The Foundational Principle of the Restoration

If someone were to ask me what the foundational principle of the restored gospel was, I think I would say that is the truth contained in James 1:5, that if we ask of God we will receive.  That was the very beginning for Joseph and how he was called to perform his work in the Restoration; he followed the invitation of James to “ask of God” and he did indeed receive divine revelation to answer his questions.  And it is how each of us ultimately must come to the knowledge of the truthfulness of his testimony—we must all ask of God.  This is a principle we share with investigators from the very beginning; a missionary will rarely give away a Book of Mormon without the accompanying promise of Moroni 10:3-5 that if they ask of God He will manifest the truth of it unto them.  And we continue relying on this principle no matter how far along the covenant path we are we seek for help and answers to our questions from the Lord.  I believe it is important to understand, though, what kind of “asking” James is talking about.  This is not the kind of casual “go ask the neighbor for a cup of sugar” kind of request that we are making to God.  James clarified how we are to ask in the next two verses: “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”  We have to come to the Lord with a faith that is unwavering and with a purpose to follow through on the answer we receive from God; the “real intent” that Moroni mentioned in his invitation.  Without that, we will not “receive any thing of the Lord.” 

Joseph certainly gave us the example of asking with that kind of faith and real intent, for he had diligently prepared for his request he was making of the Lord.  He labored in his mind for months with “serious reflection” and his “feelings were deep and poignant,” and he searched as much as he could for truth among the sects that surrounded him.  He “often” reflected upon his questions: “What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?”  He spoke of “laboring under the extreme difficulties” as he tried to understand the truth, and he searched in the scriptures and found the passage in James which he described this way: “Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did.”  He had searched with all of his heart, doing all that he could to find the answer, and then in humility “came to the determination to ‘ask of God’” (JSH 1:8-13).  Although we don’t need to necessarily spend months seeking for our own answers like Joseph before we can take our questions to the Lord, Joseph’s example invites us to have a faith and sincere yearning for answers that goes far beyond simply making a request.  President Nelson described what this kind of yearning and seeking should feel like for us: “When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.”  If we truly believe in the Restoration, then we must try to follow Joseph’s example to seek the Lord for answers to our questions with that same kind of intensity he had as he followed the counsel of James.