"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12).  In other words, the level of their ability to grasp the significance of the personal work the Holy Spirit was beyond their reach.  After all, they were still struggling with the idea of Jesus having to go away much less what it was to mean to them for the Comforter to come.  Do you know that there is a dimension to the ministry of the Holy Spirit that is available today that many within the body of Christ still struggle to comprehend? And I am not even talking about the infilling of the Spirit!  Obviously that is one aspect of his work that many have yet to come to grips with, but what I am talking about has to do with his administrative role.

            I remember back in the summer of '72 when I was first introduced to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I was only two month old in the Lord when a tremendous revival broke out in my home church. Dozens of people were being saved and filled with the Spirit, especially among the young people.  Phenomenal things were happening, and a lot of those young people who were being touched by God eventually entered into the ministry.  I happened to be one of them.  It was an amazing time in the Lord and those of us who were in that move still talk about it when we get together.  But here is my point: As much as I enjoyed this new experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit, it wasn't until the fall of '79 that something else concerning my relationship with the Holy Spirit came to light.  I stepped over into a new revelation of the Holy Spirit as a person, someone who possessed all the attributes of God as the third person in the Godhead, one with whom I could now enter into a place of divine intimacy and worship just as I had learned to worship God my Father and Jesus Christ my Lord.  

            That one revelation changed my life forever and it thrust me deeper into an awareness of his presence in my life like never before.  For all these years now, I have made it a point to share what he showed me in my teachings as a minister.  However, as great as all that was, there was still something about his personal work in me that I had not yet discovered.  God had to bring me along even further into yet another phase of learning about his purpose and ministry within the church, and it all had to do with this word "Comforter."

            If you study throughout the scriptures, you will find that the Holy Spirit has always been here.  He worked with many in the Old Testament, including prophets, priests, and kings.  David even mentions in his prayer of repentance: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me" (Psa. 51:11).  David had been anointed by the prophet Samuel to be king, and the Bible says, "...the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward..." (1 Sam. 16:13).  And yet, John writes: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:38, 39).

            When Jesus used the word "Comforter" he wasn't just talking about the Holy Spirit as a person. He was describing the operation of his ministry that had never yet been performed.  There was a work that had to be done on the cross that would enable the Holy Spirit to come into a place of ministry where everything he had previously accomplished would pale in comparison to what he would now be able to achieve.

            What Jesus was literally telling his disciples (and is still saying to us today), that the Holy Spirit descending on the Day of Pentecost wasn't just about him coming down from heaven to earth to dwell with men, but rather him coming upon the church as the PARAKLETOS who would now enable us to experience the full capacity of his ministry as the Master Divine Helper.  By him taking his place and assuming his role we would be assured of stepping up beyond our limitations, carrying us into a union of purpose and destiny filled with glory and virtue!

             What came as a great revelation to me was that the entire New Testament administration was to fall into the hands of the Comforter. Not just the Holy Spirit per say, but more accurately the ministry of the PARAKLETOS!  In other words, all that became available to us in Christ was to be activated by the Comforter.  Until we get that down on the inside much of what belongs to us will remain aloft and we will continue to live below our privileges. 

              Paul explained it this way: "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17).  There is a liberty to move into the things of God where the glory of his presence lifts us beyond our own limitations.  It is in that liberty where the full functionality of the PARAKLETOS resides.

             This one truth is what took the early church to heights far beyond their natural abilities.  It wasn't just because of a time within this dispensation that God chose to work in an extraordinary fashion. It was because they came to recognize the Comforter's role as the Master Helper.  That is where the greater glory lies.  It is where we can enter into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel.*