BOOK OF MORMON: DAY 129: ACCESSING PRIESTHOOD POWER -

Today’s reading: Mosiah 8:1-18

18 Thus God has provided a means that [woman], through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore [she] becometh a great benefit to [her] fellow beings.

I will admit that in my younger days, if someone mentioned the word ‘priesthood,’ I automatically would think of men. I would tend to tune the topic out, but as I began to attend the temple and started having more questions, I started to learn the truth, line by line– that when men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power–priesthood power.

The real eye-opener was coming to understand that faith is power and power is priesthood. Let that sink in for a minute. From the scriptures, we learn that by faith the world was created and that by faith miracles happen, mountains can be moved, and all things restored. Faith and priesthood (God’s literal power) have a deep and special connection.

Sheri Dew, in her book Women and the Priesthood, shares this important principle:

“Endowed, covenant-keeping women have direct access to priesthood power for their own lives. The challenge and opportunity for each woman is to learn what that means and how to access that power.”

This concept kept coming up in my studies, but it felt vague. Where’s the manual on how to access priesthood power? How does this work for women, exactly?

I learned a bit more about this after a horribly rough go at the “getting the kids off to school” routine one morning–the kind that makes you question why God thought that it was a good idea to send you children in the first place. I found myself home alone, totally dejected and crying.

Our teenage son has a budding spiritual gift that, as he’s been learning to manage it, can be both a blessing and a curse. His ability to literally feel and then inadvertently sometimes absorb the feelings and thoughts of those around him, makes him susceptible to mood swings that have taken some serious efforts in learning how to wrangle. He had had a bad morning and it created what felt like a domino effect of doom that was destined to repeat itself later that day.

After assessing the emotional damage from that morning, I began to pray, and as I did, the Spirit began to prompt me. I was to go to my son’s room and pray out loud with some very specific phrases that were given to me. I was totally out of my comfort zone on this one. Resistance crept in and I found myself ‘counseling’ the Spirit. “Shouldn’t I just wait for my husband to come home and offer a priesthood blessing?” The answer was no. I was there, in the right frame of mind, I knew exactly what this boy needed and apparently the need for me to pray in that unusual-to-me manner in which I was instructed was what my son needed right then and there.

And so I did, asking out loud for peace to envelope him wherever he was and that his room would be a sanctuary for him.

The miracle came later that day as this boy came home completely transformed to the point that even his siblings took notice. There was a peace about him, in his bedroom, and in all of his interactions from that point on for quite some time afterwards. I was humbled, yet intrigued by how my lack of priesthood authority, but priesthood endowment and faith had brought this whole experience to pass.

The answers that I’ve found are too much for one post, but the following resources have been a huge help in guiding my understanding in this area and I hope that they’ll inspire a similar search for you:

BYU Women’s Conference address: Attaining, Accessing, Using Priesthood Power by David V. Clare. Read it here or watch it.
Understanding Eve: the Mother of All Living by Diana Webb
Keys and Authority of the Priesthood by Dallin H. Oaks
“Lectures on Faith” that were once a part of the Doctrine and Covenants