“Heavenly Father Wants to Speak to You,” Liahona, March 2025.
Heavenly Father Wants to Speak to You
Let your faith in Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son help you part the veil and receive the Father’s voice.
We are sons and daughters of God, sharing the earth together far from our heavenly home. This is our mortality, a time to receive our body, choose good over evil, “taste the bitter, that [we] may know to prize the good” (Moses 6:55), grow our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and His sacred Atonement, and embrace our Father’s plan of happiness. We are here to become more like our Heavenly Father.
Without a memory of our premortal life, we, at times, feel lonely for the world we left behind. Our Father has given us a spiritual gift to remain connected to Him and to receive guidance, direction, and comfort from Him. We know this gift very well; it is called prayer.
Pray to Your Heavenly Father
To Adam and Eve and all who would follow them, an angel instructed, “Thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore” (Moses 5:8).
Jesus taught: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). “When thou prayest, … pray to thy Father … in secret” (Matthew 6:6). “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9).
Jesus prayed continually to His Father. “He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). “And … he departed into a mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46). “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray” (Mark 14:32). While on the cross, Jesus prayed for the soldiers who crucified Him: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
The scriptures counsel us to “pray always” (Luke 21:36; 2 Nephi 32:9; 3 Nephi 18:15; Doctrine and Covenants 10:5; 19:38; 20:33; 31:12). “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good” (Alma 37:37). In addition, we “render all the thanks and praise which [our] whole soul has power to possess” (Mosiah 2:20), recognizing all that our Father does for us.
President Russell M. Nelson explained: “Spiritual self-esteem begins with the realization that each new morning is a gift from God. … He preserves us from day to day and supports us from one moment to another (see Mosiah 2:21).”
Nephi said, “If ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray” (2 Nephi 32:8).
Detail from Christ Raising the Daughter of Jairus, by Greg K. Olsen
With the example of our Savior and the counsel of angels and prophets through the centuries, we clearly know to pray daily to express gratitude for our blessings, and to keep a prayer in our heart constantly. We have the responsibility to communicate with our Father.
But even more glorious, our Father in Heaven responds to our prayers. A thoughtful question in this mortal world is, how do we better receive and understand the answers, direction, and comfort coming from our Father?
Through my more than seven decades of life, I know that our Father speaks to us. We are not alone. Heavenly beings watch over us and help us as we seek to follow the Savior.
Receiving answers to our prayers begins with our faith in our Heavenly Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Be not afraid, only believe” (Mark 5:36). We trust in Him, do our very best to keep the commandments, and look for His hand in all things. “In nothing doth man offend God … save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:21).
God’s hand in our lives does not mean that He causes the evil or terrible tragedies that are in our world. However, it does mean that in your times of difficulty and unfairness, He will stand by you, strengthen your abilities, comfort you, and “consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain” (2 Nephi 2:2).
Hear His Voice
As we have faith in Him and keep His commandments, we naturally learn to better hear His voice.
In September 1993, my first year as a General Authority, President James E. Faust (1920–2007), then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, invited my wife, Kathy, and me to attend a Brigham Young University devotional with him. Remember, 1993 was before the widespread availability of smartphones, social media, and the internet.
In his talk, titled “The Voice of the Spirit,” President Faust warned: “In your generation you will be barraged by multitudes of voices telling you how to live, how to gratify your passions, how to have it all. You will have up to five hundred television channels at your fingertips. There will be all sorts of software, interactive computer modems, databases, and bulletin boards; there will be desktop publishing, satellite receivers, and communications networks that will suffocate you with information. … The voice you must learn to heed is the voice of the Spirit.”
President Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015), President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, taught of the still, small voice of the Spirit in recounting an experience of John Burroughs, a naturalist, as he was walking with friends through a crowded park. Here are President Packer’s words:
“Above the sounds of city life [Mr. Burroughs] heard the song of a bird.
“He stopped and listened! Those with him had not heard it. He looked around. No one else had noticed it.
“It bothered him that everyone should miss something so beautiful.
“He took a coin from his pocket and flipped it into the air. It struck the pavement with a ring, no louder than the song of the bird. Everyone turned; they could hear that!
“It is difficult to separate from all the sounds of city traffic the song of a bird. But you can hear it. You can hear it plainly if you train yourself to listen for it.”
President Packer’s teachings of the Holy Ghost occurred in 1979, a time when life was much quieter and the noise of the world was much more subdued than it is now.
President Nelson taught, “If you are paying more attention to feeds from social media than you are to the whisperings of the Spirit, then you are putting yourself at spiritual risk.”
President Faust said, “If we are to hearken to the voice of the Spirit, we too must open our ears, turn the eye of faith to the source of the voice, and look steadfastly towards heaven.”
This voice of the Spirit comes to both our intellect and our feelings. “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart” (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2). Listen to your conscience—revelation often begins there.
During a visit to the Girls’ Home Boys’ Town Complex in Markina City, Philippines, in February 2024, Elder Andersen taught the young people that they are children of God: “He loves you. And you can appeal to Him. He will hear your prayers.”
Pray with a Believing Heart
Answers and impressions cannot be forced. We pray and we wait with a believing heart. Some answers will not come in this life, but to the righteous, the Lord will always send His peace (see John 14:27). Answers often come when we are praying to help those around us. At times, they come “line upon line, precept upon precept” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:12).
The voice of heaven can come to us at unexpected times and in unexpected places, but we find our most notable opportunities in quiet spaces and sacred places. In the stillness of my early morning prayers and ponderings, I find unusual blessings. A daily, personal, uninterrupted reading of the scriptures, while routine at times, brings the voice of the Spirit into our hearts like fire at other times.
At times, the impressions are specifically from what we are reading, and at other times, what we are pondering brings an answer to a very different concern. Remember the words of Elder Robert D. Hales: “When we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want Him to speak to us, we search the scriptures.”
As the noise and distractions of the world swirl around us, the Lord has directed His prophet to build more and more temples. In these sacred houses of the Lord, as we leave our challenges outside but enter with our prayers and concerns, we are taught the truths of eternity.
A year ago, President Nelson gave us this remarkable promise: “My dear brothers and sisters, here is my promise. Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!”
Each general conference brings additional abundant blessings. In the coming month of April, once again, we will meet in general conference to hear the voice of the Lord. We come to general conference having prayed and prepared. For each of us, there are pressing worries and earnest questions. We come to renew our faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and strengthen our ability to resist temptation. We come to be taught from on high. I promise you that as you prepare and come prayerfully to the sessions of general conference, you will feel answers to your concerns, and you will know that “heaven’s hand” is upon you.
Have faith that your Heavenly Father is speaking to you. He is! Let your faith in Him and His Beloved Son help you part the veil and receive your Father’s voice. I testify He is there and loves you more than words can say.