Asking amiss
Because knowledge is always just a progressive noisy estimate of reality, which is infinite and unknowable, knowing something is “true” really just means believing something is true. Believing something is true requires that it: 1) is based on something you have observed, and 2) fully reconciles with everything else you have observed.
Very few people in this life live such that 1) all they believe fits these criteria, and 2) everything that fits these criteria is numbered among what they believe.
Many times, what we ask for is merely what we wish was true. Seeking what you wish without regard to what is real is what it means to lust: “...ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.” (Mormon 9:28)
Faith is not wishing. It does not mean hoping in whatever thing you wish was true. You have to know it is true.
You can’t ask in service to the true and living God without asking what is true, and anything less than this is temptation and lust. You also can’t have a “firmness unshaken” unless what you seek is fully reconciled to what you know.
Willfully opposing your current best understanding of what is God’s will diminishes God’s power in you. Acting against what we know injects doubt into our minds. God’s power is like an electrical arc that connects him to us. You won’t get an arc on an insulated substance.
...when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. (D&C 121:37)
If you turn away from your sincere understanding of right and wrong, or turn away from full reconciliation to God’s will as you understand it in your acts, beliefs, desires, thoughts, etc., you lose his power. And you will also lose the truth you previously held:
Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God. (D&C 121:38)
You can’t believe in something if it is contrary to your understanding of reality. You can’t believe in what you ask God if you don’t believe God wants what you ask to happen. And this is no matter of wishing. You have to believe he wants it to happen, and that belief must be based on something other than your desire. You have to know enough about him that you sincerely believe he desires it, not that you do.
If you do not have direction from God—if you do not know as clearly as the day from night—what is right and what is wrong, what will lead to improvement and what will lead to degradation—do not do anything but seek until God gives you more light. You have to find concrete reasons external to you that give you the unshakeable belief that you are seeking what God wants. If you don’t have these reasons, you need to study and pray until you either find them, or find reasons why what you are asking for is not his will. Note that whether by counterexample or lack of example, you can’t have faith in something without having a reason to believe it. Not only do you need a reason to believe it, that reason must be strong enough to overcome any reason you might have not to believe it.
In Jesus’ name
The Book of Mormon speaks of a time of paradise after the resurrected Lord ministered to the Nephites:
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)
What does it mean to work miracles “in the name of Jesus”? What is the significance of the disciples doing nothing “save it were in the name of Jesus”?
What is the name of Jesus? We use names to refer to people and things. God uses names differently. He gives people names based on their role, authority, and properties. For example, Abram was named Abraham by God, which means “father of many.”
“The name of Jesus” does not refer to the word “Jesus.” Instead, it refers to his role, authority, and properties. If you do something “in the name of Jesus,” it means you are acting in complete concordance with your understanding of God’s character. It means you are acting in complete agreement with your understanding of right and wrong. It means that whatever you are doing is focused sincerely on improvement.
Who among us would not like to see the sick healed, the dead raised, the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf to hear, and every other manifestation of God’s power in our lives? Yet, there are few miracles today.
This is a critically serious 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) Salvation requires reconciliation to our understanding of God, and absence of miracles reveals absence of reconciliation to God, which means absence of salvation. Without complete obedience to Christ, his sacrifice does not save you.
But wo, wo unto him who knoweth that he rebelleth against God! For salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Mosiah 3:12)
But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God. (Mosiah 16:5)
Why are there few miracles today? Because we ask amiss. We do not ask in complete reconciliation with our understanding of God’s character, and our understanding of right and wrong. This robs us of faith, because we know that we are asking something according to our will, not God’s. We doubt.
You can’t work “...a miracle in the name of Jesus save [you are] cleansed every whit from [your] iniquity.” (3 Nephi 8:1) “Every whit” means in totality. 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.
The Lord said: “all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22) So many have doubted God because they have believed something—so they thought—and yet not received it. In every case, this “belief” was merely wishing. What they were asking for was not reconciled to truth. They either had reason to believe that what they were asking was not in accordance with reality or they had no reason to believe that it was. It wasn’t “in the name of Jesus” because it wasn’t in accordance with their sincere understanding of what is right and wrong in context of their awareness of reality.
