“God does not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough.”
| Ensign, November 1976, p. 14
Spirit
LDS Quotes About the Spirit (or Spirits)
“A child is an adult spirit in a newly born body, a body capable of growing and maturing according to the providence of Him whose spirit children we all are.”
| “The Salvation of Little Children”
“How can I tell when I’m being prompted by the Spirit?…Quit worrying about it. Quit fussing with it. Quit analyzing it. You be a good boy, you be a good girl, you honor your covenants, you keep the commandments; and I promise you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that as you press forward with faith in Christ, your footsteps will be guided. As you open your mouth, it will be filled, and you will be where you need to be, and most of the time, you will not even have any idea how you got there.”
“The viewing of signs or miracles is not a secure foundation for conversion. Scriptural history attests that people converted by signs and wonders soon forget them and again become susceptible to the lies and distortions of Satan and his servants (Hel. 16:23; 3 Ne. 1:22, 3 Ne. 2:1, 3 Ne. 8:4.). In contrast to the witness of the Spirit, which can be renewed from time to time as needed by a worthy recipient, the viewing of a sign or the experiencing of a miracle is a one-time event that will fade in the memory of its witness and can dim in its impact upon him or her.”
| The Lord’s Way (1991), 87.
When temptation besets us, we experience pain of conscience. A sensitive conscience is the evidence of a healthy spirit. The pain or guilt we feel is the spirit’s reaction to temptation, imperfection, or sin. Conscience is the companion of every traveler (Moro. 7:16–19), it can also make the trip very uncomfortable, since “all have sinned” and “the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance” ( Rom. 3:23 D&C 1:31). Thanks be to God for this supernal gift, for it can lead us to repentance and peace of conscience (Mosiah 4:1–3).
“Your body is the instrument of your mind. In your emotions, the spirit and the body come closest to being one. What you learn spiritually depends, to a degree, on how you treat your body. That is why the Word of Wisdom is so important.
“The habit-forming substances prohibited by that revelation – tea, coffee, liquor, tobacco – interfere with the delicate feelings of spiritual communication, just as other additive drugs will do. Do not ignore the Word of Wisdom, for that may cost you the “great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures” promised to those who keep it. And good health is an added blessing.”
| Ensign, November 1994, p. 61
“When your heart begins to tell you things that your mind does not, then you are getting the Spirit of the Lord.”
| “When Your Heart Tells You Things Your Mind Does Not Know,” New Era, Feb. 1971, 3.
“A glance over the conditions of mankind in this our day with its misery, discontent, and corruption, and disintegration of the social, religious, and philosophic fabrics, shows that this generation has been put into the balance and has been found wanting. A following, therefore, in the old grooves, would simply lead to the same results, and that is what the Lord has designed shall be avoided in Zion. President Brigham Young felt it in his heart that an educational system ought to be inaugurated in Zion in which, as he put it in his terse way of saying things, neither the alphabet nor the multiplication table should be taught without the Spirit of God.”
| Educating Zion, p. 2
“What is the central characteristic of those having only five loaves and two fishes? What makes it possible, under the Master’s touch, for them to serve, lift, and bless so that they touch for good the lives of hundreds, even thousands? After a lifetime of dealing in the affairs of men and women, I believe it is the ability to overcome personal ego and pride – both are enemies to the full enjoyment of the Spirit of God and walking humbly before him. The ego interferes with husbands and wives asking each other for forgiveness. It prevents the enjoyment of the full sweetness of a higher love. The ego often prevents parents and children from fully understanding each other. The ego enlarges our feelings of self-importance and worth. It blinds us to reality. Pride keeps us from confessing our sins and shortcomings to the Lord and working out our repentance.”
| Ensign, May 1994, p. 6
“Many blessings and friendships have come into our lives from our trying to share the gospel. But this blessing has been one of the best: Having the missionaries regularly help us as a family teach the gospel to new and old friends through the power of the Holy Ghost has profoundly affected the faith of our five children and brought the Spirit of God into our home.”
| The Power of Everyday Missionaries
“Irreverence suits the purposes of the adversary by obstructing the delicate channels of revelation in both mind and spirit. Reverence invites revelation.”
