Sister Sheri Dew in her book ‘Amazed by Grace’ answers the question: “How does the Savior make His power available to us?”
Elder Bruce R. McConkie said that “if it were not for the grace of God, there would be nothing—no creation, no fall, no mortal probation, no redemption, no immortality, no eternal life. It’s God’s grace that underlies all things [and] . . . that makes all things possible. Without it there would be nothing; with it there is everything.”31
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland added further clarity: “Much of the miraculous help we find in the gospel is just that—a miracle from heaven, the power of the divine priesthood, the attendance of angels administering to us through a very thin veil. These are gifts from God, manifestations of His grace”32
Every divine gift and every spiritual privilege that give us access to the power
of heaven comes from Christ or through Christ or because of Christ, through His grace.
We owe everything to Him and our Father in Heaven including the privileges of receiving the gift and power of the Holy Ghost; of receiving personal revelation and gifts of the Spirit; of being endowed in the temple with knowledge and priesthood power; of learning the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of knowledge of God”;33 of angels on the right and on the left;34 of receiving all the blessings of the Atonement; and of receiving eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God.”35 We owe divine gift and all access to divine power to the grace of Jesus Christ.
The grace of Jesus Christ gives Latter-day saints, both men and women, access to the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, to the ministering of angels, and to countless gifts of the Spirit, just to name a few.36 No wonder that Eliza R. Snow said that Latter-day Saint women “have greater and higher privileges than any other females on the face of the earth.”37 I stand with Eliza on this.
But there is one privilege that latter-day women in particular likely overlook—the privilege of having access to priesthood power.38 Too many sisters as well as priesthood bearers think LDS women don’t have this privilege. But that is not true. Women who have been endowed in the temple have as much access to priesthood power for their own lives as do ordained men.
Four key points underscore this truth: First priesthood keys are the manner through which the Lord authorizes the use of and distributes His power, for both men and women.
Second are the distinctions between priesthood keys, and priesthood power. Priesthood keys are required to authorize ordinances, priesthood authority required to perform ordinances and priesthood power is available to all who worthily receive ordinances and keep the associated covenants.
Third, both men and women who serve under the direction of priesthood keys serve with divine authority.39 Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained: “We are not accustomed to speak of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds the priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.”40
And finally, fourth, men and women have equal access to the Lord’s highest spiritual privileges. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the house of the Lord. Elder M. Russell Ballard declared that “when men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which by definition is priesthood power. . . . Access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children.”
. . . .There are those who wonder why women are not eligible for priesthood ordination. But the better question is: Why is it not necessary for women to be ordained? . . .(continued in tomorrow’s post along with ‘active’ footnote references)
31. Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith (1985), 149.
32. Jeffrey R. Holland, For Times of Trouble (2013). (Psalms 18:36; 94:18-29.)
33. Doctrine and Covenants 84:19.
34. Doctrine and Covenants 84:88.
35. Doctrine and Covenants 14:7
36. The Holy Ghost is one such avenue. Elder Parley P. Pratt described the breadth of the Holy Ghost’s influence upon us: “The gift of the Holy Ghost . . . quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, expands, enlarges, and purifies all the natural passions and affections. . . . It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, taste, kindred feeling and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form, and features. . . . It strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being (Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology and a Voice of Warning [2001], 61).
37. Eliza R. Snow, in Evening News, 14 January 1870.
38. Elder Bruce R. McConkie said that the ‘Doctrine of the priesthood—unknown in the world and but little known even in the Church—cannot be learned out of the scriptures alone. . . . The doctrine of the priesthood in known only by personal revelation” (“The Doctrine of the Priesthood, Ensign, May 1982, 32).
39. See Sheri Dew, Women and the Priesthood (2013), especially chapter 6.
40. Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood,” Ensign, May 2014; emphasis added.
