Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
It is so important to read scripture and make specific points in those chapters pertinent by stopping and really thinking on those scriptures, paying attention to other scriptures brought to your attention by the Holy Spirit.
Here are some of the directions I was taken by Holy Spirit yesterday in reading Acts 6.
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Acts 6
v. 6 ... and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:
The people were to select 7 men who were honest and full of the Holy Ghost to administer to the needs of the widows, to free the apostles to focus on the Word of God.
I noticed that one of those seven men selected was a "proselyte" of Antioch ... I looked up the word "proselyte" ... It basically means "stranger" ... one who was different ... I thought of how God takes us and works us into the vine and how these people cited in Acts 6 chose that "different" person as one of 7 men among the many men available. He stood out though he was apparently not a Jew.
Eph. 1:6 ... To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein HE hath made us accepted in the beloved.
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v. 10 ... And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he (Stephen) spake.
I thought of the example of God giving Solomon wisdom ...
I Kings 3 ... 5In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. 6And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. 8And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. 9Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? 10And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
God gave Solomon such wisdom that even the Queen of Sheba had heard of that wisdom and came to see if it were really true what she had heard about Solomon.
And that wisdom was so spectacular that even she marveled at the wisdom. I Kings 10.
Then ... I was reminded of I Cor. 1 ... 5That in every thing ye are enriched by HIM, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; 6Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: 8Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
It is all done by God who calls us and sets us into the body of Christ ... HE equips us for the calling. We are "enriched" by HIM. We fit into the body of Christ now, having HIS Spirit. We are one with the body of Christ because we have HIS Spirit in us. We do not fall short. We operate in that which God gives us. We differ one from another in the body but yet we are approved in the beloved because of HIS Spirit in us as we operate in that which God has given us.
God is faithful ... just fulfill that which is given you by the Holy Spirit.
We do not copy other men's works in the body of Christ rather God shows us what to do and we do that ... thus we fulfill the call of God on our own lives.
In the late 1970's by prophesy God said to me: "I have called you and set you in the body of Christ as apostle." I was very shocked. I replied: "Apostle? What's that?"
Several people had prophesied over me that I was a prophet. I did know that. But apostle? I had no idea what that meant. God showed me by the Holy Spirit (by scripture) what I, in the office of apostle, was to do in the NT church. I knew by scripture that apostles existed in the NT church because Paul said in Eph. 4 that after Jesus arose HE set in the church "some apostles" ... so they were there for the work of the ministry ... but I didn't know any apostles so I certainly couldn't copy anyone. I had to be taught by God to do the work. And God did teach me what to do.
As we follow God by HIS Spirit, speaking and doing that which HE shows us, we will be "blameless" in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (I thought of several who blame me at this point, especially because of the spiritual things I have spoken to them ... yet though they blame me now, the time will come, in the day of the LORD, that I will be shown to be blameless and even those who blame me will see me as blameless when Jesus appears and I appear with HIM.)
The wisdom of this world is foolish ... vain ... comes to nothing ... We, who are of God, do not want to seek the wisdom of this world. We seek the wisdom that is from God which God freely gives us through prayer.
James 1:5 ... If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
When I was first born again, I saw the above scripture and was so stricken with the concept that I really needed wisdom in the specific things of life. And I saw that if I asked for wisdom, God would give me wisdom. I was always asking God for wisdom! (I want to do this now also, 30+ years later. We never get to point that we don't need God's wisdom.)
Proverbs 3:6 ... In all thy ways acknowledge HIM, and HE shall direct thy paths.
Pray, ask God what to do ... "and HE shall direct thy paths." ... How great! Which of us doesn't want to have God actually direct our paths? ... And we can have this if only we pray asking HIM ...
I Cor. 1:24-25 ... Christ (The Word) the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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Acts 6:...15And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him (on Stephen), saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
Stephen was transformed by the Holy Spirit to the point he didn't even look like a man to them.
I'm sure we go through a similar transformation when the Holy Ghost is working through us though our enemies will hate and despise us in spite of that countenance from the Holy Spirit. (They killed Stephen though his face appeared to them as the face of an angel.)
Whether they kill us in body ... or whether they kill us by putting us away from them ... it is all the same for God restores our soul and raises us even in death.
Psalm 23 ... The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Dead to the world ... dead in the eyes of the world ... but alive to God, and through God!
For all eternity!