THE ADVANTAGE OF A HANDICAP!--#2
DO 1937
6/85
--Make Your Handicap a Blessing!
1. I GOT A WONDERFUL REVELATION ABOUT SOMETHING JUST THIS MORNING because of a very sad letter from Uriah & Sharai about their son Zion, the deaf boy, who is now 11, the one we wrote the two or three famous Letters about, "Are You Deaf?", "Afflicted Parents" etc. (Nos. 1040, 1112) We got a very pitiful letter from the father saying they've gone to the mission field, they've done everything they possibly can & tried to obey the Letters & obey the Lord etc., & in spite of everything the boy's still deaf.
2. IN FACT, THEY WERE SO DISCOURAGED THEY WERE THINKING ABOUT SENDING HIM BACK INTO THE CESSPOOL OF INIQUITY OF THE UNITED STATES TO ATTEND SOME SECULAR GODLESS SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF! The father himself said he was a little shocked when the idea came to him, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought that maybe that was best for Zion & their other children & the Lord's work, where Zion could be with other deaf children & get a financial allotment for his support from the State--in other words, be supported by the State in such a school--& then wouldn't be such a burden on the parents in the mission field where they're trying to be missionaries.
3. THEY APPARENTLY HAVE BEEN SO ASHAMED OF HIM, thinking he's a bad testimony to their failure, they have even been keeping him home from meetings & fellowship with others. Isn't that pitiful?--Terrible! Meanwhile the father has been spending most of his time teaching the boy & ministering to him, even staying home with him etc. while the mother & the other children would go out to minister & witness etc.
4. NO WONDER HE'S DISSATISFIED IF THEY WON'T LET HIM FELLOWSHIP & WON'T TAKE HIM ALONG & TREAT HIM LIKE OTHERS! No wonder he's a little rebellious & has become a little dissatisfied. When you are so self-centered & selfish that you think only of yourself & your own problems & your own trials & testings & tribulations & handicaps & you become introverted, that'll kill you! It's horrible!
5. (MARIA: I THINK WE'VE GOT TO GIVE THEM THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT & TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHY THEY WERE WILLING TO CONSIDER SENDING HIM BACK TO THE STATES. They were desperate to get an answer from the Lord, & they were looking to the Word they already had, & it does seem like the situation you described in "Incurable" (See No.1113) did in many respects apply. He has been very difficult to handle & has resulted in their having to neglect their other five children.)
6. I'LL ADMIT IT WAS A VERY DEPRESSING & PUZZLING LETTER & REALLY DISCOURAGING. They'd done everything I told them to do, what God expected them to do. The husband & wife both know sign language, the father is fluent in sign language. They feel like the boy interferes with their ministry. They'd like to go to Meaningful Meetings, they'd like to minister & be missionaries, but he interferes & misbehaves.
7. SO I PRAYED--I HAVE TO ASK GOD FOR ANSWERS FOR TOUGH CASES LIKE THAT--& IT CAME TO ME JUST LIKE A PICTURE, JUST AS CLEAR AS ANYTHING! I could see them in one of those schools for deaf children there on the field, ministering & teaching them through Posters! Think what a wonderful Message of encouragement they could give that nobody else can give! They could have the Posters lined up & explain it to them in sign language.
8. MY GOODNESS, BEETHOVEN WAS STONE DEAF, COULDN'T HEAR A SOUND, & YET HE WROTE SYMPHONIES! Think of it! Uriah & Sharai, don't you understand how God has gifted you! It's such a rare gift to be able to be fluent in sign language!--And here you've had all of our training & all of our teaching & you know the Message & the doctrine & you've got all those Posters that the deaf kids can see & you can explain to them. Wouldn't that be a thrill!
9. LOOK WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU! ALL THIS TIME YOU'VE BEEN IN TRAINING! (Tongues:) "Thank You Lord for these things that Thou hast revealed unto their Father & given unto Thy Servant David!" Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! The Lord is so faithful! God has had you in these years of teaching & training & learning that skill, now it's time for you to put it to work & minister to the deaf! You could have meetings for them in their schools & orphanages & homes & places like that! What a marvellous ministry God can give you! What a rare gift!
