Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
Concerning what was to happen at the gathering of the church, the apostle Paul said:
I Corinthians 14:34-35 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
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After I was born again in 1975, a few days later, in the night, I was transported into heaven.
I was with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. I didn't see any images, it was a spiritual experience.
At that time, I was merged into the body of Jesus, made one with the Word of God, God and Holy Spirit witnessing.
A few nights later, the exact same thing happened to me again.
I did not know what this meant.
Months later, or years later, I came to believe the two times I was taken into heaven, had to do with the calling of Jesus, which I was persuaded was upon my life, in the two ministries of apostle and prophet for the church.
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By a word of prophecy, God had said to me the following:
"I have called you and set you into the body of Christ as an apostle."
"An apostle?" I cried out. "What's an apostle?"
At that time, in the church circles and prayer groups, often someone would come to me saying they all knew the hand of God was strongly upon me.
My own pastor stood up at our church group and said, "Joan is not called as a teacher. She is a prophet." (Robert Tilton at Word of Faith church group)
Don Gelino, teacher of our singles' class at that church heard what Bob said and Don said,
... "That's it! Prophet." Don had often started to identify me as a teacher but had a check in his spirit and knew it wasn't a teacher so he said nothing until Bob made this statement about me.
(I never told anyone at that church group that God had also told me HE had called me as an apostle.)
I did ask Don and others what apostles do in the church. Don didn't know. I asked who were the other apostles at that church group and no one knew, though that group professed to believe what Jesus said in the following scripture.
Ephesians 4 v. 8 When HE (Jesus) ascended up on high, HE led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
11-12 And HE (Jesus) gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
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In those days, when God revealed those two ministries (apostle/prophet) to which I had been assigned by HIM, I asked God:
"How can this be considering what Paul said about women speaking in the church?"
Immediately, the following was brought to my mind: "Look at what these women were doing?"
I looked at I Corinthians 14, and I saw these women were disrupting the church gathering by asking questions.
Paul said: v. 35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
Then God took me to the following scripture:
Acts 21:8-9 And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.
I saw it immediately.
Prophesy is for the church. To "prophesy" you would have to speak to the church. These 4 daughters of Philip had to be able to speak to the church.
But women were not to disrupt the gathering of the church. I certainly agree, and I would stop these women and have stopped them, given the opportunity.
(I would not put up with any form of disorder in the church, whether by men or by women.)
By these things I was convinced by the Spirit of God.
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Yesterday I was reading our blog, the chapter of scripture in Acts 2.
Acts 2:1-8 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Acts 2:12-18 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of MY Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
And on MY servants and on MY handmaidens I will pour out in those days of MY Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
(Again, women speaking prophesies to the church gathering, was confirmed to me by this scripture.)
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Through the years, people have said to me a woman cannot be an apostle.
I know of no scriptural basis for this statement.
In the Old Testament we have the example of Deborah ... a woman who judged Israel.
Though she was a prophetess, there were no apostles in Old Testament, Deborah did the work of apostle, for apostles are appointed as "judges" over doctrine in the church.
Judges 4:4-5 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
When a pastor is speaking a twisted doctrine, God often opens apostle's eyes to see that error. Apostle goes to pastor to try to persuade him of his error. Sometimes apostle also goes to elders of that church group with the error spoken. Ideally the error would be presented to the entire congregation to keep the perverse speaking out of the church, but I've never seen this happen, except I spoke of the error on my radio broadcasts and now on this blog to entire congregation that they would not be swept away by the perversions spoken in churches.
The apostle Paul said this:
Acts 20:29-30 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
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By the Holy Spirit calling scripture to my attention, I was convinced (I believe by God) that a woman could do the work of apostle/prophet in the NT church today.
I have done that work since 1980, faithful to God to speak all HIS counsel to individuals and to the church, usually on radio and later on blog.
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Concerning work of apostle ... God took me to Acts 15 to show me this work to which HE had called me.
A question arose concerning church doctrine: Do Gentiles have to be circumcised? The apostles and elders met to discuss this.
It reminded me of the supreme court where each "judge" gives opinion and then one of the judges renders the opinion which will rule.
In Acts 15, it was the apostle James who presented the ruling on the matter of circumcision as it pertained to the Gentiles.
Acts 15:13-29 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.
Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
Then pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas and Silas, chief men among the brethren:
And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.
Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have sent therefore Judas and Silas (NT prophet), who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
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Often, through the past 40 years, I have come across perverted doctrine in the church on the subject of divorce and remarriage after divorce.
I always speak up, presenting such doctrines as follows:
Matthew 5:32 Jesus says: But I 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.
NO ... a woman cannot remarry if her husband is unfaithful to her for in above scripture Jesus says a woman who remarries commits adultery, but her husband who divorced a faithful wife will be the cause of her adultery if she remarries. If the wife is unfaithful, the man can remarry. The man who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.
Also the apostle Paul said the divorced woman cannot remarry if she chooses to leave her husband.
I Corinthians 7:10-11 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
An apostle in NT church today will try to bring the church to Bible doctrines on this subject of divorce/remarriage and on all other subjects presented in NT of Bible.
That is all I do as a NT apostle appointed by Jesus and set in the body of Christ to do this work of apostle.
Mostly, I deal with scripture by the Holy Spirit and church doctrine which I present today to the church on this blog.
The ministry of apostle is not a mysterious thing.
The ministry of prophet is more mysterious, for God shows us things about people that are hidden, and we often go to the person and bring forth the sins they are doing while in the congregation.
I have gone to several big-time TV preachers with such statements showing their sins.
In the early 1980's I was shown to give a message concerning adultery to the TV preacher, Jim Bakker. I did not know that Bakker was committing adultery with a church secretary, Jessica Hann, at the time I was shown to deliver this information to Bakker.
Later the entire world knew. It is printed today on Wikipedia.
NT prophets are like those who walk on high-wire with no net beneath them. (Except God is our net.)
We speak things that we have no way of knowing ... except for the Holy Spirit bringing the message to our attention. By faith, we speak.
We believe it was the Holy Spirit of Jesus who gave us the information and the message and by faith in Jesus and Holy Spirit we deliver that message faithfully, omitting nothing.
(spiritual gifts: word of wisdom and word of knowledge ... I Corinthians 12)
You have no black and white facts but you know.
I once spoke at a very small church group. At the end of the service, Pastor called for those who wanted prayer to come forward. As I walked down the line of people, a very large black woman caught my attention. I went up to her and said, "And what it is you want?" She replied, "I's jest wants more of the Lord." I said, "God will tell me what you are doing." She became very agitated and waved her hands into the air and screamed, in front of the whole congregation, "OH, NO, LORD ... Don't tell her!" Everyone in the room roared with laughter.
Often God does tell HIS prophets.
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