Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
After I was born again, someone came to me and told me I had to attend church.
I replied: "I do?"
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Certainly God had not told me to do this. But I was about 37 at the time I was born again and everyone in churches was more experienced that I was so I went to the church this friend was attending.
The pastor was doing a series of "lectures" on speaking in tongues and how tongues were of the devil.
I really didn't care anything about the subject of speaking in tongues one way or another. I was bored when I went to these services but I went to them. I don't remember anything about them except that church leadership was against tongues.
At one point while attending this church I saw the following scripture: James 5 ... 14Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
I had gotten sick so I called the church office and told them I was sick and I needed to meet with the elders of the church as per James 5 and have them pray over me and anoint me with oil. There was dead silence on the other end of the line. Later the church secretary called me and told me she had passed my request on to the leadership of the church and she said in about 2 weeks the elders were going to have a meeting and they would discuss my case. (I could have been dead by then.) This church was a fundamental Bible church from Dallas Theological Seminary. It was a church in doctrine somewhere between Baptist and Church of Christ. I never heard from them again. A few days after calling them, I got well. God raised me up.
Then one day I was reading the Bible. I saw the following concerning what we are to do when we gather as the church.
Paul said: I Cor. 14 ... 26How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 27If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. 28But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. 29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. 30If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. 31For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. 32And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
34Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 35And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
36What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? 37If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. 38But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. 39Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. 40Let all things be done decently and in order.
I really didn't care a hoot about tongues at that time one way or another ... But I very much cared about what the Bible said.
Here I was attending a church which taught tongues were of the devil and Paul was saying in the Bible forbid not to speak with tongues.
I certainly wasn't going to attend a church where they taught something opposite to the Bible so I left that church immediately and never went back.
One day, I was riding in a car with my best friend who attended that church and told me I had to attend a church. I said to Donna, "OH by the way ... did you know Paul said "forbid not to speak with tongues" ?
Donna replied: :"What?"
I had a small Bible of NT which I kept in my purse. Donna pulled the car to the side of the road and said: "Let me see that ..."
I showed it to her. I was using the King James Version of the Bible.
Donna said: "Let's go to my house and look it up in other translations of the Bible." (she had several different translations at her house)
It was the same in every translation of the Bible
I said: "I'm not going to that church anymore."
Donna said she wasn't either.
I think her husband might have been a little upset but she stopped going to that church that taught against tongues.
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After that, I followed another friend to Beverly Hills Baptist church. (This friend was considered by our prayer group to be very spiritual.) That church was a "charismatic" Baptist church. I don't recall anyone speaking in a tongues but they didn't speak against it. It was a very big church ... over 3000 members ...
At one point, I went to visit with the pastor. I can't recall exactly what I asked him but I do recall his shocked reply: He said: "You'd have to be a spiritual giant to do that." (I was doing "that" all the time, about like breathing in an out. It seemed automatic to me.)
I don't recall anything else about that church.
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After that my friend who seemed spiritual to everyone in the prayer group, switched to a faith movement church called Word of Faith. Robert Tilton was the pastor. (If you want a real jolt, type Robert Tilton in Google and read the Wickipedia article.)
Bob was kind of a salesman type person ... very handsome ... wonderful "fun" personality ... pretty country type ...(not the type of person I was used to) ...
During the services Bob often spoke a doctrine concerning prosperity and how we could gain prosperity. I felt it didn't pertain to me but he was speaking some scripture during his sermons so I decided I could copy down the scripture and study those when I got home. I never missed a service. I went Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evenings, and to all special services. They had many "special" services with visiting speakers. I don't remember anything any of these special speakers said. But I did continue to copy scriptures they quoted and study those scriptures.
During that time, God gave me a dream ... it was about poison gas ...
In
this dream, I went into a room where a meeting was going on. There was
one vacant seat on the aisle and I sat down and began listening to a
man who was speaking to the group. Another man rushed and went to the front of the room and said, "Stop ... wait ... can't you see ... It's too late! It's already begun."The
first man resumed speaking to the group. I looked out the window and
was shocked at what I saw. There was a tall, civil defense type pole
with a yellow warning speaker on top of the pole. Out of the speaker
was coming a poison gas. I knew it would kill the people and
shockingly the gas was coming from our own speaker which was supposed to
warn us. I looked at the man who was sitting next to me. He was
sitting upright. He had a big smile on his face. He was looking
directly at the speaker in an attentive way. But this man was a corpse. He was dead though he looked alive. Then
I looked at people around the room and they were already dead also.
And as I sat back in my seat, I felt myself falling asleep, dying as I
listened to the speaker.
God showed me that in this dream HE was showing me what is going on in the churches.
