Thursday, December 24, 2020

* Learning to trust God.

 
(Comments by Joan Boney, apostle and prophet of Jesus Christ according to Ephesians 4:11-12)

For a great many of my earlier years in life I did not trust God.  I felt it was God keeping me from getting what I wanted, which was to marry.

I was about 38 years old before I began to learn what it was to trust God.

My trust in God began when I was born again in 1975.  I owned a business at that time and a man sued me and several other dealers in American Indian arts.  I hired lawyer to represent me, but as the months dragged on, the bills from my lawyers was eating the profits from my business.  If I kept going this way, I would end up back in debt.  I felt God showed me to get out of debt and to stay out of debt.  

I saw a scripture which I decided to do in my life.

Isaiah 54:17   No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

I reasoned:  This lawsuit is a weapon against me, eating up the profit from my business.  According to this scripture, no weapon formed against me will prosper.  I am now a Christian so this verse applies to me.  Therefore this lawsuit cannot prosper against me.  So why am I paying a lawyer to defend me?  

I decided to dismiss my lawyer and plan to go to court without any human counsel.

I called to dismiss my attorney.

He was shocked and said to me, "Joan, you can't do this.  You don't realize how evil these courts are today."

I explained to him that I am a Christian.  The Bible says no weapon formed against me will prosper.  If the Bible is true, this weapon against me will not prosper.

Gordon replied, "But Joan ... we are willing to work with you and it will only take about $10,000 more
to try your case."

"$10,000 more ?"  I was very shocked!  And I cried out, "Gordon, STOP, don't do any thing else."

A week or so later, Gordon came to my shop and said they had decided to try my case without any further cost to me.

What?  One week it is going to cost $10,000 more ... then it is going to cost me nothing?

What is going on?  I didn't hear Gordon mention anything about God telling them to do this free legal service.

So I turned to God and asked God:  "What do YOU want me to do about this."

The Holy Spirit in me reminded me of the following scripture.

Genesis 14:21-23   And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.

22-23 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:

(I knew God was showing me to turn down this "free" legal service.)

Also I purposed, for the remainder of my life, to have my blessings come from God and not from that which men on this present earth could do for me.

I continued with the plan to go to court without human legal counsel.

I was very frightened!  But as I waited for the court trial, God gave me scriptures and daily I made myself focus on those scriptures.  I put each scripture on a cassette recording and when I went to bed I played the recording.  When I awoke in the night I would turn the tape over and listen again to the scriptures.

Six days before the trial was scheduled in the USA courts, the man dropped all charges against me and against all the other dealers he was suing.

It was over!  

But this was the beginning of God teaching me a major spiritual concept.

* When you hear from God by HIS Spirit showing you what to do, that Word will never fail.  You can build on "that" WORD securely.

And I began learning from this to recognize the Holy Spirit of God when HE speaks to me.  He usually brings a very gentle thought to my mind to show me the will of God.  It can be a scripture or a concept but either way it is God speaking and it will not fail.

Later I had many experiences with God showing me what to do by bringing a thought to my mind by HIS Spirit.

*****

God has never failed me when HE has shown me to do something.

During the next 40-years, I learned how to turn to God and hear from God and trust what God told me to do.

I developed the concept that it really didn't matter for God would do the best thing according to HIS purpose for me on this earth.

I also came to understand that had I married Buddy, my first love in college, I would not have been able to do the will of God as chosen by God for my life.

I did not know there was a call of God on my life until many years later.  

Buddy was Church of Christ.  His father was an elder in Church of Christ.  I would have to conform to the doctrine of Church of Christ.

This would prohibit me from speaking to the church in any form, whether it was blog, or Podcast, or ministry books!

I would never have been able to fulfill the call of God on my life as an apostle and prophet to the church had I married Buddy.

Looking back, I'm very glad my life with Buddy did not work out.

And I know the truth of the following:

Concerning prayer:

I John 5:14-15   And this is the confidence that we have in HIM, that, if we ask any thing according to HIS will, HE heareth us:  And if we know that HE hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of HIM.

So if it is the will of God for our lives and it fulfills God's purpose as planned for us, that prayer will be answered.

And the only thing that matters is:  "What does God want for my life."

I'm also persuaded that God's plan for my life is better than my own plan for my life.

Therefore:  "God's will be done."

Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to HIS purpose.

(I think we come to know this as we go along in this life and trust what we hear God speak by His Spirit and do that Word in the various circumstances of our lives.)


*****