August 31

This blessed Holy Spirit has all the characteristics of a comforter. He is so pure and holy that He cannot deceive; He is called "the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17). If He says your sins are forgiven, you can believe Him; He will not flatter. If it were not so He would have told you, for He can chide as well as comfort-- He can convince of sin as well as of righteousness. And the Spirit of God is so wise that He cannot be deceived; He never knocks at the wrong door nor delivers messages to the wrong person, but knows the exact purpose which the heart of God holds for each person on earth. "The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10).

These "deep things of God" which the apostle mentions are God's counsels of love which lie deep in His heart until the Spirit draws them out and shows them to men and women. And He also knows perfectly the frame of man's heart. It would be strange if the cabinet maker did not know every secret compartment in the cabinet. Despite their long study, neither man nor the devil have anything even approaching a full knowledge of that little world, the microcosm of man's soul. But as in everything else, God knows this field perfectly and cannot be deceived.

In a word, God's Spirit is so irresistible that no one can stand against the power of His peace. For example, the pardon Nathan took to David was not all that he had hoped for; so David begged the Comforter to ease his pain. He went on his knees and prayed hard to have his lost joy restored and his softened heart established by the free Spirit of God. You might baffle man, and through your own melancholy manipulation, even evade the truths which Christians bring for comfort; but when the Holy Spirit Himself comes, all disputes will end. Satan cannot pull rank or his false logic on Him. Confusion vanishes and our fears with it, as darkness disappears before the sun.

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