The Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, is the third member of
the Godhead and works together with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in perfect
harmony, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life” of each one of us.[i] Unlike God the Father and the Son Jesus
Christ, the Holy Ghost does not have a body of flesh and bones. The scriptures teach us that the Holy Ghost
does not have a body in order to allow Him to be able to “dwell in us.”[ii] Heavenly
Father has provided the Holy Spirit to us to help us navigate this life while
we are experiencing the tests of mortality, separated from the presence of our
Heavenly Father. As described in further
detail below, the Holy Ghost is also a key player in the sanctifying process we
must go through in order to prepare to return to our Heavenly Father. Through the Holy Ghost, we experience the
benefits of Jesus Christ’s atonement.
The Holy Ghost has many roles. I will highlight a few of His roles here, though
this list is undoubtedly not a comprehensive list of the roles and activities
of the Holy Spirit.[iii]
Teacher and Revealer of Truth
The Holy Ghost speaks to us to teach us.[iv] It is through the Holy Ghost that we can know
if something is true.[v] So, how does the Holy Ghost teach us and confirm
truth to us? In a lot of ways, it is
difficult to describe how the Holy Ghost communicates to our souls. President Boyd K. Packer once related that
describing the way we gain spiritual knowledge to a skeptical non-believer is
like trying to describe what salt tastes like to someone who has never tasted
salt.[vi] President
Packer continued:
“We cannot express
spiritual knowledge in words alone. . . . We do not have the words . . . which
perfectly describe the Spirit. The scriptures generally use the word voice,
which does not exactly fit. These delicate, refined spiritual communications
are not seen with our eyes, nor heard with our ears. And even though it is
described as a voice, it is a voice that one feels, more than one hears.”[vii]
Paul similarly described to the Galatians that certain
feelings were the fruits of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. .
. .”[viii] Another passage of scripture indicates that
the Holy Ghost communicates through our “mind” and in our “heart.”[ix] My understanding of this scripture through my
own experiences is that the Holy Ghost may communicate to us through distinct
thoughts and even logic[x]
(i.e., the mind) and through tender feelings described by Paul above (i.e., the
heart).
The Holy Spirit will “speak” to us and guide us as we seek
answers to questions. Questions as big
as the existential variety (i.e., “Who am I, where do I come from, and where am
I going?”), questions on a smaller day-to-day scale (i.e., “Should I do X or Y
on this work project?”), and everything in between. But receiving these communications from the
Holy Spirit usually requires slowing down and listening, which can be difficult
in our fast-paced, always-plugged-in society.
As we seek truth, it is through the Holy Ghost that Heavenly
Father will confirm truth to us. For
those who “experiment upon the word” in patience and humility (as I described
in an earlier post), the Holy Ghost does confirm eternal truths to
us. I can attest to that from my own
experience. And as we gain knowledge of
eternal truths through the Holy Spirit and appropriately act upon that
knowledge, we draw closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.[xi]
Sanctifier
In addition to a baptism of water, the scriptures make
reference to a “baptism of the Holy Ghost,” also referred to at times as a
“baptism by fire.”[xii] Jesus taught that both baptism by water and
the Holy Ghost were necessary to return to our Heavenly Father’s presence.[xiii]
The scriptures also sometimes refer to the process of
receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost as a sanctifying process.[xiv] One definition for the word “sanctify” is “to
free from sin; purify.”[xv] In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, the Gift of the Holy Ghost is conferred upon individuals after baptism in
water. Both baptisms are part of the
process to become cleansed from our sins.
One explanation (though certainly not the only explanation) of the
symbolism of these ordinances is that both water and heat are used as cleansing
agents in our natural world. When
something is dirty, we generally use water to clean it. When something is impure, we might apply heat
to purify it (for example, when water is exposed to enough heat, the water
boils and it is purified; fire can also be used to sterilize a needle). In a similar manner, baptism by water and the
Holy Ghost (i.e., baptism by fire) are necessary parts of the process whereby
we accept Christ and receive the cleansing and purifying powers of the atonement
of Jesus Christ.
When we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, it prepares us
to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. Those who have received the Gift of the Holy
Ghost are invited to return to worship services each Sunday to reflect on the
Atonement of Jesus Christ, to partake of the sacrament, and to renew
covenants with Heavenly Father. Those
covenants include witnessing our willingness to take upon us the name of Jesus
Christ, to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments. The promised blessing associated with this
weekly ordinance is that we will always
have the Spirit to be with us. The
effort to more fully comply with the covenants of the sacrament is certainly an
ongoing effort for all participants, but as participants continue to qualify to
have the Spirit with them, they receive the sanctifying effects of the atonement
of Jesus Christ that were bestowed upon them when they were baptized and
received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.
