Cleansing Inner Vessels - God's Power 1

God's power is in the love that He has for all things who in turn honor Him with obedience to the laws He set for them, we call laws of nature. This article speaks on the power of God and how it relates to cleansing the inner vessel of man.

In modern culture, power means something like those superheroes on TV like Thor, Hulk or Superman. These characters are strong and filled with the ability to force things to obey their wills. Thor can physically compel a person with his power to crush the body or send voltage through the body using his lightning powers. Hulk smashes things and is otherworldly powerful like Thor, and Superman. Superman not only has the power to crush and smash, but to freeze, burn, and see-through (x-ray) the body.

How be it God has all of those superhero powers without the force needed to use them, Meekness. God is perfectly meek in that He does not use His power to force anyone to do anything. Meekness is the ability to act but the humility to submit. With all the power God has, He submits to the human will to self-govern. that is what makes God Good and Powerful.

Like Thor, God can call down fire from heaven to burn things to a crisp. that is what Elijah used, God's power to consume the burnt offerings when he challenged the priest of Baal to see who is the true God of the world. The controversy is found in 1 Kings chapter 18.

Like the Hulk, God destroys but not at random. God destroyed two cities where the people were so full of evil and sin He could no longer allow them to remain on Earth. Understanding His Plan of Salvation, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah was an act of compassion to all the future children who would otherwise enter the wickedness of those cities through birth. Destroyed them He did, not for committing one sin but all sins continuously. The sad account is detailed in chapters 18 and 19 in Genesis.

Like Superman, God can see into the hearts and minds of mankind, seeing the intents of the hearts of people. That power, seeing the intentions of the hearts is better than mere x-ray vision, but what fictional character can compare to God in reality. If those heroes did exist, God would have been the source of their creations and power.

Matthew informs that "blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" Matthew 5:8. Mormon informs that an ancient group of people was threatened with death if they prayed aloud. He informs that they "did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him, and he did know the thoughts of their hearts."

President Ezra Taft Benson (R.I.P.) former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave a great definition of the power of God unto meekness when he said,

Was it not through pride that the devil became the devil? Christ wanted to serve. The devil wanted to rule. Christ wanted to bring men to where He was. The devil wanted to be above men.1

The chosen vessel, Jesus Christ, to bring salvation to all of humanity wants to share all that He has given to Him from the Father so that mankind can become powerful like He is. Satan wanted, and still wants to rule over man being a constant reminder that he has power over them.

True power comes when there is no fear to share that power with those who have shone they are willing to live life in a manner themselves to share that power.

How is God's power in meekness after comparing His power to the destructive powers of Thor, the Hulk, and Superman? God allows all of creation to exist, things that are apparent to science and things that are hidden because science does not have the ability to search those things out that are too far away.

God makes decrees, but in His fairness, He allows for beings who by all rights are less than He is to challenge His decrees with some of their own. Having the power to control everything does not mean that He will control the wills of mankind. Anytime a power that is supreme uses discretion when dealing with lesser powers is meekness.

In human terms, a person of great strength who could dominate a weaker person and does not, out of respect to the sanctity of the other person's natural rights, is a man or woman of meekness.

A man or woman of great influence and wealth who uses that influence and wealth to support the freedom of others as did the framers of the United States Constitution is a person of meekness.

Parents who respect the choices and feelings of their children when they could use force to control them are meek. It does not mean that they give full reign to people who do not have the wisdom to govern themselves. It means parents give children just enough control to learn from their successes or mistakes. That is who God is.

He does not rain fire and hell on humanity for not being perfect. He does command humanity to be perfect the waits to see who will obey by keeping His statutes. The law is given and time is offered to fulfill that law.

Alma, speaking to his son Coriantumr, said

There is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God. Alma 42:22

Even God is meek enough to be subject to His laws of mercy and Justice. Alma claims that God could not exist without those qualities of justice, perfect justice, and mercy.

Elder Elder Ulisses Soares, a newly ordained apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ suggests three ways to develop meekness, some overlapping:

1. So the first step to becoming meek is to improve day by day. Each day we need to try to be better than the previous as we move forward through this process.
2. Another important step to becoming meek is learning how to control our temper. Because the natural man dwells within each one of us and because we live in a world full of pressure, controlling our temper may become one of the challenges in our lives.
3. Another step to attain meekness is to become humble. The humble are teachable, recognizing how dependent they are on God and desiring to be subject to His will. [2]
   

Meekness is the gift that cleanses the inner vessel because meek people lean to the understanding of God and not their own. It is submitting to a higher moral power when they could ignore that power to do their own wills.

The power of God is not limited to the things shared above. Just like the comic book heroes mentioned, who are fictional, God's powers are diverse, real powers He can and does share with humanity. All anyone has to do is be a willing vessel pure and clean through the power of forgiveness. Once the inner vessel is cleansed, God can work mighty miracles in the lives of people. A pure receptacle of God's power is the manifestation of God in the flesh. Jesus Christ, the ultimate vessel of God the Father is the means by which others of us can become pure receptacles to be the hands of God.

Ezra Taft Benson - Cleansing the Inner Vessel - April 1986 [1]
Ulisses Soares - Be Meek and Lowly of Heart - October 2013 [2]