Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
Is Jesus glorified in Paul? Is Jesus glorified in Peter? Is Jesus glorified in you?
Each time we do (or say) what God shows us to do, Jesus is glorified in us.
Each time we obey a scripture given us by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is glorified in us.
Each time we set about to do what we believe we have heard from God, Jesus is glorified in us.
When we quote scripture, like a parrot, we do harm, not good.
One of our prophets, Barbara Preston, in our church group said she noticed when she tries to say something spiritual, even correct things, they come out "weak and watery" ... without power that comes when Holy Spirit is leading her to speak.
Years ago, I attended a prayer group. There was a woman in our group who quoted the same scripture over and over. I got to point I braced myself and dreaded what was going to come from her.
You can ruin a scripture this way.
The power of the scripture is in God and the Holy Spirit. When God, by HIS Spirit, causes a scripture (or a word) to rise up in us, there is great power. When we do it of our self, by rote, like a parrot, it becomes as death, no life.
We glorify God when we speak that given us by the Holy Spirit.
*****
One time, I was playing golf with two women, a Church of Christ woman and a Methodist woman. The Methodist woman began to talk about people judging people. (I felt she meant me.) The Holy Spirit rose up in me and said, "If you judge someone is judging, aren't you judging?"
She gasped! It was like a pin was stuck in a balloon filled with hot air.
*****
In the early 1980's, I was on radio presenting exhortations week-days to the church.
During this time, God spoke the following to me over and over:
The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
After that, sins being committed by various big-time radio/TV ministers began to be called to my attention. I tried to get messages to each of them but when I couldn't, I began giving those messages on my radio broadcasts, naming those ministers by name and telling of their sins. The message reached them!
To give me the courage to do this, God had shown me Paul warning the church about an evil doer and naming that evil doer by name.
Paul said: Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words. II Tim. 4:14-15
So I began naming the ministers by name and telling of their specific sins on my radio broadcasts.
During that time, I was having a meeting in Seattle. Outside the meeting room door, waiting for me, was the manager of the Seattle radio station. He had always been very friendly. Not this time. He was very sober, and somber.
He said to me, "Joan, you have many 'good' messages. Just speak those messages. If you continue speaking these judgment messages, I don't know what is going to happen to you. We may have to put you off the air."
I replied, yet not I but the Holy Spirit speaking through me, said,
"George, If I don't speak the message I believe to be from God, then I don't have a message and I may-as-well be off the air."
*****
I have a wonderful cleaning woman, technically a housekeeper. She has been with me for several years, coming to my house one afternoon a week. She is devout Catholic. But I believe the Holy Spirit is in her.
One day, I had been writing about sins in the ministries. I went to her and begin talking about how bad things are in the churches today.
She said they had one priest that she just couldn't call "Father". She said she didn't know why she could not do this, but she just couldn't.
(I did not quote Mt. 23:9 to her ... Jesus said ... And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.)
I did tell her this wonderful story of Margaret Tafoya, a famous American Indian potter.
Margaret Tafoya, told me this story.
She had 7 children and wanted them to study the Bible. So she enrolled them in the McCurdy Mission School and removed them from the Catholic church school at the pueblo.
The priest called her in and told her she could not do this.
She said, "But I want my children to study the Bible."
The priest responded, "People like you don't need to read the Bible. We will tell you what you need to know."
Margaret continued saying that she wanted her children to study Bible.
The priest then said to Margaret: If you do this we will put you out of the Catholic church and you will never be able again to confess your sins.
Margaret told me this with great shame.
She said, "I don't know what came over me but I said to the priest: 'I don't have to confess my sins to a man like you. I will confess them to the Lord.' "
I knew it was the Holy Spirit of God speaking these words of truth through Margaret. I tried to assure Margaret that no man can remove us from God's church. But I'm not sure she understood me.
*****
I also told my housekeeper, who is Catholic, the following story:
At one point, I was a member of a museum group at our local university. I went to a dinner and had been seated next to a man who was wearing the largest cross I've ever seen. He identified himself as the former pastor at Indiana Street Baptist Church.
Immediately he began talking about his church and went on to say, "We have a terrible problem at our church. We have so many people coming to church we can't seat everyone. We have enlarged our building twice and still can't seat them."
Through me, the Holy Spirit replied:
"If you would begin telling people at your church what Jesus said ... That the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery ... then about 1/2 of the people would get up and leave and you'd have no trouble seating the people."
He gasped! (I got up immediately and left the dinner even before the meal was served. There was no way I was going to sit there beside this man.)
My housekeeper began a strong laugh when I told her what I had said. It really reached deeply into her.
*****
When you are working by the Holy Spirit it is instant, not pre-planned, it is spontaneous, it is exciting, and it is very unforgettable.
They may try to forget what you said by the Holy Spirit, but they will not be able to forget. This word will rise up in their memory like a hammer hitting a rock.
Great power is there through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit glorifies God ... The flesh of man glorifies itself.