The Lord has promised every one of us the gift to be able to receive CONSTANT direction from the Holy Ghost. He's promised to help us in every aspect of our lives, if only we will let him.
The Lord helps us in our lives and answers our prayers if we:
- Pray and ask sincerely
- Repent. The faster you heed the Lord, the faster He will heed you
- Read the scriptures and obtain the spirit
- Make promises to do better in your problem areas
- Get rid of all doubt and anger in your heart
We live far below our possibilities in working with the Lord. We're too quick to turn to our own strength and not rely on him.
The Lord is speaking to us every day, wheter we hear his promptings or not -- to warn, help, strengthen, encourage us, fill us with joy and peace and help us overcome obstacles and challenges.
"Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be given unto you."
D&C 98:3 "...and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my names glory..."
If you really ldesirei something, and your desire is righteous, and you're asking according to the will of the Lord, he will grant you that desire if you will learn and obey the principles and laws that govern what you want.
If we are really worried about something, then so is the Lord. He will help us with any matter of real concern to us.
Our ability to receive answers to our prayers will increase as we prepare our hearts and minds to communicate with our Father in Heaven, and as we prepare ourselves, in turn, to receive from him.
How to prepare your mind and heart for prayer:
1. Have faith in Christ. When we have faith, we have access to his power. Do not rely on your own strength - trust in the Lord and rely on his strength.
You build faith by knowing:
- God listens to our prayers and answers them
- God lives and loves us and will give correct answers to all sincere prayers, no matter what the question is.
- We are children of God and servants of the Lord. We can pray as Samuel did: "Speak; for thy servant heareth."
- The Lord wants to answer our requests regardless of age, church position, etc.
Moroni 10:5 - "And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things."
2. Repent of your sins
- Repentance is a key element in obtaining blessings from the Lord
- The more worthy we are, the more we can approach the Lord with confidence and receive answers to our prayers
- It's often not enough to simply be "temple worthy"
- To the degree that we are willing to change and offer up our own sins, so that the Savior can cleanse us, we can vicariously affect events and other people. If we sacrifice and pay the price and if it is in accordance with the will of the Lord, we can receive what we righteously desire.
- D&C 5:28 - "...except he humble himself and acknowledge unto me the things that he has done which are wrong and covenant with me that he will keep my commandments and exercise faith in me, behold...he shall not receive the blessing he seeks."
- When we are humble, the Lord will guide us and answer our prayers
- D&C 12:10 - "Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers."
- 2 Nephi 32:5 - The Holy Ghost will "show unto you all things what ye should do."
- Alma 37:37 - "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings and he will direct thee for good."
- Sometimes the Lord requires you to move ahead, proceeding the best way you know how, before he will confirm your course.
- The more we keep the commandments, the more we'll be able to receive the blessings of the Lord, including answers to prayer
- The Lord typically requires obedience and sacrifice in return for blessings.
- Most sacrifice comes in the form of repentance. We give up the sins and bad habits that we so much want to cling to.
- You can repent enough of your own sins that, through your sacrifice, the Lord may intervene more on your childs life to get him better.
- By repenting of sins the Lord may be more willing to intervene on our behalf and answer our prayers.
- Through your agency and sacrifice, you are able to receive blesssings you otherwise would not be able to obtain.
- Always remember to pray to be subject to the will of the Lord in all things - as no matter what - the Lord's will will always be done.
- Increase your desire to talk to the Lord
- Seek to more fully align our desires with those of God and desire more fully to receive answers from him.
- You can't get answers to prayer when you have anger in your heart.
- This principle is true of ALL negative emotions -- lust, jealousy, covetousness, contention, revenge, bitterness, doubt, etc.
- Concentrating the mind on a problem helps to open us to the inspiration of the Lord.
- Faith is essential to receiving answers to prayer
When we are slow to hearken to the Lord, he is slow to hearken to us and our prayers.
If you want to increase the rapidity with which the Lord responds to you, you need to increase the rapidity with which you respond to the voice of the spirit.
If we want the Lord to respond quickly, we must be humble.
The Lord usualy speaks to us in quiet whisperings. If we are not in a quiet, still place when we approach him, we might not hear (or feel) his answers.
Kneel - kneeling shows our humility and dependence on the Lord.
Our minds need to be active and engaged if we hope to receive answers from the Lord.
If the direction or decision we have made is not right, he will give us a stupor of thought, which will cause us to forget that direction or decision we were pursuing.
There are conditions for the Lord to answer our prayers:
- must be believing
- we must abide in Christ and let his words abide in us
- we must keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight
- we must ask according to his will
- ask not amiss
- as which is right
- believe in Christ, doubting nothing
- ask that which is good, in faith believing we shall receive
- ask for that which is expedient for us
To ask the Lord to change events or circumstances is much more complicated. It may be that those circumstances are decreed to soerve purposes of the Lord that are unknown to you.
Pray vocally - there is something powerful in a vocal prayer.