This process draws us closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and
enables us to become more prepared to return to our Heavenly Father’s presence.
Much of the way I strive to live my faith is a daily
struggle to try to keep the companionship of the Spirit with me. This means
both that I try to fill my soul with those things that invite the Spirit into
my life and I try to avoid those things that offend the Spirit.
Comforter
Christ frequently referred to the Holy Ghost as the
Comforter.[xvi] Near the end of Christ’s life, he promised
his apostles that when he was departed, Heavenly Father would send the
Comforter and the peace that accompanies the companionship of the Holy Ghost:
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my
name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I
leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.”[xvii]
The promise of peace and comfort of the Holy Spirit did not
apply only to the apostles to whom Christ was speaking. As we face the sometimes agonizing path of
mortality, Heavenly Father sends us the Spirit to comfort us and to provide us
peace in the face of death and sickness, depression and sorrow, temptation and
sin. When we turn to Him at times of
major and minor difficulties, He sends us the Comforter to assist us along the
way. The Comforter provides us the hope
that “all that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of
Jesus Christ.”[xviii]
This peace and comfort has come to me at difficult times in
my life. I have seen it come into the
lives of people who have suffered unimaginable tragedy and heartache. As I have discussed in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series about the Holy Trinity, part of the
main purpose of our life experience is to learn and to grow in an environment
separate from the presence of our Heavenly Father. In this life we gain experience that we could
not otherwise gain. But He has not left
us alone. Christ has atoned for our sins
and has felt all the pain and sorrow we have experienced and which will ever
experience. From the most miniscule annoyance
to the most profound sorrow, He has felt it.
And it is through the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, that we can feel the
peace and comfort, the “succoring,”[xix] the
hope and love[xx]
and encouragement of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
*****
The experiences I have had with God throughout my life have
come through the Holy Ghost, sometimes powerfully and sometimes subtly. The feeling I get after I help someone in
need. The joy I had the day I married my
wife and the love I felt when my son was born.
The peace and encouragement that comes to me as I read and ponder the
scriptures. The confirming witness I
feel as I listen to General Conference.
And the thoughts that come to my mind as I pray about and weigh in my
mind important personal decisions. These
are all ways, among many others, in which I have felt the Spirit in my
life. It is through my experiences with
the Holy Ghost that my faith has developed and been affirmed.
I conclude with a series of videos about the Spirit produced
by my Church. In these videos, various
individuals share, among other things, their thoughts about how they feel the
Spirit, what they do to invite the Spirit into their lives, how the Spirit
comforts them, and other experiences with the Spirit.
Feeling the Holy Ghost: Power of the Holy Spirit
Comfort in Trials
Receiving Revelation
Having the Holy Ghost
[ii] D&C 130:22: “The Father has a body of flesh and
bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of
flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit.
Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.”
[iii] For example, I will not go into detail here about the
many Gifts of the Spirit described in the scriptures (see 1 Corinthians 12:4–11).
[iv] John 14:26 states, “But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things….”
[v] Moroni 10:5 in the Book of Mormon reads, “And by the
power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”
[vi] See Boyd K. Packer, “The Candle of the Lord,” Ensign, January 1983, available at https://www.lds.org/ensign/1983/01/the-candle-of-the-lord?lang=eng.
[vii] Id.
[x] One caveat: though God may use logic to help us
understand truth, God’s messages may sometimes appear illogical from our
limited, finite perspective.
[xii] See Matthew 3:11; 2 Nephi 31:13, 17; and D&C 19:31.
[xiv] See 3 Nephi 27:20: “Now this is the commandment:
Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name,
that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand
spotless before me at the last day.” See
also Alma 13:12.
[xv] See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanctify. Another listed
definition is “to set apart to a sacred purpose or to religious use;
consecrate.” I also find this definition
compelling since when we enter into the “gate” (see 2 Nephi 31:17) through baptism
and the reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, we are in essence setting
ourselves apart to serve God and to consecrate our lives to Him.
[xvi] See, for example, John 14:26, John 15:26, and John16:7.
[xviii] Preach My
Gospel, Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation, available at https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/lesson-2-the-plan-of-salvation?lang=eng.
[xx] Moroni 8:26 states, “And the remission of sins
bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and
lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love
endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the
saints shall dwell with God.”
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