Jacob 4: Phenomenal Cosmic Power

Commanding the Elements
Jacob overstates the power of faith in verse 6:

...and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.

When was the last time you heard any credible account of someone commanding the natural elements in the name of Jesus?  I'd also be willing to bet that the most recent accounts of this kind of thing, credible or not, probably featured priesthood holders.  According to Jacob, however, all you need is unshakable faith and you can literally move mountains.

There's been a movement among the latter-day church leadership away from explicit, literal miracles.  Recent addresses by the Quorum of the Twelve generally just interpret coincidental events as miraculous.  Any of the supernatural, public, Biblical-style miracles that are mentioned are long in the past.  This is just one more way in which the modern church has failed to align itself with its supposed scripture.


The Spirit:  Clear as Mud
Verse 13 contains a bit of information about the Spirit and how it can speak to us:

Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls.

According to Jacob, the Spirit manifests truth "plainly."  Of course, since its preferred method of confirming truth seems to be the oft-referenced "burning in the bosom," the person trying to obtain truth from the Holy Ghost would have to go through a trial-and-error series of yes-or-no questions until one of the questions yields a yes in the form of a soothing heartburn.  That does not sound like a direct, effective or "plain" method of communicating with a member of the godhead.  And considering that the salvation of our souls is at stake, you'd think that a loving God would ensure that the most effective system of communication with the Spirit would be in place.

There are those, of course, who actually hear the voice of the Spirit telling them something.  This is a much more effective method for God to communicate with his children, but unfortunately, the people who literally hear that "still, small voice" tend to be the same people who bear their testimonies about their dead uncles appearing to them in visions and giving them the names of the people God wants them to marry.