Praying as Agents

Excerpt/Notes from the address given by Elder Brian L. Rawson of the Seventy
Given to the Calgary, Alberta Foothills Stake during the Priesthood Leadership Session of Stake Conference
19 November 2016

In 2 Nephi 2, Lehi was teaching Jacob just before he died and taught him some really important things.
One of the most important things he teaches is that in Gods grand design, there are two categories that
all creations fall into: things to act; and things to be acted upon.

We are agents, we are agents unto ourselves. Brethren, we shouted for joy before we came to this
world because we would have the gift of agency. We are agents. [Holding up a pen] Elder Bednar
taught us that we are not objects like this pen. Objects are only acted upon. They dont get to choose.
If I were to exercise the law of physics and throw this against the wall it will react to the laws of physics;
it doesnt get a choice.

Brethren we have the ability and the power to act. Many of you already know this, but I would like to
take this one step further; what Elder Bednar taught us has changed my life, and I am quite sure that I
am not alone.

Elder Bednar used an example of a closing prayer that sounds like this: We are thankful that we were
able to come to church. Please bless all those who werent here that they will come next week. Have
you ever heard that prayer? Have you ever said that?

Elder Bednar taught that this is how an object prays. We are not going to take action ourselves, we are
going to ask God to do everything. We are just going to act as an object while God pours down blessings
upon us. That is not the way an agent prays.

Then he showed us how an agent prays: Father in Heaven, we are thankful that we could take the
Sacrament today. There are many of our brothers and sisters and friends and family that werent here.
We promise that today, before we go home, we will stop and invite someone that wasnt here to today
to be here next week. Please bless us that we will not all go visit the same person.

Then he made the following promise twice, once to the missionaries and to our stake as well: If you will
have in your stake, people say that prayer and pray like an agent, every week, your sacrament
meeting attendance will increase 25 percent.

So I went around the stake and listened, and never heard that prayer. So we had a bishopric training,
concerning an apostle who come to our stake and make us a very specific promise, telling us exactly how
to pray. Why werent we doing it?

Then I was taught a really important thing by the spirit that I will share with you today, about praying as
agents. As my wife said, when we started doing this in our own family prayers, Wow, when someone is
praying as an agent, saying amen takes on a whole new life.

What are some examples of what we pray for? (Examples given in meeting listed below)
 Good Health
Righteous Desires
Wayward Family
Help to be Kind
Guidance
Missionaries
Wife
People you have stewardship over
Knowledge and understanding

When the previous stake president was released and I was called, he said that he prayed for his bishops
and branch presidents, every day, by name, and he recommended that I did so as well. And I did, for
eight and a half years every day, and Ill tell you revelation comes!

If I taught a Sunday School class, every day I would pray for each of my students, those that attend and
those that dont, by name. If I was a leader of the teachers, or the priests, I would pray for them by
name, every day. Pray for your own children by name every day.

Go home and do this with your family, make this chart and put everything on the left side, write in all of
the things that you pray for, and then ask, Am I praying like an agent or an object?

Brethren what I would like you to do on the other side, is to think of one thing that you can do hat
would help to bring about this blessing.

For example, what is one thing that you could do to bring about good health? Exercise. So here is how
an agent, I believe would pray: Father in Heaven I desire to have good health so I can serve. I promise
that today I will exercise. Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can, the more specific and time bound
that this promise is, the more faith is required and the greater the faith will be granted to you.

I prayed every day for decades for missionary experiences, and I had very, very few. In six and half years
I had an experience where I was convicted. After a high council meeting I was distraught, we had
missionaries in our stake that were not teaching at all, for weeks at a time. How can we not have people
for our missionaries to teach? So we met with the high council and counseled with them and asked
what should we do? And we had great input, I really felt that it was a good meeting.

And then I asked someone for the prayer, and while he was praying, the Lord rebuked me. President
Eyring did some training recently and said If you havent felt rebuked by the Lord recently, you arent
praying hard enough! That made me feel a little bit better.

Very clearly in my mind, the question came: Brian, what are you doing? And I realized that all I was
doing was praying for experiences. And then an explanation: As you go, so will go your stake. And this
was for me, it wasnt for my stake, its not for you it was for me. I dont know if it applies to you or not.

Very clearly the instruction continued: Invite someone to come to church every week, pray every day
that you will know who to invite, and promise that you will invite whoever you are inspired to invite.
The prayer ended, and I asked the high council to stop and stay there and not leave because I had to
commit to them publicly what I just learned, and I told them. From now on, I promise that I will invite
someone to church every week, and I promise that I will pray every single day Please Heavenly Father
help me to know who to invite to church this week, and I promise I will invite whoever you tell me.

Now brethren, my faith was not very strong at that point regarding to this, and the first two or three
weeks was really hard. I was afraid that He might inspire me to invite the mayor of Wichita, or someone
like that. But I will tell you that I have kept that commitment.

Two and a half years ago I realized that if the Lords work is being hastened, I needed to pace my own
commitment as well, so I decided that I would invite at least 2 people to church. Not just non-members;
I have invited lots of less active members. I have invited by voice mail, by email, by Facebook message,
by text message, face to face, I have invited some people more than once; there are a few people that
have invited maybe multiple times. In six and a half years, I have invited hundreds of people to church.
Most havent come, but some have.

In Clayton Christensens book, The Power of Everyday Missionaries, (if you havent read this book, I
invite you to), he said we succeed when we invite. Brethren that is absolutely true. If we think that we
are only succeeding when people get baptised or when people come, we dont understand the doctrine
of agency. We succeed when we invite, they succeed when they heed the invitation, but we succeed
when we invite.

I am a little reluctant to tell you the results of this effort, as I said hundreds though I didnt keep track of
that until two and a half years ago when Elder Don D. Deshler asked me to keep track of who I was
inviting and what resulted, so I did. To the best of my knowledge in those two and a half years there
was about 30 people who have come back into activity, there was 12 that were baptised, and well see
another three. There were several who received the Melchizedek Priesthood and have been endowed.

One of the problems I think we have is that we think that we need to have these amazing, miraculous
experiences when we invite. Brethren you will change when you begin to pray like an agent and you
promise what you will do to make these things come about.

When you say, please bless the missionaries thats nice, but when you say Please bless the missionaries,
I promise that I will invite somebody who hasnt been to church recently to come back and meet with the
missionaries, and I will do it this week. Now you are praying like an agent, and then when you get up off
your knees and act like an agent, miracles happen.

Please bless my wife that she will be happy. What is one thing that you can do to help bring that
about? I promise that today I will get her flowers. Anything else that you can think of? Ill do the
dishes. You might think this is crazy but trust me it changes everything. Heavenly Father, bless my wife
that she will know that I love her, I promise to do the dishes today.

How about you younger parents who have children at home? Do you have family prayer? Do you pray
like agents or objects? It is very different when you say Heavenly Father, please bless us that we will
have peace in our home, I promise that I will not raise my voice. I promise that I will not yell. Heavenly
Father please bless us to have the spirit in our home, I promise that we will have scripture study tonight,
and that we will have family prayer every day.
What happens when you promise in your prayer out loud and your kids are listening that you wont yell
at them and then 3 hours later you yell at them? They call you out on that dont they?

Elder Bednar promised the missionaries in our stake: Once you understand that you are an agent and
not an object, everything changes forever.