Most people discover the path to the outcomes they seek through some combination of random guessing, educated guessing, and rational study and thought. All of these tools can result in successful outcomes. None, however, guarantees that every step taken is the most direct approach to the outcome sought. Even with the strongest rational thought process, one is limited to the value of the available information.
God knows every path to every outcome. When anyone obtains any outcome it is only because they have discovered and followed the path that God already knew. This is true whether or not the individual recognizes this is the case. As before quoted:
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 121)
It is possible to discover the path to a given outcome without explicitly considering or believing in God. It happens all the time, all over the world. However, given that God already knows the way, and therefore possesses the most valuable information available, why not seek him, whatever your desired outcome may be?
We act as if we know how to fulfill our desires. We make decisions big and small every moment without having the slightest clue of how things will turn out or what we ought to be seeking. While it is true that a great deal of wisdom can be learned in this world, at the end of the day we must honestly admit that we are woefully inadequate in our ability to navigate this world.
The Lord informs us bluntly that our best thoughts will often be inadequate:
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. (Proverbs 3)
Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works. (Jacob 4:10)
He knows the path to the outcomes we seek—we do not: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8)
Even those who appeal to God in their decision making tend to do so from the presumption that they have any clue what they are talking about. We ask God to intervene in our lives to make things happen as we imagine they will or ought to. We don’t even think to ask whether they can happen the way we imagine. We don’t submit to his perfect knowledge and wisdom of both what is possible and what is right.
When you seek any outcome in any but the way God has appointed, you can fool yourself into thinking you have or will receive it. However, the end of any such attempts will always be greater sorrow than you would have otherwise had. There really is no other way, and trying to force one or find a shortcut will inevitably result in more pain. Typically, the pain occurs during a violent snap back to reality from whatever illusion you have constructed. In other words, you go through at least as much pain as you would have if you had simply trusted God, but you gain none of the outcomes you would have acquired if you had followed God.
One of the many ways his “thoughts are not [our] thoughts” is in the limits we unceasingly place on the paths we are willing to consider to reach our desired outcomes. We insert all sorts of expectations and constraints on what we are willing to do to reach our desired outcome. While on occasion the path to our desired outcome does not hit the wall of our selfimposed limits, there are many outcomes from which we will be permanently cut off without being truly open-minded.
To avoid obstacles, you ought to consider what you really desire. Do you desire the outcome you think you desire, or is it more important that you encounter or avoid the criteria you have artificially set along the way? You ought to think of what you actually seek and not the packaging it might come in. You ought to think of outcomes and not the means to obtain them:
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. (Isaiah 55:2)
You ought to ask God about both, knowing that you will probably get to choose one or the other.
The scriptures are replete with examples of outcomes whose paths ventured into the taboos of those who sought them. Naaman the Syrian was miraculously healed from leprosy by God, but only after he went to Elijah the prophet instead of the king of Israel, and only after he bathed in the Jordan river instead of a Syrian river. His assumptions of what his healing would look like were completely wrong. If he had insisted on leaning on his own presumptions, he never would have been healed.
In order to obtain every good thing God desires to give you, you must let go of your preconceived notions:
9 For behold, by the power of his word man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word. Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?
10 Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take <u>counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he</u> counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works. (Jacob 4)
How much we are willing to detour from our expectations will determine how many of our desires God can fulfill. Those who trust him completely will be led to blessings greater than they can imagine, while those who insist he lead them along paths they know will encounter only a small portion of the blessings he desired to give them:
42 And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them.
43 But the things of the wise and the prudent shall be hid from them forever—yea, that happiness which is prepared for the saints. (2 Nephi 9)
...O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. (2 Nephi 9)
Faith is not wishing. God is no genie. Contrary to popular opinion, which conflates faith with wishing, faith is to seek, discover, and do what God has said will lead to what we seek:
4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.
8 Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in <u>the way.</u>
9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach <u>his way.</u>
10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as <u>keep his covenant and his testimonies. (Psalm 25)</u>
Another way of saying this is that the more you know God, the more directly you will traverse the paths to the outcomes you seek.
No matter what you desire, the best way to obtain it is to grow in your understanding of God:
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6)
The more of his knowledge you possess, the more outcomes you will know how to obtain.