Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
The Witness of the Holy Spirit
The
first example of the giving of the Holy Spirit to all in the church was at
Pentecost.
Acts
1 ...And, being assembled together with them, (HE,
Jesus) commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait
for the promise of the Father, which, saith HE , ye have heard of me.
5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence... ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Some
people in churches try to witness
without having the Spirit of God. They even teach each other how to
"witness". But when we
have the Spirit of God in us, we are a witness.
When
you throw a rock into a pond of water, ripples go in all directions. You
do not have to try to make ripples happen. It is a by-product of the rock
hitting the water.
When
you have the Holy Spirit in you, you do not have to try to witness. You
are a witness. You are different from other people, even
from other church people for many in churches do not have the Holy Spirit of
God in them.
Many
people will hate you because you are different. Remember how they hated
Jesus. If they hated the master they will
hate you, HIS servant. If they hate the
instruction in the Bible, as many church people do today, they will hate you if
you try to follow the Bible in the church.
Here is an
amazing example: This happened to Pam
Padgett when she was attending a church group in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (USA)
Pam says … During
the last months of college, I rented a room in a house owned by a woman I met
in the singles group of the church group I attended at the time. This
woman had been divorced twice and had a young daughter. At first she seemed content to remain
unmarried and raise her daughter. But then she started looking for
another husband. I shared with her scripture that tell us that a divorced
woman commits adultery if she remarries:
Matthew 5:31
It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a
writing of divorcement: 32 But I (Jesus) 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.
Mark 10:11 And he (Jesus)
saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his
wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman
shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Romans 7:2 For
the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she
is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if,
while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so
that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
After sharing these scriptures, I was shocked when she told me
that she didn't care what the Bible says, she said she knew what she
believed.
I moved from her
house shortly after this.
The place I moved was
quite a distance from where this church group met. Although I continued
to attend the Sunday services and would sit in the area of the auditorium where
the singles group sat, I no longer attended the singles meetings.
I heard this divorced
woman was engaged to a man I also knew from the singles group. I went and spoke with him, sharing
scriptures such as Matthew 5:31-32 showing that they would commit adultery
if he married her since she was divorced. He said he would consider these
things, but he did not stop the engagement.
Then
I heard that the maid of honor at the wedding was to be a woman I also
knew. I went and spoke with her, sharing scripture
about the adultery that would be committed by this marriage. She said she knew
it was wrong for them to marry but
they would get married whether or not she was the maid of honor, so she was
going to do it.
(I Tim. 5 … neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself
pure.)
About this time, I
went to one of the Sunday morning services. I arrived before any of the
other singles, and sat in the area where we usually sat. But no other
singles came to sit there. Right before the service began, I looked
around and saw that the singles were sitting a few pews behind me. I
thought this strange, but didn't think a lot about it.
The next Sunday I sat
in the "new" singles area, but they sat in the "old"
singles area.
The following week, I
got there shortly before the service began, and went to where the singles were sitting.
Without
saying a word, those I sat next to got up and moved away from me.
It was obvious they
wanted nothing to do with me, but I had no idea why. I cried out to God
asking what was going on? “Had I done
something wrong?”
For a few weeks I
didn't hear anything from God, and didn't know why I had become an outcast from
the singles.
Then after the
service one Sunday morning, a woman I didn't know very well stopped me and 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.
I was so helped by
this message, now knowing why I was being shunned and that it was for doing
good in the sight of God.
It was also very helpful to realize so strongly that God was watching over me,
and the mercy and kindness God had shown to me in having this woman deliver
this message to me.
Comments
by Joan Boney
As
Christians we are excited over the Bible. We love the Word of God. We know the Bible shows us the way of God and
the way we are to go on the present earth.
It is very shocking to
encounter people from a church group who do not care what the Bible says.
But it happens.
And we grieve over this and
feel that persecution for the Word’s sake.
Peter says to us:
I Peter 4 … 12 Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing
happened unto you:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are
partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when HIS glory shall be revealed,
ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14 If ye be reproached for the name of
Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you:
on their part HE (The Word) is evil spoken
of, but on your part HE is glorified.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer,
or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. 16
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him
glorify God on this behalf.
17 For the time is come that judgment must
begin at the house of God:and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of
them that obey not the gospel of God?
18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit
the keeping of their souls to HIM in well doing, as unto a faithful creator.
While those persons who do not
have the Spirit of God may despise you when you share things of God with them, those
who are of God will recognize you because of HIS Spirit and because you are
“different”. They, too, are “different”
because of God.
Often
people who are Christians “try to
witness”. When we belong to God
we can’t help being a witness as we follow that which God shows us.
Here
are two examples, one of the flesh trying to witness and the other of
the Spirit of God witnessing.
After
I was born again, I went to a copy store to make
copies of some papers. I was waiting to copy the papers. An elderly man approached me and said, "Little
lady ... you didn't park behind that green and gold car did you?"
I replied, "No sir." He said, "That's
a Baylor (Baptist University) car."
I replied, "Okay ..."
Then
he said, "You don't happen to be a Christian do you?" With that, I excitedly
replied ... "Well yes ... as matter of fact I am!"
He
then stopped smiling and began showing displeasure in his face and said to me, "OH
HECK ... I just joined the witnessing class at First Baptist Church and you are
the first person I chose to witness to."
He was disappointed that I am a Christian!
The
second example, happened to me
after I was born again in 1975 ... I owned a business and was flying to
Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA) on a buying trip. Many of my relatives
lived in Albuquerque at that time. My cousin met me at the plane.
Just
as the plane landed, I heard these words from the Holy Spirit, "Be
baptized."
When
my cousin picked me up and we got into her car, I said, "Jeanne ... if
you can arrange it at church I will be baptized this afternoon before I return
to Dallas." She replied: "But you've
already been baptized." "Yes," I said, "But I wasn't
born again until now."
Jeanne
was a member of Church of Christ. They love to baptize in water. So
she arranged for me to be baptized that afternoon. Many of my relatives
(who were also Church of Christ) gathered at the church building. Before
being taken to the baptistery, the young minister said to me: "Would
you like to say something?" I was greatly shocked for Church of
Christ never allow woman to speak at the church. But I replied, "I
guess so." And I began speaking by the Holy Spirit.
I noticed my uncle who was seated in the congregation. He was
crying. I also noticed a cousin. She was shaking her head up and
down and very excited as I spoke.
When
I was baptized and the minister lowered me into the water, the Holy Spirit
began teaching me. The Holy Spirit said to me, "This is like being buried with Christ."
As
the minister raised me out of the water, the Holy Spirit said to me, "This is like being raised with
Christ."
I
didn't know Romans 6 at that time
but that is exactly what Romans 6
teaches us.
Know
ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
After
the baptism, I dressed and returned to the congregation area of the church
building and my uncle came to me. He was very excited. He said, "I've never heard anything like
that which you said today. Could you write that out for me and send it to
me?" I told him I thought I could. So when I
returned to Dallas I wrote it and sent it to him. I think my uncle was born again at the time he heard what the
Holy Spirit spoke through me before I was baptized that day.
When the Holy Spirit is
doing the work through us there is power.
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