Introduction

"...where the word of a king is, there is power." - Ecclesiastes 8:4

Priesthood is nothing more and nothing less than the power of God. When God delegates this power to a person or a group of people, it is through his word. John the Baptist was sent from God with a dispensation of God's word to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Joseph and Oliver received God's word, which empowered them to do certain things. Peter, James, and John were sent from God's presence to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. They transmitted to Joseph and Oliver God's word empowering them to do certain things. If Joseph or Oliver had assumed that God authorized them to do these certain things without God actually saying so, their administration would have been in vain. Likewise, if they had assumed more than what God's word had authorized them, or if they had modified the instructions they received, those actions done would have been without power. This is because God does not give his power autonomously to men. He instructs them in true principles, which are then available for the discharge of anyone who obtains those instructions in their correct form. He also, from time to time, authorizes specific actions to specific people. Sometimes that authorization expands beyond the person who receives it, as when he gave the Aaronic priesthood to Aaron and his seed after him.

Every scriptural example accords with this fact. In each case of an exercise of God's power, we find a man who received God's word empowering him to do so.

It is not enough to impersonate the actions of those to whom God has actually spoken. Consider what happened when the sons of Sceva attempted to work the miracles they had observed at the hands of Jesus' disciples. Their actions were emulations of the disciples, yet they had not received God's word to empower their works, as had the disciples:

Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19:13-16)

Though the sons of Sceva invoked the name of Jesus, Jesus had not ordained a law whereby the devils would be subject to them. They exercised the same form as those who had a dispensation of God's word, but they had no power. Exercising forms without power is a sin every man should watch for. Joseph once observed Elders repeatedly administering to the sick without healing them. He remarked, "Let the Elders either obtain the power of God to heal the sick, or let them cease to administer the form without the power."¹ In this light, we read the following scripture differently:

Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men. (D&C 11:21)

When you seek to obtain God's word and then receive it, you will obtained the power of God.

As the sons of Sceva learned, no miracles can be performed save God performs them.

...by his word the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought? (Mormon 9:17)

It is impossible for a man to be an instrument in the hands of God without revelation to that end. The object of communication is the word of God. That's why we find so many declarations of the power of God being by his word. Mormon taught:

And he knoweth their prayers, that they were in behalf of their brethren. And he knoweth their faith, for _in his name_ could they remove mountains; and _in his name_ could they cause the earth to shake; and _by the power of his word_ did they cause prisons to tumble to the earth; yea, even the fiery furnace could not harm them, neither wild beasts nor poisonous serpents, _because of the power of his word_. (Mormon 8:24)

Nephi exclaimed that it is

_...by the power of his almighty word_ he can cause the earth that it shall pass away; yea, and ye know that _by his word_ he can cause the rough places to be made smooth, and smooth places shall be broken up. O, then, why is it, that ye can be so hard in your hearts? (1 Nephi 17:46)

Nephi doesn't explain the priesthood as some institution divorced from God. In fact, he does quite the opposite. He describes the priesthood as being the manifestation of the living link between the throne of heaven and a man on the footstool of earth, a link consisting of the word of God. He warned us not to think that God had given his authority to man and removed himself from the process of exercising his power:

And they deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel; and they say unto the people: Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men; (2 Nephi 28:5)

If Nephi's witness is still insufficient, we have God's witness that it is "...at my command the heavens are opened and are shut; and at my word the earth shall shake; and at my command the inhabitants thereof shall pass away, even so as by fire."²

Priesthood is not a permission slip that entitles the holder to do what he will with minimal or no interaction from God. We should take Nephi as an authority. We would be hard pressed to find any who manifested as much priesthood power as Nephi. His brother, who had seen Christ and wasn't a whit behind Nephi, echoed the same doctrine. Jacob says God created man and the earth "by the power of his word."

Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure? (Jacob 4:9)

This is why Nephi pegged any of his priestly works as being predicated upon God's command:

...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)

Brigham Young taught similarly that priesthood power is to be found only in the dictations of God to men:

All the works of mankind amount to but little, unless they are performed in the name of the Lord and under the direction of his Spirit. Let every man seek to learn the things of God by the revelations of Jesus Christ to himself. (JD 10:1)

Not even Jesus Christ was immune to this law. He was only empowered to do what the Father told him to do.

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10)

Teaching about the Savior, Brigham Young said,

He did nothing of himself. He wrought miracles and performed a good work on the earth; but of himself he did nothing. He said, 'As I have seen my Father do, so do I.' 'I came not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me.' We must come to the conclusion that the Son of God did not suggest, dictate, act, or produce any manifestation of his power, of his glory, or of his errand upon the earth, only as it came from the mind and will of his Father. (Brigham Young, JD 6:96)

and again,

He has died to redeem it, and he is the lawful heir pertaining to this earth. Jesus will continue to reign with his Father, and is dictated by his Father in all his acts and ruling and governing in the building up and overthrow of nations, to make the wrath of man praise him, until he brings all into subjection to his will and government. And when he has subdued all his enemies, destroyed death and him that hath the power of death, and perfected his work, he will deliver up the kingdom spotless to his Father. (Brigham Young, JD 7:144)

Jesus could only do those things contained in Heavenly Father's word to him. If Jesus Christ is subject to this law, are any of us exempt?

