Prayer by revelation
At the dedication of the Kirtland Temple (yesterday) I looked at the marvelous outpouring of spiritual gifts and the visitations of angels; I touched on such a small part of all that happened, recorded in the personal accounts of those who were blessed to be there.
One thing that surprised many was that the dedication prayer given by the Prophet was something he read, not spoke extemporaneously. He had taught them to pray from the heart, to follow their feelings. He said of this prayer, that it had been revealed to him. God had made known to him what to say to God. Did that mean that there was a set prayer to dedicate a temple, such as there was for blessing the sacrament? Not at all. Every dedicatory prayer of every temple in the world since has followed that pattern: it has been given by revelation and it has spoken to the circumstances of that place and time. It has also reflected the prophet or apostle offering it--I don't think you can mistake the unique humility in which President Kimball approached the Lord on those occasions.
In revealing what this prayer of dedication contained, God was saying, this is what to put before Me, to line out and put upon the altar. I know your sacrifice. In your pleadings, this is what I am ready to give to you; I am instructing you to ask, and how to ask. In your accounts of distress, this is how I cast them and acknowledge them, and how I will answer them. Through this, you can see them as I see them for you. In the solemn petitions for the powers and gifts of God to go with those who will be called to go bring the message of the Restoration to the world, we see the promise that it will be so. The Lord is giving the knowledge of what He is waiting to give in fact. Ask, I am ready to bless.
In one matter, the answer is immediate, coming while they are still there in their seats. The Prophet prays,
We too can be shown what to pray. He will give us the guidance to bring the right things before Him: to know that we should ask--for this--He is ready to bless. It becomes a tutoring process, where we discover what He would line out for us.
One of the many simple, transforming moments of my life was hearing Truman Madsen offer, with his gentle smile, the comment that you can pray for help to know what to pray for. You can have inspiration in that as well as in anything else, and it will help you. We were having a small family fireside in his home. I volunteered to offer our closing prayer that night, and with his comment in mind I said a quick silent prayer that I would have guidance in speaking in prayer for the group. I felt the Spirit touch me and help the words I chose, and I had a new understanding, just barely beginning to open, of how prayer could be more than kind-of blind hope, waiting for later to find out an answer, but could be spiritually informed. How to listen within the process of talking to my Heavenly Father. How to trust and learn to respond to those so-quiet nudges in the right direction, and as I went to find where He wanted me to go. An understanding that would save my life, in every way that mattered, later. I was blessed to learn how to seek, and how to find. And how to remember.
One thing that surprised many was that the dedication prayer given by the Prophet was something he read, not spoke extemporaneously. He had taught them to pray from the heart, to follow their feelings. He said of this prayer, that it had been revealed to him. God had made known to him what to say to God. Did that mean that there was a set prayer to dedicate a temple, such as there was for blessing the sacrament? Not at all. Every dedicatory prayer of every temple in the world since has followed that pattern: it has been given by revelation and it has spoken to the circumstances of that place and time. It has also reflected the prophet or apostle offering it--I don't think you can mistake the unique humility in which President Kimball approached the Lord on those occasions.
In revealing what this prayer of dedication contained, God was saying, this is what to put before Me, to line out and put upon the altar. I know your sacrifice. In your pleadings, this is what I am ready to give to you; I am instructing you to ask, and how to ask. In your accounts of distress, this is how I cast them and acknowledge them, and how I will answer them. Through this, you can see them as I see them for you. In the solemn petitions for the powers and gifts of God to go with those who will be called to go bring the message of the Restoration to the world, we see the promise that it will be so. The Lord is giving the knowledge of what He is waiting to give in fact. Ask, I am ready to bless.
In one matter, the answer is immediate, coming while they are still there in their seats. The Prophet prays,
v.35 Let the aanointing of thy ministers be sealed upon them with power from on high.
When the dedicatory prayer is finished, the manifestations of tongues and interpretations, angels, heavenly choirs, begin and fill the space. They did not truly understand, when the commandment was first given, what it meant to have a temple, to build a house to the Lord. They found that the difference, in all the miracles that they had experienced prior to this, in all the testimonies of a new and living prophet, in the witnesses that God did indeed speak to the earth in their day, there was a difference in order of magnitude, a great difference, in having a place which was God's alone, dedicated and sanctified, separated from the ordinary state of this fallen world. The Savior's appearance the following week to stand before Joseph and Oliver and personally, gloriously, accept it was possible because it was made His ground, His home, in a way that had not been true before.
We too can be shown what to pray. He will give us the guidance to bring the right things before Him: to know that we should ask--for this--He is ready to bless. It becomes a tutoring process, where we discover what He would line out for us.
One of the many simple, transforming moments of my life was hearing Truman Madsen offer, with his gentle smile, the comment that you can pray for help to know what to pray for. You can have inspiration in that as well as in anything else, and it will help you. We were having a small family fireside in his home. I volunteered to offer our closing prayer that night, and with his comment in mind I said a quick silent prayer that I would have guidance in speaking in prayer for the group. I felt the Spirit touch me and help the words I chose, and I had a new understanding, just barely beginning to open, of how prayer could be more than kind-of blind hope, waiting for later to find out an answer, but could be spiritually informed. How to listen within the process of talking to my Heavenly Father. How to trust and learn to respond to those so-quiet nudges in the right direction, and as I went to find where He wanted me to go. An understanding that would save my life, in every way that mattered, later. I was blessed to learn how to seek, and how to find. And how to remember.
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