The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning

My schooling emphasized the importance of using metaphors, allegories, anecdotes, etc. to really make sure that a lesson hits home. I teach Relief Society once a month, and it's almost crazy how many ideas just pop into my head. I'm sure that they are not mine. There's no way that my brain came up with it all on its own.

This week, I've been studying about the Holy Ghost for my lesson on Sunday. The lesson did not explicitly mention the Spirit as a fire, but that thought kept popping up in my mind. I decided to study it further.

When one is baptized, it is often referred to as "baptism by water". Water is a cleansing agent in that it removes all visible dirt and grime--stuff on the outside. Water is what we use to clean our physical bodies. Water, however, it not enough to complete the process of sanctification.

Fire is necessary to really sanctify us. Not only does it remove impurities--ones that we cannot see--but it cleanses us from the inside (our spiritual bodies). The work that the fire does is more subtle. It works over a lifetime and, like a real fire, leaves a lasting mark on us. Once we've felt the warmth of fire, we desire to feel it again.

It's like washing dishes. Whether by hand or with a dishwasher, the process is the same. Dishes get scrubbed with soap and water, which is like baptism. Then, they are rinsed with lots of heat, which of course is made by  a heating coil (fire!). Soap and water make them clean, but the heat is what does the sanitizing. One without the other is only half of the process, and they must be done in that order.

We often overlook those tiny little "germs" in ourselves. After all, they are really hard to see! That's why we need the Spirit to help us with the process. We simply cannot do it on our own. You can't fix a problem when you don't think that there is one!

I was wondering how we can be really be compared to dishes when the Ensign fell open to Pres. Packer's talk, "Cleansing the Inner Vessel." Vessel = container or dish. Boom. Problem solved. I hope the lesson sounds half as cool to my students as it does to me.