Podcast: Chapter 7 New Book: Attending church. Joan Boney / Born again by God speaking to me by HIS Spirit

 

 

 

(This new book is now available on Amazon in e-book for 99 cents.  Later to be published in paperback also.)

On August 5, 1975,  God spoke to me by HIS Holy Spirit and said:  "Joan, you know these mistakes you've been making all these years.  Those weren't mistakes.  Those were sins."

I was very shocked!

I was staying in the home of my best friend and her husband while recovering from an operation.  I walked passed Donna that morning and casually said, "Oh, by the way Donna, I don't think I've been a Christian until now."

She stopped what she was doing and called out to me, "Wait Joanie ... What did you just say?  ... Come back here."

I told her what had happened the night before when God spoke to me and how now I think I really am a Christian.

I thought I was a Christian because I had been baptized in water but now I really felt a change had happened inside me.  I could feel I was very different, although I couldn't explain exactly how I was different until later.

I Cor. 3:16   Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Now I wanted to read the Bible!   I wanted to go to church and be with other Christians!   I no longer wanted to be around those people I had been around!   I just wanted to go to church.

***

A month or so after this, I was asleep in the night and something happened.

I was "transported into heaven".  I knew I was with God and with Christ and with the Holy Spirit, although I saw no physical images.  It was a spiritual experience.  At that time, I was merged into the body of Jesus, made one with the Word of God,  God and Holy Spirit witnessing.

When I awoke, I was really on fire for the Bible and things of God.

Then a few nights later I was transported again into heaven and the exact same thing happened again as had happened the first time I was taken into heaven.

I didn't tell anyone about this for I thought this happened to all Christians after they were born again.

A few days after this, I was having breakfast with my young friend, Bill.  He was 10 years younger than I and Bill continually talked about being a Christian. 

(Before I was born again, I thought Bill was crazy. He was always talking about how great it was to be a Christian.  Bill had been Catholic before he was born again.)

To me, Bill had the same personality of a St. Bernard puppy.  He was intently eating his food when I said to him, "You're right about this thing of being a Christian.  What I like best about it is that thing that happens to you in the night."

Bill said, "What thing?"

I replied, "I don't know what it is called.  It is that thing where you are taken into heaven in the night and you are with God and Christ and the Holy Spirit."  

(I noticed Bill had dropped his fork into his plate and he had stopped eating and he was looking directly toward me!)

He said:  "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

For the first time, I realized this experience with God didn't happen to every Christian.

I had been reading a book entitled, "The Exodus".  In that book the author said sometimes when you are called by God to do a work there will be an unusual experience given to you by God.

I did tell my best friend about this happening but she just sat and cried.  She was no help at all in finding out what had happened.

After that I just didn't mention this again to anyone.

***

I owned a small business in American Indian Arts at that time but I found I no longer had any interest at all in my business.

All I wanted to do was read the Bible and attend church and go to the prayer group which I now attended in my neighborhood.

I had 3 very competent women who were working for me at my shop so I didn't have to be there.  I mostly stayed at home and read the Bible.  God was teaching me.  And when there was a church gathering I went to it and I also attended the weekly prayer group which met in a house in my neighborhood.

One day at the prayer group, we all had our heads bowed and were praying when I heard these words, "Look up."

I looked up and saw the figure of a body part outlined on the wall.  

(The other women were still praying while I was talking to God and HE was talking to me.)  

I said to God, "I know this is part of the body but I can't remember which part."  

I heard:  "Stomach."

(Oh, Yeah ... a stomach.  I recalled the old Pepto-Bismol commercials on TV.)

After the women quit praying, I said, "Does anyone have a stomach problem."

One woman began jumping up and down and said, "I do.  I do."

God used this to begin teaching me how to operate in the spiritual gifts HE had given me.

I Cor. 12:4-11   Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as HE will.

From that point on, when I went to the Sunday school class at church or the prayer group, God would often give me "a word" to speak.

At church, at our Bible class, the teacher always made provision during the time of the class for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come forth.  He would always say, "Does anyone have a Word from the Lord?"  And at that time we were free to share what we had received.

This is such an important point for at most churches everything is very highly structured and there is no provision made for God to speak by HIS Spirit during the gathering.

The apostle Paul told us what we are to do when we gather as the church:

I Cor. 14:26   How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

The Holy Spirit was free to speak to the church gathering through whom God willed.

But men changed this and structured the church gathering so only people approved by themselves could speak and men planned out everything that they wanted to come forth.

The life was taken out of the gathering of the church when man changed the instructions given in the Bible for the gathering of the church.

In the 1980's, God gave me the following dream:  I went into a church service which was filled with people.  There were no seats available on the lower floor so I went upstairs.  One vacant seat remained.  I went to that seat and sat down and began listening.  The woman in front of me turned around and said, "You can't see much from that seat."  (A support column that was holding up the roof was directly in front of that seat.)  I replied to the woman, "Oh, that's all right.  There's never much to see at these places any way."

***

From 1975, when I was born again, until 1980 when I was put on radio by God to exhort the church, God took me as HE willed through many sections of the Bible to teach me and prepare me for the work to which HE had called me.

We began with such scriptures as:

John 5:30  where God showed me Jesus could do of HIS own self nothing.  

This really surprised me for if the Son of God could do nothing without hearing from God I was sure I would not be able to do anything unless I heard from God.

John 5:30   Jesus said:  I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear (from God), I judge: and MY judgment is just; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent ME.

