THE SPIRIT OF JOY - PART 1

 THE SPIRIT OF JOY - PART 1

Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith".

Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones".

Praise God! We @TMTL will like to use this opportunity to appreciate everyone who has stayed all through the journey thus far and we will like to say a very big thank you; also wishing you all a Happy Happy New month. Our prayer is that this month be most fulfilling and inspiring for you; a month filled with all round prosperity in Jesus mighty name. Amen

Hallelujah once again! This week we shall be looking at a very vital biblical concept which is Joy. Joy is more than what it literarily means i.e. "to be happy". Here, we will see what more there is to this and even why it is necessary for us as believers. 

In a world of so many crisis today; a world of confusion when men are thrown into strife and hatred for one another, where sorrow and languish have become the daily meal of certain ones, where those that oppress continue to seek to oppress and so many have even lost their source of happiness. God is saying to you "BE JOYFUL". It doesn't matter how the circumstances may look currently; it doesn't matter whether your finances are a mess or you can't even provide for your family. It doesn't matter that there is that someone who is always at all times frustrating your endeavors whether it be a colleague or a superior. God is saying to you "BE JOYFUL". 

Why do I need to be joyful when all around me is not working, some may ask? 

One of the things I have come to understand is that Joy is the only proven antidote for sadness. The way it is said that if you nurse hatred for a person, just in your heart begin to find reasons to love that person, soon your hatred for that person will be long forgotten; in the same vein this is applicable with Joy. For every heart that sorrows, you can only find solace in Joy. 

One thing we must understand is that Joy or being joyful is the heritage of every believing child of God. Being joyful is our birthright. So whether you choose to or not, this Spirit is a must have and it's available for you and I. God is not happy seeing his own hurt daily, He is not happy seeing you go through pain. The Bible makes us to understand in Jeremiah 8:21paraphrased "for the hurt of my people, am I hurt, dismay hath taken ahold of me". This is God talking to us here.

Our Father in heaven is a joyful God. The scripture makes us see this in Psalm 16:11; "in his presence, there is fullness of Joy and at his right hand, there are pleasures forever more". You can take a few lines back and see the light from that word. Have we ever heard that in heaven, there is agony or there is pain. Never. It is impossible to have heard that sometime in heaven; things were so hard and God cried or the host of heaven all wore sack clothes and had ashes upon them-At all! 

This is infact God's divine plan for us. Right from creation, we see God's original intent for us from verse 26 of Genesis 1. "Now, let us make man in our own image and after our likeness..." 

You are made in the image and after the  likeness of God; thus, if his image is Joy, then you have every right to own joy and not just that "to stay joyful". The second part of that verse says "...and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth". In all of these words aforementioned; I don't think sorrow was ever part of divine arrangement for us. Subsequent verses "be fruitful, multiply, inherit, govern". No place for sorrow or sadness in God's dictionary for us. This tells us that He is concerned about what makes us happy. This means if things are not working, and we are therefore sad, it is never his work. Going back to the verse in Psalm 16:11 "in his presence there is fullness of Joy..."

 Now, if I may ask, where is the presence of God? Heaven -no. God lives in Heaven, yeah; but he is present in you and I through his Holy Spirit. Therefore, Joy is in us. Hallelujah! 

Please let us make these confessions "I have joy that the devil cannot take from me" "I have joy so great that the devil cannot withhold from me" "I am joyful because I have a joyful Father". 

This is our birthright even as we become genuine born again children of God. You are not supposed to be heavy at heart. The spirit of heaviness is of the devil; and as long as you are not his, it is not yours! Concluding this pilot series; from that verse in Psalms "...at his right hand there are pleasures for ever more". This is the reason we are Joyful because life is pleasurable in God. It brings happiness unto us. Communion and constant fellowship with Him makes us liable to this. Whether it is pleasures in your health, finances, academics, career, marital life, fruitfulness - He has them all in His possession and it is ours for the taking. Why should we then be sad?

TO BE CONTINUED

THE MEN THAT LEAD 

Building manhood...