Holy Spirit

[Jacqueline]

Is the Holy Spirit a person or just a force used by God?

God Bless

Jacqueline

[WISDOM]

This is a very good topic to start a thread on, but I am going to move it to the Doctrinal Questions Forum......

[Ovedya]

The Holy Spirit is a Person, as evidenced by the account in Acts 5:3 when Ananias and his wife deceived the church by holding back a certain percentage of the proceeds from the sale of their land:

"But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to deceive the Holy Spirit and put aside for yourself some of the proceeds of the land?"

Seemingly Ananias was merely lying to Peter. But in reality he was lying to the Holy Spirit, because Peter and all the apostles were one with the Lord's work in the church

Then in verse 4 Peter continues: "While it remained, was it not your own? And when it was sold, was it not under your authority? What is it that you have contrived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."

Here Peter refers to the Holy Spirit as God. Therefore, since you cannot lie to an impersonal force, and since Peter referred to the Holy Spirit as God, the Holy Spirit is a Person; the Holy Spirit is God.

[Jacqueline]

So when they say your being lead by the Holy Spirit your actually being lead by God him self.

God Bless

Jacqueline

[traveller]

So when they say your being lead by the Holy Spirit your actually being lead by God him self.

God Bless

Jacqueline

That is correct Jacqueline

[Leonard]

Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Greetings, Jacqueline:

Ordinarily when we seek to define what makes a being specifically a person philosophers have argued that to be a person, a being must have Mind, Will, Emotion, and Activity.

Does the Holy Spirit have a Mind? "He Who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit..." (Rom. 8:27)

Does the Holy Spirit have a will? "The Holy Spirit distributes these gifts to each one as He wills........." (I Cor. 12:11)

Does the Holy Spirit have emotion? "Grieve not the Holy Spirit........" (Eph. 4:30)

Does the Holy Spirit have activity? "The Holy Spirit distributes......(I Cor 12:11).

Yes the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, and deserves to be spoken of as 'He', not 'it'. Also properly use 'Who' or 'Whom' rather than 'that'!

With a blessing,

Leonard, a sinner

[Guest gogoswing]

Yo, you might run into some people who call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses who will argue that the Holy Spirit is just a force. But check out this scripture

John 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." If that doesnt convince them that He is a person, theyre blind.

Edited July 1, 2004 by gogoswing

[GoodSamaritan]

The Bible is filled with references to the Holy Spirit as much more than a force of energy, IMO. John 4:24 says 'God is spirit and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and truth.'

John 14 says, 'But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, HE will teach you all things, and bring to your rememberance all that I have said to you.' If He were just energy, why would he be refered to a)as 'HE';and b)given 'human' tasks (teaching, bringing, etc.)? One cannot teach and remind if one doesn't have intellectual powers of a rational being, can he?

John 15:26 continues in this calling of the Holy Spirit 'He' along with verbs which give Him action. Finally, Jn 16:7-13 makes it crystal clear that the Holy Spirit is a 'person', not some genderless force of energy.

Check out Hebrews 3:7:

'Therefore, as the HOly Spirit says, 'Today, when you hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put ME to the test and saw MY work for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known MY ways..'

The Holy Spirit is synonymous with God Himself here. Both divine and a person, IMO.

GS

[Guest Caspar Meyer]

God is the eternal, invisible Holy Spirit

Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Acts 2 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith GOD, I will pour out of my SPIRIT upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my SPIRIT.

This is not the third person or spirit but the only ONE GOD who is SPIRIT ! Psalm 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit.

Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

Psalm 143:10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God, thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

Proverbs 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Eph. 4:30 And grieve not the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Isaiah 40:13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him?

Thessalonians 4:8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but GOD, who hath also given us His Holy Spirit.

2 Timothy 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

14 That good thing which was commited unto thee keep by the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us.

These scriptures do not talk about a third spirit or person, but about the only one God who is Spirit. Whenever the scriptures mention the names of the Lord God, Jehovah, God Almighty, the Highest, the most High, our Father, it refers to the invisible HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD. He is our King, Redeemer, Saviour, Judge, Creator, Shepherd, Comforter, and in the New Testament He did all his works in and through Jesus Christ. There is ONE GOD only and HE is the eternal, invisible Holy Spirit of God the Father and in Jesus Christ we see HIM. God manifest in the flesh.

[other one]

It is my personal belief that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Father. I can't tell you what the Spirit is for I don't understand. It makes no sense to me to argue as to wether the Spirit is a person or not except to fit into someones definition of what the trinity is; which we have mostly agreed is a mystery and we don't understand fully. I only refer to the Spirit as an it sometimes, because I don't understan what spirit is, and I know the Spirit is very very special. We must treat the Spirit with much more care than we do the other two parts of the Trinity, so I really shy away from too much detail.

Sam