What advantages does the Holy Spirit bring?

[OnceConvinced]

Christians often make claims about the Holy Spirit and that it brings them certain benefits.

What advantages does the Holy Spirit bring to one's life?

Is it possible to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit?

How does one know if someone else has the Holy Spirit within them?

[McCulloch]

I personally am yet to come across a Christian that displays all those fruits. Let's take a look at them:

...

In summary...
The thing about the fruits of the spirit is that if we truly have the Holy Spirit in us, then we should exhibit all these fruits in our daily lives. But I think anyone who claims to know a Christian who does is probably being less than honest. At the very most there are extremely few Spirit filled Christians around. This is pretty damning evidence that the Holy Spirit is not everything the bible or Christians claim it to be.

Your reasoning is all backwards. The Holy Spirit brings the fruits and you cannot have those fruits without the Holy Spirit. Therefore anyone who apparently has those fruits who has not the Holy Spirit, are only displaying a pale imitation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and those who claim to have the Holy Spirit who do not display those fruit, are not allowing themselves to be Spirit led. It is completely circular and non-falsifiable.

[twobitsmedia]

So if the Holy Spirit helps us to understand scripture, then why don't all spirit-filled Christians come to the same understanding?

But having does not imply being forced to use it as a resource.

Perhaps. But is the Holy Spirit something you can switch on or off?

I don;t think we can switch the HS on and off. But we turn on and off our listening ability

If you are studying God's word, would not the Holy Spirit guide you automatically?

automatically? No. The choice to allow the HS to guide is always present.

Many Christians claim that to understand the gospel, you must have the Holy Spirit within you.

I think the gospel can be understood as it is. But it also needs to be read as it is: the gospel written by men. It is not a science book and much if it is in a context. A person needs to approach it as they do any other peice of literature if they want to understand what a particular peice of lieteraure is about.

However how can anyone tell whether a Christian has a Holy Spirit understanding of scripture?

My opinion is it does not matter. What matters is whether I understand it or not. The HS may bring about some personal application or understanding on something, but it may only be personal and unless one is prophetic it may not be applicable to everyone.

Can we take anyone seriously who claims to have that superiority?

I woudn't.

If we cannot determine (without the gift of discernment) that someone is spirit-filled then why should we take any Christian seriously who claims special understanding of the bible?

As I said, if someone ever says to me "God told me" so this is what it means...I am automatically suspicious.

How do we know which "spirit-filled" Christian has the correct answers? We can't. Therefore it seems the Holy Spirit is rather ineffective.

The HS is not made inneffective. But if I have the HS, too, then if there is such a message, then the HS could confirm it to me, or tell me himself.

There are scriptures which seem to suggest the HS should be very effective in spreading the truth amongst Christians:

Jhn 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

Yes, and He will guide. He does not need someone to tell me what He said.

[OnceConvinced]

I personally am yet to come across a Christian that displays all those fruits. Let's take a look at them:

...

In summary...
The thing about the fruits of the spirit is that if we truly have the Holy Spirit in us, then we should exhibit all these fruits in our daily lives. But I think anyone who claims to know a Christian who does is probably being less than honest. At the very most there are extremely few Spirit filled Christians around. This is pretty damning evidence that the Holy Spirit is not everything the bible or Christians claim it to be.

Your reasoning is all backwards. The Holy Spirit brings the fruits and you cannot have those fruits without the Holy Spirit. Therefore anyone who apparently has those fruits who has not the Holy Spirit, are only displaying a pale imitation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and those who claim to have the Holy Spirit who do not display those fruit, are not allowing themselves to be Spirit led. It is completely circular and non-falsifiable.

I guess it's impossible to determine whether any one is spirit lead then, isn't it?

[OnceConvinced]

So if the Holy Spirit helps us to understand scripture, then why don't all spirit-filled Christians come to the same understanding?

But having does not imply being forced to use it as a resource.

Perhaps. But is the Holy Spirit something you can switch on or off?

I don;t think we can switch the HS on and off. But we turn on and off our listening ability

If you are studying God's word, would not the Holy Spirit guide you automatically?

automatically? No. The choice to allow the HS to guide is always present.

So if one who has the HS is studying the word of God, eager to learn and hear God's voice, would they not be listening? Two spirit-filled Christians will study the bible, open to listening to God and come up with different interpretations. Does that mean one of the them wasn't truly listening? If so which one?

I don't expect you to answer these questions. I dare say it is impossible to adequately answer them. But with every answer there seems to be more and more questions that come up as to the validity of someone's claims about the HS.

I think the gospel can be understood as it is. But it also needs to be read as it is: the gospel written by men. It is not a science book and much if it is in a context. A person needs to approach it as they do any other peice of literature if they want to understand what a particular peice of lieteraure is about.

I respect that viewpoint. It's a pity many other Christians can't see it that way.

Yes, and He will guide. He does not need someone to tell me what He said.

Touché