While on company assignment a few days ago, Tory Baxter stopped at a service station in an out-of-the-way place to use the rest room.  While there, the Holy Ghost told him that he was going to be asked to help someone, and that he was not to do so.  As he went back to his vehicle he was approached by a clean-cut young man carrying a gas can.  The young man explained that he had run out of gas down the road and needed a ride back to his car.  Tory told him that he was driving a company car, that it was against the rules to have unauthorized passengers in the car, and that he, therefore, couldn’t help him.

Tory was delayed leaving the service station as he filled out some paper work.  Before he could leave, the young man came again, tapped on his window to get his attention, said that he couldn’t find anyone to help him, and asked again if Tory wouldn’t give him a ride.  Tory had largely forgotten about the warning the Holy Ghost had given him earlier, and his mind hadn’t connected the warning to the clean-cut young man anyway; but now another message came into his mind.  It said, “If you help this young man, you’ll never see your family again.”

Tory had no trouble declining this supposed opportunity to be a Good Samaritan.  But pity the person who goes through life without such protection, or who, through unworthiness, loses the gift.

I, myself, lost that gift for a short time, and, as a result of that experience, I know that I never want to be without the influence of the Holy Ghost again.

Before I was a member of the Church I was severely depressed.  I was so depressed that I, a college student, was unable to open a book.  I had enrolled for my second year of college.  I was an honor student.  Day after day I went through the motions of college life, but I wasn’t able to open a book to study.  Not once did I do so.  On the last day possible to drop classes without penalty, I did so, and returned home.  I was as low as a person can get.

It was during this unbearably depressed time that the light of the gospel came into my life.  Ironically, it came as a book.  I stood this book—the Book of Mormon—upright on my desk, and stared at it for two weeks.  I knew, somehow, that I was going to have an experience when I opened that book.  Finally, in December 1966, I picked up the book and began to read.  It was likely the first book I had opened in six months.  Light came flooding into my mind.  As I read, I literally felt the light pushing the darkness to the back of my head until it exited completely.  It was an exciting and marvelous thing.

I know now that this light was the Holy Ghost.  The light was there as I read the book.  When I’d go to work, the light was gone.  I couldn’t wait to get home and back to the book so that the light would come again and dispel the darkness.  As I read and repented, finished the Book of Mormon, moved on to read and study the Doctrine and Covenants, and prepared myself for baptism, the light became more constant.  Sometime before my baptism, during this 2 ½-month-long learning and cleansing process, the darkness completely left my mind.  I was happy for the first time in over a year.

My happiness grew following baptism.  Thirteen days after my March 4^th baptism, I went off to Navy boot camp.  That should have been a hugely depressing experience, but to the contrary, I recall feeling euphoric as I marched around the asphalt-covered “grinder” in the hot sun in San Diego with the 59 other men in my company.  They were all feeling low, and wondering what in the world they’d gotten themselves into.  I, on the other hand, was having prayers answered every day.  There was a bounce in my step, light in my mind, and a smile on my face.  I was happy through and through.

That happiness lasted for one whole year.  The next March I was called in for an interview with my bishop to assess my worthiness to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.  I soon found myself being interviewed by the stake president, also.  That would have been Friday evening.  He told me that my name would be presented for sustaining in stake conference on Sunday, March 10^th.

As I left that interview, the old darkness and depression that had previously been my constant companion settled back into my mind.  It scared me.  What was wrong?  I couldn’t accept the Melchizedek Priesthood if I felt that way.  I was terrified.  I began a fast.  I needed help.  I took a long hike.  I didn’t want to be around people.  My beautiful world was suddenly dark and gloomy again.

Saturday evening there was a baptism scheduled for a young man on the base whom I had helped to teach.  I really didn’t want to go to the baptism and be around people in my gloomy state; but because the man was my friend, I went.  At the baptism a man had been assigned to speak on the gift of the Holy Ghost.  In his talk he pointed out that the Savior had to face the ordeal of the Atonement all alone.  The Spirit was taken from Him, and he cried out in His agony, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  (Matt. 27:46).

(Psalms 22:1 renders this experience thus:  “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  Why art thou so far from helping me…?”)

When I heard that, a light came on in my mind.  I suddenly knew that was what I had experienced during the previous 24 hours.  The Holy Ghost had been taken from me to show me what blessings I had constantly enjoyed over the previous year, and also to show me the seriousness of the step I was taking as I accepted ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood.  Happiness, peace, a sense of well being, direction and light returned upon this realization.  Life was good again.

I don’t recall another time in my life when I’ve been without that influence.  I don’t want there to ever be another time.  I’ve had depressing things happen to me, and I’ve had an occasional gloomy day; but the Spirit has always been there, and I’ve known that my down feeling was temporary, and that the world was still all right.

I would not trade the gift of the Holy Ghost for all the treasure or pleasure in the world.  The value of the Holy Ghost far surpasses anything that the world has to offer.

Members of the Church—those who have gone down into the waters of baptism, and who have then had authorized hands laid on them for bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost—most often take the gift for granted.  The Holy Ghost is a constant presence in their lives.  It’s always there, they expect it to be there, and, therefore, give it no thought.  But think for a moment what one really has when one has the gift of the Holy Ghost.  That person has the constant influence and presence of a member of the Godhead!  That’s a mind-boggling thought.

