Ask In Faith

Sections 8 and 9 of the Doctrine and Covenants were given for Oliver Cowdery as he was translating the Book of Mormon with Joseph Smith. One of the themes in these two revelations is the need to ask of God for knowledge. Oliver was instructed on how to ask of God and given promises that he would receive if he asked in the right way. The Lord declared to him, “Assuredly as the Lord liveth, who is your God and your Redeemer, even so surely shall you receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart” (8:1). He was told to “doubt not” and promised “whatsover you shall ask me to tell you by that means, that will I grant unto you, and you shall have knowledge concerning it.” That sounds pretty easy, but the Lord followed up with what it really means to ask: “Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith…. Do not ask for that which you ought not” (v8-10). Asking in the way the Lord requires is not as simple as saying a few words to make a request—there must be real faith behind it and we must not seek for those things which we know we shouldn’t.

               It seems that Oliver did not fully grasp what it meant to ask in faith, for he tried but was unable to translate. The Lord explained to him, “You have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me” (9:7). Perhaps Oliver might have thought, “Wait a second, the Lord told me that whatsoever I asked I would receive—what’s the problem?” It seems though that what the Lord meant by ask in 8:9—asking in faith—was very different that the kind of asking Oliver did in which he took no other thought than to make the request. There is a preparation of faith that the Lord requires, and He explained further to Oliver that this means “you must study it out in your mind” (9:8). There is real work required to find answers from the Lord, a kind of asking that involves careful preparation and heartfelt faith. If we aren’t receiving the answers from the Lord that we expect, we might ask ourselves if we have fully exercised faith to receive an answer—not only in seeking to truly believe but also in studying out the issues ourselves and doing our best to find answers. Oliver was also promised, “According to your faith shall it be done unto you” and surely it is for us as well. We should also recognize as well that there is no promised timeline in these chapters about receiving an answer; though the Lord promises that we will “receive a knowledge” when we sincerely seek, He did not suggest that it comes immediately or in some prescribed amount of time. Sometimes we need to wait, and if we are frustrated that the Lord has not revealed to us what we had hoped for even when we exercised our faith, we can trust in these words to Oliver: “Be patient, my son, for it is wisdom in me…. Do not murmur, my son, for it is wisdom in me that I have dealt with you in this manner” (9:3,6).    

               There is one more interesting requirement that the Lord gave to Oliver related to his asking in faith. He was told, “[Believe] that you shall receive a knowledge concerning the engravings of old records, which are ancient, which contain those parts of my scripture of which has been spoken by the manifestations of my Sprit” (8:1). Although this was a specific requirement to him to believe in the ancient records that he and Joseph were working on translating, surely the general principle applies to us: we must believe in and hold to the writings of the scriptures. Our belief in and study of the scriptures is linked to our ability to truly ask in faith and receive knowledge from the Lord. As we seek to find answers from the Lord we may consider first whether we have adequately sought answers from and believed in the words already revealed in the scriptures.