Elder and Sister DeCoursey,
Dad wrote this up for this month. It is a long one. But I think the things you read here will be of value. Dad found these to be of great help and value so many years ago on his mission.
Love you,
Mom
The Challenger
New Zealand Auckland Mission – February 1989
President Herschel Pedersen
The Prayer of Faith
The Hebrews had been in bondage for 400 years
and many believed the prophecies that there would be a deliverer. In order to prevent the fulfillment of the
prophecies the Egyptians commanded the midwives to kill every male child. Amram and Jochabel were deeply saddened
because she was heavy with child. They
besought the Lord God Almighty in mighty prayer with this reasoning: Surely God
would have compassion upon those who had not transgressed the laws of His
worship and surely He would afford them deliverance from the destruction of
their enemies and thereby preserve the lives of their children by His power.
Accordingly their prayer was answered and the
Lord stood by Amram during the night and told him He had not forgotten their
piety towards Him and that He would reward them as He had their forefathers who
had demonstrated similar piety and reverence.
Amram was promised that his son, Moses, would be famous as long as the
world should last, along with many other things.
When the baby Moses was about three months
old it became increasingly difficult for the parents to conceal the child. They feared for their lives, knowing that if
their male child was discovered not only would he be killed, but the whole
family as well. Their own safety grew
more precarious daily, and in prayer they decided that they should put their
trust in the Lord. Amram’s reasoning was
that all the things that God had promised in the vision and in His instructions
should be taken care of by God. God had made the promise, so let Him fulfill
it. As a consequence they placed
Moses in the ark of reeds and set him upon the river in the trust of God
(Antiquities page 76).
Moses reached the time as a prophet where he
had led the children of Israel to the shores of the Red Sea. The Egyptian army was in the rear, the sea
was in front of them, and there were mountains on either side. The masses became terrified, turned on Moses
and were about to kill him and return to captivity, blaming him for their plight. We find the exact words of Moses’ prayer of
faith, as recorded by Josepheus:
“Thou
art not ignorant, Oh Lord that it is beyond human strength and human contrivance to avoid the
difficulties we are now under; but it
must be thy work altogether to produce deliverance to this army, which has left Egypt at thy
appointment. We despair of any other assistance or contrivance, and
have recourse only to that hope
we have in thee; and if there be any method that can promise us an escape by thy providence, we look up to
thee for it. And let it come quickly, and manifest thy
power to us; and do raise up this people unto good courage and hope
of deliverance, who are deeply sunk into a desolate state of
mind. We are in a helpless place, but still it is a place that thou
possessest; still the sea is thine, the
mountains also that enclose us are thine; so that
these mountains will open themselves if thou commandest them, and the sea also, if thou commandest it, will become dry land.
Nay, we might escape by a flight through the air, if thou shouldest determine we should have that
way of salvation.”
After the prayer Moses turned and smote the
sea with the rod, and the waters parted.
When considering the prayer of faith offered
by Moses we find that it was the people who despaired, not Moses. His words exuded confidence and he suggested
several ways that the Lord could deliver them, all of which would be unacceptable
to human reasoning. We find that there
was a degree of urgency as Moses asked that whatever God did, it must be done
quickly. His prayer voiced the fact that
they were destitute of any human logic to bring about their deliverance and
that he (Moses) had explicit faith in God as did his father, Amram when he cast
him adrift on the river. These are all
ingredients of a prayer of faith. Probably the greatest reason Moses placed
before God as his claim that the prayer be answered was the fact that they had
come to those precarious circumstances by the appointment of God and had been
obedient and God would take the responsibility for the consequences and
therefore deliver them.
As we consider the life we experience as a
missionary we can find every part of the prayer of Moses in our circumstances.
1.
We arrived here because of our having answered a call from the Lord, and we are here at his appointment.
2.
God will reward all those who are diligent and have not transgressed their devotion and service to Him.
3.
We recognize our own weakness and inability to do some things in life and are humble enough to accept any
help God may choose to send.
4.
We are at liberty to present our suggestions to Him and even recognize that there are many ways God can
perform that may fit our present
ability to understand or to reason.
5.
