Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Problems with our own family

(Chapter 5:  Book, Spiritual Warfare, coming July or August, 2019, on Amazon)

Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet


Jesus says:

Matthew 10:34-39    Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

He that loveth father or mother more than ME is not worthy of ME: and he that loveth son or daughter more than ME is not worthy of ME.

And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after ME, is not worthy of ME.

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for MY sake shall find it.


*****

When we hear a Word from God by HIS Spirit and follow that Word which we have heard, often we are divided by that Word from some in our natural family.

And sometimes they will fight against us.

***

My cousin has spent her entire life in one church group, Church of Christ.

It is possible she is not born again.  She appears to know nothing about the working of the Holy Spirit and she doesn't seem to understand about doing specific scriptures or even having faith to pray over her concerns. 

She is currently 96-years-old.  At that age, you wouldn't suspect a strong spiritual attack to come through her but it did. 

***

There are 5 ministry "offices" given to the church after Jesus arose, after the crucifixion and resurrection.

Ephesians 4:8-12    When HE (Jesus) ascended up on high, HE led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.  (Now that HE ascended, what is it but that HE also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?  HE that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that HE might fill all things.)

And HE 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:

***

There is a big difference between the work we, the church, expect from an apostle or prophet and a pastor or teacher.   

God showed me to identify my calling to the church when I write exhortations on our blog, Jesus Ministries Exhortations, which we publish daily on Internet.  I am aware some people will be offended when I do this but this is what I believe God showed me to do so I do it, just as Paul identified his calling to the church in most of his epistles.

Examples:  

* Romans 1:1    Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

* I Corinthians 1:1    Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

* II Corinthians 1:1    Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

In Paul's day, there were some in the church who did not consider that Paul could be an apostle.  Paul did not walk with Jesus when Jesus lived on the earth as did the other apostles.

When they replaced Judas, Peter said the person selected must have the following qualifications to be the replacement of Judas as apostle:   Acts 1:21-22    Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that HE (Jesus) was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of HIS resurrection.

Paul didn't fit any of these qualifications for apostle.  

Paul did not "company" with the first apostles while Jesus walked on this earth.  Paul was not with them from the baptism of John.  Paul was not there when Jesus was taken up from them, taken into heaven after the crucifixion.

In fact, at the time of the early church, Paul was persecuting the Christians!

Paul gives his testimony to king Agrippa.

Acts 26:9-19   I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
  At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.

And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
 

And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And HE said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.

But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
 

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in ME.

Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:

It was after the crucifixion and resurrection that Jesus appeared to Paul, calling Paul to be an apostle.

Many of the disciples were afraid of Paul for they knew he had greatly persecuted the church and had been responsible for sending many to their deaths.

When God told Ananias to go to Paul (Saul),  Ananias was afraid of Paul.

Acts 9:10-16     And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto ME, to bear MY name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
  For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for MY name's sake.

The apostles were also afraid of Paul.

Acts 9:26-30    And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.
 

But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.  And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.

***

We see in some of Paul's epistles that some still did not believe Paul to be an apostle.

Paul says:

I Corinthians 9:2  If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

II Corinthians 11:5-6    For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.

Paul continued to identify himself as an apostle when he wrote to the churches.

Galatians 1:1    Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

Ephesians 1:1   Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Colossians 1:1   Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,

***

My 96-year-old Church of Christ cousin Jeanne wrote to me telling me how she did well during the day but found it very difficult in the evenings at her house since Charles (her husband) had died 10-years-ago.

I told her she needed to do Philippians 4:6 concerning the evenings and God would help her.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

***

A week or so later, Jeanne wrote me again.  And again she mentioned something that troubled her and again I responded telling her she needed to do what it says in Philippians 4:6 ... and this time I sent her some teachings which I had printed on our blog concerning this subject.

Jeanne was very upset when she saw me identify myself on blog as "apostle/prophet"  (my 2 callings).

She mentioned the "qualifications" for an apostle and said every translation of Bible says same thing.  

But Jeanne was apparently looking at that which Peter said in Acts 1 concerning the qualifications for replacing Judas.  (Even Paul did not fit the qualification for apostle by these rules.)  Jeanne gave no scripture citing the place where she mentioned "qualifications", but I know of no other place in NT where such is mentioned except Acts 1 on the replacement of Judas as an apostle.

