In 2016, I began writing a series of ministry books on various
subjects, which we published on Amazon, in both E-book and paperback. For the next few weeks, we will show an example of the contents in each of these 18 books. You
might find these books helpful in reminding you of godly concepts used
in following God. The E-books are priced at 99-cents each in USA.
Paperback books vary in prices according to the number of pages. Free
E-books are offered daily on selected books through Amazon. At the end
of this writing, you will find a link which takes you directly to Amazon
if you choose to order this book.
Joan Boney
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God Reveals Himself To Us
Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Faith is both
substance and evidence ... Faith is a result of that which we have heard from
God by HIS Spirit ... and that which we believe.
***
Faith is
always two parts:
First, we must hear
from God by HIS Spirit.
Then we believe and obey what
we have heard.
***
We begin with two
examples:
Noah and Abraham… and we see exactly the same thing as we consider these
examples of faith.
Heb.
11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the
world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
The first thing that happened
is God spoke to Noah.
Gen.
6:13-16
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh
is come before ME; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and,
behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood;
rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with
pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of:
God spoke directly to
Noah telling him what he was to do.
* In a dream, God warned me if I went out as I had been doing to have meetings, I would be in danger. Then at the end of the dream, I heard these words, "Don't go until you see Exodus 15."
When I awoke, I cancelled all meetings for 1982.
God spoke directly to
Abraham telling him what to do.
Heb.
11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither
he went.
First God spoke
directly to Abraham ... After God spoke to him, he obeyed.
Gen.
12:1-3 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram departed, as
the LORD had spoken unto him;
***
First God
speaks to us ... Then we believe and obey what God has said to
us.
But first always, faith is based on that which God says to us.
To have an anchor for faith, you must first hear from God. Then when your faith is tested on the subject, you can return to exactly what God told you and base your faith on those words.
***
Several years ago,
God gave me the following dream.
There was a war going
on. And the problem was everyone on both sides looked the same and we couldn't
tell our "army" from the other "army." So God gave us a
password. When we spoke that password we knew which people were in our
army.
That
"password" is the Word of God and understanding of the Word of God.
Church people usually
do look the same and even say the same things. But I
have found many church people do not understand me when I speak a scripture.
They just stare at me in a blank way. They are not really of God though they
think they are of God. But those who are of God
understand me when I speak to them. By this we know one another, by
the understanding of the Word of God which God has given to us.
John 8 Jesus says to the religious people who came to HIM:
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.
45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
***
We do have to
recognize when it is the Holy Spirit bringing us a thought.
There are also other spirits that bring
thoughts.
Some thoughts are
from devil. These thoughts can even seem
like a good idea but they are sent by devil to lead us into destruction.
Often devil's thoughts even have a twang of
religion mixed in to try to persuade us of their goodness. But they lead to destruction.
Then there are
thoughts manufactured by our own flesh in its desire to get things of this
present world and to earn reputation among men of this world.
We have to be able to
recognize the thoughts that are from the Holy Spirit so we can be led by the
Holy Spirit.
***
Concerning the wisdom
that is from above, we have the following guidelines from Bible.
Mt.
11:28-30
Jesus says: Come unto ME, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take MY yoke upon you, and learn of ME; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For MY yoke is easy,
and MY burden is light.
The "yoke"
of our own flesh is hard! Flesh strives
for a reputation among men, usually going opposite to the way of God in seeking
greatness among men of this life. Flesh
strives for various types of "greatness" on this earth ... for money,
fame, reputation. Flesh delights in
outdoing people, competing against others to make oneself great.
Jesus' way is
opposite. Jesus said HE is meek and
lowly in heart.
When something is complex, difficult, overly expensive, I know that plan is not of God.
I stop, return to God, asking HIM what I should do, and wait until I have heard from HIM.
Jesus
kingdom was not of this world. Jn. 18
If this world is our
kingdom and the only thing we can see, then we will fight to get what is ours
as we live here. It will be very
important to us.
Consider Moses:
Heb.
11:24-27 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had
respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as
seeing HIM who is invisible.
***
Jesus made HIMSELF of no reputation.
Phil.
2:5-10 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: WHO,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made HIMSELF
of no reputation, and took upon HIM the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion
as a man, HE humbled HIMSELF, and became obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted HIM, and given HIM a name which is above every name: That at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth;
***
Here is important
information concerning the wisdom that is from our own flesh compared with the
wisdom that is from God:
James
3:13-17 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of
a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
But if ye have bitter
envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
For where
envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good
fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
If we speak,
distorting things to make ourselves look better, we are not going in the wisdom
of God but in the wisdom of our own flesh. Our goal is to gain approval of man for
ourselves when we do this. We will put
ourselves into bondage to other humans if this is our way of life and we will
serve under an hard yoke.
