The Holy Spirit and Power #11: The Comforter Jesus Promised

Holy Spirit and Power 11 teaches that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter Jesus promised, and that real comfort comes only from an intimate relationship with God, never from money, people or the world. In this message Dr. William P. Hohman opens John 14, then turns to the Book of Lamentations, where Jerusalem sits alone because “she had no comforter,” and uses the Challenger disaster to show what the word how really means. It follows The Holy Spirit and Power #10 — What the Anointing Can and Cannot Do.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, every key Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline, and practical steps for leaning on the Comforter this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This Sunday message was preached at the New Testament Church in Merrill, Wisconsin, and posted on October 5, 2020. After worship and a missions offering for Africa, the senior pastor is welcomed to the pulpit. Dr. Hohman begins by noting that an altar is where sacrifice is made to God, and it alters a life. Then he announces his subject: the Comforter, the Holy Spirit Jesus promised to send.

Holy Spirit and Power 11: Another Comforter

The congregation reads John 14:15–18 aloud together. Jesus says that if we love Him we will keep His commandments, and He will pray the Father to give us another Comforter to abide with us forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. He will not leave us comfortless; He will come to us.

Dr. Hohman explains why we need this. Jesus came into a fallen world. Sin is not only what people do; it is the nature passed down from Adam to everyone born into the world. But the first man Adam became a living soul, and the last Adam, Jesus, became a life-giving spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45). When we believe in Him, the old nature is taken away and a new man is born inside us, so that we can actually hear God and see evidence of what He does.

He points to Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night in John 3:3–6. Jesus told him that unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom. Nicodemus was thinking naturally about a second physical birth, but Jesus was speaking of a spiritual birth by the Holy Spirit. When that birth takes place, our eyes are opened.

The danger, he warns, is that believers can fall asleep again. When we give more attention to the problems in our homes and in the world than to the Holy Spirit, it is as if we are blinded. Paul tells the church to awake, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light (Ephesians 5:14). A sleeping Christian stops saying “look at God” and starts saying “poor me.” That is why every one of us needs a brother or sister to come alongside, encourage us and pray with us.

Looking for Comfort in the Wrong Places

Dr. Hohman shares a sobering story. Early one Tuesday morning in prayer, the Lord told him to visit a new pastor in a town about 40 miles away who was “in a bad way.” When he knocked, the young man opened the door in tears. Fresh out of Bible college, he had expected his church to be a garden of Eden. Dr. Hohman told him his own town of Merrill had been a place where he “died a thousand deaths,” and that ministry, like marriage, means dying to yourself.

For several years he and his wife Pam kept reaching out, taking the young pastor to dinner and encouraging him. But he kept looking for comfort somewhere else, and Dr. Hohman had to be careful not to become his crutch instead of God. “He had a lot of head knowledge but no heart relationship.” One day Dr. Hohman offered to come and “pray until the glory comes,” however long it took. The pastor drove away instead. That week he left his church, and within a year he had passed away.

The lesson Dr. Hohman draws is that our comfort does not come from the stock market, a job or the state of the world. The King James Version calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter; other translations call Him the Helper or the Advocate. That is who He is. And Jesus links His coming to obedience: if you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father. The anointing really kicks in when we do what God has asked, trusting Him rather than leaning on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5–6), even when our knees are knocking.

In John 14:26 Jesus adds that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will teach us all things and bring to our remembrance everything He said. Dr. Hohman asks the congregation directly: is the stock market your comforter? Your paycheck, your spouse, your kids, your vehicle? None of them can be. In the church’s school, he says, children are taught that when they take a test, the Holy Spirit will bring things to their remembrance, so that when they are grown they will know the Lord has the answers.

Guarding Your First Love

When you were born again, Dr. Hohman says, there was a first love, and Scripture warns us not to let our works and busy lives pull us away from it (Revelation 2:4–5). “If you love me,” Jesus said, do what I ask you to do. Walking in love with God has to be the priority; otherwise the issues of the world consume us.

