Guidelines for discerning when you do
or when do not have the Spirit of God with you


Positive

When you have the Spirit:
You feel happy and calm.
You feel full of light.
Your mind is clear.
Your bosom burns.
You feel generous.
Nobody can offend you.
You feel confident in everything you do.
You wouldn’t mind everybody seeing what you are doing.
You feel outgoing.
You love to be with people.
You are glad when others succeed.
You want to make others happy.
You bring out the best and say the best of others.
You gladly and willingly perform church ordinances.
You’d like to be in the temple for a while every day.
You feel you can magnify your church calling.
You feel like praying.
You wish you could keep all of the Lord’s commandments.
You feel you have control of your appetites and emotions.
You eat and sleep in moderation.
You are generally just glad to be alive.



Negative

When you do not have the Spirit:
You feel unhappy, depressed, confused or frustrated.
You feel heavy and full of darkness.
Your mind is muddled.
You feel empty, hollow, cold inside.
You feel selfish, possessive, self-centered.
Everything anyone does bothers you.
You are always on the defensive.
You are easily discouraged.
You become secretive, sneaky, and evasive.
You want to be alone.
You avoid other people, especially family members.
You are envious of what others do and of what they have.
You are critical of others, especially of family members and of authority.
You feel hesitant, unworthy to perform church ordinances.
You don’t want to go to the temple.
You wish you had another church job or no job at all.
You don’t want to pray.
You get mad when others want to pray.
You find the commandments bothersome, restricting or senseless.
You become a slave to your appetites.
Your emotions become passionate and extreme with wide mood swings.
You wonder if life is really worth it.




Effect of the Holy Ghost on the individual

“An intelligent being in the image of God, possesses every organ, attribute, sense, sympathy, affection of will, wisdom, love, power and gift which is possessed by God himself.”

But these are possessed by man in his rudimental state in a subordinate sense of the word. Or, in other words, these attributes are in embryo, and are to be gradually developed. They resemble a bud, a germ, which gradually develops into bloom, and then, by progress, produces the mature fruit after its own kind.

The gift of the Holy Spirit adapts itself to all these organs or attributes.


 It quickens all the intellectual faculties,

 increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them by the gift of wisdom to their lawful use.

 It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature.

 It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity.

 It develops beauty of person, form and features.

 It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling.

 It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man.

 It strengthens, invigorates, and gives tone to the nerves.


In short, it is, as it were,
Marrow to the bone,
Joy to the heart
Light to the eyes,
Music to the ears,
And Life to the whole being.


(found in Appendix 8- Articles of Faith by James E. Talmage, page 487).