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Thread: About the Holy Spirit...

  1. #11
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bookman View Post
    So is all that to say that loving the Holy Spirit is not something we should do?
    What exactly does that mean, to love the Holy Spirit ? We love the Father because he sent his only begotten Son, we love the Son because of his sacrifice. We commune with the Holy Spirit and he sheds God's love in our hearts. Can you find a verse that tells us to give thanks to the Holy Spirit ?

  2. #12
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    What exactly does that mean, to love the Holy Spirit ? We love the Father because he sent his only begotten Son, we love the Son because of his sacrifice. We commune with the Holy Spirit and he sheds God's love in our hearts. Can you find a verse that tells us to give thanks to the Holy Spirit ?
    The Bible tells us to worship, praise, give thanks, seek, etc, God. The Holy Spirit is God, no less than the Father is God and Jesus is God.

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  4. #13
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fuego View Post
    The Bible tells us to worship, praise, give thanks, seek, etc, God. The Holy Spirit is God, no less than the Father is God and Jesus is God.
    Of course. The question I'm asking myself is how distinct he is in terms of personality. To me he represents the presence and power of God, then the character and personality of Jesus. He manifests what it means that "God is spirit". He is God's representative on Earth during this age except when Jesus reveals himself physically to his servants, which happens.

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  6. #14
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Eph 5:20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

    Col 1:3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you

    Col 1:27 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

    Col 3:7 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

    In Thessalonians and Timothy he directs his thanks to God. But there seems to be a pattern of approaching God the Father through the name of Jesus and in the Holy Spirit.

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  8. #15
    Love involves corresponding ACTION. So we show love to the Holy Spirit by responding to those things he is communicating to us:
    - To LISTEN to the still small voice
    - to allow ourselves to be LED by the Holy Spirit (demonstrating that we are sons of God) Rom 8:14

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  10. #16
    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bookman View Post
    Here's something I've been pondering lately. I realize that the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to be our Comforter, to lead us into all truth, and all that. But the Holy Spirit IS, first, last, and always a member of the trinity. The Holy Spirit IS God in the same way that Jesus Christ IS God (in bodily form). So my question is this: Since we often say we "love" God the Father and we "love" Jesus, are we not also to "love" the Holy Spirit? As I said, I know the Holy Spirit does not seek to glorify Himself, but to glorify Christ. Yeah, I get that. But does that mean we don't love the Holy Spirit? Are we to only love 2/3 of the trinity? I admit that in the Word I can find admonitions to love the Father and to love the Son, but I can't find any place where we're told to love the Holy Spirit. In a way, that seems odd, given that the Holy Spirit is as fully God as is Jesus.

    I know we often pray, addressing the Holy Spirit. But do we express love to the Holy Spirit? What say ye?
    The Holy Spirit, as Jesus noted, takes the things that are HIS and shows them to us...I believe each of the Trinity persons has different jobs that all originate from the singular heart will mind of God...no the a theocracy but a mystery....For instance Jesus stated blasphemy against the Holy Spirit would not be forgiven...and He said only the Father knows the end time....

    Now having said that some years ago there was a lot of chatter that renounced that kind of personal expression of love for the Holy Spirit was somehow heresy....

    I have always expressed love of Him/His presence...His comfort....but am careful that I maintain a unified concept ...so when I love the Holy Spirit I am loving the Father...when I love the Father I am loving the Holy Spirit..but In each case I am also expressing gratitude for specific workings....Jesus my savior and Lord, Father my creator, Father, Daddy, and the Spirit my comforter, guide...ect....

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  12. #17
    Note carefully that the Bible neither commands us to love the Holy Spirit nor teaches that the Holy Spirit loves us! The Bible never commands us to praise, thank, worship, or pray to the Holy Spirit. The problem here is the non-biblical trinitarian doctrine of 3 Persons in 1 and 1 in 3. When Trinitarian doctrine is misunderstood as 3 distinct Persons, this can easily be misconstrued as 3 Persons that need to be separately honored. In fact, in the Bible the Holy Spirit is God's saving power in action. We experience the Father's love through the Holy Spirit.

    A similar misunderstanding prompts many Christians to pray directly to Jesus in defiance of both Jesus' model prayer which teaches us to pray to the Father and Jesus' command to pray to the Father in Jesus' name. By praying to the Father in Jesus' name, we importantly acknowledge Christ's role as our advocate and intercessor. No, Stephen's address to Jesus is no exception because he is talking to an apparition of Jesus.

  13. #18
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Berserk View Post
    Note carefully that the Bible neither commands us to love the Holy Spirit nor teaches that the Holy Spirit loves us! The Bible never commands us to praise, thank, worship, or pray to the Holy Spirit. The problem here is the non-biblical trinitarian doctrine of 3 Persons in 1 and 1 in 3. When Trinitarian doctrine is misunderstood as 3 distinct Persons, this can easily be misconstrued as 3 Persons that need to be separately honored. In fact, in the Bible the Holy Spirit is God's saving power in action. We experience the Father's love through the Holy Spirit.

    A similar misunderstanding prompts many Christians to pray directly to Jesus in defiance of both Jesus' model prayer which teaches us to pray to the Father and Jesus' command to pray to the Father in Jesus' name. By praying to the Father in Jesus' name, we importantly acknowledge Christ's role as our advocate and intercessor. No, Stephen's address to Jesus is no exception because he is talking to an apparition of Jesus.
    Jesus didn't appear to Stephen in a physically relatable form here on Earth.

    Acts 6:55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
    56 and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

    He's looking into heaven and there is no indication that the others around him can see what he sees. So why it should be disallowed to pray to Jesus who is in heaven just because one cannot presently see him, I just don't understand.

    As for trinitarian doctrine it's possible to take it too far but it's quite simple per the NT. The Father spoke from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, they were all distinct at the exact same time, each doing different things.

  14. #19
    Colonel: "Jesus didn't appear to Stephen in a physically relatable form here on Earth."

    Irrelevant! When you see a ghost, you are talking to that ghost, not praying to it! Prayer addresses the invisible God, period. There are no biblical examples of anyone praying to the unseen Holy Spirit! We are told neither that the Spirit loves us nor to love the Holy Spirit--or for that matter, to praise, thank, worship, or pray to the Holy Spirit. We are told to "worship in Spirit and truth," not to worship the Spirit or Truth.
    We are loved by God the Father or by Christ, but it is more accurate to say that we are receive love as a "fruit" from the Spirit than to say we are loved by the Spirit. All this implies that the Holy Spirit represents God's saving power in action, but is not someone to be honored as a "Person" distinct from the Personhood of God or Christ. So, strictly, speaking, none of the hymns or choruses (e. g. "Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me" or ""Holy Spirit, Rain Down") are faithful to the biblical pattern of worship and teaching. But I gladly sing them anyway.

    Colonel: "As for trinitarian doctrine it's possible to take it too far but it's quite simple per the NT. The Father spoke from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, they were all distinct at the exact same time, each doing different things."

    Irrelevant to the issue of whether the Holy Spirit is a distinct Person to be honored separately from the Father. And notice that the Holy Spirit does not speak to Jesus at His baptism. Rather, the Holy Spirit enters Jesus, so that God the Father can speak to Him in a visionary heavenly voice! similarly, each of the 7 prophetic "letters" in Revelation 2-3 presents a word from the risen Lord mediated by John's experience of the Holy Spirit. It is only in that sense that the Spirit speaks to each church.

  15. #20
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    So where in the Bible does someone pray to God in Mary's name or in the name of a saint ?

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