Do you believe God wants to talk to you directly, not through another man? In this blog post, I will present why I support that God wants to talk to you even if others are praying for you.
Authentically Pray – God Wants to Talk to You
Could it be possible all the challenges and weaknesses you have are to motivate you to authentically pray because God wants to talk to you directly? Is it possible that learning to communicate directly with God is of greater benefit to you than depending on a bishop, other priesthood authorities, or any man?
God Wants to Talk to You Directly
You can be certain He wants to talk to you because if God spoke directly to Cain after he killed Abel, he is willing to talk to all men…
“Not only was there a manifestation made unto Adam of the existence of a God, but Moses informs us, as before quoted, that God condescended to talk with Cain after his great transgression in slaying his brother, and that Cain knew that it was the Lord that was talking with him, so that when he was driven out from the presence of his brethren, he carried with him the knowledge of the existence of a God: and through this means, doubtless his posterity became acquainted with the fact that such a being existed.”
LoF 2:27-32
Education or special positions is not necessary
You don’t need an education, a special position, or priesthood keys to effectively communicate with God. Additionally, you don’t need to pray following certain rules or etiquette. All you need to do is to authentically pray to talk to God.
What is it like to hear God’s voice?…
One way to hear God’s voice is when he softens your heart like when he softened the heart of an ancient man named Nephi…
I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father.
1 Ne. 1:9
A second way and the most common way to hear God’s voice is through a dialogue that comes into your mind that can be recognized as thoughts that “popped or flowed into your mind” from a higher source than yourself.
Learning to identify where your thoughts were generated from…
Because there are two sources where thoughts can be generated from:
- Love generated thoughts from God
- Fear generated thoughts from the adversary
It is important to learn to identify the difference between the two!
It is trickier than you think to tell the difference between the two because the adversary and his associates are very good at deceiving people by pretending to be loving light beings in order to achieve evil purposes. I explain in more detail about the confusion the adversary skillfully and sneakily imposes in my blog post titled, “What Influences Your Thoughts – Two Things” if you would like to learn more about this.
What wrestling has to do with prayer
I think it is accurate to say God is pleased when we wrestle while praying. A man named Enos describes his experience wrestling with God in the following paragraph…
And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God before I received a remission of my sins. … And there came a voice unto me, saying, Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee and thou shalt be Blessed. … And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.
Enos 1:1
Wrestling displays confidence, humility, and discipline.
The role of scriptures and God wants to talk to you
The scriptures can answer many of our questions. For this reason, when building communication lines with God, regular study of the scriptures works hand in hand with prayer.
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. 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. But if it be not right, you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong.
JSH Part 13 (April 1829):26
I read scriptures at scriptures.info
If you don’t find an answer, after wrestling to find it, tell God the details about the time you have spent wrestling, and then ask him to help you.
I often receive more knowledge than what I inquired about making the wrestle with God well worth the time.
5 things to increase your confidence that God wants to talk to you
Additionally, the following 5 things can increase your confidence that God wants to talk to you.
- Be curious, seek truth. And be curious by seeking to know the mysteries of God. “Ask that you may know the mysteries of God” T&C 3:3
- Begin to pray in the morning and resume your prayer when you have breaks throughout the day. I believe this is what it means to pray always.
- Say your prayers crying to God. If you would like to learn more about “crying out” when praying, see this blog post link.
- Sometimes when there is silence, it can mean it is your choice to choose. And when choosing, if you make a mistake, you most likely needed the experience to learn something. OR you may get the answer you were seeking and hoping for because you had the faith to move forward on your own incentive although there was a risk of error. It may be an opportunity for God to lovingly teach you something you needed to learn from making a mistake. We learn best through experiences including when we make mistakes.
- The answers to your questions will almost always be “yes.” However, sometimes there is a period of preparation to get you ready for the answer and how long that takes depends on how many repairs you need. This repair process is a “one step at a time” process. God is not interested in speedy results, he is interested in eternal results.
Conclusion -God wants to talk to you
If you didn’t believe God wants to talk to you, I hope after reading and beginning to apply these things, you do believe, or that at least you are one step closer to believing!
Top Featured Photo by Katie Drazdauskaite
