Learning God’s will in a particular situation is the same as learning what is best in that situation. God’s will is not arbitrary. His will is the best that can be done.1 You cannot find out what he wants in a particular situation without learning more about what is best. As you learn what is best, you learn what his will is.
God knows what is best because he knows what outcomes are available and the cost and benefit of each. In order to better ascertain his will, you will have to learn these things, too.
God’s power can’t be separated from God’s knowledge of things as they are and could be. He knows all possible outcomes and the path to realize them. The universe operates according to certain inviolable relationships of cause and effect.2 Every outcome has a cause, regardless of whether or not we yet know or understand it. God’s power derives from his knowledge of and adherence to these relationships.3 God is how he is because of the laws he lives.4 The source of his power is knowing the relationship of cause and effect in all things to a greater extent than we do. God knows5 and understands6 all things. He sees what we are ignorant of, and he understands relationships we do not know.
A principle reason for creation is to provide each of us with the opportunity to obtain a greater measure of God’s power through the acquisition of a greater portion of God’s knowledge. To the extent that you lack the knowledge of God, you lack God’s power. In order to encounter greater manifestations of God’s power in your life, you must not only reconcile yourself to your present awareness of reality, but increase it. It is impossible to learn more about God’s character without learning more about his creation, or more about his creation without learning more about his character.7
The more you learn about reality, and more effectively you use your knowledge to bring to pass better outcomes than would otherwise occur, the more of God’s power you will experience. Those who possess a little of God’s awareness will, when reconciled to it, experience a little of God’s power. To have all power, you need to know all things.8
Footnotes
- 1. He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world.... (2 Nephi 26:24) ↩
- 2. There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 130:20-21) ↩
- 3. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. (Proverbs 3:19-20) ↩
- 4. But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God. (Alma 42:22) ↩
- 5. O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it. (2 Nephi 9:20) ↩
- 6. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. (Psalm 147:5) ↩
- 7. And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me. (Moses 6:63) ↩
- 8. Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment. (Moses 6:61) ↩