Though I asked her where she was reading in Bible about qualifications for apostle, she did not answer my question.

Though she did not mention it, I feel certain she felt even if there were apostles in today's church, a woman could not be one.

Long ago, when I was first called to offices of apostle/prophet, God led me to the story of Deborah and how she judged Israel and how the people of Israel came to Deborah (a woman) for judgments.

Judges 4:4   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.

And I had seen in NT where Philip the evangelist had 4 daughters who did "prophesy".

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.

Prophesy is for the church.  I knew these women would have to be able to speak in the church to deliver prophecies.

When I asked God about that which Paul said in I Corinthians 14 about women keeping silent in the church for they were not permitted to speak ... God said to me, "Look at what these women were doing."

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.

I could see these women were interrupting the gathering of the church by asking questions.

The early church met in homes not in structured buildings.  I could see how there was more opportunity for these unruly women to speak out of order, calling attention to themselves through their questions, though I love the concept of home churches.

But I was fully persuaded by God through the above scriptures that women could be called by God to rule over HIS people (as was Deborah) ... and that women could prophesy in the church gathering (as Philip's 4 daughters did prophesy).

After Jeanne's attack in May, 2019, I returned to these scriptures which God had shown me in the mid-70's, and I reestablished my thinking based on such.  For we must reestablish  ourselves through prayer and through that which God has given us concerning the way of God after we have been attacked.

So I reviewed these scriptures and concepts and after that I shared what God had shown me with Jeanne, who is likely not even born again.

***

I was baptized in water at Church of Christ when I was about 15-years-old because I did not want to go to hell and that is what I thought they were teaching.  So I went forward and was baptized.  But I was not born again at that time.  And nothing changed in my life after I was baptized.

When I was approximately 36-years-old God spoke to me by HIS Spirit, saying:  "Joan ... you know all those mistakes you've been making all these years?  Those weren't mistakes.  Those were sins."

I was very shocked!  I thought they were mistakes.

With that my life changed immediately.  I was then born again.

Now I had the Holy Spirit though I didn't know much about the Holy Spirit at that time.  

Ephesians 1:13-14    In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.

***

In those days, I owned a business (American Indian Arts) in Dallas, Texas.

I was on a plane, enroute to Albuquerque, NM (USA), on a buying trip for my business.

As the plane was landing, I heard these words:  "Be baptized."

My cousin Jeanne, who lived in Albuquerque, was meeting me at the plane to take me to the place where I purchased jewelry for my shop.

As we drove along I said to her, "If you can arrange it, I will be baptized this afternoon before I return to Dallas."

Jeanne replied, "You've already been baptized."

I answered, "But I wasn't born again then.  Now I am born again."

I could tell Jeanne didn't understand.

I kept talking about things of God.

Finally, as we drove along, Jeanne said, "Well ... I believe you are a Christian.  I just don't understand how you can be one."

It was clear to me that Jeanne didn't understand what it was to be born again though she attended church all her life and tried to do "good".

(So many church goers are like that.  They try to do good by their own thinking but they do not have the Spirit of God.  They attend church but they are not born again.  Religion is by their own efforts and by their own fleshly thinking.)

Jeanne did set it up for me to be baptized that afternoon at the Church of Christ she attended at that time.  About 15 of my relatives were there.

Surprisingly the minister asked me if I would like to say something.  

(Church of Christ does not permit women to speak in the church but they do allow some to teach Sunday school class at the church.  Of course this makes no sense for the Sunday school class is the church just as much as the 11 am service is the church.)

I did speak.  I just spoke that which the Holy Spirit gave me.  I noticed one cousin was crying as I spoke.  She had a big smile on her face and was nodding her head up and down.  And my uncle was crying.

As the minister lowered me into the water, the Holy Spirit said to me:  "This is like being buried with Christ."

As I came out of the water, the Holy Spirit said:  "This is like being raised with Christ."

After I dressed and returned to the main auditorium, my uncle came to me and said, "I've never heard anything like that which you spoke.  Can you write that down and send it to me?"

I said, "I guess so."  (At that time, I had no idea that I was called to be a minister.  I didn't even know then that a woman could be a minister.  I learned that later.)

I did write out what I said and sent it to my uncle.  I came to believe that my uncle was born again while I was speaking that day.

