ppt about prayer

1. You have a friend who is struggling with
significant issues in her life. On one occasion as
you are talking, you suggest that she really
needs to pray about her needs and questions.
Her response is that prayer has never really
worked for her and she has no confidence in
finding help through prayer. What can you say to
her that will either inspire her to want to pray or
to be better at doing so?

2. Learning the Tongue of Angels
(2 Nephi 32:2)
Compare principles you have learned
from mastering a foreign language to
things you will need to do if you hope
to pray well.

3. Learning and Teaching by the Spirit
• How do you recognize promptings of the
Spirit?
• How do you invite promptings of the Spirit?
• What skills or practices should you develop to
increase your ability to hear the still small
voice?

4. 1- Elder Boyd K. Packer
CR, October 1991
This trend to more noise, more excitement, more
contention, less restraint, less dignity, less formality is not
coincidental nor innocent nor harmless.
The first order issued by a commander mounting a
military invasion is the jamming of the channels of
communication of those he intends to conquer.
Irreverence suits the purposes of the adversary by
obstructing the delicate channels of revelation in both mind
and spirit.

5. 2- President Russell M. Nelson, CR, April 2018
One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon
my mind since my new calling as President of the Church is how
willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will. The privilege of
receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His
children…
Imagine the miracle of it! Whatever our Church calling, we
can pray to our Heavenly Father and receive guidance and direction,
be warned about dangers and distractions, and be enabled to
accomplish things we simply could not do on our own. If we will truly
receive the Holy Ghost and learn to discern and understand His
promptings, we will be guided in matters large and small…
Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your
fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And
then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your
feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to
take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month,
year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.”

6. 3- President Russell M. Nelson, CR, April 2018
I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual
ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has
promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive
revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that
thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that
which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”
Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven
wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “To
those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that
the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the
universe!”
Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination
of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily
feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and
regular time committed to temple and family history work.

7. 4- President Russell M. Nelson, CR, April 2018
I am optimistic about the future. It will be filled with
opportunities for each of us to progress, contribute, and take the
gospel to every corner of the earth. But I am also not naive about
the days ahead...If we are to have any hope of sifting through the
myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we
must learn to receive revelation.
...In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually
without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of
the Holy Ghost.
My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase
your spiritual capacity to receive revelation...Choose to do the
spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear
the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.

8. 5- President Russell M. Nelson, 3 June 2018
Now I plead with each of you to do as the teenaged
Joseph did. Take your questions directly to your Heavenly
Father in prayer. Ask Him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to
guide you. You can learn for yourself—right now at your
age—how to receive personal revelation. And nothing will
make a bigger difference in your life than that!
...I promise you that if you will sincerely and
persistently do the spiritual work needed to develop the
crucial, spiritual skill of learning how to hear the
whisperings of the Holy Ghost, you will have all the
direction you will ever need in your life. You will be given
answers to your questions in the Lord’s own way and in His
own time.

9. 6- PRAYER (Bible Dictionary)
“As soon as we learn the true relationship in
which we stand toward God (namely, God is our
Father, and we are his children), then at once
prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our
part. Many of the so-called difficulties about
prayer arise from forgetting this
relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will
of the father and the will of the child are
brought into correspondence with each
other. The object of prayer is not to change the
will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for
others blessings that God is already willing to
grant, but that are made conditional on our
asking for them.”

10. 7- “We pray in Christ’s name when our mind
is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the
wishes of Christ—when His words abide in
us. We then ask for things it is possible
for God to grant. Many prayers remain
unanswered because they are not in
Christ’s name at all; they in no way
represent his mind, but spring out of the
selfishness of man’s heart.”
--Bible Dictionary, Prayer, pp. 752-753.

11. 8- "With all that is happening and with all the
impossible challenges that we face, we have that
supernal gift of the Holy Ghost conferred upon
us. And yet, for the most part, we know it
not. It’s interesting how in our lives we are
operating, to an extent, as though we had not
received it…Take hold of that supernal gift of the
Holy Ghost. Learn to be taught by it. Learn to
call upon it. Learn to live by it. And the Spirit of
the Lord will attend you, and you will be blessed
as it was intended that we should all be blessed
by this supernal gift of the Holy Ghost.”
--President Boyd K. Packer, CES Fireside, 5 March 2000

12. 10- If we are not careful we can lose the power of individual
revelation…I think an emotional dole system can be as
dangerous as a material dole system, and we can become so
dependent that we stand around waiting for the Church to do
everything for us.
Spiritual self-reliance is the sustaining power in the
Church. If we rob you of that, how can you get the revelation
that there is a prophet of God? How can you get answers to
prayer? How can you know? If we move so quickly to answer all
your questions and provide so many ways to solve all of your
problems, we may end up weakening you, not strengthening
you.
When you say, “I can’t! I can’t solve my problems!” I
want to thunder out, “Don’t you realize who you are? Haven’t
you learned yet that you are a son or a daughter of Almighty
God? Do you not know that there are powerful resources
inherited from Him that you can call upon to give you
steadiness and courage and great power?”
--Boyd K. Packer, “Self-Reliance,” Ensign, Aug. 1975, 85