Power of Godliness

The ability to open the heavens in order to be given assignments, confirm revelation, and receive blessings from God. All power is tied to Heaven. When the powers of Heaven are withdrawn from someone, then their authority comes to an end, and they have no power. The power of godliness must be gained through Jesus Christ, access to Whom is available to all men and women on equal terms.¹ Godliness is different from virtue; it is even different from righteousness. Godliness requires one to become godlike in one’s sentiments and in one’s meekness before Him. “Whether men understand you or attribute motives to you, the relationship is between you and the Lord. Godliness is when your walk here is along the path He has chosen for you.”²

It is through covenant-forming ordinances — including rituals — that the power of godliness has been manifested to mankind.³ T&C 82:12 explains that priesthood is given in order to have valid ordinances that are accepted by God: And this greater Priesthood administers the gospel and holds the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest, and without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the Priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh, for without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live. Zion is for those living in the flesh. Therefore, the power of godliness must be manifested to man in the flesh.⁴ The ordinances that allow the power of godliness to be shown to man in the flesh are also referring to an inheritance of greater knowledge that brings mankind into the presence of God the Father.⁵ Without the power of godliness, the current rites are much like the apostate world Christ condemned in His initial visit with Joseph Smith.

Godliness means to be godly or close to God. It is possible to pretend to godliness (i.e., have a “form” that mimics it) without actually being close to God. In the truest sense, to be close to God is to be in His presence. The Lord wants for all His children to have “godliness” with the power to be near Him. This power of godliness should not be dismissed. It is a very real part of the gospel. It is intended to be part of what all receive while here, not merely some distant hope for the afterlife.⁶ “Christ taught in His opening words in this dispensation that we live among a people who have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof [JSH 2:5]. Why is there no power to their form of godliness? It does not generate the faith necessary to receive power. It does not generate this faith because the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are not believed, not obeyed, and not even understood among such people. You cannot shake together the philosophies of men mingled with scriptures and produce from that the power of godliness.”⁷ Godliness in form only is powerless. It cannot call down revelations or visitations from angels or teach truths which save.⁸ The Book of Mormon continually relates accounts of those with the power of godliness. It is all about the ascent back to the presence of God. Testimony after testimony, experience after experience shows that godliness is the Book of Mormon message. The ascent to God is the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.⁹

“If the power of godliness that is being referred to by the Lord in the First Vision, and in Paul’s Letter (to Timothy) is limited to the fabulously miraculous, then the power of godliness almost never appears anywhere, even in our scriptures….Those stories are rare, extraordinary, unusual, and serve some highly specific purposes in a highly specific context….The power of godliness is evident in the way lives are changed, marriages are healed, spouses are trustworthy, the idea that someone can be relied upon because you know in your heart that they will not stray from a course of conduct that is truthful, reliable, dependable, that they have internal governance that keeps them aligned with light and truth. That’s the power of godliness that the scriptures are primarily addressing and not the exceptions that happen on rare occasion. I have witnessed and participated in miracles and I don’t think that I’ve ever spoken publicly about a single one of them, because that’s not where we find the power of godliness. We find the power of godliness in the conduct, in the heart, in the mind, and in the soul of those that convert. [The life of one of my friends] has been so altered — despite the fact that he’s alienated now from the LDS Church — that the power of godliness remains within the life of my friend whom I baptized 18 days after I was baptized, because of the conviction of the truth and an awareness of the existence of God and the understanding that what you do matters. And every moment of your life you are on trial in this probationary state and you’ll have to answer for it. That’s the power of godliness. How many adulterous, Christian ministers have made the news? How many scandals have gone on in charitable organizations by people that are stealing from the charitable cause and ultimately from the poor that they pretend they are servicing? How many churches have aggregated wealth — obscene amounts of wealth — while neglecting the responsibility to the poor? The power of godliness would not permit a person to exploit those things without the conviction that they needed to fall on their knees, pray to God for forgiveness, and turn around and repent, and change the way in which things were being conducted. They wouldn’t need anyone to call them to repentance because their own heart would break. And by this you would know they were repentant: they would confess, and they would forsake their sins. That’s the power of godliness. That’s what was absent from the entirety of Christendom at the time that the First Vision took place. Proud, haughty, fierce; that’s the community in which we currently live. So what happens when the power of godliness is lived in the lives of someone that displays honor, integrity, fidelity, the love of God, and the trustworthiness and confidence of their spouse and of their children? It’s a powerful sermon that cannot be denied. It convicts people. The power of godliness can become contagious if it is observed on actual display. And when you return goodness for unkindness; forgiveness even when it’s not asked for; and when you’re trustworthy in every respect, it changes other people around you. And if you are someone in whose life the power of godliness is present, then you don’t need to fear because the worst that can happen is that they kill you, and then you’re not on probation anymore, and you’ve lived a life true and faithful, and you can render an accounting, and your confidence will wax strong in the presence of the Lord because you’ve had the power of godliness within your life. There are miracles; they do happen….The power of godliness is the life you live and the conviction that you hold that you’re going to remain true and faithful to God in all things.”¹⁰