Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
On my birthday, worldly people surfaced. They are taught to do something ... to send birthday cards ... to make phone call ... to do something! And they did. Unfortunately they are only led by their flesh and the worthless ways of their ancestors. (The flesh profits nothing ... Jn. 6:63 Jesus said: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.)
I received a phone call from a woman from the little village where I lived as a child. She and another woman there were born one month before me. She always contacts me on birthday. She is very concerned about me for I have no husband, no children, don't go any place, seem to her to be alone. She is married and has 2 children and several grandchildren. She is leader in her church group (Methodist), leading in community dinners and activities. Leader in local affairs. Leader in the local school activities, dinners and such. She is very busy. But she is as a person who is dead! Everything she spoke to me was death. (I begged God to restore me after she called.) Of course, she does not know she is dead. She thinks she is doing good works. She is exactly like one of my cousins who only speaks secular things though she has been Church of Christ member all her life. She, too is dead, speaking only things of relatives and such. Speaking nothing at all of the Spirit of God. Dead people are everywhere! Though they think they have full lives, but their lives are full of death.
Jn. 6:53 ... Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
You can be a member of a church group and have no life in you. You can do all manner of church works and have no life in you.
To have life, you must love THE WORD OF GOD. You only have life when you eat the flesh of THE WORD and drink the blood of THE WORD. This is the only way to life.
Most people are dead though they faithfully attend church services. You could read the writings we do and be dead.
You must personally eat the Word of God and drink the blood of the Word of God and apply the Word of God to your own life. You have to shop for your own food by reading the Bible and by meditating and apply specific scriptures to you life. And each of us should do this every day of our lives. For this is life to us. We must shop for spiritual food in way we shop for natural food. We go out to grocery and look for the food we want to eat that day and we prepare it and eat it. If we failed to eat natural foods we would deteriorate and perish.
The same is true with spiritual food. We will grow weak and sick and dead inside if we fail to hunt for the Word of God and eat the Word of God in a proper manner, applying such to our lives daily.
Paul explains in I Cor. 11 ... For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. 27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
Paul is not speaking of eating crackers and drinking grape juice at church gatherings. Paul is speaking of eating and drinking THE WORD OF GOD in a proper way. This is THE LORD'S SUPPER. Crackers and grape juice have no power to change you into the image of God. You eat them and stay the same. THE WORD OF GOD has power to change you into the image of God if you do it properly. If you fail to handle the WORD OF GOD properly you bring "damnation" to yourself. (v. 29) You will not grow in the Lord without eating and drinking the WORD OF GOD in proper manner. You will simply grow weak and sickly as you read Bible unless you handle that which you read properly. (v. 30) And we need to do this every day, just as we pay attention to our natural food every day. This is not something just for Sunday.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." (Mt. 6) Some people consider that physical food. It is both physical and spiritual, but especially spiritual.
Jesus even said: Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. Jn. 6:27
It is a "labor" for spiritual food ... We must make time daily for Bible. We calmly sit down with a good heart and look for scripture which attracts us that specific day. We look deeply into that scripture which we find. We then apply it to our life as best we can. And we keep on doing it daily, "continuing" in His Word. For then are we HIS disciples in deed. Jn. 8:32
(Several years ago, when I moved to where my mother lived, I sent writings to this woman who called me on birthday. She asked me not to send any more writings so I stopped sending them.)