From Robert L Millet and his book Talking with God—Divine Conversations that Transform Life
The Spirit of the Lord is not something that may be programmed, plotted, manufactured, or elicited; the influence of the Holy Ghost certainly cannot be demanded or coerced. We cannot force spiritual things. Jesus said to Nicodemus: Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one born of the Spirit” (John 3:7-8). The Prophet Joseph Smith likewise taught that “a man may receive the Holy Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not tarry with him.” (Doctrine & Covenants 130:23). We know that the spirit will not dwell with those who are unclean and thus unworthy of its companionship (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19; compare 1 Nephi 10;21; 15:34; Alma 7:21; 3 Nephi 27;19).
In addition, we cannot always when we will be filled with the Spirit and when we will not. We may end the day on fire with the power of the Spirit, rejoicing in our blessings, grateful for the closeness we have felt to the Lord. When we arise a few short hours later, it would not be uncommon to feel as though we had lost something to feel that distance between us and Deity had increased dramatically. We ask ourselves, “What happened? Did we do something to change what we were feeling only a short time ago?”
President Joseph F. Smith taught “every elder in the Church who has received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, by one having authority, has power to confer that gift upon another; it does not follow that a man who has received the presentation or gift of the Holy Ghost shall always receive the recognition and witness the presence of the Holy Ghost himself, or he may receive all these, and yet the Holy Ghost not tarry with him, but visit him from time to time. President Smith also observed that “the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, may be conferred upon men, and he may dwell with them in accordance with worthiness, and he may depart from them at his will.”1
Just because we may not always understand the workings of the Spirit in our lives does not mean that the Spirit is not with us. I’m looking back at the past forty years of my life, I find that I have had a variety of experiences with the Spirit and with receiving answers to prayer. Many prayers have been answered so directly, so deeply, so unambiguously that there was no doubt as to the course I should follow. On the other hand, many times when I have gone before the Lord in deep sincerity, hungering and thirsting for insight and direction, I have pondered and prayed and pleaded and wrestled and waited upon the Lord. So far as I can tell, I was not guilty of serious sin, and yet no clear answer was forthcoming. President Brigham Young taught what our course should be in such cases: “If I do not know the will of the Father, and what he requires of me in a certain transaction, if I ask him to give me wisdom concerning any requirement in life, or in regard to my own course, or that of my friends, my family, my children, or those I preside over, and get no answer from Him, and then do the very best that my judgment will teach me, He is bound to own and honor that transaction, and he will do so to all intents and purposes.”2 ~~~ From the book Robert L. Millet” Talking With God”, Deseret Book 2010 p.43-45
