When I was LDS I never questioned that God’s authority came from the Priesthood. In the Church it is always simply stated as a fact: “The priesthood is the authority of God.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith, p 45) When you are told all your life that this is where God’s power and authority are dispensed, it’s hard to even comprehend that another possibility exists.
I was actually shocked when I did a thorough study of God’s Word about “authority” and “power”! I discovered that there’s no power in the priesthood! Just because LDS prophets claim that the priesthood is the power to act in God’s name does not make it so. God alone determines who is given His power and how a person receives it:
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Romans 13:1). During Old Testament times, God gave certain facets of His power and authority to Priests who acted in His name. After Christ was resurrected, this line of authority was no longer necessary.
Today, it’s not through the priesthood that God dispenses His power and authority. The truth (as revealed by Jesus Himself) is that the power and authority to act in God’s name comes directly from the Holy Ghost. God’s power is given to every person the Holy Spirit brings to faith: women and children as well as men!
Despite the fact that while Jesus was alive He had already given His Apostles “power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases”; after His resurrection He promised them something even more! He testified that they would be given a new kind of power:
“And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
According to Jesus, the Apostles did not yet have “power from on high”. Just prior to Jesus’ ascension he testified: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Luke 24:49 & Acts 1:8a).
Just as Jesus had promised, on the day of Pentecost “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The Apostle Peter declared that this power fulfilled the prophesy:
“that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2)
The power that Jesus promised “would come upon you” is the power of the Holy Ghost! As the prophet Joel prophesied, this power would be given to “sons and daughters” and “on my handmaidens”. This power is the Holy Ghost and He actually dwells inside of all who have been given faith in Jesus.
Every believer has all power and authority from God dwelling inside of them through the Holy Spirit. But that’s not all. They also have God the Father and Jesus Christ living in them:
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21)
That’s why my granddaughter has more power and authority from God than LDS prophets. She believes that Jesus is her Savior! God the Father, Jesus the Christ and the Holy Ghost all live inside of her heart! Because of this, she belongs to God’s true Church.
LDS Prophets believe that God the Father is merely a glorified man and cannot dwell in someone’s heart:
“John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false.” (D&C 130:3)
But the testimony of the Apostle John proves this LDS scripture as false:
“Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:13-16)
Which do you believe: the words of Christ’s Apostle or those of a false prophet?
In “Chapter 5: The Holy Priesthood—for the Blessing of God’s Children” LDS prophet George Albert Smith claims: “The power and authority of God can be found only in His true Church .”
I testify to you that this power and authority from God can be found only in His true Church. But His true Church is not The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And God’s power and authority are not found in the Mormon Church nor in the LDS Priesthood. God’s true Church is not a religion; it is made up of people—all who have faith in Jesus. And each person has been given God’s Power and Authority through the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.
This is because because Jesus has made us holy. All praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Latter-day Saint Woman 