Authority
Connotes chosenness, authorization, and power. In God’s kingdom authority is only to be used to serve, provide relief, and teach. Its sole purposes are to create and sustain God’s kingdom, to restore and renew the earth itself, and to confer onto humanity the gifts of immortality and exaltation within that kingdom and upon that perfected earth.
“
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the
priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness,
and by love unfeigned.
”
—
Doctrine and Covenants 121:41