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. 5 For 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 near 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, such as:
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, and I shared scriptures with him 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 we are born again, we die to our flesh, thus are “buried with HIM”. We no longer have to serve our flesh as we once did. We “keep the flesh under” by praying and by allowing God to work with us in the temptation. We yield to the Spirit of God rather than obeying our flesh.
The works of the flesh are: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal. 5
Dead people do not sin. Therefore we “reckon” ourselves dead to our flesh, being now buried with Jesus, and being raised with Jesus we now serve God instead of serving our flesh as we once did.
When we are tempted to yield to the flesh, we can pray to God for help to overcome the temptations of the flesh… notice hatred, wrath, strife, envy, drunkenness are some of those fleshly temptation as well as things such as adultery and fornication.
In James 1, we are shown what to do when tempted. The apostle James says: 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
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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