There are many questions about our existence.

Before being born, did we live in some other form? If so, what form? Did we know others? Did we know God? Why I am on the earth, and what is my purpose?

In the scriptures, we can find answers to some of these important questions.

Before birth we existed in spirit form in the presence of God

As children to our father in Heaven, our physical bodies were made in the image of our spirit bodies, which were in the image of God. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1: 27 in the Bible)

The Apostle Paul explained: “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God…”

(Acts 17: 29 in the Bible)

“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us… shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” (Hebrews 12: 9 in the Bible)

Thus prior to our birth into mortality, we existed as men and women in a spirit state in the presence of God. This is also referred to as the “First Estate” or “Pre-Existence” .

Our spirits enjoyed agency in our heavenly home

As we grew in knowledge and experience, some spirits progressed faster than others as they exercised their free agency and gained strength. To the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord revealed, “…Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Jeremiah 1: 5 in the Bible)

To the prophet Abraham, the Lord said, “…These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.” (Abraham 3: 23 p. 35 in the Pearl of Great Price)

The Earth was organized for the sons and daughters of God to continue their progression.

The Lord taught the prophet Job that the sons and daughters of God were excited about coming to the earth to further their progression. “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38: 7 in the Old Testament)

A veil of forgetfulness is drawn over our memory of our pre-existence in order to live by faith.

Wordsworth wrote, “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God.” (Ode, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of early Childhood, verses 58, 64-65)

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