I’m grateful to have been introduced by Deborah, the person I love the most and the person who, after 35 years of marriage, knows me better than anyone else. With each passing year, I go deeper, and deeper into debt to Deborah. Let me explain why. A few years ago, Deborah and I were invited by the then Senior President of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Ronald A. Rasband, to attend a meeting with the full-time missionaries of the Fresno California Mission. During the meeting, Elder Rasband asked me to speak. After I finished, Elder Rasband turned to Deborah and said, “Sister Haynie, you’ve done a good job of raising him.” She responded, “I’m not done yet.” I’m grateful she’s not done yet.
Through all of the common challenges of our married life, the times when we ate liver smothered in catsup because it was all we could afford, the times when I called home from work and said I’d be leaving in a few minutes and then showed up two hours later, the times when a new baby woke up again and again during the night and I announced the next morning, “Wow, the baby didn’t wake up once,” and the times an anniversary gift was purchased at the last minute at the local grocery store or delivered a day late, she’s found a way to still love me and retain hope that in the eternities through Christ’s Atonement and His generous grace, I can become a man of holiness.
Like all who have the privilege to speak at one of your devotionals, I’ve sought inspiration to know what I should share with you. The natural man in me wanted to share something so profound that all of you would quote from in your next church talk or better yet during a daring marriage proposal. But that wasn’t what God wanted me to do. As I prayed and pondered about you rather than about this talk, I had a strong impression that I needed to talk to you about what should be most important in your life, even if I risk your falling asleep or forgetting what I said as you exit this building.
I love the Book of Mormon, which I testify is another witness of Jesus Christ. I value what the Book of Mormon makes me feel when I read it and more importantly what it compels me to do. As one serious student of the Book of Mormon once observed, “In reading the Book of Mormon, no one is ever doing something he shouldn’t be doing. Most of the time . . . he would be doing probably the best thing he could possibly be doing. . . . because it will have a direct effect on you. It will change you. . . . It immediately puts you on the high road to what you should be doing, like no other book.”[1]
That’s why President Russell M. Nelson, our latter-day prophet, recently testified that “[i]mmersing ourselves regularly in the truths of the Book of Mormon can be a life-changing experience.” And then he made the following prophetic promise, which is ours to claim: “My dear brothers and sisters, I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions – every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing addictions.”[2] With that prophetic plea to modify our daily spiritual behavior, let’s consider what the Book of Mormon teaches about what is most important in our lives as we strive to return to the presence of our Heavenly Parents.
One of the most powerful and yet tender moments in the Book of Mormon involves the resurrected Christ’s appearance to those who had gathered at the temple in the land Bountiful. The people hadn’t gathered to socialize or have a potluck, but rather to marvel and wonder about “the great and marvelous change which had taken place” and to converse “about this Jesus Christ, of whom the sign had been given concerning his death.”[3] And then amazing and sacred things happened.
The people heard the relatively rare voice of Elohim, our Father in Heaven, introducing and endorsing His Beloved Son. They saw Christ descend from heaven and over the course of several hours each of the two thousand five hundred men, women, and children at the temple saw with their eyes, felt with their hands, and knew with a surety that He was the prophesied Savior of the world.[4] He called apostles and gave them authority to baptize with water and taught them His doctrine, which He emphasized was the doctrine of His Father.[5] He promised them that after they were baptized with water, He would baptize them with “fire and with the Holy Ghost” and then they would “receive a remission of their sins.”[6] He taught them more of His gospel and promised to return the next day.
