10 Keys to Walk in 24/7 Joy - Part 1
Joy is one of the least appreciated and pursued fruits of the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless it is one of the most important. In 2021, 18% or Nearly 1/5 Americans are taking anti-depressant medications, not to mention all the others who are self-medicating in different healthy (exercise) or unhealthy means (entertainment, sex, drugs, and rock n roll). A lot of times, Christians aren’t doing much better in walking in joy. We have somehow very often become too much like the world…and let our mouths become instruments of complaint, gossip, fear and criticism, rather than celebration, joy, and the happy confidence of sonship. This is rooted in counterfeit versions of holiness that make God boring, serious, joyless, and fun-less that have permeated Christian theology and practice for millenia.
So will reading one blog post cure your joyless week? All things are possible with God! I hope at least this gets you dissatisfied enough to call out to God who has power to change you and shift your habits, thoughts, words, and patterns. I pray for transformation for everyone who reads this…that God will take information and it will cause a snowball affect into transformation. So here we go with 10 keys to walk in 24/7 joy.
1) Key #1 - Joy is in the Character of Jesus - Which Jesus do you knew? Do you know the Jesus who is full of joy/happiness? Growing up in a more traditional church I could not fathom any idea of Jesus being a cool, happy, fun or joyful guy. All the images of Him were either serious, angry (at the Pharisees or Disciples), or in great turmoil in his suffering on the cross. I knew He loved me, but I didn’t think he was very happy. I was shocked to discover that the Bible paints a very different image of Jesus if you scrape away centuries of dogmatic dust.
In Hebrews 1:7, it states about Jesus “YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF JOY ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS."
The phrasing of this is a little hard to grasp at first but its communicating that Jesus was the most joyful person above any of his friends/companions. He was the happiest person He knew. This makes sense why he was so popular with sinners. Sinners tend to want to hang with people who like enjoying life, and Jesus seemed to be that kind of a person (in contrast with John the Baptist). Yes, there were other times when He was described as a man of sorrows…but the scripture is clear “Sorrow remains for a night but joy comes in the morning”. Jesus experienced moments of pain as he embraced the fullness of our human experience but his normal modus operandi (mode of operation) was supernatural joy. That was His personality. As you get to know that Jesus, you will notice Him transforming your Christianity from seriousness to joy.
2) Key #2 - Joy Comes from the Holy Spirit - When life is kicking my butt and weighing my down, I know that in myself or in the world I won’t be able to get out of a place of hopelessness, fear…it has to be a supernatural joy. Luke 10:21 carries a key…that joy comes through being full of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 10:21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” The Holy Spirit bubbled up in Jesus and the result was joy.
3) Key #3 - Joy is a Choice which requires Self-Control to Enter into - There have been many times where I prayed passionately for aspects of my situation to change because I believed those external changes would provide me with joy and fill the holes inside. The truth is that joy requires my cooperation/intentionality with the Lord to walk into. In Philippians 4:4, Paul writes “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” Paul is speaking to the Christians in Philippi (modern day Turkey) and telling them to re-joice or re-enter into joy. What’s so crazy about this statement is that this was a blanket statement to everyone. People who received this letter were probably in a myriad of different situations, but there were no subsets of different commands. After he says it, he immediately repeats the statement… “Again, I say rejoice”. The thing with joy is that it can easily be lost…we are feeling joy/happiness one moment and then the next it feels gone, so we need to exercise self-control to re-access the joy of the Lord that is available to us 24/7. King David prays in Psalm 51:12 - ‘Restore to me the joy of your salvation”. He had joy and then it was lost and David was not willing to live without it, so he returned to the source of all joy, God himself.
4) Key #4 - Joy Comes through the Cross of Jesus - One of the most amazing things about God is that He provides everything we need for this world and the next. There are so many pictures of salvation, but on the cross of Christ, he suffers in our place, for us, as us, we are crucified with Him, and through what He did we have the relationship with God restored for both now and forever. We can have joy in this life and we can enter into an eternal joy
Psalm 13:5 - But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
Isaiah 51:11 - So the ransomed of the Lord will return, And come with joyful shouting to Zion, And everlasting joy will be on their heads.They will obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.
The joy being described here is the joy that everything is going to be alright as we receive what was paid for on the cross of Jesus…intimacy with a good God, eventually we all get to walk into heaven like some massive parade. This is a joy of not being afraid to mess something up. We didn’t save ourselves and we can’t mess it up. It’s covenant with God and He does the heavy lifting. Nothing is heavier than the cross that Jesus carried…nothing happier than his bursting out of the grave and rising from the dead…better than any amazing movie conclusion yet its real life not fiction. It actually happened.
Key #5 - Joy is not about Us - Acts 20:35 - “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "
Depression and sadness almost always is selfish and self focused. I walked through a painful season after a tough breakup where I was so sad and hopeless and in such a dark place that I was praying for my own death. The only relief I could find was in ministering to others. I was the last person on the prayer lines at Bethel every service praying for as many people as I could. They were receiving things from the Lord through me and in those moments as I let God love others through me, my focus was off of my own pain. If you are not feeling joy, try blessing someone, try to pray for someone or do something kind for someone else.
The word blessing in the Bible is “macharidzo” which means hilariously happy. It is more radically happy/joyful to give then to receive. If you are poor and have very little or have a lot we can always give something. In taking our eyes off of ourselves we are taking the first step towards joy.
