Receive the Holy Ghost by Elder David A Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles

For the full text of this discourse, click here.

Elder Bednar wrote:

The gift of the Holy Ghost is bestowed only after proper and authorized baptism and by the laying on of hands by those holding the Melchizedek Priesthood. The Lord declared:

“Yea, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for a remission of your sins; yea, be baptized even by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost. …

“And whoso having faith you shall confirm in my church, by the laying on of the hands, and I will bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost upon them” (D&C 33:11, 15).

The Apostle Paul made this practice clear to the Ephesians when he asked:

“Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

“And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.

“Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

“When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

“And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them” (Acts 19:2–6).

I really like the truths taught by the experience shared by the Apostle Paul. Clearly John the Baptist had authority from God to baptize. We know he possessed the Aaronic priesthood. But even John himself taught that someone great was to come, someone who could bestow the Gift of the Holy Ghost, or baptism of fire. He was referring to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. In this scripture, Paul is speaking to some good people who were baptized by paul but had not yet received the Holy Ghost nor been baptized into Christ's church. So, even though they had been previously baptized unto repentance by John, they required a second baptism by Paul, who possessed the Melchezedic Priesthood, in order to join the Church of Jesus Christ and to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

I could never do Elder Bednar's talk justice with this blog post, so please read it. Here is the thesis for the remainder of his talk and he then proceeds to explain each step in detail: 

"What should we do to make this authorized admonition to seek for the companionship of the third member of the Godhead an ongoing reality? Let me suggest that we need to (1) sincerely desire to receive the Holy Ghost, (2) appropriately invite the Holy Ghost into our lives, and (3) faithfully obey God’s commandments."