As He prepared to leave, He saw their tears and sensed their desire that He might “tarry a little longer with them.” And so, he had compassion on them and in recognition of their faith, healed all their sick and afflicted. He prayed unto the Father on their behalf, and “the things which he prayed” were so “great and marvelous” that they could not be written. Then the multitude felt joy, Christ felt joy, and then He wept. He blessed each of their children “one by one,” wept again, and “those little ones . . . were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.”[7] The day you become a parent is the day you more fully appreciate the significance of little ones being taught and protected by angelic beings. He who had allowed himself to be most broken for all of God’s children, then personally broke and blessed bread and blessed wine and introduced the sacrament to His apostles and they to the multitude until “they were filled.” Lastly, He touched each of His apostles and gave them the “power to give the Holy Ghost” and then He “ascended again into heaven.”[8]
What happened the next day was equally remarkable. The group that gathered then far exceeded the original group because “an exceedingly great number, did labor exceedingly all that night that they might be on the morrow in the place where Jesus should show himself unto the multitude.”[9] His apostles ministered to the multitude, instructed them to pray and prayed themselves, taught “those same words which Jesus had spoken” the day before, and then knelt and prayed again.[10] The apostles could have prayed for all sorts of things. Think of what they had experienced the day before. What might you have prayed for if you were them? Well, the apostles ultimately prayed “for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them.”[11]
I could stop this talk right here. That’s the core of my message and plea to you today. Like those newly called apostles, we should desire the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost more than anything else in this life. As one latter-day apostle has testified, “You take the Holy Ghost out of this Church, and this Church would not be any different than any other church.”[12] Similarly, if we distance ourselves from the Holy Ghost, we become just like everyone else and lose our privileges and promises as God’s covenant people.
Attempting to navigate the complexities of life without allowing the Holy Ghost to exercise all his divinely delegated duties on our behalf is, to be blunt, both dumb and dumber. But here’s the good news, each one of us can experience the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. It has nothing to do with physical appearance, intelligence or grade point average, worldly wealth, popularity, or even the significance of our calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has everything to do with our willingness to do our uniquely personal best to obey the commandments, to repent when we fall short, and to trust in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. When I say repent, I don’t mean simply acknowledging that we’ve sinned. I don’t mean simply confessing our sins, even to our Bishop, although the failure to confess makes it impossible for His atonement to fully heal us. We cannot alter the requirements of repentance. The process is fixed. It is both a revealed process and a divine process. So often we get right to the edge of experiencing the joy of repentance and then pride pulls us back. We fail fully to confess our sins or to make full restitution to those we’ve harmed and end up being unable to rejoice with confidence in His great sacrifice for us.
I need to repent more completely and more often. You need to repent more completely and more often. If we do, we’ll begin to feel more regularly the companionship of the Holy Ghost and then we’ll begin to feel more whole. We cannot view repentance as something to experience only on the day before judgment day. We need to experience it now, today, so the Holy Ghost can remain with us now, today.
After that prophet Mormon like monologue, let’s return to his account in the Book of Mormon. Having been taught the doctrine of Christ the day before by Christ Himself, these New World apostles understood that baptism was a prerequisite to receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost in their new gospel dispensation.[13] So the apostles were baptized, and “when they were all baptized and had come up out of the water, the Holy Ghost did fall upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”[14] Christ then appeared again and after ministering to the apostles and the multitude, He “went a little way off from them and bowed himself to the earth and he said: Father, I thank thee that thou has given the Holy Ghost unto these whom I have chosen. . . . Father, I pray thee that thou wilt give the Holy Ghost unto all them that shall believe in their words.”[15]
That petition by Christ to the Father on their behalf, and quite frankly on our behalf as believers in their words, should help us understand the magnitude of Christ’s desire that we receive and retain the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was not the first time Christ offered such a prayer. To his Old World apostles, Christ promised, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth.”[16] As the resurrected Christ, He instructed those apostles to “not depart from Jerusalem” and begin their ministry as witnesses “unto the uttermost part of the earth” until they had been “baptized with the Holy Ghost.”[17] Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and qualifying to enjoy his constant companionship should be the thing we most desire because it is precisely what Christ most desires for each of us.
