We often speak of having the Spirit, or losing it. This can create the impression that the Spirit is like a light switch that only turns on or off, all or nothing.
The Holy Ghost is a personage, a member of the Godhead. But the scriptures speak of receiving “a portion” of the Spirit. While the Holy Ghost has an indivisible spirit body, the emanating influence of the Spirit is given by degrees. When we say “portion,” we are talking about how much we are getting at this moment of that radiating influence, light, power, glory, or whatever you want to call it, emanating from the presence of God.
“…Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.”
“And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so” (2 Kings 2:9). Elisha did see him taken up into heaven in a whirlwind by a “chariot of fire,” so he got what he asked for. The Spirit is given to us by degrees, or in “portions,” that can become stronger or weaker.
Context in the scriptures helps us know whether we are reading about the personage of the Holy Spirit, or the influence of the Spirit.
Receive
At confirmation, each new member of the Church of Jesus Christ hears this instruction: “Receive the Holy Ghost.” This is not a passive statement; it is a commandment. Since the Spirit can be received in greater and greater portions, keeping this commandment describes a life-long pursuit.
It can be difficult to receive, hear, or feel the Holy Spirit. Forces inside and outside us can drive that sweet influence away. We are familiar with the list of things we should repent of in order to avoid offending the Spirit. What can we do besides omitting those bad things to receive the Spirit more fully?
Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind (i.e. the Spirit) bloweth where it listeth…” (John 3:8). We cannot control the weather, or force the Spirit. If we want the Spirit, we need to go where it leads.
D&C 82:10 assures us, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say…” There are instructions of how to receive the Holy Ghost in the scriptures. If we follow these rules, He will bless us with it.
The Sunday School Answers
There is a list of Dos, standing opposite of the long list of Don’ts, that every Latter-day Saint can recite. “How can we _______?” the Sunday school teacher will ask. The class will immediately blurt out something like the following list: “Keep the commandments, attend church meetings, fulfill our callings, pay our tithes, attend the Temple, study the scriptures, pray…” and several other things. (Fasting never comes up for some reason.) We may smirk, but we also agree. What do these all-purpose “answers” to our spiritual problems all have in common?
My first mission president gave each of his missionaries a sticker to put in the front cover of our scriptures: “7 Ways to Invite The Spirit: -Prayer (D&C 136:29:32) -Use the Scriptures (Alma 31:5) -Testify (2 Nephi 33:1) -Use Music (D&C 25:12) -Express Love & Gratitude to God (Mor. 7:47) -Share Spiritual Experiences (Luke 10:25-37) -Perform Priesthood Ordinances (D&C 84:20).”
This list sounds a lot like the generic Sunday school answers. Everything on either list invites the Spirit to be with us. We do these things to feel the Spirit.
“What if I’m already doing them?”
“Do them even more” is the stock answer. These things are good, but we may be omitting some other important ways to keep the commandment to receive the Spirit.
The scriptures use superlatives and extreme language to describe some ways we can receive the Holy Ghost. Instead of simply “feeling” the Spirit, we read about intense “always,” “fire,” “fulness,” and being “filled.”
Always
Each week in sacrament meeting, we are told that if we are
1. Willing to take upon us the name of Christ
2. Willing to always remember Him
3. Willing to keep His commandments
then we may ALWAYS have His Spirit to be with us.
“Always” (permanently) having His Spirit with us is critical to keeping the commandment to “receive the Holy Ghost.” “Willing” describes the internal attitude required of us to have that great blessing. A heart and mind willing to do things God’s way is ready to receive the Spirit.
What was Jesus Christ’s special gift? He announced in the synagogue that He was the Messiah by reading Isaiah 61:1-2 and then interpreting it: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me…” He enjoyed a fullness of the Spirit.
“None ever were perfect but Jesus; and why was He perfect? Because He was the Son of God, and had the fullness of the Spirit…” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 187-188). When we speak of trying to be like Jesus, what we are saying is that we also want to enjoy a fulness of the Holy Ghost, that radiating influence, in us. We take His name onto ourselves in order to claim a portion of the Spirit closer to what He enjoyed in mortality.
The promise is, with this constant memory of the Savior and being ready to try again when we fail, and being willing to take His name onto ourselves and obey Him, we will always have His Spirit to be with us.
Fire
The voice of Jesus came to the Nephites in the darkness after the great destruction in the Book of Mormon, imploring: “O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?” (3Ne. 9:13). He then began to explain their role in that process.
“And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost…” (3Ne. 9:20).
