I have more for you. I can magnify your talents. Stretch, build, learn, create. Fear shrinks you. Faith expands you. Jesus never praised the servant who protected his talent. You remember the parable of the talents? To one he gave five, to one he gave two, and to one he gave one. The servant with five talents doubled them. The servant with two talents doubled them. Servant with one talent hid it away in the ground because he feared that his master was a strict person and would be mad if he lost it. The servant that had five talents was given lands, property, prosperity. The servant with two talents, the same. Servant with one talent was stripped away of the talent that he had, and that was given to the one that had five. What does this teach us? Well, the principle behind it expands beyond money. The Lord praised the ones who multiplied their talents, whether it be money or actual talents. Your creativity. What about your intelligence, your business ideas, your artistic gifts, your engineering mind, your teaching ability, your leadership ability? God expects these to increase. I love learning languages, and I have learned multiple. And I continue to try to maintain those because it is a talent that God has given me, and I don't want to lose that. God expects increase, not because he needs more accomplished people, but because increased capacity allows us to serve more people. Sometimes we imagine Zion as only a spiritual community. Is that it? It is. But Zion also requires educators, scientists, business owners, inventors, pilots, architects, engineers, doctors, artists, software developers, tradesmen, parents, writers, musicians, financial experts. Need I say more? People who solve real problems. The Lord is building a kingdom, and kingdoms require builders. So aviation teaches a similar point. I've taught a lot of student pilots. I've taught a lot of experienced pilots. And one thing I've learned is that we all develop from knowing nothing. We learn a little and we have a situational awareness. And it grows. And our abilities with the airplane grow as our confidence and our knowledge increase. Then our situational awareness grows more. And we can do more and we're more safe. And we can do more. Our knowledge expands and our abilities expand until we are thinking far ahead of the airplane, watching for safety concerns, dangerous events, and preventing them long before we get into them. Over time, situations that once overwhelmed you become manageable because you've increased your capability. Our bubble, as we call it, increases, our safety bubble. The same is true spiritually. God expands stewardship as we expand our capacity. He often answers the prayer for greater influence by inviting us to become more capable. So Luke tells us that Christ was the ultimate perfect learner. He says, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Even the Savior grew in wisdom during his mortal life, line upon line, precept on precept, here a little, there a little. If the perfect Son of God embraced learning and mortality, how much more should we? Learning is not a sign of weakness, it's part of becoming complete. So

Consecrate Your Ambition Into Service

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what is your dream? Maybe your dream is writing a book, starting a business, creating an app, inventing a product, building a nonprofit, launching a podcast, teaching others, developing financial freedom so you can serve more generously, strengthening your marriage, returning to school, learning a language, mentoring youth, improving your health so you have more energy to build God's kingdom. These are not distractions from discipleship when they are pursued with righteous motives. In fact, they can become expressions of discipleship. Ask yourself, how can my gifts help God answer someone else's prayer? That question transforms ambition into consecration. Consecration. So here are five invitations for this next week. Spend at least 30 minutes each day studying something that increases your capacity to bless others. Write down ten dreams you've been afraid to admit, even to yourself. Pray specifically over one problem and ask the Lord, what solution would you have me develop? Read Doctrine and Covenants 88 and 93, looking for every reference to light, truth, intelligence, learning, and wisdom. Create something this week. Write, build, design, compose, invent, teach, or solve a problem. Remember that creation is a divine act. Your Heavenly Father is not trying to make you smaller. He's trying to help you grow. That means grow spiritually. He wants you to become like him. Grow intellectually, grow emotionally, grow creatively, growing in your ability to love, lead, build, and bless. The restoration is a call to lifelong learning, because intelligence, light, and truth are eternal. As we seek learning by study and by faith, we become better equipped to build Zion and to lift those around us. So don't bury your gifts. Don't apologize for your curiosity. Don't stop dreaming because the world tells you it's unrealistic. I've been talking about manifesting, visualization. Most of us dream too small. Consecrate your mind to Christ. Let him refine your ambitions. Then have the courage to build what he places in your heart. Because one inspired idea offered to God with humility can bless generations. Don't play small. You have one life. Consecrate it, dedicate it, build it, study, dream big, and manifest those dreams. Because the Lord wants you to.

Build Big And Support The Show

SPEAKER_00 18:59

This is Todd Tox, and I hope that you enjoyed this discussion about intellect, dreams, and growing. And as always, have a blessed day. If you like this, share it with your friends, leave a five-star review, follow, become a patron of the show. I appreciate you. Have a blessed day.