Greater power is found in greater awareness
God’s power is truth, and truth is God’s power. You cannot convey God’s power without conveying light and truth, and you cannot convey light and truth without conveying God’s power. God’s power is 100% based on reconciliation to truth.
To know God’s will would require you to know God’s knowledge. Since any understanding of the latter is only partial, so it is with the former. The more truth you know, the more of God’s power you will see. Jesus said: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7) To abide means to continue without fading. As we continue to seek greater understanding of reality (“if ye abide in me”), and remain reconciled to what God teaches us about it (“my words abide in you”), whatever we ask will be done.
When you are fully reconciled to God, you have the power to do what you sincerely believe God’s will to be. God’s power is found within God’s will, and God’s will can only be known to the extent that you have acquired truth.
26 He that is ordained of God and sent forth, the same is appointed to be the greatest, notwithstanding he is the least and the servant of all.
27 Wherefore, he is possessor of all things; for all things are subject unto him, both in heaven and on the earth, the life and the light, the Spirit and the power, sent forth by the will of the Father through Jesus Christ, his Son.
28 But no man is possessor of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin.
29 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.
35 And by giving heed and doing these things which ye have received, and which ye shall hereafter receive—and the kingdom is given you of the Father, and power to overcome all things which are not ordained of him. (D&C 50)
Those who possess a little of God’s awareness will, when reconciled to it, experience a little of God’s power. God’s power is available at every level of truth. The more truth you obtain, the more of God’s power you will experience.
Ignorance is not bliss. 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.
How do you increase your awareness? Through faith:
20 And now, my brethren, how is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing?
21 And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay hold on every good thing.
22 For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing. (Moroni 7)
The key to unlocking God's power in your life is to believe that he is, learn how he is, and become how he is. This requires faith. Faith is the means by which God’s power is manifested.
It is through faith that you lay hold on “every good thing.” What is every good thing? If God is the source of all that is good, it is to be more like him in what you understand, believe, desire, and are. All these things come from Christ, and the way to grow towards them is through faith:
24 And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good...
25 Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing...
26 ...by faith, they become the sons of God.... (Moroni 7)
Faith comes through a greater understanding of the will of God—a greater awareness of what is good and what is evil in a more accurate estimate of reality. Paul said:
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10)
Hearing doesn’t simply mean using your ears to receive information. It means becoming aware of something you were not previously aware of. It means noticing.
Jesus once described faith as a mustard seed, one of the tiniest seeds that grow into one of the largest trees:
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. (Matthew 13)
What makes the tree of faith grow? Knowledge.
Too many of us write off faith as what you have when you don’t have knowledge. In reality, faith is the boundary of our perception of reality. Faith is what we are aware of that exists beyond what we see. As Paul said: “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
From this definition, we see that you can’t have faith beyond your awareness. You can’t have awareness very far beyond your knowledge. As your knowledge grows, then, your faith grows.
It is like the thin layer of liquid water that always appears on the edge of an ice block. Ice doesn’t melt from the inside out. Only the outer layer melts. Faith exists just past our knowledge. Since knowledge is expansive, the greater our knowledge, the greater the faith that can exist just past it.
Faith is the medium through which we acquire more knowledge. God reveals new truth to us in the realm of faith, and by acting on it, it becomes knowledge.
If you are to maintain—let alone grow your faith—work is required. Growth in faith requires expanded awareness. Moses did not attempt to part the Red Sea out of the blue. Instead, his parting the sea was completely aligned with his current sincere awareness of God’s will. God had previously told him that he had power to do exactly what he did (see Moses 1:25).
Faith is not and never has been a guess of what God might want you to do. Instead, it is the solid, sincere application of your knowledge of God: the present situation weighed against all your previous experiences with good and evil. You must grow in your knowledge of good and evil as your awareness grows.
The Lord said:
20 There is **a** law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which **all** blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain **any** blessing from God, it is by obedience to **that** law upon which it is [all things are] predicated. (D&C 130)
This law is the truth, the light, and the word. It is your discrete level of reality awareness and discernment of good and evil. The fullness of this law is the level of light and truth possessed by God:
11 ...the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings;
12 Which light precedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—
13 The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is **<u>the</u>** <u>law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of</u> eternity, who is in the midst of all things. (D&C 88)
To the degree that you possess this, you can know and do the will of God:
36 ...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.
