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Power, peace come when `we really pray in His name'

Learn divine nature

Don't believe Satan's lies- Come unto the Father

When the Lord met with His disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee to teach them a pattern for prayer, He began: "Our Father who art in heaven," Elder L. Edward Brown related Sunday afternoon.

"What a stunning moment that was," said Elder Brown of the Seventy. "He could have chosen so many ways to begin the prayer."

He could have said, "O mighty Creator of Heaven and Earth." Or he could have said, "O Mighty God who is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. These titles contain grand and noble truths.

"He taught in one single word, "Father," so very much that we need to know, that indeed we long to know. God is our Father. We are His children."

Speaking in his first general conference since he was called to the Seventy last April, Elder Brown explained that just as the spirit sons and daughters of God knew and worshiped their Eternal Father in the premortal realm, "they will naturally and intuitively know Him now."

Elder Brown then related an incident of his then 7-year-old son involving prayer. "I bear earnest and solemn witness to you that the Lord does communicate with us as individuals.

"Never, never fall victim to the heinous thought that He does not care for you, that He does not know you," Elder Brown said. "That is a Satanic lie, one designed to destroy you."

Elder Brown illustrated how electronic messaging makes it possible for him to contact many members of his family living in distant places throughout the world, and then said: "Our Father has a superb communications system through which He transmits messages and feelings."

"Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost . . ." (D&C 8:3-4.)

Quoting from the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, Elder Brown told of the Lord visiting Moses. "Moses," he explained, "learned something about himself. He learned he was a son of God."

When Satan came tempting, Moses commanded him to leave, but he would not. Satan was angry, and when he was commanded to leave again, he cried and ranted and refused to leave. "Here was a power that was dark and bitter. In this moment of crisis . . .

MosesT appealed to a power beyond his own. He tapped into a source of strength and authority through the Lord Jesus Christ, a power which Satan could not defy.

"When we use these sacred words, `in the name of Jesus Christ,' . . . We are on holy ground. We are using a name most sublime, most holy, most wonderful. We are now able to come unto the Father through His beloved Son.

"What power, reassurance and peace come when we really pray in His name," Elder Brown said.

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