God’s power is frequently seen as a mechanism to make you stronger than you would otherwise be. The truth is that obtaining God’s power requires you to become stronger than you have ever been, and that the power you exercise and the power you obtain are much more symbiotic than they may otherwise seem. The acquisition of God’s power is an incremental process where each step begins with doing all you presently can and ends when you obtain greater power than you had before.277 Your present power comes from living up to all you know about Jesus, and your future power comes from learning and living something more about him than you did before.
God’s power comes from knowing God’s will and being willing to do all you can to accomplish it.278 Many would claim that they can’t do what God would do in their place because they don’t have the power to do so, but the truth is that they don’t have more of God’s power because they don’t do what God would do in their place with the power they already have. Why would you expect God to endow you with his power beyond your present capacity while you continue to use the power you already have to rebel against him by doing less or worse than you could? If you aren’t doing all you can to advance God’s purposes right now, why would he give you more power, when doing so would only increase your condemnation?279 How can he give you more power when you refuse the next incremental step toward it?
Don’t ask God to do for you what you are unwilling to do yourself.
You shouldn’t seek God to miraculously intervene in situations where
you have not yet done all you can. Before asking God to give you power to move mountains, buy yourself a shovel and start digging.280
Footnotes
- 1. 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) ↩
- 2. 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) ↩
- 3. 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) ↩
- 4. 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) ↩
- 5. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. (Psalm 147:5) ↩
- 6. 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) ↩
- 7. 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) ↩