Increasing our access to the Spirit
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Through the Holy Ghost "we feel strengthened, filled with peace and joy," said Elder Keith K. Hilbig of the Seventy, speaking Saturday afternoon. "We possess spiritual energy and enthusiasm.... We yearn to become a holier person."
While the beckoning invitations of the world and the adversary would divert and dull sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit, "the role of the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is essential in every season of our mortal lives," he said.
From the beginning, everyone knew the journey toward exaltation would be "long, strenuous and sometimes lonely, but we also knew that we would not travel alone. Heavenly Father provides all who fulfill the prerequisites of faith, repentance, and baptism with a companion and guide, the Holy Ghost."
The path to eternal life, he said, is not on a plateau, but an incline that requires "ever-increasing spiritual understanding and energy," and the continued enlightened guidance of the Holy Ghost is essential against the pernicious opposition of Satan.
"We dare not hinder, disregard or quench the promptings of the Holy Spirit," Elder Hilbig said. "Yet, when it comes to drawing on the promptings and the blessings which flow from the Holy Ghost, we often live far below our privileges."
The price to enjoy those privileges is one of personal effort, "greater commitment to and involvement in personal spiritual endeavors and behaviors....
"Whatever level of spiritual development each of us may presently have, there always exists a higher level within our reach," he said. "Time is a most precious asset."
When the desire for deeper spirituality, to receive greater inspiration and to become more holy, "fills our hearts, we will eagerly increase the price we pay for heaven's help." That price includes searching the scriptures and applying what is "learned in our personal lives." Fervent prayer, and exactness in keeping commandments brings promptings of the Holy Ghost. Through fasting, and partaking of the sacrament "we further access the Spirit."
"The temple is a marvelous environment to seek personal revelation. When we attend as often as we can and listen thoughtfully, we depart with heightened understanding of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. The Holy Ghost extends our vision and allows that eternal perspective to influence the decisions we make in our daily lives."
