What is the Essential Role of the Holy Ghost?

What is THE ESSENTIAL Role of the Holy Ghost?

By Anthony Sweat

Let me start by asking some questions:

  -How can you know if the atonement is working in your life? 

  -How can you know if you’ve been cleansed of the sins for which you’ve repented?

  -How can you receive the Lord’s grace—his strengthening and enabling power—in your everyday life?

  -What makes it possible for the Savior’s healing and understanding power to come to us?

  -How can we have our hearts purified, our very natures changed and transformed into better people?

I’ll get back to the answer in a moment…

Often when we teach and speak about the roles of the Holy Ghost we overlook perhaps his most important function.  He is the comforter, yes.  Gratefully, He guides us.  He testifies of eternal truth, of course.  All of those roles are very, very important.  However, if we only teach these things (which, in my experience, is the most common way people discuss the Holy Ghost in church settings), I think we miss his most essential duty: to deliver the blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ into our lives.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve taught, “The gift of the Holy Ghost … is the messenger of grace by which the blood of Christ is applied to take away our sins and sanctify us” (“The Power of Covenants,” Ensign, May 2009).

Did you catch that?

It is the Holy Ghost that cleanses our sins and purifies us.  Most people, especially most youth, don’t seem to grasp that concept.  For example, ask this question to your class:  Who cleanses our sins?  Most people will say, “Jesus.”  While it is Jesus’ atonement that made it possible for us to be cleansed from the stain of sin, it is the Holy Ghost—as the messenger or deliverer of the atonement—who actually does the cleansing.  Take a look at these scriptures (the 3 Nephi 27:20 one is listed in the YM/YW learning outline next to “The reception of the Holy Ghost sanctifies us”; emphases added in the following scriptures):

• • 2 Nephi 31:17 “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.”
• • Alma 5:54 “they have been brought into this church, having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit”
• • Alma 13:12 “Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence”
• • 3 Nephi 27:20 “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.”

This isn’t just a Book of Mormon doctrine. Paul referred to it multiple times as well in the New Testament:

•  “That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 15:16)
•  “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Perhaps my favorite one does come from the Book of Mormon, however:

• “And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ” (Moroni 6:4).

If I were facilitating this learning outline on the roles of the Holy Ghost, I would emphasize this doctrine as clearly and with as much holy passion as possible!

 

(Can I get an Amen?!  Who can say, “Hallelujah?!).  Why, you might ask?  Because not only is this truth (that the Holy Ghost delivers the atonement into our lives) perhaps the single most important function of the Spirit, it is also perhaps the least understood, and possibly the most applicable in our lives.  Just look at this quote from President Eyring (one of my favorites): “If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost during this day, or even this evening, you may take it as evidence that the Atonement is working in your life. For that reason and many others, you would do well to put yourself in places and in tasks that invite the promptings of the Holy Ghost. …The reception of the Holy Ghost cleanses us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” (CES Fireside for Young Adults, September 10, 2006, Brigham Young University).  On another occasion President Eyring said, “Reception of the Holy Ghost is the cleansing agent as the atonement purifies you…. And when he is your companion, you can have confidence that the Atonement is working in your life” (“Come Unto Christ,” Brigham Young University Fireside, 29 October 1989).

So, who wants to be cleansed from sin?  Who wants to know if they have been forgiven?  Who wants to be strengthened and helped by Jesus’ grace?  Who wants to be understood and guided? Who wants to be healed from hurt?  Who wants to be changed and transformed into a better person?  Who wants the atonement?  Then get the messenger of mercy, the deliverer of divinity, the agent of the atonement:  The Holy Ghost.

____

Anthony Sweat received his PhD in education from Utah State University and is a full-time religious educator for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He is a regular speaker at Especially For Youth, Education Week, Time Out For Women, and other LDS conferences, as well as an adjunct professor in the department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University.  He is the author of several books and audio CD’s, including Mormons, An Open Book, Why? Powerful Answers and Practical Reasons for Living LDS Standards, and I’m Not Perfect. Can I Still Go To Heaven? 

Van Natter JANUARY

Welcome to BABY ELLA! She was in a hurry to get here!

January flew by! The first 5 days were the BEST because Emily and Addie were still here. Addie cracked us up on a continual basis. One day she suddenly kept saying to her mother, "Hi! How are you, Princess?" Also got to 'enjoy' the trauma of the first beauty salon haircut. She was not a happy camper! But looked so grown up with her short bob.