“The first has to do with the physical need for rest and renewing. Obviously God, who created us, would know more than we do of the limits of our physical and nervous energy and strength. The second . . . is, in my opinion, of far greater significance. It has to do with the need for regeneration and the strengthening of our spiritual being. God knows that, left completely to our own devices without regular reminders of our spiritual needs, many would degenerate into the preoccupation of satisfying earthly desires and appetites. This need for physical, mental, and spiritual regeneration is met in large measure by faithful observance of the Sabbath day.”
| “The Lord’s Day,” Ensign, November 1991, 35.
Therefore to be obedient to the precepts of our divine Master, we say unto you – Search the Scriptures – search the revelations which we publish, and ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory, nothing doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God; nor will there be any room for speculation. No; for when men receive their instruction from Him that made them, they know how he will save them
| (History of the Church, 1:282-83) — Ensign, June 1994, p. 10
“The most important thing you can do is to learn to talk to God. Talk to Him as you would talk to your father, for He is your Father, and He wants you to talk to Him. He wants you to cultivate ears to listen, when He gives you the impressions of the Spirit to tell you what to do.”
| “Pres. Lee Gives Solemn Witness,” Church News, 3 Mar. 1973, 3.
It is peculiar to the theology of the Latter-day Saints that we regard the body as an essential part of the soul. Read your dictionaries, the lexicons, and encyclopedias, and you will find that nowhere [in Christianity], outside of the Church of Jesus Christ, is the solemn and eternal truth taught that the soul of man is the body and the spirit combined.
| CR, October 1913, p. 117
“Like two sides of a coin, the temporal and spiritual are inseparable…The Giver of all life has proclaimed, ‘All things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal.’ This means to me that “spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.”
| Providing in the Lord’s Way
“This is a very common means of revelation. It comes into one’s mind speaking words and sentences.”
| address to seminary and institute faculty, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 8 July 1960, p. 10
“Nothing is a greater injury to the children of men than to be under the influence of a false spirit when they think they have the Spirit of God.”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 205.
“A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; … those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.”
“Man is a spiritual being, a soul, and at some point of his life everyone is possessed with an irresistible desire to know his relationship to the infinite. There is something within him which urges him to rise above himself, to control his environment, to master the body and all things physical and live in a higher, more beautiful world.”
“Our own abilities, however great, will not be enough. But that realistic view of our limitations creates a humility which can lead to dependence on the Spirit and thus to power.”
“The key to strengthening our families is having the Spirit of the Lord come into our homes. The goal of our families is to be on the strait and narrow path.”
“We live and teach amid a wide variety of individual personalities, experiences, cultures, languages, interests, and needs. Only the Spirit can compensate fully for such differences.”
| That Ye May Believe (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1992), 39.
“I believe that, notwithstanding the fact the spirits of men, as an incident to mortality, are deprived of memory and cast out of the presence of God, there still persists in the spirit of every human soul a residuum from his pre-existent spiritual life which instinctively responds to the voice of the Spirit until and unless it is inhibited by the free agency of the individual.”
| Revelation (address to seminary and institute faculty, Brigham Young University, 8 July 1960), 6–7.
Do not let our faith be shaken by critics who never seem to recognize that knowledge of things divine comes by the power of the Spirit and not of the wisdom of men.
| Church News, October 9, 1993
“To be successful, we must have the Spirit of the Lord. We have been taught that the Spirit will not dwell in unclean tabernacles. Therefore, one of our first priorities is to make sure our own personal lives are in order.”
| Come unto Christ, 92
“In Mormon theology there is no place for immateralism; i.e. for a God, spirits and angels that are not material. Spirit is only a refined form of matter. It is beyond the mind of man to conceive of an immaterial thing. On the other hand, Joseph Smith did not teach that the kind of tangible matter, which impresses our mortal senses, is the kind of matter which is associated with heavenly beings. The distinction between the matter known to man and the spirit matter is very great; but no greater than is the difference between the matter of the known elements and that of the universal ether which forms one of the accepted dogmas of science.”
| Excerpt From: John A. Widtsoe. “Joseph Smith as Scientist.” iBooks.