The Holy Spirit is the Holy influence and will of God. It is the spirit of truth and all that is righteous. God's power and influence created the universe and all who dwell therein. God's Spirit continues to work in the development of a New Creation—"the Church of the Firstborn whose names are written in Heaven." (Hebrews 12:23)
To the Church, Jesus, God's Son, promised a comforter—the Holy Spirit—to guide them into all truth and to develop in them the fruits and graces of God's character. At Pentecost the Lord gave gifts to the Apostles, and to the early Church through them. These gifts were represented in the ability to speak with various foreign languages and by God's power to perform miracles — raising the dead, casting out demons, healing the sick, etc. Evidently these gifts were necessary for the establishment of the Church; but these gifts ceased when the Apostles fell asleep in death. But while God has not continued the gifts with the Church, He has promised something still better; i.e., the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits are more valuable than the gifts, because they represent character and not merely powers.
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