The dictionary explains a “comforter” as an extensive cover filled with feathers or similar material that you put over yourself in bed instead of a sheet and blankets. This makes you warm and cosy.
But the biblical Comforter is on a whole different level. It is the spirit of God that does much more than make us feel cosy and warm.
The word comforter is key to a life in the spirit. Several biblical translations described the word “comforter” as the Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Counsellor, Strengthener, Teacher and much more.
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Jesus as “The Comforter”
God gave us his son Jesus to comfort us. The book of Romans 8:32 was clear about this, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all”.
This was also attested to in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…”
God is spirit, and those who worship him must do so in spirit. But he gave us his son in human flesh to comfort and restore salvation.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we are comforted by God.”
You have 2 lives
We have two distinct lives. One is biological, and the other is spiritual. Paul made a distinction between the two lives. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, old things are passed away, behold the new has come”
If you CONNECT, you will COLLECT.
The new life referred to is your spiritual journey in Christ as a believer. It is pertinent to know that your spiritual life does not start when you get to heaven; it starts immediately when you become born again and are in Christ.
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To be born again is to be in Christ. You can be in church and not in Christ. Those who are CONNECTED to Christ will COLLECT the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit as “The Comforter”
God looked at the natural man and said I will give him a helper and he gave him a woman. Jesus also looked at the natural man and said he would give him a helper.
Jesus knew that his time on earth was up. But he said he would not leave those connected to him alone. He said that as long as you abide by his commandments, he will ask his father to send another comforter as long as you are connected to him.
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He told us in John 14:6 that he is the way and the truth, and no one can see his father except through him. Then he went further in John 14:14-16 that he will ask his father to send ANOTHER comforter that will abide with us.
“If ye ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever”.
The Holy Spirit, the comforter, is also a “revealer” of future things. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot comprehend the good things God has planned for us (1 Corinthians 2:9,10). God has designed so many good for us which eyes have not seen and which ear has not heard, but God has revealed these things to us through His spirit “for the spirit searches all the deep things of God.”
The Holy Spirit reveals the things of God. This generation knows the things of men. We know the things of this world, but we are not vast in the things of God.
Our greatest helper should be the spirit of the comforter, and we are not supposed to struggle to do the things of God because we are not comfortless.
Receiving the Holy Spirit
Did you know that as soon as we become born again and receive the Holy Spirit, God immediately put his seal on us to show that we belong to him? This seal is God’s stamp of ownership.
We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit for redemption day (Ephesians 4:30).
And because we have the Holy Spirit, we have access to comfort. And all the other ministrations of God's spirit.
Take the Holy Spirit with you everywhere.
You must carry the presence of God everywhere you go. In your marriage, work, school, everywhere. The people around you must witness the manifestation of the spirit in your life and around you.
As we navigate our daily activities this week, let us crave for the Holy Spirit to grant us access to the "forever" of God, as disclosed in John 14:16.