Let’s look at what the “power of godliness” is and how we can obtain it and use it as we work towards our exaltation.
Personal note: I have struggled with the concept of what the power of godliness is, how it works, where it comes from, and how to use it. What follows here is a collection of my thoughts after reading (and rereading) the manual, doing a lot of thinking, and reading and listening to talks on the subject on the Church website. This doesn’t make what is below the final word on the subject. But I am hoping it is at least close to the full truth. As you read it please note how you feel, whether it raises questions of doubt, or whether you have a feeling of rightness about it. Follow your feelings.
What is godliness?
The scriptures call us a holy people. To be holy is to act like God, meaning we do good by keeping the commandments. We can still be flawed yet be holy. Repentance is always a constant in the gospel of Christ, for repentance only means we are always striving to be better today than we were yesterday.
What very few people ever discuss openly in the Church is the concept that what we have and do as Latter-day Saints sets us apart from the rest of the world. The world simply cannot achieve what we can, because they don’t have the priesthood of God to enable them to do the things we can do with the priesthood. Salvation is administered through the power that comes to the people who have God’s priesthood in their lives. That power is given to the people through the ordinances of the gospel. If you are baptized, for example, but the person baptizing you doesn’t have the priesthood authority to baptize, that baptism serves no eternal purpose. A person cannot be saved in the kingdom of God by being baptized by someone without any authority to perform that ordinance. That authority is found only within this Church.
The celestial kingdom cannot be achieved except through seeking out the priesthood ordinances and having them administered by someone having the right to perform those ordinances. Since no kingdom, except the celestial kingdom, requires ordinances administered through God’s priesthood power and authority, only those who submit to the requirements of that priesthood and faithfully receive those ordinances can achieve the celestial kingdom. I am referring to those who are fully aware of and accountable for their behavior, like those of us who can read and understand this article, not those who are innocent before God and cannot be held accountable for their behavior.
We do believe that only those who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can qualify themselves for the celestial kingdom. This is the only church on earth that has the priesthood of God and the ordinances of salvation available to offer to mankind. Whether in this life or the next anyone wanting to go to the celestial kingdom will have to accept the gospel offered through the Lord’s church and accept all the ordinances of salvation. If they don’t then they cannot hope for anything beyond the terrestrial kingdom. Christianity at large wants to be with Jesus, for they don’t have any concept of exaltation. Their goal can be reached, for Jesus will be in charge of the terrestrial kingdom. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we focus only on exaltation in the celestial kingdom. We don’t focus on anything less.
Godliness is what we, as latter-day saints strive for. We use the gift of repentance and the gift of the Holy Ghost to change and become better today than we were yesterday. This is an ongoing process. God has given us ordinances, like baptism and those in the temple, to show us how to live our lives so we can become like Christ. This is the purpose of commandments and covenants. Because we make covenants with God through His priesthood, He can give us special help that is not available to those who are unwilling to make those covenants. That is the power of the covenant process. This is why the prophet refers to it as the covenant path. This striving for godliness, Christlike behavior and attitudes, is only available to those who come to Christ and seek his forgiveness and guidance through his priesthood authority and power. We become his disciples and seek to be like him. None of this is available without the priesthood and the covenants that come through the authority of that priesthood.
What is the power of godliness?
To have the power of godliness is to have the ability to become like God. That means to become Christlike in our attitudes and behavior. I’m not talking about becoming infinitely perfect, because that is more than any mortal can achieve in a thousand lifetimes. I’m talking about using the repentance process daily to cleanse ourselves and purge the worldly attitudes from our lives, while adopting Christlike attitudes that cleanse us and make us more pure and holy. This is a process, and a slow one at that, not an event. We will all leave this life still working towards our final goal to become like Christ. We will never arrive there during mortality.
I don’t think we should confuse the ability to become like our Lord with the movie or comic book idea that the “power of godliness” has anything to do with supernatural powers like being able to lay waste to cities with a thought or something equally dramatic. This is why I prefer to substitute the phrase “the ability to become like” for the word “power.” The ability to become like God may come from God, and it may actually be a godly power, but the last thing we need is to have such a worldly notion of power go to our heads. Let’s be humble about this.
In the last section I mentioned that we need covenants that are only available through the priesthood of God, and that priesthood is only found within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here are the first key verses of Doctrine and Covenants 84:19-21.