We must have complete trust and confidence in the method God chooses to answer the prayer and accept
that decision as binding.
6.
We must then act in faith and perform according to that decision.
Joshua became the prophet and leader of Israel
after the death of Moses and had conquered the city of Jerico. His next encounter was to conquer the city of
Ai, however, his army met with great disaster and failed. When Joshua saw the great afflictions and
forebodings of heaven which had come upon the people as a result of their
failure he exercised great boldness and freedom in mighty prayer unto God. These are the words of his prayer, as
recorded in the Antiquities of the Jews, page 144:
“We
are not thus far out of any rashness of our own, as though we thought ourselves able to subdue this land
with our own weapons, but at the
instigation of Moses thy servant for this purpose, because thou hast promised us, by many signs that thou wouldst make our army always superior in war to our
enemies, and accordingly some success
has already attended upon us agreeably to
thy promises; but because we have now unexpectedly been foiled, and have lost some men out of our army, we are grieved
at it, as fearing what thou hast
promised us, and what Moses foretold
us, cannot be depended of by us; and our future expectation troubles us the more, because we have met with such
a disaster in this our first attempt.
But do thou, O Lord, free us from
these suspicions, for thou art able to find a cure for these disorders, by giving us victory, which will
both take away the grief we are in at
present, and prevent our distrust as to what is
to come.”
In applying the prayer of faith to our work,
we establish a goal of five baptisms monthly and five reactivations monthly [Or whatever your mission has established as
mission goals or what you and your companion have established as your goals,
the point is to set goals, make a plan to accomplish them and then go to work]. We plan our days and weeks, including an
alternative plan if the first fails. We
then present our plan to the Lord along with the goal. We do our part by being obedient, prepared,
prayerful and by occasional fasting. We
then work diligently to perform and accomplish the goals.
About the 10th of the month we
analyze our situation and present the case to the Lord. Then we work hard, expecting an answer and
the needed help to reach the goals. Now
if we are not current on the goals and it looks like we may be losing we should
experience a feeling of anxiety; that is; we become greatly concerned about not
accomplishing the things we set out to do.
This concern can then be compared with the plight that Moses found himself
in when trapped against the sea. We now
pray with more fervor and present the case before God with more faith and
intensity.
About the 20th of the month we
again analyze our goals. If we are not
accomplishing them now, we evaluate our performance. We assure ourselves that we are worthy, that
we have worked hard, and that we have prepared by study and faith. Our anxiety should then increase and become a
much heavier burden and our desire to reach the goal should be a preoccupation.
There are many examples given in the
scriptures about the anxiety various prophets experienced before they received
the direction and accomplishment they sought (1 Nephi 1:16; 1 Nephi 6:3; Jacob
1:5; Alma 13:27). In his writing James
E. Talmage made this statement: “There is always a feeling of anxiety akin to
that of troubled expectancy.” This great
concern we experience is not one of failure but of caring, loving the work of
God and becoming one with God in purpose, having our minds on the things of
God. We are then in a position to reason
with God. Present your righteous case
before Him. Explain your worthiness and
ask what you can do to become more worthy to develop the prayer of faith to
accomplish your goals, both in the mission field and in life.
It is imperative that we develop our
spiritual powers and faith before we finish our missions or else we will not be
able to have sufficient faith to call down the powers of heaven when more
serious problems arise in our lives.
Sooner or later into every life come experiences which bring great
anxiety, trauma, fear, and terror. Often
the night of struggle and danger is far advanced before succor appears, and
then too often it is mistaken not as help but as another burden to be dealt
with. We find that as our anxiousness
for the accomplishment of those goals in the mission field increases and we
give heed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we increase in faith,
confidence and skill and we begin to accomplish all of those goals we
established, and it becomes the foundation for all of our prayers to be answered.
When you as missionaries become as concerned
and anxious about reaching your goals and baptizing people as you do about
letters from home, your money late or trying to get a meal from the members,
you will baptize five a month [Or whatever your goal is].
May God bless all of you as you develop the
prayer of faith equal to that of Moses.
We commend you and love you and exhort you to greater effort and
accomplishment.
Sincerely,
Herschel N. Pedersen, President.
