Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
The apostle James warns us about hearing the word of God but failing to do the word of God.
James 1 ... 19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
A woman in our little church group let bitterness grow in her heart against me.
God made a way of escape for her in giving her the following scripture.
Proverbs 24: 15 ... Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous;
spoil not his resting place:
This woman heard the word of instruction, but she did not do the word of instruction. She was hung up on the first part of this scripture which identified her as being "wicked". She really did not look closely at the instruction which was showing her that to store up bitterness in her heart against me was wicked. Had she looked into that word and repented, none of the problem would have continued. But seeing the word that she was doing wicked, she turned away from that scripture not wanting to see into that mirror which showed her what she was doing.
The "engrafted word" is able to save our souls if we will look into that word with meekness.
After this, she shared this word of instruction that she heard with me and then said she did not do this word of instruction. By that action, she ended up again "disturbing my resting place" for it grieves me greatly to hear that a person of God heard the truth (what to do) but did not do the truth (the word). This probably brings greater grief to me than anything.
Had she taken that word God gave her (Prov. 24:15) and prayed for God to give her understanding and kept that word before her day and night for a season, looking closely at key words such as "resting place" and "spoil", she would not have done what she did against me.
But she treated that word in a superficial manner and ended up doing exactly opposite to the instruction given her in that word, saying things to me which "spoiled my resting place", grieving me greatly.
James warned us about such when he said: 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like
unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:24 For he beholdeth
himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of
man he was. James 1
For to treat a word from God in such a superficial way is like looking into that glass which shows what we are in relation to the word, and then turning away and forgetting what we are really like while going in our own fleshly way.
If you treat the word of God incorrectly, Paul says you bring damnation upon yourself. (I Cor. 11) ...
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (die). 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Three times this woman spoiled my resting place by her words to me.
- She told me she had allowed a root of bitterness to come into her heart toward me. She should not have told me that for it greatly disturbed me. Before she told me this, I did not know she was bitter toward me. She should have taken her bitterness to God and discussed it with God and bowed her knee to scripture such as I Thess. 5 ... 12 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13 And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. Had she done this, she would not have told me of the bitterness. She told me of the bitterness to get even with me, thus lying in wait until she could tell me this, allowing bitterness to grow in her heart. (This is wicked) Then her words did the evil for which they were intended against me. But this didn't have to happen had she grabbed hold of a scripture and if she had only done the scripture.
- Then she told me a dream which was very harmful to me. She knew the dream had potential of being harmful and for a while she kept dream to herself. Then, in an emotional/fleshly moment, she told me a portion of the dream. (and the portion she told was misleading and caused me to do the wrong thing in dealing with another woman) When I later asked her specifics, she told me the whole dream. The way she handled this was harmful but I have taken it many times to God and I believe HE has helped me to overcome this.
- Lastly she told me God had instructed her by Proverbs 24:15, but she didn't do the instruction. It greatly harmed me for her to tell me of her disobedience to scripture, even though I had asked her why she felt she had fallen away. She told me many things she had done which caused devils to move into her life and the last thing she listed was this scripture (Prov. 24:15) and how she rejected the instruction. (This disobedience to scripture grieved me greatly and certainly "spoiled my resting place" for again it attacked me personally.)
And so it is with each one of us. We have great potential for good ... and great potential for evil ... depending on whether we do the word of God.
We can hear the word of God and fail to do the word of God and we can end up doing great evil and bring damnation upon ourselves. (also we deceive ourselves when we hear and fail to do the word of God)
So James says: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22
(After writing this exhortation, I did speak with the woman who did these things. She said she got hung up with that word telling her she was "wicked" and couldn't get past it. What she was doing was wicked concerning storing up bitterness against me.)
And as James said: We must look "meekly" into the engrafted word which is able to save our souls.
But the good report concerning this woman is during the phone conversation, I had witness of the Holy Spirit still being in her. When that is the case, salvation is possible.
I urged her to hold onto the word given her and not let go in future. To look upon it as if she is drowning and a life preserver has been thrown out to her, for that word from God is a life preserver to us and by that word we are able to save our souls.
Pam Padgett had an open vision of this woman as she was drowning and in the water, she was flapping her arms but hadn't taken hold of the life preserver. This is exactly correct.