And thus we see that no amount of priesthood ordination can ever give a man power to use God's power in a way other than which God has ordained. So priesthood is not a dispensation of power to man, but rather the result when man obtains and yields to the word of God. To illustrate the point, consider Mormon's soliloquy about the insubordination of men found in Helaman 12:

O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God. Yea, behold at his voice do the hills and the mountains tremble and quake. And by the power of his voice they are broken up, and become smooth, yea, even like unto a valley. Yea, by the power of his voice doth the whole earth shake; Yea, by the power of his voice, do the foundations rock, even to the very center. Yea, and if he say unto the earth-Move-it is moved. Yea, if he say unto the earth-Thou shalt go back, that it lengthen out the day for many hours-it is done; And thus, according to his word the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun. And behold, also, if he say unto the waters of the great deep-Be thou dried up-it is done. Behold, if he say unto this mountain-Be thou raised up, and come over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up-behold it is done. And behold, if a man hide up a treasure in the earth, and the Lord shall say-Let it be accursed, because of the iniquity of him who hath hid it up-behold, it shall be accursed. And if the Lord shall say-Be thou accursed, that no man shall find thee from this time henceforth and forever-behold, no man getteth it henceforth and forever. (Helaman 12:7-19)

His words make it abundantly clear that all of God's creations save one-us-readily respond to his word. As opposed to the rest of creation, men have generally opted to use their agency against God's instructions. However, as we seek for God's word and yield to it, we will find ourselves necessitating the exercise of God's power to fulfill God's command. This is not the fulfillment of our vain desires, but, as Moses was given power over water that he might enable God's people to cross the sea, we will find ourselves doing God's work for God's purposes.

God's word is the mechanism of power in our universe. There is not a single true principle, law, movement, advancement, or joy in this world that did not come into being as a result of God's word. This is as true in spiritual settings as temporal. All temporal laws came into being by God's word. Through the medium of the spirit of God, which is in all things and through all things, temporal actions occur. When I hit a hammer with a nail, it is the spirit of God working with the temporal matter of the artifacts in play that causes the nail to drive into the wood. When I take a match to dry paper, it is the spirit of God acting through the medium of the match, the chemicals in the air, and the matter of the paper to ignite. Whenever you do anything in this world, you can correctly see it as matter obeying God's word as it has been given to it. Since the power of God is what actuates everything we do,³ it turns out that man cannot act at all without using some power God has given him. Acts as simple as taking a breath would be impossible without our bodies being sustained by the laws he has ordained by his word. As I type this page, I do so by taking advantage of the power he has given me to think, to breathe, and to move. We are quick to overlook that, in this non-trivial sense, everyone has some amount of priesthood: that portion of the power of God given to every man. This dispensation of power is bound by certain laws: I cannot jump 400 feet. I cannot avoid the effects of gravity. I cannot speak a foreign language I do not know.

However, our descriptions of priesthood generally focus on power given to God that breaks the rules that apply to the power he gives generally. An angel can jump 400 feet and defy gravity. God can, through the Holy Ghost, enable a man to speak a language he has not learned. Actions such as raising the dead, moving mountains, spontaneously communicating in an unknown tongue, closing the mouths of lions, healing the sick, and so on, like the rest, are controlled by God's word. He has not put these actions into man's power. Unlike the other things discussed, these actions were not instructed through his word at the creation to yield to man. They require a new dispensation of his word in order to take place. These permissions are no less bound by his law than the general powers granted to man. However, the law applies to an individual, and not to the general population. Moses could divide the waters. Aaron could not. Joseph received revelations from the heavens. Oliver did not.

Priesthood is nothing more and nothing less than the transmittance of God's word from his throne to an individual, empowering them to use that dispensed word to unlock normally locked experiences. "By the power of his word miracles [are] wrought," Mormon says. It is "by his word" that he commanded that "the heaven and the earth should be" and "by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth."⁴ And so we see the brother of Jared experiencing the miraculous because of what God had said to him:

And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith. (Ether 12:20)

We see the same with every man who received God's power. Enoch was given God's word which enabled him to conduct many of the actions that are locked by default from mankind:

And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and _so great was the power of the language which God had given him_. (Moses 7:13)

The language of God-the words of God-is the authority of God. As described above, the individual receiving it acts on the same principle as the engineer works on the effect of gravity or the metallurgist works on the laws of thermodynamics.

It is of worth to note that there are uncommon experiences that are seen as supernatural that ought not be uncommon. In addition to ordaining his power to every man to do things like write or speak or breathe, God has also ordained that several actions-what we would call miracles-might be done without any further communication on his part. He has said this of those who believe:

And these signs shall follow them that believe-In my name they shall do many wonderful works; In my name they shall cast out devils; In my name they shall heal the sick; In my name they shall open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf; And the tongue of the dumb shall speak; And if any man shall administer poison unto them it shall not hurt them; And the poison of a serpent shall not have power to harm them. (D&C 84:65-72)

Although the Lord does not say that every time they attempt these things they will be done (in fact he explicitly mentions at least one time when the sick will not be healed-when they are ordained to death), he does not condition any of these occasional miracles on priesthood. His word, in this case, has already been ordained to man, just as he doesn't need to reveal to a skydiver that he will fall out of the sky for him to be subject to gravity.

Since priesthood power is only to be found in the revelation of God's word, the Holy Ghost has a critical role in its exercise. First, the spirit of God that is in all things and through all things is the not only the source of the command that preceeds the action, but it is also the means by which the action takes effect. Christ demonstrated this principle when he healed those he could not see and who could not hear him simply by speaking.⁵ And thus we see that God's word is effective at any distance.

Beyond the exercise of the priesthood, the Holy Ghost has a critical role even in the conferral of priesthood. We are told in several locations in scripture that priesthood was ordained "by the power of the Holy Ghost, which was in" those who conferred it.⁶

In conclusion, we must admit that Joseph knew what he was doing when he said: "The Savior has the words of eternal life. Nothing else can profit us. A man can do nothing for himself unless God direct him in the right way; and the Priesthood is for that purpose."⁷