“No father would send His children off to a distant, dangerous land for a lifetime of testing where Lucifer was known to roam free without first providing them with a personal power of protection. He would also supply them with means to communicate with Him from Father to child and from child to Father.” To believe anything less than this is to deny the powers of God and his love for each and every one of his children.
God provided every one of His children sent to earth with the Spirit of Christ, or the Light of Christ. We were never to be alone unless we chose to be separated from God. Those who sought guidance and a redemption of their sins could receive it upon their request and their willingness to keep God’s commandments to the best of their ability.
What does God want us to know? He wants all his children to learn all there is to know about His great plan for their happiness and success in this life (Alma 42:8). By keeping His commandments we are prepared to make known to God the desires of our heart and receive counsel and guidance from Him.
God has given to each of His children a power called agency by which the child is allowed to determine what and who he will worship and what he will become. No one is ever forced as to what he will believe and who, if any, he will serve. We are free to seek an understanding of Christ’s Atonement so that our mistakes can be washed away, and our mortal body restored to its perfect frame after death.
To make this possible, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, woman, and child that they might come to know good from evil. That which is good is of God and it will restore to each faithful child the powers and blessings of God. That which is evil, can bring us only sorrow, suffering and future regrets. It is by the Holy Spirit that we can come to know even the “deep things” of God.
A fullness of the knowledge of God is available only to those who have come to him that they might be cleansed of their sins by baptism, and then receive through confirmation the gift of the Holy Ghost which is as Internet between man and God. It is the Holy Ghost that carries our prayerful messages to God and then delivers to us, His answers.
“That sweet, quiet voice of inspiration comes more often as a feeling than it does as a sound. The Holy Ghost communicates with our spirits through our mind more than through our physical senses. The Holy Ghost communicates with us through the voice we are most familiar with; that being our own. We are more likely to understand messages delivered in our own language than those made known to us through the language of another.
Not even with regular communications between ourselves and God can we expect to always have a life free from troubles, disappointments, and pain. We were sent to this earth to experience both sickness and health, light and darkness, pleasure and pain and both happiness and sadness. Dealing with these vast differences with the help of God, we prepare ourselves to survive and even prosper under different cultures, people and situations.
Jesus taught the people to “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you” (D&C 88:63). We must make the effort to initiate a conversation with God, and it need not be just when we are facing a mental or physical crisis. We can, and should seek him, when things are going well, as when we have dire need of his help. We can always seek God, if for no other reason, we desire only to express our gratitude for his many blessings and miracles in our life.
These sacred communications between man and God are intended to enable the faithful and obedient to discover, through prayer, the powers and glories of heaven and how we might be granted approval to exercise them in righteousness.
Often, it is not sufficient to merely ask for the desires of our heart. Rather, we must ponder and pray that our desire might be magnified until they worthy of God’s attention. Jesus has said, “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it is not right you shall have no such feelings” (D&C 9:7-9).
Thus we must learn how to pray. We must pray often. Pray in your mind as well as vocally. Pray in your heart. Pray on you knees, or while you are in bed, or as you are laboring. Prayer is our personal key that unlocks the doors of heaven. The lock is on our side of the veil separating man from God. We have the key and we have access to the lock that will open the doors of heaven when we seek knowledge with real intent.
I ask each of you that when you have read these things, “I exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart; with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”
I pray, but nothing ever seems to happen to me. Why is this. What would Mormons do that I don't do.
ReplyDeleteJH
Josh,
ReplyDeleteYou are as entitled to have your prayers answered as is any Mormon. Your personal relationship to God, as one of his children, is the same. The only advantage a Mormon may have is that he or she has been praying most of their lifetime if they were born in the Church and since they were introduced to the Church if they are a convert.
The trouble with most of our prayers, Mormon or otherwise, is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries--we place our order and hang up and wait for the delivery. One must meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as "one man speaketh to another." If prayer is a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish; for you are thinking only of yourself and we come to think of God as nothing more than a repairman or service agency to help us only in our emergencies. Prayers that ascend to heaven multiple times a day seeking assistance and help for others as well as ourselves, in pure honesty,expressing deeply felt gratitude, holding nothing back are received and acted upon differently than those that come only when there is a desperate cry for help. Studying the scriptures (the word of God) prior and after prayer puts us in a frame of mind that promotes sincere prayer. Express your love to God and for all that he has done for you even the little things that so often go unnoticed; except that God notices them.
Prayer is a communication process that must be learned and practiced on a daily basis until the heavens truly open before your and God pours out a blessing that you will not have room enough to receive.
I hope this helps.
T