For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (Isaiah 64:4)
Prayer is meant to connect the supplicant to God in a powerful way. Effectual prayer is an absolute requirement for getting to know God. One reason that many prayers are ineffectual is that they do not overcome the gravitational pull of the body. Prayer is a channel to God in the spirit, not the flesh. While your mind is inclined towards the body, it is essentially impossible to offer an effectual prayer.
How can you know whether you are praying in the spirit or in the body? When you pray, are you aware of your surroundings? Are you aware of your body? Are you aware of the passage of time? Do you worry about all the things that you have to do? Do you hear background music or the last show you watched? Does your mind flood with a remembrance of everything under the sun? These are all signs that your prayer is in the body, not in the spirit.
Prayer in the body is an obstacle to true prayer, but it is not insurmountable. In actuality, transitioning from bodily prayer to spiritual prayer is a process that everyone must learn. As you learn this process, you will be able to transition faster and faster, until you can instantly pray in the spirit. Until then, it will require sustained effort.
The first step in achieving spiritual prayer is to find an appropriate place to pray. We are meant to pray always, but this does not mean that wherever we happen to be is an ideal place to pray. Like learning to ride a bike using training wheels and a smooth, flat surface, helps you focus on the fundamentals, learning to pray in the spirit is much more attainable if you use an ideal setup to train yourself. The ideal spot for prayer will be private enough that you can speak aloud without any concern of discovery by others. You must find a place where you will not be interrupted no matter what—no phones, no alarms, no external sounds, and no intrusion. These requirements are not arbitrary. Prayer requires incredible focus and sustained concentration. As you work in prayer, you will move closer and closer to your goal, building to a crescendo where a connection with heaven is made. Any distraction will pull you out of this process, and your prayer will end fruitless.
In our modern world, it is very difficult to find such a spot. If you live with others, it is likely that you will have to wake up very early in the morning to create an appropriate environment. Waking up very early in the morning is a sacrifice. It requires that you go to bed much earlier, meaning you go without all the things you typically do at night. Normal prayers are very short. True prayer could go on unceasingly. Once you start to experience true prayer, where you actually come into God’s presence, you will find yourself not only requiring more time to pray, but desiring more time to pray. As you allocate more time for prayer, you may run out of sufficient evening time to counterbalance your early rising, and may have to deal with being tired all day. Some struggle with this, some do not. What I can tell you, as one who acutely feels the effects of sleep deprivation, is that the benefits far outweigh the costs. What good is anything else you do in a day if you do not know God? Like fasting, sleep deprivation is an honest metric of how much you really desire God, as it will effect every aspect of your life.
The next step is to learn how to silence your mind. True prayer requires that the Lord speak to you. He will reply to what you say and, more importantly, he will give you what to say. It takes serious work to obtain the Lord’s inspiration, and anything but a clear mind just won’t do. Thoughts about work, school, family, or any other concern must be totally silenced. This may seem counterintuitive, as we are taught that prayer is mainly about bringing our concerns to God. This is not true, “...for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” (Matthew 6:8) The point of prayer is not to tell God what you need, but for God to effect your desires and soothe your soul. Prayer doesn’t change God, prayer changes you.
As a proof that prayer is meant to change you, consider the meaning of each statement in the Lord’s prayer. “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” Lord, you are holy and powerful. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” I submit myself to you and your will. “ Give us this day our daily bread.” Lord, I rely upon you for survival. “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Help me forgive others, that I may be forgiven. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” I will choose not to succumb to temptation, but to follow you because of your goodness to me in teaching me of your kingdom, power, and glory. (Matthew 6:9-13)
You must give God a blank slate. In order to quiet your mind, you must completely turn off any music or video in your mind. There is no secret to how to do this, it just takes practice. Whereas finding an ideal spot for prayer can be done in a day, it takes time to learn how to silence your mind. As you pray in your prayer location, first try to clear your mind for 5 minutes. Once you have kept a clear mind for 5 minutes, try 15. Keep doing this until you can keep a clear mind indefinitely.
As you are learning to clear your mind, you should also learn how to keep still. Mental stillness is of limited effect if it is not accompanied by physical stillness. Just as it would be inappropriate to turn on music while in the presence of a king, it is equally inappropriate to fidget, scratch, and so on. Every movement risks breaking your concentration, and many movements will detract from your demonstration of submission and respect towards God.
Remember, one key of true prayer is to act exactly as if you were in the presence of God, because that is your goal. If in the presence of God, you would be so transfixed by his beauty, glory, and goodness, that nothing else would be on your mind. Your body would be frozen in reverence. If you pray and are moving around or wandering in thought, you are not focused enough to pierce through to heaven.
When we think of prayer, we think of speaking to God. Yet, this is only a small part of what true prayer consists of. True prayer also includes silent waiting (sometimes called watching). Though lost to our modern memory, this process would have been familiar to those living in historic monarchies. To gain an audience with a king, it was not uncommon to have to wait silently in the presence of the enthroned king until he acknowledged you. We see this recorded in scripture in Esther:
1 Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.
2 And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre.
3 Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. (Esther 5)
Esther did not approach or speak to the king until he held out his scepter. She was well aware of the protocol of dealing with a king. We do not know how long she waited there before the king noticed her. In another account, a man is required to wait a full hour before the king responds to him (see Alma 18:14). If the Lord is your king, you ought to wait upon him!
