Hunt describes the spiritual mind:

“Romans 8:6 gives us another adjective to apply to the spiritual mind: ‘The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.’ The spiritual mind is peaceful. Paul had said in the previous verse, ‘Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit’ (Romans 8:5). Note again that we set our minds. Peace is a fruit, not an attainment. Our work is setting the mind; God’s work is the peace. Sin separates us from God, the source of peace.”

I pause in posting excerpts from the book by T. W. Hunt to share a personal comment reflecting what I have learned by over 20 years of apologetics research and writing. I wish to address the question what it means to be “in Christ.”

Joyce Meyer has described being “in Christ” as being transplanted from one pot or vase where a plant is not thriving, even dying, to another one in which the roots of the plant can thrive, extending deep into nutritious soil to bring new, strong, fruitful life to the plant. Through the sin sacrifice of Jesus Christ resurrected repentant believers have an intimate, personal communion restored with the indwelling Holy Spirit as Counselor and Helper. Consider what life on earth could be if we live completely by the Counsel of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the life that Jesus Christ lived while He was on earth. He lived totally by the Counsel of God the Father, even to His death by crucifixion, so all mankind has the gift of redemption and promise of eternal life! No, as long as we mere humans are “bound” to our earthly bodies, we cannot live totally by the Holy Spirit because of our fallen human natures. But the indwelling Holy Spirit restored to us in repentance is an “already but not yet” reality. We are blessed to experience the spiritual life in Christ in our space-time, and we look forward with Hope to the promise of an eternal life in the presence of Jesus Christ, no longer susceptible to the fleshly death of living in the absence of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

It is my prayer that the information I have shared in my books and many blogs gives validity and meaning to living “in Christ,” able to live in a bidirectional, personal communion with the Holy Spirit made possible by God’s created neural synaptic networks, a dualist interaction unique to human beings, the crown of God’s creation.

I quote Dr. Hunt:

“The Old Testament places little emphasis on our becoming like God while the New Testament reiterates numerous injunctions to imitate God or to be like Christ. In its earliest pages, the Bible tells us that God created us in His image (Gen. 1:26; 5:1) Yet after Adam’s fall, the Old Testament has very little reference to our likeness to God and no admonitions to become like Him. The Old Testament emphasis is on the difference between God and man. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. . . . The New Testament makes a radical shift in its emphasis. Here God in Christ is made like us: ‘Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same . . . . Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.’ (Heb. 2:14, 17). After redemption was accomplished, the New Testament picks up the theme from the opening chapters of the Bible, and once more we are to be like God. Paul said, ‘Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Eph. 4:24, emphasis added).”

Our righteousness and holiness can come by the Counsel and Help of the Holy Spirit whom the resurrected Jesus sent as He promised to indwell believers in repentence, an indwelling that was lost at the Fall but restored by the love and grace of God through the sin sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

In my next several blog posts I shall include excerpts from T. W. Hunt’s book, The Mind of Christ: The Transforming Power of Thinking His Thoughts. I have repeatedly stated in my books and blogs that the human mind is created in the image of the Mind of God. I hope my presentations about this truth are compelling. I have looked at the mechanisms currently understood in neuroscience by which the immaterial mind of Man [and Mind of God] interact in dualistic fashion with our material synaptic networks. Now I wish to focus on the Mind of Jesus Christ as considered by Dr. Hunt, a Mind that communes with us in our time.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, . . . Took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:5-7

The Kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21

These two Scriptures are included on the back cover of Hunt’s book and give a powerful introduction to his comments and teachings.

I conclude posts of excerpts from Ryrie’s book with his last paragraph in Chapter 22, “History of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.” His last chapter discusses points made in this paragraph, and I recommend his book to you.

“Thus in the sweep of church history one sees first the formulation of what has come to be known as the orthodox doctrine of the Spirit, then the definition of it in the early councils [which I discuss in my second book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story], and the development of it during the Reformation. With every surge toward defining or developing the truth, there have been movements away from it, either in the form of rationalistic coldness or in the form of unbalanced enthusiasm and mysticism. History should teach us that orthodox doctrine is not only important to faith but equally vital to life. Perhaps in no doctrine is the wedding of truth and life more important than in a proper understanding and application of the doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit.”

