Joy is who God is; where He lives from; and what He does. He lives in perpetual, everlasting and eternal joy. In His Presence there is fullness of joy. The Father does not give us joy. He gives us Himself. He is absolute joy personified. The atmosphere surrounding God is always joyful. We need to anchor our souls in the person of God and embrace His uninhibited delight in all things.
When we rejoice it is because we have entered the place of His joy and delight. We center ourselves in His joy. We breathe it in. We smile because we live under His smile. We rejoice because He is delight and delightful.
Whenever we encounter the Kingdom we are lovingly confronted with the God who loves to celebrate! We come under the influence of His innate joyfulness. When life is tough then we have permission to count it all joy! (James 1:2,3)
Joy is meant to overwhelm every negative emotion. “Sorrow and sighing may last for a night but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5). When joy is present no negative emotion can flourish. Jesus was acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3) it was not a close traveling companion. We need to be restored to the joy of our salvation…the delight and pleasure of our first major contact with the Lord. Joy keeps all experience in God…fresh. New every morning is God’s goodness and compassion (Lamentations 3:21–23). Life in the Spirit is renewable daily and joy is always a part of God’s day for us. It is His plan for us to be joyful on a constant basis. “These things I have spoken to you, that your joy may be full!” [John 15:11)
Several years ago, at a church weekend, I became aware of a man who had been going through an awful, miserable time. In a meeting, I felt compelled to lay my hands on him and pray for him to be refilled with the Holy Spirit. He fell on the floor and laughed for about half an hour. He really laughed; we couldn’t do anything. The meeting went haywire, as God’s joy took hold of him and the rest of the room, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. Through his joy, God began to fill the rest of us.
In recent years, I have seen some disturbing counterfeits of this, with some people charging big fees to bring the joy of the Lord into churches. I believe strongly that the joy of the Lord cannot be called up like some genie out of a bottle. It is not a spiritual manifestation that comes at the request of man. It is the by-product of the indwelling presence of God as He sovereignly and graciously causes rivers of living water to rise up within our hearts. The joy of the Lord comes from within.
-An excerpt from Approaching the Heart of Prophecy
