And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me. (Moroni 7:33)
Most Christians fall into two camps. Either they have settled for a passive but mediocre life that is quite far from the experiences of believers as recorded in scripture, or they live an active but frustrated life from trying and trying but failing to achieve the kind of experiences of believers recorded in scriptures. In both cases, the disconnect is caused by one or both of the following failings: Failure to understand and live repentance (discussed earlier in this book), and/or failure to understand and interact with the spirit world. Repentance and movement in the spirit world are absolutely essential to coming to know the Lord. There is no other way.
The failure of Christians to demonstrate the fruits of what they profess to believe drives away atheists and agnostics with greater power than any of Satan’s temptations. Once Elijah won many souls to God by demonstrating that God’s power was far greater than that of the priests of Ba’al. How many of today’s Christians could produce the same outcome? It ought not be so.
The Lord Jesus has all power here and authority over everything here. Why are his self-proclaimed servants so impotent? Peter came to the point where he was so charged with God’s glory that when he walked by the sick, they were healed merely from his shadow touching them. How do you obtain that kind of power from God?
God’s power and authority flow through his kingdom. Many Christians claim citizenship in God’s kingdom, but few possess knowledge of his will beyond their understanding of scripture, and even fewer successfully bring that will to pass in the physical world. Of what use are subjects who do not know the will of the king or who lack the power to do it?
Towards the end of his ministry, the Lord asked Peter a provocative question. The exchange gives us insights into what power and authority are and how we can obtain them:
15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. (Matthew 16)
Peter receives from Jesus a weighty charge. He receives the keys of the kingdom, with the ability to bind on earth and loose on earth. But was the Lord saying that he was only giving these keys to Peter? Many think the answer is yes because this passage uses the singular version of “you”—meaning that the Lord was addressing Peter specifically. Yet, the Lord repeats the same proclamation in Matthew 18 while speaking to his followers in general. There, he uses the plural version of “you,” indicating that his charge to Peter was a specific application of what was available generally, not a special charge to Peter. If all followers of Christ have the keys of the kingdom, you do too!
What does it mean to possess the keys of the kingdom? The Amplified translation gives us a better understanding:
I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth will have [already] been loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19, AMP)
He was saying, “what is bound in heaven, you bind on earth; what is loosed in heaven, you loose on earth.” When the Lord gave the keys of the kingdom to all his followers, what he was giving was the ability to do his will on earth. This begs the question of how you will know his will. How do you know what is bound or loosed in heaven? This question is answered in the exchange that spurred this whole conversation. Peter, by revelation from God, declared that the Lord Jesus was the Christ. The Lord responded by saying that revelation was the rock upon which he would build his church. In other words, revelation is the mechanism by which the Lord administers his kingdom. Revelation is how you will know what is bound or loosed in heaven.
Notice that the discussion thus far has been about transmitting on earth what is already decided in heaven. Is this the limit of the charge? No. As described in this passage and throughout scripture, God’s decisions are made in heaven, not on earth. Therefore, if you want to be a participant in that process, you have to effect heavenly councils. If God's power on earth is limited to carrying out what has already been decided in heaven, it also means that you must work in heaven if you are to participate in that decision making process.
What are the keys to the kingdom? They consist in understanding that God’s authority operates on earth through his word revealed from and decided upon in heaven. When God gives you the keys to the kingdom, he is saying “I enable you to comprehend the operations and works of my kingdom in heaven, to participate in the decisions that are made there, and to carry out those decisions on earth.” There are three charges here: 1) learn what is decided in heaven; 2) do what is decided in heaven on earth; 3) influence what happens in heaven.
1 - Learn what is decided in heaven. The keys to the kingdom are at once an astounding dispensation of power and an incredible check on that power. God does not give his authority to men. Instead, he allows them to act on his authority only when they learn and execute exactly what he wants to be done, how he wants it to be done, when he wants it to be done. Men never have the ability to use God’s power autonomously from God. Therefore, learning what he wants to be done, how he wants it to be done, and when he wants it to be done are absolutely essential for all who want to be active subjects in his kingdom.
The essence of the Lord’s prayer is “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) The only way to learn God’s will is through God’s word. Of course, God’s word is found in the scriptures. Some would suppose that we know everything we need to know about God’s will from the scriptures. However, this is his general word to everyone, and the principles there may not provide the specific counsel needed to inform your actions.
If the scriptures are the limit of your understanding of what is decided in heaven, you are an ineffective servant of God for two reasons. First, your understanding of what is in the Bible is likely clouded by the false traditions of men. Peter wrote that scriptures are understood correctly only when God’s original meaning is known: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:20) The only way you can know whether your understanding of scripture is based on private interpretation or God’s original intent is if he communicates to you directly. This is revelation. The Bible was never meant to stand independent of the revelation required to understand and specifically apply it. Secondly, when you operate without revelation, your instructions are limited to those general instructions found in the scriptures. With only the scriptures, you are like a commando in battle with only the military handbook for guidance. If you expect to benefit from the power wielded by your superiors (air support, ground support, supplies, etc.) and to work in conjunction with your fellow soldiers, you must have a radio where specific communication can flow back and forth between you, your commander, and your fellow units. Revelation provides the two-way communication between you, the Lord, and the angels. It is how the spiritual battle is coordinated. Don’t cut yourself off from that channel. Seek it, develop it, and trust it.
