What does the Spirit do to us? It unifies our lives. The Spirit takes possession of the intellect so that we possess the truth of Christ, of the will, so that we have his power, which is grace, and of the body so that it becomes the temple of God. It unifies all our activity. Without the Spirit, we are disjointed, disunited. The best psychological explanation of man that was ever given is in the seventh chapter of Romans. Could it have been an autobiography of Paul? We do not know. But this is man without the Holy Spirit. The words I, me, my, myself are used at least thirty times in chapter seven of Romans. “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not. I am unspiritual. I do not even acknowledge my actions as mine. For what I do is not what I want to do but what I detest. But if what I do is against my will”, and so forth. I, I, I. Me, me, my. Myself. Utter confusion. Then he ends the chapter by the invocation of the Spirit. In chapter eight, which is about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the personal pronouns are used only about three or four times. The I disappears. The psychic, neurotic difficulties of our modern age are due to the effects of the Satanic and the demonic, the disruption of pattern and form. Those who are at peace are so because the Spirit is drawing all the parts of humanity together.
June 6, 2019