The Power of the Word

In Alma 31:5, Mormon says, "As the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God". It has long been interesting to me that Mormon chose to compare the power of words to the power of the sword. He said this long before Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 coined the phrase, "The pen [the word] is mightier than the sword".

While considering Mormon's statement, I was interested to find an account in the Book of Mormon in which the word was dramatically more powerful than the sword. In the early chapters of Helaman, the Lamanites won much of the Nephite lands in battle. The Nephites fought hard to win their land back through war. However, they were only able to win back half of what they had lost. Then through some dramatic heavenly manifestations, triggered by the preaching of Nephi and Lehi, sons of the second Helaman, many were converted. Three hundred of those converts joined Nephi and Lehi in teaching the Lamanites. Through their preaching, the lands that had been lost were peacefully returned. This is described in Helaman 5. Indeed the word is more powerful than the sword!

There are many more examples of the power of the word. Below are just a few.

• The Brother of Jared removed Mount Zerin. See Ether 12:30.
• The Savior, under the direction of the Father, created the earth. See John 1:1-3.
• In fact, in John 1:1 Jesus Christ is declared to be "the Word."
  
• Enoch "spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him" (Moses 7:13).
• At the word of Nephi, the heavens were sealed and the rains ceased. "So it was done, according to the words of Nephi. And there was a great famine upon the land" (Helaman 11:5).

The list could be made much longer. Moving mountains and other physical manifestations of the power of the word are impressive. However, the power of God's word to change human hearts is something that has far more lasting and eternal consequences. What does that mean for each of us?

The challenge is to make the word of God a power within each of us to help us resist temptation and to forge a character that is more and more like God's. I love these words of scripture which help to teach this concept:

29Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—
30And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out. (Helaman 3:29-30)

These verses help us to understand a very important key to successfully completing our mortal probation. "Laying hold upon the word of God," will help us to have the power to do all that we have been sent here to do. Studying and applying God's words in our lives--likening them to us (see 1 Nephi 19:23)--is vital to our spiritual growth. As we do so, the words of scripture will become our words. The commandments of the scriptures will become our treasured delight. We will indeed qualify to "sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out"!