“Endowed with Power from on High,” Liahona, Mar. 2025.
Historical Perspectives on the House of the Lord
Endowed with Power from on High
Like the disciples in the New Testament, Latter-day Saints were promised an endowment of power from the Lord.
In the spring of 1836, Charles Rich was a missionary preaching the restored gospel in southern Ohio. He had to have been disappointed that he arrived in Kirtland, Ohio, on April 12—about two weeks after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple.
He had traveled by steamship along the Ohio River and then walked nearly 100 miles (160 km). He saw the house of Lord on top of a natural rise in the landscape with its blue walls and red roof. But he was late. He had missed the dedication, the solemn assembly, and, he thought, the promised endowment of power from on high.
In September 1830, just a few months after the restored Church was organized, Joseph Smith received a revelation from Jesus Christ calling members of the Church to gather (see Doctrine and Covenants 29:7–8). A few months later the Lord revealed why. The Saints were to “go to the Ohio,” where, Jesus declared, “I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high; and from thence, whosoever I will shall go forth among all nations” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:32–33; emphasis added). Church members who heard this revelation would have recognized this language as coming from the New Testament.
New Testament Disciples Endowed with Power
Luke 24 begins in a moment of despair. Jesus had been crucified, and a group of His female disciples had returned to His tomb. They found that the stone door had been rolled away, and they “found not the body of the Lord Jesus” (verse 3). Soon angelic messengers gave them hope: “He is not here, but is risen” (verse 6).
Later, the resurrected Lord appeared to His disciples and ministered to them. He gave them what Christians throughout the world recognize as “the Great Commission” to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus explained that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations” (verse 47).
However, He instructed His disciples not to leave immediately: “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (verse 49). Endued (or “endowed” in modern English) is a translation of the Greek word meaning “to clothe.” The ancient disciples of Christ were to wait in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high. Then they were to build the kingdom of God throughout the world.
Before He ascended into heaven, the Lord told His disciples, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).
Latter-day Saints Endowed with Power
Latter-day Saints gathered in Ohio in the 1830s with a similar intention. They looked forward to being “endowed with power from on high” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:32) and taking the message of Jesus throughout the whole world. Eventually, the Lord declared that the Saints “should receive their endowment from on high in my house” (Doctrine and Covenants 105:33, emphasis added; see also verses 11–12). Still, many of the early Saints didn’t know exactly what to expect.
Not long after calling and ordaining the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835, Joseph Smith met with them about the house of the Lord. Joseph recognized that the Twelve were “anxious” and could not comprehend what was coming. He explained they needed an endowment so they could “be prepared and able to overcome all things” and teach the gospel with power. “When you are endowed,” he explained, the Apostles would “preach the gospel to all nations, kindred, and tongues.”
Soon after, Joseph Smith revealed ceremonies patterned after the consecration of ancient Israelite temple priests. In preparation for the endowment, every priesthood officer was washed and anointed “with the same kind of oil and in the manner that were Moses and Aaron, and those who stood before the Lord in ancient days.”
At this time, the endowment of power constituted a dramatic outpouring of spiritual power during a special solemn assembly meeting. Like Elijah Able—the first Black Seventy in the Church—priesthood officers fasted, prayed, and ate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper as a shared meal. They testified and prophesied, and God blessed them with power. Those who were endowed then set off to build up the kingdom of God by preaching the restored gospel. Despite opposition, they were protected in their travels, magnified in their preaching, and blessed in their families.
In Kirtland, only men participated in the solemn assembly meeting where they were endowed with power from on high. However, in a few years, the Saints built the Nauvoo Temple. There Joseph Smith revealed expanded temple ceremonies that are the foundation for our temple experience today. In Nauvoo, women as well as men were endowed with power.
Speaking to the Relief Society sisters, Joseph Smith promised that in the temple endowment “the keys of the kingdom” would be “given to them,” the same “as to the Elders.” Though it would be several decades before women were called as proselyting missionaries, women and their labor have been integral to building up the kingdom of God on earth.
Although Charles Rich had missed the Kirtland Temple dedication, he learned that he and several other missionaries who had arrived late to Kirtland were going to experience the endowment. After the pattern of the ancient Israelite priests (see Exodus 29; 40), he was washed and anointed. He gathered with the others, fasting, praying, and feasting on the Lord’s Supper.
“We prophesied all night,” Charles wrote. “It was prophesied that salvation was written on every limb and joint” of his body. “I was filled with the spirit of prophecy, and I was endowed with power from on high.”
He spent the rest of his life—47 years—laboring as a disciple of Jesus Christ, building up the kingdom of God.
Since that time, Latter-day Saints around the world have traveled to the house of the Lord to be endowed with power from on high. And like these early Saints, the endowment prepares us to build the kingdom of God as disciples of Jesus Christ and to one day receive exaltation through His mercy and grace.