Joy!

A few months ago I was praying and God spoke to me saying, "This next year is going to be a time of Joy in your life. Joy in ministry, in your home and in everything you do. You will be a spreader of Joy with anyone you come in contact with. You will wear Joy. " Well at first I was thinking, that is cool. But then I wondered, how in the world is this going to happen? This has been a very strange year and I have struggled with some depressive moments and lethargy and I have found myself in need of a God intervention. I was really hoping God was going to ZAP me with some special instantaneous Joy touch and that I would start to see and operate the way that He said I would. Well...that never happened! ha.

I felt impressed to study joy in the word. The Bible is a great place to find the answers to your life. Funny how we try about everything else before we decide to settle down and get serious about a thing! First of all the word happy or happiness isn't found nearly as much as Joy is and I really needed to figure out why. Happy is found 27 times in the New International version and Joy or rejoice is found over 320 times! From here I had to define a few words.

Happy/Happiness: A state of well-being, pleasure, a satisfying experience or moment.

Joy: A source or cause of delight, bliss, being glad, take delight.

Rejoice: to make joyful; to gladden.

Happiness according to definition is dependent on your circumstances and what is currently happening in your life. Joy is an inner sense that is favorable even when things are not. Joy is deeper than happy and over-rides circumstances. Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit! Galatians 5:22-23 states, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forebearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Isn't that cool? Each of these "fruits" should be what is seen in the life of a professing christian and in order to mature we need to work on these gifts continually.

Nehemiah 8:10 states, "The joy of the Lord is our strength." Well...I think that I need some of that strength! What does the joy of the LORD mean anyway? I think it is the fact that God is the solution to the problems of sin and every area of our lives. He has provided a way back to wise, helpful and wholesome living. How? By learning to think like He thinks. When we begin to see the world from His point of view and not the media or the opinion of others but from what the word says; this is the key to our strength. This is the answer that will heal your life. "He sent forth his word and healed them, writes the psalmist", Psalm 107:20. The ministry of the Word of God is to heal us and create in us a desire to share that healing with others.

I am getting the feeling that Joy isn't a warm and fuzzy feeling but actually serious business. We have a very important job of spreading joy as well as the other fruits of the spirit. Because when we lose our joy, we can become victims of despair and even sickness. Proverbs 17:22 says, "A cheerful heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit makes one sick." Have you ever gotten sick after something happened to disappoint or depress you?

When you're feeling down, it can seem like nothing's going right, and everyone around you irritates you. But if you're feeling particularly cheerful one day, almost nothing bothers you. When you're filled with the joy of the Lord, you feel strong, capable, and ready for anything. That's why a joy-filled believer is hard for the devil to handle. If the enemy can steal your joy, he can rob you of almost anything, including your health. And let's not forget that Joy produces strength. And strength is needed to fight. You are called to "fight the good fight of faith", 1 Timothy 6:12.

 

I think many of us are struggling to fight because we have lost joy. Perhaps you are tired of fighting for your marriage. You are fed up with your spouse. You think that he doesn't love you any more, so why fight for his love? Maybe your children are acting like heathens and they have disappointed you and you feel like just shaking your head and giving up and writing them off. You have lost your joy in your marriage, mothering and about everything else! You need strength to fight...so you actually need joy.

You might say, "I don't feel like rejoicing." But God didn't say, "Rejoice, only if you feel like it." No! He said, "Rejoice ALWAYS." Obviously, God knows that we don't feel like rejoicing all the time. But you need to rejoice always because if you don't then you lose the strength to fight.

James 1:2 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." Pure joy is not happiness. "Happiness" comes from the word "happen." Happiness, therefore, is based on what is happening. If something good is happening, then you are happy. However, God says that pure joy occurs even in the midst of trials--even when the car breaks down, or when the kids get sick, or when the boss cuts your hours, or when your spouse is in a bad mood, etc. Joy is a heart posture.

I love the powerful verses in Habakkuk 3:17-18. "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crops fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls.Yet I will rejoice in the lord, I will be joyful in God my savior"
Even though things aren't producing and nothing looks like it is going right; YET I will still rejoice. You see, Habakkuk had no intention of staying defeated. He may look defeated, but he isn't going to stay defeated. The difference between the person who is defeated and the person who is victorious is their attitude. An attitude of gratitude will put you over in life.

"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation."  Isaiah 12:2-3

Did you know that there are "wells" of salvation? When you got saved, you inherited many wells. Each well contains a unique blessing. There are wells of healing, prosperity, sound mind, restoration etc. Notice that the scripture says that with joy you will draw from the wells. You need muscles--strength--to draw water from wells. Without strength you cannot. You may be facing sickness; yet God has provided the well of "healing." But only through joy can you get this. So rejoice despite your sickness. The same with poverty, fear, worry and depression. Regardless of your circumstances you can rejoice because God has the provision for you.

 

The enemy may try to steal things from you life; but he has no power to steal your joy. Joy is a spiritual force inside your spirit. It is a position of your heart and every day of your life you need to choose joy. It is something you have to be intentional about. I choose joy and because of that choice I will have also have strength. Phillipians 4:13  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Does all this mean I know exactly how to spread joy and be joy for others? Well, no! But I have a better idea of what God was speaking to me about. I have always been a positive person BUT I have relied on my own strength to be that way. God is calling me higher and to live life a little differently. I want JOY that God intended for me that goes WAY beyond my own strength....I want the supernatural joy that God has in a new well of resources that He wants me to access.  God wants us all to have access to the deeper things of Him and when He calls you out....you don't want to miss out on the opportunity, the learning curves as well as the blessings that go with living life the way God intended us to live...this I believe is where true joy is found.


Adjust your Crown

Jonna

*This blog is written by Jonna Gibson for "Invisible Crown". You can follow it at Jonna-invisiblecrown.blogspot.com