Ryrie states:

“. . . although the Spirit did indwell men in Old Testament times, it was a selective ministry, both in regard to whom He indwelt and for how long. Can this relationship be summarized in any simple way? Yes, for the Lord summarized it by telling His disciples that up to that time the Spirit had been abiding with them, though on and after the day of Pentecost He would be in [Italics added] them (John 14:17).”

Lest it be confusing, the Holy Spirit did fill various people in the OT times, a transient interaction in contrast to the permanent indwelling of repentant believers when they are saved and experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Later blogs will elaborate on this point, acknowledging that the infilling continues to this day.

Ryrie comments on the activity of the Holy Spirit in Old Testament and in New Testament times:

“The ministries of the Spirit in relation to people in Old Testament times were not always the same as that which He does today for people. Pentecost marked the beginning of certain distinctive and significant differences, although we should not conclude that His ministries were rare or sparse in Old Testament times. When we speak of the Spirit ‘coming’ at Pentecost we do not mean that He was absent from the earth before then. We mean that He took up His residence in believers [Italics added] at Pentecost although He was present always before (obviously, since He is God).”

That the Holy Spirit indwells repentant believers in our time accounts for His dualist interaction with us, that the immaterial Holy Spirit interacts with the immaterial human spirit and soul through His created neural synaptic networks discussed in my books and blogs. Yes, we can pray to God/His Holy Spirit, but we are blessed to hear from God/Holy Spirit, a bidirectional interaction. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, within our minds giving counsel and help to our souls so that we become more Christlike, manifesting the fruits of His Spirit.

Ryrie makes compelling statements concerning the inspiration of the authors of Scripture by the Holy Spirit:

“Biblical inspiration may be defined as God’s superintending human authors so that, using their own individual personalities, they composed and recorded without error His message to man in the words of their original writings in the Bible. . . . Such an inspired record could only have been given in words and not merely thoughts, for there is not any genuine or accurate thought communication without its being conveyed in words [I have discussed in my books and blogs how specified information is transmitted via codes, specifically linguistic codes, within the spike trains of action potentials in neural synaptic networks] . . . . behind the human writers was the divine author of revelation, the Holy Spirit. Peter, referring to Old Testament prophecy, declared that ‘men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God; (2 Peter 1:21). The agents were men; the source was God; and the single author moving the human instruments was the Holy Spirit. The word moved indicates that the Spirit bore the human writers along as He directed their writings.’”

Ryrie states that the Holy Spirit has the attributes of personality:

“If personality may be simply described as possessing intellect, emotions (or sensibility), and will [attributes of the human soul, italics mine], then it is easily demonstrated that the Holy Spirit has personality because He has intelligence, emotions, and a will. . . . Actions are attributed to the Holy Spirit that cannot be attributed to a mere thing or influence or personification or power or emanation. Such actions, then, must be those of a person, thus proving personality of the Spirit.”

Ryrie states in his chapter on spiritual power:

“No other group among the totality of the people of God has ever been the beneficiary of so many of the ministries of the Spirit as has the body of Christ which began on the day of Pentecost. For example, the permanent indwelling [Italics added] of every believer by the Holy Spirit was not experienced before that day. His work of joining believers to the risen Christ was impossible before the resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost. . . . This is truly the age of the Spirit. . . . [The Apostle] Paul assures those who need the strength to let Christ reign in their lives that the Holy Spirit will provide that ability (Ephesians 3:16), and when He does, they can begin to understand the dimensions of the love of Christ. . . . The way to spiritual power is to be filled with the Spirit, which simply means to be controlled by the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).”

In my books and blogs I deliver what I pray is compelling evidence for the reality of dual interaction between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul through the neural synaptic networks of the brain in our time.

Ryrie states that Christians agree that spiritual power relates to the work of the Holy Spirit.

“A Christian is one who has received Jesus Christ; a spiritual Christian is one who displays Christ living through his life, and this is accomplished by the work of the indwelling [Italics added] Holy Spirit. Spirituality, then, is Christlikeness that is produced by the fruit of the Spirit. What better portrait of Jesus Christ is there than ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control’ (Galatians 5:22-23)? These characteristics describe the fruit of the Spirit, and they picture our Lord. Spiritual power is not necessarily or usually the miraculous or spectacular, but rather the consistent exhibition of the characteristics of the Lord Jesus in the believer’s life. And this is the activity of the Holy Spirit, of whom the Lord Jesus said, ‘He shall glorify Me.’”

I have endeavored in my books and blogs to give a compelling substantiation to the dual interaction between the Mind of God through His Holy Spirit and the mind of Man through His created synaptic networks of the human brain in our time. It is an immaterial interaction with the material, the immaterial being everlasting.

I will be posting a number of excerpts taken from the book by Charles C. Ryrie entitled The Holy Spirit, Revised and Expanded. Ryrie is a Bible scholar and annotator of the Ryrie Study Bible. He served as professor of systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. Students of Scripture will benefit from his concise, practical study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

I close C. S. Lewis’ comments with this one that speaks to the vital issue of human wickedness, or sin:

“Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed. We lack the first condition for understanding what He is talking about. And when men attempt to be Christians without this preliminary consciousness of sin, the result is almost bound to be a certain resentment against God as to one who is always making impossible demands and always inexplicably angry.”

It is vital to our ultimate salvation that we understand humility before our Creator God and His boundless grace and love that has provided for our eternal communion with Him through Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit who guides our sanctification, overcoming our human wickedness, learning to live in Christ.

Lewis makes a number of excellent statements about pride, which I am including:

“According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. . . . Pride is competitive by its very nature: that is why it goes on and on. If I am a proud man, then, as long as there is one man in the whole world more powerful, or richer, or cleverer than I, he is my rival and my enemy.

“The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But Pride always means enmity - it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man but enmity to God.

“In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. . . . For pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”

Pride blocks the Counsel of the Holy Spirit, even His entry into our human spirit and soul.

I am sharing comments from C. S. Lewis concerning Hope:

“Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

We are blessed by the boundless love of God to have the opportunity to be in intimate, personal communion with Him through His Holy Spirit. It is already a blessing in our time that we will have for eternity in the New Creation in His presence, but it is not yet fully accomplished in our time. Yes, we are blessed to aim at Heaven and are meant to do so!