Post # 4 - The Power of the Holy Ghost

Hello, Family & Friends,

Today I would like to share with you about the power of the Holy Ghost. I know that my last post was about the power of prayer and I only mentioned a couple of examples that related directly to my latest journey in my life – living with breast cancer.

 I would like to take you back, to when I first learned about prayer. It was just before I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Before I was baptized, my nine- year- old daughter was invited to go to church with a friend from school, which had happened before --- without much success. 

We lived in Utah in a small town, right across the street from the school. We hadn’t lived there for very long when one of her friends from school had asked her to come to church with her. I told her that she could go. Her friend & her parents were supposed to come pick her up on Sunday, but this never happened * I had a very sad little girl for a few weeks every Sunday. She was dressed and ready on the front porch waiting for her friend’s family to come take her to church.

We  moved to another farming community out in the country, we lived a mile off the road and about seven miles from the closest church. I began taking my girls to church and they were happy to be there. I never went in with them. I always waited for them in the church parking lot. I never had clothes for church – I only had work clothes. Church was not something that I was very familiar with.

Then one day a couple of ladies came to our door and wanted to teach my oldest daughter. I thought it was a little strange that they wanted to come to our home to teach her church lessons. I thought that church lessons were taught at church. I was not raised going to church – at least not with my family.  I used to spend the night with my friend sometimes so that I could go to church with her.

Anyway, she wanted to meet with these Sister Missionaries, so I agreed to let them come to our home to teach her about the gospel. Of course, I wanted to know just what they were teaching her, so I sat in on the lessons. And through the power of prayer we both had a confirmation from the Holy Ghost about the lessons that these sweet sisters were teaching us.  
– In Romans 15:13 it says “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

I had a peaceful feeling and knew that what these Sisters were teaching my daughter was the truth and that my daughter and I had found Jesus Christ’s church, organized just like the one that He organized during His ministry upon the earth.

I did not grow up in a home where there was prayer or going to church, so this was all new to me.  My Mom always said that “the Lord won’t give you anything that you cannot handle.” That was about as close as it got to learning about God.  

Well, my daughter and I ended up being baptized on the same night, we were also confirmed a member of The Church of Latter-day Saints and had the opportunity as a member to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  This has changed my life!! Not just for the better, but for the best!!!

All my life I have had a great fear of water because of a near drowning incident when I was young.  I was a little worried about being baptized and being put under the water. I continued to pray about my baptism and about not being afraid. The night of our baptism I was not afraid, I felt calm and knew in my heart that my daughter and I were making the right decision.

- In Galatians 5:22-23 it says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law,”

And it all began with learning how to pray. Learning that I am a child of God, that I have a Heavenly Father, who loves me always -- no matter what! My Heavenly Father was always there with me all my life… I just didn’t know it.

It is through the Holy Ghost that we receive those ‘feelings’, get those ‘promptings to go do something (that was not a part of our plan), or to visit someone, receive that feeling of complete peace, when we feel surrounded by love, feel arms around you – even when no one is there.

I don’t know about you, but I always have a prayer in my heart Prayer can change your life as it has mine!! One very important thing I would like to stress – You must listen to the Holy Ghost when He speaks to you. and then go and do whatever He prompts you to do.

My husband and I were foster parents for several years, until we reached 6 children of our own. One of our foster daughters, who had lived with us for quite a while during her teen years, had just had a baby, so we had gone grocery shopping and decided to stop by to visit her. We were on our way home when an accident occurred. Let me back up just a bit.

That morning when I was discussing with my husband our plans for the day, the children were way excited and running about the house. They asked their Dad if they could stop by his job while we were in town, it was just about that moment when one of the children went around the table and knocked his coffee to the floor. He told them that they could not come to the shop because they would only run around and get into things.


We were on our way home after our visit with our foster daughter, I was taking the back- road home. We came to the corner that one way would have taken us to my husband’s shop, the other way would take us home. When I reached that corner, I had the strongest feeling that I should go visit my husband.  I then remembered what he had said that morning, so I turned right and headed for home.

I was so new to the Holy Ghost at that time, that I did not realize that He was prompting me through my thoughts and feelings, but not knowing I let my rationalizing lead me and my children into an accident that might have been avoided – had I only known better at the time. You see, it was the exact same mileage from that corner to my husband’s shop from that corner as it was from that corner  to the point of our accident.

This accident sent my children and I,  in an ambulance, to the emergency room that night. The county had been resurfacing the road and there was a pile of asphalt on the side of the road that when the front end of my car broke sent us all airborne. Our car went up the hill and flipped around to land back in the same lane that we had been traveling in, only we were then facing where we had just come from.  So, they say ‘hind sight is 20/20’ right?

Looking back, I think that had I listened to the prompting the car might have broken down at my husband’s shop and saved all of us the injuries and trauma we received from that accident, as well as all the medical bills that were included in the ambulance transport of 5 of us to the hospital and the emergency room fees.  It sure is something to think about, the next time you receive a prompting from the Holy Ghost, right?

 Remember, once you receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, be sure to learn about it – the Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead and has a body of Spirit to guide and help you throughout your life, as long as you live worthy of your covenants with the Lord.

In first Nephi 10:9 it says: “For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.”

President Henry B, Eyring said in a General Conference talk: “We can, if we live worthy of it, have the blessing of the Spirit to be with us, not only now and then but always.” That is what I strive for every day now. In the same talk he also said:

 “To always have the Spirit with us is to have the guidance and direction of the Holy Ghost in our daily lives. We can, for instance, be warned by the Spirit to resist the temptation to do evil.”

“For that reason alone, it is easy to see why the Lord’s servants have tried to increase our desire to worship God in our sacrament meetings, if we partake of the sacrament in faith, the Holy Ghost will then be able to protect us and those we love from the temptations that come with increasing intensity and frequency.”

“The companionship of the Holy Ghost makes what is good more attractive and temptations less compelling. That alone should be enough to make us determined to qualify for the Spirit to be with us always.”

“Just as the Holy Ghost strengthens us against evil, He also gives us the power to discern truth from falsehood. The truth that matters most is verified only by revelation from God. Our human reason and the use of our physical senses will not be enough. We live in a time when even the wisest will be hard-pressed to distinguish truth from clever deception.” ….

“Confirmation of truth comes to a son or daughter of God who has claimed the right to receive the Holy Ghost. Since falsehoods and lies may be presented to us at any time, we need a constant influence of the Spirit of Truth to spare us moments of doubt.” …

“We need that constant help from the companionship of the Holy Ghost for yet another reason. The death of a loved one may come unexpectedly. It is the witness from the Holy Ghost of the reality of a loving Heavenly Father and a resurrected Savior that gives us hope and comfort at the loss of a loved one. That testimony must be fresh when death occurs.”

So, for many reasons, we need the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. We desire it, yet we know from experience that it is not easy to maintain. We each think, say, and do things in our daily life that can offend the Spirit. The Lord taught us that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion when our hearts are full of charity and when virtue garnishes our thoughts unceasingly (see D&C 121:45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.).” …

“As you obey, the impressions from the Spirit will come more frequently, becoming closer and closer to constant companionship. Your power to choose the right will increase.”

“You can know when these impressions to act for Him are from the Spirit rather than from your own desires. When the impressions square with what the Savior and His living prophets and apostles have said, you can choose to obey with confidence. Then the Lord will send His Spirit to attend you.”

You can learn more about the power of the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost by going to: https://www.mormon.org   or https://www.lds.org