Giving Voice to My Prayers

Joseph Smith had completed the translation of the Book of Mormon, with Oliver Cowdery acting as scribe. The manuscript was ready for publication. Joseph had located a printing establishment in the nearby town of Palmyra, New York, under the proprietorship of E. B. Grandin. The printer was dubious about the project. If the book did not sell, Grandin would not make a profit. And so, he asked Joseph to put up the cost of the printing as surety. Grandin would have his money for the job regardless of the sales potential of Joseph's "gold bible." 

Joseph turned to Martin Harris. Contemplating mortgaging his farm (over his wife's vehement protests) to raise the money, Martin wanted assurance that Joseph's request was a commandment from God. Joseph received the revelation now known as Section 19 in the Doctrine and Covenants as God's reply. Martin got more than he bargained for, but it is a marvelous gift to the Church of Jesus Christ. The revelation speaks of the power of Christ, the requirement for all people to repent, Christ's suffering that accompanied the Atonement, a commandment to preach the gospel to the world, and a specific directive to Martin Harris to stop coveting his own property and provide Joseph with the money for the printer.

Among the general commandments given to Martin and applicable to all is this verse about prayer:

And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private.
--Doctrine and Covenants 19:28

Prayers in all forms and in all places are not only acceptable to the Lord but are a commandment. Praying with others is as much a part of our prayer life as praying alone. Leading others in prayer is a form of sharing our faith. Our prayers may be instructive to those who hear us when we are sincere, humble and honest, practicing no hypocrisy. Those who are weak in prayer may be strengthened by our prayers.  

The combination I struggle with is private vocal prayer. I am satisfied that God hears the prayers in my heart, which I speak aloud in my head but not with my mouth. I live in my head, and that is where my prayers resonate. I have not been able to get comfortable with sending them out into the still air around me. Yet, I have been told that additional power is to be found in speaking private prayers out loud. 

I can only assume God wants us to speak aloud for good reason. Perhaps I just need to take this principle on faith and watch for the fruits. This may be one more piece to the puzzle of why I feel like I have not fully given my whole heart to God. Perhaps the piece I have never been able to let go of is vocal prayer.

Conqueror

The exact timing of the first part of Section 10 of the Doctrine and Covenants is sketchy, but it was during the period of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith had loaned the first 119 manuscript pages of the translation to Martin Harris to show his wife and try to win her support. Martin subsequently

lost the manuscript. Joseph was inconsolable over the loss, not only because he had let the sacred writings out of his hands, but because the Lord had warned him twice not to let Martin have the pages. When it was evident that the one and only copy of the manuscript would not be recovered, Joseph inquired of the Lord what he should do. 

In response, Joseph received this revelation from God. The young prophet had an important lesson to learn about men and about Satan through this experience. A part of this heaven-sent lesson included this commandment about prayer:

Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.
--Doctrine and Covenants 10:5

Because Satan is unrelenting in his attacks upon us, we must we constant in our defenses. Prayer is the link that holds the whole armor of God together for us. 

When I fail to pray, for whatever reason, I give the devil an opening, an unprotected place where he can slip in a thin blade of temptation, a barb of jealousy, a dart of greed, an arrow of anger. Constant prayer cinches up my armor and closes any gaps. 

The devil hates to hear me pray because he knows I am prepared to meet him, and I am forcing him into a corner. He has no problem overcoming me alone with the natural man ever at work from the inside on my defenses. It is quite another thing, however, when he has to face me and the Lord. I cannot conquer Satan by myself, but with God's help—His enabling grace—we can together defeat the adversary and come off conqueror.

Prayer's Preparation

Oliver Cowdery wanted to do more than simply take dictation from Joseph Smith as the prophet translated from the gold plates. Oliver wanted to be the one to translate and let Joseph be the scribe. Christ gave Oliver the opportunity to try. The results of his attempts disappointed Oliver. Joseph inquired of the Lord for Oliver what had gone wrong. The answer, in part, follows:

Behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
--Doctrine and Covenants 9:8

The usual interpretation of this verse is that Oliver didn't go about the translation process correctly. He should have studied the engravings on the plates, come to a decision about what he thought they meant, and then pray and ask God if his translation was correct.

While I don't dispute this rendition, I think the Lord was also talking about something more generally applicable regarding prayer. In the preceding verse, God 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.
--Doctrine and Covenants 9:7

In other words, Oliver had made no preparations to translate other than to simply ask God for permission. Joseph Smith had prepared himself for four years since he first learned that the plates existed. He was tutored by a heavenly messenger. And Oliver thought he could just jump in and start translating?

Further, Oliver hadn't really thought about his request. Verse 8 says that he should have studied his request out in his mind, counted the cost, and determined if this was really a good idea before taking it to the Lord for confirmation. Had he prepared better to make his request, the Holy Ghost could have revealed to him whether his desired course of action was in harmony with God's will.

Effective prayer requires preparation. We must do our homework. God has given us agency, intelligence, judgment, and the Light of Christ. One of our purposes in mortality is to learn to use these faculties. 

If the Lord handed us everything with no effort on our part, we would not develop the capabilities He wants us to have. When we have expended our efforts, He will tell us when we have it right or nudge us in a better direction if we have it wrong. We will know we have it right by the unmistakable feeling of assurance and peace that comes in answer to prayer.

