Witnesses reply that lying to God’s active force is lying to God because the force is God’s, as lying to a king’s edict is lying to the king. The verse identifies the Spirit with God; it doesn’t make the Spirit a person.

Acts 5 primarily establishes the Spirit’s deity, and personhood comes from the wider pattern; this verse should not be asked to carry more than it gives. The lying to a force point is suggestive rather than decisive on its own. Personification of wisdom or sin is a real biblical device, but it is occasional and poetic, whereas the Spirit speaks, decides, forbids, is lied to, intercedes, and is called another Advocate by Jesus (John 14:16) in parallel to himself, across narrative, letter, and liturgy. A consistent pattern of personal action across genres is what the argument rests on.