JOY - Part 2

WBS.309

JOY – Part 2

Psalm 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.

Our obedience must come from elation...elation with IAUE.  Our obedience results in over-the-top blessings that demonstrate the goodness of our Elohim.  His nature is revealed to us when we fulfill our creative design of doing His will. It reinforces the truth that doing His will is our purpose in life; and that indisputable evidence brings us tremendous abounding joy.  

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It may seem a rather obscure approach to discuss joy in the life of a disciple; but the church has not looked at this subject from a correct viewpoint.  For starters, the church has been deceived into connecting joy with happiness.  We are happy when things go our way, or when we get what we want irrespective of the Father’s will for us.  Happiness is always conditional and it does not last.  For example, grandparents are happy when their children and grandchildren visit; but that happiness begins to dissipate the moment they get in their car and drive away; and it can even turn to sadness when they think of how long it might be before they will see them again.  Of course, if we are brave enough to call it what it is, we would understand it is, ultimately, just selfishness. They got what they wanted and they were happy.  They lost what they wanted and they were no longer happy.  It was all about them.  This holds true frequently with happiness unless it is connected with a higher level of satisfaction than our own.

Joy, on the other hand, is always associated with IAUE or Yahushua…ALWAYS.  For example, in his old age, the Apostle John was focused primarily on one thing.

2 John 1:4  I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

3 John 1:3  For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.

4  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

John’s joy was that the disciples were walking in the Spirit, fulfilling their obedience to IAUE.  Nothing on earth could have delighted him more.

In our last post we observed that IAUE expected His people to obey Him with joy; not just out of law; but because they wanted to do His will as their chiefest joy. 

Psalm 119:73  Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.

David understood it.  He understood that IAUE had made him.  He designed him.  He fashioned him.  He breathed life into him. It simply was not possible that he might not live for Him.  David was earnestly devoted to understanding the purest way to live for IAUE?  Without Him, David had no life, no existence. Living before IAUE with joy as his purest motivation was what defined David; and why IAUE called him “a man after my own heart.”

I have long called it, “the problem of the invisible God.”  Because IAUE is not perceived with our physical senses, we gravitate into a world of self-awareness; and we live our lives relatively unconscious of, or unaware of the fact that we are creatures (This is aided by recognizing that man is at the top of the food chain…hence the most important life form on earth). However, we are created; and we have a Creator.  Once we truly understand that we have a Creator we must acknowledge two things:

1.  We would not exist were it not for Him.

2.  He must have created us with a purpose in mind…a designed function.

One day the Pharisees and the Sadducees joined forces (a rare thing) to ask questions to trap Yahushua in his words; but seeing he had answered them well, a scribe asked him, “What is the first commandment of all?”

Mark 12:29 And Yahushua answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; IAUE our Elohim is one Master:

30 And thou shalt love IAUE thy Elohim with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Yahushua was quoting Moses from Deuteronomy 6:5. Anyone who has been a disciple for a few years has heard this read and quoted and preached many times; but I believe its true essence has not been presented. It MUST be connected with the fact that He is the creator and we are His creation.  Only then can we understand the motive for loving and obeying IAUE with all our being.  Apart from IAUE, we may find happiness that comes and goes.  Happiness appeals to our heart and mind; but not our spirit.  Joy appeals to our spirit; and when we find it, it is permanent; and it permeates every aspect of our life for the rest of our life. This results in IAUE being able to pour out His blessings upon us in such a way that His nature is revealed to us and is reproduced in us (See 2 Peter 1:2-4).

In our last post we saw that devastation had come to the Hebrews because they had lost joy in serving IAUE.  The prophet Joel provided a remedy.

Joel 1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of IAUE thy Elohim, and cry unto IAUE,

This remedy was expanded in the next chapter.

Joel 2:12 Therefore also now, saith IAUE, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

Fasting is to bring the body in line…to exercise dominion over our flesh and its lusts.

Weeping is to bring the soul in line…to experience remorse over our disobedience and loss of perspective over who we are and who HE is.

Mourning is to bring our spirit in line…to grieve our abject failure as the creation of IAUE to adore Him as our loving Father.

When we are purged of the control of our flesh, the disobedience of our souls and the wrong attitudes and waywardness of our spirit, we enter into a pure understanding (as opposed to an academic understanding) of what it is to love IAUE with the totality of our being: with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.

Romans 14:17  For the kingdom of Elohim is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.