Living in peace when there is trouble: The answer comes from God.

Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet

I have a cleaning woman who comes to my house one afternoon a week.  She is excellent at cleaning.  But at one point there was trouble for she wanted me to get flu shot.  She kept insisting.  Also there was trouble when I shared things God has done for me.  She is devout Catholic.

After one difficult encounter, I was crying out to God for help.  I dreaded seeing this woman and she would be at my house the following week.  How could I have her into my house?

God is our answer.  When God tells us something, it works.

As I continued asking God for help, I heard these words:  "Focus on that which she does well."

The thing she does well is cleaning.

Focus on that.

When I made my mind think on that concerning this woman, I had great joy and peace.

After that word, I controlled myself and did not try to share things of God with her.  For the most part I only spoke to her concerning cleaning.  I never have to tell her anything to do in this area and everything goes very well and we co-exist in peace when cleaning is our focus.  

She is so good at cleaning that I rarely have to ask her to do anything extra at the house.  Therefore while she cleans I am able to work on the blog and do my work with Bible.

(If I think about her life I am troubled.  But if I focus on thinking about her cleaning I am at peace.)  

Every time I was tempted to share some wonderful thing God had shown me, I recalled that word I had from God concerning her and I restrained myself by that word and did not share with her.

"Focus on that which she does well."

*****

A woman and her husband edge and mow my lawn weekly.  Recently she sent email telling me that I need to get some trees and shrubs trimmed and she gave me the names of some people who do this kind of work.

I was happy to try to arrange this.

There was just one problem.  She then said she was thinking of how it would help my property values.  This troubled me.  My focus is not on property values and I do not want it to be on this.  I prayed.  

(Also I knew this woman was deceiving herself with the property value reason.  I knew the trees and bushes were coming over into the yard area and causing difficulty in mowing and edging.  Certainly I want to make it easier for her to work here.)

After I prayed God reminded me of the following:

II Peter 3:10-14    But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

I need to continue to keep this as my focus concerning property and things of this world.

I have looked at this scripture several times since this incident to help me to get this word deeper into my life that I not be pulled away and focus on other things.

*****

Recently a woman from our church group was at my house.  A few days later I was at her house.  She handed me a roll of leather cleaning wipes which she had ordered for me.  She said my leather theater seat has dirt on one arm.  She said I could clean it with these wipes.

But I do not want to think of such things.  That is one reason I have a cleaning woman.

Years ago, my mother tried to get me to focus on clothes.  I told her I did not want to be drawn away from what I do with Bible by focusing on such things.

Here is a scripture on which I had been focusing at that time.  It was called to my attention again as I thought on the leather cleaning wipes.

II Timothy 2:4    No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 

(I did bring the cleaning wipes home with me but I couldn't get them out of the container because of some type of plastic seal inside the jar, so I just threw them into the trash.)

*****

People often try to take me the wrong way for me, but God straightens me out and causes me to focus on the way set for me on this earth to enable me to do HIS assignment.

In the early 1980's, I had a "ministry coordinator" who was a vice-president at Braniff Airlines.  Her main job was to arrange transportation for me and to book hotels.  She was excellent at doing this.  She once even said to me, "You have no idea how easy it is for me to do this."

But then she began helping me in other ways ... selection of clothing to wear at my meetings ... and advertising my meetings.  She hired an ad man to make photos of me to use on advertisements. This didn't work at all.   I can't remember what went wrong in this, I just remember it falling apart and we never used any photo of me.  

Then she told me when she prayed about this, God said to her:  "I will do this.  She is Mine.  I will do it Myself."

*****

The advertising agency who represented Billy Graham sent one of their men to Dallas to see about representing me.

He said:  "You don't realize what a 'gold mine' you are.  You are a woman who has a PHD.  We can send you all over to do seminars for women in industry."

But God had told me not to limit myself to meetings for women.  I was for the whole church, men and women.

I did not sign with this agency.

*****

All along the years, God set it up to keep me on the path HE laid out for my life.

A woman once said to me:  "Joan ... I don't know how I know this but God is going to mightily use you.  You are going to have to stay very close to HIM."

There are many things other people can do that I can't do.

*****

I Chronicles 16:20-22   And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people;  HE suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, HE reproved kings for their sakes,

Saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do MY prophets no harm.

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