“The knowledge and power of God are expanding;” (William W. Phelps, “The Spirit Of God”). “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:17). As we act on the will of God, we expand our knowledge. This knowledge of God will fill us with the power and the desire to perceive and obey and carry out God's will with greater abundance and precision. This in turn, will only broaden and deepen and heighten our knowledge and understanding of God and His will for us. If we let it, this becomes a perpetual positive feedback loop, our obedience expanding our knowledge, our knowledge expanding our power, our power leading to more perfect obedience, leading to more knowledge and then more power and on and on. But this feedback doesn't need to be limited to our own personal growth and development. There is a very strong reason that missionary work is such an important part of the Gospel. Obviously, first and foremost missionary work is about saving people from a lifetime of sin-induced misery and an eternity of suffering and endless woe. But on a more practical level, the Lord mainly confines Himself to exercising His power through the agency and gifts of His chosen servants, so the more people that are brought to the knowledge of God, not just superficially but that are actively seeking to do His will and expand their knowledge and power through His grace, then the greater the influence for good can our Heavenly Father wield for His children here on Earth. If we sometimes feel that with everything wrong and horrible that's happening in the world today that God has fallen asleep at the wheel or is just sitting idly by, then maybe instead of questioning the reality of God's existence or His love for us, we should instead expand God’s power by bringing His knowledge to more and more of His children. We have no idea how wonderful this world could be, how many of its intractable problems could vanish in an instant, if only every person on earth sought to do God's will and expand their knowledge of Him and their access to His power, but funny we owe it to ourselves to try and find out by doing everything we can to bring people to the knowledge of God? I know that for all of the amazing and incredible advances in knowledge and power over the last couple of centuries, we still haven't seen anything yet.
