I like the feeling of a team. You do your part and I’ll do mine and together we will reach our objective.
Teamwork has been a recurring theme in my life. Community softball teams gave me joy in my youth. During my illness I’ve sought a feeling of partnership with my doctor. I’ve found cooperation with one dietician who is now a friend. I endeavoured to have unity and harmony with my mission companions. A feeling of oneness came to me when an ordinance worker in the temple.
This mortal journey is not a solitary quest. It is a collaborative effort. Every day we depend on the efforts of others. We eat food grown by others and wear clothes that someone else has sewn. We may write an article alone but it requires a team of people to publish it. We need each other for the progression of us all.
The foundation of the eternal family unit begins with the marriage team of a man and a woman. Elder Ulisses Soares recently taught about the importance of men and women being in a partnership with the Lord (“In Partnership with the Lord,” Liahona, November 2022).
Most importantly, we are team members with our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are our guides, team captains, mentors, and cheerleaders, providing us all that we will ever need to succeed, if we do our part. Perhaps the use of the word “team” is too casual when discussing the Godhead. We are certainly not equally linked, and I don’t mean to demean deity. But for want of a better word, being on a team best describes how we are inter-related.
How can we know this truth?
President Henry B. Eyring has taught, “If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as evidence that the Atonement is working in your life. For that reason and many others, you would do well to put yourself in places and in tasks that invite the promptings of the Holy Ghost” (Henry B. Eyring, “Gifts of the Spirit for Hard Times,” Ensign, June 2007).
There is something extraordinary and empowering in knowing that each time we feel the Spirit, we are also receiving love, power, comfort and help from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. To receive one is to receive them all.
I once felt that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were far away and inaccessible mainly because of their perfection and glory. However, Elder Eyring teaches the truth that when we perceive the influence of the Holy Ghost then we are linked and connected to all the members of the Godhead.
The scriptures teach: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me” (John 13:20). “And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:37).
The quote from President Eyring enlightens our understanding. All this time I thought the Atonement was a mysterious power too difficult to understand or access. I should have known it would be simple and beautiful, as the gospel is. When we feel the Spirit those are the moments when we can access the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It’s been there all along and I just had not recognized it.
The goal, therefore, is to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. When we have this, then we will also have the companionship of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. Someday moments of influence from the Holy Ghost may be extended to minutes, hours, and then days. Then we will have a changed heart, no more disposition to do evil, and we will have overcome the natural man. In the meantime, we can strive to increase the moments, drop by drop.
President Russell M. Nelson counsels
Any successful teamwork requires our time as well as effort to communicate and gain understanding.
President Nelson has been guiding us towards unity and teamwork as he pleads with us to “make time for the Lord” (Russell M. Nelson, “Make Time for the Lord,” Liahona, November 2021).
He wants us to learn how to “hear Him” (“Hear Him,” Liahona, May 2020).
President Nelson prays for us to “let God prevail in our lives” (“Let God Prevail,” Liahona, November 2020).
Step by step, line upon line we can become sanctified, purified, and unified with God.
We are not alone on this mortal journey. You and I are members of a team, and we have the ultimate leaders. They are with us in the darkest of times and the brightest of times. We can call upon Them through prayer and They will comfort, guide, and answer.
It is good to remember the words of Jesus Christ. “I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:2; emphasis added). He is ever ready to forgive, to bind up the wounds, to heal, to comfort, to rescue, to invite, to love.