Be Careful What You Ask For

Shortly after beginning his service as scribe to Joseph Smith in the work of translating the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery wanted to take a turn at translation. He asked Joseph to inquire of the Lord, and the following is part of the answer he received:

Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith. Trifle not with these things; do not ask for that which you ought not.
--Doctrine and Covenants 8:10

Oliver surely thought his request was righteous. He wanted to be a greater help to Joseph and to be even more directly engaged in the work. I suspect, however, that a bit of pride may have also been a motivation for Oliver's wanting to translate. He was an educated man, a school teacher. He may have thought that his command of the English language would enable him to provide more beautiful and fitting language in the translation than the nearly illiterate farm boy Joseph could produce. 

Part of Christ's answer to Oliver was this warning. Make sure you are coming from a place of faith and not pride. And be careful what you ask for. 

So, how do I know what to ask for, and what not to ask for? I start by praying to know what to pray for. The Holy Ghost can reveal to me the prayers I should pray.

I do not (or should not) pray to change God's mind. Rather, I pray to align my mind with His. He has blessings He wants to give me, but He gives only in accordance with my agency and desires. If I can learn what God plans to give me, and ask for that thing, He will gladly grant it to my profit. 

If I am stubborn and self-willed and ask for what I want with my short-sighted and imperfect perspective, God may still answer my petition, but to my deficit instead of to my profit. Mercifully, He usually dismisses my wayward pleas with a gentle No.

Prayer Initiates Personal Revelation

Shortly after Oliver Cowdery began his labors as scribe while the Prophet Joseph Smith translated the engravings on the gold plates into the Book of Mormon, Oliver wanted a witness from God that the translation was true and that Joseph was a true prophet. Oliver had already received an answer to prayer about the authenticity of the plates and Joseph's mission before he had met the young prophet. Now that he was fully engaged in the work, however, Oliver wanted more divine reassurance. Joseph inquired of the Lord through the Urim and Thummim and received an answer. Jesus Christ, speaking through Joseph, gave Oliver the following promise:

And if thou wilt inquire, thou shalt know mysteries which are great and marvelous; therefore thou shalt exercise thy gift, that thou mayest find out mysteries, that thou mayest bring many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, convince them of the error of their ways.
--Doctrine and Covenants 6:11

God is willing to reveal great and marvelous truths to His children. He is not trying to hide anything from anyone. God does not work in secret. To initiate the revelatory process, however, we must inquire of the Lord. In other words, I must ask a question before God gives an answer. If I don't ask, He doesn't speak. God's mysteries don't have to remain mysteries to me, provided I really want to know something. 

I am aware, however, that God is economical. He won't reveal something to me that He has already revealed to ancient or modern prophets and they have written it down for me to study. I must do my homework. If I get to the end of the road in my study and find the answer has not yet been revealed, and if it's important to my salvation for me to know, God will reveal the knowledge I need. But only if I first ask. If I do not invite revelation, God will not force His knowledge upon me.

Humble and Sincere

In March, 1829, while Joseph Smith was working on the translation of the engravings on the gold plates that would be published a year later as the Book of Mormon, Martin Harris, Joseph's friend and benefactor, wanted to see the plates for himself. He had already given Joseph money to support him in the work, and he would soon invest even more money in the printing of the book. Not only did Martin have doubts about the authenticity of Joseph's claim to have gold plates, Martin's wife Lucy was bitterly opposed to her husband's involvement with Joseph. Martin wanted an unassailable witness that he could bear to his accusing wife. Martin asked Joseph to inquire of the Lord whether he (Martin) could be granted a glimpse of the plates.

God's response to Joseph's inquiry is recorded in Section 5 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of revelations received primarily by Joseph Smith, and considered scripture by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. God explained to the young prophet what Martin needed to do to receive what he wanted:

Behold, I say unto him, he exalts himself and does not humble himself sufficiently before me; but if he will bow down before me, and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see.
--Doctrine and Covenants 5:24

The response to Martin was simple. The answer is still simple today to me and anyone who wants an answer to prayer. 

A month later, Martin humbled himself sufficiently, and together with David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, the Angel Moroni showed Martin the plates of the Book of Mormon, and the voice of God pronounced Joseph's translation true and correct.

Answers to prayer come when we are humble and sincere.

No Greater Witness

Moroni, son of Mormon, has received the compiled history of the Nephite people from his deceased father. Alone and hunted by the enemy that has wiped out the entire Nephite nation, Moroni spends precious time to record a final message to the future readers of the book he is charged to protect. In the remaining space on the gold plates, before he bears his final testimony of Jesus Christ, Moroni engraves these words:

And when ye shall receive these things, I would 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.
--Moroni 10:4-5

If Joseph Smith, the translator of the Book of Mormon, was a fraud, this promise of a witness from God would be the most audacious, outlandish, bold-faced lie ever perpetrated on the public. Joseph was either a lunatic or a prophet. 

The author of these words lays it all on the line. He invites us not to take his word for it nor to rely on the words of any other human. He says we should go to God and put it in His hands. He was confident of the outcome. 

Millions have put this promise to the test and have found it to be true. I have tested the Book of Mormon, and in answer to my sincere prayers, God has told me it is true. What greater witness do I need than from God?