Joy

The fruit of the Spirit is Joy.

The result of Joy is gladness.

Jesus is spoken of Prophetically in , that He is anointed of the oil of Joy more than all with Him.

Joy runs down us.

Letting Joy grow in us is the work of the Holy Spirit.

If you plant an apple tree, you will get apples. Because that is it’s nature. The water and the minerals, the sunlight, they all interact with the nature of that seed, and the plant that grows from it, and the life takes the specific form of an apple tree, with the fruit of Apples.

When you interact with Holy Spirit, your life is the water and minerals. But it’s the Holy Spirit that produces the fruit.

Your role is to allow Him to flow.

In the early Church the obstacles to Joy were immense. Being a Christian made you a target of the Jews and the Romans.

That’s why they, and we are instructed in

James 1:2–4 NASB95

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2 NASB95

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

1 Peter 4:13 ESV

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Joy is not something you can drum up on your own, but you CAN shut it off.

1 Peter 4:12 NASB95

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

1 Peter 4

James says to consider is all Joy, but this is not just an instruction about an attitude.

ALLOW the Spirit to continue to flow, no matter what is in your way.

The trials aren’t the point, the endurance it creates is the point.

When the trials of your life rise, if you allow the Spirit to continue to flow in you, then they don’t get to touch your Joy.

There is no denying that this requires endurance, and that as endurance has its perfect result, we become increasingly perfect, and complete, lacking nothing.

The heroes of my life are the people I encounter for whom the Lord has become their everything.

Your Joy increases the more He is your everything.

The way we shut this off is to consider the trials, and their cost, as in any way significant. They are real, and we need wisdom in how to deal with and overcome them, but when the decisions we make about our lives are based around how to avoid suffering, not need endurance, and have so much of our own that we don’t particularly NEED Holy Spirit, it should not be a surprise that our joy runs out.

But I have good news. No matter how tough our life may seem, God is able. He can give us more than we can ask or imagine, resources, “Food that you know not of” to sustain us and help us through life;s difficulties.