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. (Psalm 123:2)
Waiting on the Lord sometimes yields blessings that occur during the process. There are several scriptural examples of God blessing someone who was waiting on him. This includes the appearance of heavenly messengers, hearing the voice of God, or the taking place of some other miracle. However, the most common effect of waiting on the Lord is the turning of the heart towards God. Waiting on God allows his Spirit to work on you and turn your heart towards God. This process sanctifies you and prepares you for more significant experiences with him. It is mostly imperceptible in the moment, but its effects are long-term, cascading, and bountiful.
Interactions with God take time. When Moses ascended mount Sinai, he did not immediately come into God’s presence. Instead, he waited on him in prayer for six days. It was only on the seventh day that God spoke to him and brought him into heaven.
15 And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.
16 And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17 And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 24)
Moses spent six days on his knees waiting on the Lord. The Lord wanted to see him immediately, but six days of sanctification were required. This teaches us an important lesson on waiting. What would have happened if Moses, upon climbing up the mountain, decided that God’s absence meant that he should quit and go back down? What would have happened if he came to that conclusion immediately, after one day of prayer, or after five days? We should never cease seeking the Lord until we find him, no matter what or how long it takes. Many times it is not just you waiting on the Lord, but the Lord waiting on you.
Moses’ six day waiting period teaches us something very important about preparing to enter the presence of the Lord. If the Lord were to appear to you without acclimating you to his presence, you would be consumed. Even if the Lord appears without glory, as he can, you will be overwhelmed. Your immediate reaction will be to say, “it is enough Lord!” as you feel as if you will die. Seeing the Lord is like getting into a very hot bath in cold weather. Your immediate reaction is to immediately retreat after only dipping your toe. A better way is to get into the empty tub, and gradually increase the temperature as the water is running. God builds our capacity to endure his presence by gradually exposing us to him, with ladder-like cascading experiences, whether perceptible or not. After his resurrection, the Lord appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus. He appeared as a normal man, and they did not perceive any glory. When he left, they reflected on how their hearts burned within them. Had these two men not been well accustomed to being in the Lord’s presence in his mortality, it is unlikely they would have been able to bear his resurrected presence, even without any glory.
Waiting on the Lord is like a charcoaled log in the woodstove. Though the log may appear cooled, it may spring to life if you crack the door and leave it be. When you first wait on the Lord, it seems like nothing is happening. Don’t judge with your natural eyes. Keep praying. Your goal is to pierce through the veil each time you offer your morning prayer. It takes time to do that, both in terms of number of sessions of prayer (as you learn to quiet your mind for longer and longer periods of time) and in each individual session (as you refuse to quit until the fire is lit).
Waiting on God is like boiling water. You can’t see what is happening until the water suddenly breaks into a boil. Even if you do not receive any communication, you are still changing. Waiting on God is like walking out of a cold, dark house into a bright, sunny day. The very act of waiting on God makes you more holy, because you are exposing yourself to God’s glory.
Don’t give up! Our attitude ought to be like Habakkuk’s: “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.” (Habakkuk 2:1) Sometimes these things just take time.
Patient persistence pays off. Usually, the longer we wait, the greater the blessing.
But why do we need to wait before we perceive God’s response? Sometimes, instead of us waiting on God, God is actually waiting on us! Despite the fact that God had commanded Moses to come up to the mount to come into his presence, it took six entire days of waiting upon him to prepare Moses for the experience. God had to wait 6 days for Moses to be sanctified enough that he could visit him.
Why does God wait on us? Sometimes we are not yet focused enough:
2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)
Sometimes we are not yet humble enough:
Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off. (Psalm 138:6)
Sometimes God is waiting until we are ready to obey what he needs to tell or show us. Sometimes there are delays caused by workings in the spirit realm. God’s response to Daniel was delayed because of an angelic battle (see Daniel 10:11-13).
Beyond immediate blessings, waiting on the Lord provides blessings after the fact. “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” (Psalm 40:1) The way this happens is very similar to what happens when we fast. Although blessings can happen during a fast, fasting also provides enduring blessings after the fact. For example, consider the devil that the twelve disciples could not cast out:
27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. 28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. (Mark 9)
The Lord Jesus said that devils of this class could only be cast out through prayer and fasting, but then immediately cast out the devil without praying or fasting. The Lord fasted and prayed very often. When the time came, he had already qualified for this blessing with recent prayer and fasting.
Similarly, waiting on the Lord produces blessings outside of prayer, including frequent revelations, prophecy, and the ability to teach with power and authority:
But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God. (Alma 17:3)
Waiting on the Lord prevents you from being tempted: “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:38) Waiting on the Lord makes you more humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love, and long-suffering:
But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; (Alma 13:28)
Waiting on the Lord brings about deliverance:
Therefore, after Alma having established the church at Sidom, seeing a great check, yea, seeing that the people were checked as to the pride of their hearts, and began to humble themselves before God, and began to assemble themselves together at their sanctuaries to worship God before the altar, watching and praying continually, that they might be delivered from Satan, and from death, and from destruction— (Alma 15:17)
Waiting on the Lord brings peace and power in God. There is a reason that the Lord Jesus spent so much time in prayer during his mortal ministry. As Jesus waited on the Father, the Father’s glory recharged his spirit to the point that he could radiate it to the world throughout the day. Our daily experience is one in the body. We find ourselves subjected at all times to the fallen nature of this world. When we wait upon God, we silence the body and cut off the influence of this fallen world. As we wait upon God, we operate in the spirit and connect to a higher level of glory than is found in this world.
If all these benefits were not enough, waiting on God is also a commandment. “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14) “Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.” (Job 37:14)
We come to know God through waiting on the Lord: “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)