Ep. 14 – The Holy Ghost from A to Z: Conveys God’s *Forgiveness*

Have you ever asked yourself, “Has God really forgiven me?” Finding out the answer might be simpler than you think!

Learn more about The Holy Ghost from A to Z and pre-order it today!

Outline

• The Holy Ghost from A to Z: What the Spirit Can Do for You (by Liz Kazandzhy) will be published on June 14
• Quote from F – Conveys God’s *Forgiveness*
  • Even though repentance is a process, you don’t have to wait until the end of that process to feel God’s love, approval, and forgiveness. This is why Amulek taught that “if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.” Immediately—not eventually. Or, in Elder Holland’s words, “It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say ‘I’ll change’—and mean it.”
  • From Elder Tad R. Callister: “If you feel the Spirit—when you pray, read the scriptures, teach, testify, or at any other time—then that is your witness that you have been forgiven or, alternatively, that the cleansing process is taking place, for the Spirit cannot dwell in an unholy tabernacle. In most cases the cleansing process takes time because our change of heart takes time, but in the interim, we can proceed with the confidence that God approves of our progress as manifested by the presence of His Spirit.”
  • I share a journal entry that portrays the battle between justice and mercy with powerful imagery
• Takeaway
  • Repent!🙂 Choose something that you need to change, and then sincerely say “I’ll change”—and mean it. Take steps toward changing, and in the meantime, try to notice the presence of the Spirit conveying God’s approval and forgiveness as you seek to become more like Him.
• Learn more about The Holy Ghost from A to Z

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!

Hello, and welcome to Latter-day Saint Book Nook. Today’s episode is about one of the most powerful chapters in my book, The Holy Ghost from A to Z, which comes out in June. It’s the F chapter, and it’s about how the Spirit can convey God’s forgiveness, helping you know your spiritual standing before God.

And there’s two reasons I love this chapter. First, it’s one of those less-known blessings of the Spirit. I mean, usually we think of the Holy Ghost directing us and giving us peace and warning us, but there are some other really cool things He can do, and this is one of them. And the second reason I love it is just because it’s really important. I think all of us crave forgiveness—we want to know if God has forgiven us for our sins. And it turns out that the answer is actually really simple.

So, without further ado, here are a few quotes from this chapter on forgiveness that will help you answer the question, “Has God forgiven me?”

Quote from the F chapter

Even though repentance is a process, you don’t have to wait until the end of that process to feel God’s love, approval, and forgiveness.

This is why Amulek taught that “if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.”

Immediately—not eventually. Or, in Elder Holland’s words, “It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say ‘I’ll change’—and mean it.”

And because this is such an important topic, I also want to share a quote from Elder Tad R. Callister that’s also part of the chapter. He said this:

If you feel the Spirit—when you pray, read the scriptures, teach, testify, or at any other time—then that is your witness that you have been forgiven or, alternatively, that the cleansing process is taking place, for the Spirit cannot dwell in an unholy tabernacle. In most cases the cleansing process takes time because our change of heart takes time, but in the interim, we can proceed with the confidence that God approves of our progress as manifested by the presence of His Spirit.

Isn’t that awesome? I feel like so many people are walking around carrying this weight, this question of whether they’ve been forgiven—of what their standing is before God. And the answer is so simple—do you feel the Holy Ghost in your life? Because if you do, you can know for a surety that you are on the right track, that God approves of your progress, and that you can more forward with your life—and forgive yourself.

When I first wrote this book, I gave the manuscript to some people to read and give feedback, and one of the people was an elderly lady in my ward. The next time I saw her at church, she came up to me, grabbed my hand, looked at me so sincerely, and said, “Thank you. Thank you for your book. For years I’ve wondered if God has forgiven my sins, and after reading your chapter about forgiveness, I now understand that He has. Thank you for teaching me that.” Hearing that made my day, and it made me even more excited for this book to be published so that more people would learn that for themselves.

Now, there’s something else I wanted to include in this episode, and it’s from a journal entry I wrote years ago—actually 10 years ago, almost to the day. I was having a bad day spiritually—or more likely a bad week or even month—and I knew I needed to repent. But I kept putting it off because, well … repentance can be kind of uncomfortable. But when I finally did approach God, by reading the Book of Mormon, I was so glad I did because of how it made me feel. And this is what I wrote about it:

God is amazing. One chapter from the blessed pages of the Book of Mormon and I am filled with His Spirit, almost to the point of tears. The discomfort I felt 15 minutes ago has dissipated … I was afraid to approach my Father for fear of reprimand when all He wanted to do was wrap His arms around me and tell me there is hope. To remind me that His Son conquered death and has the power to conquer the spiritual death I’ve been wallowing in for so many days. To help me remember that there is mercy … standing between me and the fearful, gruesome jaws of justice is the Son of God, “having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards [me]” (Mosiah 15:9), and He is calming that beast of Justice, telling him that there is another way (that He is the way), and pleading for him to spare me.

Justice is rattling off my sins and weaknesses, one by one, his eyes fixed fiercely on mine. And then there is Christ, His hand outstretched to take my trembling one, His other hand stopping Justice from attacking and dragging me down to hell, looking upward and pleading, “Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare [this child, Thy daughter Liz] that [believes] on my name, that [she] may come unto me and have everlasting life”! (D&C 45:4-5).

And then Justice stops. Mercy hasn’t robbed him; she has satisfied him. She has overpowered him (Alma 34:15). And as he backs away, quietly, no longer fuming and screaming my follies, Christ the Lord, the very personification of mercy, turns to me “and encircles [me] in the arms of safety” (Alma 34:16). And that is where I’m at.

What a beautiful doctrine repentance is, and what an amazing blessing forgiveness is.

This Week’s Takeaway

And so, for this week’s takeaway invitation, I want you to repent. As Elder Holland put it, I want you to choose something that you need to change, and then sincerely say “I’ll change”—and mean it. Take steps toward changing, and in the meantime, try to notice the presence of the Spirit conveying God’s approval and forgiveness as you seek to become more like Him.

Thanks once again for listening. And I wish you a wonderful week filled with repentance and forgiveness!

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!