Please, this shares some tender feelings, so if you feel inclined to mock it, just be mature and go somewhere else.
By the power of the Holy Ghost, we may know the truth of all things.
The Holy Ghost is one of the basic and essential parts
to the restored Gospel. In the first article of faith, it states that he is the
third member of the godhead, and in the fourth it tells us we are given the
gift of the Holy Ghost by “the laying on of hands,” thus making it the first
blessing after baptism to be given to us once we’ve joined the church. Knowing
that, it shows how important the Holy Ghost is in our lives.
TRUE TO THE FAITH Read and discussed section about the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost covers a few pages of description
here. It discusses how the Holy Ghost can show us the Lord’s kingdom and all we
need to know for our lives if we are humble and listen.
Something significant that comes from this
is the difference between feeling the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost
which we receive at baptism. From this, we must “receive” the gift, and be
willing to live our life in a manner where we can receive His guidance.
Before we can receive revelation, we have to
understand how to get it. In the GOSPEL PRINCIPLES manual, it says:
So, we’ve received the Holy Ghost, and we’re living our
lives worthily, and the best we can to receive revelation. This is where the
fun starts.
There are many ways we can learn truths. In the
scriptures and through prophets, we know there are different gifts of the Holy Ghost.
I love that there’s a wide range here, and it says
some get given this gift, others are given another. The best part is we aren’t
limited to one and we can develop the gifts with our faith.
In Acts 2, the apostles of Christ are given the Holy
Ghost for the first time. Here, we see an example of the gift of tongues:
vs4-8.
This chapter goes on to see Peter prophesy for the first time with the power
of the Holy Ghost and is a great chapter to read, but these verses show the gift of
tongues. The gift isn’t people talking in jibberish, but each spoke in a real
language that someone understood. This gift is something foreign language
missionaries are given, so we can see God’s wonders in our time too.
There are plenty of other gifts too which were
mentioned in D&C, and it’s up to us individually to know which we are
blessed with through prayer and faith.
These gifts work hand in hand with the gift of the
Holy Ghost. He’s the one bestowing them on us after all. Through all of this,
we can receive revelation we need in our lives to know the truth of all things.
Now, we live in a world where there’s so much
information, so many sides and opinions and views to everything out there, that
things can get very confusing. We are blessed to have prophets and apostles to
guide us, but sometimes it can feel like our feelings or views contradict with
what’s being taught. This is where our Gift of the Holy Ghost kicks in. Our
leaders tell us to pray and ask in faith if we have doubts, which is
encouraging us to use this incredible gift of the restored gospel to enlighten
our minds.
When I was a teenager, I was all about girl power. I
played sports hard and rough, and I didn’t let anyone say I couldn’t do
anything. Which is fine, but I reached a point where I wondered, why can’t I
have the priesthood? I looked at the goofy young men around me and wondered why
they could have it and not me when I was all kinds of awesome.
I remember talking to my parents about it several
times. I knew it was the way God worked, and I wasn’t going to fall away
because of it, but I wanted to know WHY. So, with my parents to guide me, I
studied and prayed and soon learned I had my own divine rights as a woman. They
weren’t any less important, they were just different. I soon learned that I had
roles to fulfill in sustaining the priesthood holders, and being a future queen
in the Kingdom of God. I don’t need to hold the priesthood as long as I honor it
and help the brethren around me honor theirs. God instilled womanly virtues
upon me instead of the priesthood. Nowadays, I really don’t want the
priesthood, because I know what I have is just as important.
Not only can the Holy Ghost teach us principles
through our faith, but he can guide us down the best path in our lives.
I’d feel safe saying many here today can look back
and see how the Holy Ghost guided our paths to where we are today, through the
bad and the good. I know I literally wouldn’t be here, in this country, if the Spirit didn’t say, well, now we’re going this way instead.
Now I’m going to tell you a story, because that’s
what I do.
When I was twenty, I determined to serve a mission
come my twenty-first birthday. I had my papers and money and had done the doctor's checks, but a niggling doubt had me hesitating. I'd wanted to serve a mission for years, so I didn't know why I was doubting. So one day, while waiting on the temple grounds, I prayed about it to know for sure what I needed to do. To my surprise, I was told not to serve a mission and to go to university.
So, I obeyed and enrolled, and once I'd paid of my student fees, I had some money left over. Around that time, I received an email from my host mother (from my time as an exchange student) telling me a bunch of the guys I'd been friends with were coming home from their missions. So I arranged to come visit during my winter/US summer break. It was that visit when Landon and I got engaged.
Our engagement was made in faith. We'd known each other for a while, but things happened pretty quickly, so I really had to pray about if it was the right thing to do. I've never felt so strongly that to marry him would be the best decision of my life. I haven't regretted it, and during the rough times, I've looked back on that feeling and remembered why I married him to help me get through, and I know I'm blessed to have him in my life and I've seen my own blessing grow by following the path the Holy Ghost led me down.
The power of the Holy Ghost is real, I can never doubt that, and I will always feel blessed to have that gift in my life.
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