Working miracles in the name of Jesus
The power of God flows “in his name,”1 or according to and from his character. The more a person knows about God and the more fully they live their lives as God would in their place, the more of the power of God they will experience.2
The ancients knew that asking God for blessings in accordance with his character was the key to receiving miraculous outpourings of his power. Abraham knew that God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He invoked God’s characteristic of justice to spare Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction.3 David invoked the Lord’s characteristic of mercy when God gave him three choices of punishment for having numbered Israel contrary to God’s command.4 Moses frequently leveraged God’s reputation to intercede for Israel. He reminded God that if he destroyed the Israelites, the surrounding people would think less of him, but if he saved them, he would show how merciful he was with his people and how powerful he was to save them.5
If you do not know the character of God, you can’t do miracles in his name. God’s power comes through serving him, but serving him requires you to know what he desires, why he desires it, and how he intends to get it. Those who attempt to exercise God’s power without ascertaining the Lord’s desires, reasons, and plans are more likely to work against him than for him.6 The key to receiving more information about his will lies in living up to what you already know about him.
Your ability to call down miracles from heaven is directly proportional to the completeness of your reconciliation to God. If you have things in your life that are contrary to his will, as you understand it, you will not have his power in your life, and you will suffer unnecessarily. Every aspect of your life that is out of alignment with the character of God increases the impedance of the flow of his power through you. The more fully you live your life as God would in your place, the more God will reveal about himself to you, and the more of the power of God you will experience. Only those who fully dedicate themselves to the will of God through living as they sincerely believe he would will experience the greatest possible measure of God’s power in their lives. As God reveals more of himself to you, God’s power will only be limited by the accuracy of your understanding of how he is and your obedience in living that way yourself. The difference in the magnitude of God’s power revealed in the lives of those who fully dedicate themselves to his will and those who do not is incomparable.
Too many Christians foolishly assume that God will give them magic power to do mighty miracles while they do not yet know him, and have not yet obeyed him. Mighty miracles do not come to those who merely ask God for them. The powers of heaven only operate in accordance with the character of God.7 Who among us would not like to see the sick healed, the dead raised, the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and every other manifestation of God’s power in our lives? Yet, there are few miracles today. This is a critical problem, for “if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made.” (Moroni 7:38) Redemption works by the same faith and at the same time as manifestations of God power. If you don’t have the latter, you don’t have the former. The shortcoming in both cases is the same: falling short of full adoption of God’s purpose. The mechanism of miracles—the name of Jesus8 —explains why there are so few miracles today. People do not know the name of Jesus very well, and they do not take upon themselves the portion they do know.9 God’s power works through faith.10 If you do not live as Christ would in your place, as far as you know, you don’t have faith, and you will not have power to work miracles.11
Often, miracles fail to materialize because they are sought for according to the desires of those who ask rather than the desire of God. The purpose of miracles is to advance the purpose of God, not to fulfill the desires of men. When the apostles asked Jesus to help them have more faith, he told them to stop being so concerned with their own will, and start being more concerned with God’s.12 The same advice applies today.
Footnotes
- 1. And she said unto him: The servants of my husband have made it known unto me that thou art a prophet of a holy God, and that thou hast power to do many mighty works in his name; (Alma 19:4) ↩
- 2. I came unto mine own, and mine own received me not; but unto as many as received me gave I power to do many miracles, and to become the sons of God; and even unto them that believed on my name gave I power to obtain eternal life. (D&C 45:8) ↩
- 3. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake. And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake. (Genesis 18:22-32) ↩
- 4. Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite. And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house. (2 Samuel 24:12-17) ↩
- 5. ...the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. (Numbers 14:13-19) ↩
- 6. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. (Luke 11:23) ↩
- 7. That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. (D&C 121:36) ↩
- 8. And there were great and marvelous works wrought by the disciples of Jesus, insomuch that they did heal the sick, and raise the dead, and cause the lame to walk, and the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear; and all manner of miracles did they work among the children of men; and in nothing did they work miracles save it were in the name of Jesus. (4 Nephi 1:5) ↩
- 9. And if ye are purified and cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done. (D&C 50:29) ↩
- 10. ...wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever. (Moroni 10:7) ↩
- 11. Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings. (Mosiah 8:18) ↩
- 12. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:5-10) ↩