Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
A year ago, I was drawn to the following scripture which was a beacon for me for approximately 7 months. As I looked at this scripture I made changes in my life that fit that scripture. (I quit bridge. I quit watching ESPN and competitions on TV. I removed personal achievements from my life in every way that I could see to do.)
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Gal. 6:14
I eliminated competitions from my life. I began eliminating anything from my life that would in any way cause me to "achieve". And God used this to change me as I made choices.
Also I had this scripture: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, Phil. 2
I whacked off anything that would make me seem "important" in any way. And I just kept whacking at this for many months.
After about a year of doing this regularly, I turned on TV one day to try to find something to watch while I ate my lunch. I came across a PGA golf tournament and thought I would watch it for a few minutes. As I sat there, I thought, "I don't want to watch this ..." and I turned the TV off. That was when I realized how very much I had been changed inside as a result of deliberately making myself of no reputation.
New Years Resolutions do not work because they are of our own will and that is not strong enough for real change.
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. 20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21(Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. Col. 2
But real change comes when God gives us a scripture and we think on that scripture, doing as instructed, choosing appropriate action to fit the scripture.
Such scriptures are beacons to us. I have a current beacon which is as follows: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. I Cor. 15:58
As I think on this I realize not to allow myself to be affected by feeling, by emotion. Hold fast to doing the work of God even when there are no concrete signs showing what I do actually helps anyone. But knowing that what I am currently doing is authored by God and not by myself, therefore my labor in the work will not be in vain for the work is truly authored by God. No matter how I might feel, clinging to doing the work. I also know as I keep thinking about this scripture daily it will greatly change me. It won't matter if I hear a good report from a human. And it will not matter if a human hates what I report. I will be neutral where both praise and condemnation are concerned, unaffected by either. All that really matters is do I believe God authored the work. And if I believe that, to continue to abound in the work.
If you have a scripture that seems to give you something to do, choices to make ... that might be the beacon for you at this point in time. But it make take weeks or even months before the reconstruction is done in you so as long as it seems to effect your choices on this earth, hold fast to doing it and keep it before you.
Our flesh does things which constructs brick walls of habit which rule our lives. The "beacon" scripture have the power to tear down these bricks one brick at a time as we keep doing the scripture. Then God rules our lives over our flesh.
Paul said ... Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I Cor. 9