You wrote:
But it seems odd to me that Luke would do this in reference to God and repeat it in verse 4:Perhaps the same way I might say "my mind tricked me." We personify things regularly as a matter of speech, and the bible is no exception.
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
For your consideration regarding the Holy Spirit being personal rather than being an inanimate power, or force, I would offer the following comments and scriptures:
Matthew 28:19 (All scriptures from New King James Version)
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Here Jesus commands baptism in (Greek preposition eis which literally means into) the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The phase "into the name of" is only used in scripture in reference to an act done with regard to a person. It does not seem credible to me that Jesus meant we are baptised into an inanimate power.
And in the following Psalm, God is said to be present in His Spirit. (We have a form of Hebrew poetry known as "synonymous parallelism" wherin the second line says the same thing in different terms.) God is a spirit,and is present in His Spirit:
Psalm 139:7
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
And in Isaiah God's Spirit can be grieved. The Hebrew word here translated grieved is awtsab, meaning to worry, feel pain, be angered:
Isaiah 63:10-14
10. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit;
So He turned Himself against them as an enemy,
And He fought against them.
11. Then he remembered the days of old,
Moses and his people, saying:
“ Where is He who brought them up out of the sea
With the shepherd of His flock?
Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them,
12. Who led them by the right hand of Moses,
With His glorious arm,
Dividing the water before them
To make for Himself an everlasting name,
13. Who led them through the deep,
As a horse in the wilderness,
That they might not stumble?”
14. As a beast goes down into the valley,
And the Spirit of the LORD causes him to rest,
So You lead Your people,
To make Yourself a glorious name.
We find the same expressed of the Spirit in Ephesians where the Greek word lupeo is used. Lupeo means to distress, sorrow, grieve. So we again see emotions attributed to the Holy Spirit:
Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Jesus promised He would personally be present "where two or three are gathered in my name". But this is fulfilled by the personal presence of the Spirit. I believe Jesus' presence is personal in the Holy Spirit:
John 14:18
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Jesus is present when His people gather.
The Holy Spirit will both teach and bring things to the remembrance of the apostles:
John 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
The Holy Spirit hears, guides, and speaks:
John 16:13-14
13.However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
Does not the passage reference getting a message from another of the trinity and glorifying another of the trinity? How is this passage to be explained in another way that makes sense of it?
I realize you have perhaps looked at all these passages and considered them inadequate to suppport the trinitarian position but it is difficult for me to view the Holy Spirit as inanimate when the Spirit is repeatedly referred to as acting and experiencing feelings as persons do.
