Hi JimmyWest!
I think that what you are saying here is a very dangerous assumption to make and I strongly disagree with you. To me it seems like you are saying that if we receive the Holy spirit in the sense that you FEEL the spirit and hear the spirit, he will guide you in your walk with God and the Holy spirit will tell you when something in the bible is to be taken literally ans some things metaphorically. And that certain understanding of scripture can not be found unless you feel and hear the spirit. I have to protest against this as I know many what you would call carnal christians understand the scripture very well because they study scripture and not because they let a spirit inside them tell them that certain parts and scriptures is of less importance or which parts to take literal and not.
That is not to say that we do not need the Holy spirit, of course we do, but not in the sense you are describing. I believe that if we use the Bible in order to let it interpret itself and base theologies on several scriptures throughout the whole Bible we will get a logical and correct explaining in different biblical questions. Also using this method while studying the scriptures we will also learn when it is meant to be taken literal and when it uses symbols and allegories.
The reason why I think your assumption is particular dangerous is because there are many people in the socalled charismatic movements who say they physically feel the spirit and they trust that this spirit will tell them when something is wrong, even if it condradicts scripture. The reason I say this is because I know this to be the case as I know people have decided to trust what the "Holy spirit" tells them even though I know that it goes against the Bible. And when this happens we will soon end up with a whole different set of theologies and we will no longer know what is the truth or Gods will.
Now I also believe that when people say that they feel the Holy spirit they have a very strong feeling, but knowing that there are counterfit spirits out there who, especially in these last days, will do anything in order to deceive christians I'm afraid that when christians start trusting their feelings more than the Bible they are more prone to get into trouble and to be deceived.
Keep in mind that people in the Holy laughter movement also believe it is the Holy spirit who is responsible when the whole church starts laughing, crawling on the floor, barking and all in all posess a behaviour that you would expect to find in a mental institution rather than in Gods Holy Church.
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