Quote:
Originally Posted by prisonchaplain
You are on to something, Justice. I think of how we speak of the Spirit around my church. "Wow...that was a great service today--the Spirit of God was just thick in the place!" "You could sure feel God's presence today!" "The Spirit really swept over us today." "I could really sense God in the house!" etc. You are right...we just never envision God being limited to a body, except when we speak of Jesus.
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We also speak the same way, but we understand that what we are describing is the
influence of the Holy Ghost. To latter-day saints, the Holy Ghost is a divine person of spirit, like the Savior was before he was born into mortality.
There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter. (D&C 131:7-8)
Because we claim that spirit is also matter, only more fine or pure, if we were to behold the Holy Ghost right now (with purer eyes), we would see that he is a Man, without a physical body. His spirit body has hands, arms, legs, feet, a head, and so forth, just like Jesus Christ did when He appeared to the brother of Jared before his mortal advent (See
Ether 3). Our spirit bodies are also in the image and likeness of God, being his offspring. Our physical bodies resemble our spirits, only they have the shortcomings and blemishes of mortality.
We don't think of spirits as intangible wisps that don't take up space in existence.
I'm sure you have read it before but that Ether 3 reference is really interesting reading concerning our understanding of spirits.
Regards,
Vanhin