I still didn't see anything wrong at Word of Faith.
Then one Wednesday night, Bob was speaking as usual and I looked at the man sitting next to me and he looked like a corpse. I looked about the room and the other people looked dead to me. (They looked exactly like the dead people in that poison gas dream.)
I got up and went to rest room and began talking to God. I said to God: "I think you are telling me to leave this church group. I'm going to drive away. But if You want me to return, I'll come back."
After I left God began showing me some of the doctrine professed by that faith movement. First HE showed me the following. They taught that all good is from God and all bad is from the devil. Sounds right. But then God took me to the following scripture: Jesus was hanging on a cross. Jesus gave up the ghost. After that there was an earthquake: Mt 27 ... 54Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
Earthquakes destroy property. Earthquakes are "bad" ... right? But doesn't God send earthquakes ... and hail ... and wind ... and tornadoes ... Then how can this be that they are "bad" when God is the author?
Didn't the centurion and they that were watching Jesus turn to God after they saw the earthquake. That is what it seems to say in Mt. 27.
So how can the earthquake be bad?
With that, God began unraveling the faith movement doctrine and I came to see the teaching was basically that all good is from God and all bad is from devil and we as believers have authority over the devil. First there is the assumption that we as human can tell what is good and what is bad.
Next, concerning having authority over such things as storms, (which was being taught at the Faith Movement church that I attended) I began to wonder how it was that a storm could hit when all these big faith movement people had authority over such. And if their faith is so great, why didn't they stop it?
Unknown to me at the time, my "spiritual" friend that I had followed to that faith movement church had left. And our Sunday school teacher at that church, Don Gelino, had left. At one point I spoke with Don. I said: "I didn't know I was different from them... I always thought I was like them." (Except I didn't care for that prosperity message and it never seemed to pertain to me.)
Don replied: "Joan ... you were never like them."
I said: "I wasn't?"
My "spiritual friend" said she was worse off when she left that church than she was when she came to it.
During the time I was attending that faith movement church I had another bit of insight.
We had a very bad ice storm in Dallas. I couldn't get to church. So I walked to Highland Park Methodist Church which was a little over a block from my apartment. As I walked there, I noticed the cars that obviously belonged to the people that attended Highland Park Methodist Church. There were numerous expensive cars... Mercedes, BMW, Cadillacs ... I thought, "How can this be?" Those people don't know anything about God, yet they were obviously so rich. While many of the faith movement people seemed to be so poor. The prosperity message likely appealed to poorer people since there was a prospect of becoming rich in material goods. (fulfilling covetousness) This all seemed very strange to me.
In the meantime, I find more and more money coming to me and more things around me than I've ever had ... but I'm not trying to get more money or things and I wasn't applying the faith movement message on prosperity, yet I kept prospering.
But what I was doing ever since being born were the following scriptures ...
Psalm 1 ... 1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Joshua 1:8 ... 8This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Along the way, Don had noticed this. He said they talked about faith but the one he thought who really had faith and lived it was me. All I was doing was believing the Bible, keeping the Word of God before me day and night, doing what the scripture brought to my mind said to do ... and continuing to do this.
Several months before I had left Word of Faith, God had made it clear to me that I was called and set in the body of Christ as apostle/prophet. (Eph. 4) ... And in the night, what I believed to be an angel of God spoke three words to me: "Hartford, Seattle, KWJS" ... and I ended up doing exhortations on a radio broadcast (KWJS) 5 days a week/30 min. per day. And I had a great many people seeking me out as a result of those teachings on radio.
God had given me a gift of exhortation for the church and had taught me not to plan out anything but rather just to turn on the recorder and speak what I heard from HIM and broadcast that. And that is what I did and that is what I still do when I write (or speak). I just write those things brought to my mind believing it is Holy Spirit reminding me since that is one of things Holy Spirit does. (Jn. 14:26) I never plan anything ahead of time. I do read Bible and try to meditate on that spoken to me by the Holy Spirit. Then whatever God draws out of me I speak and write. It is very easy and very simple.
(And a few days after I was born again I was transported into heaven twice as I slept in the night and both times the same thing happened. I knew I was with God, with Christ, and with the Holy Spirit. I was "merged " into the body of Jesus ... made one with the Word of God ... as God and the Holy Spirit witnessed. It was wonderful! and this was probably a part of preparing me for the work of the ministry to which I was called by God.)
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So I followed friends to church and to a prayer group but God never told me to go to any church. And after God brought me out of Word of Faith I expected God to put me into another group and He did not. Yet the church was my life. I was always there after I was born again until I was taken out by God. Today I understand that we are the church.