Like many of you, I was baptized by water when I was eight years old, over a half a century ago. I remember a lot of the details about my baptism by water, in part because when I arrived at the chapel we discovered that they didn’t have any baptismal pants small enough to fit me. They brought me the same type of baptismal clothing that the two or three other girls were going to wear for their baptism on that day. They told me it was a tunic, but I knew it was a dress. I refused to put it on notwithstanding the efforts of my father and the priesthood leader who was conducting the baptismal service to persuade me otherwise. At some point an older man walked into the changing room, sensed my determination not to be baptized in what I knew was not a tunic, and then left only to return with two things in his hands. In one hand was a picture from the meetinghouse library of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus Christ. In his other hand was a rope. He told me that if I put on what they were calling a tunic, and tied the rope around my waist, I would look like John the Baptist and Jesus Christ in the picture. That made sense to me, so I was baptized in a tunic, not a dress, with a rope tied around my waist. I remember all of that. Here’s the part that troubles me. I don’t remember anything about hands being placed on my head and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
I’ve wondered why that’s the case. After all, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is in many ways the more significant part of that interconnected covenant moment. It’s the receiving of the Holy Ghost, not baptism by water, that purifies us, cleanses us, and causes us to be spiritually reborn. “For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.”[18] That’s why Joseph Smith taught that “the baptism of water, without the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost attending it, is of no use.”[19] President Boyd K. Packer similarly taught, “We sometimes speak of baptism for the remission of sins. The remission, if you will read the scriptures carefully, comes through the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost.”[20]
The purifying role of the Holy Ghost is evident from the very beginning of God’s dealings with his children born into mortality. “And thus [Adam] was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man.”[21] Perhaps at age eight I was like the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon whom Christ described as having a “broken heart and a contrite spirit” and faith sufficient that “at the time of their conversion, [they] were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.”[22] Upon reflection, many of you may lay claim to that same divinely tolerated unawareness of having received the gift. But the most important questions we need to ask ourselves and then answer are the ones that Alma asked the baptized members of the church in the city of Zarahemla, “[H]ave ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenance? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? . . . and if ye have . . . I would ask, can you feel so now?”[23] In other words, have we felt the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost since we have been baptized with water? Is it familiar to us? Did we feel it last week? Did we feel it yesterday? Do we feel it here today?
The reason those questions are so important is that the result of genuine repentance is the cleansing and rebirth that comes from the return of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Elder Marion G. Romney testified more than forty years ago that “[r]eceiving the Holy Ghost is the therapy which effects forgiveness and heals the sin-sick soul.”[24] Elder D. Todd Christofferson more recently taught that the Holy Ghost “is the messenger of grace by which the blood of Christ is applied to take away our sins and sanctify us.”[25] It would be a worthwhile moment of private introspection and self-evaluation to determine if we can feel the presence of the Holy Ghost right now. If we aren’t feeling his presence, then we may not be repenting as often or as fully as we should because “[t]he Holy Ghost comes to you as you grow and learn and make yourselves worthy. It comes a little at a time as you merit it. And as your life is in harmony, you gradually receive the Holy Ghost in a great measure.”[26]
Sometimes faithful members of the Church are so familiar with the feeling of the Holy Ghost that they take it for granted and do not value it as they should.[27] Either way, without the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, we are vulnerable, terribly vulnerable to the enticements of the adversary. President Wilford Woodruff once observed that “[t]he Church of God could not live twenty-four hours without revelation.”[28] If the Church can’t, we can’t either. I believe that’s why President Gordon B. Hinckley testified that, “There is no greater blessing that can come into our lives than . . . the companionship of the Holy Spirit.”[29]
When I turned twelve years old, I was nervous about passing the sacrament for the first time. I remember one of the veteran deacons, if there can be such a thing, drew me a map with numbers and arrows to show me where to go and what to do, which made me even more nervous. I was worried that I might trip and fall or that I might go to the wrong row and be the source of disruption during the most sacred moment of the Sabbath.
Things were going well until I stepped to the end of one of the rows and attempted to give the sacrament to an old, white haired man sitting alone. He didn’t reach out and partake of the bread. His head was bowed, and his eyes were closed. And then I thought, what do you do when you’re passing the sacrament and the person on the end of the row is asleep? Nobody in the deacon’s quorum trained me how to deal with that unexpected situation. So, I just stood there. And then I started to feel uncomfortable. At the moment of my greatest anxiety, that old, white haired man opened his eyes and looked right at me and I felt something spiritual. Then I knew he hadn’t been asleep. He’d experienced something powerful in response to the Savior’s prayer to the Father that the old, white haired man partake of the bread “in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee . . . that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them.”[30] Because that old, white haired man had accepted the Savior’s invitation as expressed in the blessing on the bread, he was rewarded to “always have his Spirit to be with” him, including in that very moment.