The Lord Jesus had the task, as we do, of preaching the acceptable year of the Lord. This cryptic phrase is clarified in the Amplified translation:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah), because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy),
19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly]. (Luke 4, AMP)
The acceptable year of the Lord is a period when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly. The Lord Jesus came to save mankind, but that is not all. He came to pour out the favor of God greatly, demonstrated by his working miracles. Though we cannot work out salvation for others, we are charged to emulate the miraculous works of the Savior, and even charged to do more than he did (see John 14:12). When we achieve a habitation with God, all things are possible. The Lord promised that those who follow him will do greater things than he did. Yet, what Christian do you know that does even equal to what the Lord Jesus did? A habitation with God is the missing piece of the puzzle. The Lord was shown exactly what miracles he should work, how he should work them, and when he should work them (see John 5:19). He did not freelance. If the Lord needed specific, special revelation to inform him of his Father’s will for the miracles he would do every day, how can we expect to do even more than he did having only the general counsel provided by the scriptures?
The Lord was able to do what he did because he had a habitation with the Father. He said he only did those things that his Father showed him to do. You cannot achieve that kind of power of God in your life without a habitation with God, so he can tell you what to do every day. You have to know his will to do his works, and you have to know him in order to know his will.
2 - Do what is decided in heaven on earth. Most Christians live only in this aspect of the keys, and even this they do only partially. They are confined to action in the physical realm, with only a partial or sometimes even incorrect understanding of what is decided in heaven. God’s miraculous works require faith. While you can believe in anything you choose, God is only found in what is true. You cannot have faith in something that is not true. Therefore, your capacity to execute the power of God is limited to your understanding of the decisions made in heaven. You will never encounter God’s power while doing on earth something that is contrary to the will of heaven. This is one reason the life of most Christians is devoid of tangible manifestations of God’s power: they do not know God’s will, and are merely guessing what it might be. You will not engage in risky, embarrassing, or difficult tasks if you are merely guessing that they are God’s will. Yet, God’s power seems to be largely confined to precisely those types of situations. The famous stories from scripture did not take place when someone was sitting at home on their couch watching TV. Instead, the people involved were risking their lives, their wealth, and their comfort in actively carrying out God’s will as revealed specifically to them.
You cannot practice this charge absent of knowledge of what is decided in heaven. Many Christians erroneously believe that God gives his authority to men. Working mighty works in God is not a result of him having given to you some special authority that no one else has. Instead, he gives his word to an individual (sometimes following a prayerful request), dictating precisely what they should do, how they should do it, and when they should do it. God told Moses to part the Red Sea. He told him how to do it. God told Elijah to call down fire from heaven. Elijah was given specific instructions, including to dig a ditch around the altar and pour enough water on the sacrifice to fill the ditch.
God does not give his power to men. He said:
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)
Servants of God are not independent agents who can wield God’s power without God being involved. Instead, they are always tethered by God’s will—and not just in the efficacy of their works. A branch cannot produce fruit independent of the vine. All fruit it produces comes from the vine through the branch. Likewise, men can exercise God’s power if they are connected to God. True servants of God do not act without having received their mission from God. True servants of God do not give blessings that do not come to pass, prophecies that are not fulfilled, or attempt miracles that do not succeed. This only happens when men freelance.
If you want to do more miraculous works, you need to have God speak to you more often and invite you to do those things. How is this done? You need to repent of all of your sins. You need to hunger and thirst after him. You need to develop the humility, reverence, and trust with him to do anything he asks you to.
The Lord wants us to talk to him all day. He wants us to include him in our lives. We are told to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests...” (Ephesians 6:18, NIV) We are to pray over the events of the day and our temporal concerns:
19 Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.
20 Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.
21 Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening.
22 Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.
23 Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.
24 Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.
25 Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase.
26 But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.
27 Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you. (Alma 34)
If we do this, he will give us instructions for how to carry out our day-to-day lives: “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:6) When we are on the Lord’s errand, we will see the Lord’s power. If you want God to exert his power in your life, you have to seek him in all things.
But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul. (2 Nephi 32:9)
Before you make any decision, check in with him. It doesn’t have to be an hour long prayer, just check in. You’ll be surprised how many instructions you get. It is very hard for you to get to the place where he will tell you everything about a day in your morning prayer, but it is very easy to stop throughout your day and ask him if he has anything to say about it.
We expect God’s miracles to happen in abstract of our normal lives. It doesn’t work that way. Consider any miraculous story you’ve heard. What were the circumstances? It always happens in conjunction with life, not in abstract of it. The separation between our spiritual and temporal lives is artificial and of our own creation, not God’s.
