It is impossible to live on the frontline and not be wounded. We cannot be a prophet and not be persecuted. Some battles leave scars. Relationships disappoint. Life brings grief and brokenness at times. We can be undone by our own carnality, embarrassed by our own stupidity.
The valley is where we connect with God in the deepest level of our humanity. No pit is so deep, that He is not the deeper still. In the lowest place of our experience the father has released the full potency of the magnificent Holy Spirit.
The role of the comforter is the most powerful and yet the least understood of all the functions of the Holy Spirit. In all other roles he serves the father and the son and partners with us. But in this role, he is uniquely himself.
He is the spirit of consolation, comfort, relief, and support. He is full of grace, kindness, and mercy. He can rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. He is the most long-suffering, patient, tender, gentle and loving person we will ever meet when we are in this place of grief and despair. He comforts us in all our distress.
In the trouble that is on our part self-inflicting, he brings encouragement, forgiveness, and cleansing. When desolation is caused by the actions of another, he supports us into a place of favor and safeguards our heart that it be not ravaged by bitterness.
Some situations are mercifully short, but we will need his presence so that our own recovery is not held up by rejection.
Other situations may last several years or longer. This is likely to be a part of our development through brokenness. We must come to the end of ourselves to be radically changed. The comforter holds us in his hands and heart to sustain us on that journey.
When I speak of brokenness, I am speaking about the breaking of the outer-man, that our inner man in Christ might rise into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
People don’t want comfort. They prefer a quick fix. There are circumstances and times when the power of God seems to be against us. He loves us too much to leave us unbroken, but he will give us a comforter. We need the assistance and the support of the Spirit. We must ask our Father for him! Only he can alleviate our sufferings and alleviate our guilt and condemnation. Only he can make our lives glad. He reassures us, brings refreshing, increase, a peacefulness within that empowers us to kneel, so he can kiss the hand that hurts.
Jesus learned obedience by the thing(cross) that he suffered (Hebrews 5: 8), and so must we if we are to be trusted with greater things. It is also the role of the comforter to tell us when grief and morning are over, so that we can return to joy.
The enemy has power over us in the low places if we do not experience the fullness of the Spirit in consolation. We become prone to delusion, rejection, resentment, anger, bitterness, and depression. The comforter is our shield against all the destruction of the enemy who would take advantage of our downfall.
In comfort the Holy Spirit upgrades our own loving kindness, patience, and humility. We learn afresh how radically we are loved. The role of the comforter is to ensure that we are as beautifully, radically loved in our demise, as we are when we’re doing well. God never changes. Is always consistently the same. The comforter is the presence of God in the worst possible place in our lives.
When the going gets tough, ask the Lord for the comforter.