That’s when I knew that partaking of the sacrament could be a weekly, life changing experience. It’s not insignificant that the promised blessing of both the prayer on the bread and the prayer on the water are identical, to have “his spirit,” [meaning the Holy Ghost], to be with” us.[31] Hearing those words on a weekly basis is intended to help us understand how important it is for us to desire most the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.
When I was a little boy, my grandfather took me fishing and then at the end of the day he handed me a small pocket knife with a pearl insert and told me that if I would gut and clean all the fish we’d caught, he would give me the pocket knife. So, I gutted and cleaned the fish. That began my childhood infatuation with pocket knives. During those early years, I worked and saved money and bought several different types and sizes of pocket knives. But the one I wanted most, and worked and saved up for the longest, was a swiss army knife. It had 20 different features, including four different blades, bottle opener, can opener, two screw drivers, file, saw, reamer, wire cutter, wire stripper, wire crimper; cork screw, scissors, pliers, tweezers, and even a plastic toothpick. The swiss army knife barely fit into my pants pocket, but it felt good having it with me. I just knew that if I were ever stranded on a desert island, with my swiss army knife I could start a fire, spear fish, slay wild boars, construct a shelter, and build a radio to transmit an SOS signal to the civilized world and be rescued. I was never stranded on a desert island and I’ve long since lost that swiss army knife, but the imagery for this talk is a good one.
For all of us, the Holy Ghost functions much like a swiss army knife and we are in some ways stranded on a desert island, or as the Book of Mormon prophets described it “a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers . . . in a wilderness”[32][33] or “wanderers in a strange land.”[34] We need to find our way back to our real home, where our Heavenly Parents anxiously wait for our return. In addition to having the divinely assigned role of purifier and cleanser of our spirits, the Holy Ghost also acts as our teacher,[35] testifier,[36] guide,[37] memory refresher,[38] protector,[39] empowerer,[40] revealer,[41] witness,[42] source of spiritual gifts,[43] sealer,[44] companion,[45] and comforter.[46] In light of the myriad roles that the Father and the Son have delegated to the Holy Ghost, do you have a better sense just how important it is to have him involved in our day to day lives? At different points in our mortal journey, the individual roles of the Holy Ghost become critical to our spiritual survival in a world that at times feels maze like as we strive to return to our first and hopefully final home.
Although you will not find the label I’ll use for one of the roles of the Holy Ghost in scripture, I think it’s appropriately descriptive. The Holy Ghost is a nudger. Elder Robert D. Hales was more eloquent in his description of this role when he stated, “I remind all of us that the Holy Ghost is not given to control us. Some of us unwisely seek the Holy Ghost’s direction on every minor decision in our lives. This trivializes His sacred role. The Holy Ghost honors the principle of agency. He speaks to our minds and our hearts gently about many matters of consequence.”[47] Let me share a moment in my life when I felt his nudge and how my response to that nudge is the reason my children send me t-shirts with BYU emblazoned on them when they can’t think of anything else to get me for my birthday.
While serving a mission in Argentina, my parents told me that they’d received a letter from BYU asking if I was returning to BYU after my mission. If I was, I needed them to mail the letter back to BYU. I’d decided prior to leaving on my mission that I wouldn’t return to BYU because it made more financial sense to live at home and attend a university that was close to where I lived. As result, I told my father not to bother sending the letter back to BYU.
When I returned home from my mission, I only had a few weeks before school began, so I went to the university I planned to attend to sign up for classes. While standing at a counter selecting my classes, I suddenly felt unsettled. I felt nudged. I was familiar with that nudging. I had experienced it often in the mission field. As a result, I didn’t register for any classes and returned home. Later that night, I announced to my family that I hadn’t signed up for any classes because it didn’t feel right. I told them that I felt like I was supposed to return to BYU, but I couldn’t because I’d told them not to mail back that letter. My younger sister, who had followed my example and attended BYU, said, “Well that’s not quite right. I know you told Dad not to mail the letter back to BYU, but I went ahead and mailed it anyway. BYU thinks you’re starting school in a week.” And so that’s what I did.
