The Power of the Melchizedek Priesthood is unlike anything found within the world of man. Man uses force to accomplish his secular and base desires. God uses power.
Power allows all people their agency; force removes agency.
Power allows all people to say no; force forbids dissent.
Power edifies, satisfies, glorifies, and brightens; force tears down, is insatiable, isolates, and darkens.
God swore an oath unto Enoch that “everyone ordained after this order (Melchizedek) and calling should have POWER by faith to…”
- Break mountains
- Divide the seas
- Dry up waters
- Turn them out of their course
- Put at defiance the armies of nations
- Divide the earth
- Break every band
- Stand in the presence of God
- Do all things according to His will and according to his command
- Subdue principalities and powers (forces)…
…and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundations of the world. And men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven. (JST, Genesis 14:26-32.)
The essence of this passage is that the power of the priesthood and the power of faith trump the force of man. Man by his nature and disposition exercises unrighteous dominion in an attempt to coerce others into subjectivity. (D&C 121:39) The very act of trying to be right and getting others to see it your way is unrighteous dominion and a learned behavior. Manipulation and persuasion is a skill of the natural man and not conducive with eternal principles.