41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned. (D&C 121)
It is an illusion to believe that your faith can stay in a childlike state. To do so would require a static awareness. But, unless you are mentally retarded, your awareness will automatically grow as you age. Your increased observations of reality will rob you of faith unless you search in the light of Christ to develop a more sophisticated and advanced idea of good and evil. Most people do not engage in the study and prayer required to grow their understanding of good and evil. These people are very easy to pick out. They are the ones who say things like “how can God be real if babies die?” These people are almost always intellectual, yet while they readily acknowledge the sophistication of temporal knowledge through the years they spend in academic pursuits, they expect that spiritual knowledge—a domain that is greater because it encapsulates temporal knowledge—can be obtained through no effort whatsoever.
A child can have powerful faith because a child has experienced very little. Their awareness is so small that it is easy to reconcile reality to it. If they simply believe that God likes to heal people, and have a simple definition of love, they can pray with faith that a loved one will be healed, and it will happen. Even at the childlike level of awareness, most never get to the point where they are really reconciled with what they know, and therefore they lack any fruit of God’s power in their lives.
For most normally intelligent adults, reconciliation is orders of magnitude more difficult. They know that God’s love is complicated. In his wisdom, he allows suffering. Their faith must somehow reconcile all their past observations to each other, and then that perspective must be applied to the present in such a way that doubt is completely resolved. This is no passive event. This is no simple thing. Those most effective in their exercise of faith are those who have spent the most effort working through their perspective, which certainly includes study of the scriptures and prayer.
If adult faith is so much more challenging than child faith, why bother growing beyond the faith of a child? After all, great miracles can be worked by those with childlike faith. There are popular evangelical ministers who, for example, heal everyone they pray for. This is according to their simple, child-like view of God’s love and God’s will. While they are to be commended for greater faith than most of their more spiritually intelligent fellow Christians, the good they do is not the greatest good they could do.
Advanced understanding is harder. However, it also yields greater fruit. It is greater because it is more correct, and it is more correct because it is closer to God:
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15)
What does it mean to purge the vine? It means to reveal a higher level of understanding, which shows that something better than the previous fruit is available. The greater the awareness we obtain, the greater will be the manifestation of God’s power in our lives.
When we obtain greater awareness, we move past the childlike answers to complex questions. If God is the greatest, then we become better by being more like him. If he has more knowledge than us, then we become more knowledgeable by learning what he knows. For example, instead of assuming God will heal everyone who is sick, we grow in our understanding of his knowledge by recognizing that he did not heal everyone, and therefore neither should we. We seek for and obtain the reason why he does what he does, and then we grow in our capacity to do good beyond the capacity of a child.
By growing in our awareness, we grow closer and closer to the point that we will not ask that which is contrary to his will. Historic personalities that reached this point received the power to do many great miracles. One such person was Nephi, son of Helaman. To him, the Lord said:
4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for _thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will_.
6 Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, and shall smite the earth with famine, and with pestilence, and destruction, according to the wickedness of this people.
7 Behold, I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people.
8 And thus, if ye shall say unto this temple it shall be rent in twain, it shall be done.
9 And if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou cast down and become smooth, it shall be done.
10 And behold, if ye shall say that God shall smite this people, it shall come to pass. (Helaman 10)
What did the Lord mean when he said that Nephi would not ask anything contrary to his will?
The first possible meaning is that whatever Nephi would ask would be according to God’s will. In other words, In other words, Nephi’s knowledge was advanced enough and his understanding was sufficiently aligned with God’s that the two would decide situations the same way. That Nephi’s awareness of good and evil was extensive is evident from the powers that God grants to him. He gives him power to seal on earth and in heaven, power to destroy buildings, power to move mountains, and power over famines, diseases, and wars. In combination with God’s statement that Nephi would not “ask that which is contrary to [his] will,” we can see that Nephi had gained sufficient awareness that his understanding of what God would do in these significant matters was reconciled with God’s full knowledge. Thus we see that the more you know, the more you will be able to do.