The long-term consequences of that nudge are such that I wouldn’t be standing here today if I hadn’t felt it and had faith to follow it. As you live your lives, be sufficiently worthy and willing to accept the Holy Ghost’s occasional nudges because such nudges are consistent with your Father in Heaven’s personalized plan for each of you. As a latter-day apostle once declared, “Ignore or disobey these promptings, and the Spirit will leave you. It is your choice – your agency.”[48]
There’s another role of the Holy Ghost that I wish I had understood better when I was your age. One of the most oft quoted portions of the Bible Dictionary during General Conference is the discussion on prayer. If you haven’t read the entire discussion, I recommend that you do so. I want to quote only a small portion of that discussion today: “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.” That is a profound doctrinal statement. It’s important to ask for specific blessings from our Father in Heaven. I used to think that He’d just give them to me or those I loved even if I didn’t ask for them. As I studied the scriptures to learn more about prayer, I came to appreciate the vital role that the Holy Ghost should play when we pray to God. The following scripture helps us better understand that role. “And if ye are purified and cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done. But know this, it shall be given you what you shall ask.”[49]
Two parts of that scripture jump out at me. First, the requirement that we be humble and repentant so that the Holy Ghost can fulfill his role to purify and cleanse us and then be with us as we pray for blessings from God. Second, if the Holy Ghost is with us when we pray, He’ll reveal to us the things that we should ask for in our prayers, which are the very things God wants to bless us with but can’t until we’re inspired by the Holy Ghost to ask for them. When we realize how necessary it is for our prayers to be inspired by the Holy Ghost, we’ll begin to understand what the Savior meant when He said, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”[50] If we seek the assistance of the Holy Ghost when we pray, he can help us to “ask not amiss”[51] or to not “ask for that which you ought not.”[52]
The next time you pray, invite the Holy Ghost to inspire you as you pray. My witness to you is that if you do, you’ll begin to learn how to recognize what it is that you should talk to your Father in Heaven about, you’ll begin to learn how to know the questions to ask that He is prepared to answer, and you’ll begin to learn how to be inspired to ask for the blessings that He’s anxious to pour out upon you and those you love. Then the following words of the Savior will have greater meaning to you: “He that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh.”[53]
Now let me share one word of caution with you about the gift of the Holy Ghost. When hands are place upon our heads by one who is acting pursuant to the priesthood keys of the restored Melchizedek Priesthood, we’re invited to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. But the actual bestowal of the Holy Ghost is given by the Father and the Son themselves.[54] There are examples in the scriptures when such bestowal comes in a dramatic moment and persons are changed almost in an instant,[55] but for most of us the process of change, the process of purification and sanctification that is so central to the mission of the Holy Ghost, “involves growth and change that is slow, almost imperceptible.”[56] But there must be growth and there must be change. Without the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, that process simply cannot occur. That’s why the loss of the companionship of the Holy Ghost is so debilitating.
