The Sacrifice of Communication: Pleasing God Together

2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5 For every man shall bear his own burden.

“Lord, in this passage you say “Bear ye one another’s burdens” …and yet you end with “Every man shall bear his own burden.” I don’t get it. It seems like you’re saying contrary things to us, but I know that can’t be so.

And isn’t what you’re saying basically what I just spoke to you? That I don’t want to be a burden to others because everyone is carrying their own burdens?”

Elizabeth, if you were carrying a little toddler on your back, as in a horsey-back ride, because their little legs could take them no further, would you consider it a burden?

Well, No! I’d consider it “love to them” by picking them up, for I am able to do so.

Let’s take “a burden” a step further:

When a soldier has a wounded comrade, who cannot go further, will he not lift him up and carry him, or at least take his weight upon his shoulders, if he is able to stand?

Well, yes Lord.

Why would he do that?

Well, because it is “expected of him.”

Because he is “needed”.

Because otherwise “his comrade would suffer, get worse, or possibly even die.”

And probably his comrade is loved as a friend because they’re in the battle together!

It may even be a command, or rule, to do so!

Exactly, Elizabeth… It is for all these reasons!

And so it is, when you bear one another’s burdens in the Kingdom of God!

It is expected, it is needed, it can prevent that person or their situation from worsening, and because you’re in this together, it is purest love to help your brethren! This fight is with evil and with the Enemy! Not with one another! You are on the Lord’s side…together! And it is my command that ye bear one another’s burdens!

Okay, Lord. I hear you. I get it now. We bear one another’s burdens, and yet they are in the battle with us bearing their own burdens. That comrade, injured, has his own injuries to bear, as I’m taking him into a better position by bearing his burdens with him. I see it now spiritually; through this picture you have given me.

And the toddler, unable to keep a-going, is representative of those in the Lord who are babies in their faith right? They just need a little “lift”, for a bit, until they can walk again themselves. Right? And love will make this fairly easy for me to give them the uplifting.

Right!

You are seeing…and communicating now… what I am communicating to you.

So, to bear one another’s burdens is why Christians are to communicate.

Let’s get back to this topic.

If you don’t know the need, you can’t help meet the need, right?

Right!

You have to see the wounded comrade, to help him… right?

Right!

You have to know a child is stumbling to help him along for a time… right?

Right!

So, the persons needing help need to let you know they are needing help…

A toddler will whine when tired, will he not? Is someone whining around you?

A toddler will sit down and give up, will he not? Is someone around you giving up? Has his journey become too difficult to go it alone?

It’s time to become alert, for toddlers (those not yet mature in faith) will give out “clues”!

And if someone is wounded as in my comrade illustration…If alert, you will see the need. But if not alert, you will need to receive A Communication …from the Spirit, that person, or someone else, alerting you to the need and how to meet that need.

The key is: Communication must be…to know to help! Forget not!

Isolation will keep that communication from being given or received.

To communicate, forget not, is pleasing to me, for it enables my helpers to find the ones needing my help! It enables them to be my hands and feet extended!

Now, look at Matthew 25:34-40…

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

I see it Lord!

When we reach out to others, and meet their needs, we are doing it unto you! Yes, Amen! This goes with what you’re saying. You are pleased with this sacrifice!

Their needs must be communicated, and your help then communicated…in action…not in words.

1 John 3:18 tells Christians:

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

Now we get to the other side of the issue: The need for Christians, i.e. my helpers, to then communicate, in deed, with those who need the help.

I want to alert you to a bottleneck in the spirit. This prevents my power from flowing as it should from person to person:

Many times my children have ceased to “share their needs” because, in the past, no one “responded” when they did.

Disappointment has caused many of my children, who need help, to not put themselves out there again.

You see, Humility is hard. But “being humiliated” is harder yet. Somehow, when hopes are dashed, it feels “humiliating” to someone who has just humbled themselves. They’re hesitant to continue to share. Disappointment has wounded them more than their present need troubles them.

Oh wow, God. I know this is true. When I was living on $700 month as a widow, I don’t think anyone was aware just how in poverty I was…but you still provided for me…my money stretched, and my immediate family, who was aware, helped me out immensely! But not really the Body of Christ. It seemed the few times I humbled myself to share on something I needed, like a car repair, that I was met with a black hole. I think the reason I love you so much is that You were faithful, in those hard times, regardless of people’s response…or rather, lack of response. I went in debt some of those times, due to no other choice, but then you helped me to get out of debt. It was stressful though. Life would have been less burdensome if others had shared the burdens even a little. I can relate to what you’re telling me.

I will remain faithful, yes. But my plan for my Kingdom here on earth, is for “my children” to help “my children” … in love and in action…and in my name.

God, back to communicating… to forget not… then what I’m hearing is, that when we are on either side, needing help, or giving help, we are to be communicating. We are to “forget not” to communicate. For “to communicate” pleases you because it releases your power into the situation(s). Right?

Right!

Those words are not by accident. They are purposeful. People forget things that aren’t important to them…but remember those things that are! When a surgery is scheduled, for instance, most of you can remember that date. But when the neighbor down the street needs food, and you’re grocery shopping, you may forget their need. Right?

Right!

So, part of this message…to my people… is simply to make them “more alert”. So that helping others, or letting others know their own needs, is something my people will begin to communicate….so my kingdom can operate as it should.

