The power of the pageant is impressive: the volunteers practice and prepare so faithfully that the public is able to view the power of God through their performance. When the destruction scenes come with thunder and lightening, the special effects seem beyond the skill of man as if the Lord is providing his own fireworks.

My first visit to the Sacred Grove was no less impressive, though not accompanied by such a thunderous display. Instead, the power was simple and personal.  I proceeded to look for the place where Joseph received the marvelous First Vision of our dispensation. Somehow I missed the signs leading to the guided path and I accidentally entered the Grove by another way. I enjoy walking in the woods, especially when it is green and the sun is shining. There is unmatched peace in such a setting but this day was even more remarkable to me.

As I walked further into the Grove, I came to a particular spot where I stopped completely, feeling a spirit of peace and calm that testified to my soul that I had reached the place where Joseph had knelt in prayer and God had in fact answered this unpretentious farm boy. I knew without any man telling me, without the benefit of sign or marker, that this was indeed the place that God and his Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith. I was no more convinced when I found the posted signs leading to the exact location.

I received an impression much stronger in my soul and my heart than any manmade sign could give. It was the witness of God through the Holy Ghost, the residue of the presence of divine beings in that sacred spot. I will never forgot the feeling I had those many years ago. What God writes into the heart of man is not so easily erased as speculations, conjectures, and theories. When spirit speaks to spirit, there is no doubt or confusion.

Only God can grant the powers the apostles possessed. The majority of contemporary Christendom has no concept of that power, nor do they readily accept the fact that it has been restored to the earth with the Lord’s one true church in this last dispensation. Therefore, they do not share in the joy and blessings that are the result of its presence among the believers.

Among the powers that were shown by the priesthood anciently was the power to heal the sick. That is restored again today. I have personally been the instrument of the Lord’s will in the healing of many people. Some have been relatively undramatic and others have been nothing less than miraculous.

Many years ago I and a missionary companion were urgently called to the home of a young woman possessed by an evil spirit. We knew that the person before us was in no way the same girl that we had previously been introduced to. We saw in her eyes a true resentment that was aimed at us. She seemed like an animal backed into a corner but attack might in an instant. After sitting her in a chair, we laid hands upon her head and I began pronouncing a blessing upon her promising that the spirit would depart. As these words were spoken, my companion felt a charge of electricity rush up his arms as the spirit withdrew from the girl. In seconds, she was again the girl we knew. She related how she was aware of the hatred that the evil spirit had felt for us and that she felt as if she were unclean and unworthy in our presence.

Another time, one of my own sons was stricken with a bout of asthma so severe that his chest nearly collapsed. I called a man who was not only a friend, but the home teacher assigned to our family. We laid hands upon my son after anointing him with consecrated oil. I then pronounced upon him a command that the affliction would leave him and he would begin to breathe again. As we finished, the attack left him totally and he, then ten years old, comforted his frightened mother with the assurance that he had felt it in his very bones that he was now all right.

Fairly recently I was asked to help give a blessing to a woman who was not a member of the Church, but is of the lineage of Israel. I trusted her faith; my eldest son and I proceeded to bless her with the Lord’s will. I had just found out that she had cancer and was due to have her bladder removed. In the blessing I was prompted to tell her that the cancer would begin from that very time to reverse and would then disappear altogether. My son said he felt the presence of at least two others in the room, although we could not see them. He felt the hand of one of them on his shoulder. The power in the room was so intense that I was barely able to speak the words of the blessing. Ten days or so later, my son called me to announce that she had just returned from the doctor and that he had pronounced her free of cancer.

The power of God is real and faith is a genuine scientific principle. I bear my personal and sincere witness that it is true and that the ancient priesthood of God is again on the earth in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with its accompanying powers and blessings among the faithful.

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!

How Great Thou Art mp3 Ogg Vorbis

And dead we would remain but for one Man and His mission, even Jesus of Nazareth. Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, His birth fulfilled the inspired pronouncements of many prophets. He was taught from on high. He provided the life, the light, and the way. Multitudes followed Him. Children adored Him. The haughty rejected Him. He spoke in parables. He taught by example. He lived a perfect life.

Though the King of kings and Lord of lords had come, He was accorded by some the greeting given to an enemy, a traitor. There followed a mockery which some called a trial. Cries of “crucify him, crucify him”13 filled the air. Then commenced the climb to Calvary’s hill.

