Comments by Joan Boney:
God always gives us wisdom when we ask HIM for wisdom.
This is a promise from God from the Bible and we can count on this.
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.
And after we pray, God brings information to us by HIS Spirit who dwells in us.
We often have a thought come to our mind to show us what to do.
When that thought is from the Holy Spirit it will be pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. (James 3:17)
(Know this: Our own flesh can cause us to think of a plan. Devils can give us an idea. But when the idea is from God it will be simple, easy to do, not complex, not overly expensive.)
Also I've often found when the idea is from God it is something I've never thought of before.
And when the Holy Spirit brings the thought it comes in a "gentle" way. It is not driving saying I have to do this thing and I have to hurry and do it immediately. (I believe devils try to drive us that way with fear.)
It is more like God brings an "option" to our thinking.
For example: A man went into his back yard and noticed his storage building and began to consider adding a second storage building to put all his stuff in because that building had become so packed with stuff.
As he thought on this, another thought came: "Or you could just get rid of the stuff."
(Doesn't this make us smile to think of this wisdom.)
This man was in his mid-70's at that time. He was not in good health. He wasn't going to need stuff. And God sent the exact wisdom which worked for this man at this point in time.
Remember: God knows future!
***
In 2018, I fell at my house in Texas. As the ambulance workers rolled me past my front door to take me to hospital, I heard these words, "You'll never see this house again."
One of the things the Holy Spirit who is in us does for us is this:
John 16:18 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
I had no doubt that this was information from God: I would never see that house in Texas again.
I put the house up for sale.
I was in rehabilitation hospitals for 2 1/2 months after surgery. During this time a plan formulated whereby I would move to Colorado to the home of Pam Padgett.
In the months between January, 2019, and March, 2020, the house in Texas was on the market but did not sell.
(We had to pay monthly utilities for the house, yawn care, and insurance. Most of the offerings we received were having to be used for the upkeep of that unused house.)
On March 11, 2020, very important events happened in USA. Coronavirus struck. Businesses closed. All sporting events were cancelled. It became obvious to all that a significant event had happened and things would greatly change in the days ahead.
(How could we sell that Texas house when people were so frightened over that which might happen in the future?)
I said to God: "Is there anything YOU want me to do about that house in Texas?"
This concept came to my mind: "Put the house on a "special" one week sale and lower the price for one week only."
I did that immediately and the house sold in two days.
An enormous burden was lifted from me after the house sold. The house was not only a financial burden but a mental burden for me.
After we closed on the sale of the house and the money had been deposited in our ministry bank account, it took me several weeks to realize this was over and I was free and there was no longer the burden over this property in Texas!
(I thanked God continually!)
***
June, 2020, I was 82 years old and had broken several bones in my body due to accidents. When I rode in either of our old cars, there was physical pain.
I was considering having the seats re-upholstered in both of our old cars.
(My car was 26 years old and Pam's car was about 16 years old.)
As I thought about this, the following thought came to me: "Or you could just buy a new car."
I was really shocked. I had never thought of doing that.
It would be easy to do this. The money from the house in Texas was sitting in the bank and we had plenty of money to pay for a car and have money left over.
That same night, I had a dream: "I bought a new car."
So the morning after that dream, I told Pam about these things I had heard from God. We went out that same day and looked for a car that would meet our needs. Before the end of the day we had selected a car and purchased a new car.
We put both of our old cars up for sale and Pam's car sold immediately.
When God tells us to do something we don't expect to have trouble over what we have done! But often when we are following God things happen to try to cause us to doubt that it was God who told us to do "that". Or thoughts come telling us we bought the wrong item.
* After about a month or two, one day the car wouldn't start. When Pam tried to start it, a panel of lights blinked and then it went totally dead.
Pam's insurance sent a man over to put jump cables on battery. But he couldn't get it to start. He said we would have to tow the car to the dealer who was 17 miles away on south side of town. Insurance sent tow truck.
It was rather difficult to work with the dealer but finally he resolved the problem, changing out two parts.
During the time dealer had the car, Pam said she was not happy with the car because it didn't have enough power.
Pam told God that she didn't like to drive the car.
"Did we buy the wrong car?" We were bombarded with thoughts. What were we going to do? None of the cars we drove had as comfortable seats as this car. We had put Michelin tires on the car to make it ride even softer and we liked that about the car. We put a custom sound system in car and insulation throughout the car to deal with road noise and I was very happy with the results.
But we didn't like the car because of the sluggish engine power!
Pam told dealer about this problem we were having with power, and they discovered a problem with computer update and when they fixed that, the power was fine.
The car was returned to us after 1 1/2 weeks and we were very happy with the change in the engine power.
* Then a second problem surfaced. The side mirrors would not reset as they were supposed to do. The dealer worked on these mirrors 3 times before they finally got them fixed. (They had the car for about 2 weeks.) Everything seems to be working now.
When you follow God, the devil might try to cause you to think you made a mistake by that which you did.
Usually we need to be patient and work through problems that occur.
I know we heard from God about buying a new car. I feel we did select the car that fit our present needs. But it took some effort and patience to work through the problems. We bought the car June 15, 2020 and it was not until December 29, 2020 that the car was corrected.
During the trouble, it was a battle to work through faith. (Did we buy the wrong car?)
Now we are very happy with the car.
* The seats are as comfortable as possible. The car rides smoothly with the higher level of tires. The road noise is under control after we added the sound insulation.
* Pam likes diving the car now. It handles well on ice and snow which we have where we live.
I'm sure it was God showing us to buy the car. I'm sure we bought the right car for us.
The devil does come to "steal, kill and destroy" and to make us doubt our ability to hear from God and our ability to follow God.
We continually reestablish the way to go and the way we have gone by turning to God in prayer.
Philippians 4
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
*****