The Holy Ghost Said!
I Am Your Helper
When we moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in order to attend Rhema, we only took a couple of van loads of furniture and no appliances. One of the first things that we had to do after finding a house to rent, was to find some good used appliances. I found a fairly late model GE refrigerator which appeared to be in good condition. After purchasing it, I had to lay it down in my van in order to transport it home. Once home, I stood it back up for a while, before turning on the power. The refrigerant probably didn't settle properly and it took the refrigerator a long time to get cool.
The refrigerator ran all afternoon and into the night without cutting off, and I began to get concerned that the thermostat was defective. Once it had frozen ice cubes and still hadn't cut off, I decided that I would remove the thermostat and check to see if the switch contacts were burned shut. Removing the thermostat was an easy matter, but getting to look at the switch contacts was a different story. The thermostat housing was made out of thin sheet metal with twisted ears holding it together. When I untwisted the ears and removed the top, the whole thing fell apart in my hands. There was a spring and several small parts that went flying.
After inspecting the different parts and not being able to find anything wrong, I finally decided that I must have just gotten impatient. Even though the inside of the freezer was cold enough to freeze ice, the whole refrigerator compartment had not yet cooled down to the required temperature. Since it didn't appear that there was any way to reassemble the thermostat, my impatience was going to cost me. I would be without a refrigerator for several days and have to pay about fifty dollars for a replacement thermostat. As I repented to God for my impatience and decided that I had learned a costly lesson, the Holy Ghost said, "I am your helper. Ask me for help."
I knew that the Greek word for the comforter (Holy Spirit), which Jesus said that he would send was, paraclete. It literally means, "one called alongside to help". I once heard a message that we could ask the Holy Spirit for help in any way that Jesus' disciples might have ask his help. Several times I had asked the Holy Spirit's help in something that was impossible for me to do and had received his help. Sometimes though, we think that we deserve the consequences of our actions (and usually do) and don't ask for God's help. That becomes our way of doing penance. Even though we frequently deserve to be in the situation that we are in, God is a forgiving and merciful God who will readily help us if we repent of our actions that got us into that situation.
I had already repented of my impatience, but hadn't thought to ask the Holy Spirit for help in this particular situation until he spoke to me. I had given up on trying to get the thermostat back together, but I ask the Holy Spirit to help me and tried it one more time. I was amazed at how the parts seemed to fall into place as I closed the top on them. If you have ever assembled a spring-loaded mechanism, you know how it seems like you never have enough hands to hold everything in place to get it all together. This time I had all the hands that I needed and they were supernatural. I thanked the Holy Spirit for his help and quickly reinstalled the thermostat on the refrigerator. I turned it back on and went to bed expecting everything to work fine. It did and ten years later, that same thermostat is still working.
The Holy Spirit wants to be every believer's helper. We need to be aware of that and not forget in time of trouble. Many people will call upon him for great problems, but will overlook him in the smaller ones like I was about to do. We don't have to save his help for rainy days or dire problems. He is not rationing his help either. He doesn't get tired of helping us, or reject some problems as being too small for him to bother with. Sometimes he will just remind us, "my grace is sufficient for you", but he's still helping us even then. As I have shared this testimony, others have reported asking him for help and seeing that they too have someone called along side to help. The helper is available but you must still ask, and don't forget to thank him afterward.