Thinking that it was Eli who had called him, Samuel ran to Eli’s room to ask what he wanted. One night as this young prophet-to-be lay down to sleep, he heard a voice call his name. Hannah did have a son, and true to her promise she delivered him to Eli, the high priest, at the tabernacle in Shiloh. You may recall that Hannah was unable to have children and made a vow that if Heavenly Father would bless her with a son, she would give him to the Lord all the days of his life. I love the story of young Samuel in the Old Testament that depicts the early stages of his acquiring spiritual receptors. Much like a hormone cannot influence a cell without the appropriate receptor, the Holy Ghost cannot guide us, comfort us, and testify to us if we don’t develop our own “spiritual receptors.” The Melchizedek Priesthood holder who pronounced our confirmation used these well-known words: “Receive the Holy Ghost.” This exhortation makes it clear that we must do the receiving if we want to benefit from the ministration of the Holy Ghost. In a like manner, do the promptings of the Holy Ghost ever pass us by without being received?įollowing baptism we were confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were given the gift of the Holy Ghost. The hormone passes right by these cells without exerting any effect. However, even though the blood may be filled with a certain hormone, many cells will be unaffected by that hormone because they do not have the right receptor. Once the hormone binds to the receptor, a cascade of events is activated that leads to the hormone action in the target cell. A receptor is a protein on the surface of the cell that can bind to the hormone much like a key fits into a lock. Only cells that have a receptor specific for the hormone will respond. Even though blood flows to virtually every cell in the body, not every cell is able to respond to a particular hormone. For example, growth hormone is secreted into the blood by the pituitary gland, a tiny gland at the base of your brain, and travels to distant sites, where it helps bring about growth during our developing years. These hormones are then carried by the blood to distant cells, where they exert their effects. Hormones are chemical mediators that are delivered to the blood by endocrine glands.
I also want to start with the disclaimer that when it comes to receiving and recognizing the Spirit, I still have many things to learn myself.Įndocrinology is the study of hormones. If you suffer from “biology anxiety,” let me assure you that I will make the analogies as simple as possible so as not to create undue stress. I will draw on my background in endocrinology to provide analogies that illustrate many of the points I want to make. I want to talk about receiving and recognizing the Holy Ghost.
I pray that the Spirit of the Holy Ghost will be with me and with you during our time together. This little seven-year-old boy made the following astute observation: “So, BYU is a school, it’s where you work, and it’s a church.” Yes, BYU is all of those things. I explained to Caleb that, on Sunday, many of the rooms on campus are used for church. We ended up parking pretty far away, because so many students were parked on campus for their Sunday meetings. One Sunday I brought my young son, Caleb, with me. I have a research lab in the Widtsoe Building and occasionally need to check on experiments over the weekend. Brigham Young University is such a unique institution. Ever since we came around the Point of the Mountain and first saw the large block Y on the mountainside, I have had an abiding love of BYU. I still remember with fondness the day in 1971 when my friend and I loaded up his Volkswagen Bug and left Concord, California, for Provo, Utah, to begin our studies at Brigham Young University. I am grateful and humbled by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to speak to you today.
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