How do you know you have left your first love? When your life is frazzled, when you are panicking, when emotions rise up that you cannot settle and you are not at rest. Coming back to the place of love is what keeps us steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58), and it is what keeps us at peace.

When the Comforter comes, a power kicks in beyond your thoughts, imagination, strength and mental capacity. God does exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20). “You need the Holy Spirit more than you need breath,” Dr. Hohman says, “and that’s a fact.”

Lamentations: A City With No Comforter

To show what happens without the Comforter, Dr. Hohman turns to Israel. The nation became proud and high-minded, wanting to show the world how great it was. To stop being mocked by the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites and Philistines around them, the people began taking in their practices. That is when God raised up Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. His heart was broken over Israel’s relationship with God, and that grief gave us Lamentations, from a word meaning to mourn and grieve with a sorrow beyond our strength.

He reads Lamentations 1:1–10 from the King James Version. The city that was full of people now sits solitary, like a widow. The princess among the provinces has become a tributary, which he explains means a slave doing jobs no one else wanted. She weeps in the night, and among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. Her friends have dealt treacherously with her and become her enemies.

The phrase keeps returning. In verse 9 she came down, and “she had no comforter.” Dr. Hohman stresses that the enemy is anti-anointing. The Father is the architect who planned everything and had you in His heart before creation; Jesus is the general contractor who built it; and the Holy Spirit breathes life into everything. That is why Jesus said His words are spirit and life (John 6:63), and why a sermon is more than a lecture when the Spirit ministers through it.

Israel got so close to the world that the world crept in. Those they thought were friends were really enemies, and the adversary spread his hand over all her pleasant things, all the good things God wanted for her, until she had to look to the world for help and was laughed at. He pictures the opening question, how the city sits solitary, as someone sitting with elbows on knees, head in hands, crying. Yet he insists God is not done with His people; it is a process, and we must take comfort in who He is.

Three Kinds of How: The Challenger and Jeremiah’s Grief

To explain the word how in Lamentations, Dr. Hohman tells the story of the space shuttle Challenger. On January 28, 1986, it exploded 73 seconds after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center, killing all seven astronauts on board. Among them was Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire teacher chosen as a civilian through NASA’s teacher program. He explains that the agency hoped a teacher’s story would renew public support for the space program.

Dr. Hohman, who says he was stationed there in the military, describes three different groups asking how that day. The cause, he adds, was just a leak in one small seal.

The family did not care about mechanics or money. Their questions were whether she knew they loved her and whether they had said goodbye well enough. That, Dr. Hohman says, is Jeremiah’s how. His anguish was over a lost relationship with God. A broken machine or a budget gap can be fixed and forgotten, but a broken relationship cannot be solved that way.

The same three responses appear in the church today. Many ask how to fix the systems of the world, but he teaches that real comfort comes only when we zero in on one thing: our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, our intimacy with the Holy Spirit and a life filled with the love of the Father.

“It’s Me, Lord”: Repentance and Forgiveness

In the King James wording of verse 9, Jerusalem came down wonderfully, which Dr. Hohman explains comes from the Hebrew word pala, meaning difficult, hard, tragic and unbearable. Then she cried, “O Lord, behold my affliction,” and blamed the enemy. In effect she said, it’s them, Lord, rather than, it’s me, Lord. Having no comforter, he teaches, means she could not repent, because she did not see that the problem was her.

David shows the opposite. After the prophet Nathan confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba, David did not blame anyone. He prayed, “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10–12). Dr. Hohman applies this to everyday complaints about church, such as the songs or the length of the service. The cry of anguish needs to come from a heart that says, Lord, forgive me.

He also corrects a common idea about grace. Some say grace means you can do whatever you want. “No it doesn’t,” he says. “Grace means it will help you quit doing whatever you want and start doing what God wants.” In 2 John 7–11, the apostle warns believers to look to themselves so they do not lose what they worked for, and to abide in the doctrine of Christ.

Forgiveness flows both ways. Some Christians cannot say “forgive me,” and others cannot say “I forgive you.” Jesus told us to forgive whether someone asks or not. Dr. Hohman tells of a woman who had moved to West Virginia and later came back to ask his forgiveness. He told her he never held anything against her, forgave her, and prayed for her, and he testifies that she received her healing.

