Ep. 10 – The Holy Ghost from A to Z: Gives You *Direction*

Learn how the Spirit can help direct your life for good. After all, “the Lord is [your] shepherd” and won’t lead you astray.

Outline

• The Holy Ghost from A to Z: What the Spirit Can Do for You (by Liz Kazandzhy) will be published in June and is available for pre-order
• Quote from D – Gives You *Direction*
  • Throughout our lives, we face decisions that have a significant impact—choices about education, employment, marriage, child-rearing, and so on. Surely the Lord doesn’t expect us to make these major decisions all on our own! Just as the Liahona led Lehi’s family “in the more fertile parts of the wilderness” all the way to the Promised Land, so too will the Holy Ghost lead you on a prosperous life path—all the way to the Celestial Kingdom.
  • The Lord “leadeth [us] in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3)
  • I share a story about a Russian-speaker being called to Romania, which put her in a position to help Ukrainian refugees that have fled to Romania for safety
• Takeaways
  • 1. Reflect on how the Spirit has directed your life so far, and thank Heavenly Father for the blessings that have come from that.
  • 2. Pray for direction—choose an area of your life, and ask God what He would have you do next.
• 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. Today’s gonna be a quick episode, but I hope it’ll also be powerful. I’ll be discussing the fourth chapter of my book The Holy Ghost from A to Z: What the Spirit Can Do for You. The fourth letter of the alphabet is D, and so the chapter is about how the Holy Ghost can give you direction, which is a huge blessing from the Spirit. So here’s a quote from the chapter:

Quote from the D Chapter

Throughout our lives, we face decisions that have a significant impact—choices about education, employment, marriage, child-rearing, and so on. Surely the Lord doesn’t expect us to make these major decisions all on our own!

Just as the Liahona led Lehi’s family “in the more fertile parts of the wilderness” all the way to the Promised Land, so too will the Holy Ghost lead you on a prosperous life path—all the way to the Celestial Kingdom.

I can testify of the truth of this because I’ve experienced it so much in my life. The Lord has guided and directed me, sometimes in ways that were totally unexpected but which were ultimately for the good of everyone—me, others, and the Lord. It reminds me of Psalm 23, which is the famous chapter about how “the Lord is [our] shepherd.” One line says, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” In other words, the Lord can see the full picture, and He has a role for you to play in His plan. And little by little, through the Spirit, He’ll lead you in the paths of righteousness so you can fulfill that role.

So, in this podcast, I often share stories from my life, but today I wanted to share a story from someone else. (You know, just in case you’re getting bored of me!)

So, I’m gonna read you a post that was written by a friend of mine named Sarah. Like me, Sarah is married to a Russian-speaking man. (He’s actually from Russia, whereas my husband is from Ukraine). But anyway, they have done a wonderful job of teaching their children Russian. Those skills came in handy when one of their sons was called on a mission to Ukraine a few years ago. And then, just recently, one of their daughters was called on a mission, but not to a Russian-speaking country. She was called to Romania, which is where she is now. And about a month ago, when the war in Ukraine had been going on for a few weeks, Sarah wrote this on Facebook:

When Julia was about to receive her mission call, we felt very strongly she would be going to Ukraine. It was a tangible feeling and thought. When we saw the call to Romania, it was not at all what we expected, but we knew it was inspired and we were excited for her. I offhandedly mentioned she might meet people that spoke Russian.

Now, with all the Ukrainian refugees, she and the other missionaries are doing all they physically can to help them, and Julia is able to help them even better because of her Russian. I wish the Ukrainians were back home and that there was no war and no need for Julia to have this chance to serve them. But it is fascinating to see how she was prepared for this, and how her heritage and language skills can help these people right now. And maybe it will give her a chance to also reach some of them about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the restored gospel.

I love that story because I think a lot of us have had experiences like that—where things don’t go the way you expect, but then later on, in hindsight, you can see the hand of the Lord. You can see how He directed you to exactly where you needed to be, doing exactly what He needed you to do. And it turns out that His plan was way better than what you had in mind.

So just remember that as you seek guidance from the Lord, and pay close attention to the still, small voice that will gently prod you in different directions throughout your life.

This Week’s Takeaways

Alright, so there’s two takeaways from today’s episode. The first is just to reflect on how the Spirit has directed your life so far, and thank Heavenly Father for the blessings that have come from that.

And second, pray for direction. Choose an area of your life, and ask God what He would have you do next.

Well, that’s all for today. As a reminder, The Holy Ghost from A to Z comes out in June and is available for pre-order right now. Just Google that title and you should find a lot of options for ordering it.

Thank you so much for listening today, and I wish you a wonderful week of being directed by the Holy Ghost.

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!