Thank you all for your replies and links. I guess John 14:15-17 and 25 say it best but I still don't understand it because I have never actually "felt" His presence.
Believers had received the Spirit of promise by faith in Jesus Christ; not by feeling a supernatural presence.
Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith....26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
The fact that any believer believes in Jesus Christ and that God had risen from the dead is proof that they have the Holy Spirit because He was given by promise to all those that knock at the door of Jesus Christ for salvation.
Seeking to feel His Presence outside of us is after the rudiments of the world when they seek after spirits in their visitations which is why all invitations to come to God the Father is through the Son.
1 John 4:1Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world....4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Triune God that serves as a Divine Witness of the Son in seeking His glory by leading us to share in His testimony through us.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
That is what the Holy Spirit as the Divine Witness shall lead us to do in seeking this purpose which is to glorify the Son in our testimony of Him and that includes worship. So the words of the Father are given by the Son to the Holy Spirit to speak through us in honoring the Son in testimony & in worship to glorify the Son, and by doing so, honor and glorify God the Father.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
The judgment over all believers is how teh Father ONLY wants us to honor Him by and that is by honoring the Son. We cannot honor the Father by only honoring the Father. We cannot honor the Father by honoring the Holy Spirit. The moment we stop honoring the Son, we are no longer honoring the Father.
John 5:22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
When you consider the requirement for men to establish a testimony in bearing a true witness as well as to judge others by, then that also explains how God is a Triune God in order for Him/Them to bear a true witness and to judge any one by.
Deuteronomy 17:6At the mouth of
two witnesses, or
three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death;
but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
Deuteronomy 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
So how can the One Person God establish a word in creation or judge any one unless there is more than One Person within that One God?
John 8:17 It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.
We see that, and some will say .. oh.. so it is a Two Person God. Not when you consider that God the Father had to bear testimony regarding His Son which requires Another Person in order for the Father's testimony to be true.
Matthew 3:15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
So the Holy Spirit is a Person and a Witness within the Triune God. As God the Father & the Holy Spirit in us is leading us to testify of the Son in glorifying the Son in ministry outreach and especially in worship, it is done through us. If we as individual believer wanted to worship the Lord Jesus Christ privately, the Holy Spirit and the Father in each of us added to our shared testimony of the Son in worship, makes our private worship true.
The Holy Spirit being our seal of adoption as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost dwells in us, God's testimony of having saved us is true. So when we say individually to others that God is within us and is with us always, our witness is true because the Triune God in us says it is true.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him....26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of promise for all those that believe in Him after hearing the gospel and He serves as a Divine Witness in us to lead us to testify of the Son in seeking the glory of the Son, especially in worship. Many believers have been misled by the unBiblical Nicene Creed when introducing the practice of worshiping the Holy Spirit with the Father & the Son when the Holy Spirit & the Father would not lead the believer to do that when the glory of God all rests on the Son in according to His words.
John 13:31 Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.
So God the Father is not glorified by glorifying the Trinity nor the Holy Spirit nor the Father, but by glorifying the Son and thereby glorifying God the Father. Jesus really is the only way to approach God the Father in anything, especially in worship when those who worship Him shall be led by the Spirit of God to do just that. That is the obedience and the mind of Christ that Paul was stressing about in regards to worship.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
