How Can Women Receive God’s Priesthood Power and Authority?

YA Weekly has teamed up with the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary general presidencies and advisory councils, as well as young adults, to respond to questions sent in by faithful women of the Church. We have loved studying these heartfelt questions and hope that what we present in these “Sister to Sister” articles can lead you to find answers through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Early in my mission, I was called to a leadership position. About a month after receiving the calling, I met with my service mission leader to report on how my mission was going. I told him I loved both my current assignment and my new call as a leader. I also told him that leading was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I opened up in particular about how someone who was serving with me was causing me to question my abilities to lead. I felt that even though I had been called to lead, this person didn’t believe I had the ability to serve in my calling. As a sister, I don’t hold the priesthood, and it seemed like this person didn’t think I had the authority or even God’s approval to fulfill my leadership responsibilities. I told my leader how inadequate I felt, and that I needed Heavenly Father’s help to know how to move forward but was unsure of what to do.

Learning about the Priesthood

I know callings come from God. I know it was His will that I serve as a leader at that time. I wasn’t called because I was the “best of the best” by any means—it was just where the Lord wanted me to be. I believed that, as President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, taught, “qualifying for exaltation is not a matter of asserting rights but a matter of fulfilling responsibilities.”¹ I enjoyed and tried to magnify my calling, and I did my best to make the people I led feel loved and important.

But I still felt uncertain.

But thankfully, my mission leader kindly taught me an important lesson about the priesthood that helped me see it in a different way.

My service mission leader reminded me that the priesthood is not only for men in the Church, and that, as a sister, I had access to the authority and power of God which He grants to His sons and daughters to help carry out His work.

He explained to me that as a missionary, I had received delegated priesthood authority to bless the lives of those I was called to lead and serve. I received this authority when I was set apart as a missionary by a priesthood holder with priesthood keys—my stake president. This is how callings in the Church work; women who are called as Relief Society presidents, for example, are given delegated authority to serve in their callings when they are set apart by a bishop or branch president exercising priesthood keys.

Essentially, my service mission leader paraphrased President Oaks when he said: “We are not accustomed to speaking 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.”²

Through the priesthood, Heavenly Father blesses all of His children, so when worthy male Church members are blessed with priesthood authority through conferral, or any Church member (man or woman) is blessed with delegated authority, they have been authorized to represent God and act in His name to accomplish His work.

So it was my privilege to be able to accomplish my God-given assignment to lead.

Using God’s Priesthood Power and Authority as a Woman

Priesthood holders have been authorized to represent God and act in His name to perform ordinances and blessings. This is priesthood authority. Priesthood power, on the other hand, is different. Priesthood power is the power by which God blesses His sons and daughters—His power extends to all members of His Church, both women and men, as they make and keep their covenants with Him.

With a better understanding of the differences between priesthood authority and priesthood power, I began to see ways I was already using God’s power to bless the members of my group. My agitation with my other group member began to dissolve. I learned, as President Jean B. Bingham, former Relief Society General President, has said: “Often, … women don’t realize that the power through which we accomplish ‘much good’ in our callings and in our homes is an expression of priesthood power. As a matter of fact, all the good that is done in the world is done through God’s power. … Knowing that women have access to that priesthood power strengthens us to be able to do what is asked in whatever responsibilities or assignments are ours.”³

All righteous Latter-day Saint women have access to priesthood power as they make and keep covenants with God.⁴ They can draw on God’s power in their daily lives to receive guidance for their lives and inspiration to know how to serve others. President Russell M. Nelson has said, “The heavens are just as open to women who are endowed with God’s power flowing from their priesthood covenants as they are to men who bear the priesthood. … Sisters, you have the right to draw liberally upon the Savior’s power to help your family and others you love.

“… The Holy Ghost will be your personal tutor as you seek to understand what the Lord would have you know and do.”⁵

I learned from this experience that I was wrong to think I didn’t have access to God’s priesthood power and authority. I learned that if I followed Heavenly Father’s guidance and trusted in Him, I could have confidence that I could serve to my full capacity in my calling. And I learned that, as a woman, I can exercise delegated priesthood authority when I am set apart to serve in callings and as I receive assignments to help accomplish God’s work. I am also blessed with God’s priesthood power in my daily life as I make and keep sacred covenants with Him.

As President Nelson has reminded all of the faithful women in the gospel of Jesus Christ, “We ... need your strength, your conversion, your conviction, your ability to lead, your wisdom, and your voices. The kingdom of God is not and cannot be complete without women who make sacred covenants and then keep them, women who can speak with the power and authority of God!”⁶

Notes

1. Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood,” Liahona, May 2014, 51.
2. Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood,” 51.
3. Jean B. Bingham, “Endowed with Priesthood Power” (Brigham Young University Women’s Conference, May 2, 2019), womensconference.byu.edu; emphasis in original.
4. See General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3.5, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
5. Russell M. Nelson, “Spiritual Treasures,” Liahona, Nov. 2019, 77; emphasis in original.
6. Russell M. Nelson, “A Plea to My Sisters,” Liahona, Nov. 2015, 96.