When something is
very complex and very hard to do and very costly, I always know I do not have
God's plan. I back off when I see this
and pray, asking God for HIS wisdom in the matter at hand, knowing the
following promise from God:
James
1:5
... If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
***
God leads
us by HIS Spirit but we have to be able to evaluate the thoughts that come to
us to see if that thought is from God by HIS Spirit.
Examples and
evaluation of thoughts that would lead us:
Several years ago, a
young married couple in the church I was attending at that time, thought God
had called them to go to Israel and "minister." They quit their secular jobs and went to
Israel.
In approximately one week, they
were back. They said it was impossible
for them to work in Israel. They didn't
know the language and were at a complete loss in Israel.
Evaluation: God's yoke is easy and HIS burden is light.
(Mt. 11:30) The
wisdom from above is easy to be intreated ... easy to be administered. (James 3:17)
We see by these scriptures that this young couple followed some type of "religious" spirit to Israel. It was not the Spirit of God leading them for it was hard to do...to quit your job and travel to Israel with no income...and not even know the language!
People in churches often follow some type of religious
spirit which tells them to sacrifice for God when it was HE who sacrificed for us!
***
A young man, a new
Christian, was considering marrying a divorced woman.
Bill prayed, asking God to have the car he was
meeting to blink his lights if he was supposed to marry this woman. The car blinked his lights. Bill married this divorced woman.
Evaluation: Jesus said: The man who marries a divorced woman
commits adultery. Mt.5:32
The Spirit of God does not go against the scriptures.
***
March, 2012, I had a dream. A young woman was singing. I said, "It's a little voice ... but
it's a nice little voice." Then in the dream, people were talking as
the church and I realized this was a blog.
I felt God was
showing me to start a blog to share exhortations for the church.
I called Pam Padgett
at once asking her if she could set up a blog. She did and within 3 days we were presenting
exhortations and godly testimonies.
The blog doesn't cost
us any money to publish. It allows us to
deliver exhortations daily. It goes all
over the world instantly.
It is a "little
voice" ... but a "nice little voice."
Evaluation: "pure"
... no thought whatsoever about doing such a thing until God gave me this
dream... "peaceable" ... "gentle" ... "easy to be
intreated" ... "mercy and good fruits" ... "without
partiality" ... "without hypocrisy" ... James 3:17
And by the blog, I am able to fulfill the following scriptures daily:
***
Almost every minister
who contacts me by email is begging for money or wants me to do something.
I receive many
"invitations" from men who say they are pastors, wanting me to fly
half way around the world, at my own expense, to speak to their church group or
to their ministry conferences.
They show no
consideration at all for me.
A few years ago, I
asked God to give me a solid anchor to keep me from traveling so I could be
still at my home and do my work assigned by HIM, which is to exhort the church
daily by blog and books.
I expected to hear a
scripture anchoring me.
Instead, I heard: "Remember
the cat."
I have a cat. I have to take care of her daily.
Evaluation: travel? ...
pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated? (James 3:17) ... none of the
above...
And I go all over the
world daily by blog. Amazingly these
ministers who try to get me to come to other side of world and speak to their
church (at my own expense) don't seem to realize this. If I
did what they wanted, I have no doubt I would end up killing myself and thereby
not speaking at all, which would fit the goal of the devil. In essence, their request is authored by
devil. What they want me to do is
exactly opposite to what God has led me to do and that is to stay at
home and write exhortations for the church on blog and in books.
(These ministers want my flesh and not the word of God. For they can get the word of God by reading the blog and books that I write. But that is not what they want. They want me, my flesh, to glory in me.)
We must
resist them and continue to do that which we
believe God has assigned to us.
***
Faith in God starts with hearing from God.
So the question for us is: "What did God tell me about this matter?"
We think on that word.
Our house will not
fall in the storms of this life when we are anchored to the Word which God has spoken to us by HIS Spirit and when we stay ourselves on HIS Word and do that Word by leading of HIS Spirit.
*****
*****
All books in the Life in Christ series are available in E-book version and paperback from
Amazon.com
Type Joan Boney in the Amazon search box to purchase these books
Amazon.com
Type Joan Boney in the Amazon search box to purchase these books
*****