At least 2x daily, morning and evening, we should kneel down and pour out our hearts to our father in heaven. Then do your obest to keep a prayer in your heart all day. We'll find ourselves in a better position to receive answers.
The best prayers are often filled with spaces of silence. We need to listen for the Father's responses. Stay on your knees for a few moments after the prayer.
We need to pray our way through each day, to pray over big things and little things - to check in and let the Lord know what we are feeling and doing. Then be open to any direction he desires to give us.
The Lord wants us to be a prayerful friend to him on good days as well as bad days.
The Lord will be involved in the specifics of your life if you invite him to be.
Joseph Smith - "Doubt and fear cannot reside in the mind of man at the same time as faith. One or the other will leave."
Believe that nothing is impossible with the Lord.
Do all that is in your power and let the Lord do the rest.
Pray as though everything depends on the Lord and work as though everything depends on you.
We must do all that is in our power and then let the Lord do the rest.
If prayers ar enot answered, we often have not sacrificed enough and thus the heavens cannot respond. Of course all these principles are subject to the overriding will of the Lord - he will always do what's best for us.
Often our prayers aren't answered b/c we didn't exercise enough faith - or they didn't have enough confidence in their ability to receive an answer, not necessarily that it wasn't the Lord's will.
Instead of trying to place the responsibility on the Lord when we don't get the answers we want ("it wasn't the will of the Lord"), we should learn to have confidence before him so we can "come boldly unto the throne of grace and receive the desires of our hearts."
How we can grow in confidence before the Lord:
- If we must ask according to the will of God, we can learn that will by revelation -- "by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things." - Moroni 10:5. You can know what the Lord's will is in any given situation.
- If we have faith in Christ, we can have confidence in the father b/c of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The atonement fills in the gaps where we lack.
- Confidence comes to those who fear the Lord
- Confidence before God comes as our hearts confirm that we are loved and approved of him
- Confidence comes as we receive the gift of charity and practice virtue
Pray for what's right - our prayers grow in power when we know where praying for things that are in accordance to God's will for us.
Be humble, accepting the Lord's will in all things. You must have a humble heart - being prideful will keep you from receiving answers. Part of humility is being willing to subject yourself to the will of the Lord, whatever it is.
Humbly say to the Lord, "According to my best understanding this is what I want, and I'm going to pray with all my heart to have it. but I know that I do not know all things (as though, Father, dost) and if there is something I don't understand about this, I cheerfully submit my will to thine."
Be filled with gratitude for the Lord's blessings - being filled with gratitude is one of the most important principles of receiving answer to prayer.
You have to work at it to discover him doing good for you, yet he's doing it constantly.
Any good that ever comes to us comes b/c of the mercy and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Father.
If we recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives, asking for blessings and rejoicing in the receipt of every good gift, then the Lord will respond better when we ask for blessings.
Pray in faith, believing you will receive. We must believe we will receive the thing we seek.
Mark 9 - "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
Utilize the fast: Fasting is a small sacrifice we offer in an effort to receive greater blessings from the Lord.
Be united with others: being unified in prayer brings more strength. Strength in the numbers praying brings increased power to your request. Get children to pray! They seem to have a channel right into heaven. they can help you receive an answer but it will also teach them that the Lord does answer prayers.
Pray for others: When we pray for others, we are obeying the 2nd great commandment - to loe our neighbors as ourselves. It's as important to pray specifically for others as it is for ourselves.
Pray for and with the spirit: The more the Holy Ghost can be with us, the more powerful our prayesr will be. The Holy Ghost can even help us to know wht to pray for.
Learn to recognize the promptings of the spirit: The Lord will guide you through the experience if you seek to follow the promptings he gives you. To know what is required of you - to know what to pray for, how much more faith you need, what you need to repent of, how to draw closer to the Lord.
The Lord will lead you through - you need to follow the promptings he gives you!
When we are praying, we will hear the voice much more easily.
It is generally felt more than it's heard (the spirit). If you are not calm and peaceful, you will not generally feel the words.
"...it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul."
When the spirit speaks, it is usually never in an audible voice that we hear. It usually speaks in feelings, thoughts, ideas and impressions.
The more we learn to pray throughout the day, the more the promptings will come and help us by inspiring us as to what to do.
The spirit can also give us guidance, direction, and answers through enlightening our minds.
Pray without ceasing - pray throughout the day, ever time a new problem arises.
If we ask over and over again like the scriptures say, we will receive.
Answers and blessings the Lord is willinlg to gives us (if we pray for them):
- Strength to overcome bad habits
- Comfort and peace of mind in trial - peace and assurance cannot coe from men - it comes from the Lord. It enables you to go ahead with your task or your life with assurance - even though you're short on facts - that everything will work out alright.
- To remove obstacles to righteous goals - the Lord is able to place his hand into difficult situations and turn them to our benefit - particularly when we ask him.
- To help humble hearts - a prayer to humble another and be touched by the spirit.
