“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. Deuteronomy 28:47-48.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Joy is the key to the blessing. Joy is the key to the victorious life in Christ. Joy is the key to enter into My rest.
Be anointed with the oil of gladness. My joy– the joy of the LORD– is your strength. I have given you My Word that you may share My joy and your joy will be complete, abundant and overflowing.
Joy and thanksgiving will give you the life you are wishing for, the life you are dreaming of—the life that is life indeed. When you are joyful you are strong. When you are depressed you are fearful and weak.
Joy enlarges your capacity to receive. It attracts the blessing. A curse does not alight without a cause and neither does a blessing.
When you rejoice in Me always, pray without ceasing and give constant thanks you will find all good coming into your life. Those three things are the keys to all good. You will find the blessings will chase you down and overwhelm you.
I told this to the Israelites so many years ago. I told them that the curse would come upon them and alight on them and their children since they would not serve Me with joy and gratitude for the abundance of every kind. When they complained and whined and murmured about their life they never entered the Promised Land (My rest). And so with all good things. I told them later that whenever they had no joy and gratitude for the provision they had they would go in hunger and thirst in nakedness and utter poverty to serve their enemies. Deuteronomy 28:45-47.
But when they rejoiced in Me and were grateful for the good things I was giving them they increased and were victorious over their enemies. For when they had joy in Me they were faithful to Me and did not stray after idols.
My Son told you this at the Last Supper. He said that He told you the things He had discussed there so that His joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. Why would sharing His joy make your joy complete? Because the joy of the Lord is your strength, His joy flowing into you will make you strong and give you abundant joy.
And what had He just told you that would cause you to share His joy? He told you that He is the vine, you are the branches, and I am the gardener. Just as the life of the vine flows into the branch and determines the kind of fruit the branch will produce, so too, if you abide in Him, His life, His virtues, His righteousness, His goodness and His joy flows into you and you will produce the fruit of joy.
If you remain in Him and His Words, which are My Words, remain in you, you may ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. This will give you joy.
If you keep Jesus’ commandment you will remain in His love as He remains in My love by keeping My commandments. So He has kept all the law for you and He gives you one commandment: “Love one another as I love you.” You will note it is in the present tense. So the commandment you now have is to love with His love. As His love flows into you then you will love one another with the love that flows into you from Jesus, the true vine. You will bear the fruit of love, just as a branch cannot bear any other fruit than that determined by the vine to which it is attached.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kinds, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. I put them in this order for a particular reason. I am love. So first I pour My love into your heart by My Holy Spirit as you are attached to and in Jesus. Love leads to joy. When you are surrounded by My love and compassion and it is flowing into your heart from the One who died for you, you will be filled with joy. Knowing that all your sins—past, present and future— were judged, condemned and punished in Christ so that you are totally sinless before Me leads to a heart free from guilt, recrimination, regret, shame, and condemnation. In Christ, I see you as totally holy and blameless, I see you righteous and without sin. I am always well pleased in you. You must know and believe in the love I have for you and that I want to show you favor and give you grace no matter what your performance is like today to have complete unclouded joy. You must know and believe that there is NO condemnation for those who are in Jesus to have joy.
And just as knowing My love and favor towards you gives you joy, so then joy gives you peace. When you are joyful and trust in My love and care to get you through any difficulty or need you enter My rest and have unshakeable peace that surpasses all understanding. You cast all your cares on the all powerful one who loves you and you await with joy the good that I will pour into your life.
And when you are at peace you are patient. Patience is being constant in your expectation of receiving the good you are waiting for until you see it manifest. And love, joy, peace and patience lead to kindness. Fear of losing out leads to impatience and when you are impatient you are not kind. You are trying to get everyone else out of the way for fear you will lose the part or thing you desire.
And love, joy, peace, patience and kindness lead to generosity. A kind person is generous and not self centered. And to be generous you must have love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. When you feel unloved you fear lack and see your inadequacies and failures and you cannot be generous for fear of losing what you have and fearing you will not have what you need in the future.
And generosity leads to faithfulness to Me and one another. You are faithful to the one who loves you and whom you know always comes through for you. And love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity and faithfulness lead to gentleness and self control. A harsh and out of control person is that way because they are searching for love and joy and have not found it. They lash out because they feel unloved and condemned by others and Me. They lose control because they are trying to fill the emptiness within them. Joy makes you so full of peace and goodness that you overflow.
And how do you get this joy?
Prayer has to do with your joy level. Prayer is the foundation for success. It is the one thing necessary for all else to follow.
I make you joyful in My house of prayer.
There is fullness of joy in My presence, the delights at My right hand forever. In My Light you see light. No follower of My Son will ever walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.
I have given you to drink of My delightful stream, the river of life, the river of delight. And do you know where that river flows from? I tell you in the Book of Revelation. The angel showed John the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from My throne and from the Lamb. Revelation 22:1. And that life giving water will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life until it so overflows that it becomes rivers of living water flowing from within you to bless others. John 4:14; John 7:37-39. And that life giving water of the river of life flows from My throne to your heart in prayer.
And your prayers give Me joy. They come before Me like incense in golden bowls. Revelation 5:8. Your prayers and alms giving come up as a memorial before Me. Acts 10:4-5.
And in prayer I give you direction and revelation. Like I did to Cornelius. His prayers saved him and all his household. Acts 10.
There is cause of rejoicing here. You are called to My peace and you enter that peace with joy. The joy of what lies before you. Fair indeed is your inheritance, the delights at My right hand forever. For I have seated you with Christ in heavenly places and made you My heir, a joint heir with Him, and all I have is yours. And Christ is anointed with the oil of gladness. And as He is, so are you in this world.
I have given you My Son and He is My joy. In Him I have given you everything for it has pleased Me to make all fullness reside in Him. Colossians 1:19. And of His fullness you have all received, grace upon grace. John 1:16.
I love you. Be joyful always. Come into My presence with a joyful shout. Rejoice and enlarge your tent for I will pour out a blessing on you that you cannot contain. Joy is the key to all the good things you want in your life. So, rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give constant thanks for such is My Will for you in Christ Jesus. It works. Try it and see. You will not be disappointed.