Prophetic Burden Bearing: It’s a Gift, Right?

In the last post I shared about bearing one another’s burdens, what it is—and what it isn’t. I briefly mentioned a different kind of burden bearing, and today I wanted to take a deeper dive into it.

Prophetic burden bearing. This is VERY different from letting Christ bear our sin and wounds and exchanging them for something fruitful and valuable. This is also VERY different from supporting one another through life’s twists and turns and growth processes. Very, very different.

I honestly don’t remember the first time I experienced it. I know I was a kid and was COMPLETELY CLUELESS. It would go something like this: I would pick up heart issues (and sometimes physical ones) from So-and-so and briefly internalize them as my own. At some point later, I’d find out that So-and-so also struggled in that area, and with that knowledge, instantly, “my issue” disappeared. It was weird. And happened over and over and over again. I remember thinking I was going crazy and couldn’t trust myself.

As I matured both mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, I became aware that—as weird as it was—I was actually feeling someone else’s heart or physical ailments! And, I hate to say this, but at first I was like God, what’s up? Because it didn’t feel good! It hurt! It was heavy! And if I was going through a rough patch, it seemed to make it worse! I felt weighed down by bowling balls and boulders as I attempted to carry their burdens along with my own. (And it doesn’t help that a lot of people think you’re weird. And sometimes tell you.)

It took time. It took training from a wonderful, wise prophetess with more maturity and experience. It took leaning in to the Holy Spirit and the Bible, but eventually it clicked. It was a gift! I just had to learn how to use it.

First, I had to flip around my perspective on the Why? Why would God enable me to sense something in someone else? For one, as powerful as empathy is, empathy is still my experience and perspective of someone else’s emotions. But prophetic burden bearing is actually experiencing and feeling just as they do. And as I learned to embrace the burden bearing aspect of the prophetic gift God gave me, I found that I also experienced God’s heart for that person. It was like I became a conduit that harbored both the person’s heart and God’s heart. A connection point. (Full disclosure: this experience can be very overwhelming, and I often cry. Just being honest.)

So again, Why? As always, the answer is the love and freedom found on the cross. (see 1 John 4:7 and Galatians 5:1). Therefore, if God is showing me something, He wants to do something in that person’s life, and He is giving me a snapshot into His heart and their heart so I can more effectively intercede. That led me to a second question. What?

What it is that God wants to do? Is it affirm? Encourage? Release blessing? Healing? Freedom? A gift? Does He want to break something off so He can bring a breakthrough into their lives? Because this burden bearing gift is NOT for self-righteous judgment or condemnation! It’s part of the prophetic gifting, so ultimately, it falls under the guidelines for prophetic ministry as found in 1 Corinthians 14:3—edify, exhort, and comfort.

When I did this, when I flipped around the experience of burden bearing and saw it as a gift rather than as…well…a burden, it no longer felt like a burden! It felt like an honor. God was entrusting me to feel His heart deeply and to reveal something—usually personal and private—about someone else’s heart. God was entrusting me to feel deeply with pinpoint accuracy so I could more effectively intercede and see breakthrough. What a privilege!

But there was more. Remember how I said this burden bearing could make my rough patches worse? Yep. And flipping perspectives on the gift didn’t quite fix that. But God’s healing did. If picking up someone else’s heart issue made a heart issue in me worse…well…then I had a heart issue that needed to be dealt with. I began to see those particular experiences as opportunities for God to do a deeper work in me to bring healing and wholeness. After all, we can’t minister out of our wounds. Not well anyway. And He did (and continues to do so, I’m still on this side of heaven)!

God is love, and He is faithful! As He brought deeper measures of healing, an inexplicable peace and joy began to fill the deepest reservoirs in my soul. And as that happened, the burden bearing no longer interacted with my own issues, and carrying God’s heart and someone else’s heart prophetically no longer felt like I was trying to lug around a couple of boulders. Oh, it’s still intense, but it’s not heavy. It’s not heavy because I know that I know that I know that it’s God Who is enabling, empowering, and completing, I just get to have the joy and honor of partnering with Him in His work.