Your Standby Generator: Seven Names of the Comforter

Sermon outline

Because you are in Christ and Christ is in the Father, the Holy Spirit abides with you as Comforter, Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby, so you are never alone and need never be afraid.

1. Shake yourself: praise lifts you above your challenge

   Fear and unbelief are a spirit that creeps over you, so shake yourself, because God's people carry a spirit of faith. If you wait to feel right you will never feel right; when you praise and worship with your eyes on God, you rise above the pressure and look at your challenge from the realm of the Spirit, where it is small. Christians go up and down because they have not learned to encourage themselves.

   Illustration: With his hands he shows the challenge high above you when you walk into church, then you rising as you worship until you are level with it and then above it, so that what looked big now looks small.

   “If you wait to feel right you will never feel right.”

   • John 7:38
   • 2 Timothy 1:7
   • Psalm 16:11
   • 1 John 4:4
   • 1 Corinthians 2:16
   • Revelation 12:11

2. The healing anointing is always given, but not always received

   When the church prays, the healing anointing enters the person, but it is for them to act on it. Faith comes by hearing the Word, so those who came for prayer should take a week, shut themselves in a room and saturate themselves with anointed teaching on CD, DVD and in books.

   Illustration: A visitor who was not a member walked in that morning saying, 'I know God's got something for me', and was healed without any effort.

   “The healing anointing is always given, it's not always received.”

   • Romans 10:17

3. Another Comforter: you are in Christ, and Christ is in the Father

   Just before His ascension Jesus promised another Comforter who would abide forever, whom the world cannot receive. He said, 'I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you', which means we are in the bosom of the Father: you need not pray hard to win the Father's approval, because you already have it. Whether you love God is proven by keeping His words, and the Father loves those who love Jesus.

   “You are not trying to get the Father's approval. You have His approval.”

   • John 14:16-24
   • John 10:30

4. 1 to 3. He is your Comforter, Counsellor and Helper

   The Amplified Bible gives seven meanings for Comforter. As Comforter He gives you assurance that God heard your prayer and the manifestation is on its way. As Counsellor He shows you which way to go at a fork in the road. As Helper He is with you when friends, family, colleagues or even church people turn against you.

   “Say I'm not alone.”

   • John 14:26-27

5. 4 and 5. He is your Intercessor and Advocate

   When you do not know what or how to pray, He prays through you and drops people into your spirit. Like an advocate who may appear before the high court, Jesus is your advocate who represents and vindicates you, so you need not fight your own battles; when people gossip behind your back, He is your rear guard.

   Illustration: A Sunday-school song: He's so high you can't get over Him, so deep you can't get under Him, so wide you can't get around Him.

   “He's got your back covered.”

   • Romans 8:26
   • 1 John 2:1
   • Isaiah 52:12

6. 6 and 7. He is your Strengthener and Standby

   When the chips are down and no one stands with you, He strengthens you. As your Standby He is like a generator that kicks in when the power fails: He watches you constantly, and when your own resources are spent He takes over. That is why Jesus could say 'let not your heart be troubled': He can back it up, so you cannot fail and are never alone.

   Illustration: A standby generator kicks in the moment the lights go off. Someone said that of all the books he had read, Jesus Christ is the only author who walks with the reader.

   “He's your generator. He knows as you walk the day you fail, he shall take over.”

   • John 14:1
   • John 14:27
   • Psalm 27:1
   • Psalm 23:4

7. A year of supernatural accomplishment

   He prophesies that this will be a year of supernatural accomplishments, in which they will do what they did in the last five years together, and tells the business people and leaders twenty times as much, not by might nor by power but by the Spirit. Jesus came to give abundant, overflowing life, the path of the righteous shines brighter and brighter, and the gospel is good news: you don't have to be poor or sad any more. The Lord says, 'Change your shoes, get bigger ones': prepare for a bigger work.

   Illustration: As Jesus broke the bread and the fish and it multiplied, so everything their hands touch will multiply.

   “I used to believe before the gospel was to condemn people. I've since realized the gospel is called the good news.”

   • Zechariah 4:6
   • Matthew 14:19-20
   • John 10:10
   • 1 Thessalonians 5:5
   • Proverbs 4:18
   • Luke 6:38
   • Deuteronomy 28:6