But he does that through the Word. "This is my comfort in my affliction; For _thy word_ hath quickened me" (Ps. 119: 50).
But he does that through the Word. "Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the _implanted word_ which is able to save your souls" (Jas. 1:21).
But he does this through the Word. "Sanctify them in the truth: _thy word_ is truth" (John 17:17).
But he does that through the Word. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to _the truth_ unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently" (1 Pet. 1:22).
But he does that through the Word. "Already ye are clean because of _the word_ which I have spoken unto you" (John 15:3).
But he does that through the Word. "But thanks be to God, that whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that _form of teaching_ whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness" (Rom. 6:17, 18).
But he does that through the Word. "Whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding _great promises;_ that through these ye may become _partakers of the divine nature_, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1:4).
But he does that through the Word. "And now I commend you to God, and to _the word_ of his grace, _which is able to build you up_, and to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified" (Acts 20:32).
But he does that by his Word. "Strengthen me according to thy word" (Ps. 119:28).
In the above cases we have covered all the conceivable things a direct indwelling Spirit could do for one, and have also shown that all these things the Spirit does through the word of God. It is not claimed that a direct indwelling of the Spirit makes any new revelations, adds any new reasons or offers any new motives than are found in the word of God. Of what use, then, would a direct indwelling Spirit be? God makes nothing in vain. We are necessarily, therefore, led to the conclusion that, in dealing with his children to-day, God deals with them in the same psychological way that he deals with men in inducing them to become children. This conclusion is strengthened by the utter absence of any test by which we could know the Spirit dwells in us, if such were the case.