xjwsforChrist

Greetings to you all on The Feast of Holy Pentecost! The day on which we acknowledge the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Comforter, who Jesus promised would come when he was no longer with the disciples.

Jesus said to his disciples:
"If you love me you will keep my commandments.
I shall ask the Father
And he will give you another Advocate
To be with you for ever.
"If anyone loves me he will keep my word
And my Father will love him
And we shall come to him
And make our home with him.
Those who do not love me do not keep my words
And my word is not my own;
It is the word of the one who sent me.
I have said these things to you
While still with you;
but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
Whom the Father will send in my name,
Will teach you everything
And remind you of all I have said to you."

John 14: 15-16, 23-26.

Of course, Christ is with his sheep.

In the very next verses show a continuation, directly after Christ speaks of the counsellor that will come... He states "I will come to you":

John 14: 18-21

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Becaues I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me, and I am in you. Whovever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

Christ is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth. He was the Truth as the man; and the Spirit of Truth after he died and rose again. The physical, then the spiritual.

My mother actually always believed this, and when I studied with the jws, I tried to correct her. She said that is why the Holy Spirit could not come, until after Christ died (in the flesh), and became the Holy Spirit. I have since gone to her and told her that she heard that from the Spirit, and correctly; whereas I had been wrong with the jws.


It did take me quite some time to hear and to accept this as Truth. No one, on earth and among men, teach this. Not that I am aware of, and I know that sometimes it can be hard to 'bear' something that has no backing among the traditions and teachings of men. But faith in Christ will have one following Him, even if no one else hears and follows.


Peace to you Char,
tammy

Tammy, you simply don't understand about the Holy Spirit. It is so clear that He is a separate Person, but you've been told and told that it is not so. Ignorance is not at fault.

If I, with full knowledge and understanding of the Holy Spirit (and I've spent a large chunk of today in glorious services in church celebrating Father, Son and Holy Spirit with gifts of the Spirit showering upon us in love and joy and peace), if I, with such knowledge, were to turn my back on Him and deny Him, then I would be very culpable indeed. I will not do it.

You are not at fault. That lies with anyone who, with knowledge, has misled you. I suspect whoever has misled you is also deceived themselves, and so it's rather a case of the blind leading the blind, and no blame attaches. Bit sad, though, isn't it?

As he said when he appeared to them after his death, dear tec (peace to both you and dear Char!):

"Look! I... am with you... ALL the days..."

What we do well to remember is the words penned by God's Prophet, Isaiah:

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and JaHVeH's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
then you will find your joy in JaHVEH,
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of JaHVeH has spoken." Isaiah 58:13, 14

There are two VERY important things to learn from these scriptures:

1. The Sabbath is not just certain days of the year. And we don't observe God's Sabbath only certain days of the year. Since after concluding the creation God RESTED... EVERY day is a Sabbath... or "day of rest" to God. The fact that Christ is LORD... "of the Sabbath"... means that for US, we are to observe EVERY day as a day "holy" to JAH.

2. Which is why we are NOT to go our OWN way... but LISTEN to the One whom JAH SAID to listen to, the One who IS the Way... and who calls out to US:

"THIS (he!) is the Way, you people! Walk in IT!" John 14:6

Meaning walk... IN... HIM! Stand fast... IN... HIM, the Truth!

Thus, we are to trust in JaHVeH with ALL [our] hearts and do NOT lean upon [our] OWN understanding. But in ALL our ways take notice of HIM... and HE... through His Son, the GOOD Shepherd He send to LEAD us... the Holy One of Israel and Holy Spirit, JAHESHUA, the Chosen One of JAH (MischaJah)... will make our paths STRAIGHT. HE will do it, not we ourselves.

May those with ears hear... and get the sense of these truths. May they, if they do not yet have them, be given ears, IF THEY TRULY WISH IT... to HEAR... when the Spirit and the Bride says to THEM:

"Come! Take 'life's water'... the holy spirit of God... which spirit is poured out from the innermost parts of His Son and Christ... FREE!"

Again, peace to you both... and to you ALL!

Your servant and a slave of Christ,

Shellama

And Jehovah's Witnesses have spent a similar day "celebrating," dear Char (again, peace to you!), as well as out and about telling others about their "love," "joy", and "peace." And a gazillion Muslims have spent even more time in mosques and on prayer rugs "celebrating" Allah. All consider their services "glorious", dear one. Doesn't make it so for anyone but them. Which, though, has truth? JWs say they do. You believe you do. Muslims, Jews, athiests, Baptists, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, LDS, SDA... and many, many more say/believe do. As do we.

Doesn't make it TRUE... for ANY of us.

