In daily living and prayer we are subject to three primary voices: our self talk, the Lord speaking to us, and the adversary and his minions (which really can become a multitude of voices, if we listen and follow them).
First: We self talk almost constantly while we are awake; such as “I wonder if I’ll have time to keep that commitment” to (in traffic while driving) “that driver wants me to let him into my lane”, or “what I just did was not right and likely made that person upset… I would be upset.”
Second: God has suggestions for us at multiple times during the day. We often feel it through a ‘still small voice’ (D&C 17:45). When we do what he suggests, we’ll get more suggestions. When His influence is sought in prayer for answers to concerns and problems, He typically answers only once and we will receive no further direction until we follow the counsel given. For pressing wants and needs, our time table is not His, and blessings are greater when we are not given an easy answer to what we perceive as a dilemma, but stay the course instead. Prayer becomes a form of work when we ask faith, receive an answer, then faithfully live the Lord’s will for us.
Third: Satan will overwhelm us with his suggestions, when we let him. It is his main purpose to make us as miserable as he is and he has millions of minions to help him. His minions help is highly skilled and likely specialized in expertise, perhaps in a multitude of distractions from lulling us into feelings of carnal security, to atheism, addictions, immorality and more. The more we listen and follow the demonic suggestions given, the more we give away our agency and self control, and find we no longer have inner peace, but only confusion and despair.
Prayer: Gods input and timing for the faithful, is always right and for our good. Our faith is tested (we grow spiritually) with the answer, no answer now, or not the answer we wanted. There’s no need for our further discussion. Should I continue to press Him on what I want, He may give it to me… and I am then in the position of having created my own mess or confusion because I ‘prayed the answer’ to suit my ‘now’ purposes (WOW… what I just shared, brings back unhappy memories!) The Prophet Joseph was under such a dilemma when pressed by Martin Harris’ request against the Lord’s will. Joseph received strong rebuke from the Lord for continually asking for something he should not have, and the Lord gave it to him, conditionally… conditions that weren’t followed by Martin (see D&C 3:1-16).
Personally I feel he is always making suggestions to me. When heeded, more input from him comes and my day goes better. When unheeded, I create a wall that is difficult for Him to penetrate and makes me open to influence from the third voice(s). At times of danger to our self or others, His voice is often very strong and clear for us to be safe, or get out of harms way. For deeper questions of life and wanting a more clear understanding of something that gives us heartache, it may sometimes take months, years, even decades or more to receive an answer. (I learned from a talk by S. Michael Wilcox, that this may happen when we lack the experiences of life from time, patience, and refining, for a clear understanding. The Lord has ‘no place to put the answer’ in a way we would understand and appreciate it. (For more powerful insight on prayer, read the last three paragraphs of LDS Bible dictionary, on Prayer.)
kdm
(some of the above ideas came from the book “Following the Light of Christ into His Presence”, by John Pontius)
