About the Gifts of the Spirit
On 10 September 2006 Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk at a CES Fireside. His talk was titled "Gifts of the Spirit for Hard Times" and can be found here.
One thing that Elder Eyring talks about is what is required of us in order to consistently have the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives on a daily basis. He lists those requirements as faith in our Heavenly Father and in Jesus Christ, being clean (i.e., repenting of our sins as needed and trying to avoid sins), and having pure motives (i.e., wanting the gifts of the spirit for the Lord's purposes and not for our own selfish reasons). His six page talk, of course, explains in much greater detail what he means by these three requirements.
Elder Eyring quotes some promises that the Lord has made to us through His prophets:
“And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your
trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to
do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and
this is my Spirit.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you
of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which
shall fill your soul with joy” (D&C 11:12–13).
“And at that day, when I shall come in my glory,
shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake
concerning the ten virgins.
“For they that are wise and have received the truth,
and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and
have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they
shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but
shall abide the day.
“And the earth shall be given unto them for an
inheritance; and they shall multiply and wax strong,
and their children shall grow up without sin unto
salvation.
“For the Lord shall be in their midst, and his glory
shall be upon them, and he will be their king and
their lawgiver” (D&C 45:56–59).
Those are some important promises and some very sweet ones. And they can be ours if we will exercise our faith, be clean, and have right motives. As Elder Eyring says, those are things we must work on continuously, but the gains we will make will be more than worth the effort.
This talk was very inspirational to me and gives some specific direction as to actions we can take to improve our lot spiritually.
[For any readers who are not LDS, the scriptures that we use can be found online here.]
One thing that Elder Eyring talks about is what is required of us in order to consistently have the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives on a daily basis. He lists those requirements as faith in our Heavenly Father and in Jesus Christ, being clean (i.e., repenting of our sins as needed and trying to avoid sins), and having pure motives (i.e., wanting the gifts of the spirit for the Lord's purposes and not for our own selfish reasons). His six page talk, of course, explains in much greater detail what he means by these three requirements.
Elder Eyring quotes some promises that the Lord has made to us through His prophets:
“And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your
trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to
do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and
this is my Spirit.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you
of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which
shall fill your soul with joy” (D&C 11:12–13).
“And at that day, when I shall come in my glory,
shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake
concerning the ten virgins.
“For they that are wise and have received the truth,
and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and
have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they
shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but
shall abide the day.
“And the earth shall be given unto them for an
inheritance; and they shall multiply and wax strong,
and their children shall grow up without sin unto
salvation.
“For the Lord shall be in their midst, and his glory
shall be upon them, and he will be their king and
their lawgiver” (D&C 45:56–59).
Those are some important promises and some very sweet ones. And they can be ours if we will exercise our faith, be clean, and have right motives. As Elder Eyring says, those are things we must work on continuously, but the gains we will make will be more than worth the effort.
This talk was very inspirational to me and gives some specific direction as to actions we can take to improve our lot spiritually.
[For any readers who are not LDS, the scriptures that we use can be found online here.]
Labels: church talks
posted by Mary A | 6:14 PM
5 Comments:
Thank you for the summary. I read a talk at Ethesis.blogspot.com a little while back that was a talk by Stephen's daughter where she discusses how having the gift of charity is important to be able to receive the other Gifts of the Spirit. I hope I said that right. It does seem to fall in line with the talk by Elder Eyring and how we need to have pure motives to receive the Gifts of the Spirit.
Hi, Barb! That's a good point about charity and the other gifts of the spirit. It ties in very well with pure motives. Thanks for mentioning that talk by Stephen's daughter--I'll have to check that out.
I went to find the talk. It is in the June archives and dated June 26, 2006.
Barb, thanks. I hadn't looked that far back when I gave out and went to bed! I'll be sure to read that.
thanks for posting the summary. It's great.
Post a Comment
<< Home