Testimonies from the Prophets About the Holy Ghost

Lorenzo Snow Receives a Witness of the Holy Ghost

from the Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, compiled by Eliza R. Snow Smith (1884)

Some two or three weeks after I was baptized, one day while engaged in my studies, I began to reflect upon the fact that I had not obtained a knowledge of the truth of the work--that I not realized the fulfillment of the promise, "he that doeth my will shall know of the doctrine," and I began to feel very uneasy. I laid aside my books, left the house, and wandered around through the fields under the oppressive influence of a gloomy, disconsolate spirit, while an indescribable cloud of darkness seemed to envelop me. I had been accustomed, at the close of the day, to retire for secret prayer, to a grove a short distance from my lodgings, but at this time I felt no inclination to do so. The spirit of prayer had departed and the heavens seemed like brass over my head. At length, realizing that the  usual time had come for secret prayer, I concluded  I would not forego my evening service, and, as a matter of formality, knelt as I was in the habit of doing, in my accustomed retired place, but not feeling as I was wont to feel.

I had no sooner opened my lips in an effort to pray, than I heard a sound, just above my head, like the rustling of silken robes, and immediately the Spirit of God descended upon me, completely my whole person, filling me from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, and Oh, the joy and happiness I felt! No language can describe the almost instantaneous transition from a dense cloud of mental and spiritual darkness into a refulgence of light and knowledge, as it was at that time imparted to my understanding. I then received a perfect knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and of the restoration of the Holy Priesthood, and the fullness of the Gospel. It was a complete baptism--a tangible immersion in the heavenly principle or element, the Holy Ghost; and even more real and physical in its effects upon every part of my system than the immersion by water; dispelling forever, so long as reason and memory last, all possibility of doubt or fear in relation to the fact handed down to us historically, that the "babe of Bethlehem" is truly the Son of God; also the fact that He is now being revealed to the children of men, and communicating knowledge, the same as in the Apostolic times. I was perfectly satisfied, as well I might be, for my expectations were more than realized, I think I may safely say in an infinite degree.

President Snow received a witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God through this exceptional experience with the Holy Ghost. Usually the receiving of the Holy Ghost is no so dramatic.

Young Harold B. Lee is Protected by the Influence of the Holy Ghost

When Harold B. Lee was a young boy, members of his family, including his grandmother, mother, and two or three brothers and sisters, were seated before an open door. They were watching a severe thunderstorm raging over the mountain near their home. A flash of chain lightning followed by an immediate loud clap of thunder indicated that the lightning had struck very close. Harold was standing in the doorway when his mother gave him a vigorous push that sent him sprawling on his back out of the doorway.

At that instant, a bolt of lightning came down the chimney of the kitchen stove and through the open doorway, and split a huge gash from top to bottom in a large tree immediately in from of the house. If Harold had remained in the open door, he would have been struck by lightning and possibly killed. His mother felt she was guided by the still, small voice as she made this split-second decision.