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.
💥💥💥
(Comments by Joan Boney)
Are we servants of the Lord, children of God, born again by the Spirit of God?
If so this promise of God belongs to us.
Our "righteousness" is of God because it is God who authors our way and gives us our assignments.
We continue in God's way, in the way God has shown us to go.
💥💥💥
💥 As a new Christian in 1975, I owned a small business in Dallas, Texas. A man filed a lawsuit against me and against several other dealers of American Indian Arts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
At first, it was so silly I couldn't even take it seriously. I just tossed the legal papers onto a shelf in my office.
After about a week, I realized if I ignored this matter the man could gain judgment against me and I could lose all the merchandise which I had accumulated in my shop.
So I hired an attorney.
Week-after-week my lawyer would send me a bill. At the rate this was going, I would be financially eaten up in a matter of months.
One day I was reading the Bible and saw this scripture: 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 what this was saying to me:
* No weapon that is formed against me would prosper. This lawsuit was definitely a "weapon" formed against me. According to that which is written in the Holy Bible, it can not prosper! I am now a servant of the Lord therefore this is my "heritage".
"So why am I paying these attorneys to represent me when God says this cannot proper?"
I would dismiss my lawyer and plan to go to court without human legal counsel.
💥💥💥
I was such a new Christian, I decided I would go to my pastor and tell him my plan. I made an appointment to meet with pastor and enroute to the meeting I prayed for God to give pastor wisdom.
After I presented my plan, pastor said, "Joan ... I perceive that you have faith to do this this way."
(Pastor: Robert Tilton, Word of Faith Church)
💥💥💥
I called my lawyer immediately. When I told Gordon my plan to go to court without human legal counsel based on the scripture in Isaiah 54:17, Gordon was horrified and said, "Joan, you can't do this! 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."
When I heard that I shouted, "$10,000 more ... Gordon, STOP. Don't do anything more."
(I probably had a total of $2,000 cash at that time and it was for the purpose of buying Indian jewelry to sell in my shop.)
I dismissed my lawyer and planned to go to court without any human legal counsel.
Also I told Gordon that so far as I knew, the Bible was not just a book about God but was the Word of God to Christians, not just an history book.
If the Bible was only an history book about God, then I wanted no more to do with the Bible.
This was a good time to try the situation about the Bible and see if these promises of God in the Bible were for us today or if they were only stories pertaining to past events.
💥💥💥
After about 2 weeks, Gordon came back to my shop. He said they had discussed my case at the law firm and they were willing to try my case without any further financial charge to me.
What is going on here? They said it would take about $10,000 more to try my case and now it was going to be "free"?
(I told Gordon I would have to get back with him on this. I didn't hear Gordon mention God in the "free" legal service.)
I began praying, asking God what HE wanted me to do.
Immediately I was reminded of the following scripture.
Genesis 14
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, which I did.)
💥💥💥
The court trial was scheduled to take place in 6 weeks. As I waited, God would remind me of various scriptures to strengthen me while I waited. There were about 14 scriptures given me during that time. I recorded these scriptures on a cassette tape and played this tape each night when I went to bed. I had recorded these scriptures on both sides of the tape so when I would awaken in the night I could turn that tape over and play it again.
Six days before the trial was scheduled, I received a phone call from the lawyer of the man who filed the law suit against me and the other Indian Arts dealers.
This lawyer said, "I'm calling you because you don't have a lawyer. I want to tell you that our client dropped all charges."
I asked, "Did he drop all charges against everyone?"
The lawyer said, "He cut everyone loose." Then he said, "We tried all along to get him not to charge you for he had no grounds to charge you. But he wouldn't listen to us. He was like a mad man."
It was over!
💥💥💥
A few days later, Gordon came to my shop. He said, "At the law firm, we have spoken of your case many time and I want you to know that we believe what you said happened, happened."
(No weapon formed against me would prosper because I am a servant of the Lord and this is a promise from God in the Bible.)
💥💥💥💥💥
* For writings on additional subjects, click here: Jesus Ministries Exhortations Blog
