THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The holy spirit is the third person of the blessed trinity. He is truly God and has been present with God the father from the very beginning (Gen.1:2). He is the true author of the bible (2 Pet.1:20-21). The holy spirit is a person (he) and not a thing (it) as evidenced by the sacred scriptures where the holy spirit is addressed with the masculine pronouns "he, him" etc and not with neuter pronoun "it". So instead of saying "have you received IT" it should be "have you received HIM" and so on. Although the holy spirit can manifest in the form of a dove (Mat. 3:16) or wind or tongues of fire (Acts. 2:2-3) etc, he is not any of these.
As Christians, the laying of hands by the Bishop does not signify the reception of the holy spirit, it is only a CONFIRMATION of that spirit of God we received at our baptism (Mat. 3:16-17) and a sign of manifestation of this spirit.
The holy spirit that is alive and active in us is not a new holy spirit; he is the same one that gave life to Adam (Gen. 2:7), he is the same holy spirit that descended on Jesus in the appearance of a dove at his baptism and the same one that descended on the apostles in the form of tongues of fire on pentecost day. He has no hands, no legs and no mouth and does not work in a vacuum. He continues his mighty works through us as often we empty ourselves and make ourselves fit for his use.
The holy spirit gives us the Power to succeed (Zech. 4:6), he is the spirit of truth who reveals the will of the father (Jn. 16:13), he makes us God's children (Rom. 8:14) and teaches us (Jn. 14:26), he helps us to pray (Rom. 8:26) and reveals to us the truth about sin, righteousness and judgement (Jn. 16:8), he even possesses the ability to give life to our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:9-11).
How can we know if we still have this holy spirit? By their fruits you shall know them (Mat. 7:16). The fruits of the holy spirit are; love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, humility and self control (Gal. 5:22-23).
How can we lose this holy spirit?  If we obey the desires of the flesh which are in conflict with those of the spirit. These include: immorality, filthy/indecent actions, idolatry, witchcraft, hate, envy, malice, jealousy, drunkenness, anger etc. (Gal. 5:16-21).
What happens if we grieve or rebel against this holy spirit? If we grieve this spirit of God, we become enemies of God (Isa. 63:10), we would not obtain God's forgiveness in this life or in the life to come (Mk. 3:28-29) and we lose our ticket to freedom (Eph. 4:30).
Even as we empty ourselves to God's grace, let us beg God for the gift of his holy spirit made manifest in different ways in each of us for the salvation of our souls and the souls of others (1 Cor. 12:7) and make conscious efforts to fan into flames these gifts we received at confirmation (2 Tim. 1:6).
TAKE NOT YOUR HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME.