The Come-Along

                Recently, I had to open a “Goad” gate into the meadow to get a cow and calf out. I picked up the phrase “Goad Gate” from our dear friend and neighbor, Vonda Goad. Any wire gate that is next to impossible for the ordinary person to close is the type of gate she referred to as a “Goad Gate.”

                Thankfully, my brother-in-law constructed a “come-along” of twisted wire connected to a wooden rod. I positioned the wire and the wooden rod that comprised the come-along around the post. The immovable post of the “Goad Gate” began to inch toward the post of the fence enabling me to loosen the wire holding the gate closed. I breathed a quick “thank-you” to the Lord as I opened the gate.

The come-along hanging idly 
between the gates post and
 fence post.

                After driving the two bovines slowly from the meadow without incident through the “Goad Gate” I closed the gate with the assistance of the come-along. What a powerful tool the come-along proved to be that morning!  

                The Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of true believers in Jesus bounced around my mind all while I opened and shut the “Goad Gate.” I remember the original text of the New Testament used the word paraclete to describe the Holy Spirit . I have read one of its best translations in English is helper.

                Jesus spoke to His disciples these words from John 14:16-17, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

                The Holy Spirit promised by Jesus and sent by the Father indwells anyone who has received Jesus. Since the Holy Spirit is always with us, we can be assured that His help is always available for us, just as the come-along was my only hope for shutting the gate.

The come-along ready to be tightened
around the gate post.

                The Apostle Paul wrote of three invaluable characteristics of a true believer imparted by the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 states, For the kingdom of God is not of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Nothing gives greater joy and peace than seeing the Holy Spirit empower us and those we love to live righteously. As only the come-along enabled me to close the meadow gate, so only the Holy Spirit can endow a believer to obey the principles of the Word of God.

                How do we understand God’s teachings as they appear in the Bible? Paul gives us a glimpse of how the Holy Spirit helps us in I Corinthians 2:13, “…we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”

                The Holy Spirit acts as a seal or guarantee of all we have received in Christ. A notarization, our 21^st century type of seal, legally guarantees the authenticity of a document. The Ephesians were reminded of this by Paul in his letter to them in chapter 1, verses 13-14, In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.

                Without the come-along, I cannot close most of the wire gates on Mother’s farm, but with it I can. The use of this simple tool illustrates precisely that apart from the Holy Spirit we cannot successfully live the life God planned for us as His children.