As we can do is share with you the BASIS for our FAITH, dear one... and it isn't a religion. And we don't just experience holy spirit one day a week "in church". We RECEIVED it, those of us who have... and so it is WITH us... because Christ, THE Holy Spirit... is WITH us. IN us, as he said he WOULD be:

"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." John 14:23

Notice, he said he AND HIS FATHER would come to those who loved him. Not he, his Father, and "the Holy Spirit." Two, dear one, not three. Paul expounded on that:

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness." Romans 8:9, 10

Do you recall the verse where Paul stated that Christ "became a life-giving spirit"? That is what he is writing about here: the Spirit of God... IS Christ, the Holy Spirit. If Christ dwells in you, by mean of his spirit, then GOD is dwellin in you... by means of Christ! Yet, where is the "third" person... the third entity? Where is the mention of "him," here?

There is none. There never is, dear Char.

Again, peace to you!

YSSFS of Christ,

Shellama

I don't understand as you understand. It is not clear that He is a separate person, at all. I think if it was, then there would be no one who could believe otherwise, or not see it.

In your opening post, you listed the verses before and after the verses that I copied, leaving those middle verses out. I think because a trinity understanding does not mesh with those middle verses; whereas if Christ is speaking of Himself as the Spirit, then the conversation simply flows. I think that speaks as evidence for itself.




Well, I cannot turn my back on the Holy Spirit either. So I must follow as HE has taught me. Not as man has taught me, or anything/anyone else. So I don't think you can turn your back on the Holy Spirit if you accept that Christ IS the Holy Spirit.

But I am not telling you to do, or not to do, something; not at all. Follow Christ, alone, as you choose.



I'm not worried about fault.

But I don't follow other people or their teachings. I can look at something that someone else teaches. I can test it, ask about it, research it. But I only learn and accept it from Christ, if He teaches or confirms something to me.

There is a lot of blind leading the blind out there, though, I agree. That is one way that you can have millions of people believing something false, as true. That is one reason why not to follow something just because it is accepted by others (few or many) as being true.



Pentecost is something to be thankful for; the first day that Christ poured out the spirit and life given to Him, to give to all those that He chooses.


Peace to you,
tammy

Hello Chariklo,

Hope you had a lovely day! Sounds like you've a few weeks of celebration. Good stuff!

My understanding is that Jesus was talking about when he was no longer physically with the disciples. In other words, "While I may not be here physically so you can eat, sleep, talk and walk together with me like we have for the last three years or so, I'll still be with you." As in with them invisibly to help and guide us either himself or via the holy spirit (or maybe both).

Kinda like when we when we left NZ my mum said she'll always be with us, and there for us whenever and whatever we need.

Or like how even after dying, Obi-Wan continued to assist Luke Skywalker.

_________________
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” - Dr Seuss

Hence, his "invisible PRESENCE", dear WS? Meaning, he is present WITH us... but unseen (by flesh)? Which is why one must be "in spirit" to see him... as John and the Prophets were? Paul heard him... but didn't see him (couldn't - he had scales put over his eyes to prevent it).

It just shouldn't make sense to anyone with real presence of mind that Christ would be ALIVE... resurrected from the dead... yet not able to speak, at least to those who belong to him. Many believe DEMONS can speak... to anyone THEY wish... but that God and Christ can't... or don't... to ANYONE.

Where, though, is the LOVE in that? How can one say they love another, yet never SPEAK to them? How can one say God/Christ are all-powerful, yet they CAN'T speak?

We are to believe that they DON'T (which is unloving) or CAN'T (which denies their power). How does that make sense??? It never did to ME... and now I know why: it's a LIE.

Peace to you!

Your servant and a slave of Christ,

SA

Yes Yes...

Man no longer controls or denies how, when and where that spirit operates and on WHO!

Thank you for sharing this
Love justmom

Ha ha remember 'Jesus invisible presence' has a whole different meaning to JWs! They would hear that phrase and think you are talking about the years from 1914 onward :-D

I think we are agreeing? Jesus was 'with' his disciples as in there to support them and back them up by his own hand or through the holy spirit. Right from when he was raised and ascended then through all the days until the end of this system of things / end of the age / end of the world / etc. That could, I guess be by manouvering events, direct intervention, or appearing to those that need strength.

That's how I understand it anyway.

Long day.

Brain fog.

_________________
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” - Dr Seuss

Yes, their whole "We know but don't know and don't know we don't know" 'splanation of "parousia" - LOLOLOL! (good morning and peace to you!).



Yes, I think we are!



Yessir!



Then, we "understand" the same, dear one!



You know, it WAS wasn't it? I went to bed exhausted last night - LOLOLOL!



Oh, no. I think you were thinking QUITE clearly here! THANK you for doing so!

Again, peace to you!

YOUR servant and a slave of Christ,

Shellama