BOOK of MORMON Answers: how to get ANSWERS to PRAYERS -- the Scriptures Method is Proven True

Enos prays all day, and into the night before he received all answers to his prayers https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/enos/1?lang=eng

It is a question that ALL of us have to face at one time or another in our lives.  How to get answers to our prayers. How to know when it is us or the Lord.  Are we just talking to ourselves, and how would we know?  Many when faced with these challenging questions just give up and think its nonsense, but for those who are persistent, and bypass all of the doubt that the world encourages, they discover something. They discover the miracle, because they were patient and they waited on the Lord.

Enos 1:4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

Of course to do this, one must be humble, childlike in faith, and believe that something is going to happen. If one knows in advance that this is the requirement God places on the experience, then they know they can't go into the effort with a doubtful heart and with cynical skepticism.  If that is the case, let not that man think they will receive anything of the Lord:

James 1:6 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.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

I want to encourage anyone who is struggling with this truth, wondering if there is a God because they have not had the privilege of hearing His voice or feeling His Spirit touch their hearts and soul...  keep trying and pleading with the Lord. He hears you.  But there is a requirement to be met, and it is different for everybody.  It is not like a science experiment where the same parameters can be applied by any student, and once the precise amount of chemical is added to the beaker solution and heat applied, the result happens. The experience with answers to prayer is different for everybody and it is based on an immeasurable but very real ingredient called one's faith.  Faith is the key.  He will speak to our minds and our hearts.  Enos said:

 10 And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the voice of the Lord came into my mind again
So we can see that this great event that happened to him was not an audible voice through the ears (although it could be and scriptures do have accounts of it happening this way), but it was a distinct voice of the Lord in his mind, and when this happens, one KNOWS that it is not their own making because they also feel the power of the Holy Ghost.

​There may be a test involved, a test of one's faith. Patience may be tested as the Lord may have one person for reasons known to the Lord, wait longer before answers come. For example, in my OWN experience when I went to the wooded areas near my home to pray to the Lord in a "wilderness" when I was a teen, I was blessed to get real answers to my prayer in that place in a relatively short amount of time.  Minutes.  But in this scripture story, which I am sure the Lord put into the Book of Mormon for a reason, we can read about ENOS who prayed all the day long before he got answers to his prayers and the Lord spoke to him.  I am assuming that all day long means many many hours of trying.  How many of us try for a few minutes and tire of the waiting because of our impatience? Or our physical hunger or even distractions of things we would rather do causes us to quit.  It is plain that Enos really really wanted to get answers to his prayers. His SOUL did HUNGER for it.  He was determined.  He was not going to leave until he got his answers.  And so he committed, and so he reaped the blessing. He was willing to do whatever it took.

Local mountains near my home

GO TO THE MOUNTAIN​
​I recall from a time in my life around 10 years ago when I was seeking answers to my prayers on a very important matter to me.  I was very distraught and wanted the Lord to help me know what to do about a certain thing I had been working on, had spent years developing, even an invention.  But an event happened to make me believe it was all for naught.  As I prayed, I distinctly heard the Lord's voice in my mind tell me, so clearly, "go to the mountain."

I kept praying and ignored that voice, because I thought, "What was that? The Lord doesn't tell me to go to a mountain, that was ME thinking it."  As I prayed the Lord let me go on for another 10 minutes before I pleaded for some guidance and He distinctly said "I will not tell you anything more until you go to the mountain."  I heard it and I knew I heard it that 2nd time.  This was no fantasy of my own making, the Lord was indeed speaking to me and telling me that He would speak to me more, but ON HIS TERMS, and so I talked to my wife and told her about this and I did not know how long it would take, but I thought it might take up to a week. So I prepared to go and spend a week in the wilderness. I was going to fast from food and water the whole time until I got my answers. I really REALLY wanted answers and I was willing to wait a long time and fast while doing so.  My wife was in agreement and a local friend had a large mountainous ranch on which I got permission to go and take my truck and find a secluded place on one of the mountain hills.

I parked my truck. I walked to a nearby overlook, very beautiful place with oak trees all around, no one around for miles. It was quiet, miles away from the nearest road.  All alone, I kneeled down on a sleeping mat I brought, and I prayed. I prayed for nearly two hours. Nothing, but I kept trying. I read some scriptures. I pondered. I prayed some more.  As I sat there I felt impressed to look a certain direction, and I saw a large rock. It was shaped like a prayer rock you could kneel up to. Had a little shelf for leaning on, and a sloped surface too. I felt the Spirit impress me to go to it and bring my notepad and pen. So I did. I knelt down at this large rock and rested my elbows on the shelf. I prayed and began pleading with the Lord again to inspire me. I felt the Spirit speak to my mind and tell me to pick up the pen open the notebook and start writing.

I didn't know what to write about, but I did it anyway, and as soon as, and I mean immediately, when my pen touched the paper of the notebook, then my mind was immediately flooded with knowledge and information. I wrote it down quickly. It came even quicker. I wrote it all down, and tried to keep up with the pace of the ideas and inspirations flooding my mind. It was revelation, even if it was about an invention.  I was amazed. I was inspired. I had got all the answers I needed to be reassured in just a couple of minutes, and the Lord told me the truth on how things really stood. I needed these answers.  The Lord answers our prayers about a myriad of subjects and situations. We can have this blessing for all of our needs in our lives.  I did find this out this day.

After writing two pages of information in my notebook, the inspiration suddenly stopped.  I asked the Lord "what do I do now?" and the Spirit immediately whispered to my mind "you can go home now."  And I realized that it was over. I came prepared to stay a week until I got my answers, but after I got all of my answers in a few minutes of revelation after a couple of hours of waiting, the Lord told me I could go home then, and so I did. I marveled all the way home, and since do whenever I think on this experience, because the Lord does answer prayers, sometimes in mysterious ways, like this one for me, where He told me to go to "the mountain" and he let me pick the mountain. Obviously I was led there because that rock was there. Who would have known I would pick a spot only 25 feet away from an amazing rock protruding out of the ground with soft ground cover around it to kneel on, and a shelf on which to rest my arms and write as well.