Had to show this photo: Addie begged for a Junior Mint that someone was eating. We assumed she'd eaten it, but later found it stuck to the bottom of Santa's saw. Guess she showed us what she thought of that particular candy!

The rest of the month seems to have been storm after storm after storm. Then FROZEN RAIN! (Which never happens in Utah!) Then more snow. And more snow. And then some more snow.

I took this photo from my laundry room. I was fascinated by those icicles!! And in the distance you can just make out the sun through the horrible inversion. This was mid-morning. Dark and cold.

And in those freezing temperatures, Ian slipped on the ice at Maverick and messed up his hip. The doc said he'd burst the bursal sac, but after another week of utter misery he decided he also had ligament and tendon damage, and told him to take 2 weeks off work. Ian took a week then went back, but it's a painful long day for him. He can't take his pain meds and function at work. Then to add insult to injury, he broke a molar and is currently at the dentist getting that dealt with.

Also during the single digit days, minus zero nights, the water line to my washer froze. Fortunately John was able to get it thawed with minimal effort. After that I started washing daily, instead of once a week, to keep water running through it.

Got my nativities finally wrapped up and put away (I followed Annette's example and wrapped all the pieces and stashed them in storage bins, instead of in their original boxes. Takes up so much less room. 3- 25 lb. bins of nativities!!)

With that done, I turned my attention to my junk heap of a bedroom!! There were still boxes of things (like china, things we seldom use, etc) stashed in there from the remodel. I'm almost done with that project and the bedroom is looking so airy and open. But not for long. Next project is to empty the computer room - into my bedroom for now - while we revamp the room into a more workable space. Currently it's the 'junk drawer' of our house - anything we don't have a place for ends up in the computer room!! Kind of excited about that project. Once finished, the plan is to then redo our bedroom, which is always the last to get any kind of attention. We painted it 8-9 years ago and still have NOTHING on the walls!



36 years ago on January 23rd we got engaged. John NEVER forgets, the old softy!! He brought me lovely red roses. Still can't believe it's been soooo long!

Got to teach a lesson on the Holy Ghost in Relief Society. The actual talk I was assigned was Elder Nelson's, "Ask the Missionaries. They can Help!", which if you recall has pretty much NO MEAT in it. But I found some great info on the Holy Ghost and was able to work it in since there is a story in there about Jerry who hears a voice tell him to stop the boys on the bikes. Remember?? I'll post the Holy Ghost info separately. It almost started a brawl in RS!!! :-)

John has missed his little sweetheart so much. He always loves a chance to Face Time with her. He's dealing with some sciatic pain problems, which gets worse after he's shoveled all that snow. But we don't have a snow blower (every year we debate, and should have done it for sure this year!), and Ian has been out of commission most of the month due to his hip. He's gotten out to the Island a couple of times. The horrible inversion made breathing difficult and ensured that there would be no color when the sun went down.

Here's to February: month of LOVE!!

december and january- mark and linda

Happy New Year to everyone! It is COLD and SNOWY in Iowa and we are enjoying our fireplace every night.

I didn't realize i never posted about December and now i can hardly remember it!
Here are a few highlights:

December:

We had a fun gingerbread party. I made 3 houses for everyone to decorate. Afterwards we had a hilarious white elephant gift exchange- mostly due to the microwaveable socks that all the girls wanted and the unmentionable items that Jeff brought!!!

This is what my cookie plates looked like this year:

 Maple yule logs, raspberry ribbons, Andes surprise packages, peppermint snowballs, peanut blossoms, Patsy's sugar cookies and mint chocolate delights...a new fave!

 Mom and i went shopping and out to lunch.....to Panera's for soup.

We had our Bethlehem Supper on Christmas Eve. It was fun to have Eileen's mom Yolanda here for all the holiday activities. Afterwards we made and raced santa's candy sleighs for our annual derby. I won this year!

Mom spent the night with us and we had a nice morning together. Breakfast was donuts and for lunch we had yummy potato/bacon soup.

After lunch we drove to Omaha and exchanged our gifts with both families. James treated us to a fabulous steak dinner. Mark left me there to babysit while he worked in outstate Nebraska. 