It has been my commitment to share what I have learned in over 21 years of study about the Holy Spirit. So many people in the church today have little or an inaccurate understanding of the Holy Spirit and how He communes with us interactively as a Person. How His communion involves our neural synaptic networks has also been my interest, showing concordance between current neuroscience and properly interpreted Scripture. There is a hunger for this knowledge.

I enthusiastically share this excerpt from Ryrie’s book, Chapter 19, this section entitled “He Teaches Us”, giving compelling evidence of the bidirectional interactive communion between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul I have addressed in my books and blogs:

“One of the last promises the Savior made to His disciples before His crucifixion concerned the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. In the Upper Room He said:

‘I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.’ (John 16:12-15)

“This particular ministry of the Spirit was yet future when our Lord spoke these words. It began on the day of Pentecost and continues throughout this age [Italics added]. Peter’s clear comprehension of truth in his Pentecostal sermon shows that this ministry had begun.”

Ryrie gives further clarification of what it means to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. It is my hope that I have given compelling evidence for the bidirectional interaction between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and soul, actualized by God’s created synaptic networks, in my books and blogs.

“Finally, the Spirit-filled life is a dependent life. ‘But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh’ (Galatians 5:16). . . . In this verse in Galatians the Christian is reminded that in order to walk and make progress in the Christian life he must walk by faith, which means to live in dependence on the Holy Spirit. . . . Thus to be Spirit-filled is to be Spirit-controlled. And to be so controlled requires dedication of life, victory over the reigning power of sin, and constant dependence on the Spirit.”

Believers are able not only to pray TO the Holy Spirit/God the Father/Jesus Christ but also to hear/receive guidance FROM Him, for example, through dreams, visions, discernment, direct words, phrases, sentences and intuition. The Holy Spirit DOES interact with believers through the transmission of specified information in its various forms. This continues in our day. It did not disappear at the closure of the Canon as it is often taught. It has been restored to repentant believers through the sin sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am reminded of the verses in the song,

He Lives

Alan Jackson

I serve a risen Saviour, He's in the world today
I know that He is living, whatever men may say
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer
And just the time I need Him He's always near

He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart

In all the world around me I see His loving care
And though my heart grows weary I never will despair
I know that He is leading, thro' all the stormy blast
The day of His appearing will come at last

He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian! Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ, the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him, the Help of all who find
None other is so loving, so good and kind

He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart

Ryrie shares comments that clarify what being baptized by the Holy Spirit means:

“The baptizing work of the Spirit is the means of associating us with the crucifixion of Christ (Colossians 2:12 and especially Romans 6:1-10) in our dying to the old life. Being associated by baptism unto His death, burial and resurrection is the basis for the crucifixion of the believer’s sin nature and his victory over sin. Crucifixion involves death, but death is not extinction; rather it is separation. So our co-crucifixion with Christ does not mean that our old nature becomes extinct; rather, we are separated from its domain and dominion so that we can live in a new way of life. . . . water baptism vividly pictures outwardly what the Spirit does for the believer inwardly. The baptism by the Spirit does not necessarily mean a special endowment with power. It places us in a position in Christ that enables us to receive power. . . . You were baptized when you believed, and that joined you to the body of Christ, never to be amputated from that body. Sin in the believer’s life is serious, but it does not cut us off from our secure position in Christ.”

Ryrie discusses the difference between Spirit baptism and filling of the Spirit. I have addressed this difference in my second book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, Chapter Four:

“The baptizing work of the Spirit occurs each time a person is converted but is experienced only once by each believer. . . . By contrast, the filling of the Spirit is said to be experienced by the same group on more than one occasion (Acts 2:4; 4:31), and the command to be filled is expressed by a present tense indicating that it can be repeated (Ephesians 5:18). The event of being baptized by the Spirit places one into the body of Christ; therefore, if it could be repeated, it would mean that a person would have to be removed from that body in order to be reinstated into it again by a second baptism. Such an idea is completely foreign to the Scriptures.”

Ryrie addresses the permanence of the Spirit’s indwelling:

“. . . sin affects the ministry of the Spirit to the believer, not His presence within the believer. Sin grieves the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) and causes the ramifications of His indwelling, but not the fact of it, to be diminished. It is the filling of the Spirit . . . , not the indwelling of the Spirit that is affected by sin.”