Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
Isa. 25:1 ... O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
A few years ago, I played bridge. On Sunday afternoons, many came from their church groups to play bridge. Often I would hear individuals tell how wonderful their pastor is. I would hear them praise pastor's sermon. I would hear them praise their church and proudly tell the name of their church group. Never once did I hear anyone directly praise God. (Almost everyone in the Bridge Center attended a Christian type church.)
Sadly there have been people who have praised me and have diligently followed the teaching I present thinking they were following God. But so often I've learned that individuals were actually putting their faith in me. I always tried to stop them when I saw this.
These people who do this are not born again. They think they are born again for they were baptized. They gave tithes. They faithfully attended a church group or read what I wrote. But their faith so often was in pastor, in me, in their church group, in their own attendance at church, in their tithing. But faith in God is something entirely different from these things.
Do you speak of what I have written? Or do you see past all this and know that the words I have written came from God and therefore you praise God rather than me?
In the OT, they praised Moses for the manna. John 6 ... They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? 31Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. Jn. 6
I love the apostle Paul. Sometimes I have to get hold of myself and focus on the fact that God gave Paul all that he wrote. Paul is a servant of God because God selected Paul to be a servant of God. None of it had to do with Paul. It was all God's will.
We have to see the unseen which is the source of the river. And we praise the unseen (God) rather than the seen.
We praise the creator rather than the created.
When I see great mountains on TV shows, I see God behind these mountains and I begin to praise God who caused these mountains. When I look into the sky and see stars, I see God behind the stars, knowing God created all this.
When we see and hear good things, we should also be able to see God behind the good rather than the human speaking the good. But most see the human and praise the human.
So who is our "God"? The created or the creator?
Is our faith in God ... or is it in pastor or other religious people.
Can we really pray to God and trust HIM? Or do we always want someone else to pray, trusting in them and in their faith.
If we belong to God, we can pray directly to God. If our faith is not in God, then we will have to find someone to pray for us.
So do you really have faith in God and praise HIM. Or is your faith in a human that you consider to be godly?