Mormon Musings

I frequently think of the difference between the power of God and the power of the devil. To illustrate, here is a structure in which we can be seated comfortably, protected from the heat of summer or the cold of winter. Now, it required labor, mechanical skill, and ingenuity and faithfulness and diligence to erect this building, but any poor, miserable fool or devil can set fire to it and destroy it. That is just what the devil can do, but he never can build anything. The difference between God and the devil is that God creates and organizes, while the whole study of the devil is to destroy. Everyone that follows the evil inclinations of his own natural evil heart, is going to destruction, and sooner or later he will be no more. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 13:4

All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. The devil has no power over us only as we permit him; the moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power. --Joseph Smith

There are too many among us who shake hands with the devil; and while this is so the Lord cannot bless this people as He wants to bless them. Were He to pour out the multiplicity of blessings He has in store upon them now, it would send many of them to destruction; otherwise His great blessings will save them when they understand them. It is necessary we should live near to the Lord. I am not obliged to mingle with evil because it surrounds me. An Elder whose duty calls him into the Gentile world can keep himself as pure and as holy as he was in the midst of the Saints. He may enwrap himself as in a cloak against every evil that would surround his footsteps. It is in the power of every man to resist the devil, and he will flee from him. He will not take possession of any man’s heart unless he makes him a welcome inhabitant and invites him to share in his affections. It is in the power of every man and every woman not to give way to evil thoughts and speak evil against their nei...

"All beings who have bodies have power of those who have not.  The devil has no power over us only as we permit him."   Joseph Smith (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 181)

“We need not become paralyzed with fear of Satan’s power.  He can have no power over us unless we permit it.  He is really a coward, and if we stand firm, he will retreat.  The Apostle James counseled: ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7).  He cannot know our thoughts unless we speak them.  And Nephi states that ‘he hath no power over the hearts’ of people who are righteous (see 1 Nephi 22:26).” President James E. Faust - Ensign,  Nov. 1987, 35

If the devil says you cannot pray when you are angry, tell him it is none of his business, and pray until serenity is restored to the mind. Brigham Young

“The devil has no power over us--only as we permit him; the moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power.” ~ Joseph Smith