Then God showed me scriptures about the work of the Holy Spirit and God began teaching me about the Holy Spirit.

John 14:26  Jesus says:  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in MY name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

John 16:13  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 (from God), that shall HE speak: and HE will shew you things to come.

I Cor. 2

9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love HIM.

10 But God hath revealed them unto us by HIS Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

***

After two or three years of teaching me, God showed me I was called to be a minister.

"How can that be?"  I asked?

In the Bible, the apostle Paul said:  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 Cor. 14:34-35)

God said to me:  "Look at what these women were doing."

When I looked again at what these women in I Cor. 14:34-35 were doing, I saw these women had been "asking questions".  

I've noticed before that women often ask questions to get into the spotlight and gain control.

Then God reminded me of the 4 daughters of Philip the evangelist.  

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.

From the Bible, I knew prophets were sent to the church.

To prophesy they would have to be permitted to speak to the church.

Under proper conditions, I believed women could speak in the church when bringing a word from God to the church or a gift of the Holy Spirit.

I Cor. 14:40    Let all things be done decently and in order.

I visited a non-denominational church once where pastor was teaching the Sunday school lesson and one of the women in the congregation jumped up and waved her arms in the air and began shouting, "Praise the Lord ... Praise the Lord."  The people in the congregation started laughing.  This woman ran in circles about the room while shouting and waving her arms into the air.  The pastor was excited.  I realized they thought the Holy Spirit had overtaken this woman and was causing her to do these things.

I was horrified.

I knew the Holy Spirit would never disrupt the church service this way.  The Holy Spirit does not take over our bodies and cause us to do unseemly things.  The Holy Spirit gives us information and truth and choices.

I knew this was not the Holy Spirit of God in this woman because all things in the church are to be done "decently and in order".  (1 Cor. 14)

Had I been in charge of this meeting, I would have stopped this woman and I would have put things in order in the church and I would have taught about those things that are proper in the church and that which the Holy Spirit does in the gathering of the church.  (Jn. 14:26 & Jn. 16.13)

I never returned to that church.

I Cor. 14:32-33  And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.  For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

***

God took me to many scriptures in the book of Acts showing the working of prophets in the New Testament church.

Acts 11:27-30   And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.

28 And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.

29 Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:

30 Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

The prophet Agabus appears again later in the book of Acts.

Acts 21:10-11   And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.  And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

There are several other examples of prophets in the New Testament church in the book of Acts.

Acts 13:1-4   Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.

The New Testament prophet Silas traveled with the apostle Paul.

Acts 15:40-41  And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.  And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

Acts 15:32   And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them.

Many churches today teach that there are no more apostles or prophets.  By the scriptures, God showed me this teaching that is being done in churches today is just not true.

Ephesians 4:8; 11-12   Wherefore HE (Jesus) saith, When HE ascended up on high, HE led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men... 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:

Some churches today say that Paul was the "last" apostle.  But by this scripture we see that Paul was one of the first of the New Testament apostles which Jesus appointed from heaven for the New Testament church.

Acts 9:1-6  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?

5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

***

The churches today teach many things that are wrong but God straightens out our thinking by the Holy Scriptures:

II Timothy 3:16-17  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

***

The call of God on my life:

I had been at Word of Faith four or five years when the following happened.

Bob Tilton, the pastor at Word of Faith, from the pulpit on a Sunday morning said:  "Joan Boney is not called by God as a teacher.  She is a prophetess."

The teacher of our Sunday school class shouted:  "That's it!"  (Several times he had started to tell the people I was a teacher but there was what he called "a check" in his spirit.  I was not teacher but prophet!  Now he knew what he had been seeing come from me for several years in his classes.)

I had never told anyone at Word of Faith that I was a prophet but the fruits of the work I did showed this.

God also gave me a spiritual gift of "exhortation".

Romans 12:6-8   Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

exhort:  to urge earnestly by advice or warning

And one day while driving along the road, God said to me:  "I have called you and set you into the body of Christ as an apostle."

I was very shocked!  And shouted out:  "An apostle ... what's an apostle?"

The church I was attending, Word of Faith, professed to believe the ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelists, pastor, and teacher were valid for the NT church as per Ephesians 4:8-12, but no one at that church was identified as being "an apostle" and no one knew what apostles did in the church today.

I asked God and HE began teaching me what apostles are ordained by HIM to do in today's church.

***

The apostles in today's NT church:

God showed me apostles deal with church doctrine and work to bring church people to the true doctrines of Christ in the New Testament Bible.

I do this work constantly as I write about subjects such as:  divorce/remarriage, homosexuals/lesbians, the gathering of the church and things proper for the service, qualifications of elders and deacons, ministers appoint by Jesus for the church

The antichrist has set up churches to suit himself and has removed many instructions given in the New Testament Bible and set up other doctrines which churches today are professing.

NT apostles will speak to try to bring individuals back to the true doctrines of Christ and will also try to free individuals from churches where the apostasy has taken place today.

***

The prophets in the New Testament church today:

The work of the NT prophet is defined by the following scripture:

Hosea 12:13   And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

God uses prophets to help the elect of God to get out of traps and to say free.

Corrections and warnings are often delivered by NT prophets.

Prophets are always sent to the elect of God and not to the world.

Ezekiel 3:4-5 And HE (God) said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with MY words unto them.  For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;

NT prophets are sent by God to the church, to the elect of God.

💥💥💥💥💥