There is great peace in aligning your life with the Lord. This is how his yoke becomes easy and his burden light. Imagine if you could turn to God in every difficulty you encounter, knowing that you are doing his perfect will for you. It isn’t that trials go away, but that when you love him and align your life to him, you achieve a restful trust in God, knowing that he is with you and whatever happens is for your good.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Imagine if you had perfect confidence that God was with you and that everything that happens in your life is for your good. Then, like the Lord Jesus, you could respond to trials knowing God would send 72,000 angels if you asked him to (see Matthew 26:53). We should include him in every aspect of our lives where we want to see his glory work for our good.
When you walk with God, you have an acute awareness of what he is doing in and around you. You don’t just believe he is in control, you know he is in control. This was the confidence Paul had. Despite knowing he would be shipwrecked, he had total peace because an angel had come and promised him that no one would die (see Acts 27:22-25). This was also the source of Stephen’s confidence. He faced death by stoning in peace because he saw God’s throne and had a perfect knowledge of his goodness and glory, and that God was in control (see Acts 7:55-60). You can’t go and do your own thing and then complain that God is not in your life. Filter everything in your life through God, and make every adjustment he suggests. That’s how you walk with God and encounter the blessings promised to the faithful.
3 – Influence what happens in heaven. Great miracles are possible when you develop the ability for God to speak to you and inform you of his will, then you perform it here on earth. And yet, that posture is still very passive compared to the fullness of opportunities God provides. The pinnacle of our relationship with God is to come up to the point where he allows us to influence his decisions.
When we include him in our lives, he will start to include us in his. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...” (James 4:8) This is how we become a friend of God. God counsels with his friends. We tend to think of prophets as being an elite group of people. In reality, they are merely people who accepted the invitation to draw near to God, make him a part of their every day lives, and were obedient to what God told them. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7) God shares his secrets with his friends.
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:15)
Abraham was a friend of God. He said: “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” (Genesis 18:17) Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he talked it over with Abraham. Abraham was given the opportunity to play an active role in the outcome of the situation. Imagine a city whose survival or destruction depended to a great extent on what you said or did about it. Yet, that is exactly the situation you are in. James said that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16) Through your righteous life and powerful prayer, you can have just as much effect on the decisions in heaven as Abraham did.
We are too willing to settle for a passive, mediocre existence in God’s kingdom. Why wouldn’t God use you? Where has he said that only some people can do mighty works for him?
27 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?
37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for 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)
If you lack miracles and mighty works in your life, it is not because God wills it to be so. Rather, it is the outward manifestation of your lack of faith, and without sufficient faith to work mighty miracles, you can rest assured that you do not have sufficient faith to be saved. They always go hand in hand.
We tend to think that our capability is a limiting factor in the good we can do for God. Doing mighty works for God is not a factor of your greatness. The only qualification for mighty works in God is repentance and faith.
Faith. Do you believe that God is all powerful, that you can truly do anything he commands you to do, and that he can command you to do anything?
And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. (1 Nephi 17:50)
There was nothing special about Nephi that made his action effectual, except for the fact that God had told him to do it. What are you willing to give up for God? Are you totally surrendered? Will you do anything God tells you? Do you truly believe you are a fool before God? Will you seek and accept things that are not God’s will to give you? How much time and effort are you willing to spend to know God?
Repentance. Are there sins you are aware of that you have not yet changed? You cannot do mighty works of God if you are living in willful sin: “...there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity.” (3 Nephi 8:1)
All men are commanded to repent and have faith. As often as they do, God uses them in marvelous ways.
When we trust in ourselves, we are limited to what we can do of ourselves. When we trust in God, we can do all things through him. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phillipians 4:13) Do not underestimate the opportunities to serve God that you are passing by through clinging to confidence in yourself instead of clinging to God. Those who repent and exercise faith can do many great things:
Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance. (Alma 26:22)
Isaiah’s ministry came not through God appointing it to him, but because God showed him a need that he had, and Isaiah—trusting in God’s ability to empower him to fulfill it—volunteered to do so: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)
We can gain great power from God if we will admit our nothingness before him. Paul said:
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. (1 Corinthians 3:18)
When we admit our weakness, he can make us strong.
27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (Ether 12:27)
Mighty Moses was a nobody when God called him to lead out Israel. He had gone from being a prince in the mightiest kingdom on earth to being an old servant shepherd (an abomination in the Egyptian culture he was raised in) in a foreign land. Yet, because he was willing to trust in and submit to God, God made him mighty.
Joshua, knowing that God was no respecter of persons, believed that if God would appear to Moses, he would appear to Joshua. He followed Moses’ example, and obtained the same result.
Isaiah’s calling came because he was willing to believe that God could make him capable of preaching repentance to Israel when God told him it needed to happen.
You are nothing, but with God you can do anything.