President Wilford Woodruff illustrates the power of faith in the following remarkable story concerning his mortally ill wife:
On the 23rd of November [in the years 1838, while on a journey from Maine to Illinois] my wife, Phoebe, was attacked with a severe headache, which terminated in brain fever. She grew more and more distressed daily as we continued our journey. It was a terrible ordeal for a woman to travel in a wagon over rough roads, afflicted as she was. At the same time our child was also very sick.
The 1st of December, was a trying day to my soul. My wife continued to fail, and in the afternoon, about 4 o’clock, she appeared to be struck with death. I stopped my team, and it seemed as though she would breathe her last lying in the wagon. Two of the sisters sat beside her, to see if they could do anything for her in her last moments.
I stood upon the ground, in deep affliction, and meditated. I cried unto the Lord, and prayed that she might live and not be taken from me. I claimed the promises the Lord had made unto me through the prophets and patriarchs, and soon her spirit revived, and I drove a short distance to a tavern, and got her into a room and worked over her and her babe all night, and prayed to the Lord to preserve her life.
In the morning the circumstances were such that I was under the necessity of removing my wife from the inn, as there was so much noise and confusion at the place that she could not endure it. I carried her out to her bed in the wagon and drove two miles, when I alighted at a house and carried my wife and her bed into it, with a determination to tarry there until she either recovered her health or passed away. This was on Sunday morning, December 2nd.
After getting my wife and things into the house and wood provided to keep up a fire, I employed my time in taking care of her. It looked as though she had but a short time to live.
She called me to her bedside in the evening and said she felt as though a few moments more would end her existence in this life. She manifested great confidence in the cause she had embraced, and exhorted me to have confidence in God and to keep His commandments.
To all appearances, she was dying. I laid hands upon her and prayed for her, and she soon revived and slept some during the night.
December 3rd found my wife very low. I spent the day in taking care of her, and the following day I returned to Eaton to get some things for her. She seemed to be gradually sinking and in the evening her spirit apparently left her body, and she was dead.
The sisters gathered around her body, weeping, while I stood looking at her in sorrow. The spirit and power of God began to rest upon me until, for the first time during her sickness, faith filled my soul, although she lay before me as one dead.
I had some oil that was consecrated for my anointing while in Kirtland. I took it and consecrated it again before the Lord for anointing the sick. I then bowed down before the Lord and prayed for the life of my companion, and I anointed her body with the oil in the name of the Lord. I laid my hands upon her, and in the name of Jesus Christ I rebuked the power of death and the destroyer, and commanded the same to depart from her, and the spirit of life to enter her body.
Her spirit returned to her body, and from that hour she was made whole; and we all felt to praise the name of God, and to trust in Him and to keep His commandments.
While this operation was going on with me (as my wife related afterwards) her spirit left her body, and she saw it lying upon the bed, and the sisters weeping. She looked at them and at me, and upon her babe, and, while gazing upon this scene, two personages came into the room carrying a coffin and told her they had come for her body. One of these messengers informed her that she could have her choice: she might go to rest in the spirit world, or, on one condition she could have the privilege of returning to her tabernacle and continuing her labors upon the earth. The condition was, if she felt that she could stand by her husband, and with him pass through all the cares, trials, tribulation and afflictions of life which he would be called to pass through for the gospel’s sake unto the end. When she looked at the situation of her husband and child she said: “Yes, I will do it!”
At the moment that decision was made the power of faith rested upon me, and when I administered unto her, her spirit entered her tabernacle, and she saw the messengers carry the coffin out at the door.
