Faith and Miracles - Ether 12:12-18

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... Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after.... And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God.

This is an interesting statement - "... if there be no faith ... God can do no miracle ...". This statement would seem to imply that there is actually a limit to the power and ability of God. But I don't think that is what it means. The reason that God does no miracles without faith is because of His unwavering commitment to honor our agency - our freedom to choose. So it's not that He has no ability to perform miracles, but that if He were to do so it would violate the laws of agency and accountability.

Remember that the only way to truly destroy agency is to remove consequences, because without consequences it really doesn't matter what we choose. The destruction of agency via the dissolution of accountability was Satan's plan from the beginning. So God enforces accountability in order to preserve our agency. This includes the working of miracles.

It is also my opinion that God uses this pattern in order to teach us. Suppose He were to begin granting miracles to those without faith. It would be confusing to say the least. First of all, it would be teaching us that no belief nor action on our belief is necessary. It might also reinforce slothfulness or perverse actions.

There are many who have sought healings, blessings and other miracles who have shown great faith, and yet not seen those miracles come to pass. Remember that the promise is not that those with faith will see whatsoever miracle that they desire - but the promise is:

If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me. (Moroni 7:33)

We would do well to remember that faith must be established on God's will or it will never come to pass. I can say this definitively, because nothing will ever come to pass unless it is His will. So it behooves us to seek His will intently, and pay attention to the whisperings of the Spirit and the word of scripture so that our faith is not misdirected.

A final note of importance is that our faith must be placed in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation. Now I say in passing that there are so-called miracles that are wrought by the power of the devil. He can also transform himself to appear "nigh unto an angel of light". These works are not the works of God and are to be avoided at all costs. We should be wary that unless a miracle is performed by faith in Jesus Christ, it is not of God, and will lead to ruin. The test for all such things is outlined by Moroni. (Moroni 7:10-19)