How does the Holy Spirit comfort us?
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (John 14:16-18, KJV)
When I was a young child, I was very close with my extended family and we made a point to get together frequently. Sometimes we would visit their homes and other times they would visit ours. Without a doubt, I was genuinely thrilled when we would experience a visit from our aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. Few things excited me more.
I remember one particular visit when quite a few family members were arriving at once. It may have been for a birthday or a holiday, and my grandparents were the first people to arrive. As their car pulled up, I started running down our gravel driveway to greet them. Unfortunately, I lost my balance and fell face forward before reaching their car. Somehow, my face managed to remain uninjured, but my knees were all cut up and covered with gravel and dirt. I know childhood in general is a time of scraped knees, but this particular scraping was especially painful.
As I pulled myself up off the ground, I remember standing there frozen and unsure about what to do next. Almost immediately, my mother and grandmother brought me into the house, cleaned up my wounds, and brought me comfort until I was able to calm down.
Do you have a few people in your life who offer you comfort when you need it? At this season of my life, my wife serves that role for me. There have been quite a few times when I was feeling anxious, angry, or sad, and she made a point to help talk me through what I was wrestling with. One time (and I still don’t know how she did this), she rubbed the back of my neck with her fingers for a few moments and I fell fast asleep. I’m still trying to figure out how that worked.
The Lord knows our lives are filled with stressful and challenging moments. He is fully aware that there will be seasons that will stress us out or discourage us. He also knows that there will be people and circumstances that will test your faith or come against you because you’re a follower of Jesus. For those reasons and many others, we are assured that the Holy Spirit will be with us and will offer us His divine comfort.
What does Scripture reveal to us about the Holy Spirit’s ministry of comfort? How is He comforting us? In what areas should we expect to observe His comforting ministry at work?
The Holy Spirit comforts us through His presence
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13)
The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is consequential. We have not been left alone in this world to navigate life without help. The Holy Spirit is present with us and within us. He lives within all who trust in Jesus. The rest of this world is walking by sight, but we as believers in Christ are walking by faith. As we continue this walk of faith, we’re assured that the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is going to be manifested in our lives in various ways.
His presence in our lives fills us with hope instead of doubt and despair. His presence in our lives produces the fruit of joy instead of a dreadful dependence on our circumstances to somehow produce temporary happiness. His presence in our lives produces peace instead worry. Worry takes root when we’re convinced we’re alone and on our own, but worry is defeated when we realize the Holy Spirit is present with us and never leaves the children of God alone to fend for themselves in this world.
The Holy Spirit comforts us through prayer
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)
Recently, I received a phone call from a family friend who is a gifted prayer warrior. She always seems to know the right kind of questions to ask us in order to get to the heart of what might be on our minds or weighing our hearts down.
During the call, she said to me, “I know you’re busy today, and I don’t want to use up a lot of your time, but I wonder if I could spend a few minutes praying for you and your family right now.” Then we paused to pray together. What a blessing that was to me that afternoon.
Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a season when you just weren’t sure how to pray? Possibly a season of trial when you weren’t even sure how to articulate what was on your heart? Isn’t it a relief to know that the Holy Spirit helps us in the midst of these seasons by interceding on our behalf and making sense of our messy prayers?
Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes in prayer for us. He aligns our requests with the will of God and transforms our minds to begin thinking and praying in accordance with God’s plan and character.
The Holy Spirit comforts us through the Word of God
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15)
I’m grateful that we have access to the Word of God, but I’m also aware of the fact that we would not truly understand what we’re reading, or how to apply it, if not for the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Jesus made that clear to us during the course of His earthly ministry.
Jesus explained that the Spirit would guide us toward, and help us understand what is true. During the era of the early church, the Spirit inspired the writers of the New Testament to convey the teaching it contains. Now He helps us understand what was written and apply it to our daily lives.
I’m also convinced that if we’ve come to a place in our lives where we value the teaching of God’s Word, that’s only because the Spirit has helped us to value it. The unbelieving world treats Scripture like it’s a fantasy tale. Even though, by and large, they haven’t taken the time to read it, they are eager to dismiss it.
But we who are indwelled by the Spirit can testify to the many ways He has used Scripture to bring us comfort, wisdom, guidance, and help. This is a major facet of His present-day ministry.
The Holy Spirit comforts us through His guidance
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Years ago, as I was on the cusp of adulthood, I volunteered a day to serve with a camping ministry that had a big impact on me growing up. A missionary who was several years older than me was also volunteering that day, and he and I decided to partner up and paint the exterior of the camp chapel together.
As you might guess, we had plenty of time for conversation that day, so we talked about all sorts of life issues. I talked with him about some of my life and ministry plans. I also asked for his perspective on marriage and how to know when you’ve found the right person to marry. He gave me great counsel for that season of life, and many of the details of that conversation have served me well for decades.
I believe the Spirit of God orchestrated our meeting and conversation on that summer afternoon. I believe He’s offering us His guidance all throughout the many seasons of our lives. Naturally speaking, we wouldn’t value the guidance He gives, but because the Spirit lives within us, we are able to make sense of His wisdom. As we humbly listen to His voice and live in obedience to what He has clearly revealed in Scripture, we grow in spiritual discernment, and His guidance provides a form of comfort throughout our lives.
The Holy Spirit comforts us in times of trouble
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
Seasons of suffering certainly aren’t my preferred seasons of life, but I’ve been noticing something curious taking place within me as time goes by. The older I get, and the longer I’ve been walking with Jesus, the more I find myself able to maintain a joyful attitude even when heavy things are taking place.
In recent years, I have experienced seasons of grief primarily due to the loss of loved ones. I have experienced seasons of loss and unmet expectations. I have experienced trials, some due to my own decisions, and some due to the decisions of others.
It’s highly likely that you’ve experienced some of the very same things, but if you’ve found yourself able to rejoice while in the midst of these experiences, that’s because the Holy Spirit is pouring the love of God into your heart through His comforting presence. He’s changing your perception and helping you to see beyond your momentary circumstances. He’s reminding you that you’re going to be OK and your circumstances are going to resolve for God’s glory and your good.
The Holy Spirit comforts us through His assurance
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Romans 8:16)
There are times when you and I might feel distant from God. In our own insecurities, we might be tempted to wonder if the Lord treasures us like His Word assures us is true. We might even begin to question whether we’re really part of His family.
It’s God’s desire that all believers in Jesus Christ experience the assurance of their salvation. He wants us to walk with confidence in the knowledge that we’ve been welcomed into His eternal family through Jesus whom we’ve been united to through faith.
A major facet of the Holy Spirit’s ministry during this generation is to speak to our hearts and help us to understand with certainty that we are children of God. He reminds us of this truth and convinces us it’s possible to have a deep and abiding relationship with Him. These reminders bring great comfort to our hearts when we start feeling distant or unwanted.
The Holy Spirit comforts us through our bond with our church family
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)
As fellow believers in Christ, we are united to one another. We have been made one family through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
I would not want to try to navigate life without the relational help and guidance of our church family. We are bound together by the Spirit, not only for this era of history but for eternity.
There may be seasons when some of those relationships seem strained, but the Spirit can bring peace where there’s conflict and provide comfort through the words and actions we express toward each other.
It’s a joy to be able to acknowledge the many ways the Holy Spirit brings comfort to our lives. He continually reminds us of His presence, and He regularly reassures us that we are part of the family of God.
© John Stange, 2023