“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:  For every one that asketh receiveth…”  (Matt. 7:7, 8).

Is anything more repeated in the Bible than that?  “Ask, and it shall be given you.”

This is a basic gospel principle.  Whatever you desire, you will get.  Like all good fathers, God grants to His children according to their desires.

For example:

Jacob, in the Book of Mormon, says that, “the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand.  Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it.  And because they desired it God hath done it…”  (Jacob 4:14).

Contrariwise, Alma said, “O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!”  (Alma 29:1).

Just three years later the record says this:  “…Alma…departed out of the land of Zarahemla, as if to go into the land of Melek.  And it came to pass that he was never heard of more; as to his death or burial we know not of.

“Behold, this we know, that he was a righteous man; and the saying went abroad in the church that he was taken up by the Spirit, or buried by the hand of the Lord, even as Moses.”  (Alma 45:18, 19).

Alma was apparently translated, as was Moses.  His wish was that he might keep crying repentance “unto every soul” (Alma 29:2).  This was his desire, and 2100 years later that’s probably what he’s still doing.

That was the same desire that three of the Nephite disciples had.  John the Beloved had the same desire.  All four got their wish.

The other nine Nephite disciples got their desire, too.  They said, “We desire that after we have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry, wherein thou hast called us, may have an end, that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom.

“And he said unto them:  Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are seventy and two years old ye shall come to me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest.”  (3 Ne. 28:2, 3).

Again, contrariwise, the Book of Mormon recorded the desires of Laman’s and Lemuel’s hearts.  They said, “Our younger brother thinks to rule over us; and we have had much trial because of him; wherefore, now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words.”  (2 Ne. 5:3).

Nephi and all those “who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God” (2 Ne. 5:6) separated themselves from Laman and Lemuel, and departed into the wilderness.  “Wherefore,” the record says, “the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake…saying that:  Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto (my) words they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord.  And behold, they were cut off from his presence.”

(2 Ne. 5:20).

It is the desire of many Protestants that they should be saved.  They will be.  Because of their desire, we’ll eventually be baptized for the dead in their behalf.  They’ll then be beyond the power of the adversary, and will be saved, for that is the definition of salvation.  They’ll then live forever in their saved—and single—condition, unless they qualify themselves for something greater.

President Spencer W. Kimball, as an elderly man, led a series of area conferences in Mexico, Central and South America.  The pace was grueling.  In Bolivia the altitude was twelve-thousand feet.  Some of the brethren had splitting headaches.  Doctors Ernest L. Wilkinson and Russell M. Nelson accompanied them.  The brethren pleaded with President Kimball to get some rest.  His reply was, “Are you tired?”

“I know you are trying to save me.  But I don’t want to be saved; I want to be exalted.”  (The Ensign, Nov. 1981, 20-21).  He kept up his pace.

Mere salvation (the achieving of a better world where we’re beyond the power of the adversary) should not be our only goal.  Exaltation is what we’re after.  If we’re exalted, rather than saved, we’ll rule and reign over people and kingdoms.  The only people we’ll rule over, however, will be our own posterity, which may eventually be limitless.

Here again, our desires come into play. Many people want no children, or limit themselves to just one or two.  That’s all they want, so that’s all they get.  If they don’t want their exaltation, dominions, and joy to be beyond comprehension, that’s their choice.  God will grant them the desires of their hearts.

We’re free to choose liberty and eternal life, or to choose captivity and death.  (2 Ne. 2:27).  Why would anyone desire captivity and death?  They probably don’t; but their actions and lack of efforts in the other direction seem to indicate that that’s their desire.

It is written that “if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil.  Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame—mortality raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption—raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on one hand, the other on the other—

“The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh.

“And so it is on the other hand.  If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so shall he be rewarded unto righteousness.”  (Alma 41:4-6).

Whatever you desire, you will get.  God grants to His children according to their desires.  We would do well to analyze our desires and make any necessary course corrections.