- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
OUR COMFORTER.
By W Haslam
“I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16 v7).
Some English words have strangely passed from their original, to a more general meaning. For example the word “comfort” or “comforter” has shifted from its connection with strength to indicate kindness and sympathy. When this word of Latin and classical origin was first imported into the English language, it had its own particular meaning. For instance, in the book of Isaiah we read about workers who were engaged in what might have been the making of an idol. We are told “they help each other and say to their companions, ‘be strong!’ The metalworker encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer spurs on the one who strikes the anvil. One says of the welding, ‘it is good’. The other nails down the idol so that it will not topple” (Isaiah 41. 6-7). John Wycliffe in his translation of this passage says, "they comforted with nails”. This means, they made the idol look as if it was standing by itself, but it was actually strengthened with nails. The word “comfort” originally meant “strength applied to an object or person which needs support”. In the same way the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, making us strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We are not strong in ourselves, although we may sometimes think so. Our decision-making is often weak, this is why we need to be strengthened by being still. It is in this state of resting in God that we are made receivers of His strength and His salvation.
I once knew a young intelligent man who did not care about his eternal soul. When I asked him why he was interested in things of the world, and careless about eternal matters, he told me that he went to church and respected religion, but did not know why.
“Generally speaking," I replied, “when you do not know a thing, you should seek to find it out.”
After a little hesitation he said, “I am not indifferent and I used to like religion as a child, but the warm feelings I once had are now gone. I struggled to stand against the temptations of the world.”
I inquired, “Have you called upon God to help you?”
The young person spoke freely, as if from a sad heart, about not being able to keep heavenly resolutions. To this I reassured him that these resolutions are not as hard to keep as earthly ones, because God is on our side. I replied, “God does not ask you to do your best, but He desires that you should come to Him with your weaknesses and your failings. Surely this is an easy plan. True religion is not your work, but God’s in you by His Holy Spirit. Your religiousness or your conscience is not the Holy Spirit. God would not tell you to trust in your own effort, but He does say that we should wait upon Him and He will renew our strength. So instead of being strong in yourself, you can be strong in Him. Isaiah 40, verse 31 says we will soar on wings like eagles, and not grow weary, nor faint. The Holy Spirit begins by showing us how helpless we are, clearly He has begun this in you, and you did not know it.”
“I often feel helpless," the young person said.
“This is great, but remember the Holy Spirit does not show us our weakness to leave us there, but in order to bring us to the One who is willing and able to help us. To prepare you to see the Lord He makes you first see yourself, therefore He convicts you of sin. He does this to show you that you do not believe in Christ”.
“What!” He exclaimed, “but I do believe in Christ and have done since childhood.”
“I do not doubt this, but you have not believed in the right way. The Bible says, ’everyone who believes will have eternal life’. Can you say that you have eternal life?”
“No, I do not think I can," he answered.
I continued, “believing about Christ is different to believing in Him, this is a supernatural thing.”
“How can I do that?” He asked.
“Stop trying," I said, “and let the Holy Spirit work in you. By His work we can be as clearly convinced of righteousness as we are of sin. We are saved into Christ when we believe, as surely as we are lost when we are out of Him. You cannot pardon or save yourself. You must thank God from the beginning. Now trust the Spirit and He will show you clearly that you are accepted in Christ before God the Father. He was made sin for you, that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Acknowledge His presence and His Word and He will bring you out of darkness into forgiveness and liberty.”
My young friend, looking up said, “Thank you so much. I will definitely thank Him.”
The next time we met, he was rejoicing in the work of the Spirit and salvation of the soul. I highlighted the verse in John 16, “When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (v8).
“It is first conviction of sin, next of righteousness and then of judgment. It is not ‘judgment to come’, rather it is the judgment of Satan, the prince of the world, which is done and past. Your enemy is a chained lion now and cannot go beyond his limits," I said to him.
I then watched the young person tell another about salvation being the Lord’s work from beginning to end. He went on to be a strong Christian who believed that the Holy Spirit is now personally in the world, even as Christ was in the days of His flesh, and that His work is to prepare the way for Christ in the hearts and consciences of every human.
It is a blessing to remember continually that the chief focus of our salvation is to glorify God in being a witness for Christ. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shines in our hearts, not just to give us light but to share this light with others. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians, 4 v7).
Whatever discouragement we may meet in life, or in witness, we must go on. For we know that our disappointment should still lead us into fellowship with our Lord through His Spirit.
From ‘Gleanings from the Harvest’.
* * * * * * * * *
“Let us be quite clear, we can know nothing of the grace and power of God except through the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot bear witness either by life or lip apart from His enabling. God has decreed that it is through Him and Him alone that the great salvation secured for us by the Lord Jesus Christ will be made real to and in us”.
J C Metcalfe
“As misty waters may cheer the drooping flower
Thirsty for gentle rain,
So Christ with secret waters of grace
My heart shall still sustain.
But when He comes to flood the waiting soul
With love’s full flowing tide
He bursts the banks with streams of grace,
And I am satisfied”.
Samuel Rutherford to Lady Boyd, 1637
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11 v11-13).
The Lord Jesus Christ