AGENCY AND AGENTS

To define agency as the right to choose would be incorrect. Agency is much more powerful than choosing right from wrong and simply does not do justice to the magnitude of the word. Agency is the power to act. It is the power to act on the choice that has been made. It is the power to bring choices to their fruition. It is the state of being in action.

A derivative of the word agency is agent. An agent is one who acts and is hired to act for others. An example would be a free agent in the sports world. In sports a free agent cannot act or play if he isn’t on a team and in order to play he must be in agreement and under contract. A free agent has no power of action until he is on a team. Once he is on a team he then becomes an agent for that team. If the player or agent doesn’t play well he will not be put back on the court or field to play. The player has no right to be on the court just because he is an agent. Once a contract has been made the agent agrees to give up certain rights to his team. He has agreed to obey certain rules or laws and to perform accordingly.

If a missionary wanted to break the rules and wake up late his mission president would talk to him. The missionary would try to explain that he has his agency to choose to get up when he wants. The president would then tell him that he chose to be a missionary, now abide by the rules. This example teaches that if you choose to be on God’s team you give up your right to make choices against prior choices that have been made. Missionaries do not have a right to break mission rules.

A married man does not have a right to date other women when he is already married. The only right that he has is to date his wife. He does have the capacity but he does not have that right because he surrendered his right of choice to date others when he chose to be married. Man becomes an agent when he enters a covenant. A married person does not have the right to do anything detrimental to that relationship and covenant. Arguing, yelling, creating debt or anything done to worsen the others situation hurts both in the marriage because they are joint agents. Husbands and wives can only be saved in unity. You do have the right to make the marriage work and are endowed with the power to do so. You aren’t worth saving without marriage.

If this principle is true in sports, missions and in marriage then it applies within everything else. You can’t say you have the right to choose whatever as long as you are willing to live with the circumstances that those choices bring you. This is false doctrine. The notion that you have the right to break covenants is false. Heavenly Father never gave anyone the right to do anything wicked. We don’t have a right to break the laws of the land. Freedom and agency is not the same thing. Ex-con’s may be free but they do not have as much agency because of certain addictions.

Parents don’t give agency to their children because it is God’s to give. Parents are like jailers. Parents let their kids out on parole and if they are on good behavior more freedom is given to their kids as they are responsible enough to handle it. Parents can only grant greater freedom not greater agency. Agency requires existence of laws and obedience to laws empowers us. We lose privileges when we break laws. We do not have the right to break unions once we have made a choice. We don’t enforce anything in the church by coercion.

Does what we believe affect how we act? Yes it does! Then does knowing we have a right to do wrong lead us to do wrong? Yes. Does anyone have the right to reject the missionary’s message? No, nobody has the right to reject the gospel. They only have the capacity to reject it. In the Doctrine and Covenants 88:81 and 93:30 – 32 we are taught that members are obligated to warn our neighbors and if they reject the light or the gospel they will be condemned. No one has the right to reject the gospel. Every time we make a good choice we get more power to act. The more you do your duty you get more freedom and you obtain more power of action which is agency. Bad decisions beget bad decisions because less power is given to make a better decision. All who make good decisions are given the opportunity to beget good opportunities. More power to act is given to those that have earned that power.

We are sometimes told that we are instruments in the Lord’s hands. When this is the case we are a tool, like a hammer, that does not have the power to act because we are the Lord’s agent. We do what the Lord says. If we were our own agents we would do it our way. When we are working within our calling and as a tool we are the Lord’s agent. The Lord will measure our character when we aren’t required to do anything after being released from a calling. We need to learn how to be released just as much as being called. It is equally important to be more than an instrument and to be an agent by using our time wisely. We are a sloth if we have to be commanded or given a calling because we can’t act on our own. We must learn how to be both an instrument and an agent to be saved.

Our accountability begins at the age of eight. It is a process that we grow into over time. No one has the right to do wrong. We can surrender our agency but it can’t be taken away. We only have the right to make good decisions.

Being a good agent gives you power. Agency is very important, without it there would not be an atonement. We need to learn how to use our agency properly. We must prove to the Lord that we can be good instruments and good agents making good decisions. If we do so we will be given more power until we obtain eternal life.