When I close a prayer or talk in the name of Jesus Christ, I am affirming that what I have said has been said in His name, meaning it is aligned with His will. In other words I have said and done what He would have said and done. This puts more responsibility on me to learn how to both know and do His will.
The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves blessings which God is ready to give, but which are dependent on our asking for them. The purpose of prayer is for the child to bring his will into alignment with the will of his Father. I believe this is true both of individual prayers and of a lifetime prayer relationship with God. My purpose is to engage in a process of speaking, listening, feeling and asking so that I can become more familiar with the voice of God and the workings of the Spirit. I think the real purpose of prayer is to learn to recognize His voice.
When the Nephites disciples prayed, we are told that they did not multiply many words because it was given them by the Spirit what to pray for. We also know that because angels speak by the Holy Ghost, they speak the words of Christ. So when we speak, or pray by the Spirit, we are speaking and praying the words of Christ.
We are taught that when we ask the Father in the name of Christ, we will be given whatsoever we ask. We might mistakenly believe that this means we say the name of Jesus Christ as we speak. In reality it means that we speak and pray by inspiration and ask for that which the Lord desires to give us and at the time He desires to give it.
When I ask the Father in the name of Christ, He will always answer me. This is because the mind of Christ is one with the mind of the Father, so Christ will only ask for that which it is His Father's will to bestow. So every prayer is answered. He did not need to speak many words because not a single word was wasted.
He did not use the shotgun prayer approach, asking for lots an lots of different things hoping He might get a few of them correct. He used the sharpshooter approach, He only asked that which it was His Father's will that He ask. He never attempted a miracle only to find out that it wasn't God's will to perform. Never a wasted bullet because He didn't pray for that which was not right with the Father's will.
Christ was known for His ability to do so much with so few words. He was not known for lengthy and sparkling orations, but for simple, understandable and penetrating messages that change hearts. "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Was the simplest response to a very complex and difficult situation. He did not multiply words.
When I become aligned with the will of Christ, everything I ask is granted. I receive the sealing power. Nephi had the sealing power because he never asked that which was not the will of God. He always prayed in the name of Christ. If this is the case, I too will have the sealing power when I learn to live and act in the name of Christ. Then everything I pray will be fulfilled because I will have learned to ask for what He is ready to give me.
This requires that I come to know the voice of the Spirit so well that I can always speak in the Spirit. I don't think this means that we shouldn't ask for things we want or we should be scared to ask God because we might guess wrong. I think it means that we don't pray with the purpose of changing God's will, but of learning how to know it.
I have thought then, what about the times when I have prayed for what I desired and it was granted? This doesn't mean I changed the will of God, but that I had recognized an inspired desire.
The explanation on the revelation of the priesthood points out that church leaders had been moved upon by an inspired desire to extend the priesthood to all worthy males. In other words, the Spirit prompted them to ask for it.
When Alma and Amulek stood by the pit and watched the believers burn, Amulek sought to save them, Alma knew it was not in the Lord's will. He knew that, while Amulek's desire was borne of love, it was not in the name of Christ.
I don't think it's wrong to pray for our desires, there is no other way to learn the difference between an inspired desire and an uninspired one.
Once, after studying this topic, Tiah and I decided to try it. For fast Sunday, we decided to pray about what we should pray about. While we have struggled with the inability to have children and have often felt a desire to fast for children, we felt that this day we should fast for gratitude. To me it seemed like a waste of a fast. If I was going to go 24 hours without food, I ought to be able to ask for something I wanted, like children. However, we decided to try it. Maybe there really was a difference between praying in the name of Christ and praying in the name of Bryce.
By the end of that day, we had had one of the most refreshing and fulfilling fasts I had ever experienced. The gift of gratitude had been given along with about 100 other subtle and powerful blessings. We almost laughed at ourselves near the end of the day when we realized that children, money, security and any other "blessing" would still leave us unhappy if we didn't have gratitude. With gratitude, happiness could be ours whatever our circumstance. We realized how foolish it would have been to continue asking for things to make us happy without first receiving the gift that is the heart and soul of happiness, gratitude. I believe The Lord made this particular answer very easy to recognize in order to reinforce to me the importance of praying in the name of Christ, not Bryce.
I have wondered how the desire to have children could ever be uninspired since families are the heart of God's plan. I have realized that prayer is not only about asking for the right thing, but also aligning our wills with the right time, the Lord's time. He doesn't set His watch to mine, I must learn to set my watch to His. That, or always wonder why my trials are arriving early and my blessings always late.
John the Baptist had a role to fulfill in preparing the people for the coming of the Savior. Several of Christ's apostles were chosen from among the disciples of John. He could not have performed this role if he had been born 40 or 50 years earlier. He was born exactly on time, according to God's clock, although ridiculously late according to Zachariah's and Elisabeth's.
My purpose then is to learn to live in the Spirit, which will make me one with God and Christ. If I do this, I will be living in the name of Christ. I will have the sealing power, and not one word I speak will the Lord allow to fall to the ground. Until then, all I can do is practice.
Teaching moment: play go fish or a similar type of card game. On one round invite your child to come and play while looking at your hand from your perspective (so they can see what you have). Point out that when they can see things the way you do, they know very easily what to ask for. Discuss how when we become more familiar with the way the Lord speaks and sees things, we can know exactly what to pray for and exactly what to say.
Possible concepts: prayer, faith, recognizing the Spirit, unity, humility, repentance, inspiration, teaching, speaking, revelation, the Holy Ghost
Possible scriptures
Bible Dictionary: "Prayer"
3 Nephi 19:23-25
2 Nephi 32:1-9
Helaman 10:3-10
Alma 14:10-13
D&C 46:30-31
1 Samuel 3:19
1 Samuel 9:6,9
John 17:3, 21-23
Matthew 6:7-13
2 Nephi 4:35
James 1:5-6
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