Ep. 8 – The Holy Ghost from A to Z: *Comforts* You

The Holy Ghost is also known as the Comforter. Find out how the Spirit can comfort you in your trials, no matter how big or small.

Check out the Spiritual Inventory Quiz if you haven’t done it yet!

Outline

• The Holy Ghost from A to Z: What the Spirit Can Do for You (by Liz Kazandzhy) will be published in June
• Quote from C – *Comforts* You
  • “As the soothing voice of a loving parent can quiet a crying child, the whisperings of the Spirit can calm our fears, hush the nagging worries of our life, and comfort us when we grieve.” What a fitting metaphor, because children cry for so many reasons! Their problems may seem trivial, but for the child, they’re very real. Likewise, whatever it is you’re struggling with—no matter how trivial it may seem—God longs to send His Spirit to comfort you.
  • I share a story of the Spirit comforting me while waiting for my fiance’s visa to be approved
• Takeaway
  • In the next prayer that you say, tell Heavenly Father about something that’s been weighing on you, and ask Him for comfort. Then pay attention to the thoughts and feelings the Spirit gives you as God answers that prayer.
• Pre-Order Information for The Holy Ghost from A to Z
  • Available at Cedar Fort for $8.99 or Amazon for $12.99
  • You can take the Spiritual Inventory Quiz to find out how the book can help you personally

Transcript

I’m Liz Kazandzhy, and you’re listening to the cozy little podcast “Latter-day Saint Book Nook,” where we talk about books from a gospel perspective. Whether fiction or nonfiction, religious or not, great books are like wells of wisdom just waiting to be drawn from, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. So if you love books, and you love the gospel of Jesus Christ, you’re in the right place. Come and learn from the best books to help you live your best life!

Hey everyone. It’s time for a little podcast episode about a chapter of my book, The Holy Ghost from A to Z. I’ll let you know more about the book at the end of this episode, like where you can buy it, but for now, let’s delve into the spiritual thought.

So today we’ll be talking about the “C” chapter, which is about how the Holy Ghost can comfort you. And of course I had to write a chapter about this because that’s one of the actual titles of the Holy Ghost—the Comforter. Moroni 8:26 says that the “Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love,” and I love that because that hope and love from the Spirit often comes at moments when we’re feeling hopeless and alone.

So, here’s a quote from the book about this.

[1:20]

Quote from the C chapter

“As the soothing voice of a loving parent can quiet a crying child, the whisperings of the Spirit can calm our fears, hush the nagging worries of our life, and comfort us when we grieve.”

What a fitting metaphor, because children cry for so many reasons! Their problems may seem trivial, but for the child, they’re very real.

Likewise, whatever it is you’re struggling with—no matter how trivial it may seem—God longs to send His Spirit to comfort you.

I really like that idea of God not judging you for what you’re upset about. Whether it’s something as big as getting divorced, to something as small as not doing as well on a test as you hoped, that Comforter is there for you—if you let him into your heart.

So here’s a story of something that was a big deal, and it’s about my husband Vlad coming to America. He’s from Ukraine, and we met on my mission—he was a member in one of the wards that I served in. And of course, nothing happened there—we spoke to each other like 4 or 5 times—but after my mission, we started writing and then video chatting, and we quickly fell in love. We became engaged, and we agreed that America would be a better place to raise a family than Ukraine, so we decided that he would come here. (And thank goodness we decided that, or else we would likely be refugees right about now.)

Anyway, we got engaged in December, then we filled out the mountains of paperwork needed to get a fiance visa. Then, everything kind of hinged on an interview at US consulate, to prove that Vlad wasn’t a fraud who was just pretending to be in love with me in order to get a green card.

Well, this interview was scheduled for June 5. And keep in mind that our wedding was tentatively scheduled for July 10. So before the interview, we thought, “Alright, this is it. Today we’ll find out if we get to get married in July, or if our situation is about to get a lot more complicated.”

So he goes to this interview, and they don’t approve the visa. But they also don’t deny it. Basically, because Vlad and I never dated in person, the interviewer was super skeptical of our relationship and wanted to look into it more before making a decision. So we were expecting a yes or a no, but instead we got a “maybe” that threw us into a very difficult limbo, you could say.

Well, I went to the temple that evening with all of this weighing on me. All I wanted was to be with my fiance—to marry him—and I couldn’t. I remember noticing all the happy couples in the temple and jealously thinking, “You have no idea how good you have it.” And of course I asked God the age-old question, “Why is this happening to us?”

Well, at some point I realized that I was being a bit prideful, kind of wallowing in my frustration and disappointment instead of giving it to the Lord. So I humbled myself and asked Him for help—for comfort. And He sent the Comforter.

So first, the Spirit led me to some scriptures. I read Mosiah 23 and 24—about when the Lord comforted the people of Alma, who were in bondage—and I also read John 11—which is when Jesus wept with Mary and Martha before raising Lazarus from the dead. And one verse really stood out to me. It was Mosiah 24:12, which says that the people “did pour out their hearts to [God]; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.”

When I read that, I felt so powerfully as if Christ’s spirit was reaching out to mine, telling me that He knows my heart and thoughts and desires and feelings. And I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but that empathy from Him did something to heal my soul that nothing else could have done. I no longer felt alone, and even though my situation didn’t change even a little bit, in that moment I felt so much peace and strength.

And as for Lazarus, the Lord comforted Mary and Martha knowing perfectly well that their trial would end soon. Just like He comforted me, knowing full well that that interviewer would indeed say yes to the fiance visa; that a month later, Vlad would be on American soil; and that four days after that, we would be sealed for time and for all eternity.

So if there’s one thing I want you to take from this podcast episode, it’s this: God knows you. He knows what’s on your mind, what’s in your heart, and what burdens you are shouldering. And His Spirit, the Holy Ghost, can comfort you like nothing else in the world can. So please, resist the urge to keep everything inside of you—your sorrow, anger, confusion, frustration, worry, whatever it is—and instead turn to God, and let the Comforter comfort you.

[6:34]

This Week’s Takeaway

Well, that brings me to this week’s takeaway, which is this: In the next prayer that you say, tell Heavenly Father about something that’s been weighing on you, and ask Him for comfort. Then pay attention to the thoughts and feelings the Spirit gives you as God answers that prayer.

[6:52]

Pre-Order Information

Well, that concludes this episode, except for information about my book, which I mentioned I would talk about briefly. So it’s called The Holy Ghost from A to Z, and it’s available for pre-order right now. You can get it on Amazon for $12.99, or if you buy it straight for the publisher at Cedar Fort.com, you only have to pay $8.99 and you even get it shipped out to you faster. So there’s that.

Also, I wanted to let you know about a little interactive quiz I put together called the Spiritual Inventory Quiz. It’s basically a way to find out how the book can help you personally, and when you’re finished with it, you can also read a quote from each chapter, which is pretty cool. And you can find that at ldsbooknook.com/holyghost.

Well, that’s all for today. And as always, I hope you have a great week!

Thanks for listening to Latter-day Saint Book Nook, hosted by Liz Kazandzhy! If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. You can also visit ldsbooknook.com to stay up to date with me and the podcast. Thanks again, and I’ll talk to you next time!