A Comforter like Christ

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for August 16
Visit us at http://www.whiteestate.org
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A Comforter like Christ

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go
away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if
I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.

The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven,
is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the
power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a
personal Saviour.

With the consecrated worker for God, in whatever place he may be, the
Holy Spirit abides. The words spoken to the disciples are spoken also to
us. The Comforter is ours as well as theirs.

There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart.
Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless
ocean may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may
still exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it. . . . But no
circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter.
Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in
Christ's place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to
speak soothing, gentle words; to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.
The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This
Spirit works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who
know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit-love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.

The Holy Spirit ever abides with him who is seeking for perfection of
Christian character. The Holy Spirit furnishes the pure motive, the
living, active principle, that sustains striving, wrestling, believing
souls in every emergency and under every temptation. The Holy Spirit
sustains the believer amid the world's hatred, amid the unfriendliness
of relatives, amid disappointment, amid the realization of imperfection,
and amid the mistakes of life. Depending upon the matchless purity and
perfection of Christ, the victory is sure to him who looks unto the
Author and Finisher of our faith. . . . He has borne our sins, in order
that through Him we might have moral excellence, and attain unto the
perfection of Christian character.

>From Devotional: Our Father Cares, pp. 210, 211.