“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot recieve him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.”
I think Jesus is talking about spirit guides. What do you think?
heh! I always assumed that was talking about the holy spirit, but in a way i could kind of see that as like the ultimate, ubber spirit guide. But yes this is interpretation is definately interesting, and something to look into…
That verse is definatly talking about the holy spirit, but the attributes Christians give to the holy spirit are extremly similar to the attributes some dreamers give to spirit guides.
Hmmm,enteresting. I’m not very knowledgable on spirit guides. Is the spirit guid one person has seperate than the spirit guide that another has?
If so I do not agree that this is what Christ ment. I’m not a Christian in a sense that I follow the Christian church. So I don’t know what the churches official stance would be on the topic of the holy spirit.
My interpretation is that the holy spirit was not given to us in a way that at one time we never had the holy spirit then god gave to us. We always had the holy spirit, nothing could exist without it. The holy spirit does come from god. The holy spirit is the manifestation of god within our temporary decaying bodies. So the holy spirit IS god. The holy spirit IS me, you, the tree, the ant etc. The holy spirit is our way back to god. This is why the holy spirit is our “helper”. Jesus says “The world cannot recieve him, because it cannot see him or know him.”
When he speaks of the “world” I believe he is speaking of the people who are blinded by wordly attachments. Its not that they do not have the holy spirit within them, its that they do not realize the holy spirit within because they are blinded by wordly attachment, therefore thay cannot recieve the help of the holy spirit and therefore will not find there way back to god.
When Jesus rose from the dead he gave us the holy spirit, in a sense the holy spirit is God, but it’s much more. In my belief the spirit is the manifestation of all that is God within the human being, not really different from our spirits as individuals. Basically it is his power, his love, his knowledge, and all that, but perfectly accessible for those of us who seek as opposed to God the Father (rather than the Spirit) who seems so unobtainable, the spirit is right here, right now, and waiting to be tapped in us. In a sense it is like a spirit guide, but with us our whole lives as Christians when we are saved, rather than at special moments like in dreams. The difference is between the old testament and the new testament, is that the Holy Spirit was only accessible in holy places and through priests, that is the spirit would manifest itself in certain places at certain times with certain people (like prophets and priests). Now after Christ’s resurrection when he left his spirit with is and it is directly accessible to anyone, anywhere, whenever we need it or seek it…
It’s possible, but also it can just refer to an angel or a guardian spirit, depending on your beliefs… Also, there’s the possibility that the guides we meet in dreams ARE angels/guardian spirits, which would mean the verse actually refers to them.
It’s generally believed that the promised “Comforter” (“helper”, “strengthener”, “fortifier” according to the translations) in John 14 refers to the Paraclete (i.e the Holy Ghost) which will be sent to his disciples. That is what I understood too from the Acts and they think the same in the wikipedia.
The passage of the Acts when disciples receive the Paraclete is very funny - cause they become like mad and they make so much noise that the neighbours think they are drunk and complain - and very well described and it’s my favourite in the Acts.
I didn’t notice your question. I wasn’t aware that some christians didn’t know anything about the Holy Spirit cause it semt to me that it was a central belief in christian faith.
There are some examples in the Gospels:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)
or in the Second Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
Here is a quotation from wikipedia (article: Holy Spirit):
(He he! Notice the last sentence, it may reply to your question.)
Thus it’s generally believed that there is one God and it exists in 3 Persons: God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s the idea of the Holy Trinity and it’s shared by roman catholic, orthodox, protestant and anglican views.
The notion of trinity was the cause of many disagreements in the first centuries of the christian church (was Jesus a man, was He God, was He in the same time God and man, was the Holy Ghost a part of God, etc.)
Now even if some christian groups don’t agree with the notion of trinity, for instance the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct beings) and the Jehovah’s Witnesses (the Holy Spirit is not a Person, but God’s effective Power), and even if they say in the wikipedia that it is not uncommon for a Methodist, Presbyterian, or Anglican to profess non-trinitarian views, even among the clergy, it seems that the notion of the Holy Spirit is accepted everywhere amongst christian churchs.
Most of this information comes from the wikipedia, particularly the previous paragraph and the quotations from the Bible. About others paragraphs, I verified in the wikipedia but I already knew it.
Thank you, this clears things up. It sounds to me like The Holy Spirit = Spirit Guide.
Yes, I attend church, but I am new to Christianity as I did not grow up so. It has been mentioned in church, but I never could really percieve what it was or its importance.
well to me I consider the holy spirit like chi, but not fleeting chi, rather activiation of the entire energy body and chakra system in juxtaposition to the physical body.
a vehicle for direct experience of I AM while still being human.
it’s my understanding [which could be wrong definitely] that Jesus is supposed to distribute this spirit to us, but I am unsure as to how to achieve it, and realize that most Christians have not activated their higher spiritual centers, but rather are complacent running on blind faith.
this is my struggle with Christianity. I want to believe in Jesus, but I can’t believe in him if there are no tangible fruits beared… I am seeking introduction with Christ-conscoiusness and will take it in the smallest increments, as long as I know that it is coming, and that I am talking to someone other than my own ears when I speak aloud to this Jesus fellow.