Does God need me for His plan to work?

Years ago, one of my leaders often said, ‘God doesn’t need us’ when discussing our relevance in God’s plan. I think I understood what he was trying to say, but the phrase didn’t sit well with me. If he was trying to say that God can bring about the Plan of Salvation with or without me, then I agree. However, if he was saying that God’s work moves without His people, I don’t agree. God doesn’t need me, but He does need ‘we’.

Faith and Agency

I believe that God is clear about our faith limiting his ability to act among us. All four of these verses imply that the children of men must exercise faith to invite God to work among them. Mosiah 27:14 does include Alma the senior’s faith apart from the faith of His people. The Kingdom of God appears to be restrained based on our faith. He will not show himself until we ask Him to return by our words and actions.

• Ether 12:12 - For if there be no faith among the children of men, God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.
• 2 Nephi 27:23 - For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.
• 1 Nephi 17:12 - Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.
• Mosiah 27:14 - And again, the angel said: Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to convince thee of the power and authority of God, that the prayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith.

God’s Love

We exemplify agency and faith in our loving relationship with God. In most of these verses, we see a much more individualistic tenor. I wonder if love and faith are very similar when talking about an individual’s relationship with God. Many of these verses show up in President Nelson’s message of Divine Love, where he helps us see that God’s love is relational or conditional. President Nelson says,

While divine love can be called perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, it cannot correctly be characterized as unconditional. The word does not appear in the scriptures. On the other hand, many verses affirm that the higher levels of love the Father and the Son feel for each of us - and certain divine blessings stemming from that love - are conditional.

God’s relationship with us changes as we return love to Him in faith. Note the conditional statements in each of these verses. Conditional statements involve two parties making choices. Conditional statements define a relationship that changes. God’s and our love for each other move to ‘higher levels’ as we work together.

• John 14:21 - He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
• John 14:23 - Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
• Dueteronomy 7:9 - Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
• Alma 32:22 - And now, behold, I say unto you, and I would that ye should remember, that God is merciful unto all who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea, even on his word.
• D&C 76:5 - For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.
• 1 Nephi 11:22 - And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

God’s Power

In explaining how God needs us for His plan to work, I want to be careful that you don’t hear that we control God. Both in our faith and our lack of faith, we don’t control God. The ‘me’ can only manage my relationship with God. I cannot stop God’s plan from moving forward or control His relationship with His other children. The ‘we’ can define our community relationship with God. However, we cannot control God or take away his agency. When the time came that the voice of Israel and the Nephites chose iniquity, God visited them with destruction (Mosiah 29:27 ). Then, He made covenants with a new ‘we’ to bring His plan to fruition. D&C 63:10 helps clarify this point when it says, ‘Yea, signs come by faith, not by the will of men, nor as they please, but by the will of God.’ and we shouldn’t forget that He is ’the author and finisher of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:2). Each of us should make sure that we honor Him so that He can do a mighty work among us (Mark 6:3-6).

God enabled what takes place in our hearts and minds, but didn’t determine it; our living faith in time did.¹ But how can God’s plan emerge out of the chaos of individual choices? Our agency invokes a cosmic randomness that gives God the option of choosing the outcomes he wants and discarding those he doesn’t. This power enables the promise of atonement and the coming of Zion without being enslaved by His children’s agency. He can choose the outcomes of the preferred interactions from a multitude of options such that His omnipotence and plan can emerge from the disorder of Man’s misplaced choices at the day-to-day level.²

• principles
• relationship
• agency
• omnipotence