The scriptures teach that the “Spirit of the Lord [the Holy Ghost] doth not dwell in unholy temples.”[57] If we sin and fail promptly to repent, he will depart from us. He must. As President Dallin H. Oaks once stated, “He will withdraw when we offend him by profanity, uncleanliness, disobedience, rebellion, or other serious sins.”[58] He will not be with us when we watch inappropriate movies or visit pornographic websites, listen to harsh music with salacious lyrics, act with cruelty to others, lose our tempers, cheat on a test, violate the law of chastity, ridicule church leaders, mock sacred doctrines, or go places we would never want our future grandchildren to go.[59]
Here’s another thing I’ve learned about the Holy Ghost. It takes more effort and time to qualify for the return of his presence than it does to trigger his departure. In my life, I’ve learned that the Holy Ghost doesn’t respond like electricity to the on, then off, then on again of a light switch.[60] If we are “slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord,” He will be “slow to hearken unto [our] prayers, to answer them in the day of [our] trouble.”[61]
When I was the age of many of you, I was sitting in the back of a chapel in a fast and testimony meeting of my home ward. I wasn’t paying attention. My head was down, and I was thinking about other things. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I looked up to see a young Aaronic priesthood holder, the one who was handing the microphone to those who preferred to share their testimony by standing up rather than walking to the podium. He handed me a note and then moved on. I opened the note, which was written on a small piece of paper torn from the corner of the ward program. It said, “I love your testimony. Please share it.” Well, that woke me up. I’d shared my testimony before, so I assumed I could easily do it again. I knew that “the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach” or in my case bare your testimony[62] I offered a quick prayer, but I didn’t feel anything. I prayed some more, felt nothing, and the meeting ended without me sharing my testimony. I left the meeting quickly, not wanting to see the young Aaronic priesthood holder who handed me the note.
I spent the next month being very careful to live worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, so I’d be able to share my testimony at the next fast and testimony meeting. On the Saturday prior to that next fast and testimony meeting, the young Aaronic priesthood holder who had handed me the note was killed in a tragic accident. He was not at the fast and testimony meeting the next day, but I bore my testimony anyway. I hope he heard it.
Don’t make the same mistake I made. It’s a painful lesson to learn.
But as you seek to always have the Holy Ghost to be with you, remember this wise counsel from Elder David A. Bednar, “I recognize we are fallen men and women living in a mortal world and that we might not have the presence of the Holy Ghost with us every second of every minute of every hour of every day. However, the Holy Ghost can tarry with us much, if not most, of the time – and certainly the Spirit can be with us more than it is not with us.”[63]
A few years after his death, the Prophet Joseph Smith appeared to Brigham Young in a dream. Brigham Young asked him if he had any counsel for the members of the Church. Joseph Smith told him “Tell the people to be humble and faithful and sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach [you what] to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom. . . . Tell the brethren if they will follow the Spirit of the Lord they will go right.”[64] .
I add my humble witness to that of Joseph Smith’s. The consistent companionship of the Holy Ghost will lead us safely back to the presence of our Heavenly Parents. The Holy Ghost can provide the cleansing, purification, and rebirth that is the intended blessing of the mission of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The Holy Ghost will nudge us to ensure that we end up doing those things in those places at those times that are consistent with God’s plan for each of us.[65] The Holy Ghost can reveal to us questions that God is anxious to answer and blessings that God will pour out upon us if we simply ask for them. The Holy Ghost will remain with us if we desire most his companionship, act consistent with that desire, and repent when our best efforts fall short of the divine mark. I witness that our Father in Heaven will be generous in giving us “another Comforter, that he may abide with [us] for ever,”[66] even the Holy Ghost, because Christ prayed that He would.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[1] Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1, at 2
[2] Russel M. Nelson, “The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like Without It” General Conference (October 2017)
[3] 3 Nephi 11:1-2
[4] 3 Nephi 11:3-7, 10-15
[5] 3 Nephi 11:18-22, 31-39
[6] 3 Nephi 12:1-2
[7] 3 Nephi 17:5-9, 16-17, 21-24
[8] 3 Nephi 18:3-9, 36-37
[9] 3 Nephi 19:3
[10] 3 Nephi 19:6-8
[11] 3 Nephi 19:9
[12] Legrand Richards, “The Gift of the Holy Ghost” General Conference (October 1979)
[13] The ordinance of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost predated the death, resurrection, and appearance of Christ at the temple in the land Bountiful. But the appearance of Christ instituted a new gospel dispensation that necessitated a new baptism and receipt of the Holy Ghost. See 2 Nephi 9:23-24; Mosiah 18:13-16; Alma 7:14-15; D&C 22:1-2; Joseph McConkie, Robert Millet, Brent Top, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. IV at 55-56
[14] 3 Nephi 19:13
[15] 3 Nephi 19:19-20
[16] John 14:16-17
[17] Acts 1:4-5, 8
[18] 2 Nephi 31:17
[19] Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Joseph Smith (2007) at 89
[20] Boyd K. Packer, “The Gift of the Holy Ghost: What Every Member Should Know” Liahona (August 2006)
[21] Moses 6:65
[22] 3 Nephi 9:20
[23] Alma 5:14, 26
[24] Marion G. Romney, “The Holy Ghost” General Conference (April 1974)
[25] D. Todd Christofferson, “The Power of Covenants” General Conference (April 2009); see also D. Todd Christofferson, “Born of the Spirit” LDS Business College Devotional (April 15, 1998) (“We must receive the Spirit so that the grace of Christ may work in us to effect our cleansing and rebirth. This is that other baptism, the baptism of the Spirit, the baptism of fire, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is being born of the Spirit.”)
