Did you ever experience Holy Spirit? (page 3)

whyamihere

Yup! It's called Jesus Juice!

Elsewhere you are sick and twisted I love it!

Brooke

jst2laws

Yes,

But I experienced it as a Baptist, then as a JW and now as a nonreligious but independently spiritual person.

I never felt it as a member of an organization nor as part of the body of elders, only as an individual.

Since then I have done word searchs through the bible and found the holy spirit NEVER is recorded as moving an organization nor even the congregation. It only operates on individuals. You can try the same search.

It's the same Chi or spirit that the rest of the world speaks of and many experience. My experiencing it as a member of two different religions and now as a nonreligious person tells me dogma or religious affiliation has nothing to do with Holy Spirit.

Religion, in my opinion, suppresses spirituality by codifying it. The whole point is lost.

Jst2laws

frankiespeakin

When I left the Jws I got envolved with the penticostals and felt like a square peg trying to go in a round hole. Anyway the pastor who was a very nice older women got cancer and it was according to her the aggresive kind. Well we had of friend of her's who was well know for baptising people in the spirit was encouraging us to step out and put your hand on this women and heal her,, I felt moved with compassion and allthough shy I put my hand on the pastor head, now she had a lot of hairspray and I really matted and kind of mangled her hair,, but I did it out of compassion. Well all of a sudden I started to feel this crackling under my hands like some kind of static energy and it was poping and crackling I got a little disoriented and started to pull my hands away but the pastor said no because she felt the power comming from my hands, so I kept my hands thier until it stopped, and the pastor latter stopped chemo and said she felt she was cured. She still alive today as far as I know.

Confession

This is a great question. I used to think about it a lot as a JW. We were told that, when we were able to think of a scripture while at the door--at just the right moment, THAT (and other things like it) was Holy Spirit. I used to believe this might be the case, but couldn't help but contend with the fact that such experiences happened to me completely apart from speaking to people about the Bible and God. It would happen at work while trying to create ideas for ad campaigns, etc...

The thing I had difficulty accepting is that, in the event something fortuitous happened, it MUST have been from God through Holy Spirit. If we say all the good things that happen to us are the result of direct divine involvement, then shall we conclude that all the BAD things that heppen are the direct result of God causing them? At some point--even as a Witness--I came to this conclusion: I'm willing to credit God for all the good things that happen to me, since He gave me life and the opportunity to enjoy good things. Perhaps some of these things actually ARE the result of divine intervention, but dogmatically asserting that you KNOW it was Holy Spirit--without something truly miraculous happening--just seems so disingenuous to me.

LittleToe

I'm in agreement with Steve, except in this point:

Religion, in my opinion, suppresses spirituality by codifying it. The whole point is lost.

I think that statement is a little too black and white. I agree that it CAN have that effect, but it can also liberate the mind from previous mindsets, releasing spirituality. It can be a stepping stone.

That having been said, it's abused in a lot of cases, with the results that you iterate.

googlemagoogle

the "sent helper", the holy spirit, doesn't fit well with the JW doctrine of "justifying sovereignity" (or how is it called?). the question why god doesn't prevent evil on his people was always answered with something along the lines of the job-story, it's to prove people would adore him even if they don't benefit. despite the "fact" that this would have already be proven by job, it's illogical he'd send a spirit to help, because that would be cheating. yeah, Mr. J. God is a damn cheater. careful, satan.

IT Support

First, welcome, Ring Wielder! Glad you've joined us.

Good question. This lack of obvious holy spirit was something that worried me as a JW. Like you, I never ever felt I was being 'filled,' or 'guided' by holy spirit. I cannot recall a single elders meeting where I felt as a body we were being 'guided' by holy spirit--though I sat through far too many where there was the distinct opposite!

The way I rationalised it to myself was that as we were taught that the Bible is a product of holy spirit, so when we followed Biblical advice we were, in effect, following the leading of the holy spirit...

LouBelle

According to the Jw's the Holy spirit is Gods' active force and that was about it. I remember when I was about 17 I prayed to Jehovah and asked sincerly that he please send the holy spirit to guide me in my personal study of the revelation book. That day I realised that the 144 000 was not a literal number - I did have - the best way to describe it would be "a quickening of my spirit" I knew it then & I know it now - God's Holy spirit became operative in me that day - I sat up on my bed and just said "WOW" (eyes were wide and had this look of amazement on my face) That is when all my questions started......Sure it's taken time for me to finally leave the religion by in that time I was being guided by holy spirit.

I know now that we have the holy spirit - it's a gift that was given to us freely - we don't even need to pray for the holy spirit - you have him at all times- you just have to ask for him to work in your life when he needs to.

I feel it when eg. last night I was explaining to my aunt why I was getting df'ed (she's an elders wife) and it was almost as it it wasn't me speaking (sure it sounded like me) but the continual flow of words & scripture & calmness wasn't me - my mother heard me and she mentioned that she could hear the holy spirit flowing.

It's by holy spirit that God has guided me to his Grace & rest. All I can say is Praise God for the freedom of getting to know him personally and without an organisation telling what I can and cant do, what I can and can't pray for, what God is or isn't.

Who said they went all lubby bubby christian?????

ljwtiamb

i remember one particularly heated elders' meeting.

tempers were flaring, fingers were pointing and the discussion started to get loud & un-christian.

i asked that we stop and ask for hs.

after a short prayer, everybody calmed down and we eventually moved forward.

did it work? at the time, i thought so, but maybe 'let's stop for ice cream' would have had the same effect.

tetrapod.sapien

welcome weilder!

experiencing holy spirit is like any "spiritual" experience from any religion. it can be explained psychosomatically with fewer assumtions/presumtions than attributing it to some unseen force. some religions get way more emotional than the JW's, and so they have more occurances of feeling blessed or whatever.

so, no. although i thought i was experiencing holy spirit, it was really just my brain filling in some gaps.

Did you ever experience Holy Spirit?

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