I had a different winter theme for each day i was there. Some of the activities included: decorating pop stick snowflakes, making snowflakes with marshmallows and toothpicks, stuffing sock fish for a penguin toss game, curling the fringe on fleece scarves, painting bread mittens and toasting them, and having a snowman wrap. This last activity escalated into a full blown TP snowball war....thanks Lindsey!!!! What a mess!

January:

I was SUPER busy with Primary things. I made "I am a child of god" dog tags using my metal stamps which we are giving out for birthdays. I also made the theme banner for over the chalkboard and the january poster. Then there were scouting issues and the pack committee mtg which i had to lead since i am the "chair." And on top of all this i had Sharing Time for January. And of course i can't do anything simply. So i made tons of new visual aids  including this poster for teaching the pre-mortal life. Dont' freak....i told the kids we don't know what heaven looked like but we assume it was a beautiful place. So i was not teaching false doctrine and i hope the kids don't think that heaven looks like a forest! Really....i took visual clues from a CTR 4 manual picture that shows mountains and shrubs etc. The  Heavenly Father and Jesus piece is separate as well as the spirit children piece. They are both backed with foam board.

 Anyway, i did a fun detective activity for Senior which included secret mission envelopes and stick-on moustaches. I did a Plan of Happiness puppet show for Junior and a reader's theater for Senior, and a bingo type game for another week. 

For the grandkids i did a new flannel board set for "Jesus heals a woman." Here is what it looks like: (The top pieces portray the customs of washing feet, welcome kisses and oil for hair. The 3 men on the right are for the story of the man who forgave 2 debtors. Their IOU's are removable.)

Here is where i store all my flannel board sets so i can keep track of figures and colors etc. It's a giant foam-type board i found at Home Depot years ago. I put it up on the wall in my walk-in studio closet and the pieces are pinned to it.

I worked so hard on Primary that when all the sharing times were finished i HAD to do something creative. So i made a little scrapbook to celebrate the grandkids and the new one to come.

This LO of Sarah makes me giggle because she loves wearing fake glasses. I thought Kathi would get a kick out of seeing this old apron she made YEARS ago for Julie. I love using my silhouette for these popular cut out titles.

I just finished another little book called "Before i was  your grandma." I wanted the littles to know that i have not always been old!There are pull-out tags with a little explanation for each page. ("I have a grandma too!" and "I went to Primary just like you. I am still a happy Mormon girl.")

Last weekend we had Kaitlyn and Keira here and had a fun time. Here they are eating polar bear sandwiches while watching Winnie the Pooh.

 Today i am catching up the Halloween book for 2011 (!) and starting a new one: "Teacher @ Heart."

Hope you're all off to a good year and have some great resolutions to work on. Good luck!
Also...
Congrats to Packers...baby Ella is adorable!
Congrats to Bryce and Amy! 
and Welcome home Sam!!! It was fun to see pics of him in this NL.
Bye!!! We're off to Thailand in a week.

Dec./Jan. Greg Cottrell Family

First Snow

Kids Decorate the Christmas Tree

 

Building Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread display and Mormon Trail Center with the Fergusons

Hot Chocolate and Gingerbread boys

More Snow Fun

Omaha botanical gardens

New Church Clothes

Turkey Christmas Eve Dinner and Walter the Elf brought the kids new PJs

Candy Sled Races Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

The Big Surprise for the kids this year was a Wii and lots of games.

Bethlehem Christmas Day dinner.

Our big helper.

Ready for the new Primary year.

Adam picked fruit pizza instead of cake for his birthday this year.

Moulton Dec/Jan

Time flies when you're having fun!!! Seems like I've been gone more than I've been home! Busy couple of months!
December was great! First December I've been home and not working or teaching seminary! Hooray! Christmas preps kept me busy of course but I loved the freedom to do what I wanted when I wanted! We finally, after 5 years, got tickets to the Mormon Tab Christmas concert. So Jess took the day off and we hit some shops on the way up to Salt Lake. We picked Bryce up who was working at a clinic downtown. We walked over to the Conference Center from our hotel and got GREAT seats. It helped that we got there 90 minute early! haha! It was really an amazing concert! Last year, they had 'snow' falling from the 'sky' (ceiling). This year narrator,Tom Brokaw, shared a story about the "Candy Bomber" during WWII,  and little handkerchief parachutes fell from the 'sky' (ceiling)! Magical! They had a giant sheet/drape hanging from the ceiling so that some 1940 footage could be shown of the actual candy drop! Even had sound effects like a plane engine! Then the drape from the ceiling dropped and there he was, The Candy Bomber! Guess he lives just north of Salt Lake!!! And he wore the same uniform from the War!  Alfie Boe,  from Les Mis fame sang! Wow! After singing, Bring Him Home, he got an extended standing ovation! It was an amazing night!

