Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
When the children of Israel were defeated it was because God was not with them in what they were trying to do.
When they sought God, to see why they failed, God sometimes showed them sin in the congregation ... When they judged that sin and dealt with the person and stopped the evil among them, then God was with them again.
When they sought God and heard what HE wanted them to do and followed directions given by God, they succeeded.
The question to ask ourselves is:
Did God tell me to do this?
If you can answer, "Yes", then you have a strong anchor and a real basis for faith and a basis for your prayers. God is with you in what you are doing? That is all that matters.
In Joshua 1, God says: Have not I commanded thee?
That is the question for us to ask ourselves in that which we are doing. Until we can answer this, we need to pray, waiting on God to establish us in the way to go.
The Old Testament examples we have been reading show us what happens when God is with us.
Goliath was a giant. He had armor and a sword. He even had an armor bearer going before him with a shield. Had David tried to attack Goliath by a sword, would it have worked? Saul dressed David in his armor and sword, but David said, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
I Sam. 17:40 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
Here is the way Goliath was dressed:
I Sam. 17:5-7 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
There was a soft spot which was unprotected ... and that was Goliath's forehead. The stone hurled by David sailed through the air with velocity because of the sling shot he was using. It hit Goliath in the exact spot where he was vulnerable.
I Sam. 17: 42-47 And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and HE will give you into our hands.
49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
Regardless of the problem, God has the solution when HE is with the project.
We come back to the all important question: Did God tell me to do this?
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and HE will give you into our hands.
49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
Regardless of the problem, God has the solution when HE is with the project.
We come back to the all important question: Did God tell me to do this?
Above all, we must continue to live our lives God's way. When the Word is the only thing that matters to us, upholding the Word not our own flesh nor the flesh of others, miracles happen.
It reminds me of when I visited my mother and saw Zodiac mugs in her cabinet. I had given those mugs to her before I was born again. But now I am born again and I see those mugs. Without any hesitation at all, I took the mugs off the shelves and began putting them into a garbage bag. When my mother realized what I was doing she cried out: "What are you doing? You gave those to me. I want to keep them." I paid no attention at all to her words. I took the bag containing the Zodiac mugs to the alley where the dumpster was sitting. I slammed the bag hard against the side of the dumpster, breaking the mugs. Then I threw the mugs into the dumpster.
I returned to my mother house, and without a word got a Bible and read aloud the following to her:
Deut. 18:9-13 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
There were a few seconds of silence. Then my mother said, "Well ... I guess we'd better not do that any more." (All her life prior to this she had delighted in reading horoscopes.) I think my mother was born again at that time.
We are the light and we do not live in darkness. If they are around us in darkness, we turn on the light. We do not pacify their flesh, nor our own feelings siding with flesh. We exalt God in front of them.
I find the Old Testament examples strengthening to me.
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We have our own battles as we live on this earth.
In publishing our books, we ran into a problem. Amazon has a rule that if the book has 60% public domain material (which would be scripture in our case), it cannot be in their Kindle Unlimited program which allows the book to be given as a free book 5 days per 90 day cycle around the world.
It is very helpful to be able to give the book away. When we can do this, we get on lists of free books and have more opportunity to be visible.
We have just published a book, Faith Building Moments from the Old Testament and Today. As we began compiling the book, I talked to God about the free book requirement. At that time, the book was about 90% scripture so it didn't seem possible that we could meet Amazon's requirement and get into the free book program. I just kept talking to God about the problem. Then the idea came to add Bonus Chapters selected from the volumes of Exhortation books. These qualify for non-public domain. I went though all the exhortation books and selected chapters to print along with the Old Testament chapters. By doing this, we were able to qualify and place the book in the free book program through Kindle Unlimited. Also the person who purchases the Faith Building Moments book has the opportunity to read many current exhortations which edify the NT church today.