The Holy Ghost is a sanctifier. One of the primary assignments of this member of the Godhead is to burn dross and iniquity out of the repentant soul as though by fire. One who lives worthy of the guidance and cleansing influence of the Spirit will, in process of time, become sanctified.
Sanctification is the process whereby one comes to hate the worldliness he once loved and love the holiness and righteousness he once hated. To be sanctified is not only to be free from sin but also to be free from the effects of sin, free from sinfulness itself, the very desire to sin. One who is sanctified comes to look upon sin with abhorrence (cf .Mosiah 5:2; Alma 13:12; Alma 19:33).
“A River of Water”
Lehi next discovered a river of water that “ran along, and ... was near the tree of which [he] was partaking the fruit.” This river represented filthiness, as well as “hell” and “the depths thereof.” “So much was [Lehi’s] mind swallowed up in other things [Lehi’s was deeply concerned for his family] that he beheld not the filthiness of the water” (1 Nephi 12:16; 1 Nephi 15:27).