***

After I was established by God and taught by God and put on radio to exhort the church. Jeanne apparently heard one of my broadcasts.  She remarked that I had a "nice" voice.

Jeanne and her husband fought me for years.  I know many evil stories were told by them to family members during those years.

In approximately 2012, I needed to replace the log lighter at my house in Lubbock, Texas.  I called the fireplace shop which was owned by Jeanne's husband's son.  (Jeanne had no children but raised Charles' 5 children which he had by previous wife.)  

They sent a high school boy out to change the log lighter.  He identified himself to me as Charles' great-grandson.  At first he was friendly.  Then he said, "OH ... YOU'RE the one from Albuquerque!"  HE became deathly silent after that.  It was clear he wanted nothing to do with me.  By this I knew he had heard evil about me from the others.  

(They would have been against my being on radio and they didn't understand being born again.)

So it was no real surprise to me when Jeanne rose up against me in May, 2019.

***

When we are attacked, we must return to God and allow ourselves to be reestablished by God.

We do this though prayer and by asking God to confirm again to us that which HE showed us about ourselves.

This is that which God called to my mind after Jeanne's attack in 2019.

* God reminded me of that which HE said to me by HIS Spirit when I was born again in 1975.

* God reminded me of the two times I was transported into heaven after I was born again.

This happened to me in the night as I was sleeping.  I was taken into heaven.  I was with God, with Christ, and with the Holy Spirit.  (I didn't see any images.  This was in the spirit.)  At that time I was merged into the body of Jesus, made one with the Word of God, God and the Holy Spirit witnessing.

The exact same thing happened to me a few night later.

After these 2 happenings, I was set on fire for the word of God.  All I cared about was Bible and the church.  Three women worked for me and ran my business.  I stayed home and studied Bible and allowed God to teach me by HIS Spirit.  Toward the end of the third year, I realized I had been set in the church by God to be a minister.  

One day while riding along the street in my car, God spoke to me and said, "I have called you and set you in the body of Christ as an apostle."

"Apostle?"  I cried out.  "What's an apostle?"

The church I was attending at that time professed to believe there are apostles in the church today but I had never heard any person say he was an apostle.  I had no idea what apostles did in the New Testament church.  I asked our Bible teacher from the church and he didn't know what apostles do.  Nor did he know any apostles at that church.

I could find no human examples of apostles living at that time.

I asked God to teach me about apostles and what they did, and God taught me.

God took me to Acts 15.

A doctrinal dispute arose in the church.  Did the Gentiles have to be circumcised after they believed in God?

The apostles and elders met to settle the issue.

After much debate and discussion, the apostle James stood up and rendered the "sentence", the ruling, which was to create the doctrine for all the churches.

Acts 15:19   James said:  Wherefore my sentence is,

I saw by these scriptures that God puts an anointing on those called as apostles to deal with church doctrines and to establish truth concerning doctrine.

In today's churches, so many doctrines set forth by Jesus and the apostles in the NT have been altered or completely changed or omitted.

I am often led to speak about such.

For example:  concerning marriage, divorce, remarriage in the church

Matthew 5:32   Jesus said:  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.

- If the husband divorces a faithful wife, he will be the cause of her adultery if she remarries.

- The faithful wife who has been divorced by her husband will commit adultery if she remarries after being divorced.

- The man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.


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.

- A woman can leave her husband but cannot remarry.  If she does remarry, she is called an adulteress.


Romans 7:1-3    Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 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.

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.



Mark 10:6-9   from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;  And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.


I Corinthians 7:12-15    But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.  And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.


But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.


I Corinthians 7:39   The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.


***

Once a woman called me wanting to talk about her mother's second marriage.

I heard this from God:  "Just focus on the scriptures."


***

A pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana, called me years ago.  He and his wife divorced and he wanted to remarry.  I told him what the scriptures say.

A few weeks later, he called me again, asking, "Has there been any change concerning divorce and remarriage?"

I replied,  "As far as I know, the Bible has not been rewritten."

I never heard from him again.


*****

Hymn:  Blessed Assurance



1.   Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 


Born of His Spirit, 
washed in His blood.


Chorus:

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior all the day long.


2.   Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
 


3.   Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.



(Click pause symbol,  "  ... at beginning of hymn, to stop music)



*****