the Holy Ghost

Many years ago, I met a man (Stephen E. Burrows) who told me about a trip he took to Vancouver Island with some friends. They spent several hours at the beautiful Botanic Gardens near Victoria, enjoying the most gorgeous flowers he said he’d ever seen. Near the end of his trip he and his wife were looking at one particular flower together when she remarked on it’s remarkable deep RED. That startled him because he saw the flower as orange. “RED?” he asked as he took off his sunglasses. He was shocked to see deep and vibrant colours all around him, that he had completely missed that entire day because of the filter of the sunglasses.⁽¹⁾ He had believed all along that he was having the same experience his group was having, but in actual fact they were seeing things so much differently than he was! And when he saw how much more beautiful the garden that they saw was, compared to the one he saw, he was saddened and he wished he could go back and look at it again the ‘right way’ – without the filter that had diminished its beauty. But it was too late, their day was spent and the garden was closing.

When he told me about this experience he said, he saw it as an analogy of how much truth we sometimes miss though we’re looking right at it – simply because our perspective is altered. What if we had our cheap sunglasses permanently removed? What if we saw not only ‘hints’ of what the Holy Ghost could do, but continuous evidence of it?

The Holy Ghost visits people without baptism – it is the convincing power of the Holy Ghost that testifies to our hearts that we are learning good things. Otherwise, how would we ever be drawn to truth or recognize it? Before baptism good people feel the power of the Spirit directing them to one course of action or another. One of my all-time favourite examples of this is Christopher Columbus. Columbus sailed 33 continuous days into the unknown with a crew that was scared for their lives and on the verge of mutiny. Every decision he made was crucial to both the success of his expedition and the survival of his small fleet of three – across an ocean that most educated people believed was flat. Geographers today say that he “did not make a single false move in the entire voyage”. How? How is that possible – especially since it had never been done before?

Columbus was an experienced seaman, and most of his crew members were too. In order to man the expedition, the Spanish crown offered amnesty to convicts who signed up for the voyage but only four men took the offer. It surprised me to learn that so few had taken the chance, but one cannot estimate the power of fear, and to many – the expedition was a fool’s errand. And yet, we all know what the result was. Though Columbus didn’t anticipate a continent between him and his destination, he touched ground and brought the Americas to the attention of Europe, fulfilling prophecy by early New World prophets.⁽²⁾

He said in his journal “With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. . . . This was a fire that burned within me. Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but also of the Holy Spirit?
—Christopher Columbus ⁽³⁾

There is no question that the light of Christ has been on the earth for thousands of years – and that the Holy Spirit had an important role to play in many peoples’ lives long before the Restoration of the gospel. But what if you could have that with you ALL THE TIME? A gift. As a constant companion. What would that be like? I believe it would be like having a veil lifted from your eyes, a permanent removal of cheap sunglasses which would restrict your clear and beautiful view of things as they are?

After Baptism by water, we receive the HOLY GHOST through the laying on of hands by those who are in authority to give it. You cannot give a gift if its not yours to give – so proper authority is very important. Joseph Smith – who I love with all my heart, said this:
“The gospel requires baptism by immersion for the remission of sins” . . . then he added in true Joseph style “You might as well baptize a bag of sand, … if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half – that is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Saviour said ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ (John 3:5)” Joseph Smith continued to say “Baptism is a holy ordinance preparatory to the reception of the Holy Ghost; it is the CHANNEL AND KEY BY WHICH THE HOLY GHOST WILL BE ADMINISTERED.” ⁽⁴⁾

When I was 8 years old I was baptized and I received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I remember very little from that day. I grew up in a less active home and was not taught the gospel. I don’t know why my parents thought it was important to get us baptized, but they did – and all four of us siblings were baptized at 8 years old. I am forever grateful for whatever prompting they had that made them feel that was important, and for their willingness to follow it. It’s a saving ordinance – and though we didn’t suddenly become active members of the church – over the years I learned a very important thing.
*If you’re ever going to come back, you have to have some place to come back to.

Baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost not only gave me membership in this church, but it gave me the companionship of the Spirit to guide me on my way back. He is my dearest and most treasured companion. He has never let me down, and he has never left me. There were times in my life that I didn’t deserve his companionship and so you could say I walked away from him – but when I came back I found he was still there, waiting just where I left him – my ready companion, anxious to help me.

