Inquire of the Lord

One great purpose of prayer is to inquire of the Lord. To inquire is simply to seek information. Thus, prayer is the doorway to revelation. Unless we ask, God does not answer. He may entice us, and He may even drive us, but He does not force Himself upon us without our consent. We consent when we pray.

One of many examples of inquiring of the Lord found in the scriptures is Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, the covenant son of Abraham. When she had conceived and her form began to fill out, she realized she was carrying twins. Not only was she going to have twins, the two babies already seemed to be at odds with each other in the womb. We read:

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord.
-- Genesis 25:22

We can ask God anything. He rarely answers "why" questions, however. In this case, Rebekah's question was not so much, "Why do I have twins?" but "What does this in utero struggle mean for the future of my children?" The Lord revealed to Rebekah that her two quarreling boys would be the progenitors of two separate and distinct nations, and most importantly, the older brother (and his posterity) would serve the younger (see Genesis 25:23), meaning the younger of the two would carry the Abrahamic covenant. The first of the babies to enter the world was named Esau, and the second was named Jacob, whom the Lord would eventually rename Israel.

God's favorite questions to answer are "what" and "who", as in "what do you want me to do?" (see 1 Sam 3:9-10) and "who do you want me to help?" (for example, see 1 Kings 17). Other questions He seems happy to answer are "How do I need to change in my life?" (see John 3:1-21). and "What lack I yet?" (See Matthew 19:20). Another good question is "How do you want me to do such and such?" (1 Nephi 17:9).

We learned from Oliver Cowdry's experience, however, that proper inquiry requires proper preparation. The Lord chastised Oliver, "you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me." (Doctrine and Covenants 9:7) God expects us to do our homework. We have to exhaust the resources He has already given us and stretch our intellect before our inquiry will bear fruit. We are totally dependent on God, but He does not want us to be weak. He wants powerful people. He will provide the power, but only after we have stretched and grown and increased our capacity to receive His power.

I believe every prophet learned to inquire, and every revelatory experience came from a question. Joseph Smith experienced the opening vision of this new dispensation because he had a question, "Which church should I join?" (see Joseph Smith-History 1:18). Virtually every revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants came as an answer to an inquiry. The Brother of Jared's marvelous revelation came because he needed to know how to solve a problem of providing light in sealed barges (see Ether 3:1-6). Moses needed to know how to get the children of Israel across the Red Sea (see Exodus 14:15-16). Nephi wanted to know what his father's dream of the tree of Life meant (1 Nephi 11:1). President Kimball wanted to know if the traditional policy of excluding men from the priesthood based on race was still necessary (see Official Declaration 2).

And so it is with us. Though we are ordinary people, we are not ordinary in the Lord's eyes. We are all His children whom He wants to bless, teach, and enlighten. Like Rebekah, Nephi, the brother of Jared, Elijah, Moses, Joseph Smith, and Spencer W. Kimball, if we are troubled by something, we can inquire of the Lord. If we ask the right question with real intent to act on the answer, and if we have done our homework, God will answer in clear and unequivocal tones. We will know He loves us.