0:07:38 - 0:08:07 a Pareto distribution of the power of God where there are people who are approaching what Jesus did in frequency and magnitude. While these uh more, I don't want to say common because they're not common but these more well known situations where miracles are worked evaporate like do in the noonday sun 0:08:06 - 0:08:38 , they don't happen as much or at all anymore. And that's what we're going to see. So now let's pivot a little bit onto this specific situation and I don't know a better way to help here than to share a story from my own life that happened relatively recently. I have uh some friends, some, some dear 0:00:00 - 0:00:30 I want to make a quick video response to an email I received from a viewer and it's concerning the topic of miracles. Now, this is an awfully large topic and I, I can't even begin to do justice to what the Lord has to teach us about this in a short video. But I felt bad knowing what I know. Um Just telling 0:00:29 - 0:00:56 this gentleman to wait until I publish a book about it. Um I'm confident it's gonna be much more than one year until I can do that. There are just too many things they need to be done before that. So his email, it, it describes a situation, his situation where he's, he's, his wife is terminally ill and 0:00:56 - 0:01:16 he says that there have been occasions where many occasions, dozens of occasions where he's prayed and the Lord has worked miracles uh in response to his request. And he says that that nothing he's tried has worked for his wife and that he would very much like to see her healed. And he asked if, if there 0:01:16 - 0:01:46 was anything that I knew about or I could do to help. So I think one of the most important things to understand about miracles is what their purpose is. It's very important to understand that this life is not designed to be the place that we receive. Um, the same situation that we will find in heaven 0:01:45 - 0:02:17 . It's our job to choose actions that move the world closer to how things would be if we were in heaven. But, but the task is not to just beg God to perform magic tricks. That's not the task. That's not why we're here. One of the two edged swords. And there are many in the gospel is that the more information 0:02:17 - 0:02:45 that God reveals, the higher the accountability becomes. Now, when we hear that we tend to think in terms of punishment, the more God reveals, the more we will be punished if we don't do it. And that's true, but that's not really the most important um consequence of that. As more information is revealed 0:02:44 - 0:03:09 , it becomes clearer and planer what what becomes clearer and plainer everything you learn more about yourself. You learn more about reality, you learn more about God. You learn much more about how to achieve the things that you desire. So all of that is an enormous blessing because it's almost like 0:03:09 - 0:03:30 putting a menu in your hands and you get to choose what you want off of it. And the more God reveals, the more items are on the menu and the more detail is there in terms of what it's gonna cost it's like an instruction manual that increases in clarity with every additional revelation. The downside of 0:03:29 - 0:04:02 this is that the more that is revealed, the more you will have to do before God does the rest, there are a multitude of scriptures that convey this idea that God's interventions occur after we have done all that we can do so as God reveals more about all things, and that's a part of the end times that 0:04:01 - 0:04:28 that happens successively, more and more is revealed. And as he reveals that you will have to do more and more before his grace picks up the rest. Now, right now, there are some people on the earth who have experienced miracles in their lives that they've noticed many times those miracles go unnoticed 0:04:27 - 0:04:51 . But you know, there are people who have prayed for God to do something and then a miracle occurs. And that's basically the limit of their understanding of how this mechanism works. If I wish really hard, maybe God will grant my wish. God is not a genie. And the more that He reveals, the less like a 0:04:51 - 0:05:22 genie he will become in a time where very little is known about this. It's possible for a considerable number of people to obtain miracles through sort of a willy nilly. You know, hail Mary Pass, just wish really hard approach. That's not the way that Jesus did what he did during his life. What Jesus 0:05:22 - 0:05:53 did was he used very well defined mechanisms to know and achieve the will of the Father in this realm, in this world. And for one, that wasn't just limited to what we would identify as miracles. And that's one of the massive challenges is that if you want to be involved in that kind of power, that scope 0:05:52 - 0:06:19 of power of God, that magnitude of power of God, it carries an enormous price. It carries a price that includes your entire life, the entire scope of your life. What you do every single day, all day long, for years, that's a price that almost no one is willing to pay. Another thing that's very important 0:06:19 - 0:06:47 to understand about miracles is that their purpose is not to alleviate suffering. It's not to obtain what we want. It's to obtain what God wants. And instead of alleviating suffering, the purpose of miracles is to increase eternal joy. That does not normally coincide with removing sources of pain and 0:06:47 - 0:07:11 suffering from people. The fear of death is not a sufficient reason for God to work a miracle, the fear of loneliness or losing someone you love is not a sufficient reason for God to work a miracle because all things work through faith, the more that God reveals about the purpose of miracles and the 0:07:11 - 0:07:39 mechanism of miracles, the less power you can have in asking for things that you would not ask for if you knew more than you do. And so while greater power is given as God reveals more about the way miracles work, lesser power is taken away. And like so many other things in this world, what emerges is 0:08:38 - 0:09:04 friends of mine and I was, they had invited me over for dinner. So I was there with my family and our, our families were there and a member of his family has some serious disabilities. And uh for context, these are two brothers and they have a sister who has the issues and their mother cares