10. NOW YOU NEED TO BEGIN TO THINK ABOUT OTHERS! Get your minds off of yourselves & what a burden your son is & start ministering to others! You of all people can understand their problem, & can even minister to their parents! Many of the parents of these deaf children are perfectly normal people. Just think what an empathy you can have with parents of other deaf children & how you can minister to them & comfort them with the same comfort wherewith you yourselves are comforted! (2Cor.1:4) What a ministry you can have, not only to the deaf children, but to their parents!
11. JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE IS HANDICAPPED GOD DOESN'T JUST THROW'M ON THE SCRAP HEAP! Think of some of the greatest Saints of God who ever lived who have had severe handicaps. The Apostle Paul apparently had dim eyesight. Helen Keller became a great minister of encouragement & example to those who were both deaf, dumb & blind! She could not hear nor see, & for years she couldn't even speak. Because she couldn't hear she hadn't learned to talk, think of that! But it took a sweet Christian nurse on whom God put the burden of real love & concern for her to figure some way of trying to teach her to talk, & she learned not only to talk, but to write! She could even enjoy music by putting her hand on the piano & feeling the vibrations.
12. SHE BECAME A VERY GREAT WRITER & WORLD-FAMOUS! She never ever got to hear, the Lord let her remain deaf all her life. But she did learn to speak, although she couldn't even hear her own voice except its vibration in her head. And she learned to write & read Braille & had a tremendous ministry to encourage millions of deaf & dumb & blind throughout the World that they didn't have to be useless, they didn't have to be discouraged & just give up just because they had such severe handicaps.
13. SO JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE A HANDICAP DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU CAN'T SERVE THE LORD! I was actually handicapped & I still have a crippled arm. My left hand is not very useful. But as a result my right arm & hand became extremely strong & very dextrous! I have much greater dexterity with my right hand than my left. My left hand can do very little. So I'm literally a cripple, I have a crippled arm & hand, but as a result my right hand became extremely strong!
14. SO THESE WHO HAVE SUCH A RARE TALENT OF BEING FLUENT IN SIGN LANGUAGE, think what a blessing that could be, what a ministry they could have! I mean, how few people in the World even have that gift & that skill?--And how many fewer people in the World are preaching the Gospel with it!--And how rare, almost we used to say as hen's teeth, are people in our Family like that!--I think these are the only ones that are fluent in sign language, the only ones I've heard of.--And who have our Message & our Posters for them to look at & explain, such a wonderful Message about Heaven & how if the deaf don't get healed here, they're going to have hearing There & a lot more! What a ministry they could have!
15. THIS WAS SUCH AN ANSWER I GOT!--I never dreamed of such a thing about Zion & his parents. I just prayed, "Lord, what in the World is wrong, why don't You heal that boy?" And just as clear as anything a picture came to me, "Now's the time, you've been prepared, now you can go out & do it!"
16. I BET IF YOU'D GET STARTED YOU'D REALLY BE IN DEMAND! The Lord would bless you, you know that, & would support you. I'd be willing to offer a contribution for your support as a special ministry that really needs help & support! I'd be willing to help you if you would have a real sacrificial ministry like that to the deaf! That's a ministry worth supporting, praise the Lord! That's one way to find out about Zion, to see if he can get a burden for doing it.
17. MAYBE YOU NEED TO CAST A DEMON OUT WHICH COULD BE CAUSING THE DEAFNESS & THE WHOLE WORKS, A BAD SPIRIT! Well, we could give him one last chance, that either he snaps out of it or you have a little exorcism & get it out of him & launch into a ministry where he's not so introverted & selfish & just worried about his own problem, but really launch out into a ministry for others. (Maria: Because then, he'd have to be a good sample. He couldn't be bad there!) And if that didn't do it, well then, all right, send him away! So that's the answer, & whether the boy yields to it or not or whether they can get him exorcised or not, that's neither here nor there, the picture is true! (Maria: Yes, it was for the parents' ministry mostly.) Yes, for the parents & the rest of their family. If he is not going to get rid of that spirit & yield to the Lord's Will, then this will give him his last chance & then they can let him go.
