Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
The children of Israel have just seen great victory through God at Jericho. God caused the walls of the city to fall down whereby the army of Israel walked into the city.
This victory is followed by a stunning defeat at the city of Ai.
What happened?
God is going to reveal the reason for the defeat.
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Joshua 7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.
Shocking defeat of the army of Israel:
Shocking defeat of the army of Israel:
2-5 And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.
And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.
So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.
And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
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And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
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The reason for Israel's defeat:
10-13 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed MY covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
dissemble: pretended something is one way when it is another way, living in a lie
Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
The only thing that matters in anything we do is this: "Is God with us in this plan?"
Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.
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14-15 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man.
And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.
And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.
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16-26 So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken: And he brought his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.
And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto Him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.
And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:
When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.
Notice how they took swift action to resolve the problem. "they ran into the tent" to deal with the problem once the problem was identified to them. Many downfalls come from failure to deal quickly with problems.
And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.
And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the Lord shall trouble thee this day.
And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of HIS anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
Judgment appeases God's anger.
And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.
And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the Lord shall trouble thee this day.
And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of HIS anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
Judgment appeases God's anger.
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The accursed things today are those things which man has set up to have religious significance when God did not command them to set such things up in the New Testament church Bible.
Such things as, crosses on walls and crosses hung about the neck of the human, candles associated with religion, religious photographs, graven images in stone, wood, plaster, paper ... praying to dead people and attaching religious powers to dead people such as the Catholics attach to Mary and Christopher... Wearing religious costumes.
To worship idols today is to participate in falling down before religious things made by humans hands. If an object can be seen, by the natural eye, it is not by the Spirit of God. Men, through the centuries, have been setting up such religious idols in churches. But we do not have to honor these idols of men and we should not honor such religious idols. And to do so, we will curse ourselves with their idols.
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Have you noticed how many movies portray religion today through showing the idols of the Catholic church? various graven images in stone, wood, plaster, and photographs, lighted candles as religious symbols, crossing with holy water which does not exist and is just water, long robed priests (no such thing in New Testament Bible as priests. That is Old Testament), nuns in medieval costumes (no such things in Bible as nuns), pope (no such thing in Bible as pope), archbishop (no such things in Bible), minister of music (no such thing in Bible), and no praying to dead people. Dead people are asleep. They cannot watch over you, that is God who watches over us. We pray directly to God in NT church today.
I believe they do this because religion becomes visual through such idols and to the worldly people it seems religious because they can see such and movies try to show a religion which can be seen by man through objects, graven images, crossing yourselves, wearing religious medallions or crosses, lighting candles while on your knees, religious type photographs surrounded by lighted candles, many images of humans figures in what is meant to be religious settings though in NT Bible there are no religious settings. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit in NT church. (I Corinthians 6)
Rarely do movies show other churches unless there are crosses and a few visual images inside the building, for the world identifies with things they can see.
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Moses gave honor to the unseen and thereby endured because of the unseen.
Hebrews 11:27 By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing HIM who is invisible.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship HIM. God is a Spirit: and they that worship HIM must worship HIM in spirit and in truth.
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I don't wear a cross or a collar or a long robe or a hat to display myself as being "religious" to other people. I just speak to them that which I hear from the Spirit of God. That is the true witness and the true religion, to honor that which God says.
A woman came to me once and said, "What do we call you? Reverend?"
I was horrified. This is the first time this subject had come up. I replied, "No. Just call me Joan. Like we call Paul, Paul."
No human in the Bible was ever called "Reverend." Man did that in churches of this period but certainly God didn't do that. And it is not in the Holy Bible to call man that. Holy and reverend is God's name. Psalm 111:9
In Bible, New Testament, we do see God's ministers call themselves apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher ... and pastor is proper because of the following scripture:
Ephesians 4:8;11-15 Wherefore HE (Jesus) saith, When HE ascended up on high, HE led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men ... 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: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into HIM in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
And in the New Testament Bible, the Paul identified himself to the church as an apostle and teacher. Peter identified himself as an apostle and elder. Phillip was an evangelist. Agabus and Silas were prophets. All these are in the New Testament Bible as examples for us today. Pastors exist in the NT church but there are no examples given to us of pastor in the New Testament Bible.
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Some people foolishly think they are witnessing to God when they tell others what church they attend. By doing such they witness to their church and not to God. And they divide the body of Christ when they do this, as Paul said in the following.
I Corinthians 3:1-4 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
(One says, "I'm Baptist." Another says, "I'm Methodist." Thus they divide from themselves those who attend other church groups. Instead, we should say, "I'm a Christian." and then we speak the Word of God and divide them from the evil in their respective churches, when they believe that Word we speak, which is given by the Spirit of God who speaks through us.)
4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
We are Christians, of Christ.
Acts 11:26 And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
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Any "religious" thing, not presented in New Testament Bible today, is an accursed thing.
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