It gets down to the question of how God, who is a Spirit, wrote His word.  The way He did it is the way you explained:  God inspired (breathed into) various men through the Holy Spirit to write down His message for us.  A way to explain it to someone who’s having difficulty is to focus on the results.  First, you have this remarkable book written by 40 different authors over a period of 1600 years.  By all human measurement, this book should be filled with inconsistencies, both in message and substance.  But it’s totally consistent.  It’s as if these authors were in the same room together and decided to write a single book with a single theme and a consistent message.  But they didn’t do that.  Each author wrote his book individually.  Yet the theme of Jesus Christ and the redemption of humankind by a loving God are evident throughout the Bible.

Second, every detail of history is completely accurate.  The Bible is the only holy book that roots itself in history so thoroughly and without error.  Not every person and event in the Bible has been verified from outside sources, but a huge number have, and none have been shown to be false.

Third, there are more than 2500 prophecies in the Bible.  Of these, 2000 have already been fulfilled to the letter.  The chances that any one book would be correct even ten percent of the time is nearly impossible.  That a book would be correct 100 percent of the time concerning 2000 prophecies is in the realm of impossibility, at least from a human perspective.

The only explanation for the Bible’s consistent message, historical accuracy, and perfect prophetic record, is a divine, transcendent source.  There are no other possibilities.  Of course, belief in the Bible as God’s word goes to the heart of a belief in God as the creator and sustainer of the universe.  You can’t have one without the other.  If God is who the Bible says He is, then God could have easily given us a personal message the way He did.  If God is not who the Bible says He is, then the Bible is just another book, and we are without hope in a world without purpose.