And it came to pass that my father did speak unto them in the valley of Lemuel, with power, being filled with the Spirit, until their frames did shake before him. And he did confound them, that they durst not utter against him; wherefore, they did as he commanded them.
When we are filled with the Holy Ghost, we can act and speak with power. To be filled with the Holy Ghost sounds like the Spirit does something to us, as if he pours himself into us. In a sense, that is true. The Holy Ghost does work upon our hearts and souls and burns away the dross of the natural man like a refiner's fire. The initial action, however, is not his but ours. He does not split us open and jump inside. Rather, we open ourselves to the power and influence of the Holy Ghost, which is already present in the world and surrounds us every minute.
The light is everywhere present, but we, like wearing a black hood at noonday, do not allow ourselves to see it. We lift the hood ever so slightly, and for a brief moment some light comes in. The small amount of light may hurt our eyes because they are not adjusted to it yet, and we may drop the hood again because we are uncomfortable. The light outside, however, does not diminish.
Others who do not wear hoods tell us how marvelous the light is and how much better life is when we can see the light all the time. From time to time we lift the hood a little higher for a little longer. Our eyes begin to adjust, and we start to see the possibilities. When we get tired of living in the dark, we finally remove the hood and look around at the beautiful world the way it was meant to be seen, not shrouded in self-imposed darkness, but illuminated with brilliant light. The light of the sun never changed. What changed was our desire to invite the light in and remove the obstacle that kept the light out.
When we are filled with the Holy Ghost, the Spirit does not suddenly show up on our doorstep. Like the sun, his influence has surrounded us all along, looking for the slightest crack in the hood we have pulled tightly over our hearts to keep him out. To the degree that we lift the hood of sin, pride, stubbornness, rebellion, and self-will, the light of the Spirit naturally pours in, anxious to fill the void. The only thing that keeps us from being filled with the Holy Ghost all the time is us. God never withholds His Spirit, but we withhold it when we do not let it in.
Just as sunlight is the ultimate source of all power on the earth, the influence of the Holy Ghost is the source of all true power in our lives. The Holy Ghost IS power. We cannot receive an increase in the presence of God's Spirit in our lives and not receive an increase in power. Like a chain reaction, when we let a little of the Spirit into our lives, we receive power to open ourselves further to let even more of the Spirit in, which brings more power to let even more Spirit in, until eventually we reach the logical and inevitable conclusion that we are filled. This is our intended outcome, the state that God wants all His children to achieve. His whole plan is set up to enable and encourage us to reach this state. It is not reserved for a chosen few. The fact that only a few choose to reach this goal does not mean that God would withhold this magnificent blessing from anyone who chooses to live a life that qualifies for it. The Holy Ghost is a gift from God that is just waiting for us to receive.
The power of the Holy Ghost first works on us and then works in us and through us to reach others. We are like lumps of charcoal. At first we are dark, cold, and lifeless. If we stay close enough to the light of the Spirit, a spark warms and then ignites a small corner of our lump. If we don't extinguish it, the heat will spread through us until we glow brightly. By ourselves our glowing heat cannot do much. But if we touch another lump of charcoal, we can ignite it and start the process in him. The purpose of the power of God is first to ignite us and then to enable us to ignite others. The more power we have, the better we become and the more we can help others. We are on this earth first to receive salvation for ourselves and then to help others receive it. Anything else we may do or accomplish in life is secondary to these two objectives.
One additional note: Confounded is not the same as converted. When we teach, we have to be careful not to simply confound our learners. We must lead them to conversion. Lehi was a great man and a good father, but he pushed his sons when they repeatedly rebelled and complained. Lehi was human, and he had human impatience. Isn't it nice to know that even great men are still human? It gives me hope.
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