JOEL - You are correct. Many times what is said about the Holy Ghost coming to someone is only a figure of speach. They really do mean that it is His spiritual influence that will help us. However, since the Holy Ghost is made of spirit I suppose it is possible for Him to actually dwell within someone, although such an instance would be very rare, since His personage can only be at one place at a time.

"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us" (D&C 130:22).

This scripture is to be understood mostly figuratively in that the Holy Ghost, or His spiritual influence, can dwell in the hearts of the righteous Saints. When the Holy Spirit speaks to the spirit in man, the Holy Ghost is thereby dwelling in man, for the truths that man then gives forth are those which have come from the Holy Ghost.