Almost exactly two years ago I wrote my first post on this blog. Since then, I have read hundreds of post and comments from other LDS blogs, and written over a hundred posts myself. My main emphasis has been to write about the Holy Ghost.

As church members we’re taught that acquiring the gift of the Holy Ghost is the most important thing we can do.[1] Some readers might not agree with this statement, saying that coming to Christ is more important. If that is true, how would you answer this question: “How can we come to Christ without the Holy Ghost?”

One purpose of the Holy Ghost is to testify or reveal to men that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Eternal Father (Matt. 16:16, 1 Corinthians 12:3). Without the Holy Ghost we cannot receive the necessary experiences to have a relationship with Christ. We can study the scriptures, listen to the words of the living prophets, and thereby intellectually learn of Christ, but we won’t be able to experience Christ until we qualify for the Holy Ghost. Intellectual conversion to Christ is fragile, Spiritual conversion to Christ will ground and root us.

The challenge we have as followers of Christ is to diligently seek for the Holy Ghost. It’s not easy to acquire and maintain this gift, but the Lord is merciful to those who work at it.

The Lord reveals things about Himself so that we can understand Him, understand His dealings with men. He wants to be our friend, as well as our Savior, is the reason. When I read the following verses I see a side to the Lord that I’m glad to know:

They were slow to ahearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, to answer them in the day of their trouble.

In the day of their peace they esteemed lightly my counsel; but, in the day of their trouble, of necessity they feel after me. D&C 101:7-8

These verses teaches me not to esteem lightly the Lord’s counsel when things are going well. Elder Henry B. Eyring said, “The problem for most human beings is that when things go well, we feel self-sufficient…[we] tend to seek the Holy Ghost most fervently when [we’re] humbled by difficult circumstances or life-changing decisions.” Raise the Bar, BYU January 25, 2005.

So my thought for this post is to diligently seek the Lord through our gift of the Holy Ghost, in times of peace, as well as in times of trouble. This is a sure way of becoming His friend.

One might ask: “how can I seek the Lord in times of peace?” Spend time with Him in earnest prayer asking to draw near to Him. Ask question about those things in the scripture that you want to understand better. Seek to be guided to people you can “minister” to.

My experience is that the Lord hears such prayers and will answer with a blessing, and as time goes on your faithfulness will be rewarded with increased manifestations of the Spirit that will provide you with a certainty of testimony.