18. SO YOU WHO HAVE SUCH A RARE SKILL, THINK HOW YOU CAN USE IT! Think of what an advantage this handicap is to you, to be able to minister to others that have the same! That's the advantage of a handicap, & I think perhaps a lot of people need that. I'm sure that God must have allowed some people to have handicaps so that they would have a heart & a mind & a soul & a burden & a love for others who have the same disability & the same handicap, & so that they would try to help them & minister to them, "For we comfort others with the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted." (2Cor.1:4)
19. DON'T YOU SYMPATHISE MORE WITH SOMEBODY WHO HAS THE SAME PROBLEM? Can't you understand them better than somebody who's never experienced it? Other people may be kind to you, other people may sympathise, other people may try to understand & love you & help you, but you know that nobody can ever understand what you're going through except someone who has gone through the same thing himself, or is going through the same thing, or has the same kind of handicap, or a handicap. Then you can really sympathise.--Like Jesus did for us!
20. BUT WITH NO OUTLET FOR HIS TALENT, NO MINISTRY, NOT REALISING HOW USEFUL HE COULD BE & only worrying about himself, introverted, always worrying about his own handicap, his own problem, no wonder he's discouraged! Don't you really get discouraged when you look at yourself? I know I have! I'm a mess! If I worried about my problems & what a mess I am & my failures & my sins & how bad I am, I'd really get discouraged!
21. SO AREN'T YOU GLAD THAT YOU'RE NOT AS SEVERELY HANDICAPPED AS SOMEBODY ELSE? All of us have some handicap, believe it or not! We all have a handicap of some kind, we're all handicapped with sin, shortcomings, weaknesses, failures & mistakes, all of us! That's why Jesus had to die for us, because we're handicapped with sin, all of us! But we all have a handicap that the Lord has allowed us to have, sin, first of all so we would know we needed Him, & then so we would also know that others need us.
22. AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU'RE HANDICAPPED SO YOU CAN SYMPATHISE WITH THE HANDICAPS OF OTHERS? Haven't you all had some sin, some drawback, something whereby you sympathised with other young people, even hippies & drug addicts, because you'd been through the same thing & you found the answer in Jesus? Aren't you glad the Lord let you go through that in order to know how it feels to be like that, how hopeless & discouraged you were, how empty you were & how seeking you were, how needy you were, to know how they feel & to have a love & sympathy for them to want to help & save them? Isn't that why you really joined the Family?--First of all as an answer to your needs, & then you began to see that the same answer that satisfied you was just what all the rest of them needed!
23. THE PICTURE CAME SO CLEARLY: I COULD SEE THEM ON A PLATFORM EXPLAINING THE POSTERS TO THESE DEAF CHILDREN! Isn't that beautiful?--And their other children were there too, showing how they could minister & sing. Even if they can't hear them, they can see the happy expression on our children's faces! The joy, the light, the love & the happiness on their faces is a testimony in itself, even if the deaf can't hear or understand a word!--The fact that they can be happy even though they've got a deaf big brother, this shows that their families can be happy even though they've got a deaf child! What an example! What a wonderful encouraging sample of how to be happy though deaf, how to be happy though handicapped, & Who can make you happy, & with a vision of all the happiness ahead in Heaven!
24. THIS FAMILY CAN GO TO DEAF SCHOOLS & DEAF HOMES & DEAF ORPHANAGES! There are oodles of them everywhere! Just think of all those pitiful little children who are just waiting for them to come with the Answer, with the Gospel, the Good News of God's Love, that there's Someone in this World, in this life, in these Heavens that's the answer to all your problems, even though deaf!
25. WHAT A MINISTRY THEY CAN HAVE, & HERE THEY'VE HAD YEARS NOW TO PREPARE FOR IT! I'm sure they didn't know they were preparing for it, they don't know it yet, I just got the vision! God has now given them years of training & experience in the Lord & His ministry.--Now they've gotta use it!
26. DON'T GO CRYING ON YOUR OWN SHOULDER & ON GOD'S SHOULDER & SOMEBODY ELSE'S SHOULDER ABOUT YOUR HANDICAP & lamenting about "my trial, my besetting sin, my thorn in the flesh", blah blah blah blah! Get your eyes off yourself & your mind off yourself & start passing onto others the answers that God has given you through your trial, the lessons He taught you through your handicap, the experiences you've had with a similar handicap & the victory you gained through Jesus & His Love!--Amen? He's the answer to everything, right? No matter what your handicap is, no matter how wicked a sinner you are or how bad you've been or how many mistakes you make or think you make!