The second possible meaning is that Nephi would refrain from asking anything from God that was not perfectly in alignment with his sincere, best understanding of God’s will. Nephi exercised great restraint to avoid asking anything for which he lacked sufficient knowledge to say, with surety, that what he was asking was reconciled to what he knew about God. Once someone surpasses the ignorance of awareness possessed by children, they must admit that they have no idea what God would do and why in a majority of situations. Though they can go to the scriptures and use these questions to drive an advancement of their understanding of God, they must admit that their present knowledge does not reveal to them what God would do in many situations. Therefore, they do not occupy their prayers with requests for certain outcomes in these areas, and while they probably can’t freeze their actions in all these areas, they do not attach their trust in God to any particular outcome of these events. It takes a great deal of faith to restrain one’s desires and petitions to the meager understanding you have of God’s will.
Notwithstanding your ignorance, you can exercise a fullness of faith. If you have done all you can to know him, and reconciled your life perfectly to what you know, you can exercise perfect faith in what you ask. The Lord is obligated to respond, because your reconciliation to your awareness is how you do what he says, and “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” (D&C 82:10) If you only act in accordance with your knowledge, like Nephi, you will never ask anything contrary to God’s will.
Greater power is found in augmenting reality with God’s word
Faith is merely God’s will that hasn’t happened yet. It is the difference between what is—defined by observation—and what should be—defined by your awareness of God’s will. The more common type of faith is when you apply everything you know about God to your perception of reality and notice things that do not line up. The most explicit type of faith is when God tells you something will happen, but it hasn’t happened yet.
The fundamental principle of faith is that reality does not flow from what is seen, but that everything—including what is seen—flows from God’s word. Returning to Paul’s definition: “...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
God’s word is the light that proceeds through all existence, yet is unnoticed by most people and fully embraced by very few: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Hebrews 11:3) It is reality to a degree far beyond what we perceive.
The basis of faith is reconciliation to the observations of reality all around us. Most people are willingly blind to what is plainly manifested all around them (see the chapter “Loving a Lie”). As long as you will not incorporate what is obviously manifested all around you, you will not see anything beyond that.
Great things can be obtained simply by reconciling yourself to seen reality. But much greater things await those who obtain and act on what is unseen.
To amplify faith, you have to augment your perception of reality to include God’s word—those things that are not yet observed but are still real. Consider the words of Paul, who taught that there were more people than can be mentioned:
33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11)
These people augmented their reality to include what was not yet seen. They acted according to both what they saw and what they knew only because God had told them.
Normal people do not stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, etc. When placed in the situations alluded to, they would figure that they were out of options. They would not submit to torture, mockings, scourgings, living in caves, etc., let alone find joy and satisfaction in such experiences.
When these people incorporated those things God had said, that were independent from what they had observed, their perception of reality changed, and their actions changed accordingly. Because they reconciled themselves to the fullness of their awareness (including what was not yet seen with their eyes), they were able to exercise the power of God, and see the miraculous physical manifestation of God’s power.
A willingness to incorporate a knowledge of God’s yet unmanifested will caused the Red Sea to part, the walls of Jericho to fall, the destruction of Egypt’s firstborn, the salvation of Rahab, the birth and preservation of Isaac, and many more miracles (see Hebrews 11). Incorporating it into your perception will cause miracles of equal degree.
Unbelief
Unbelief is the only thing that can constrain the manifestation of God’s power in your life.
We tend to think that we believe in God. And yet, our actions betray our unbelief.
If you doubt, you don't believe. If you believe, you don't doubt.
If you really believed in God, you would act far differently than you do. Is this hard to believe? If you really believed God notices every sparrow that falls to the ground, could you ever be anxious or sad about your situation? Do you really believe that all things are done in the wisdom of he who knows all things? Do you really believe that God loves you?
If you really believed Jesus, you would always act exactly like him. Do you? You would keep all of his commandments as you understand them, even in the hardest moments. Do you? You would act like he acts, you would react like he reacts. Do you? You would feel how he feels, so far as you understand. Do you?
If your answer to any of these questions is no, look no further for the difference in the degree of miracles manifested in the scriptures compared to your life.
If your answer to any of these questions is no, it is time to reconcile yourself to God.
37 ...it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.
38 For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, 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)
The Lord said:
14 Come unto me, O ye house of Israel, and it shall be made manifest unto you how great things the Father hath laid up for you, from the foundation of the world; and it hath not come unto you, because of unbelief.
15 Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel. (Ether 4)
O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. (Mormon 9:27)