Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
What are the weapons of our warfare?
I read II Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
* Prayer is a mighty weapon for us.
Prayer is the starting place.
Simple things like:
* How do I begin this writing? What do I start with?
* What am I supposed to do about this problem?
I always think I don't know much about prayer because prayer is so simple and short! often one liners for me.
But prayer by faith settles me, gives me the assurance God will lead me and will make everything right in HIS sight. Also I will not be ashamed when I follow God. Man might shame me but what really matters is "what does God think about this?"
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I've been a writer all my life ... yet I know I can't write what I am writing now unless I have confidence that God is showing me what to write, and what to write in the first paragraph ... and then the second and then the third.
So before I start to write I'm talking to God, "Where do I begin? What do I say first?"
(Then I will be reminded of something, and I start writing that ... when I get to the end of that, I will be reminded of something else so I write that ... then something else ... then something else ... on and on.)
This is the Holy Spirit taking me from one scripture to another by bringing that scripture to my mind according to the will of God.
I Corinthians 2:10-12 for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
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And there is the very important factor of speaking "by the right Spirit."
Often I am praying over that.
I know it can be very dangerous to write while I am striving with another person. That can let the wrong spirit into the writing. So I usually have to settle things in my heart with God and then I might write about the situation as a teaching example.
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But all along the way, I find I'm praying ... not long prayers ... mostly just one liners ... because I don't know what to do.
Jesus said: I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (John 5:30)
After I was born again, this is the verse of scripture God used to start my training.
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Other weapons:
* The Word of God which is called to my mind by the Holy Spirit or The Word of God that stands out to me as I read a scripture.
We read a chapter of Bible and one verse seems to stand out. If that happens, we stop reading and look at that verse for we know there is likely a special message in that verse for us at that exact point in time.
When we have a scripture brought to mind by the Holy Spirit it is very exciting. We focus on that scripture and it seems to us that settles everything for the rest of our lives.
Then a few days later, along comes another scripture. "That's the answer." So we delight in that, as we should.
Then there's another scripture, then another, then another.
It is all done by the Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit searches the heart of God and brings to us that which we need at that exact moment in time. (I Corinthians 2)
We "feed" on that scripture for a season.
It is like eating steak one day and spaghetti another. But we don't eat the same food every day do we? Usually there is variety in our food because our body tells us what we need by our desire for a certain food.
In spiritual matters, the Holy Spirit tells us that scripture we need in the specific events pertaining to this present life.
We must trust in God to bring us what we need.
"Give us this day our daily bread." Matthew 6:11
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A few days ago, a woman in our church group reported awakening that morning with a scripture in her mind. She told how that was exactly what she needed later in that day.
Then she made the following statement: "I believe I will need this scripture continually with me until the end of my days on this earth."
It was like she began in the Spirit ... but then turned into having to trust in her own flesh.
I reminded her that it is the Holy Spirit who gives us that which we need daily.
We learn to trust in God for that which we need that day.
Certainly we might need the same scripture for a season ... to break down strongholds which build up in our lives.
But even when I've kept the same scripture before me day and night for many months, I find there is a time it no longer has the fire it once had. There will be another scripture that takes its place that does have that fire.
When we do a scripture, it goes into our heart. And as we keep doing that scripture, it grows.
There is a season for that specific scripture. Then there will be another scripture.
If we need the first scripture, the Holy Spirit will call it back to our attention again.
The answer for us is The Holy Spirit who gives us what we need for that hour... and for the next hour ... and for the hour following that.
It would be impossible for us to keep the same scripture before us for the rest of our lives for to do that would be trusting in ourselves to do it. Instead we must trust in the Holy Spirit to give us what we need day by day, hour by hour, second by second.
Then we have no pressure ... we just do what we hear to do by the Holy Spirit and we rejoice in God, without a burden and without fear that we might fail to keep that verse before us continually.
We must keep our trust in God to provide for us day by day and eat that which He gives us until the food changes. Then we eat that new food. But in spiritual thinking, the scripture that we do becomes a part of us and can be brought back again and again by the Holy Spirit as needed.
But there is no burden on us unless we are tying by our own plan.
