Sometimes we are offered gifts of untold value. Sadly, we don’t always recognize their significance.
Nephi lamented, “The things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet” (1 Nephi 19:7). He later identified the Holy Ghost as one of those underappreciated gifts:
Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? …
Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.
2 Nephi 32:2-3
In January 1831, the Lord tried to teach this principle to a new convert named James Covel. After reminding him that repentance and baptism lead to the gift of the Holy Ghost, the Lord said:
Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on my name, and you shall receive my Spirit, and a blessing so great as you never have known.
Doctrine and Covenants 39:10
He further told James that if church members would gather in Ohio, “I have kept in store a blessing such as is not known among the children of men, and it shall be poured forth upon their heads” (Doctrine and Covenants 39:15).
Did James need to be told that these divine gifts were of inestimable value? Apparently he did, and so may we.
President Dallin H. Oaks recently taught, “One of the most significant of God’s helps for His faithful children is the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Then, he shared the following quotation from President Joseph F. Smith to emphasize its importance:
The office of the Holy Spirit is to enlighten the minds of the people with regard to the things of God, to convince them at the time of their conversion of their having done the will of the Father, and to be in them an abiding testimony as a companion through life, acting as the sure and safe guide into all truth and filling them day by day with joy and gladness, with a disposition to do good to all men, to suffer wrong rather than to do wrong, to be kind and merciful, long suffering and charitable. All who possess this inestimable gift, this pearl of great price, have a continual thirst after righteousness. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit no mortal can walk in the straight and narrow way, being unable to discern right from wrong, the genuine from the counterfeit, so nearly alike can they be made to appear. Therefore it behooves the Latter-day Saints to live pure and upright, in order that this Spirit may abide in them; for it is only possessed on the principle of righteousness.
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, Chapter 8: “The Holy Ghost,” quoted in “Divine Helps for Mortality,” General Conference, April 2025
Today, I will express gratitude for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I will strive to remember its extraordinary value and to live in a way that enables me to receive the gift.