Whatsoever Thing is Expedient in Me

1830 Book of Mormon p. 579:

“If you shall have faith in me, you shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me”

I remember a conversation I was having with a friend’s dad about faith. We talked of experiences we had where we were able to do extraordinary things by faith, but were unable to duplicate the experience. My friend’s dad seemed to struggle with the definition of faith because of that. I think a lot of people have no idea what faith is. It seems like faith is something that you should always have, but if you always had it, then wouldn’t you be able to duplicate experiences you had as a result of your faith? And if I can’t duplicate, then why don’t I have faith now?

It is a good question. I have wondered about it in times past.

If you look at Genesis 14 in the New Translation it shows the type of faith Melchizedek had and makes clear that the power of that kind of faith is only to be used when it is the will of the Lord. No freelancing. You can always have the faith within you, in Christ. You can’t always do whatever you think needs to happen. “If you shall have faith in me, you shall have power to do whatsoever thing IS EXPEDIENT IN ME.” You may have all the faith in the world. But if your actions are not according to that which is expedient in the Lord you may as well have no faith at all.

Now, I know this isn’t a perfect explanation. Moses still messed up by not following the exact commands of the Lord. When told to speak to the rock and it would bring forth water, he smote it with his staff instead. Because of this Moses was cursed and was not permitted by the Lord to enter the promised land.  Though he disobeyed, the rock still brought forth water. Perhaps it was close enough to the will of the Lord that the result was similar to what would have happened if he obeyed. Who knows what the result would have been if he obeyed perfectly though. Perhaps it would have strengthened the faith of someone who had faith that by speaking the word of God great things could happen. Who knows what we missed out on by Moses not entering into the promised land? Who knows? Nevertheless, if you have faith in Christ, you will have power to do anything that he wants you to do – but maybe only that which he wants you to do.

Something I have learned regarding these ideas is that you CAN NOT understand them fully without experience. Experience brings both success and failure, but it has to happen. So go get experience. Serve people, pray often, read the scriptures, and these things will guide you into other actions you can take, and experiences you can get.