Saturday 11 November 2017

The foundation of the Joy of the Lord

Messages for November 2017: Our Month of Unspeakable Joy
Message for Sunday 5th November, 2017
Theme: Understanding the Joy of the Lord
Topic: The foundation of the Joy of the Lord
Introduction: Once again I welcome you to the month of unspeakable joy. As we begin this great month, I am led to look at this very special theme: “Understanding the Joy of the Lord”.  Sometime ago, while looking at the subject of the joy of the Lord, my studies showed me that; joy unlike happiness, is a spiritual substance. As a spiritual substance, if well nurtured, it becomes such a strong force that it provides the energy required for bringing faith to pass always.
Today, we shall be looking at the foundation of the joy of the Lord with the intent of finding out how we come about joy and why it is such a force that both heaven and hell reckon with it. See John 15:11; Gal.5:22 and 1Cor.13:6b.
Access to the Joy of the Lord:  Our access to the Joy of the Lord is a new life. The reason for this is that man of himself cannot have real joy and enduring happiness because of sin. Man became a sinner by nature when Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden in eating the forbidden fruit. Since then, man became lost and the only solution to his problem was to be the sacrifice of a sinless man. However, all had sinned and fallen short of this demand of sinlessness; so God had to become man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lived on earth for thirty three and a half years pleasing God always and paid the price of our redemption with his own blood on the Cross of Calvary. Please understand that without the shedding of blood; there could have been no remission of sin for man. See Heb.9:23; Lev.17:11. The blood is the means by which we can make atonement for our souls on God’s altar and we had no access to the right blood for man so God in His infinite mercy offered His blood which is why we can be saved from the consequence of Adam’s sin today. The reason was that man was made in God’s image and after His likeness. Thus access to joy is the new birth. When we receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and makes us New Creations so that our old life is passed away and replaced by the new life. This new life has the nature of God contrary to the old life which had the nature of Satan due to man’s sin. See 2Cor.5:17.
Redemption is a total package which includes the ability to bear the fruit of the spirit which is love and includes joy. Redemption is therefore the source of joy. When we are saved joy is sown in us as a seed in the new creation package. We are expected to nurture it to maturity so that we can walk in the joy of the Lord always. See Rm.7:4; Gal.5:16-17 and 22.    
Joy is a spiritual substance: A substance is that which underlies all outward manifestations. It is the abiding part of any existence. It is that which constitutes anything that is real. In other words, the substance of joy is spiritual. Therefore, you cannot talk about joy in relation to carnal things; it is a product of spiritual materials that can only come from God. This is why the Lord said he spoke some words to the disciples so that his joy might remain in them and that their joy might be full. See John 15:11 and 16:23-24. Joy emanates from God so that whenever we experience it without an explainable reason, we are merely reflecting heaven on earth. For instance, the word teaches us that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents. This is the reason why anytime we win a sinner to Christ, we always experience joy from deep down in our hearts. The joy we experience is an offshoot of the joy of the Lord in heaven as He rejoices over a repentant sinner. See Lk.15:7, 10.
Joy is a spiritual fruit: The word of God teaches us that we are born again that we may bear fruit unto God [Rm.7:4]. God’s will is that we bear much fruit and that our fruit should abide [Jn.15:8; 16]. A list is given to us in the book of Galatians of the fruit of the spirit. When we nurture our new creation life in the manner prescribed by God, [have a strong desire for and read the word, meditate on it and do it] then we grow spiritually to the point of bearing spiritual fruit one of which is joy. The benefits of getting joy this way cannot be over flogged because joy so received grows to the point where it becomes impartible by the beneficiary to others who are not as strong in that grace as he or she. A person like this can be instrumental in the hand of God in communicating the oil of joy to others and they can be instrumental in ridding people of depression in their lives and that of others. See Isa.61:3; Gal.5:22; 1Pet.2:2; 1Tim.4:13-15; Jos.1:8; Ps.1:1-3 and Jas.1:22-25.  
Joy is a spiritual force: A force is something that has the capacity of exerting an influence or producing an effect. It is also defined as an unusual degree of energy or strength. As a spiritual force, joy has the ability to produce the following effects:
1.     It is a catalyst for harvest: When there is no joy in the hearts of men, the harvest is not possible - Joel 1:12; Hab.3:17-19.
2.     It is the spiritual force for receiving the blessing: For instance, it is only the offering given joyfully that has the guarantee of a harvest. See 2Cor.9:6-7; Joel 2:23-26.  
3.     It is a catalyst for accessing the presence of God:  The presence of the Lord cannot be accessed with a mourning heart. Without gratitude for instance, we cannot gain God’s attention in prayer. It is the password to gain access into God’s presence and gratitude is impossible without the joy of the Lord in the heart irrespective of a person’s circumstance. See Ps.100:1-2, 4 and Lk.10:21.  
How we get Joy: Since joy has its origin in the Spirit of God, one cannot expect to give an accurate answer to this question without getting it from the manual of God for mankind and his environment because we are discussing joy here in relation to man. To break it down to little bits, we can receive joy in the following ways:
1.     Through getting saved and nurturing our salvation by reading, meditating on and doing God’s word. Jn.3:3-7; Jas.1:22 and 1Tim.4:13-16.
2.     Praying without ceasing especially praying in the Holy Spirit. 1Thess.5:16-17; Jude 1:20-24
3.     Speaking the word of God.  We learn from the word that you possess what you say. Therefore, what we fill our thoughts with, begin to form the utterance of our mouths and it is only a question of time before our lives begin to conform to same. The word of God has exceeding great and precious promises for us by which we become partakers of divine nature which nature includes the joy of the Lord and the means for activating these promises is saying them in faith. See Mk.11:23; Rm.10:9-10 and   
4.     Meditating on the goodness of God. People become what they think as we are told in Prov.23:7. Therefore when your meditation is on the goodness of God, it is automatic that you are joyful. See
5.     Seeing life from God’s perspective. This happens a lot when God speaks to us by any means He chooses. His voice comes to us and adjusts our perspective to view things His way and the result is the release of His joy in our hearts. See Jn.15:11 and Acts 2:25
6.     Hearing the voice of God. One of the proofs that the voice we hear is God’s voice is that it has the capacity to release joy into our hearts.  see Jn.15:11; Ps.16:11 and Lk.24:46-53
We shall draw the curtain here for today for want of time and space. We shall continue to look at this message next week by looking at location of the joy of the Lord in our lives and how to cultivate it. Meanwhile someone may be reading this blog who has been experiencing constant sorrows because you are not yet save or if you are you are not yet free in certain areas you are ignorant of. You can choose to make a fresh start with God today by enlisting into the family of God. if you want to do so, you can right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again:  
Heavenly Father,
Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment