<TITLE>07. Par 46-51</TITLE>L-46 May the Lord bless His Word. I want to, just for a few minutes, speak on: "Communion." What does the word "communion" mean? "Commune" means "to talk, to have to..." "Communion" really means "to have fellowship, talk with each other." If you talk on the phone to someone, you carry a conversation there, you are communing one with another. And if we should come aside and stand back in the back of the building, any individual and the pastor, or any two people, they are communing one with the other.

L-47 Now, you do not commune by radio, because you cannot talk back, or television. But when you can by telephone, because you are communing one to another; it just isn't one side. It is... I cannot commune with you now, because you do not talk back. So therefore, it would not be coming to hear a minister deliver his message. That would not be coming together to communing. Communion would not be that... If you come just to commune with the minister, you'd call him to one side, or any individual, and commune with him or she.
But to what we come into communion, is for each of us as individuals to commune with Christ. That is communing. Then communing is not altogether one doing the talking, us doing all the talking, but waiting and seeing what He says back to us.

L-49 Now, there's where, many times that we make our great mistakes is we do all the talking and don't wait and give Him a chance to answer back. We go sometimes, say, "Lord, I would that You would do so-and-so and so-and-so. Amen," and get up and leave. Now, that really isn't communing. That's going and asking a favor. But when you stay long enough until He answers back, that's when you're getting communion, communing with the Lord. Now, and a great way to commune is to be agreed; you must agree upon certain things. Now, and it's strange that sometimes when we get those things...
Eating is associated with it. Now, you take business people, when they want to make a business deal, they'll invite somebody out to dinner, and after they are set down and eat, and then talk with one another. A good salesman, usually he cannot talk to a person on an empty stomach. It's best to wait till he is feeling good, and then after he has his breakfast. Don't get up there and get him out of bed and tell him about something you got to sell him, but wait till he has his breakfast and--and is set all right in condition.

L-51 The other day, preaching on the woman that washed Jesus' feet... Up in Canada I was speaking this, saying that when a guest came to visit another person, this person had certain processes they had to go through before they were actually felt fit to come to visit or commune. A visit is a communing. Now, they would come to the... Invited, first you had to be invited. Then you would come to the door and the flunky would wash the feet, because travel, you had the smell of the--of the animals and so forth along the road. They all... The people traveled the same road with the animal, and--and then there was a smell and the dust, and the Palestinian garment picked it up and it settled on the sweat of the legs, and the face where it was uncovered, and--and on the hands. And--and they would catch them at the door, the flunky would, and would wash their feet. And then another man stood there with a towel and an--an alabaster, and they would sprinkle this alabaster on the hands, and they would rub it like this, and--and rub it over their face, then take a towel and wipe themselves off. That taken all the dirt and the smell. And it would have something in it that give a refreshening, like menthol, and it made them feel better.


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