Trust in God.
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* Faith in that which we have heard from God is another weapon. Truth is a weapon by which we fight devils.
At first, we are excited over that which we have heard. Almost immediately, the thought arises, "Did God really tell me that?"
The flesh and the devil work together to get us to deny God.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
(It is a little confusing, "of every tree" ... No God didn't say that. But God did say a specific tree was forbidden. Confusion is a hallmark of devil.)
Genesis 3: 2-3 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Eve adds a lie to that which God said for God did not tell Adam, "neither shall ye touch it."
If we add a lie to a truth, then it is difficult to stand on that truth because of the lie. Inwardly we know part of the statement is not from God. So our own faith in God is weakened when we add something of our own thinking, unless that thinking is also of God. "Neither shall ye touch it." makes very good sense for you probably can't eat it if you don't touch it so it seems right, but it is not what God said.
The devil is contrary to God, opposite to God, arguing against what God said.
Genesis 3:4-5 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
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* Faith in that which we have heard from God is another weapon. Truth is a weapon by which we fight devils.
At first, we are excited over that which we have heard. Almost immediately, the thought arises, "Did God really tell me that?"
The flesh and the devil work together to get us to deny God.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
(It is a little confusing, "of every tree" ... No God didn't say that. But God did say a specific tree was forbidden. Confusion is a hallmark of devil.)
Genesis 3: 2-3 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Eve adds a lie to that which God said for God did not tell Adam, "neither shall ye touch it."
If we add a lie to a truth, then it is difficult to stand on that truth because of the lie. Inwardly we know part of the statement is not from God. So our own faith in God is weakened when we add something of our own thinking, unless that thinking is also of God. "Neither shall ye touch it." makes very good sense for you probably can't eat it if you don't touch it so it seems right, but it is not what God said.
The devil is contrary to God, opposite to God, arguing against what God said.
Genesis 3:4-5 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
This is the desire of humans, to be "as God" ... thus explaining what Paul told us about antichrist, opposite to Christ, taking the place of God.
II Thessalonians 2:3-4 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (of the return of Jesus) shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
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Concerning devil, Jesus says:
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
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* Righteousness is another weapon.
What is right in the sight of God in this matter.
This we usually answered by prayer, asking God, "What do YOU think about this? What do YOU want me to say and do?"
Often that which we think to be right by our own thinking, or that which others think to be right, is not right in the sight of God.
Isaiah 55:8-9 For MY thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways MY ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways, and MY thoughts than your thoughts.
But we have the Spirit of God, The Holy Spirit ... The Spirit of Truth ... living in us.
So we can know the truth in the issue.
Three things that can influence our decision:
- our own personal preference
- thoughts from devils
- thoughts from the Holy Spirit
But which will we choose?
There was a woman among our church group who would often say to me, "I thought of that" ... but she didn't choose to do that ... I knew the Holy Spirit was trying to lead her but she was choosing to go in the way she preferred or in the way devil brought to her mind. She did this for many years. I'm sure occasionally she followed that which Holy Spirit brought to her mind, but a great many times she did not choose that. Finally she was removed from us by following the wrong spirit.
Our own flesh and devils can cause our heart to be evil if we allow such.
If we allow evil to go into our heart, that evil will come out of our mouth at some point in time.
Jesus says: out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Matthew 12:34
When we agree with the thought or concept, it goes into our heart... whether it is good or evil.
If that thought is not of God and is living in our heart, it can be uprooted by the Holy Spirit as HE gives us the Word of God if we choose to agree with the Holy Spirit, doing appropriately to that instruction.
But if we reject that brought by the Holy Spirit and continue to allow that evil thought to live in our heart, and even pile other evil thoughts into our heart to live, we could, with enough rejections, be turned over to a "reprobate" mind, a mind without God's judgment.
Romans 1:28-32 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
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II Thessalonians 2:10-12 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We must be diligent to keep a good heart in us by yielding to the Holy Spirit and by following HIS instructions.
If we reject that brought by the Holy Spirit and continue in our own thinking, what is the end for us?
If our heart becomes evil, how can we see good when it comes?
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