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Please Stop Saying That: Power

• Note: This is the first of the series “Stop Saying That!”  for more info look here.
Jacob Blessing Joseph, by Harry Anderson
 
As members of the church, we are privileged to have priesthood holders perform ordinances and blessings on our behalf – from new babies to grave dedications and countless others in-between.

So, it surprises me how often these ordinances are performed incorrectly. Specifically, I hear the following:

“Sister Smith, by the power of the Melchizedek priesthood, we lay our hands upon your head and bless/set apart/confirm etc.”

Oops!  Can you spot the incorrect word?  Power.  The power of these priesthood does not make these ordinance legitimate. It is the authority that the priesthood holder has received that gives them their validity.

So, the correct manner would be to say: “Sister Smith: By the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood, we lay our hands upon your head…”

This is not to say priesthood power is not a great thing to have – it is highly recommended. The difference is nicely explained by Elder Russell M. Nelson. He said “A distinction also exists between priesthood authority and priesthood power. When ordained to an office in the priesthood, one is granted authority. But power comes from exercising that authority in righteousness.  Thus, although priesthood holders have authority, they must prepare themselves to have power. That they do through making themselves personally worthy and through learning and practicing the duties and doctrines of the priesthood.” (link here)

A sad example is if a child is confirmed by his father, and the father is not worthy, the confirmation will still be valid. The child will still be a member of the church and have the opportunity to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Why? Because the father still has authority, and God is kind.  The sad part is that the blessing will be devoid of any real guidance and inspiration from the Holy Ghost because there is no power in it, due to the unworthiness.  (Please note that performing an ordinance unworthily not only cheats the person receiving the ordinance, but puts the priesthood holder in deep spiritual doo-doo.)

To me, one of the most difficult things a priesthood holder will ever be called on to do is to bless the sick when there is no power present. Personally, when I need a blessing, I would like the priesthood to arrive with the proper authority and a bucket full of power.

A great, little-known resource to learn about stuff like this is called The Family Guidebook.  You can find instruction on performing ordinances and other great information online here.

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Comments

  1. Question. Nobody seems to have the answer. I believe words are powerful and should be used correctly. When someone confirms an individual a member of the church and gives them the holy ghost, but uses the word “power” rather than “authority” is the confirmation valid? Or must the confirmation be performed properly with the word “authority”?

    1. I agree that the correct word is authority, but i have never seen it explicitly required to be word perfect – such as baptism and sacrament (and temple ordinances)

  2. Thanks for this post. It has always been a pet peeve of mine. I have a real problem with the way Melchizedek is pronounces as well. It’s Mel kiz e deck, not Mel chez a dik. Learning German for my mission helped me with both of those common mistakes. The German word for power is Macht, while the word for authority is Vollmacht or literally “full power.” I like that and have never mixed up power and authority since. Carry on, Brother.

  3. Kestrel: Welcome aboard! Thanks for reading and thanks for your comment.

    Regarding your situation with the disfellowshipping – I probably would have handled it the same way – I would have left the notation on the records until everything was complete – even the temple. In fact, the two bishops should have spoken and compared notes. So, I wouldn’t be too hard on the old bishop. Let it go.

    If you need help – read this:
    http://middle-agedmormonman.blogspot.com/2011/09/tarzan-principle.html

  4. I have thought about this a lot. My (RM) husband and I were married civilly in 2006. He was disfellowshipped at the time. After a year of being mostly faithful (oh that pesky tithing), our then-bishop said “yes, you may exercise your Priesthood authority again, you may be a member of the Church again, you may not have a temple recommend yet.” Two months later, our son was born prematurely. My husband gave me blessings while I was in the hospital, and also gave our son blessings while he was in the NICU. He gave our son a name and a blessing in our ward. Shortly after, we moved out of state and so did our bishop.

    New ward, new bishop – imagine our surprise when new bishop asks husband about his disfellowshipment. “But, old bishop said it was all good, just no temple for us yet.” Ah ha, ha ha.

    So I get that bishops are human (well, except for that little bit), that humans make mistakes, and that the Lord will take care of stuff like this in the end. But I often have a niggling little thought or two about that Official Name and Blessing. And I’m not gonna lie, I harbor some bitterness toward that bishop for telling us “it’s all good,” when clearly it was not. Or just forgetting to change the membership records. Or whatever. Also, every time we met with him he told me I looked “tired.” I was pregnant and dying (in my case, literally dying.) Bad bad bad choice of words.

  5. Very interesting. I had never given much thought to a blessing that is given when someone is not worthy. I learned more here than I did in three weeks of Elder’s Quorum.

  6. This vaguely reminds me of when I was about 12 or 13, and I had a Sunday School teacher who told us kids that if we weren’t “worthy enough” when we went to do baptisms for the dead, those ordinances would be invalid.
    I don’t know if he really believed it or was just trying to scare us into standing further apart at dances (we had ward dances in which everyone 12 and up could attend).

  7. I agree with you on this one. My father taught me this lesson very early in my Melchizedek PH life when he heard me do something by the “power” of my priesthood and gently corrected me in the same way that Elder Nelson describes. I’ver remembered that gentle correction ever since.

    That said, I am nearly certain I remember reading usage by general authorities (in someone’s biography, perhaps?) that reinforces the “mistake”, though of course now I can’t tell you where. I just remember enough of it to remember thinking, “huh, that’s not how I’ve been taught…”

Add your 2¢. (Be nice.)