- To help us teach the truth with courage
- Prayer and a priesthood blessing - brethren can pray to know what to say in the blessing so they can speak the will of the Lord. It can help the sick person and his/her family have a witness of the truth of what's been said. It can help them have a feeling of peace and comfort. When one has a problem, if he will turn to the Lord and humble himself in the first instance - he is giving the greatest evidence of spirituality and faith. If we delay our reliance on the Lord, we may receive a lesser blessing. Sometimes the Lord will allow a priesthood holder to be an instrument in healing someone. Prayer can enable him to come to a knowledge of the Lord's will.
- Prayer for temporal assistance - the Lord will deliver those who pray in faith - he desires to bless us in every area of our life.
If we trulyl seek to serve the Lord, he will help us with our temporal problems.
It is the devil who teaches us not to pray - whatever the reason: "You're too tired." "You can do it tomorrow." etc.
Follow the promptings of the spirit and all will be well.
There are laws and conditions that govern all blessings. If you fulfill the law and the condition, the blessing will be yours (assuming its not against the will of the Lord).
The Lord can intervene and fill in the gaps where we lack as long as we are trying our best.
The atonement also assists us with our infirmities, not just saving us from our sins. He helps us qualify for the blessings we seek - that is called grace. We are saved through his grace - and he fills in the gaps where we lack as long as we are trying our best.
After we have done all in our power, the grace of God will intervene.
Children have great access to the heavens for getting blessings/prayers answered.
How do you qualify for the Lord's grace?
- Have faith - you can receive grace better by casting out doubts and fears and having faith in Christ.
- Repent and do good works - a repentant heart and good works are the very conditions required to have grace given to us. When we plead fervently in prayer for a blessing, the answer may be conditioned on repentance from our own personal sins more than any other factor.
- Be humble - his grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before him
- Do all in your power - it is by grace we are saved, after all we can do. Unless one has done all in his power, he cannot expect God to be manifest.
- Keep the commandments - you don't have to be perfect, but need to be keeping the commandments as best as you can.
Isaiah 55:8-9 - "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
If we are more open to the different ways that answers come, we will recognize the Lord's hand in our lives more - and that will build our faith so we can receive more answers.
If you're praying for something that really matters, you can count on the fact that the devil will get involved.
When you begin to pray for something that really matters, many times things get worse, not better.
He wants to see if we will serve and love him at any cost. He wants to see if we will continue in faith even if we don't receive the answer we had hoped for.
The blessing often comes after a trial of our faith and we have to persevere even through difficult times if we want to come to the answer we seek.
If a family is praying for what is honorable and right, they have every right to assume that the Lord will respond. He will either bless them with what they desire, or give some indication of why they cannot have it, or indicate that they oughth to quit praying for something they will not receive.
Dealing with unanswered prayers: What can we do to persist and not lose faith when answers don't come quickly?
The Lord answers ALL sincere prayers - the key is for us to discern how these answers come. We must not judge the Lord, nor should we harden our hearts when seemingly an answer has not come. Instead we need to trust the Lord and know he is answering our prayers in his own way and by his own means.
Ways to understand prayers that seem unanswered:
- Answers may come in unexpected ways
- Be prepared for increased opposition from Satan
- Be prepared for the Lord to test your faith - we have to persevere even through difficult times if we want to come to the answer we seek
- Sometimes the answer comes later - one of the problems we have is that we want our answers and we want them now. We often want the gift without doing the work to obtain it. Facing up to a "lion" (a really hard trial) will help us have courage.
- Sometimes the answer is unclear - sometimes the Lord knows that an unclear answer or delayed answer is exactly what we need for a time so we'll learn to exercise more faith. Even if an answer doesn't seem to come, the Lord will still communicate with you. He will give you comfort, yet not defeat his purpose of causing you to have more faith. He will give you sweet whisperings of assurance and give you confidence that he has heard your prayer, that he knows the situation and that if you will be patient, he will handle the whole matter.
- The Lord will do what is best for you. We are not always certain what he will do or not do, but we can trust him to do that which will be the greatest blessing to us.
- Believe - have faith, don't doubt, and do not have fear. Christ has the power to grant blessings and the desire to do so. Know that he will do what is best for us and that our prayers will be answered according to his will.
- Repent- "sacrifice and pay the price." Find what we need to change in our lives and then change it!
- Pray - pray as if everything depends on God. Through him we receive strength and power to endure to the end.
- Work - work as if everything depends on us.
- Prepare for intense trials - stand tall and strong in the face of all adversity - still keep believing and continue to press forward and pay the price. This will get you closer to receiving the blessings you seek. Endure the intense trials of your faith!
- Expect the arm of the Lord to be revealed - if you've done the things the Lord requires, you have full reason to believe the Lord will intervene and assist you.
Sometimes the Lord gives assurance, peace, faith, and hope and other gifts you need to deliver yourself instead of having a grand miracle.
This is often what we should ask for when we ask for help - not a miracle to solve our problem for us, but a miracle inside - to help us come to the solution ourselves with the Lord's help and the Lord's power.
