Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
At the time I was born again in 1975, I owned an American Indian Arts shop in Dallas. A man came to town and rented a motel room and sold Indian jewelery. The Dallas Morning News asked me to write an article concerning Indian arts because it had become so popular that many people had begun buying the jewelry and many frauds in the field had cropped up.
I did write the article and in the article I said to beware of big discounts. If someone offered to sell you jewelry at 70% off (or 100% off) you needed to wonder how much this article had been marked up by the dealer.
A few days after the article was published, a man came into my store asking to see me. He was wearing a pair of handcuffs on a tie clip emblem. He was a man from sheriff's office. He said to me, "Little lady, do you know a man named, and he cited a name to me? I replied that I did not know this man. He said, "Well, he knows you. He is suing you for a million dollars." I was shocked, of course. And I was in disbelief. I had trouble taking this seriously for it was so absurd to me. I took the papers informing me of the suit and threw them back on my desk. It was about 10 days before I realized if I failed to respond this man could take my shop and my merchandise. At that point, I called a lawyer.
I was a new Christian at the time. I had seen the following promise of God to Christians.
Isaiah 54:17 ... No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
I said to myself, this lawsuit is a weapon against me. It will not profit because I am of God now.
The weeks passed and with them came several bills from my lawyer. Finally I realized these legal fees were eating up my profit. And if I didn't stop them, I would soon be back in debt. God had led me to get out of debt.
So I turned strongly to God in prayer ... and was reminded of Isa. 54:17 ... At that point I called my lawyer and told him what the Bible says and that I am a Christian and this lawsuit will not prosper against me because that is a promise of God to the believer. I dismissed him at that time. He was shocked. He said, "Joan ... you can't do this. You don't realize how evil these courts can be." I explained that God had led me to get out of debt and the legal bills were going to put me back in debt and therefore I had to stop them.
I planned to go to court without any human legal counsel. I told my pastor about this and he said he believed I had the faith to do this and he would go to court with me.
About a week passed and the lawyer called me and said they would represent me without any further legal cost. (At one point Gordon said it would take about $10,000 more to try the case and now they were going to do it for free?)
I asked God about this ... and I was reminded of Abraham refusing to take even a shoelatchet from the king of Sodom lest he would say he had made Abraham rich. (Gen. 14:23)
I knew God was telling me not to take this "free" legal service. So I turned it down and prepared to go to court without any legal counsel.
It was several months (4 months or so) before the trial was scheduled. During that time the fears would often come to me concerning what was going to happen to me. I kept looking at Isa. 54:17 ... and God would bring to my mind other scriptures which I would write down and keep before me to give me strength and to fight the many fears. At one point, I recorded on cassette tape all the scriptures given me by the Holy Spirit and when I went to bed, I played this tape as I slept. I did whatever I had to do to overcome the many fears over the weeks before the court trial.
Six days before the trial was scheduled in US District Court, I received a call from the man's lawyer. He said this man had dropped all charges against me and the other dealers he was suing. The lawyer said, "He cut everyone loose."
It was over.
Then a week later Gordon came into my shop. He told me they had discussed my case for the past week at the law firm and they had decided what I said would happen, happened.
Isaiah 54:17 ... No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and
their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
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During this same period of time, there was another lawsuit. A woman sued me. This actually went to trial. I did have lawyer for this.
I heard the following words: "Don't testify."
Every time I prayed about this I heard the same thing: "Don't testify."
I went to Gordon and told him he might not want to represent me in this case for I couldn't testify. He said he would represent me.
We got to court and Gordon came and told me Flo's (the woman who worked for me) testimony wasn't as strong as he had hoped it would be but if I would testify we would win the case. I told him, "Just a minute ..." I went to rest room and began praying, asking God what I should do. I heard ... "Don't testify."
I went back to court room and just shook my head, "no", to Gordon.
By this time Flo was upset with me because I wouldn't testify. The man I was dating at the time was upset with me and said to me, "You're not doing this girl who was suing me any good by not testifying." No one on my team understood that all I was trying to do was to obey that which I believed God had said to me which was: "Don't testify."
After two days of trial, a Friday and a Monday, the judge ruled me not guilty and I was acquitted.
I believed God in this rather than believing my own lawyer and the others who would have discouraged me.
With these two trials, God started teaching me about faith in God. Faith in God begin with hearing instruction from God in the matter at hand. And when persuaded it is God, holding fast to doing as instructed.
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Notice on the first trial, I was given scripture and in the second trial, I was given a direct word. Both were the Word of God by the Spirit of God.
It does not have to have a scripture attached to be "THE WORD OF GOD'.
The Word of God sometimes comes through a scripture called to our mind by the Spirit of God. Other times God will bring an instruction or a concept directly to our mind. In both cases it is the Word of God when it is given us by the Spirit of God.
God gave a direct instruction to Abraham ... Gen. 12 ... 1Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him;
When God gave this instruction to Abraham, it was not a scripture yet it was the Word of God and it is used as the basis for faith ... God spoke, Abraham believed and did what God told him to do.
Paul received instruction from God in a dream ... Acts 16 ... 9And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. 10And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. 11Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis; 12And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, Notice that Paul took immediate action based on this dream ... "we came with a straight course" ...
Paul did exactly what Abraham did ... Both heard an instruction from God. Abraham's instruction was a direct instruction and Paul's instruction came in a dream (vision) ... Both were the Word of God.
The Word of God can come to us through a scripture, through a direct thought brought by God by HIS Spirit, or through a dream. In each case, it is a Word of God when it is from God.