Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
In Colossians 2:12 we read ... Buried with HIM in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with HIM through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised HIM from the dead.
After I was born again I was baptized a second time, emersed in water. It was the Holy Spirit Who told me to be baptized the second time. Therefore I did this.
At the time the minister lowered me into the water I heard, "This is like being buried with Christ."
As I came out of the water I heard, "This is like being raised by Christ."
This is exactly what Paul is telling us in Colossians 2:12 where he says ... Buried with HIM in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with HIM through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised HIM from the dead.
Therefore, we are changed when we are born again. We are new creatures when we are born again. We no longer do those old sins which we once did. And we are accepted by the beloved. We are accepted by the church because they understand being born again. The real church understands being born again.
Now I have met people, and I have relatives even, who do not understand being born again though they have attended church all their lives.
But we who are born again understand. We know we are different. We know we are not the same as we once were. The whole purpose of God is we are born again so we can follow Him and therefore we are witnesses as we follow Him to the life of Christ which is totally different than the way we once were.
And after we are born again we no longer do those sins we once committed, for we are new creatures.
II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Jesus told the woman taken in adultery in John 8, "Go and sin no more."
If you were a drunkard before you were born again and God spared you, then you do not continue in drunkenness. You do not return to drunkenness. For to do so is to deny the blood of Christ.
Hebrews 10:26-39 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
For we know HIM that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto ME, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge HIS people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
If we were to return to those sins we once did, we would be denying the blood of Jesus. It would be a very serious thing to do. If you were homosexual and you are born again, you would not continue to be a homosexual. If you were an adulteress and you are born again, you would not continue being an adulteress. You would not continue in prostitution after you are born again. To do so would be to deny everything. So we don't do that.
No matter what the previous sin was, after we are born again our eyes are opened. We know it was a sin and we no longer commit that sin, and we walk in the way of God by His Spirit who dwells in us.
We cannot accept into the church group a person who says he is a Christian but is continuing in his previous sins. When we know he is continuing in his previous sins, we have to put that person away from us.
I Corinthians 5:11-13 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, says Paul, and that is certainly true. We do not deny that. Therefore a little sin will work sin all the way through the congregation. We cannot have it sitting among us.
If there is sin in the congregtion, we have to go to that person, explaining that is sin, giving the person an opportunity to repent. And if that person does not repent, we have to put that person out of the church.
If we are in no position to put the person out of the church, and that church continues in the sin, and we go to the pastor and tell the pastor and he continues in the sin and he continues to let that person sit in the congregation who refuses to repent, then we have no choice but to come out of that church group. We cannot sit among them when they refuse to repent.
I have had a good deal of experience dealing with this subject. When I attended Word of Faith group, I went to their main service but I also went to their Bible study which was for the singles in the group. I very much cared about the teacher who taught those Bible studies. He would always say to us, "If anyone has a word from the Lord, please speak it." He gave an opportunity with that for the Holy Spirit to move.
One day I was in a business where they sold fresh coffee beans. The woman found that I was a friend of this Bible teacher. She began talking about this Bible teacher. She told me he was such a terrible influence on her boyfriend. It turned out that he was going to bars. He was attracting women to himself. It appeared to be fornication.
I went to him and I said, "I have heard about your girlfriend. Tell me about this girlfriend. Are you having sex with her?" And he said to me, "Of course."
No repentance, no shame. Totally against everything we are taught in the Bible. I was devestated.
But I turned to him and said, "You know the Bible as well as I do. I can't have anything to do with you." He said, "That's right."
He didn't care. He didn't say he didn't care, but he didn't care. He showed no concern whatsoever. He agreed it was right that I couldn't have anything to do with him any more.
So far as I know he continued teaching at that church. By that time I had left that church group. But so far as I know he continued teaching at that church group. I know that later he left that church group and went to another church group and taught Bible classes there. But there was never any moment when he showed repentance for what he had done.
But I did what Paul said. I didn't try to counsel him. I didn't try to stop him. I separated myself from him, just as Paul told us to do in I Corinthians 5.
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Another very sad, tragic thing that happened to me in 2019. A woman whom I cared very much about railed out at me and misunderstood me and showed that she had decades of misunderstanding and resentment toward me. Pam Padgett was on the other extension here in the house and witnessed this, and we both were shocked over what we heard. The woman knew that Pam was listening on the telephone because at one point I stopped her in her railing and I said, "We have got to get a witness for this. We have to get Pam on the phone." Well the woman calmed down for a little bit, but then she started in again accusing me again of things, railing at me.
Notice once again I Corinthians 5 if any man or woman in the church is a railer, because Paul addresses this. A railer is that person who shows vehemence against you and will not be persuaded otherwise and continues to accuse you. That is what this woman had done. Pam and I agreed we had no choice but to put her out of the church, and that is what we did.
Later, Pam accidentally sent her information when I fell and broke my arm and she responded in a secular way. And Pam was horrified that she had sent this information to this woman who had been removed from us. I said, "Don't worry about this." It didn't bother me that she had sent it. We both felt that by her response she still saw no sin that she had done. We feel that she is turned over to a reprobate mind which is a mind that doesn't really have the recognition of their sins as the mind does when one has the Holy Spirit. It appears that the Holy Spirit has been removed from this woman.
I still have hope for her because she did me a very big favor one time, and there is scripture which addresses this subject.
