It is a passion of mine that joy is not a rare occasion that happens now and then in my life when things are going great but how I walk through every day. 24/7 joy is possible for you and for me!!!!

No matter who you are or where you are there are always reasons to not be happy or experience joy. We live in a world where pain, death, disease, disappointment and brokenness from sin is pretty much everywhere, not to mention all the minor annoyances and inconveniences we face on a daily basis. You could be miserable all the time if you wanted to and have “good reason” to be so.

However, depression is not God’s plan. I have coined a phrase “Supra-situational Joy” which means a joy that exists and is sustained above all circumstances. I’m not talking about a fake artificial plastic joy but a real joy from God. Here are 5 more keys to walking in a lifestyle of 24/7 joy. So let’s go after this and if you see me, release more joy of the Lord towards my world and I will do the same for you.

Key #6 - Forgiving & Forgetting What Lies Behind - Phil 3:13 - One of the easiest traps to suck the life out of us is to think constantly about the past. One of my favorite movies is Napolean Dynamite. In this movie the Uncle Rico character is living in the 1980s in a state of constant regret where he felt he lost his opportunity to become a famous football player. While not everyone is such an obvious case, all of us can get stuck in the pain of the past. The enemy wants us to focus on our past defeats and failures from the past and live from the past. The Lord wants us to remember His testimonies and how He has worked mightily in our past and to forget the past and move forward.

Say with me, “Lord Jesus, I repent of living in the past and an attitude of overfocus. Help me remember your work in my life and focus on that and move forward in hope and joy”

Key #7 - When you Find the Presence of God You Find Joy - Psalm 16:11 - In His Presence there is fullness of joy.

Have you ever had a friend who can shift your mood the moment you see them? You were down but then you feel free, you feel understood, at peace, or fully safe? In the presence of some people things begin to look different. I want to tell you that God does that times a million. If you can find a place where He is moving and find His presence, you can find joy. Joy doesn’t come from knowing every answer (wouldn’t that be nice), but being with Him downloads supernatural joy, hope, peace into our souls.

Key #8 - Not Drunk on Wine but Filled w/ the Holy Spirit -

Ephesians 5:18 - 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit

Alcohol can be an answer for many people in moments of pain but the Bible says that drunkenness with alcohol causes dissipation…in other words the good things in your life escaping away. Part of the attraction of alcohol is that it shifts our minds out of our moment and provides a sense of shift and release. Though this is not widely taught, the Bible teaches that one can be intoxicated with the Holy Spirit in a similar fashion to someone drunk with alcohol. When the Holy Spirit descended in tongues of fire, the disciples in Acts 2 were acting in such a way that they appeared to people as drunk. Also, Hannah in the OT, the mother of the prophet Samuel also appeared drunk to the priest. You would not think someone speaking in another language was drunk or praying quietly was drunk unless there may have been other signs.

In moments of extreme pain, I want to be extremely filled with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t have to make sense…but I want to be some consumed with God that whatever I’m facing is small compared to His majesty, so take a drink of His presence and be a “bartender” of the joy of the Lord to other believers. Truly there is nothing in the world that is better than what is in God’s Kingdom. Proverbs 17:22 - A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

When you are drunk on alcohol you may do something very stupid, because your fears and inhibitions disappear. When you are drunk/filled with the Holy Spirit, you might be like Peter and go from being afraid of one girl around a campfire to preaching and seeing 2,000 people saved in one day or you might see a miraculous childbirth like Hannah!

Key #9 - Father God is Happy - Zeph 3:17 - The Lord your God is in your midst—a mighty Savior! He will delight over you with joy. He will quiet you with His love. He will dance for joy over you with singing.

I used to have a picture like in the vintage police movies that Jesus was the “good cop” and Father God was the “bad cop”…like God the Father wanted to release wrath on us and was constantly in a bad mood but Jesus was always like “No Dad, No don’t hurt them”. This comes from people wanting to explain the atonement as the death of Christ as satisfying the wrath of God, justice/holiness of God and it’s true that God is a righteous judge. However, don’t let anyone convince you that God is a mean or tyrannical being. He provides Jesus sacrifice so we could experience covenant relationship with Him. While we should “Fear God” - have a reverential respect for Him, we can know Him as a good Father who is dancing over us with singing. He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh How he loves. He’s not mad, sad, because you were bad. But he’s glad and a good Dad who paid every price so you could have intimacy with Him now and into eternity. Just receive Jesus and enter into a new covenant with Him. Walk into His good mood.

Key #10 - Meditate Often on the Reality of Heaven - Rev 21-22 - When I was studying abroad in London I studied Jonathan Edwards in depth, reading many of his sermons and studying the early reformed church in the United States. Though the Puritans have been remembered as “fire and brimstone” harsh and judgmental type people, there is actually a totally other side to them. Jonathan Edwards wrote another sermon less famous than “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, called “Heaven is a World of Love”. I read that believers in that era would meditate and read the Bible passages about heaven constantly to live with an awareness of God’s full redemptive future.

As a musician/artistic temperament I’ve battled depression for a lot of my life. After this I began to read the last 4 chapters of the Bible and all the other verses about heaven and it basically cured my depression when I read through those chapters. How can you be sad, when you know your future in Him? I am feeling joy welling up just thinking about it. The more you think about what heaven is like, the less the trials you are facing now will affect you.

So those are 10 keys to walking in 24/7 joy! As I’m finishing this I am actually thinking of even more of these keys, but I am praying now for everyone reading this post that you enter into the joy of the Lord. Remember the power of forgiveness, it’s not about your performance but Jesus perfect sacrifice, be filled and begin to pray and ask the Lord to help reform/transform your life into 24/7 joy in all situations! He is good!