This is intense language—“baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost.” Baptized means immersed, completely covered. He tells them this happened to “the Lamanites, because of their faith in [Him] at the time of their conversion…and they knew it not.”
We often associate the Holy Ghost with extreme feelings and emotionalism, but these people were spiritually born again, experiencing the mighty change of heart, without even knowing it. Perhaps we need sensitivity to it the Spirit as much as we need an increased portion of it.
This combination of coming to Jesus, with faith in Him, and deep humility (a “broken heart and a contrite spirit”) is a prerequisite for receiving the Spirit to the degree that we are born again. Our portion of the Spirit is proportional to the depth of our humility.
Fullness
Attending the Temple is on the list we spontaneously recite in Sunday school, but it also belongs to the extreme-description category.
D&C 109 was received by revelation and read by Joseph Smith as the dedicatory prayer for the Kirtland Temple. It lists some of the purposes of the House of the Lord, including the following: “…that they may grow up in thee, and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost…” (v. 15).
The Temple is a place to serve selflessly, but there are rewards. We get to soak in the Spirit (to borrow Elder Bednar’s pickle imagery). There is great spiritual power and protection that comes to us as we participate in all aspects of Temple work.
D&C 109 also says “…that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness” (v. 13). The visual impact of the elegant décor is small compared with the sublime spiritual feelings we can experience there. Entering the Temple is like moving from the tepid shallows on the riverbank to the center of the river—all things spiritual are accelerated there.
The Light of the Body
Our physical bodies allow us to receive a greater portion of the Spirit. Jesus Christ is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). Everyone with a body has something extra—the light of Christ—during their mortal journey.
Keeping the Word of Wisdom helps us to receive revelation because our bodies, when healthy and free from sin, allow our spirits to enjoy a greater portion of light. “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Matt: 6:22). We learn in D&C 88 that our bodies are currently being quickened by a portion (a part) of the full glory we will enjoy in the resurrection:
“They who are of a celestial spirit (right now) shall receive the same body which was a natural body (during the resurrection); even ye shall receive your bodies, and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are (currently) quickened” (v. 27-28).
Our bodies gather that light that emanates from God. The more obedient we are, the more light our bodies receive and communicate to our spirits.
“All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not,” and, “The great principle of happiness consists in having a body” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 181). A body does more than we can understand now, in terms of accelerating our happiness. Those in the spirit world look “upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage” (D&C 138:50, D&C 45:17).
If our behavior is not celestial, then we receive a lesser portion.
“Ye who are (now) quickened by a portion of the celestial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness” (D&C 88:29).
But there is more to it than being healthy.
Section 88 compares us mortals and our trajectory through eternity with the earth’s past, present, and future:
“For after [the earth] hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory…”
“…the earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation…
“Wherefore, it shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is (currently) quickened, and the righteous shall inherit it” (D&C 88:19, 25-26).
What is true of the earth also applies to us:
“For notwithstanding they die, they also shall rise again, a spiritual body.
“They who are of a celestial spirit shall receive the same body which was a natural body; even ye shall receive your bodies, and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are quickened.
“Ye who are (now) quickened by a portion of the celestial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness” (D&C 88:27-30). When we use our bodies to accomplish God’s intended ends (whatever they are for us individually) we get an increased portion of celestial glory here and now.
The earth is fulfilling the measure of its creation by bringing forth life; our physical bodies have the capacity to bring forth life also. As Spirits, we could do anything we can do now, as far as talents and abilities go, but we could not beget children of our own. We now have that capacity in this life. When we create and nurture families we are given a greater portion of the Spirit.
Fulfilling the measure of our creation might also include individual assignments, things that apply to us and no one else.
Filled
We are meant to be in the world, but not of it: “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15). I still sympathize with monks and nuns who retreat from the world to seek pure simplicity.
Jesus said, “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3Ne. 12:6). “Filled” is another superlative—you cannot be more than full.
Esau was hungry, and sold his birthright (the claim to his priesthood) for a bowl of soup. It is easy to trade eternal for temporal in a moment of weakness. Yet we can be miserable and wealthy simultaneously. Hearts set on the things of this world experience disappointment sooner or later.
Our spirits get homesick, yearning for our heavenly home. We can smother this feeling with noise and sin, if we choose. But flashy technological gizmos cannot cover it completely. But those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled with the Holy Ghost.
The things we cannot touch or buy are the things we need most. The fruits of the Spirit are peace, love, joy, and knowledge, the abundant life. The Lord tells us, through strong language in the scriptures, the way to receive what Elisha asked for—a greater portion of His Spirit.
