Joy
can be described as happiness, bliss, or delight. If you are feeling joyful
you are not dwelling on any bad things, you are not fearful, you are not
sad, and you are not mad. Wouldn't it be marvelous to feel joyful all the
time?
What I
want to show you is that, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have joy
in you ALL THE TIME! It is in you all the time and you have access to it
at all times!
Jesus
was talking to His disciples about abiding in Him after He was gone back to
Heaven. He said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can
ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without
me ye can do nothing." Jo 15:4-5
Once
you are abiding you become a part of Jesus. You are part of the Body of
Christ and He is the Head of that Body. Colossians 2:19 says,
"And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints
and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with
the increase of God."
Jesus, being the Head of the Body,
nourishes the Body. He and the Body are one. We are one in Christ. Can you
cut your head off and still live? Uh, I don't think so!
The
Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit is Jesus. The Holy Spirit isn't
just a small object that stays in your heart or your brain. The Holy Spirit
is in every inch of your body. You know how everything is made up of
molecules, atoms, and such? Well, your body is not a solid object. Imagine,
if you will, that all the spaces around those molecules, neutrons, etc. that
make up your body are filled with the Holy Spirit.
The
Holy Spirit is Jesus who is God. The Holy Spirit is in you. In order to
begin comprehending what that means you have to let go of your "human"
mentality. You have to allow God to give you understanding.
OK, now, here is where the joy enters the picture. In John 17:11-13
Jesus is talking to God and says, "And now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be
one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name:
those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son
of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee;
and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy
fulfilled in themselves."
The
joy is already in you because the Holy Spirit is in you. You have Jesus' joy
already in you! You only have to tap into it.
The
reason you don't feel the joy all the time is because you are not tapping
into it. You know what a tap is, don't you? A tap is what you poke into a
keg that lets the contents out. Rather than use a keg of beer for an
example, let's use a sack lunch. Let's say you have a sack lunch and it is
lunchtime. You are hungry even though you have a sack lunch. Let's say
dinner rolls around and you are even hungrier, even though you have an
entire meal in that sack. You are hungry because you haven't tapped into the
food that is in the bag! You have the food that will nourish you, but it
won't nourish you unless you ON PURPOSE eat it!! It's the same thing with
the joy that is already in you! You have to USE IT!
Let's
go even farther with this. If you have the Holy Spirit in you then you also
have God's love. God is love, you know! If God is in you then love is in
you. You also have peace in you.
Galatians 5:22-23 tells us,
"...the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance: against such there is no law." All those things
are already within you!
There
is something hindering the joy (and the other things) from being accessible.
It is you. It is your "self." You can choose whether to be joyful or to be
sad. It sounds simple, but it usually isn't. Many people choose not to have
joy. Perhaps they get more sympathy from others if they are sad. Perhaps
they feel they have the right to be mad because they are wronged. There are
many reasons why we allow ourselves to stifle the joy and peace that is
already ours.
We
have to make a conscious effort to have joy or to not have joy. The joy is
available and accessible and we have to realize that. Then we need to deal
with the things in our life that hinder us from using the joy.
Here
is where you start. Think about this scripture in Ephesians 3:16-21,
"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him
that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
You
can be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in your inner man. You can be filled
with the fulness of God. The Holy Spirit is already in you. That is the
power that works in you. Ask God to help you understand this. Ask Him to
help you get rid of the things that hinder you from living in the Spirit;
that hinder you from living in joy. This is what He wants for you. He has
provided it and wants you using it. You can pray with certainty that you are
praying in His will! |
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