Led by the Spirit of God By the Word of God
At the time I was born again, I owned a business in American Indian Arts. At this point in time in USA American Indian Arts was very popular.
A man came to town and rented a motel room and advertised heavily.
Frequently such itinerant salesmen were selling massed produced items which had been very heavily overpriced and then marked down 50% or more.
The Dallas Morning News came to me asking me if I would write an article to warn people and to help people select this merchandise wisely, giving them some guidelines.
A few days after the article was published, a short, heavy set man came into my shop.
He was wearing a tie clasp shaped like handcuffs!
He said to me, “Little lady … do you know such & such,” naming a man.
I replied I didn’t know that man.
He said, “Well … he knows you for he is suing you for a-million-dollars.”
I was very shocked!
(At that time, I probably had less than $2000 in the bank.)
The situation was so ridiculous to me that I couldn’t even take it seriously. I threw the legal papers off to the side and forgot about them for a week or so.
Then I realized if I failed to respond to this law suit, judgment could be rendered against me by the courts.
I hired a lawyer.
Several weeks passed. The man was also suing 3 or 4 other dealers of American Indian Arts in Dallas. He was also suing the city of Dallas and Fort Worth with the charge of conspiracy to try to keep him from doing business in the metroplex.
My lawyer kept filing legal papers and would call me from week to week, and send me a bill for his services.
The legal fees were eating up all the profit from my small business. At the rate we were going I knew I would be back in debt shortly. I had felt God had showed me to get out of debt and stay out of debt. And I had worked very diligently to get out of debt and to keep the business debt free, purchasing merchandise only as I had the cash available to pay for the merchandise.
I was a “baby” Christian, newly born again, at the time this was happening.
One day, while reading the Bible I saw the following.
Isaiah 54:17 … 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 began to reason this scripture. This lawsuit was a weapon formed against me. God said in the Holy Scriptures, “it would not prosper.”
Now I am a servant of the Lord.
This scripture applied to me now.
Therefore, I decided to dismiss my lawyer and plan to go to court without any human legal counsel.
I made an appointment to consult my pastor and present my scriptural case to him. As I drove to the appointment, I was praying for God to give pastor HIS wisdom.
At the end of the conference, pastor said to me, “Joan … I perceive you have faith to do this this way.”
I called lawyer immediately and dismissed him and told him that I am now a Christian and this is what Bible says, quoting Isaiah 54:17 to him, and I told Gordon this is a promise from God to the church, therefore this lawsuit against me will not prosper and I was going to court without any human legal counsel.
Lawyer was very shocked!
He responded, “Joan … you can’t do this. You don’t know how evil these courts are… It will only take about $10,000 more to try your case and we are willing to work with you.”
“$10,000” … I cried out … “Gordon stop … don’t do another thing” …
A couple of weeks later, Gordon came into my shop. He said the law firm had decided to try my case without any further legal fee.
What is going on here?
One week they were going to charge $10,000 more … now the legal service was going to be “free”.
I told Gordon I would have to get back with him on this.
I began praying, asking God what HE wanted me to do.
I was then reminded of the following …
Genesis 14 … 17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him (Abram) after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine:and he was the priest of the most high God. 19 And he blessed him (Abram), and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he (Abram) gave him (Melchizedek) tithes of all.
21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
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 telling me to turn down the “free” legal service. Also since that time, I have purposed to depend on God for that which I have on this earth. I do not want anything except what God gives me. I want my “riches” to come from God and not from man.
But during these weeks and months, I was very frightened. Many terrible thoughts of what might happen to me came into my mind.
I began holding onto scripture to fight the fearful thoughts, starting with the following scripture:
Through this, God taught me the concept of taking thoughts captive to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ, The Word.
II Cor. 10 … 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
In this battle, the starting point for me was:
Isaiah 54:17 (a promise of God to the church) … 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 kept this scripture before me day and night to give me strength and courage and to fight the fearful thoughts.
God brought other scriptures to my mind by HIS Spirit and when HE did, I wrote those scriptures down and added them to Isaiah 54:17.
In the months before the trial was scheduled, God had given me about 14 additional scriptures which I kept before me constantly.
I took these scriptures and recorded them over and over on a cassette tape, on both sides of the tape. I started the tape playing when I went to bed each night. I fell asleep to these scriptures. When I awoke in the night I turned the tape over and started playing it again on the other side.
The case continued on in the courts for several months.
All the time, I was keeping scripture before me and hearing scripture in the night.
Six days before the trial was scheduled in US District Court, I received a phone call from the lawyer of the man who was suing me.
His lawyer was calling me because I had no lawyer.
He said this man dropped all charges.
I asked the lawyer if this man dropped all charges against the other defendants also and the lawyer replied, “He cut everyone lose.”
The lawyer went on to say, “We tried to get him not to sue you but he was like a mad-man and he wouldn’t listen to us.”
It was over … almost …
A few days later, Gordon, my former lawyer came into my shop. He said they had done little but discuss what had happened since the case was dropped.
And Gordon said, “We have concluded at the law firm that what you said happened, happened… no weapon that was formed against you would prosper …”
Now this was over! Except for the fact that God used this fearful trial to teach me to believe HIM and to hold fast to the promises of God in the Bible … and to take thoughts captive to bring those thoughts into obedience of the Word of God.
The Bible is not a history book. The Bible is real … with real power of God for HIS people who can believe what the scriptures tell us … The Bible is not about God. The Bible is God! Through the Holy Spirit we see the way of God continually through scripture, through dreams given by God, and through thoughts given by the Holy Spirit.
Later a man came into my store looking for power in Indian Arts. He thought these objects had mystical power and he wanted that power.
I told this man there is real power but it is not in art objects … that power he was looking for was in the Word of God for those who could believe what God said to them by HIS Word.
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