At times, I wish that I could be one of those kind of preachers that constantly has what I call the “wow factor”. You know what I am talking about. The “wow factor” preachers have people digging out their Bible dictionaries as they are preaching to further research the Greek and Hebrew words used in the sermon, oohing and aahing at every other sentence, and taking voluminous (pardon my feeble attempt to impress you with my vocabulary) pages of notes. Try as I may, that’s just not me. In fact, after one of our Holy Spirit Rallies, I had a pastor post on Facebook that I gave one of the simplest teachings that he had ever heard about the infilling of the Holy Spirit. At first I was a little offended. Simple? Who me? Then I realized that simple is good. No one ever walks away wondering what I had preached or taught. So, I guess that I will have to leave the “wow factor” to the other preachers and settle for the “now factor” with everyone grabbing ahold of the preaching.
With that in mind, let Mr. Simple (that’s me) offer one of the simplest teachings (thoughts) about the person of the Holy Spirit. In the gospel of John, we find that Jesus referred four times to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. Like you, I have studied the Greek word for Comforter and know that it is the word “Parakletos”. I know that I haven’t wowed you for you already know that this word simply means “One who is called to walk alongside you”. You also probably know that the Amplified Bible includes Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby to the word Comforter. Again, no oohs or aahs.
Here’s the simple … The name Comforter is the Holy Spirit telling you “I’ve got your back”. In other words, the Comforter is available and ready in every place for every situation. Jesus put it this way …
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Luke 4:18-19
Do you see what Jesus was saying? When an anointing was needed to preach, the Holy Spirit “had His back”. When an anointing for healing was needed for the brokenhearted, the Holy Spirit “had His back”. In reading the remainder of the two verses, I could continue and say time and time again the Holy Spirit “had His back”. Isn’t this simple? Even more importantly, isn’t this powerful?
This is so simple that I don’t need to write a lengthy explanation. Mr. Simple (that’s me) will end this post by telling you that the same Holy Spirit that was constantly with Jesus is constantly with you as a believer. He has your back!
If this is simple, then I will take it. So very good. Plus I think it was just for me.
Simply powerful!