Formula for Spiritual Growth

Behold a formula for spiritual growth through prayer:

But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.
--Alma 13:28-29

I see the following elements in this formula that apply to my life:

1. Humble myself. I must not wait to be compelled to be humble. I can choose to be humble. I can look for ways I am proud, resistant, and unteachable, and take positive steps voluntarily to surrender my pride and my weapons of rebellion.
2. Call upon God. This is more than trite prayer or a mindless postscript to an exhausting day. It is reaching deep into my soul to see what I am really made of and then offering it unto the Lord. It is acting as if I were coming into His presence.
3. Watch and pray continually. I must pay attention rather than drift mindlessly through the day on spiritual autopilot. Be thoughtful and deliberate in my actions, always guided by the Spirit, which shows me the Lord's will. And do things prayerfully. Undertake no task save in the first place I ask God to direct me and consecrate my actions for the benefit of my soul as well as the benefit of others. Just as calling upon God is a different level of prayer, praying continually is a different flow of prayer. There is no amen to a continuous prayer.
4. Let the Holy Spirit guide, which implies that I first ask for direction, then listen for it, note it when it comes, and obey it. Again, it is the surrendering of my will to God's and doing things His way.
5. Seek the following gifts of the Spirit: humility (teachable, open to direction, able to see and admit weakness, ready to accept help), meekness (accept others as they are and let them be right), submissiveness (give up my stubborn pride so I can follow the direction of the Spirit), patience (operate on God's timetable instead of insisting on my own), full of love and all long-suffering (care more about others than myself, bear with others' imperfections because I know they must bear with mine, see others through God's eyes).
6. Have faith on the Lord rather than in myself, knowing that I cannot save myself but am totally dependent on Christ as my Redeemer.
7. Have hope, which motivates me to continue in the face of constant and inevitable failure because I believe that in the end Christ will erase all sins, heal all wounds, and right all wrongs.
8. Have the love of God always in my heart. Be filled with charity, which is a gift from God for which I must pray diligently and with all my heart as if I were pleading for my very life—which, in fact, is exactly what I am doing.

Perhaps

Many years after the prophet Alma received a threatening message from an angel and turned his life around, the Lord sent him on a mission to call the Nephites to repentance. As he preached from city to city, he bore his witness of God's reality and of God's desire for the people to repent and turn to Him. Interestingly, he did not speak of his supernatural encounter with an angel as the basis for his faith and testimony. Instead, he spoke of the following conversion process:

Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.
--Alma 5:46

It was not a visit from a heavenly messenger that converted Alma. The angel got Alma's attention, but it was fasting and prayer that brought the change of heart into Alma's life. While the angelic visitation was dramatic, Alma's conversion required diligence and patience. Alma had to wait on the Lord.

Why does God sometimes delay His response to my prayers? Perhaps He is giving me time to prepare for the answer. Perhaps I need the time to hone and refine my request. Perhaps I haven't done all I can on my own yet to truly distinguish between my power and God's power. Perhaps I am not ready to appreciate the answer when it comes. Perhaps I have taken no thought about what I want except to ask. Perhaps the development of patience and endurance are more valuable blessings than the thing I ask for. 

Nevertheless, once I am prepared, specific, and humble, having expended my own best efforts, and learned patience, the answer comes. It may not be what I initially thought I wanted, but it is always what I truly need.

Prayer Unlocks Power

When the prophet Alma in the Book of Mormon began seeing waywardness and wickedness in his son, he turned to prayer to engage God in the struggle for his son's soul. In response to the faith-filled prayers of Alma and the people of the church, the Lord sent an angel to halt Alma Junior on the path to destruction. The young man recorded the words of the heavenly messenger thus:

And again, the angel said: Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to convince thee of the power and authority of God, that the prayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith.
--Mosiah 27:14

Prayers on behalf of others work. They unlock the power of God. They don't necessarily change God's will, but they have an impact. 

Things happen with prayer that might not happen or might happen differently without prayer. I do not understand completely how it works or why it works, but I am convinced by many evidences that prayer for others does indeed work.

Honest Prayer of the Heart

When a young man by the name of Alma rebelled against wicked King Noah, he gathered many followers to whom he preached the true gospel. Eventually this band of faithful believers had to flee from the unrighteous kingdom. After settling in a secluded valley where they could worship God unhindered, Alma's people were discovered and surrounded by the Lamanites. Alma's people were enslaved, and along with losing their liberty, they were forbidden to worship God. Anyone caught praying to God would be executed on the spot. 

