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NAWAL - What is the difference between the holy ghost and the angels? Do we really have
angels walking by our side day and night that we can not see, or the angels guarding us is one
being in the person of the holy ghost?
JOEL - The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead, which consists of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the
Holy Ghost. Together the three of them are God to all of humanity.
The scriptures tell us:
"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost
has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost
could not dwell in us.
A man may receive the Holy Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not tarry with him."
(D&C 130: 22-23)
The Holy Ghost is different from angels in that He can have a direct influence on our minds and
hearts if we let Him in. Angels, on the other hand do not have the same abilities nor are they gods, but are merely
the spirits of mortals who have either passed on from this life, or have not yet come to earth to
gain a body. Sometimes they are resurrected beings whose bodies have already reunited with their
spirits so that they may conduct some special mission as appointed by God. But they do not directly
represent the Holy Ghost nor would we describe the Holy Ghost as simply an angel; they are two
separate types of beings.
President Joseph F. Smith suggested that it is possible that our departed loved ones may be sent as
angels to help us who yet live on earth:
"Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth,
having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given
them to visit their friends and relatives upon the earth again, bringing from the divine presence
messages of love, of warning, of reproof or instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in
the flesh." (Gospel Doctrine, p. 436)
President Brigham Young once said that the Spirit World somehow exists with us on earth(Discourses
of Brigham Young), so it is possible that at various times we may indeed have angels around us to
guard and help us in times of need; like the angel that preserved Daniel when he was cast into the
den of lions(Dan. 6:22).
There is no scriptural evidence, however, that they are walking by our side day and night.
The common belief that to every person born into the world is assigned a
guardian angel to be with that person constantly, is not supported by available evidence, although
it is a very comforting thought.
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