Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
I had sent 2 emails yesterday but when I reread those emails today before printing them in the writing for the blog, I was surprised that the emails seemed a little bland when I was anything but bland inside me.
Then I heard: "That (blandness) allows them to reject the message."
Not all accept the message. Some reject the message to their own harm. They have choices just as Abraham had choices. And those choices end up being "tests" / "trials" set up by God to see how seriously they will take the message.
When I told this to Pam, she was reminded of something which I asked her to write. It is as follows:
Pam Padgett - teacher
There have been times when I have delivered a message I believed to
be from God to a person, and later have been attacked with thoughts that
I wasn't "strong" enough in delivering the message.
One example is when I went to a man who was engaged to marry a
divorced woman. I warned him that they would commit adultery if they
married since she was divorced and shared scripture about this with him,
such as ... But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his
wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit
adultery:and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth
adultery. (Matthew 5:32)
Later thoughts came that I had not delivered this message in a
powerful enough way, that perhaps I should have said more or used more
forceful words. But when I turned to God, I was given a thought from
the Holy Spirit that I had spoken what God wanted spoken.
This was also confirmed after I had delivered this message to the man who was engaged to marry the divorced woman, as well as to the divorced woman and
the woman who planned to be the maid of honor at their wedding. I knew
all of these people from the singles group at the church I attended at
the time. Not long after this, I noticed that people in the singles
group
started avoiding me, even moving away from me when I sat near them for a church service. I didn't know what was going on and asked God
if I had done something wrong to cause this.
Not long after asking God about this, a woman stopped me after the
church service one Sunday morning. She said she had a message from God
for me. The
message she delivered was that God knew how I was being treated by those
in the singles group, and that I needed to know it was because of what I
had spoken about this divorced woman remarrying and that this was what
HE had wanted me to do. (As I remembered this today, I laughed to think of
the thoughts telling me I had not delivered this message strongly
enough, for it had such power because it was of God that it caused those in
the singles group to move away from me!)
To deliver the message God gives to us is all that is important in the matter, and it accomplishes HIS purpose.
(Comments by Joan Boney ... The message is the power. One time a friend of mine had been asked to read the Bible scriptures for their church gatherings on Sunday mornings. Jimmy practiced speaking these scriptures and considered his voice quality. But the power is not in the way Jimmy presents the scriptures. The power is the scriptures.)