“Now you’ve got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face. Ever since you took my hand, I’m on the right way.” Psalm 16:11 – The Message Bible
The Bible is available to make your joy full — until it bubbles up from the inside of you and overflows onto others.
As you look around the world today, there are not a lot of things in the headlines that bring great joy to your heart! So from this, we can conclude that the world has never had joy, nor will it ever have joy.
Joy is not one of the five senses — feelings are there, happiness is there, but joy can only be produced where there is no alloy; meaning there is no mixture. In heaven, there is no mixture. In this world, there is happiness – sometimes short-lived; and very often dependant upon circumstances. However, happiness on the face is not always an indication of happiness in the heart. Often times, a happy face is covering a heavy heart.
But, what we can tap into as born-again believers is this: joy without the mixture of today stimulants. We can tap into the pure joy of the Lord! It’s an inward, spiritual tapping-in to the presence of God that will give an outward expression!
As you spend time in His presence, the joy within will rise higher and higher until, if it had its perfect order, it would drown everything you are worried about with a shout of praise!
Every time Jesus is manifested in your heart by the presence of the Holy Spirit, you get a tangible river of heavenly glory coming to you – real joy, un-containable joy, overflowing joy – allowing you to face another day, another challenge, with conqueroring strength and faith!
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It brings you to a higher level spiritually and provides something more substantial that you can stand on to see victory. In addition, it is one of the greatest weapons of warfare that we’ve been given to defeat the enemy.
So, when you feel the heat is on and you really want to give up and cry – take a minute and just laugh. You will sense your strength increasing and you’ll have a different perspecitve on things, because the joy of the Lord is your strength and it helps keep you on the right path.