How can we walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:31)?

To walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit surely means that they walked in the good of what the Holy Spirit ministered to them, a ministry of comfort that took away all fear, and gave them a deep sense of God’s love and care for them. The truth of God would be ministered in divine power among them, the Holy Spirit being ungrieved and unquenched, and what was ministered by the Spirit would be received into their hearts by the power of the Spirit who indwelt them. We can still have the comfort of the Holy Spirit, if we allow the Spirit to bring home to our hearts the wonderful legacy of divine truth that God has given to us in His word.

Let us notice what are here put together for us: first of all, not the comfort, but the fear of the Lord, — hearts in subjection to the Ruler of His people. With Him, if grace reigns, as it does, the reign is not less absolute, but more. When grace has not for its effect the fear of the Lord, in the same proportion is grace really unknown, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit will be unenjoyed. The Spirit is here to glorify Christ; and, as the Holy Spirit, refuses absolutely all touch of evil; legality and license are both in uttermost extreme from Him, and further by far than they are from one another. The slave may at times make up for his slavery by license; the child's happy service needs no compensation for its offering of love.

It is, however, one thing for His presence to be with us, and it is another thing to be in a state to recognize it, and to enjoy the holy peace and blessedness of it. “No flesh shall glory in God’s presence” (1 Cor. 1:29), but rest, edification, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost are experimentally known there. Here lies the secret of true prosperity, as is evidenced in the early records of the assemblies in the Acts, “walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost,” they were multiplied (Acts 9:31). When these conditions are absent the very opposite of this is present. Strifes about doctrines, parties, traditions, distinctive tenets, leaders, along with boasted zeal for the truth are rife, and result neither in comfort nor prosperity, but in schools of opinion, jealousies, disputes, contentions and divisions. Let the Spirit be ungrieved, and self-judgment be maintained in the presence of the Lord and in the fear of the Lord, then these things will flee the field like a flock of night birds before the dawn.

In Acts 9:31 we read of "the comfort of the Holy Ghost," He who is Himself the "Comforter." This was something known and appreciated by the early believers in a very practical sense, it was no mere theory or doctrine, they "were walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." As indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God untold wealth is available to us in this the Spirit's day. Many Scriptures speak of the service of the Holy Spirit, but the words of the Lord Jesus Himself in John 14, 15 and 16 as He speaks of the Comforter, manifest His tender consideration for His own during the time of His absence from them. That which He predicated of the Holy Spirit is for us to enjoy, a divine Person with unlimited power and affection abides with us for ever. He knows our every thought and desire, and is ever ready to engage our affections with the glories of Christ. Thus immeasurable comfort is ours as we are found walking in the power of an ungrieved Spirit.

Acts 9:31 speaks of "the comfort of the Holy Ghost", with its accompanying blessings of edification, walking in the fear of the Lord, and of spiritual increase. In His many references to the "Comforter" in John's gospel the Lord Jesus plainly indicates the value and importance of all that is available to His disciples in the "comfort of the Holy Spirit." In our witness, in fruit-bearing, in our knowledge of the truth, as in many other exercises, we need the comforting presence of the One "alongside us," He who would ever refresh our affections as He speaks of the glories of Christ. By Him we are "sealed" — we belong indisputably to God; we are "anointed" in view of the fragrance and grace of the Anointed manifesting themselves in some measure at least in our pathways; He is the "Earnest" — our hearts are comforted as we allow His testimony in regard of the coming glory to illumine our minds and thoughts. The love of God, in all its eternal blessedness and power is deluged into our hearts by Him; He helps in our weaknesses by His intercession; His fruit is "love, joy, peace" and other precious features the evidence and power of which would lift our hearts above the restlessness of present happenings into the peace and tranquillity of the scene where Christ is supreme. There is immeasurable comfort to be found as we breathe the atmosphere where Christ's rule is supreme — where "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" are experienced.

Now, having seen the privileges of our position, we must remember the obligation never ceases to be what Christ has set us to be - to walk in holiness. The presence of the Holy Ghost never ceases to be the Comforter who abideth for ever. The power is never absent. How is it then there is such weakness? "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God," etc. "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." If my eye is not single, I cannot tell what to do or how to do it. The power is according to the will and holiness of God. The comfort is when God's thoughts supplant ours.

It is as the Witness of redemption that the Spirit seals the saints (notes on Eph. 1:17, seq.); His holy presence attesting their completeness in Christ, and being the earnest of that coming day when the power of redemption will be openly asserted by the transformation of our bodies. Dwelling in us as the power of God's holy calling, and the Lord and Keeper of our conscience, He does not cease to incite us to a holy conversation, Consistency of walk is not only demanded lest the name of God and His Gospel should be blasphemed, but we are reminded of the near and inseparable companionship of One who, as the Holy One, can tolerate nothing contrary to His own nature, and who, if grieved by any allowance of evil on our part, will make us sensible of our folly, by depriving us of the conscious enjoyment of His presence. The blessed office of the Comforter is to shed the love of God abroad in our hearts. He does this, as the rich Revealer of Christ to our souls. But when our wills are practically combating with God's commandments, there is a necessary interruption of this joy. We cannot joy in God while disobeying Him.

Thus it is that the Lord has shut us up to the Holy Ghost for comfort. How far is it practically so with us, that all comfort in Jesus' absence flows from His presence with us? How sad when we think how often we grieve Him and thus hinder the enjoyment of this rich provision of the Lord's love. Too often the positive testimony of Christ to our souls is hindered by our allowance of the flesh, and the Holy Ghost has to turn to negative this, and thus days and weeks are lost, never to be recalled. Oh, beloved! let us keep watch that our eye may be fixed on Christ, that our ear be only open to His voice, that the inward movements of the heart be formed by His word, lest we lightly grieve the blessed Spirit that dwells within us, and so hinder the whole power of our present blessing.

What a comfort then to have the leading of the Spirit in all that we do; not to be left to sight, "for we walk by faith, not by sight." Not to be left even to the example of godly saints, helpful as that is, but to be led by the blessed Spirit, in each detail of life, in the use of time, as to our intercourse, as to duties, as to expenditure of money, as to service — all that we need, — to be led of the Spirit of God. What a comfort! Are you thus led?

b) As a comforter we need the Spirit in the different circumstances of our life. There are so many situations in which we may be sad or discouraged. What we need then is divine comfort and encouragement. The Holy Spirit, the divine comforter, will give us the encouragement we long for - individually and also collectively. Are we not living in days when we need comfort and encouragement in the assemblies? A wonderful example of this 'collective comfort' is seen in Acts 9:31: 'The assemblies then throughout the whole of Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and were increased through the comfort of the Holy Ghost' (N.Tr.).