He closes the teaching with 2 Chronicles 7:14: if My people humble themselves and pray and turn, God will hear and heal. Then the Comforter comes as the oil of gladness. Like oil on a squeaky door, the Holy Spirit takes the squeak away. “The only problem I have is me,” he says. Jesus is coming with His reward (Revelation 22:12–14), so do not let the spirit of the world steal it.

Leaning on the Comforter

Here are practical steps drawn from this Holy Spirit and Power 11 message:

• Name your false comforters. Ask honestly whether money, a job, a person or the news has become your comfort, and give that place back to the Holy Spirit.
• Obey what He has already said. Jesus tied the Comforter’s coming to keeping His commandments, so act on what God has asked of you.
• Check your first love. If you are frazzled, panicking or not at rest, return to the place of love and intimacy with God.
• Ask the relational how. In a crisis, look past mechanics and money to the state of your relationship with the Lord.
• Say “it’s me, Lord.” Pray Psalm 51 instead of blaming others, and forgive anyone who has hurt you, whether or not they ask.
• Come alongside someone. Offer to pray with a struggling friend until the glory comes.

Timestamped Outline

• 28:00 Welcome: the altar alters a life
• 30:00 John 14:15–18: another Comforter
• 33:00 Nicodemus: you must be born again
• 34:00 Wake up, you who sleep
• 35:00 The young pastor who expected Eden
• 39:00 Helper and Advocate: who the Comforter is
• 40:00 Is anything else your comforter?
• 41:00 John 14:26: He brings all things to remembrance
• 42:00 Do not leave your first love
• 46:00 Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
• 48:00 Reading Lamentations 1:1–10
• 51:00 Architect, builder and breath of life
• 54:00 How does the city sit solitary?
• 56:00 Three pictures of the word how
• 57:00 The Challenger tragedy
• 1:04:00 She came down wonderfully
• 1:06:00 David: create in me a clean heart
• 1:10:00 What grace really means
• 1:31:00 Forgiving whether asked or not
• 1:40:00 Communion
• 1:43:00 The folded napkin in the tomb
• 1:48:00 Closing: pray until the glory comes

Holy Spirit and Power Series

This message is part of the Holy Spirit and Power series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or go back to the previous part:

• First message: Holy Spirit and Power #1: The Importance of the Holy Spirit and Jesus the Baptizer
• Previous: The Holy Spirit and Power #10 — What the Anointing Can and Cannot Do
• You are here: The Holy Spirit and Power #11 — The Comforter

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does this message end with communion?

Dr. Hohman connects communion to relationship. Paul says to examine yourself, not the world’s systems, before eating the bread and drinking the cup (1 Corinthians 11:23–30). He also points to the folded face cloth in Jesus’ tomb (John 20:3–7), which he teaches was a sign in Hebrew custom that the master would return. So communion is a reminder to keep doing what Jesus asked until He comes back.

What does it mean to pray until the glory comes?

It is Dr. Hohman’s phrase for praying through, without a time limit, until God moves. He offered to do this with the struggling young pastor, saying he would come for a month if needed. He ends the service by encouraging listeners to pray for ministers who have grown bitter or angry, to love on them, and to invite them to pray together until the glory comes.

How can I tell whether the Holy Spirit is at work in someone?

Dr. Hohman gives a simple sign in his closing words. Where the Holy Spirit is, there is gentleness, not anger. There is goodness, productiveness and joy. He contrasts this with ministers he knows who have become hard and bitter because they embraced something worldly. His counsel is not to condemn them but to pray for them and love them.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• John 14:15–18 — another Comforter
• John 14:26 — He will teach you all things
• Lamentations 1:1–10 — she had no comforter
• John 3:3–6 — you must be born again
• Revelation 2:4–5 — your first love
• Ephesians 3:20 — exceedingly abundantly above
• Psalm 51:10–12 — create in me a clean heart
• 2 Chronicles 7:14 — if My people humble themselves

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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