Ask In Spirit

“And it shall come to pass that he that asketh in Spirit shall receive in Spirit; He that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh.” (D&C 46:28,30). All of us have prayed for things that did not come to pass in the way that we hoped. In fact, some of us may be more than a little discouraged with how low of a success rate our prayers seem to have. If there were some way that we could guarantee that our prayers would be answered in just the way that we asked, wouldn't most of us jump at the opportunity? It turns out that if we pray in the spirit, then, by definition, we will be asking according to the will of God, and if we ask according to the will of God, then it will be done even as we ask. It's as simple as that. Now, it is simple but it is not always easy. After all, even for Jesus it took Him three tries of praying “not mine but thy will be done” before the prayer was fully answered. But as hard as it might be in the beginning to understand or to accept God's will enough to fully pray in the spirit and ask according to God's will, it is possible for all of us to do so, no matter what challenges we each must face to do so. As we ask in the Spirit, we will receive in the Spirit. In the beginning, this may be as simple as asking God for the capacity to truly ask in the Spirit. And He will answer this prayer because it is according to His will that we ask by the Spirit. And the more we ask and receive in Spirit, the more we will convert our thoughts, desires, and wills from the temporal and the carnal to the spiritual. We will eventually pray only in Spirit and thus only according to God's will and thus all of our prayers will be answered because all of our prayers will be in harmony with God's will. Whatever fleeting and momentary pleasures we sacrifice as we let go of the parts of our will that run contrary to our Heavenly Father's will seem insignificant when compared to the peace and joy that comes from not only praying constantly but also having all of our prayers constantly being answered.