We drove Bryce back to his car which he'd left at the clinic downtown and off he drove. Unfortunately, we didn't go anywhere. Our car was overheating. So we sat and waited and waited and waited! And the snow started! OF COURSE!!! It was almost midnight and not in a great part of town! Eeek! I suggested we walk cuz it was getting cold. We ended up calling Bryce who came back and rescued us! We left the car and Bryce dropped us off at the hotel. THANKFULLY, we had a room! Bryce picked us up in the morning and took us to a favorite breakfast spot! Suffice it to say, we made enough trips to Pep Boys to get to know them by their first names! It wasn't totally fixed but we got it home and then Jess did his magic! Whew!

We looked so forward to getting our Texas kids home! They drove 22 hours straight and got in Sat morning before Cmas! The next day was our Family Christmas party! It was dicey having it on a Sunday, especially when we had the 1-4 schedule when the party started at 5. Eeeeek! But it all came together! It was so much fun, more low key and just plain fun! Kathi and I are already brainstorming about next year's party! Fun to have Colin join us this year!!! We even had enough kids to do the nativity! My favorite characters: the donkey and sheep: Addie and Sophie!!!

Christmas Eve was magical because it started snowing! We made sure we placed luminaries on Jess' mom's grave: a Utah Co tradition! It's so beautiful! Packer's came but were delayed because of the snow! It was a little crazy finding places for everyone to sleep since Amy and Avery were with us this year. But we managed! Christmas morning was so fun to watch the 3 little ones! We had our new traditional breakfast: deep fried french toast with 5 diff syrups this year! Everyone seemed to have their favorite. Jess' dad was over for Cmas Eve and Christmas day. As usual we took our time and savored the moments! Jess (and everyone else) surprised the heck out of me with a new Hyundai Elantra! I love it! But boy was I shocked!!! Sneaky boy!!!

We looked forward to January because we were getting our new little grand daughter! Stephanie was scheduled for a c-section Wed, Jan 16th but went into labor on Monday the 14th so I raced over that evening  (unprepared!), while they took off  for the hospital! Little Ella was born at 10:22 (gotta get another clock for my house!) and we were so excited. I took the kids to see Mom, Dad and 'the new baby sister', the next afternoon. They were awestruck! Poor little Sophie ended up getting sick tho' so she had a rough week but we had lots of cuddle time! I've been back and forth to help Stephanie and the kids. Ella is such a little 'pipsqueak' (according to her doctor) and we're convinced she's gonna look more like Stephanie but we'll see!!!

We're getting freezing rain and snow like crazy lately! But I'm not complaining! I love it!!!!!!! Stay warm!

Baker News

Hello Family,
 It's been awhile since I wrote. I couldn't figure out how to post, again. Kathi told me the way and it works. I hope to post photos too.
 We anxiously awaited Sam coming home on Nov. 30. On our way to the airport, Sam called from Miami to tell us he missed his flight because they took too long in customs so he'd be in later than planned. So we had 4 hours to kill. That just made the agony of waiting that much harder.
 We finally went to the airport after we went to dinner and brought in a balloon bouquet and a sign that said "Welcome Home Elder Baker". Waiting, waiting and then, there he is! Coming down the escalator!! I was the first to hug him. So skinny and tanned. He looked great. Colin had come in from Wisconsin and Holly from South Dakota to be with us so we had 3 kids together. Sam had a hard time with English, talked really fast and was happy to be home. We didn't get home till 2:00 am. The next morning, our Stake President came over to release Sam. It's always sad to see that, a missionary being released. They live such a high life for 2 years, and now they're given back to the world. Sam was a little lost for a few days, felt guilty for all the free time he had. But he enjoyed being home and the ward welcomed him warmly.

