LDS Freedom Forum

Jesus Christ when teaching made it clear that while his authorized servants can confer the gift of the Holy Ghost, he is the one who actually bestows the Spirit: “Blessed are ye if ye shall give heed unto the words of these twelve whom I have chosen from among you to minister unto you, and to be your servants; and unto them I have given power that they may baptize you with water; and after that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost” (3 Ne. 12:1).

The new convert who has accepted the gift of the Holy Ghost with the right spirit will experience not only a cleansing but a feeling that will give him a new heart and make of him a new person. Sometimes this is immediate, and sometimes it happens over a period of time. But always there is a change for the better. For the longer-standing member of the Church who has become preoccupied with the world or in little ways has allowed his religious life to be more procedural than of the spirit, there is something to be rediscovered (and for some, discovered for the first time) with the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost.

An early Church leader, Charles W. Penrose, said that when the elders laid their hands upon his head, he received the Holy Ghost—“the spirit of revelation, the spirit of prophecy, the same that makes manifest the things of the Father and of the Son.” He said he knew that he received the Spirit; and it was with him from the time of his baptism, “a light to my feet and a lamp to my path; a joy to my soul; opening up the things of God; bearing witness of the truth of this work; and that spirit has led me to righteousness, to truth, to purity of character, and would rebuke me when I attempted to do anything wrong, and encouraged me in performing my duty. And I have ever been ready … to build up this work, because I know it is divine.” ( “Discourse by Elder Charles W. Penrose,” Deseret News, 12 Nov. 1883, p. 691.)

The power of that soul-changing experience was the strength that established this latter-day work.