GOD OF ALL COMFORT
23rd Jan 2019
To feel the presence of the Lord at anytime is a privilege - you discern it with your spirit and inwardly you experience peace, joy, love, excitement and hope. You may want to cry or to laugh, you are certainly aware that the source is God Himself.
At times the Bible recounts that whole groups of people fell on they faces in awe before the presence of the glory of God. In the Old Testament His presence was accompanied by fear. Individuals trembled before it and others exclaimed, “Surely God is on this place…” (Genesis 28:16)
I once had a dream in which I heard some beautiful singing coming from a small chapel. I was in a car and asked the person driving to get me to this place. I had an overwhelming desire to be part of what was taking place. I knew it was a revival meeting and something unique and special was happening. Finally we got to the chapel, but the people were leaving as the meeting had finished.
I started to cry and a young man came up and asked me why I was so upset. I explained that I knew it was a revival and I so longed to be in God’s presence and join with what I had heard. He asked if he could pray for me, then laid his hands on my head, and I was filled with such peace, beyond anything I had ever known. I felt totally satisfied, filled up, happy and content, it was tangible as if I had been clothed with a soft warm blanket.
I then awoke, the sensation still there, the pillow wet with tears. I asked the Lord, what is this? His answer was that I had experienced the “God of all comfort”. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit had come on me. The phrase “God of all comfort” is found in 2 Corinthians 1:3 and I knew this was a clear description of what I had experienced.
We have recently been involved is several heart-breaking situations where human comfort simply isn’t enough. Our friends in their grief have needed to experience the “God of all comfort” and I truly believe as we lay hands in prayer and ask for the Comforter to come, He will and He knows how to soothe, settle, to impart all that is needed in a specific situation.
Experience this and then give it away; compassionate words can help, but the power of God’s presence heals at the heart level and remains.
by Joyce Sibthorpe
