Watch Tower writings say that the Holy Spirit is God's invisible, impersonal ...active force... and is not a person. Jehovah's Witnesses that I've listened to, in their attempt to help me understand their teaching, often liken the Spirit to how electrical current operates. This claim is made even though the Bible presents the Holy Spirit as possessing many personal, distinctive qualities (attributes), which cannot be ignored.
These include speaking or communicating expressly, hearing, helping, comforting, leading, interceding in prayer, sanctifying, commissioning, teaching, and having ultimate and intimate capabilities of mind. And I wouldn’t want to forget to mention, also, the authority to give life and to take it away. The Spirit also distributes personal spiritual gifts, produces spiritual fruit in believers, possesses and gives joy, love, grace, and liberty. The Holy Ghost raises the dead, adopts us as children of God. The Spirit can be grieved, neglected or ignored, lied to, and blasphemed against.
Oh, I agree that the Spirit is active and absolutely the supreme force in the universe, but as we've seen thus far, the Spirit constitutes so much more than that!
In the New Testament, personal pronouns like He are used, when, for example Jesus comforts his disciples after telling them that He will be leaving the earth to go to His Father. He says,
'And I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper, that He may abide with you forever.'
This wonderful and totally personal promise is found in John 14:16. This and other similar verses are rendered properly in context despite the Watch Tower's assertion that the term 'Spirit' is sometimes used without the definite article 'the' and therefore cannot be a person. Even the Biblical baptismal formula as described in Matthew 28:19 has been altered in their ceremonial baptizing of new members, in that the Scriptural wording has been changed from... 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ to... 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the spirit directed organization.' To reduce the Holy Spirit to a 'thing' or an 'it' is really to impose limitations on the way God desires to communicate with each one who professes to believe in Him, and that way is personally. He is a personal being who chooses to relate to His creation in a personal way, in every way that He relates to us. We were created, not to suppress it, but to enjoy and even crave fellowship with Him, and His Son, Jesus, through the eternal Spirit.
2 Corinthians 13:14 satisfies my longing.
'The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.'
It just seems to me that perhaps many Jehovah's Witnesses may feel that they are far removed from this kind of intimacy with God. Maybe they feel that they are not entitled to it because they don't recognize that the Holy Spirit is a person who was sent to convict us of our sins, cause us to turn, not to man or to organizations, but to God alone, to His Son Jesus for forgiveness and salvation, then to affirm in our hearts that we are children of God (Romans chapter 8) and to personally indwell and direct our lives, one day at a time, in joy and communion, ever present, all the way!
Of course, it is not necessary for the Holy Spirit to have visible or physical attributes in order to be viewed as a person. Remember, nothing is impossible with God.
John 4:24 is direct.
'God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.'
The end of the Good Book gives us a final look into a unique fellowship, eagerly awaiting the return of the Lord Jesus, and a final invitation to anyone who thirsts for a lasting, loving, satisfying marriage relationship. Listen to Revelation 22:17:
'And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let Him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life, freely.'
How about you?
Scripture References On The Holy Spirit
Speaking/Communicating Expressly: 1 Timothy 4:1, Acts 8:29, 13:2-4
Hearing: John 16:13
Helping/Comforting: John 14:16-21, Acts 9:31
Leading: John 16:13, Romans 8:14
Interceding In Prayer: Romans 8:26
Justifying/Sanctifying: 1 Corinthians 6:11, 1 Peter 1:2
Teaching: John 14:26
Commissioning/Sending: Acts 13:2-4
Mind/Will: Romans 8:27, 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, 12:11
Distributes Gifts/Produces Fruit: 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Galatians 5:22-23
Raises The Dead: Romans 8:11
Adopts Us As God's Children And Seals Us: Romans 8:15-16, Ephesians 1:13-14
Gives/Takes Life: Genesis 1:2 (Creator), Acts 5:3-5, 9-10
The Holy Spirit Can Be
Grieved: Isaiah 63:10, (In the Watchtower’s own NWT Reference Bible, they translated Isaiah 63:10 to read, “made
his holy spirit feel hurt.”) Ephesians 4:30 (The Watchtower actually renders the Greek “λυπεῖτε τὸ πνεῦμα”
from Ephesians 4:30 as “be you saddening the spirit.” See their Kingdom Interlinear
Translation).
Quenched/Neglected/Ignored: 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Acts 7:51
Lied To: Acts 5:3
Blasphemed: Matthew
12:31-32, (cf. with) Acts
10:38-40a
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Latest comments
14.09 | 00:17
Is it your intent to share your faith with me? I'm a devout Latter-day Saint.
30.06 | 17:21
Let's add, the keys to Death and Hades (Revelation 1:18) the key of David (Rev. 3:7) the key of knowledge (Luke 11:52) and the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt.16:19) only given to Simon/Peter.
24.05 | 06:04
Intuitive
10.02 | 23:31
Checked out the great video. 👍 Thumbs up!
The Mormon Religion was officially founded by Joseph Smith Jr. on April 6. 1830 after the Book of Mormon (BOM) was published in that same year.
Joseph Smith Jr. was born in Vermont on December 23, 1805. He claimed that when he was 14, he received a vision from God the Father and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees near his home where he received instructions not to join any of the Christian churches because they were all wrong.
Three years later, Smith claimed that an angel named Moroni (a character found in the BOM) appeared to him in his bedroom whom he said revealed to him that he was selected to translate "Reformed Egyptian" (a language that does not exist) from gold plates into old English. These plates were supposedly hidden near Palmyra, New York and are said to be written around the 4th century. The BOM was named after Moroni’s father, Mormon. Mormons view the BOM as sacred. No one is able to study the original plates because Joseph Smith claimed the angel took them back on May 2, 1838 (History of the Church 1:60).
Smith had a scribe named Cowdery. Smith did not actually translate directly from any plates. Rather, in his writings, he said he placed a "seer stone" in a hat and covered any light from entering it as he placed his face in the hat. According to Martin Harris, “By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet . . . , and when finished he would say, ‘Written,’ and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected,” Smith said, “By the power of God I translated the Book of Mormon from hieroglyphics".
Despite such methods of translation, there have been at least 3,913 changes made in the BOM from the time it was first published. Joseph Smith stated, “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” Smith also claimed that John the Baptist appeared to him on May 15, 1829 while he was translating the BOM, and instructed him to restore the church by preaching the only true gospel.
Mormons regard the BOM as sacred writings, and view it in higher standing than that of the Holy Bible. Mormon Missionaries will ask you to pray that it is true. (See our page Pray to Know)