I guess it depends on whether or not the born-again believer is consciously, deliberately choosing to abide in Jesus, to walk in the Spirit. Neglecting to abide in Jesus results in dethroning the Holy Spirit. Without the indwelling presence of the Holy, they cannot resist sin, self, or Satan. Without the Holy Spirit, they are as powerless as unbelievers. They are incapable of imitating the example of Jesus. They must continually, moment by moment, choose Jesus. Otherwise, by default, they fail and fall.

Galatians
5:16 [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Rom 7:23 making me captive to the law of sin. Rom 8:2 has set you free from the law of sin. So your contention is that Paul is describing the same person in the two verses? Either you are captive or you are free. It cannot be both.

Take a look at these quotes. The first part of Romans 7 speaks about Paul's conversion:

The apostle Paul, in relating his experience, presents an important truth concerning the work to be wrought in conversion. He says, "I was alive without the law once,"--he felt no condemnation; "but when the commandment came," when the law of God was urged upon his conscience, "sin revived, and I died." [Romans 7:9.] Then he saw himself a sinner, condemned by the divine law. Mark, it was Paul, and not the law, that died. He says, further, "I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." [Romans 7:7.] "The commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." [Romans 7:10.] The law which promised life to the obedient, pronounced death upon the transgressor. "Wherefore," he says, "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." [Romans 7:12.] {4SP 297.1}


But here EGW seems to imply that in the second part of Romans 7 Paul is still speaking about his conversion:

It is not enough to perceive the loving-kindness of God, to see the benevolence, the fatherly tenderness, of His character. It is not enough to discern the wisdom and justice of His law, to see that it is founded upon the eternal principle of love. Paul the apostle saw all this when he exclaimed, "I consent unto the law that it is good." "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." But he added, in the bitterness of his soul-anguish and despair, "I am carnal, sold under sin." Romans 7:16, 12, 14. He longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain, and cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:24, margin. Such is the cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages. To all, there is but one answer, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29. {SC 19.1}

James, the Holy Spirit cannot dwell within people who are not consciously, continually choosing to abide in Jesus. Repentance restores the relationship sin severs. So, yes, it means the Holy Spirit is in and out. His location, however, does not undo rebirth or the maturation achieved while abiding in Jesus. Of course, if the Holy Spirit is forced out for a long period of time, ground gained is lost and rebirth is necessary.

James, it looks like we disagree on a fundamental truth.

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation."

So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. Then he said, "If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance."

And He said: "Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you .... "