[26] The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, (Edward Kimball, editor) at 114p;
[27] Dallin H. Oaks, “Always Have His Spirit” General Conference (October 1996)
[28] Discourses of Wilford Woodruff at 61, as quoted in James E. Faust, “Communion with the Holy Spirit” General Conference (April 1980)
[29]Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley at 259; see also The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff (G. Homer Durham, editor) at 5 (“You may have the administration of angels, you may see many miracles; you may see many wonders in the earth; but I claim that the gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon man.”)
[30] D&C 20:77
[31] D&C 20:77, 79
[33] Jacob 7:26
[34] Alma 13:23
[35] D&C 39:6
[36] John 15:26; 2 Nephi 31:18; D&C 42:17
[37] 2 Nephi 32:5
[38] John 14:26
[39] See Gary E. Stevenson, “How Does the Holy Ghost Help You?” General Conference (April 2017) (“[T]he Holy Ghost can help you by warning you in advance of physical and spiritual dangers.”)
[40] 2 Nephi 33:1
[41] Matthew 16:17-18
[42] Moroni 10:4-5
[43] D&C 46:11-12
[44] D&C 132:7
[45] The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball (Edward Kimball, editor) at 23 (“He is a companion and will walk with us, inspiring us all along the way . . . .”)
[46] John 14:16; Alma 17:10; Moroni 8:26
[47] Robert D. Hales, “The Holy Ghost” General Conference (April 2016)
[48] Boyd K. Packer, “Personal Revelation: The Gift, the Test, and the Promise” General Conference (October 1994)
[49] D&C 50:30
[50] John 14:14; see also John 15:7
[51] 2 Nephi 4:35
[52] D&C 8:10
[53] D&C 46:30
[54] John 14:26 (“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name . . . .”); 2 Nephi 31:12 (“He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me.”); John 15:26 (“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father . . . .”); John 16:7 (“[F]or if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”); 3 Nephi 12:1 (“[A]fter that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost.”)
[55] See Acts 9:3-5; Enos 1:4-6; Mosiah 5:2; Mosiah 27:11-16, 24-29; Alma 18:40-42, 19:12-13
[56] D. Todd Christofferson, “Born of the Spirit” LDS Business College Devotional (April 15, 1998)
[57] Helaman 4:24
[58] Dallin H. Oaks, “Always Have His Spirit” General Conference (October 1996)
[59] The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow (Clyde J. Williams, editor) at 108 (“From the time we receive the gospel, go down into the waters of baptism and have hands laid upon us afterward for the gift of the Holy Ghost, we have a friend, if we do not drive it from us by doing wrong.”)
[60] Mosiah 11:24 (“Yea, and it shall come to pass that when they shall cry unto me I will be slow to hear their cries.”); Mosiah 21:15 (“And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries . . . .”)
[61] D&C 101:7
[62] D&C 42:14
[63]David A. Bednar, “That We May Always Have His Spirit to Be with Us” General Conference (April 2006)
[64] Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Joseph Smith (2007) at 98
[65] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses vol. 6 at 95 (“[W]e do not believe that the Holy Ghost ever dictated, suggested, moved, or pretended to offer a plan, except that which the Eternal Father dictated.”)
[66] John 14:16