Vocal Prayer: Singing with the Music

In 1838, Joseph Smith wrote in his own words a description of the events that led to what has become known as his "First Vision". In this vision, Joseph saw and spoke with God the Father and His Beloved Son Jesus Christ. It was the opening of a new dispensation of the Gospel of Christ and eventually led to the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

The Prophet Joseph's miraculous experience began with a question and a prayer. His question was: Which church should I join? After attending several churches and listening to the preachers contradict each other, he decided his only course was to pray and ask God. He wrote:

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.
--Joseph Smith - History 1:14

The inference in this statement is that Joseph had prayed silently, perhaps many times, for an answer to his question about religion, but this was his first audible, vocal prayer. He does not say why he had not used vocal prayer before, not does he explain why he decided to speak out loud this time. What we know, however, is that the results were different for his vocal prayer than for his previous silent prayers. 

From the narrative, we can assume that the urgency and sincerity of this latest prayer was intensified. Perhaps Joseph had heard ministers and others offer powerful vocal prayers in the various congregational meeting he had attended. Or perhaps the power of the emotions in his heart simply could not be contained but could find full expression only in his audible voice.

I have wanted answers desperately enough to cry aloud to the heavens and raise my voice to break the silence around me. God does not need to hear my voice. He knows my every thought and hears every silent prayer. But sometimes I may need to hear my own voice. While I can hear songs in my head and play the music in my ears, sometimes there is no substitute for singing along. 

Mighty Prayer

One of my great prayer heroes is the prophet Enos in the Book of Mormon. Enos was a good man raised by a good father. As he grew up in a righteous home, Enos surely said his daily prayers, read the scriptures, and attended worship services. Yet, he felt he was missing something in his life. He wanted to be more than an "active" believer, he wanted to be truly converted. And so, he turned to prayer. But not the simple, standard, run-of-the-mill prayer he was used to.

And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.
--Enos 1:4

God heard Enos's mighty prayer and answered it in a direct and inspiring way.

Mighty prayer is powerful prayer. Mighty prayer taps into the power of God to change me in profound ways—ways that I could never accomplish on my own under my own power. 

In mighty prayer, I turn myself, my problems, my weaknesses and my failures over to God. I reach up to put my puny hand in His mighty hand. I stop trying to do it myself, run my own life, achieve my own goals. I admit that I are powerless to accomplish the impossible things God expects of me. 

In mighty prayer I hold nothing back, make no excuses, blame no one but myself. If I can put everything on the altar, including and especially the natural man with all his pride and selfishness and stubbornness and rebellion, and beg and beseech God in genuine sincerity to take it all away and do with me what He will, I am offering a mighty prayer. 

I do not just whip out a mighty prayer in five minutes before I fall asleep at the end of the day or in a brief, rote recital of repetitious 'thanks' and 'pleases' before I rush out the door in the morning. Though God wants to hear from me daily and is pleased with my efforts to communicate with Him, He yearns for mighty prayer to open the door to His real power. 

He is a mighty God who wants to use His might in my behalf. Mighty prayer is the key to unlock God's power in my life. If I want to change, mighty prayer is the mechanism to engage the power I need. God will change me if I cry to Him in mighty prayer.

Access to God

The prophet Jeremiah wrote these words from the Lord to an apostate and conquered Israel to give them hope that their days of slavery in Babylon would come to an end: 

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
--Jeremiah 29:13

Seventy years later, when the people of Israel had repented and truly sought the Lord, their prayers were heard, and they were released from captivity to return to Jerusalem.

Prayer gives us access to God.It is how we seek and search for Him. And His promise is that when we seek Him, we will find Him. He will not hide Himself from us. 

Our seeking, however, cannot be casual or occasional or whimsical. A half-hearted search will yield nothing. We rarely just stumble upon God while we are going about our daily business. He reveals Himself only when we have set our hearts upon Him. He is not a part-time God, and He is not looking for part-time disciples. He wants more than our words, our money, or even our time. He wants our hearts, our affections, our whole-souled attention. Because He knows only a sincere and determined seeker will gain the full benefit of His grace. He wants to save and exalt us, and that requires the whole person, body, mind, and heart. When we are baptized, we don't just baptize the foot, the hand, or the head: we are baptized completely, every part, fully immersed. Not a strand of hair or the tip of a big toe can remain above the water. We must be all in. 

And so it is with seeking the Lord, and so it must be with prayer. We must be all in with God, fully invested in our search, totally absorbed in our seeking. Only when our heart and soul are fully involved will we realize the sure and glorious promise that God can be found. 

As Elder Russell M. Nelson taught the brethren of the priesthood in General Conference a few years ago:
"Now, if all of this sounds excessive, please consider how different our relationships with our wife, children, and associates at work would be if we were as concerned about gaining priesthood power as we are in progressing at work or increasing the balance in our bank account. If we will humbly present ourselves before the Lord and ask Him to teach us, He will show us how to increase our access to His power" (see "The Price of Priesthood Power", General Conference, April 2016).

It is a challenge of mortality to be totally focused all the time. Our bodies, the people around us, and the temporal demands of daily living require our attention, too. Jesus did not sequester Himself in a monastery to pray every minute of every day. He went about among the people doing good, and God expects no less of us. Nevertheless, Christ's heart was always focused on the Father and His will, even in the mundane tasks of daily living. 

God wants us to do the same. He doesn't want us to stop living, but He wants us to live for Him. Prayer is the key, the secret sauce, to living a God-directed life. When we seek Him first and foremost, we find Him, and once we find Him and let Him in, He can direct is and guide us for good, indeed for the most good.