THE HOLY SPIRIT - OUR COMFORTER

SCRIPTURE READING
John 14:26 But the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

1. THE HELP THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS TO GIVE US, IS VERY PRACTICAL IN NATURE
• What is a Comforter? – An advocate, intercessor, a consoler, comforter, helper.
• The Greek original is Paraklétos - pará, "from close-beside" and /kaléō, "make a call" - Example, a legal advocate who makes the right judgment-call because they are close enough to the situation.
• It also means an advisory-helper.
• One called to one’s aid.
• It is a picture of one who comes alongside.
• In its most basic form it means helper.
• Help is something practical. If I am drowning and someone comes and helps me, they step into my situation and help me out of it.
a. THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS TO COME AND COMFORT YOU
COMFORT
Comfort: To comfort means to come along-side and give you strength and hope.  To comfort means to console and encourage.
CONSOLE
Console: To console means to alleviate the grief, to alleviate the sense of loss, and to alleviate our troubled or saddened hearts. He wants to identify with you in what you are facing. The word consolation means to do something to make a person feel less sad or disappointed. It speaks of a lifting of any heaviness and the lifting and removal of burdens.
ENCOURAGE
Encourage: To encourage means to come and fill you with hope, confidence and determination.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement), Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.
b. THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS TO COME AND HELP YOU
The Holy Spirit wants to come alongside you and I and be a helper to us. A helper is someone who helps another person with a job or a task. But the helper we have is also an advocate. An advocate is a highly skilled individual who knows your rights and is able to defend you. This is the kind of practical help you and I need in our daily lives.
John 14:16 ‘And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever!’
To help means to give assistance or support. To help means to improve and relieve what you are facing or going through. It goes beyond that to include the fact that He wants to rescue and save us. Our helper is someone who does not come and go but He is with us and will be with us forever. It is for this very reason that we should develop our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

2. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT - OUR PRAYER LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!
• Our prayer life changes when the Holy Spirit comes alongside us.
• Jude 1:20 ‘But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God's love.’
• The Holy Spirit wants to come and help us in our praying.
• Prayer never again needs to be a struggle or a chore.
• Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
• Romans 8:26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
• So we can pray with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can pray under the leading or guidance of the Holy Spirit or we can pray as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. This can and will include praying in tongues from time to time.
• The great revivalist TB Barrett said the following: ‘Surely I have never prayed like that before! It was the Holy Spirit who prayed through me.’

3. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT - THE VERY WAY WE SEE THINGS CHANGES
• John 14:26 ‘But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things…..’
• ‘Will teach you all things’ - This is the work and business of the Holy Spirit.
• There is so much of the wonder and greatness of God that we don’t understand or even grasp.
• But the Holy Spirit wants to come and reveal so much of this to us.
• A lifetime will be far too short to receive all He has to teach and reveal to us.
• 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets.
• Ephesians 1:17-19 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people and His incomparably great power for us who believe.
• Look at some of the areas:
1. The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.
2. The Holy Spirit will reveal things to you.
3. The Holy Spirit shows us God’s deep secrets.
4. The Holy Spirit wants to give us wisdom and revelation.
5. The Holy Spirit wants the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened.
6. His anointing teaches us about all things (1 John 2:27)
• The Holy Spirit Himself wants to come and change the way we see things.
• The same Spirit of God that revealed the Bible to writers through the ages wants to come and reveal more of God to you.
• He wants to come and magnify Jesus to us.
• John 16:3 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.
• I have seen the following quote: ‘A mind, once stretched by a new idea never regains its original proportions’.
• Let the Holy Spirit come and change the way you see things.
• Let Him come and so stretch your mind that it will never regain its original proportions.
• Let Him come and enlighten the eyes of your heart.

4. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT - WE CAN EFFECTIVELY TOUCH THE LIVES OF OTHERS
• It is interesting the effect that the Holy Spirit had on the lives of the men and women in the Bible and in particular the New Testament.
• They went from cowering, fearful and timid people, hidden in the upper room and overnight they became bold, fearless and filled with holy courage, speaking in loud voices on the streets and in public.
• Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
• Acts 4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
• This boldness put these disciples in danger. Their lives, their futures and their interests were endangered by this boldness, but that did not influence them.
• How often when we are threated or our interests are threatened we can lose our boldness.
• But when the Holy Spirit comes on us we can lose those selfish fears and become supernaturally bold.
• It was this boldness that caused many people’s lives to be touched and changed and as a result many came to know God and the church grew exponentially.
• Perhaps your faith is a quiet controlled faith and you don’t want to offend anyone?
• I pray that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and that you will be filled with boldness and that those whose reactions you fear will be astonished and that in the process they will find Jesus Christ for themselves.
• May you be armed with holy courage!

5. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT - WE'RE EMPOWERED FOR SERVICE
• Luke 24:49 Now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.
• Acts 1:8 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
• God wants to use you.
• There are myriads of ways in which God can use you.
• Sometimes we limit the ways in which God can use us to a few examples.
• God wants you to be a witness for Him wherever you are.
• He can use you in ways you could never have imagined.
• This all becomes possible when the Holy Spirit comes on us.
• Our comforter wants to empower us for service.
• John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
• God has got greater things for you.
• Never write yourself off, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with His power and to use you for His glory.

6. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT - WE CAN FACE THE STORMS WE GO THROUGH
• Our Christian walk is not always easy.
• We go through trials, tribulations and persecution.
• We face opposition, challenges and hurdles.
• The life of Stephen, the first martyr, is an example to us.
• He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Everything about him was different as a result. He saw things differently and he was filled with boldness. But his end was rough. But at the end, while he was being stoned, the Holy Spirit gave him the strength in this most difficult of battles and God came through for him.
• Acts 7:59-60 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He fell to his knees, shouting, "Lord, don't charge them with this sin!" And with that, he died.
• Even his suffering has become a testimony through all generations.
• How could Stephan die such a horrendous death with such a positive attitude and produce such a powerful result for the church then and now?
• Simply because he went through the most difficult time full of the Holy Spirit.
• If we are full of the Holy Spirit, we too can face any storm and in the process our lives can be a positive influence on the world around us.
• So let the Holy Spirit come right now and fill you so that you can face the storms and still be a testimony and a witness to God’s faithfulness and love.


By: Andrew W Roebert