August 2006 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

46
THEGIFTOF THE
HOLY GHOST
What Every Member Should Know
There are two parts
to baptism—baptism
by water and baptism
by fire or the Holy
Ghost. If you separate
the two, it is but half
a baptism.
BY PRESIDENT BOYD K. PACKER
Acting President
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
My purpose is to teach you through
doctrine and scripture why it is that
we do things as we do. I will give
some direction and suggestions as to how we
can do things better in order that each member
of the Church will be thoroughly converted
and never will fall away.
Joseph Smith said: “You might as well baptize
a bag of sand as a man, if not done in
view of the remission of sins and getting of
the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half
a baptism, and is good for nothing without
the other half—that is, the baptism of the
Holy Ghost” (History of the Church, 5:499).
To prepare people for baptism without
teaching about the gift of the Holy Ghost is like
a sacrament meeting where only the bread is
blessed and passed. They would receive but half.
We will discuss linking baptism in an absolutely
tight relationship to confirmation and
the conferring of the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Confirmation and Conferring
the Gift of the Holy Ghost
Confirmation has two parts: to confirm as a
member of the Church and then to confer the
gift of the Holy Ghost. The priesthood holder
performing that ordinance “bestows the gift
of the Holy Ghost by saying, ‘Receive the
Holy Ghost’ ” (Family Guidebook [pamphlet,
2001], 20).
There are two examples of the visible manifestation
of the Holy Ghost I know of in the
scriptures. The first was when the Lord was
baptized:
“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went
up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and
lighting upon him” (Matthew 3:16; see also
1 Nephi 11:27; 2 Nephi 31:8; D&C 93:15).
The other example came on the day of
Pentecost. The Apostles had no doubt been
ordained, but the Lord had now left them.
They wondered what to do. They remembered
He told them to stay in Jerusalem,
and so they obeyed. And then it happened.
They were in a house, and there was “a
sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they
were sitting.
“And there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each
of them.
“And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost” (Acts 2:2–4). Then they were authorized;
they were prepared.