From: allan-sv@algonet.se   
      
                                The Holy Spirit   
      
   Some mean that the Holy Spirit is no person, but only a power that   
   God uses. But Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit as a person. He   
   says in John 16:13-14, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,   
   he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but   
   whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew your   
   thing things to come. He shall glorify me: for he receive of mine, and   
   shall shew it unto you." An impersonal power can neither speak   
   nor hear.   
      
   We can read in 1 Cor. 12:11, "But all these (gifts) worketh that one   
   and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."   
   The Spirit has his own will, something that an impersonal power   
   cannot have.   
      
   If the Holy Spirit is no person, what then is the spirit of man? When   
   a man is dead, the dead body is no person. Our spirit is our personality   
   and when our spirit has left the body, our personality is away from the   
   body.   
      
   The evil spirits are intelligent beings though they have no physical   
   bodies. They can use people and speak through them. Please, read   
   Mark 1:23-34. Luke 8:27-33. In Acts 19:15 we can read about an   
   evil spirit who said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?"   
   Accordingly, the evil spirits have knowledge. In Matt. 12:43-45 we   
   see that the evil spirits have their own will. They want to have   
   physical bodies to live in. When now a spirit of man is a person and   
   the evil spirits are persons, why would the Holy Spirit be only an   
   impersonal power?   
      
   But how can a person be poured out? In Joel 2:28-29 the Lord says,   
   "I will pour out my spirit ..." And in Acts 2:14-21 Peter refers to Joel   
   and says, "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 daughters shall   
   prophesy ..." And in 1 Cor. 12:13 Paul writes, "... and that one Holy   
   Spirit was poured out for all of us to drink."   
   (The New English Bible).   
      
   I do not understand how this person, the Holy Spirit can be poured out,   
   but I believe as the Bible teaches. God's pouring out of his Spirit, and   
   Jesus' speaking about the Holy Spirit as a person, does not need to be   
   incompatible only because we do not understand it. God is infinitely   
   greater than us, and we understand very little of him. No human   
   language can describe how God is. In the Bible we can read that God   
   has characteristics that we are unable to understand. God is everywhere   
   present. For in him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28.   
   Yet, he can look down from heaven upon us. Psalm 53:2.   
      
   In Matt. 12:31-32 says Jesus something remarkable about the Holy   
   Spirit. "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men:   
   but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto   
   men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall   
   be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it   
   shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world   
   to come." And in Mark 3:28-29 Jesus says, "Verily I say unto you,   
   All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies   
   wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that blaspheme   
   against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of   
   eternal damnation."   
      
   If the Holy Spirit is only an impersonal power, why then has he such   
   an authority, so that it is more dangerous to sin against the Spirit,   
   than to sin against Jesus or the Father himself?   
      
      
   If you have any questions after reading of this article   
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)