The Nature of the Holy Spirit
Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:25 pm
Another repost from Mormon philosopher Bill at Beliefnet:
Moksha: "Would we want every member getting advice from God and the Holy Ghost. I mean, I understand how good that sounds that God will personally guide and direct us, but I also know that many messages people get are rather kooky and of questionable origin."
Moksha, let me jump on this to dialogue with you about another way of looking at it. I may be the most off-topic in bringing this up, but I'm also pretty scatter-brained, so it's now or never.
We speak of the Holy Ghost as being "a personage of spirit," precisely so that he can dwell in us. To me, that's a difficult belief to maintain. It's like trying to tell a kid, with a straight face, that Santa really does hit all those chimneys in one night.
As a form of personification, maybe it makes the story simpler, but to imagine that the Holy Ghost ministers to us by whipping through us like a hot knife through butter is, in my often un-humble opinion, sheer absurdity. I'm not saying it couldn't happen: Look at what light does. But light is not a person with a fixed location. Come to think of it, light is pretty absurd since, as Einstein puts it, it's both a wave and a particle. So maybe Santa does get busy on Christmas Eve - and maybe he's got good insurance.
But if we allow for the idea of "personification," then the Holy Ghost's "ministrations" may be a simpler, more childlike, way of telling people to behave in such a way that they could comfortably have the Holy Ghost over for dinner. (What does he eat? Angelfood cake?)
If we change our framework to one of attunement, the Holy Ghost CAN be inside an infinite number of people SIMULTANEOUSLY. If the Holy Ghost is broadcasting, your job is to "tune in." Attunement requires a constant focus on the divine. The opposite of attunement would be another kind of attunement, toward a different kind of broadcast, namely the temptations of the Adversary.
If we imagine that consciousness involves an ever-changing mix of data - including perception, reaction, reflection and the possibility of "reception" - with the thoughts, prayers, intentions, guidance and temptation coming at us - we end up with a model of the mind that involves management of different impulses, voices, instincts, influences, et cetera.
You are what you eat. You are also what you do. But before you take action, you are what you think. Maybe that's why Jesus speaks of managing one's thoughts. In his famous discussion about "adultery in one's heart," Jesus is either saying that it's a sin to lust or he's saying that the sin of adultery begins with the indiscretion of lust. The difference between the two is that adultery is a serious sin, one that would have gotten you stoned in Jesus's day - and excommunicated today. Lust, on the other hand, is reckless behavior. It's a form of self-temptation that weakens the resolve.
Jesus famously told his disciples to pluck out their offending eyes and cut off their offending hands. To me, this is either the most irresponsible advice ever given or wise counsel. Offending hands are usually preceded by offending eyes. The idea is to stop sin as close to its beginning as possible. If Jesus was "tempted even as we are," then he was subject to the same voices, instincts, impulses, et cetera - and if Jesus is held up as the world's only sinful man, then it's not a sin to be tempted. But to dwell in temptation is a different story.
If you don't look once, you're not a man.
If you look twice, you're not a missionary.
In fact, we are always following "direction," and in some direction, and at some speed. The moment we lose sight of the divine, we are drifting in some other direction. If allowed to continue drifting, thought leads to action and results aren't far behind. To have "the gift of the Holy Ghost" is to have the promise - as contractually provided for in the appropriate ordinance - to have the "companionship" of the Holy Ghost as long as we remain worthy of it.
To take this promise at face value, one would expect a person to benefit from this guidance as long as one's thoughts were in attunement with the divine. The only exception that would be just is divinely appointed irony. According to the scriptures, there are times when God wants people to grope in the dark. He rigs the game so that people have to develop new skills, including special effort to "listen to the voice of the Spirit."
Is it possible, then, to be bombarded with spiritual guidance on an almost constant basis? Yes and no. This framework would suggest that spiritual guidance is more readily available than one might think, particularly because it's not like ordering room service to "access the Spirit." If the Holy Spirit is broadcasting day and night, it's really a matter of "tuning in." But any such model would also have to take into account this thing call agency. If everything were a matter of getting the divine take on things, there would be no individuality. We would all just be human fax machines. Does God really have an answer for everything or is he more like a mentor, a counselor you go to for advice when seeking the perspective of the Infinite?