 

The Castros came up the next day to see Sam. Joseph didn't remember Sam, of course, but he did well with him. The kids set up the Dicken's Village. And finally after 25 years of collecting buildings and accessories, we are finally done!!! We don't have anymore room for more buildings so it's time to be done. And it's a great set up. We're really proud of what we have. We held off having Thanksgiving till Sam came home and had it the next Saturday.

Just days after Sam got home, Calvin and Colin drove back to WI to pack Colin up and move him to SLC for his new job at KTVX Channel 4 as a morning news producer. The drive went well, they were nervous about weather across NE and WY. But all went well with the move. Colin lives in West Jordan in a nice 1 bedroom apt, goes to a single's ward and is enjoying his new job. It took him a few weeks to working nights and sleeping days but has adjusted well. The weekend that Calvin was in UT, he planned to see Jacob and family but was hit with the horrible stomach flu that was going around and didn't get to see them afterall. That was a blow, very disappointing. Once Calvin got home and recovered, he got a nasty cold that laid him low for days. I've been grateful that I haven't gotten either so far (knock wood) this season.

 Holly was able to come back home for Cmas and we decided at the last minute to have Christmas at the Castros. Kelli had to work Cmas night so that was easy for us to pack a few gifts and head down. Joseph was so fun Christmas morning. He loved all his Santa gifts. We had a nice Cmas dinner and then went back home that night and opened more gifts waiting for us under the tree.

Holly stayed a few more days with us and then went down to Kelli's to spend a few more days there before she went home. Colin spent Cmas with Jacob.

Now Sam has gone back to BYU and is busy with school and a small part time job. He likes his roommates and seems to be doing well being back in school. He's taking Jacob's Philosophy class and is enjoying it. Holly is busy with not only teaching, but being the prose editor to an online blog called "Segullah", a blog made up of LDS women writers. She's very busy.

 Calvin has been out of town alot lately, which I guess is usual. I do ok when he's gone. I'm so used to it. I've been working on family history lately, filling out a huge 15 genereation pedigree chart from info I find on Family Search. Calvin's dutch line goes back farther than we ever knew, in fact, one line goes back so far into the 1400s that I ran out of room to put the names on this huge chart! Very interesting and exciting to work on. There's been a ton of temple work already done.

I'm enjoying teaching Gospel Doctrine for the most part. It's not easy for me to pull a lesson together. You'd think after teaching Seminary for 5 years that it would be s snap for me, but it's not. In my quilt guild, I'm the new secretary this year and run the guild newsletter online. I taught a class last night at our January meeting.

Calvin has been asked to be the Trail Boss for the Pioneer Trek the stake's youth is taking this June. I guess I'll be the wife! They'll be going up somewhere in Michigan for the trek. We have our first meeting this week about it. I've never been on a trek. Should be fun?

  Happy 2013!

Heidi Nov-Dec-Jan

I really thought I'd posted more recently, but I went back through and my last newsletter was October 7.  Ooops!  Let's see what I can remember...
November:
My student teacher started.  She was really good and really eager.  I ended up taking a couple personal days and leaving her in charge so I could work on some business things.  Our business?  Well, it's doing really well!  Who could have guessed this??  I talked to my principal about taking a year off to see if I can do this full time.  So we'll see!!  It seems so crazy to be taking this direction, but I'm excited.  I think it will be good.  If nothing else I could use a change! 

December:
Knowing it was my last December in the classroom I really made it count.  We did fun (educational??) stuff every day.  It was pretty intense.  It was very nice to finally get to the break.  The family party was delightful.  The kids grow up so much from year to year.  I went up to the parents' house on Christmas Eve.  Addie kept announcing "Present time!"  She kept us all entertained.  Christmas was a lovely day.  Addie really got into it this year.  I got lots of grown-up gifts (new towels, silverware) and lots of little kids gifts for the preschool I want to open.  More craziness!  I'm hoping to do preschool in the mornings so I can have some sort of human contact during the day! 

January:
It is just no fair that I have to come back from Christmas and jump right into report cards.  What a bummer!  I guess that was the last time though, so I can't really complain!  My roommate Misty moved to Taylorsville so right now it's me and Adrienne.  I've been busy trying to reorganize the house--moving bedrooms, setting up an office, cleaning, organizing, redecorating--so I can get the rooms painted and the preschool set up.  Emily and I have been trying to figure out how to be business women.  We have a pretty limited skill set when it comes to accounting, so it's a big learning curve right now...So much to look forward to in 2013!