Do you think this philosophy of selling belongings to ensure all needs were met was communism? How does knowing the Holy Spirit was involved affect your answer?
How might someone in a consumerist, individualistic society attempt to replicate this? Is it even possible? If you knew the Holy Spirit is in the midst of this effort, how might this affect your answer?
What might you do right now to model this on a small level? What do you think you could do if you fully trusted the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit was guiding you in your efforts?
I do not think that this is an example of communism. Communism was invented in the late 19th century and involves a lot of class centered violence in its rise to power. The described community is communal and has some similarities to communism but that term is not applicable. Communism is often misunderstood in our current context and many do not understand that extermination of the middle class is part of the rise of the working class in communist doctrine. People idealize it because it sounds like everyone sharing and being equal but that is not communism. Communal living and even tribal societies are not communist even if they share all possessions. Sorry for that my History degree involved reading Marx way more than I ever wanted and when people conflate communism and communalism it bothers me because of the extreme violence communism has caused in its many iterations across our world. Communism has murdered many times more people than even the Nazis. Minor rant over.
In a consumerist community it happens all the time. think of every donation you have ever seen in a church in our society. Even in poor nations across the globe people band together to help one another and donate their goods to one another. Charity is a virtue in every society I have ever heard of and most of our world is a consumer society at this point. Could we be better? Probably yes, but its not like it does not exist.
I started a homeless person blessing bag program at the church I interned at and it is still being maintained at this time. We prepare bags with some food, toothbrushes, water, socks, feminine hygiene products, and depending on the season other goods like winter hats and sunscreen. This is a minor example of people giving up their own goods and money to help people in need.