19 And this greater administereth the gospel and holdeth the of the of the kingdom, even the key of the of God.
This verse tells us that to come to a knowledge of the character of God and to understand the mysteries of His kingdom, we must come to His gospel and embrace His priesthood. His priesthood is the only thing on earth that administers His gospel.
20 Therefore, in the thereof, the power of is manifest.
The ability or power to become like God, to become like Christ, is found only through the ordinances God’s priesthood administers to God’s children. No one else can become like Christ, for Christ’s ordinances are what show us (through the Holy Ghost) how to become godly.
21 And without the ordinances thereof, and the of the priesthood, the power of godliness is manifest unto men in the flesh;
Verse 21 should be pretty plain. The world simply cannot find the power of godliness, the ability to become like Christ, without God’s priesthood authority and power as given to us through its ordinances. The power of godliness, or the ability to become like Christ, originates in the ordinances of God’s priesthood. We become more and more like Christ as we keep the covenants and commandments Christ has given us. And yes, there is more to it than that simple sentence implies.
The importance of the priesthood
Look below at Doctrine and Covenants 84:33-38. The verses are short, but it is the sequence of thinking I want to point out. The Lord has been detailing the account of Moses and his attempt to bring salvation to the house of Israel (the family of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham). Moses did his best to be plain and help the people to want to see the face of God, but they hardened their hearts against what Moses was offering them, so the Lord withdrew the Holy Priesthood (Melchizedek priesthood) and left them with just the lesser priesthood (Aaronic). These verses tell us what happens when both priesthoods are embraced.
33 For whoso is unto the obtaining these two of which I have spoken, and the their calling, are by the Spirit unto the of their bodies.
34 They become the and of Aaron and the of , and the church and kingdom, and the of God.
35 And also all they who receive this priesthood me, saith the Lord;
36 For he that receiveth my servants me;
37 And he that me receiveth my Father;
38 And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s ; therefore that my Father hath shall be given unto him.
When we magnify/fulfill-to-the-best-of-our-ability a calling extended to us through one of these two priesthoods, since we already have the gift of the Holy Ghost, He cleanses us over time and makes us more pure and holy/righteous. This is the effect of our continual repentance. As this happens we become the elect of God, and the promise is that all that the Father has will be given to Christ, who in turn will share that with us. This is the promise. This is the power of godliness, or where the ability to become like God comes from and leads to.
Opportunities to receive the power of godliness
Since the power of godliness comes through priesthood ordinances, let’s look at a few of these opportunities we have from the ordinances we have been given.
The Sacrament – This most-often-performed ordinance in the Church is the simplest of all. The promise is that as we remember Jesus Christ in our daily life, and strive to be like him, his Spirit will be with us. His Spirit is the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead whose role is to teach us the ways of wisdom and righteousness. He testifies of all truth, and is the revelator, showing us what is real and eternal in nature. As I understand the gospel this one gift is enough to get us to the celestial kingdom. The other ordinances that follow baptism and the bestowal of the gift of the Spirit exalt us to the highest level of that kingdom.
We always need to seek to be on good terms with the Spirit. He tells us when we have been forgiven and when we need to repent. He gives us the manifestations of comfort that come from Christ, and He teaches us to understand how God thinks and feels about things, so we can emulate God’s behavior. The Spirit is the conveyor of testimony (knowledge) and understanding (wisdom). All things of a spiritual nature come from Him, and without the Spirit we cannot teach the things of God, neither can we comprehend them. We need the Spirit like we need water and air. His friendship and companionship is the most valuable relationship we will cultivate in this life. Without that relationship firmly in place in our life all other relationships become far less meaningful.
The Temple – When we spend time in the Lord’s house we learn what it feels like to be in the presence of that which is sacred and holy. That is a feeling of being at peace, of feeling settled and calm. We can think more clearly, feel more readily, and come to long to return there once we are out in the world again. This is a change that takes place over time. People told me about how important it is to spend time in the temple doing anything that happens in the temple, but it took becoming a worker in the temple before I learned how much I longed to live with the feelings I felt when in the temple. When I was at home or out and about in the community I slowly became more desirous to be back where I felt a continual sense of peace and tranquility. The temple is, as I can only imagine, like being in the presence of holiness all the time.
