Joan Boney
apostle/prophet
I've often heard people says:
"Oh! My God would never do that!"
People often view God by their own image. The Bible shows us God in HIS Own Image.
When we see God in HIS truth, many things change.
Then we come into a respect and awe of God and HIS mighty works. The miracles God does are enlarged. We take on a reverential
"fear of God" and respect. And we draw much nearer to real salvation in God through Jesus Christ.
This book will show us God as God really is by viewing the Holy Scriptures.
***
First, here is God's view of man:
Genesis 6:5-8 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
(Man is no different today than he was in the days of Noah, except for those men who are born again by the Spirit of God. The nature of man has not changed since God described man in the above scripture.)
6 And it repented the Lord that HE had made man on the earth, and it grieved HIM at HIS heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man
whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast,
and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth ME
that I have made them.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
So God made a way of escape for Noah and his family!
***
The apostle Paul came to see himself as God viewed him.
And Paul said:
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." Romans 7:18
Here are the things our flesh does:
Galatians 5:19-21 Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft (living in superstitions), hatred, variance (to vary, to argue, to debate), emulations (to strive to outdo one another), wrath (to desire to see harm done to those considered enemies), strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of
the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
***
So God made another way for man to be redeemed from his own flesh.
When I was baptized, after I was born again, as the minister lowered me into the water, the Holy Spirit said to me, "This is like being buried with Christ."
When I came out of the water, the Holy Spirit said, "This is like being raised with Christ."
After we are born again we have the Spirit of God in us. We keep the flesh "crucified" by choosing the way of the Spirit. Our flesh suffers when we do this for the flesh no longer gets to do what it wants to do. There is now a power of God in us which gives us the option of walking in the ways of the Spirit of God and keeping the flesh "under". We live in Christ when we learn to do this.
***
After
we are born of God's Spirit, we no longer have to live by our flesh as
we once did.
The Holy Spirit brings ideas to our mind which show us the
way of God in the matter at hand and we choose "that" way.
The Holy Spirit does the following for us:
John 14:26 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, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
***
Now
that we are Christians, we no longer choose to follow what our flesh
wants to do.
Now we walk in the Spirit by choosing to do that which the
Holy Spirit brings to our mind, keeping our flesh crucified.
Romans 6:3-7 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into HIS death? Therefore
we are buried with HIM by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
The flesh will continue to suggest to us ways to go but we choose the way shown us by the Spirit which is the way of God.
5-6 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of HIS death, we shall be also in the likeness of HIS resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with HIM, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
We keep our flesh, the old man, crucified by choosing to go in the way of God in the matter pertaining to this present life.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8-10
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with HIM: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that HE died, HE died unto sin once: but in that HE liveth, he liveth unto God.
Now we live unto God, choosing God's way instead of the way of our flesh.
11-12 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Now we ask God not to let us do that! We pray to God asking God to keep us from saying that!
Instead
of exalting ourselves over other people, we come to want to help those
other people that they can know God as we know God.
Every
time the Holy Spirit shows us the way of God and we choose to go in
that way of God, we are recreated in the image of Christ, the Word.
***
God
had another way to provide salvation for us. We would never be "good
enough" by our own works, so God had Jesus die for us that HIS blood
would pay for our sins, and HIS Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would come to
live in us to guide us in God's ways and to teach us and to help us and
even to comfort us.
We
still have the flesh which wants to do all the works of the flesh but
now we also have the Spirit of God living in us and we overcome our own
flesh by choosing the way of the Spirit and keeping the flesh "under" as if that flesh is dead, crucified with Christ.
***
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission
In the Old Testament,
the blood of bulls and goats were offered to appease God for the sins
and trespasses of the individual. And this had to be done yearly and
throughout the year.
Jesus offered himself to appease God for our sins. Jesus bought us by His own blood.
God provided for us today a better way than they had in the Old Testament.
I didn't shed my blood to pay for my sins. Jesus shed HIS blood to pay for my sins.
And
through the Spirit of Jesus who came to live in me, I can know the will
of God for me to go in the specific issues pertaining to this life so I can choose to go that way and keep my own flesh under without going in the preference of my flesh!
My
flesh is not made better after I am born again. The flesh is just as
bad as it ever was. But I can mortify my flesh each time it tries to
rise up in me to hate, and to exalt myself over others, and to please
itself through adultery or fornication and such.
I now have a power in me to overcome my own flesh and that is the power of God by HIS Spirit.
I Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
So in the temptation, I can cry out to God asking God to help me ... and HE does!
Not once has God failed me when I have asked HIM to help me.
We, who are of God, do not want to sin.
The
world wants a freedom to sin. They want to be approved in their sins.
They look for people, and even for churches, which will approve them as
they continue to live in various sins.
But we want a freedom from sin.
And
that way shown to us by God in the midst of a temptation is a freedom
from sin when we choose to go that way, keeping the flesh under the
control of the Spirit.
Paul says:
I Corinthians 9:24-17 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
And
every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
This is a really great plan of salvation given to us by God, for God knew we could never be saved by our ownselves.
The examples presented in this book should turn us to God, allowing us to see God and to see God's view.
It will be a very exciting and profitable journey for us to see these Old Testament examples and to compare such with New Testament truths as we examine this book.
For the Old Testament shows the image of God and the great power of God for the church who believes in HIM.
*****