Joy

Joy/Rejoice/Make glad: euphrainó (ufrano). Where we get the word euphoria.

Difference between this joy and the feeling of happiness. Happiness is a feeling that happens when you feel good or something good happens to you. It’s an emotion in your body or mind that makes you feel good. Sometimes it’s affected by sickness or physical causes. It is momentary and can be taken away at a moment’s notice.

Joy comes from God. It is not an regular emotion because it is something God fills you with in your spirit, although many times it can affect our emotions.

That’s why you can feel sad and still be joyful. Joy supernaturally sustains our souls in seasons of heartache, injustice, and sorrow.

Because it comes from God, you can’t really have joy unless you are saved because God is the One who fills us with joy in His presence.

Throughout history, there have been accounts of martyrs who sang, laughed, and were joyful during torturous deaths. The Egyptian Christians beheaded on the beach a few years ago were smiling and praying right before it happened. One man kissed the beam he was tied to when he was about to be burned at the stage. Perpetua was sent to be mauled by wild animals in the Roman Coliseum, so she fixed her hair because she didn’t want anyone to think she was distressed. God filled them with joy in what should have been the worst times of their lives. He can fill you with joy even though you are going through something.

Good definition of joy: Satisfaction, pleasure, and contentment that comes from being in the presence of God.

1 Peter 1:8 describes this joy.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

Our Joy Comes from the Lord

Romans 15:13 (NIV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The God of hope who fills us with joy and peace only if we trust in Him. We can’t stir up joy or hope or peace unless we get it from God. He’s the one who fills us with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

Benefits of Joy

The joy of the Lord is my strength. (Neh. 8:10B) Joyful people have a spiritual and emotional strength about them that can’t be shaken. Many times, it makes them healthy physically as well.

Joy lessons anxiety and depression. It doesn’t mean you won’t feel those things. There will be times when you grieve and times when you are anxious or sad. That’s natural. When something traumatic happens and we refuse to process the emotions that go with that, we are burying them, not getting rid of them. They will pop up and trigger us later until we do deal with them. But when we find our joy in Christ, Scripture says we won’t grieve as the world grieves because we find our hope in Christ.

Joy changes our focus. We get our focus on God and off our troubles. Have you ever met someone that is so focused on everything bad in their lives that they can’t see the good. When that happens, it’s because they don’t have their trust and their focus on God. They aren’t looking at life with an eternal perspective.

Think of it this way. What if the worst thing you could imagine happens and you suffer a horrible, terrifying, painful death? If you have Christ, you will live for eternity in the very presence of the God who created you, fills you with joy, and will wipe every tear from your eyes. Nothing in this world can compare to that.

Joy makes us healthier.  Science even recommends that cancer patients watch funny videos because laughter and a joyful attitude helps them heal.

God commands us to be joyful.

James 1:2  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

The word count or consider means make a decision to be. So it is saying, make a decision to be joyful during trials.

But how do we do that? We can’t on our own. When trials come, we naturally allow our emotions to control us and to steal our joy.

So what do we do. We ask God to restore our joy when our joy is stolen from us. When David’s joy was stolen from him because of his sin, he said.

Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Drunk in the Spirit

Some preachers disparage being drunk in the Spirit because they don’t understand it. Even Pentecostal leaders say things like, “The Holy Spirit is not weird,” meaning you shouldn’t all yourself to do weird things or lose control. But you don’t lose control like a drunk who has had too much alcohol. Instead you give control to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, that means amazing manifestation will happen. Sometimes, a warm peace will envelope you. Either way, give control to the Holy Spirit. It’s Biblical.

Acts 2:1-7; 12-13

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  And when this sound rang out, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking his own language. Astounded and amazed, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it then that each of us hears them in his own native language? 

Astounded and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocked them and said, “They are drunk on new wine!”

Why did the men think they were drunk? I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe God filled them with so much joy they were laughing and stumbling around like drunk men. They were drunk in the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 126:2. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

Job 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.

Even the great theologian, A.W. Tozer had this experience.

– A. W. Tozer, Now I say that worship is subject to degrees of perfection and intensity. There have been those who worshiped God to the place where they were in ecstasies of worship. I once saw a man kneel at an altar, taking Communion. Suddenly he broke into holy laughter. This man laughed until he wrapped his arms around himself as if he was afraid he would bust just out of sheer delight in the presence of Almighty God. 

So, today, I pray you experience joy.