"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." (D&C 9:7)
What then are the prerequisites to receiving answers to our prayers? The counsel given to Oliver continues in this manner:
"But, 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." (D&C 9:8)
In the New Testament, the apostle James also teaches us a principle about prayer:
"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." (James 1:6-7)
In the Book Mormon, the prophet Alma defines what it means to have faith:
"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (Alma 32:21)
In some cases, having faith in something unseen and unproven can seem to be an almost impossible task. Alma, however, further explains that our fledgling faith can begin with simply a desire to believe which he describes as "a particle of faith."
"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." (Alma 32:27)
And, what is it that we should believe, or at the very least, desire to believe as the case may be? Here is an example of where we can begin:
"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." (Mosiah 4:9)
Some critics may counter that to exercise belief is merely setting oneself up to create false feelings from within our own minds simply because we expect them. On the other hand, those of us who have received a confirmation from the Holy Ghost in answer to prayer can testify that the feelings and sensations are, in most cases, quite different than what we anticipated. In some instances the confirmation has come not when we were praying but at a later time when we least expected it.
Such was the case with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. As a teenager he desired to receive a testimony of the gospel. One summer while participating in the Hill Cumorah Pageant near Palmyra, New York, he decided this was the time and place to ask in prayer.
“One night after the performance, I went to the Sacred Grove alone,” he remembers. “It was a beautiful summer evening. I entered the grove, and began to pray. I prayed very diligently for an hour, maybe more—and nothing happened.”
Nothing happened. He left disappointed at not having received the confirmation he was hoping for.
A month later though, as he was reading the Book of Mormon, this is what he experienced:
“Without my asking for it, the witness came,” he recalls. “It came without words, actually stronger than words, and I received a very powerful spiritual confirmation—the kind that leaves no doubt—about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith."
He further explained:
“Looking back on that experience, I realize that we can’t dictate to God when, where, or how He will speak to us. We just have to be open to receive what He disposes, when He disposes it. It comes according to His will, and it can come to us wherever we are.”
I recall a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Dr. Jones has to exercise incredible faith in order to cross a great chasm and save his father's life. The clue read, "Only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth." There was nothing to suggest that there was anything to prevent him from falling into the abyss. But believing, he took a step into the air and found that there was indeed an unseen support and a way to get across safely.
To anyone who still doubts or has not yet received an answer to prayer, may I share the words of Elder Jeffery R. Holland:
"What was once a tiny seed of belief for me has grown into the tree of life, so if your faith is a little tested in this or any season, I invite you to lean on mine. I know this work is God’s very truth..."
He, I and countless others have conducted the experiment of faith and traversed the seemingly uncrossable chasm and shown that there really is a God in heaven and truth in the gospel. A loving Heavenly Father is ready and waiting to answer our prayers. The important thing is to believe in the unseen and pray with faith in those things of which we have received a confirmation from our Heavenly Father.
