I am glad Carol shared her experience because it is the type of relationship
Jesus wants with all of His children.  Everyone is individualize and there
is no one on the planet, nor has there ever been, nor shall there ever be,
who Jesus sees as you.  Sometimes we need to pray with someone because we
cannot get to where we need to go due to the pain, or a blockage of unknown
origin, or simply because the circumstances are overwhelmingly loud.
Accountability is an absolute in relationship to maintaining the Spirit
filled life according to Ephesians 5:21 which says, Submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God.  Without this accountability, a church
cannot function wholly and complete as an effectived Body of Believers.  For
example, when I was an assistant pastor and youth pastor in western
Colorado, the pastor told me once while we were alone in the church, I think
we were in his office, that he had a problem.  I asked him what it was and
he said it had to do with the new addition we had just built on the back of
the old building.  The old church building had been built in 18 90 so we
built on a large addition that served for sunday school classes and a
fellowship hall.  Later we start a Christian school with about 30 to 35
students.  The pastor was a carpenter and could build about anything.  He
had planned and blue printed the addition to the church, estimated the total
cost, and he and several men built the addition to save labor costs.  He
forgot one thing and that was insulation for above the ceiling.  The walls
were ok but he ran out and could not properly insulate the above ceiling
area.  Our heating bills that winter went literally through the roof.  So, I
said, what's the problem.  Let's buy some insulation and get the job done
before we freeze to death.  He said, Well, it isn't that easy.  What do you
mean, I asked.  Well, he said sheepishly, since I drew up the plans and
estimated the total cost, I underestimated the amount we borrowed from the
bank.  So, I replied, what about it?  Well, the pastor said, we don't have
any more money to buy any.  I don't get it, I replied.  I don't understand
the problem.  How much is the insulation?  He told me.  It was like a
thousand dollars.  So, then, I suggested, let's go to the bank and get the
extra money and finish the job.  The pastor then told me that since the
whole thing had been his idea, as far as building supplies and all, that he
felt people would be upset that he screwed up.  Pastor, I said, aren't you
forgetting something?  What's that? he asked.  You may be our pastor, I
said, but shepherds are sheep, too.  You aren't just a pastor, you're a
sheep, too.  Bring the board members in here, explain what you just told me,
say you screwed up, and they'll love you even more for being honest.  I
said, if you try and bury this, people will be hurt that you didn't come to
them.  The next week, one of the elders and I went down to the bank, sat in
a Christian loan officer's office, explained the problem, he laughed, wrote
up the papers, and we walked out with the money.  It was a whole lot warmer
a week after that, too.  You think I have gotten off the track but I
haven't.  Accountability is for everybody.  Any time a pastor, church
member, missionary, deacon or elder, forgets the basics of our relationship
with God through Jesus Christ, or how that equates in a local New Testament
church government, we end up with problems way bigger than we can
understand.  This applies to any relationship of any type.  Submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God.  Sometimes it seems God
orchestrates events because He wants to get us alone so He can talk over
what we are facing.  The ultimate submission, therefore, is to the Lord.
What a wonderful picture of that Carol experienced.

Phil.