He was ridiculed, reviled, mocked, jeered, and nailed to a cross amidst shouts of “Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”14 “He saved others; himself he cannot save.”15 His response: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”16 “Into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”17 His body was placed by loving hands in a sepulchre hewn of stone.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, along with others, came to the sepulchre. To their astonishment, the body of their Lord was gone. Luke records that two men in shining garments stood by them and said: “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.”18

Next week the Christian world will celebrate the most significant event in recorded history. The simple pronouncement, “He is not here, but is risen,” was the first confirmation of the literal Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The empty tomb that first Easter morning brought comforting assurance, an affirmative answer to Job’s question, “If a man die, shall he live again?”19

To all who have lost loved ones, we would turn Job’s question to an answer: If a man die, he shall live again. We know, for we have the light of revealed truth. “I am the resurrection, and the life,” spoke the Master. “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”20

Through tears and trials, through fears and sorrows, through the heartache and loneliness of losing loved ones, there is assurance that life is everlasting. Our Lord and Savior is the living witness that such is so.

With all my heart and the fervency of my soul, I lift up my voice in testimony as a special witness and declare that God does live. Jesus is His Son, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is our Redeemer; He is our Mediator with the Father. He it was who died on the cross to atone for our sins. He became the firstfruits of the Resurrection. Because He died, all shall live again. “Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives!’ “21 May the whole world know it and live by that knowledge, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, amen.

(General Conference, April 2007)

“Each of us has to receive our own witness concerning Jesus as the Christ. We cannot get it secondhand from someone else. I believe that a testimony of our Redeemer comes from a divine source, as a spiritual gift. . . . Such a heaven-sent witness gives us a sacred inner peace and strength, even though we live in a world of turmoil and temptation. It gives us the power to become disciples of the Christ.”

President Faust then went on to highlight, in scripture, the life and ministry of the Savior. He spoke of the calling and testimony of Peter; the raising of Lazarus; the Last Supper; His sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane; His betrayal; and the events of His Resurrection.

President Faust concludes: “In my capacity as a special witness, I set my seal and testimony upon these events and upon the divine calling of Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer. I testify that He lives, that He loves us, and that this is His holy work. . . . I testify that through this Church His work and His glory—to bring about the immortality and eternal life of the faithful and the obedient—is being accomplished” (Ensign, Mar. 2005, 3–7).

My beloved brothers and sisters, I am pleased with the opportunity to speak to you. I thank each of you for your prayers in my behalf. I am so very deeply grateful to you. In my 49 years as a General Authority, I have spoken well over 200 times in general conference. I am now in my 97th year. The wind is blowing, and I feel like the last leaf on the tree.

Actually my health is quite good, despite all the rumors to the contrary. Skillful doctors and nurses keep me on the right track. Some of you may go before I do. However, with my age in mind, I wish to give you my testimony of the basic truths of this work.

I confess that I do not know everything, but of some things I am certain. Of the things of which I know, I speak to you this morning.

When the emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity, he became aware of the divisiveness among the clergy concerning the nature of Deity. In an attempt to overcome this he gathered the eminent divines of the day to Nicaea in the year 325. Each participant was given opportunity to state his views. The argument only grew more heated. When a definition could not be reached, a compromise was made. It came to be known as the Nicene Creed, and its basic elements are recited by most of the Christian faithful.

Personally I cannot understand it. To me the creed is confusing.

How deeply grateful I am that we of this Church do not rely on any man-made statement concerning the nature of Deity. Our knowledge comes directly from the personal experience of Joseph Smith, who, while yet a boy, spoke with God the Eternal Father and His Beloved Son, the Risen Lord. He knelt in Their presence; he heard Their voices; and he responded. Each was a distinct personality. Small wonder that he told his mother that he had learned that her church was not true. And so, one of the great overarching doctrines of this Church is our belief in God the Eternal Father. He is a being, real and individual. He is the great Governor of the universe, yet He is our Father, and we are His children.

We pray to Him, and those prayers are a conversation between God and man. I am confident that He hears our prayers and answers them. I could not deny that. I have had too many experiences of answered prayers.

Alma instructed his son Helaman, saying, “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 37:37).

The second great certitude of which I am sure also has its foundation in the vision of the Prophet Joseph. It is that Jesus lives. He is the Living Christ. He is the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Messiah of the New. Under His Father’s direction, He was the Creator of the earth. The gospel of John opens with these remarkable words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

“The same was in the beginning with God.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1–3).

Note particularly that last verse, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

He was the great Creator. It was His finger that wrote the commandments on the Mount. It was He who left His royal courts on high and came to earth, born under the most humble of circumstances. During His brief ministry, He healed the sick, caused the blind to see, raised the dead, and rebuked the scribes and Pharisees. He was the only perfect man ever to walk the earth. All of this was part of His Father’s plan. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He suffered so greatly that he sweat drops of blood as He pleaded with His Father. But this was all a part of His great atoning sacrifice. He was taken by the mob, appeared before Pilate with the mob crying for His death. He carried the cross, the instrument of His death. On Golgotha He gave His life, crying out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

His body was tenderly laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. But three days later, on that first Easter morning, the tomb was emptied. Mary of Magdala spoke to Him, and He spoke to her. He appeared to His Apostles. He walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And, we are told, He was seen by some 500 others (see 1 Corinthians 15:6).