On the morning of the 6th of December, the Spirit said to me: “Arise, and continue thy journey!” and through the mercy of God my wife was enabled to arise and dress herself and walked to the wagon, and we went on our way rejoicing. (Leaves from My Journal [Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1881], 65–67)
“Faith is Things Which Are Hoped for and Not Seen; Ye Receive No Witness Until After the Trial of Your Faith”
The Lord is pleased when we believe without seeing (see Hebrews 11:6). Signs will follow those who believe in faith (see Mormon 9:24; Ether 4:18). This principle is exemplified in our walking by faith and not just by sight (see 2 Corinthians 5:7). Throughout life, our faith is tried and tested. Sariah’s trial of doubt and fear for the safety of her sons is replaced with a surety that the Lord has commanded her husband to flee Jerusalem (see 1 Nephi 5:8). The Liahona works according to the faith of the people (see 1 Nephi 16:28). Following the intense and devoted exercise of his faith, Enos finds that his guilt has been swept away (see Enos 1:6). The examples go on and on throughout the Book of Mormon. The Lord reminds us that miracles happen by the power of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (see Moroni 7:33).
By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, all things are done: Faith is the first principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith is the principle that moves us to repent and come unto Christ (see Alma 34:15–17). In Hebrews 11 and Alma 32 we learn that faith is a hope for something that we do not see which is true. In the Lectures on Faith, the Prophet Joseph Smith describes the three degrees of faith. The first degree is the substance of things hoped for (see Lectures on Faith, 1:7–8). The second degree, according to Prophet Joseph, is understanding that “Faith is the moving cause of all action in intelligent beings” (Lectures on Faith, 1:12). The third degree of faith is the principle that makes it the source of power (see Lectures on Faith, 1:15). When all three degrees are applied, faith is exercised to its fullest. The Prophet goes on to say: “Faith, then, is the first great governing principle which has power, dominion, and authority over all things; by it they exist, by it they are upheld, by it they are changed or by it they remain agreeable to the will of God” (Lectures on Faith, 1:24). It is by faith that all things are done (see Ether 12:7–22, 30–31). President Gordon B. Hinckley points out the primary need for faith when he says: “If there is any one thing you and I need in this world it is faith, that dynamic, powerful, marvelous element by which, as Paul declared, the very worlds were framed (Hebrews 11:3)… . Faith—the kind of faith that moves one to get on his knees and plead with the Lord and then get on his feet and go to work—is an asset beyond compare, even in the acquisition of secular knowledge” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997], 186).
We needn’t strive to move all the mountains today; but let us have faith to follow the prophet. Let us not go about trying to heal the entire world or raise the dead; let us have faith enough to move ourselves to action by being a loving parent, a devoted and obedient child, a sensitive neighbor. Let us not exercise our faith to gain the whole world, but rather for the building up of the kingdom of God through love and service to our fellow beings. Through small and simple things, great things come to pass—simply through the exercising of faith (see D&C 64:33).
These considerations bring to mind an important question of conscience: Knowing that without faith we can do nothing (see D&C 8:10), what are our plans to increase and exercise our faith? In answering this question for ourselves and for our loved ones, we might consider the following counsel from President Gordon B. Hinckley:
As we reflect on those who have gone before us, and as we consider our present labors for the good of ourselves and others, would that we all might say each day, “I am doing my work faithfully and in good faith.”
Let us look again to the power of faith in ourselves, faith in our associates, and faith in God our Eternal Father. Let us prayerfully implement such faith in our lives. (Gordon B. Hinckley, Faith: The Essence of True Religion [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 108.) … .
We are pained by the desecration of that which to us is holy. But we need not fear. This cause is greater than any man. It will outlast all its enemies. We need only go forward by the power of faith without fear. (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997], 123–124.) … .
Certitude is certainty. It is conviction. It is the power of faith that approaches knowledge—yes, that even becomes knowledge. It evokes enthusiasm, and there is no asset comparable to enthusiasm in overcoming opposition, prejudice, and indifference. (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997], 197)
The power that moved our forebears was the power of faith in God. It was the same power which made possible the exodus from Egypt, the passage through the Red Sea, the long journey through the wilderness, and the establishment of Israel in the promised land. (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997], 439)