The scripture records how the people responded to their oppression:

And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.
--Mosiah 24:12

The Lord heard these silent prayers and answered them initially with comfort and strength to endure. Eventually, God rescued these people and led them to a place of safety.

The thoughts of my heart are more than my superficial musings. They are what move and motivate me. They are who I am when no one is looking. They are the essence of my character. To pour out the thoughts or contents of my heart is to be completely honest and transparent. No posturing or pretending. An honest heart is a broken heart. 

Honesty in prayer is essential. God knows when I am honest and authentic. I don't have to sugar coat it for Him. If I am angry, He can take it. If I am depressed, He comforts me. If I am happy, He rejoices with me and sweetens my joy. He simply wants to be a part of whatever I am doing and however I am feeling. If I invite Him in, He can enrich every moment. And in the end, He will save me and lead me to a place of safety, even into His loving embrace.

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.

God Hears

The prophet Nephi foresaw the destruction that awaited his people. The picture was bleak indeed. In many ways, what Nephi saw in his people's future parallels the challenges we will face in the "last days." Nevertheless, Nephi offered a ray of hope to the faithful followers of Christ, even amidst the trials to come:

After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayers of the faithful shall be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten.

--2 Nephi 26:15

Despite everything that may seem to go wrong in my life, and though I feel abandoned and alone, if I stay faithful, my prayers shall be heard. My Father never ignores me. Although He might seem unreachable in the midst of my toughest trials, I remind myself that during a test in school, the teacher remains silent. But that doesn't mean the teacher is unaware of me or of the challenges of the test. God helps in times of trouble. Of that I am sure, of that I testify.

Have You Inquired of the Lord?

The prophet Lehi had received a marvelous vision about God's plan of salvation for the human family. He described his vision to his sons, Nephi believed his father, but Lehi's other son's, Laman, Lemuel, and Sam, struggled to understand. While Nephi went off and prayed about what he had heard, his brothers argued and bickered over the possible meanings of the vision. Nephi received his own revelation from God to enlighten him, but the others were stuck in their intellectual reasoning.

Nephi found his brothers bitterly disputing with each other. He asked them, "Have you inquired of the Lord?" Their answer was, "No, God doesn't talk to us. He won't respond to our questions." Nephi then taught his brothers a truth about prayer that he had learned for himself:

Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.
--1 Nephi 15:11

In his response to his brothers' quandary, Nephi provides us with a formula for receiving revelation as an answer to prayer. 

The first step is to not harden our hearts. A hard heart is one that denies the possibility that God will hear and answer. Such a heart denies the need for God. It's closed in on itself, becoming impenetrable and unyielding. A hard heart is a willful decision to reject God and His spirit. It is the stony ground on which any seed of truth withers and dies before it has a chance to take root. To get an answer to our prayers, our hearts must be soft, pliable, open, accepting, willing to take what comes and consider the possibility that God has something to offer. We prepare our hearts through diligent searching of the word of God and nurturing the seeds that land within us. When we choose God, He cultivates our hearts and prepares them to be expanded. 

The second step is to ask. Asking is a commandment. We must ask to put ourselves in a position to receive consciously and with thanksgiving. Learning what to ask attunes us to the revelatory process. We learn what God wants to give us, and we know what to expect so we recognize the answer when it comes. The asking is not for God, who already knows our needs; it is for us to identify our true needs as God sees them in His infinite wisdom and goodness. Asking shows our willingness to receive and exercises our agency in alignment with God's will. If we don't ask, we won't receive. 

The third step is to exercise faith. Faith is to act on an unseen outcome. It is moving forward even when the path is not clear with the assumption that clarity will come when we need it. It is confidence and trust in an answer that has not yet been granted but will surely come. It propels us into the unknown with the assurance that it will be knowable at the right time. Faith is trusting in the goodness of God and the wisdom of His timing. 

The fourth step is believing that God will deliver on His promises. Believing is patient waiting. It is not wishing. It is hopeful expectation, an extension of our faith. We sincerely and honestly anticipate the answer we asked for. Believing enables us to wait without despair, to watch diligently, to be ever ready. 

The final step is to diligently keep the commandments. When we obey what we already know, we show our readiness to receive and obey more. We keep ourselves attuned to the Holy Spirit. Our receiver is dialed in and ready to accept the answers when they come. We align ourselves with God's will and make room in our hearts to receive more of His will and wisdom. Thus, the answer we receive will be a step in the direction we are already headed rather than an abrupt about face. 




 




When we follow Nephi's formula, the promised blessings of knowledge and revelation will come just as surely as combining hydrogen with oxygen produces water.