27. THE ONLY THING I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND WAS WHY THE LORD DIDN'T DELIVER THESE GOOD PEOPLE WHO ARE REALLY TRYING TO BE MISSIONARIES & SERVE THE LORD, & THIS GOOD BOY WITH THIS HANDICAP. He wasn't born deaf, but he got sick when he was a baby with spinal meningitis, & it resulted in deafness. Well, they said the first verse I ever gave them was that this disease was not caused by either the sins of the parents or of the child, but that God might be glorified. Well, I didn't even remember giving them that verse, but I can see that it could really be true now that it wasn't their fault that the child became deaf.
28. BUT NOW I SEE CLEARLY THAT EVEN THOUGH IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN PARTIALLY THEIR FAULT, & even though it has caused them to repent & be greatly humbled & desire to serve the Lord & has undoubtedly drawn them closer to God because of this trial, this handicap, nevertheless, now it can be for the glory of God & a great blessing & a ministry to others! I wrote them, "Get your mind off yourselves, quit worrying about yourselves & your problem & make this thing an advantage instead of a handicap!"
29. SO TURN YOUR HANDICAP INTO AN ADVANTAGE! Having dealt with it & conquered it & found the answer, God can turn around & use it for His glory! If He doesn't deliver you from it, then He must want you to use it for some reason, so that perhaps you can go out & comfort others with the same comfort with which you yourself are comforted, even though not delivered.
30. WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO DO IS GET YOUR MIND OFF YOURSELF! And if God has taught you some things through such disabilities & weaknesses & handicaps, or even sins or problems or trials, ask the Lord to give you the victory, & even if He won't completely deliver you, there must be a reason for it. You can go to someone else & say, "Well look, I'm still not delivered from this thorn in the flesh, but it helps keep me humble & I can still serve the Lord." Paul's thorn in the flesh never kept him from serving the Lord. He fought a good fight, he finished the course, he kept the faith! (2Tim.4:7)
31. THE ADVANTAGE OF A HANDICAP! Aren't you glad you were all sinners? Let's face it, aren't you glad you're still all sinners so you can sympathise with other sinners & tell them how to be saved, the only way to be saved!--Not by trying not to be a sinner, not by trying to be good, not by going to church, not by looking self-righteous & holier-than-thou & so prim & good & clean, & you don't do this & you don't do that & you don't do something else, a religion consisting of don'ts!--But by telling them what to do & how to do it: Just take Jesus, that's all you have to do, & He'll do it all through you!--With your cooperation, of course. You just do what He tells you to do & He'll help you do it. PTL?--Even if you have a handicap!
32. HE CAN USE THAT HANDICAP TO HIS GLORY! If He doesn't heal you, then ask Him to use it! Don't be ashamed of it, tell other people about it! Say, "Well, I had herpes too, but God healed me."--Or, "I've still got herpes but I still love the Lord & I still love you & I still want to tell you about Jesus!"
33. JUST THINK WHAT A MARVELLOUS ADVANTAGE & SKILL IT IS TO BE ABLE TO SOW SEED WITH YOUR FINGERS IN SIGN LANGUAGE to the deaf who otherwise might never hear, & certainly would maybe never understand these beautiful pictures we're passing out unless you explain'm!--Especially if they're young children who never learned to read & can't read the backings, which you can explain to them! PTL! Wouldn't that be a wonderful ministry? Wouldn't you love to see Uriah & Sharai & Zion, their 11-year-old boy, & their other five kids go out to these homes for the deaf & schools for deaf children & show the Posters & tell'm about Jesus & show'm how much He loves'm because He sent them there with sign language to show'm? Praise God! What a ministry!
34. SO IF YOU CAN'T GET RID OF YOUR HANDICAP, then take advantage of it, use it for God's glory somehow. He must want you to have it for some reason, so use it! TTL! Amen? GBY!--And use your handicap for Jesus!--Love, D.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family