The SIMPLICITY of the ordinance of receiving the Holy Ghost may cause some to over look its importance. But don’t be fooled. The four words RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST are not passive. They constitute an important and binding contract between you and God. There is nothing magic about it – its not a sudden pronouncement that makes the Holy Ghost instantly operative in our lives simply because hands have been placed on our head and those four words were spoken – even if by the proper authority. Nothing is quite that simple. It is our responsibility TO ACT AND NOT SIMPLY TO BE ACTED UPON (2 Nephi 2:26).

If I handed you a gift and you didn’t lift your hand to receive it, then you didn’t really ‘receive’ it did you? I may have done my part but you haven’t done your part. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read “For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.” (D&C 88:33). It’s as if there was no gift – so when you hear the words “RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST” you should think to yourself “Yes, I WANT to RECEIVE it. I WILL Receive it – I’ll do my best to learn what it means and to be deserving of it. I’ll try to listen to the Holy Ghost and try to follow his guidance. I’ll spend the rest of my life doing all I can to keep him close.”

As we receive this gift, each of us accepts a sacred and ongoing responsibility to DESIRE, to SEEK, to WORK, and to SO LIVE that we DO indeed RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST. ⁽⁵⁾

When I received the Holy Ghost as an 8 year old, I had no idea who he was, how I would come to identify him, and that he would become my most trusted friend. It didn’t happen that I came to know all that over night, or even by time I was 12, or 18 or 28. As I look back however, I recognize that I followed his promptings a lot, though I didn’t always recognize they were HIS promptings. The truth is – I have almost no recollection of a life without the Holy Ghost and I didn’t realize that until one day when I was talking to a friend. Like me, she had been baptized as an 8 year old and had received the gift of the Holy Ghost. She had taken a different path than I had and deserted his constant companionship. When she came back to the church, she underwent a period of time that the Holy Ghost was not with her. She described this time to me as being dreadfully lonely. As I listened to her experience I thought to myself – ‘I have been through a lot. And I’ve made many mistakes. And I know there were times I didn’t listen and didn’t care to listen – but I never have felt the same dreadful loneliness of having the spirit taken away from me that she described.’ As I reflected on her words, for the first time in my life I realized that I have never known life without the Holy Ghost – even when I didn’t recognize it at the time. And I promised myself that day – that I never would.

That doesn’t mean I never make mistakes or that I always choose the right though it makes me sad to admit it. He’s not that kind of friend. He truly loves us and is a loyal devoted friend who would never desert us. But we do have responsibility. We need to listen, pay attention and follow promptings – or our ability to hear will fade.

We couldn’t possibly learn all there is to know in a month or two, or even a year or two – about the Holy Ghost and how important he’ll become in our life. We get little mini lessons as we read something inspiring, or listen to a talk or a beautiful piece of music, or as we sit in a church meeting, or as we serve someone we hardly know, or in the many, many ways that he’ll manifest himself to us. Whenever we feel those tender feelings that sometimes make tears come to our eyes – we learn something new about how the Holy Ghost works.

One of the things we can do is to make him feel Welcome. He’s the 3^rd member of the Godhead: Father, the Son and Holy Ghost. That means he’s a god. Where would a god like to be? Not sitting with us watching a violent or vulgar movie that’s for sure. Not in a place where language is fowl and people are unkind. Not where the music is vulgar and full of bad language or any other place that drags us down to think or act inappropriately. These are times and places where we may cause the spirit to withdraw from us for a time.

We can also become distracted by the cares of the world and the routine of daily living and we take for granted or even neglect this most valuable gift. David A. Bednar said “We more readily receive and recognize the Spirit of the Lord as we appropriately INVITE Him into our lives. We cannot compel, coerce or command the Holy Ghost. Rather we should INVITE Him into our lives with the same gentleness and tenderness by which He entreats us.” (GC Nov Ensign 2010) ⁽⁶⁾

Brigham Young said
“Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction so that when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it. They can tell the Spirit of the Lord from all other spirits. It will whisper peace and joy to their souls, and it will take malice, hatred, envying, strife, and all evil from their hearts; and their whole desire will be to do good, bring forth righteousness, and build up the kingdom of God. Tell the brethren if they will follow the Spirit of the Lord they will go right.”⁽⁷⁾

The Holy Ghost is a Revelator, a Comforter, a Friend, and a Teacher. While we are learning all the ways He can bless us, – our life will just get better and better and better because he’s in it. What a fantastic way to start a new year!

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

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