Focus: I Am Not An Orphan

Text: Jh.14:18

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

Jesus promises His own, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." This is a loaded and heavy promise. 'I will come to you' means that He is not departing forever. In other words, 'I will be back.' Escapism and cowardice never exist in the dictionary of Jesus Christ. The one who came the first time is coming again. He came the first time to save; He is coming the second time to reign as the Lord of lords and King of kings. He came first as a Lamb, but He is coming again as a Lion.

He says, "I will not leave you comfortless." The word 'comfortless' is 'orphanos' in the original, and it means a person who is bereaved of father and mother. He is an orphan - parentless. That tells you that parents are comforters. To be without parents is to be without comforters. An orphan is like a lone person in the world. But Jesus says we are not orphans. He never abandons His own, come what may. It also means that the presence of Jesus Christ in your life is the greatest comfort you will ever need. His presence is a solid asset.

The Scripture tells us that our God is the "God of all comfort" (2Cor.1:3). He is the source of all comfort. God is the supplier of everything known as comfort. Whatever comfort you need, it is available and accessible in God. God declares, "The LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody" (Isa.51:3). Again, He says, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem" (Isa.66:13). God is your mother and father. You are born of the Spirit and begotten by the regenerative word of God. You have need of nothing that God cannot provide. There is nothing you need that He does not have in abundance. God gives us comfort on every side (Ps.71:21). Interestingly, comfort implies action on the part of God. God does things for us to comfort us. He changes things in us and around us to comfort us. He comforts us beyond the words. He not only counsels; He also swings into action on our behalf and for our good. He rectifies, reverses, restores or transforms things. He never comes into your life and leaves it the way He met it. Never! He turns waste into wealth and turns a desert into paradise.

Let me illustrate it to you. John 11:19 says, "And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother." They came near as a way of comforting the two sisters, Martha and Mary. They stood by them and demonstrated solidarity and sympathy. By their word of mouth and presence they delivered comfort of some sort. But they lacked resurrection power in their words. Their presence was equally devoid of power. But when Jesus Christ came into the situation, the story was different. The effect of His presence alone was spiritually electrifying and hope-inspiring. And then He uttered a prayer and declared a word of command, and immediately Lazarus journeyed back to life from the land of the dead, and the rest is now history.

Jesus Christ comforted Martha and Mary by bringing their brother back to life. In comforting us, God always does something good for us. Whenever God steps in or gets ready to comfort us, watch out for a miracle. Jacob's spirit revived when he saw the wagons of Joseph, his son. Words were not enough to convince him that his beloved Joseph was still alive. I believe God will work miracles in your life this year. God sends miracles our way from time to time to comfort our souls. He knows what to do to restore our souls.

When God comforts us, He speaks power and confidence into our souls. His words of comfort inspire hope in us, and they help us bury our fears. Faith and hope are ignited by the Lord's words of comfort.

Christ is your Comforter and the Holy Spirit is another Comforter of the same kind as Him. We never miss Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit reveals Jesus to us. Christ and the Spirit are one in the eternal Godhead. In Act.9:31, the believers were walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. He is the comforter in the place of Christ, and He lives inside of us as the Fountain of comfort. His comfort flows like a river or stream in our souls.

Let me say it again and again, You are not an orphan. The Spirit of Jesus lives inside of you, providing the needed comfort.

Paul talks about the "comfort of the scriptures" which gives us hope (Rom.15:4). Hope and comfort belong together. The comforted has hope, and comfort surges in the heart of the hopeful. The scriptures offer us the hope of God.

The rod and staff of our Shepherd comfort us. The prophecies of Spirit-inspired fellow believers bring us comfort (1Cor.14:3). The church of Jesus Christ is an apostolic and prophetic body. Those comforted of God become the comforters of others (2Cor.1:4). Paul says, "Therefore we were comforted in your comfort" (2Cor.7:13). That is what I call 'contagious comfort.'

The scripture encourages us to comfort and encourage ourselves in the Lord. David encouraged himself in the LORD his God, and I call on you to do same (Jb.9:27; 1Sam.30:6). Don't open the door of your heart to vain or empty comfort. Don't believe the lies of any lying prophets, who divine lies and tell you things you want to hear instead of things you need to hear (Jb.21:34; Zech.10:2).

Embrace the comfort of Christ. Jesus says to a suffering woman, "Daughter, be of GOOD COMFORT; THY FAITH hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour" (Mt.9:22). The people said to a blind man, "Be of GOOD COMFORT, rise; he calleth thee" (Mk.10:49). It was a call to receive the comfort of Christ. He received the miracle of sight. In closing his Corinthian letter, Paul says, "Be of good comfort" (2Cor.13:11). The comfort of Christ flows from His heart of love to our own hearts (Phil.2:1; Eph.6:22; Col.4:8). At other times, we seek, like Paul, comfort from others, and it is interesting to know that God packages certain persons to be the comfort you need (Phil.2:19; Col.4:11). Make sure you identify and accept them in your life.

I pray that, like Paul, you will be able to say, "I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation" (2Cor.7:4). Surely, you are not an orphan, and you have nothing to worry about. As Christ was exiting our space, the Spirit was entering to continue from where Christ stopped. The Spirit is another Christ in another form - they are of the same divinity, but of different personalities.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter