lle’s “preconditioning,” included the Power of Now reference, and linked the YouTube clip you gave me:
Excerpt
Desire steers destiny. Elder Neal A. Maxwell teaches that God judges “according to the desire of [our] hearts”—and helps us train those desires toward Him.
Intro
Maxwell reframes agency at its core: desires are the drivers. Genes, circumstances, and environments matter, but—as he reminds us—“there remains an inner zone in which we are sovereign, unless we abdicate.” In that sacred space lies our real agency.
Eckhart Tolle explains the other side of the equation in what he calls preconditioning:
“Mental and emotional filters: our minds are filled with ingrained narratives, beliefs, and emotional patterns that act like lenses through which we view the world.”
(The Power of Now; also shared in his YouTube talk on preconditioning)
Those filters shape perception, just as culture, family patterns, and past wounds bend behavior. Yet, as Maxwell insists, they cannot erase that sovereign inner zone. What we persistently desire is who we become—and what we receive.
Straight line (what he’s saying)
• Desire is more than preference; it’s a real longing that directs agency and outcomes.
• God mercifully considers our desires, works, and degrees of difficulty—yet won’t force us.
• Satan desires our misery; wrong desires make us our own victims.
• Lukewarmness flattens the soul; righteous desires must be relentless, daily.
• Education of desire = learn truth and learn to love it; small acts create spiritual momentum.
• “Do you,” President Brigham Young asked, “think that people will obey the truth because it is true, unless they love it? No, they will not” (Journal of Discourses, 7:55).
• Some desires must dissolve (envy, self-pity); weak righteous desires can grow strong.
• Parents teach and model, but each soul must choose; God’s arm is stretched out still.
• In process of time, holy desires produce holy works.
• Preconditioning may set the stage—but the sovereign inner zone decides the play.
Final reflection
My outcomes track my appetites. When I aim my wants at ease or applause, I drift. When I aim them at Jesus, momentum returns. Desire is today’s steering wheel. Elder Maxwell’s reminder of the inner zone keeps me accountable: I can’t blame culture, genes, or preconditioning. They explain, but they don’t excuse. Tolle helps me name the filters that fog my lens, but Maxwell reminds me that God still waits on what I choose to desire.
Pocket I’m keeping
• Pray, then plan by desire: “More holiness give me” → schedule one aligned act.
• Replace envy with intercession: bless the person I’d be tempted to compare with.
• Feed the flame daily—scripture, sacrament, service—before screens.
• Name one mis-aimed desire and starve it for a week.
• Measure progress by direction and devotion, not dopamine.
What I hear now
If I train my want-to, God will shape my able-to. Even a spark—“I desire to believe”—is enough for Him to begin multiplying light.
Link to the talk
“According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts” — Elder Neal A. Maxwell
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