Joy is
a God-given fire that burns so intensely it lights up everything in its
path. The core desire that is common across all
humanity is not the pursuit of God, it is the pursuit of joy.
My brother posted an update recently. In it a gentleman showed some women’s underwear
and very seriously explained the cost of the garment. He said it could cost your home, your car,
your marriage, your children, your health, your business, even your life. He was talking about the cost of sex, but he was actually speaking to the cost of joy.
Lust is simply perversion of the drive for the fulfillment
of joy in the human spirit. Gluttony,
licentiousness, addictions of all kind stem from the same source. Whether it be to drugs, alcohol, sex,
gambling, adrenaline, workaholism, violence, control, even addiction to religion, all come from the same source. The pursuit of joy.
Sorrow is not the opposite of joy. Pain is the opposite of joy. Sorrow is just one class of pain and all pain is
a response to the absence of joy. Pain
deposits in the human spirit when something occurs which steals our joy. All addiction stems from the need to escape
from pain and reconnect to joy.
Joy is the highest state of satisfaction that the human consciousness
can experience. Do you know that the
experience of joy can literally nullify physical pain? Ask a woman who has given birth.
The human psyche is wired to pursue joy. The specific pursuits allow us to get a taste
of it, but we can’t hold on to it, so addiction becomes the compulsive pursuit
of that magic moment when we get to experience even just the shadow of joy.
Orgasm, rhapsody, LSD.
Surprisingly, these are words that Holy Spirit has used to describe what the ultimate experience of God feels like.
Literally, there is a state you can enter in prayer that feels like a
drug high. Without the side effects.
It is the state that God desires for each of us. It’s not a state to live in all day, every
day. Anyone who has ever experienced the
intensity of joy knows that a little bit goes a long way. But it should be a state that is readily available
and accessible to each of us. And it is.
You just have to choose.
Joy is a choice.
Joy is a CHOICE.
Come on now, if this were true the alcohol industry would
crash, entertainment wound tank, the oldest profession on earth would be no
more. What kind of world would it be if
we did not need alcohol, sex, drugs or any of the other ways that we use to get
a taste that we our souls are thirsting for.
What if we could get the high without the risk, hurt and destruction?
What if we could simply choose joy and actually live it?
Well. Actually. You can.
I have been permitted glimpses of the Celestial City many
times and there are two overwhelming themes that I observe. One is constant celebration, jubilation and exhilaration. The atmosphere of heaven is literally pure
joy.
The other predominant feature of heaven is heartfelt, joyous
worship. The two
are intimately intertwined. For two
decades I attended a church where the hands-down best part of the services were
the fifteen minutes in which the choir sang.
Junior choir that is, senior choir was frankly funereal.
We would attend church for hours each week, just for those
few minutes of praise. Praise is for
most Christians the foundation of worship.
I learned today that it’s not actually praise which is the foundation,
it is joy.
That small distinction makes all the difference. We can spend decades in church and fail to
connect with God entirely. We offer
words of praise and songs of praise and our hearts are touched by it but thirty
minutes later we are the same miserable, cantankerous grouches we have always
been.
Our time spent in church does not change us because we are
quite frankly missing the point. Worship
is not the offering of praise to God, it is the offering of joy.
If you study spiritual traditions, even devil worship, you
will notice very interesting trends. Music,
dancing, drumming, chanting, rhythmic engagement.. there is a core of common
practices that have one basic intent.
Raising joy.
People may whirl like dervishes, scream and shout or rock
back and forth in fervent prayer, then spirit
begins to engage. Joy opens a
super-highway that allows spirit to move between their realm and ours. Christian praise is simply the intentional
selection and focus on JHVH as the one we are inviting to the party.
There is a magical place were the intentionality of praise, combines with the pure energy of joy and then God joins the dance. Whooo!
New agers across the world are having the experience. Most Christians are not. Pity.
But joy is not about the temporary high. True joy can become your resting state. It is a state in which you will
experience many energies, such as peace, trust,
assurance, hope, optimism, wholeness, balance.
True joy is absolutely and completely independent of your
life experiences or circumstances. It is
a state that remains unmoved in the middle of desolation and destruction. It pulls you back from the abyss
of depression. It is a state that stands
calmly in the midst of the storm and speaks softly ‘peace, be still’.
True joy is unruffled by the ups and downs of life, and it
does not need life to trigger it. True
joy can establish within your spirit a sense of stability, security,
confidence, satisfaction and contentment even in the most adverse conditions.
And here’s the kicker.
True joy is not an emotion or an experience, it is a state. It is a choice that you get to make.
True joy is not an emotion or an experience, it is A choice!
You get to make that choice all day every day. It is a choice that does something to
you. As you choose joy, joy chooses you.
As you cultivate joy in your inner world, your outer world brings you more
reasons to be joyful.
Joy is so easy to choose. Listen to music and just allow yourself to lose yourself for a while. Dance, paint, express yourself creatively. Sit in a garden, hug a puppy. Go to the park, get on the swings and laugh. Laughter is a joy opener. Watch funny stuff, do silly stuff, be funny, laugh at yourself and encourage others to laugh too.
Ride a roller-coaster, jump out of a plane, feel the sense of unboundedness and liberation. Understand it’s not even about the adrenaline rush. It’s about opening yourself once more to joy. True joy. The stuff that heals. The stuff that sticks.
Remember joy. Ever
notice how a thirty year-old memory can feel as fresh as the day it happened? Allow yourself to remember, even if things did
not turn out as planned. Remember what
it felt like to fall in love. Remember
holding your newborn baby in your arms.
Remember when you got that contract or won that prize. Dig up your best memories and feed on them,
memories have no expiration date and they never get stale.
Reconnect to the joy that you have lost and cultivate joy in your heart. Finally, look for joy. Open your eyes, there is so much joy around you every day. Observe the joy of a butterfly as it flits from flower to flower. Hear the peals of laughter as children play. Stand and really observe that one standing on the corner, trying to feed the homeless. There is so much goodness in the world. Simply observing it reconnects you to joy.
Observing GOODNESS connects you to JOY.
Live in joy. Let joy
be your resting state. Life will bring
sorrow, losses, setbacks, pain, you are human you will respond. But if you cultivate joy in your heart, if
you patiently plant those seeds, water them and fertilize them, if you diligently pluck up the weeds and tend
to the balance of the soil, before you know it you will be tasting of the fruits
of true joy.
No addiction is sweeter.
Choose joy.
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
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Author: Max Patrick @VibranceMinistries
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