Enemy to Godhood

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19). It is true that in general terms, the natural man or the natural woman is an enemy to capital G God, our Heavenly Father. But more personally, our natural tendencies are an enemy to our own, inner Godhood, or our Divine potential. As children of God, we each possess the capacity to become like our Father in Heaven. As mortal men and women, we each have natural tendencies to do what is most convenient or pleasing or easy from moment to moment. Our baser instincts and urges are at odds with our higher, spiritual desires. Having or yielding to our natural inclinations does not make us an enemy of our Heavenly Father. We do not become wanted men and women every time we lose our temper or overindulge in a vice or bend the truth. God isn’t making a hit list of all of the natural men and women who have wronged Him. But when we choose to do what is natural, we are robbing ourselves of the opportunity to do what is Godlike instead. God gave us natural tendencies so that we could learn how to be Gods. He gave us the darkness so we could learn how to shine forth our Divine light. He gave us the bitter so we could learn to savor the sweet. He gave us the evil so we could learn to choose the good. God created us in His own image and He included in His design the natural man or woman inside each of us, not by accident but for a specific purpose. He did not create His own enemies. But when we choose to yield to the enticings of the spirit instead of doing what feels natural, when we choose to be submissive rather than seek to dominate, when we choose to be meek rather than stubbornly insist that we are right, when we choose humility over pride, love instead of hate and fear, and when we become willing to submit to our Father, then bit by bit, we transform the natural man or woman into the supernatural man or woman, Gods and Goddesses, children of the most High God.