Holy Spirit

Its possible to be cast off or feel that God is far away as the Scripture says but its to do with discipline or testing of the heart. God never abandons us. I am with you till the end of the age or always

We can grieve and quench the Holy Spirit, niether is good for us, but we do.

Be Holy for I am Holy says the Lord.

David

 

In the O.T. the H.S came upon men. He came and went. His dwelling place was the temple. In the N.T. we are the temple and His dwelling place. He will not depart from us in this age.

 

"Is it possible for the Holy Spirit to be "taken from" a person?"

==No. Notice this Psalm does not say that God had removed His Spirit from David (Ps 51:10-13). I do, however, agree with Soulman's statement about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, when we are saved, we are sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit until our salvation is completed by our bodily resurrection (Eph 1:13-14,4:30, 1Cor 1:21-22). This of course fulfills Jesus promise that not one of those the Father has given Him will ever be lost/perish (Jn 6:37-39, 10:26-30, 1Thess 5:23-24). A true believer cannot lose their salvation.

In Christ,
Martin.

 

Here's a real interesting tape/audio entitled: "Character of the Holy Spirit".

Registration is quick and free.

It talks about the Holy Spirit in the OT and NT.

The Comforter, or as other translations refer to the Spirit, as our Advisor, Counselor.

http://www.cemnetwork.com/btw/btwcurrentprograms.php

 

When read in context, these people who were at this moment filled with the Holy Spirit were already believers and had already been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

I think we as believers often really don't have a good Biblical grasp of how God's Holy Spirit interacts with us. We usually argue over whether we have already received the Holy Spirit or have been indwelt by Him or whatever term you want to use.

But if you look at some of the N.T. scriptures, we see some well established believers being once again, or continuously "filled" with the Holy Spirit.

Here are some more scriptures to help shed some light on this subject:

 

The Holy Spirit of God and Christ is among us. I have met this Spirit, which filled me, and granted me grace and ssalvation though I had never read a Bible. Christ's authority for this is in Matthew, knowing he would release the Holy Spirit into a venal, corrupt world, that many false teachers bearing poisonous fruit would drive people from his Doctrine, and God.

I happened to have fundamental Christian grandparents, and began to speak as Christ spoke, and then remembered those versus read to me; except for that, raised in Catholicism as I was, which keeps Christ's words far from their parishoners and went so far at the time as to prohibit Catholics from owning ANY bible that I understood that I was called to the Bible, to Christ.

The Holy Spirit still works the most unaccountable miracles, and to those who will ask what life is, and means, will come forward to those who, as I was at the time, a practicing atheist.

Christ released the Holy Spirit strongly among us, out of love, so that everyone who, by his will, loves righteousnss, may be called.

But why this happened when and as it did, and how it happens to othes I have met, remains a great mystery. I was not seeking heaven, or trying to avoid hell; it never occurred to me, when the Spirit was with me, to ask after these things. I sought reason, Truth, Beauty and meaning and was shown more than I could tell if I had a million tongues, for God is suprior to this world and I have no words. and no man has works, that can reveal the infinite love, mercy and patience of God.

I received a personal miracle, and one of my objectives, in all the misadventures from then to now, is to purify myself again that I may again see. And the Bible shows the way to that, and Christ and the Apostles spoke of it often.

Man can "lose" salvation by tossing it away; there are things he can do which reject it, as Satan did, as Adam did. Men are capable of just that much folly, pride, deliberate malice. This is just my insight upon it and it must always be admitted that insights of men such as myself may be in error. Through the cares of this life, though faulire to truly repent of one's faults and continue in them, is I believe the path which turns is back on God and salvation both. And I hink this is strongly done by counting more with this world than with God.

God holds his hand out to all men; he waits patiently for us to take his hand. And I have seen a few turn away.

It is not to me to say what will become of them, but I have seen men reject the Grace offered and have their own hardened heartsthrow out The Word I find so obviously true. There really are men who return hatred for love.

 

According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, article: Spirit of God (all quotes come from this article) ---

"The OT (Old Testament) clearly does not envisage God's spirit as a person, neither in the strictly philosophical sense, nor in the Semitic sense. God's spirit is simply God's Power.

If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly (Isa. 48:16; 63:11; 32:15).......Very rarely do the OT writers attribute to God's spirit emotions or intellectual activity (Isa. 63:10; Wis.1:3-7). When such expressions are used, THEY ARE MERE FIGURES OF SPEECH that are explained by the fact that the RUAH was regarded also as the seat of intellectual acts and feeling (Gen. 41:8).

Neither is there found in the OT or in rabbinical literature the notion that God's spirit is an intermediary being between God and the world. This activity is proper to the angels, although to them is ascribed some of the activity that elsewhere is ascribed to the spirit of God"

THIS ENCYCLOPEDIA FURTHER STATES:

".......the NT (New Testament) concepts of the Spirit of God are largely a continuation of those of the OT.......The majority of NT texts reveal God's spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God.

When a quasi-personal activity is ascribed to God's spirit, e.g., speaking, hindering, desiring, dwelling (Acts 8:29; 16:7; Rom.8:9), one is NOT JUSTIFIED IN CONCLUDING immediately that in these passages God's spirit is regarded as a Person; the same expressions are used in regard to rhetorically personified things or abstract ideas (see Rom.6:6; 7:17).

Thus the context of the phrase 'blasphemy against the spirit' (Mat.12:31; cf. Mat.12:28; Luke 11:20) shows that reference is being made to the power of God".

 

wopik,

You're pushing "soul sleep" on another thread and now this? I believe you're a Jehovah's Witness. Are you?

Are you a Baptist, and if not, why are you posting in this forum?

 

wopik,

Do you believe in the Trinity - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is a person?

 

1 Samuel 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

The spirit was taken from Saul, why could the Lord not take it from one of us?

 

It was in the Old Testament, yet once the curtain was torn in two in the holy of holies, and the Comforter came to dwell with us, no it is not possible for Him to be taken away, He can be rejected by men, yet He is always at the ready waiting to be a part of your life.

 

I always look at John 10:27-30 when this type of discussion comes up.

Christ is speaking in the verses.

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand, I and the Father are one."

I am sheep given to Christ by God the Father. No one, not even me, is able to change that fact. No one, not even me, can pull me out of the hand of God. I might, at times, be a stubborn sheep who foolishly fails to obey the Master's voice for a few minutes, but He remains the Shephard and the Master, and I remain the sheep.