Imagine going through life with a member of the First Presidency as your constant companion.  What might you learn—what might he teach you—if you were constantly in his presence?  Moreover, you’re not going where he wants to go and doing what he wants to do; but rather, he’s going wherever you want to go, and doing whatever you want to do.  He’s trying to be your friend.  He’s trying to talk to you.  He’s trying to share his wisdom.  With his foresight he’s trying to help you steer clear of dangers.  He’s hurrying ahead to remove obstacles that would trip you up.  He’s arranging things and assembling people so that you might better accomplish those things you’ve set out to do.  He’s constantly comforting you, encouraging you, patting you on the back, urging you on, and assuring you that you can do it.  He reminds you where you put things, tells you where to look for the treasured item that you’ve lost, suggests that someone needs your attention, helps you give that person the needed assistance, and then pats you on the back again and tells you what a wonderful person you are.  Most of all he’s constantly talking to you about God.  This member of the First presidency is so sensitive to your feelings that he’s never, ever obtrusive.  Though he’s your constant companion he’s never obnoxious.  But he wants to talk about God.  In every way possible he tries to get you to think about Heavenly Father and Jesus.  He points out everything they do for you.  He wants you to remember who you are, and what your relationship to them is.  He encourages you to be grateful and to get down on your knees and express that gratitude.  He’s constantly testifying to you of the Father and of the Son.  During your study times together he points out particular scriptures and shares his deeper insights.

This third member of the First Presidency is right there teaching you how to do hard things you’ve never done before.  He could teach you how to pilot an airplane or how to teach a class.  Nephi built a ship that way, perhaps having never seen one in his life.

Having the third member of the Godhead with you is infinitely better than having the constant companionship of the third member of the First Presidency.  In the Holy Ghost’s presence you never have to feel self conscious, dumb, or inadequate.  You never feel smothered by too much attention or too much instruction or help.  You never get more conversation than you care to hear.  Rather, the Holy Ghost always leaves you wanting more—more comfort, more guidance, more companionship.

Learning how to use and hear this friend and companion is life’s greatest quest, goal, and occupation.

After Joseph Smith’s death, Brigham Young found himself the leader of the Church.  His heartfelt prayers for guidance and wisdom to know how to govern and teach the people resulted in a visit from Joseph in a dream.  Of all the things Joseph might have told him, Joseph told him this:  “Tell the people to be humble and faithful, and to be 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 them what to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the Kingdom….Tell the brethren that if they will follow the spirit of the Lord, they will go right.”  (Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Brigham Young, pg. 41).

Wilford Woodruff testified that Joseph and Hyrum appeared to him, also.  He said that Joseph “laid before me a great many things.  Among other things, he told me to get the Spirit of God, as we all needed it.”  (The Ensign, July 1973, pg. 48).

Years later, following the death of Brigham Young, Brigham also appeared to Wilford Woodruff “and said virtually the same thing—the importance of gaining and keeping the Spirit of the Lord in our lives.”  (Ibid).

The Holy Ghost is the source of all knowledge in the world.  The inventions that have advanced the human race and made our lives what they are did not ultimately come from men’s great minds, but from the Holy Ghost working on those minds.  Brigham Young taught that, “There are men of talent, of thought, of reflection, and knowledge in all cunning mechanism; they are expert in that, though they do not know from whence they receive their intelligence.”  (Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Brigham Young, pg. 42).

If a person will make and keep himself worthy, the Holy Ghost will be with him.  The Holy Ghost will speak to him and lead him.  The voice he uses is so small and still that we most often will not even know when we’re being led by the Spirit.  If we feel good, if we feel peace, if what we’re doing is in harmony with the teachings of the Gospel, we can be sure that the Holy Ghost is there and is leading us.

The key to that knowledge is in the word “feel.”  The Holy Ghost works through our feelings.  Very rarely do angels appear to us, or do we hear an audible voice.  The voice that we “hear” is usually in our heart or in our mind.  Most often the still, small voice is in our feelings.

It is instructive to note several scriptures.  The first is 1 Nephi 17:45 where Nephi lectures his brothers about their being slow to remember the Lord.  He reminds them that they’ve seen an angel, heard voices, and been spoken to “in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words…”  Nephi might have said, concerning the still small voice, that “ye were past hearing, that ye could not hear his words…,” but instead chose to use the more appropriate word feel.

Section 9 of the Doctrine and Covenants tells us how to receive individual revelation concerning the problems that confront us.  The Lord tells us that “you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

“But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings.  (D&C 9:8-9).

D&C 8:2-3 tells us, “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

“Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation.”

Alma compared the word of God to a seed which is to be planted in your heart where it will begin to swell.  “And when you feel these swelling motions,” he said, then you can know that it’s a good seed.  (Alma 32:28).

Enos had a “wrestle” before God, and struggled in the spirit as he sought forgiveness for his own sins, and as he worried over the welfare of his brethren.  He said, “…while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the voice of the Lord came into my mind…”  (Enos 1:2,10).

I’m so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost.  As I age and have experience, I find that I’m getting better and better at feeling and hearing the instruction that comes from this source.  I’m convinced that it’s always—constantly—there.  It’s my alertness that needs to be worked on.  I’m improving.  I’m grateful for having had a long life, and the opportunity to learn how to incorporate this gift into all of my daily thinking and activities.