A real-time object lesson:

Father, I was in the midst of writing this article when I ran to Dollar General with my husband to get him soda. An elderly man came by and said, “Hot enough lately, isn’t it?” We said, “Sure is. Glad it’s cooler today, for we’ve been staying indoors!” to which he replied, “Well not so fun getting older and sitting in a house with no AC.” I said, “Oh wow! You must have had to take a lot of cold showers the past few days!” And He said, “Oh, I just kept a bowl of cold water in my lap and put a washcloth on my face and head when needed.” To which I added with a smile, “Well, I’m glad you figured something out to give you some relief.” The elderly gentleman went his way, down the aisle, and we both went the opposite way. I didn’t give him another thought to be honest, as we picked up a few more items.

However, while I was checking out, my husband, troubled of spirit, says to me, “I wonder how much a window air conditioner would be. I’d like to see if we can help him. I know I wouldn’t want to be without air in this heat.” We were awaiting upcoming heart surgery for him, and I knew he couldn’t either buy, lift, or install the air conditioner, so I said, “Well, why don’t you get his name, address, and phone and we will see what we can do for him. Maybe if we just give him money, he can work out those details.”

So, while I went out to the car with the groceries we got, my husband found him and told him we’d like to help him to get a window air conditioner, and for his information. But I guess the man insisted he was doing just fine, and he wouldn’t give Leonard any of his information, not wanting to trouble us. He refused our help.

This real-life, same-day, object lesson, taught me several things:

First, I realized, “I was not alert” – but my husband was – to this man’s clear expression of need!

On the way home, I thought to myself, “Wow, here was a man who made perfectly clear what his need was… but I was not alert or tuned in to my brother!” I had just gone about my business, focusing on my shopping!

Friends, I did not even have a nudge in my mind or spirit to go against. I was not alert, nor did the Holy Spirit alert me, even as we came away from the conversation! I’m so embarrassed to confess this. But it was so!

However, then my thoughts went to my husband, who was alert and was being nudged by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the verse of James 4:17 suddenly “applied to him”, which says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” He was the one who received the unction to help the man, so he would have gone against his own conscience had he not followed through to contact the man!

So, then a couple questions arose within my heart, as I pondered this whole scenario, knowing the good Lord had this happen right at the time of writing this chapter, so I would learn something!

Question #1: Was “being alert” making my husband then “more accountable” to God for his response to this man? I mean he knew to do right, so if he did it not, it would have been sin to him. His alertness troubled him; He knew a response was “expected of him”, “needed of him” and that “he could meet the need.” (Just as the Lord had spoken to me of the comrade… but, friends, my husband had no idea what I was writing in my office!)

So then Question #2: Was my being “not alert” making me “less accountable”? Because I was oblivious to the fact that this man had just expressed a need, and I really didn’t pick up on it, at all? I reasoned, if I never noticed the need, and the Spirit never poked me in my spirit to do something, how could I be held accountable? And yet I got a good swift kick in my mind, as I asked the question!

And the Spirit declared:

You just wrote this article, this far, and went to the store, and yet you were oblivious! Did you not even hear your own lesson? Are my people so dull that I can no longer speak and have them hear? (i.e. respond to what I’m saying?)

You just were shown the reason for this article! What happened to you cannot continue among my children! It must not!

I must have you all to become alert to one another’s needs, and not just your own!

It wasn’t until your husband spoke to you that you had your eyes opened to the fact that the man declared his need clearly! But you did not hear! You did not respond!

Immediately my thoughts went to a lesson I had written in my first book: “A Matter of Hearing”… and how God expects a response when we truly hear him.

I failed my test, for sure. But then, I also realized the failed test, was my lesson to communicate!

By sharing what happened, you, my readers, can realize what the Spirit of God is trying to communicate to His People. My husband and I are representative of God’s people… some oblivious, some responding.

But, Father, now another question!

Question 3: This man refused our help. He said he was just fine. He didn’t give us his information so we could take it further, and he was a stranger to us. So, what do we do when someone clearly presents their need, we respond to the need, but yet they don’t want help? What then?

Elizabeth, your inquiry is leading right into my next scripture for you, and what I want you and others to see:

Look at John 17:20-23 and tell me if you see my answer to your question:

20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Yes, I see. The heart of the Father and the heart of Christ is that Christians “Be One”. That we by this oneness of spirit, and operating as one in the world, will reveal to the world the reality of Christ! And the fact that God sent him!

It’s this communicating…this doing good and this communicating… that is to be SEEN BY THE WORLD and understood that it is Christ in us that is accomplishing these loving acts that we express one to another.

They are looking on, aren’t they…

Yes, Beth… that man, though he turned down your help… definitely saw your love and care for him. He saw you and your husband as one. He knows in his heart it was My Love for him being expressed. He was just okay not having help. No harm, only good, was done. Do you remember the words right before the words “to communicate forget not” in our passage Hebrews 13:16?

I sure do Lord. “But to DO GOOD and to communicate forget not”! I guess we were doing good, even if it didn’t carry out to its fullest conclusion, of all his needs met. We were expressing love and care…your love and care. It felt good Lord. And his need for love was met, regardless of whether his need for air conditioning was. Still, God, I pray that you do supply him with air conditioning. I know it made my husband feel good about things…i.e., that he did follow his heart. His “communication” was good. It was a sacrifice pleasing to you Lord. And my agreement with him pleased you too. This I know.

I have one more thing to say in conclusion:

The world communicates…But my children are forgetting to communicate with one another. This is why I command “To Communicate, Forget Not!”.

You are representing me; Therefore, you need to let one another know what is going on in your lives! The good, the bad, and the ugly!

…The good… that you can rejoice together when I come through for you!

…The bad… that you can reach out to one another to meet the needs!

…And the ugly… that you can forgive one another and get each other back on track! All this takes communicating!

To Communicate – forget not!

That is enough for this lesson. Let’s not make it hard.

Anyone who wants to pursue this further can approach me for more insight and I will open their eyes and hearts to truth.

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