Mark 9:41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in MY name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
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Live in peace by putting yourself with those who really follow God, doing his word.
We cannot live and walk with people in the church who do wrong things because we cannot walk with them in peace and joy. They will always trouble us.
The main thing for us to do is walk in peace and joy. Therefore we find other people who will follow God and are trying to follow God and we communicate with those individuals. They may be in another state. They may be in another country. We can still communicate by emails, which we have available today. We can use telephones. We might not be with them in the flesh, but that does not stop us from communicating things of God with them and becoming close friends.
You may not find a church group that you can attend. I certainly have not been able to find a church group although I have looked for one since 1982 and have often testified to the various sins that I found being committed in the individual church groups. There has not been one which I have attended since 1982 that I could attend multiple times. So what I did was I just didn't go there. I depended on God to teach me by HIS Spirit. I continued in the calling which I believe is on my life which is to exhort the church. Today we have the wonders of internet to use freely without being edited, therefore we can speak whatever God gives us to speak. It is marvelous, a great opportunity.
Also we have the books which we can write on Amazon without being edited and the books go all over the world.
So I am able to do the work for which I am called, which is to exhort the church daily. The scriptures that have meant so much to me, telling me to do this, are Hebrews 3:13.
Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Also Hebrews 10:25 which tells us to exhort the church even more as we see the day approaching. And you will see how I have really done that scripture, bringing forth even more exhortations both in books and on the blog.
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Then God gave me the magnificent opportunity to live with another person who is trying to follow God, and there is nothing quite like that. I have never had that before.
We still have a little church group, but they are scattered all across the United States. I don't see them personally. One of them lives in Tacoma, Washington. One lives in I think North Carolina. We use email so a lot of times I forget states. Another lives in Ohio, and one lives in Houston. I live in Colorado Springs. If you are unfamiliar with the United States map, this is all over the place. We are 450 miles to 1000 miles to 1500 miles from each other. It doesn't matter because we have today access by internet, email, telephone.
Paul had none of these luxuries. He had to communicate either directly to the churches or by parchments. But we have ways to communicate even though we are not in the same city or country with each other.
You are able, if you choose to do so, to send to us writings showing things that God has done with you. We would love to see them. We are asking for people to share their simple testimonies with us. What God has done with you. How you were born again. What the Spirit of God said to you at the time you were born again. Things like that. Things of God. We are not interested in what church you go to. We are not interested in any of the things you have done or some preacher has done. We are interested in what the Spirit of God has said. If you have something like that, which you should have if you are born again, we would love to hear it and share it. You will find our mailing address on the home page of the Jesus Ministries Exhortations blog.
As we share with others, especially by the Holy Spirit by which I mean the Holy Spirit reminds us of the thing and we share it with others, that is sharing by the Holy Spirit. As we share with others by the Holy Spirit we are going to find our own faith increases. It is Philemon verse 6 ... That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
God may choose to have you speak to a disobedient person in the church groups, but you are not going to be able to fellowship with them because they are going to pull you away from God. You think they won't, but they will. I can't do it. I know how harmful it is and how dangerous it is. I have to get away from them. But there are people who you can fellowship with. You certainly can with us if you are of God.
Don't be deceived. The dangers inside the church groups today are enormous.
If you are of God you should be reading the Bible. You should have an understanding of part of the Bible at least. None of us know all of it. We know in part. We know the part God has shown us. If there is wrong-doing in that group, you have to come out, just as I had to come out. You will be held accountable for staying in a group where there is wrong-doing. You will be accountable. You will suffer loss one way or the other. There are such things as rewards and full rewards. We are told this by the apostle John, so we know they exist. We know Paul was trying to get them to perfection in Jesus to get a full reward. We know that by the Bible. And that is what we are encouraging that way also.
But if there is wrong-doing you should be able to recognize it by the fact that you have the Holy Spirit in you and will have scriptures called to your attention. You cannot afford to ignore it.
There was one time I tried to ignore it. God had mercy upon me even though I tried to ignore something. And he brought me a dream and brought me out of that church group by that dream. But there was a time when I attended Word of Faith the teacher of our single Sunday school class was also single. He was a divorced man. He had one child by a previous marriage long ago. But I knew the scripture on the subject of elders. Before I was born again I had attended Church of Christ group and had heard them speak that scripture that an elder must be the husband of one wife and he must have multiple children. He cannot be an elder unless he is the husband of one wife and has multiple children. So I knew that scripture from before I was even born again. But I didn't want to follow through on this. I can't say that I knew I Corinthians 5 at that time about coming away from him, but I really cared a lot about this man and I wanted to be there. So I ignored that scripture on elders ...
Titus 1:5-9 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
But God gave me a dream and got me out of that church group and then I found out he was committing fornication by his own admission to me, and I knew I couldn't be around him. By that time I had learned I Corinthians 5 so I did separate from him. Years later I admit that I tried to resume a relationship with him, but he was not interested in me so it did not develop at all.
Sometimes we will try to continue in a place where we know things are wrong. But it has been my experience that when we are really of God, HE will get us out of it.
As we get closer to the end, we surely don't want to be sitting with them when judgment comes because they are going to be very strongly judged by God. This is what the scriptures tell us, so you should read the following scripture for yourself to motivate yourself.
II Thessalonians 2:6-17 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Whereunto HE called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.
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