for that 0:09:04 - 0:09:30 sister. Now she's grandmother age, coming up on great grandmother, age and uh they're adults. And while I was there, um you know, normal conversations were happening and on the outside, everything was just sort of a normal cookout situation. But I was drawn out in prayer, I was talking with the Lord 0:09:30 - 0:10:02 and I said, Lord, if you were here, you could heal this lady, you could, you could cure of all these issues right now. And with the things you've taught me, I have a firm idea of how you do it. And I have, I have all the faith needed to make this happen so that you're your power could transmit into this 0:10:02 - 0:10:33 situation. And I was talking to him about this and he said, well, why would you do that? And I said, well, there's an awful lot of suffering here. And I made a case for the positive changes that would happen in the lives of the mom, the siblings. And of course, the lady and he said, are you so sure that 0:10:33 - 0:11:02 that would be a net positive situation, a net positive change. And I said, what do you mean? And he said, look at this woman, the mother. He said, do you see the meaning that she has because she's caring for her daughter even though her daughter is an adult? She's the last one at home. Do you see how 0:11:02 - 0:11:35 much meaning this gives her in her life? Do you see how happy she is? Do you see how much love she's pouring out every day? There was like a uh it was like a beacon like a lighthouse pouring out of this lady. I suggest Lord I do. He said, locate her brother and her brother was interacting with her, this 0:11:34 - 0:11:59 , this woman's death. And her brother, brother's wife, they were telling jokes in sign language and helping this woman be part of the conversation and everyone was laughing and having a good time. And he said, you see the love that's coming out of them. Would you take that away? And then he showed me 0:11:59 - 0:12:21 the woman and he showed me some things about her. And he said, how do you know that this isn't, isn't the best situation for her? How do you know that if she had different capabilities? It might not, it might be too much for her. What if this is her mission in life? What if this is what's going to give 0:12:21 - 0:12:54 her the greatest joy after this life? What do you know about him? And I said, I don't know anything, Lord, but you tell me what you want me to do and that's what I'll do. He said, do nothing. Just sit there. So that's what I did. Paul said, lay hands suddenly on no man. And there's something called righteous 0:12:53 - 0:13:21 restraint. And that's when you have the power of God, but you only use it as he would, which means very often you don't use it. Were you? Well, I hope it makes sense what I'm saying. So when, when Amy was recently taught by Alma, a great increment of light and truth above what he had before they were 0:13:21 - 0:13:40 both tied up and Amy saw all the people that, that had received their message and they were being burned alive in great persecution in response to their preaching. And he said to Alma, why don't we use the power that God has given us to free these people and save them from this? And Alma essentially 0:13:40 - 0:14:01 said that that's not what would be to the greatest benefit. Amy just assumed that if these people were pulled out of the fire, the rest of their life would be at least as good as what came before. But how do we know that people wouldn't face challenges that were greater than what they're prepared to 0:14:01 - 0:14:32 overcome? You see, you need an awful lot of information in order to do what God would do in your place. And if you're not willing to be meek and humble and seek him out and be reticent, very reluctant to use what he has taught you. Not out of cowardice, not out of fear, not out of shame, but out of love 0:14:31 - 0:15:00 for God and love for your fellow men and extreme caution not to make things worse through your ignorance or selfishness, that's righteous restraint. And so Alma taught Amye and he said, no, we're not going to do that. And here's why. And Alma was a lot more experienced with this. And that's why these 0:15:00 - 0:15:28 things they're not received or conveyed in a vacuum. They come with a, with an abundant body of instruction so that the constant, the constant influence towards it's like a gravity, an entropy. The entropy towards reducing the value of things. That's part of the fallen world. It needs to be resisted 0:15:27 - 0:15:51 and actively fought. And it's a very careful thing for God to release light and truth. There's a system, there's a process, the best thing we can do. The first thing we can do in any situation where we want to help people. And it seems a miracle is necessary is to submit ourselves completely to God and 0:15:51 - 0:16:13 to check our own hearts and ensure that nothing we are asking is for our own benefit. That everything that we're asking is for the benefit of the person and those around them and that it is actual benefit and not just trying to sidestep the whole purpose of life. We're here to learn what things are worth 0:16:12 - 0:16:43 and to search in the light of Christ for the things of greatest worth. And that requires the situations here. Alma and Amy watched their friends die a horrific death. Jesus knew that Lazarus was dying for days while he was off somewhere else and he knew that he would die and he allowed that to happen 0:16:43 - 0:17:15 . He knew that uh most of his disciples would face terrible deaths. He didn't stop any of those things from happening. Every single miracle he did had a very specific purpose. We shouldn't just think that the purpose of God's power is to alleviate suffering. Sometimes that co occurs with God's purposes 0:17:14 - 0:17:42 , but that isn't God's purpose. And as long as we insist on having a simplistic view of these things, we don't realize how sophisticated it is. And we don't understand that we need to seek for much greater information than what we have in order to participate in these things as He would. We will be relegated 0:17:41 - 0:18:03 to what people experience today, which is if you wish really hard, maybe God will work a miracle. There are much better things that he has prepared for those that love him. And we need to understand that that's going to take an enormous amount of additional light and truth to obtain.