More than ordinances alone – The ordinances give us the priesthood and the covenants of that priesthood, but the priesthood also provides us with additional helps.
Patriarchal Blessings – Where else on earth can one go to receive a tailor-made message from God to you alone? What is in a patriarchal blessing is different for every person. These blessings are usually only given once in a lifetime, and are used by that person as a guide from God to help us fulfill our mission in life. Some blessings are very short, and some are very long. Some blessings have a lot of detail, and others seem very vague. Blessings need to be read and reread, just like the scriptures, and should always be read with a prayerful attitude. The Spirit will help us understand them. One of the amazing attributes about these personal scriptures for our life is that the more often we read them the more often one phrase or idea will jump out at us and help us learn to navigate this life correctly.
Priesthood blessings – One of the great advantages of having the priesthood in our life is to receive the mind and will of God through His servant in our own home, in the hospital, or in the church house. The Lord uses many ways to talk to us, and priesthood blessings are a way that can be there for us wherever we are, in the city or in the country, on a train, plane, bus, or bed. Being worthy as a priesthood holder means being ready to listen to the Spirit and speak His words at a moments notice. It is a scary responsibility, and a mighty privilege for those who hold the Melchizedek priesthood.
The manual recommends reading/listening to Elder Neil L. Andersen’s For the Strength of Youth article from 2021 The Power of Godliness through Priesthood Ordinances and Blessings. It is well worth the read.
This next one is my own addition to this list.
The Scriptures – The whole world has some of the scriptures, which are the word of God. But God’s covenant people have much more of His words available to them. We currently have four books of scripture in our Stand Works. These, like your patriarchal blessing are like an encyclopedia of the knowledge of God. The challenge we face in reading the scriptures is that we can’t just read about something we need to know in just one place. What we need to know has been written about by various prophets over many centuries of time in many places on the planet. To find the knowledge to guide our life we need to search the scriptures and become familiar with all the various stories and events that have happened since Adam’s day down to our own.
I’m including in the scriptures the talks we receive by the leaders of the Church. The word of the Lord comes to us often and through many voices. God has many servants, and the longer you live, the more servants you will hear speak His words. All of them are valuable in helping us learn to live like God. The power of godliness can be found in so many places, but so many of those places require effort to extract what is currently the most valuable to us on our part.
Final Thoughts
The power of godliness or the ability to become like God is pervasive throughout God’s kingdom and gospel. All that we have been given by God to help us get through mortality is designed to help us begin the process of becoming the kind of person we need to be to enter His kingdom and progress in the eternal worlds. Even mortality is part of eternity. We may not currently have our memory of all that came before this moment in time, but eventually we will get our memories back. Then we we will see how our time in mortality fits in with our eternal progress. That progress has already been going on for a very long time.
Now is the day to embrace the advantages of God’s gospel, His good news. That good news is about Christ, and his work to bring about our forgiveness of sin and to guide us in our path back to our Father in Heaven, so we can find joy with them in what comes to pass for the rest of eternity. All the tools we need to obtain the power of godliness are here. We just need to use them to become more like Christ, and that has to happen on a daily basis. Striving for godliness must become the kind of people we are.
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I find your assumption erroneous that if you haven’t been baptised by the priesthood authority then you can’t get to the celestial kingdom . Didn’t one of the prophets see his brother there in a vision and wonder how he got there because he died without baptism ?
Thanks for pointing this out. Alvin, the prophet’s brother still had to accept the covenants that qualified him to be there. The Lord told Joseph that those who didn’t know about the gospel in this life, but would have accepted it with all their heart would be able to go to the celestial kingdom. One of the doctrines that people don’t often talk about is that God’s behavior isn’t always linear like ours tends to be. For example, Christ was still considered in every respect the Savior of the world even before he performed his atoning work for the world. Why? Because God knew he would succeed in doing what he promised he would do. This same principle is at play with rewarding people with blessings even before the actual covenants are made. God knows all things from the beginning, so He has no problem with rewarding people knowing that they will do all that is necessary to receive the blessings they are being given, even though they haven’t yet had the chance to make their covenants yet. God doesn’t have different standards for different individuals. Eventually we all have to be baptized and make the temple covenants. That is my understanding of the doctrine.