He had said, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). Accordingly, He appeared to those assembled in the land Bountiful in the Western Hemisphere. Here, He taught the people as He had taught them in the Old World. This is all recorded in detail in the Book of Mormon, which stands as a second witness of the divinity of our Lord.

And to repeat, both He and His Father appeared to the boy Joseph, the Father introducing the Son, saying: “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Joseph Smith—History 1:17).

Now, the next thing of which I am certain, and of which I bear witness, is the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without it life is meaningless. It is the keystone in the arch of our existence. It affirms that we lived before we were born in mortality. Mortality is but a stepping-stone to a more glorious existence in the future. The sorrow of death is softened with the promise of the Resurrection. There would be no Christmas if there were no Easter.

I speak next of the great certitudes that have come with the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is the restoration of the priesthood, or the authority given man to speak in the name of God. This priesthood is of two orders: the lesser, also known as the Aaronic, was restored under the hands of John the Baptist. The higher order of priesthood, the Melchizedek, was restored under the hands of Peter, James, and John.

In restoring the Aaronic Priesthood, the resurrected John the Baptist laid his hands on the heads of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and said, “Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins” (D&C 13:1).

President Wilford Woodruff in his old age spoke to the young men of the Church and said: “I desire to impress upon you the fact that it does not make any difference whether a man is a Priest or an Apostle, if he magnifies his calling. A Priest holds the keys of the ministering of angels. Never in my life, as an Apostle, as a Seventy, or as an Elder, have I ever had more of the protection of the Lord than while holding the office of a Priest” (in Millennial Star, Oct. 5, 1891, 629).

The Melchizedek or Higher Priesthood empowers men to lay their hands upon the heads of others and give blessings. They bless the sick. As James declared in the New Testament: “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14).

Now finally, I mention the blessings of the house of the Lord, which have come of the Restoration of the ancient gospel.

These temples, which we have greatly multiplied in recent years, offer blessings that are had nowhere else. All that occurs in these sacred houses has to do with the eternal nature of man. Here, husbands and wives and children are sealed together as families for all eternity. Marriage is not “until death do ye part.” It is forever, if the parties live worthy of the blessing. Most remarkable of all is the authority to do vicarious work in the house of the Lord. Here, ordinances are performed in behalf of the dead who did not have opportunity to receive them while in life.

I was recently told of a woman in Idaho Falls, a widow. Over a period of 15 years she acted as proxy in giving the temple endowment to 20,000 individuals in the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. She completed her 20,000th endowment on a Friday and returned on Saturday to do five more. She passed away the following week.

Just think of what this one little woman did. She performed these vicarious endowments for as many people as are assembled in this Conference Center this morning. Think of the reception she must have received on the other side.

Now, my brothers and sisters, this is my testimony, which I solemnly bear before you.

God bless you, every one, you faithful Latter-day Saints. May there be peace and love in your homes and faith and prayer to guide you in all that you undertake is my humble prayer in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.
© 2007 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Originally published at: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-690-30,00.html

Recently we came on some hard financial times which threatened the security that we’d come to expect every month. I am retired and the company that manages my disability informed me that they were going to start offsetting my check by the amount of my social security check and they were also going to be offsetting my check for an ‘overpayment’ of tens of thousands of dollars.

My wife and I prayed and prayed about a way out of this situation. In about 3 days our prayers were answered. The company called us to inform us that they would only be offsetting my check by the amount that I got from social security and would NOT be pursuing any back pay that I’d received over the last two years. I testify to you all. Prayers ARE answered and God knows each one of us and what we need. He answers prayers.

As a side note, when I first came back to Church (after being away from the Church for almost 40 years), our Bishop told us that he expected a full tithing from us in order to receive the blessings that tithing brings. We thought it would be totally impossible to pay tithing, pay our bills and build up our food storage so that we would have the necessary items to feed five of us. We initially resisted tithing and then relented and started paying faithfully every time we got a check. To our surprise, not only were we able to pay our bills, but we managed to build up our food storage so that we now have at least a three month supply of food. Another prayer was answered for us and a blessing received because we are being faithful.

Brothers and sisters, I don’t think prayers are answered, I KNOW they are. I know that Jesus Christ loves us and wishes only the best things for us in this temporal probationary state. I know that Joseph Smith was our Prophet on earth and that through him, the only true Church of Christ is now established in this, the last dispensation. I know the power of the priesthood and what miracles can be achieved in the name of Christ. I leave this testimony with you in His, Jesus the Christ’s name. Amen.