1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it:
except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late,
to eat the bread of sorrows:
for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Comments by Joan Boney ...
1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it:
There are many who put themselves into the ministry and go all over the world speaking of Jesus and have hundreds of thousands of people attend their meetings ... but they are not of God though they speak of Jesus. HE never put them into the ministry and as they prance proudly in front of all they delight their own flesh and people are delighted in the flesh.
Jesus warned HIS disciples ... Mt. 24 ...
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I (Jesus) am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Mt. 23 ... Jesus says ... 14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows 'houses, and for a pretence make long prayer:therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men:they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
There is one woman who put herself into the ministry and called herself a teacher though she had nothing spiritual to say when I heard her 30 years ago. She told me she hired an acting coach to help her present materials, for people said she was so boring. She added fleshly stories which the flesh of man could enjoy. She became very famous as a result. But she was not put there by God. Today she is old and has the great burden she put upon herself of going all over the world and speaking to masses of people. It would be terrible to be doing this physically at her age. Soon she will die. Right now she is greatly burdened though she probably doesn't know it.
At the judgment seat of Christ, we will each "receive" for what we have done on this earth, whether it be "good or bad". II Cor. 5:10
Matthew 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Unless God put us into the ministry, the work will be evil though they speak of Jesus as Lord.
Mt. 7 ... Jesus says ... 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Unless God builds the house all the labor will be in vain ... useless, worthless ...
Each of us are building upon something ... if it is from God, we will receive reward. We need to be fully persuaded it was God who told us to do that. We examine ourselves. Who told me to do this work? What evidence do I have for myself that it was God who told me to do this?
As I examine myself, I have much evidence to persuade me God told me to do what I do and that is vital for me to continue the work.
- After I was born again in 1975, in the night as I slept, I was transported into heaven. I was merged into the body of Jesus (made one with the word of God) ... God and Holy Spirit witnessed this though I saw no images, no man has seen God. The same thing exactly happened a second time in the night as I slept. I was made one with the Word of God. This set me on fire for Bible and things of God and later for the work of God.
- About 3 years later ... as I slept, an angel came to me and spoke three words in my ear ... Hartford, Seattle, KWJS ... putting me on radio within a week of this.
- 30 years or so later ... 2012 ... in a dream I was shown a "blog" on Internet and I realized God was showing me to start these writings that you read today and to exhort the church ... In the dream a woman was singing. It was a "little voice" ... but it was "a nice little voice" ... I saw others in the church participating also as should be the case with the church.
- At one point in these years, I was given a dream ... I was traveling with a group of people. We landed on an island. It was hot, dusty, like a pineapple field ... there were children there. All of a sudden I realized they were going to leave me there to care for these children. I cried out, "I won't stay ... I won't ..." (then I realized it might be God wanted me to do this so I said ... "Unless YOU want me to ..." HE did, so I did.) There was a pastor and his wife on the island but they wouldn't come out of their house. These children were the church and I was assigned by God to care for them.
- And when I didn't know how to do the work assigned me, the Spirit of God took me to various scriptures to show me what I was to do. I had no living human example of what I was to do. But the scriptures were given me to show me the work of apostle/prophet.
These are the points of "evidence" which cause me to do this work and to continue doing this work.
But at the judgment seat of Christ each of us will see if the work was of God or not. We literally "bet our lives" on what we do.
II Cor. 5 ... 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.