This is the essence of faith in God. First, God speaks to us. Then we obey God.
Genesis 12
2 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:
3 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. (all nations: Jews and Gentiles)
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
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On August 5, 1975, God spoke to me by bringing this thought to my mind:
"Joan ... you know those mistakes you've been making all these years? Those weren't mistakes. Those were sins."
Sins? I was shocked. And with that I was born again.
God gave me a new heart and a new Spirit, The Holy Spirit, to live in
me and lead me and guide me and to show me the will of God.
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At the time I was born again, I owned a small business in Dallas, Texas.
A
man filed a lawsuit against me. I knew it was ridiculous, unfounded,
so I just threw the legal papers on a shelf in my office and paid no
attention to these.
A
few days later, I realized that if I didn't respond to these charges,
that man could obtain a court judgment against my business and I could
lose all that I had. So I hired an attorney to represent me.
Bills from the lawyer began arriving regularly and I knew all my money would be gone if I continued this way.
What to do? I asked God.
And God reminded me of this scripture:
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.
If this scripture is for today, this "weapon" formed against me will not prosper! So why am I paying these attorneys? I could go to court without any human legal counsel and represent myself.
I was such a new Christian, I decided to go to my pastor and tell him what I was planning.
As I drove to the church to talk to pastor, I prayed for God to give pastor wisdom.
James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
After I explained the situation and my plan to pastor, Robert Tilton, he said: "Joan ... I perceive that you have faith to do this this way."
I called my lawyer and told him that I am now a Christian and what the Bible says and what I wanted to do.
Lawyer was horrified! He said, "Joan ... you don't realize how evil these courts are today. We are willing to work with you. It will only take about $10,000 more to try your case."
I was shocked! $10,000 more.
" Gordon ... stop ... don't do another thing!" I
replied. (I probably had only $2,000 cash at that time and if I went
the way of the lawyers I would be back in debt and God had told me to
get out of debt and stay out of debt, which I had done.)
I explained this to Gordon.
Then I said: "The
Bible is either true and the promises made by God are for us today or
the Bible is just an history book. This is a good time to find out
about the Bible."
I released my lawyer that day.
About
a week later, Gordon returned to my shop and said they, at the law
firm, had decided to try my case without any further financial cost to
me.
I told Gordon I would have to let him know.
I began praying: "God what do you want me to do?" And immediately I was reminded of these scriptures.
Genesis 14 (There had been a war and Abram's side won.)
22 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,
23 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 the "free" legal service down."
God gave me about 14 scriptures to help me to not be afraid. I focused on these scripture to steady myself.
About 6 weeks passed. I received a phone call from the lawyer of the man who was suing me. He said: "I'm
calling you because you do not have a lawyer. I want to let you know
our client dropped all charges and there will be no court case."
I replied: "Did he drop all charges against everyone else?"
His lawyer said: "He
cut everyone loose. We tried to get him not to file those charges
against you but he wouldn't listen to us. He was like a mad man."
(He
was suing several other dealers in American Indian Arts and the Better
Business of both Dallas and Fort Worth, charging that we were conspiring
to keep him from doing business in the metroplex.)
A few days later, Gordon, my former lawyer came into my store. He said: "We
want you to know that we believe what you said happened happened. God
did not allow this weapon formed against you to prosper."
It was over!
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