King Lamoni, in the Book of Mormon, asked a question of Ammon which we all need to ask and to answer of ourselves.  Ammon had just done an astonishing thing, and Lamoni wasn't sure whether Ammon was a man or a god.  Ammon was brought before the astonished king who nervously asked him, “Who art thou?”  (Alma 18:18).

Who am I?  Who are you?  We each need to address that question.  The answer may leave us as astonished as Lamoni.

Our initial thought is that I'm nobody special.  I'm just a common person.  In fact, I'm a nobody

That's a lie.  It's the same lie that Satan tried to get Moses to believe.  Moses had just had a personal interview with God in which God called him “my son” three times.  (Moses 1:4, 6, 7).  Satan then came to Moses saying, “Moses, son of man, worship me.”  (Moses 1:12).  In other words, “You're nothing special.  You're common.  You're just another nobody.”

On the surface of things it would appear that Satan was right.  At the time of Moses' interviews with God and with Satan he was a shepherd.  How much more common and insignificant can you get?

Moses' ancestor, Abraham, was also a shepherd.  He, too, had an interview with God.  He said, “Thus I, Abraham, talked with the Lord, face to face, as one man talketh with another … and he said unto me:  My son, my son (and his hand was stretched out) ...”  (Abraham 3:11, 12).

I'm a descendant of Abraham, also.  You are, too.  I used to be a shepherd just like Abraham and Moses.  Maybe your status isn't as humble as that, but each of us can likewise lay claim to being a son or a daughter of God.  Paul reinforces this lofty concept when he says, “For we are also his offspring.  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone ...” (Acts 17:28, 29) because we actually look just like Them.

This thought opens up all sorts of possibilities.  Paul also says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs:  heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ...”  (Romans 8: 16, 17).

An heir is one who inherits from his ancestor.  What are you in line to inherit?  The Lord says in D&C 84:36-38 that “he that receiveth my servants receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth my Father; and he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father's kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.”

In other words, every covenant-making and covenant-keeping individual is in line to find out what Paul meant when he said, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  (1 Cor. 2:9).  That's what's in your future.

Let's look now at who you were, and where you've been.

As children of God we lived with Him before we came to earth.  I think that William Wordsworth said it best:

“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting

And cometh from afar;

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home:”

(Ode on Intimations of Immortality)

We've forgotten that part of our eternal existence.  That was a part of the plan so that we could learn faith and prove ourselves.  Joseph Smith said that if we could see ourselves before we came to earth we would see a brilliant being that we would feel like falling down and worshiping.

As spirits in the pre-earth life we were present when the plan of salvation was presented to us.  The book of Job says that we “shouted for joy” when the plan was explained.  (Job 38:3-7).

There in that pre-earth realm we made covenants.  We made covenants that bound us to the Savior.  We made covenants that would bind us to our progenitors and to our posterity.  We promised our fathers that if they would prepare the way for us, when times and circumstances were very difficult, that we would provide for them the vicarious temple ordinances that would enable them to have the same opportunities that we have had to repent, to be baptized, to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to be sealed into families.  We are told that “they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect.”

We also covenanted with our future posterity that we would provide them with bodies, and  with teachings, and with training that would enable them to have the same opportunities that we and our progenitors would have.  This Church is the only institution in the world that is in possession of a plan that offers salvation to every person who has ever lived upon the earth, and you are the key by which that plan can be activated in behalf of all those who have gone before you, and who will come after you.

Your dull body is masking a glorious, light-filled spirit.  One of our purposes on earth is to feed more light into that spirit.  The day will come in the resurrection when even our bodies will shine brighter than the noonday sun.

Who art thou?

1. You are a child of God. You are His offspring.
2. You were a bright and shining pre-earth spirit eager to experience earth life.
3. You are currently a mortal being experiencing the vicissitudes of life.
4. You are a disciple of Christ.
5. You are a god in embryo.
6. You will shortly be welcomed back home. God will be delighted to see you.  You will be delighted to see Him, if you have kept your covenants.
7. You are God's heir. You may become like Him.
8. You are a common, everyday person, but a magnificent being, essential to God's plan.