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This page is a gift to you from sisters around the world. They've learned the art of joy along the road of life's lessons. These ladies have wisdom for the heart and soul. |
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This page is a gift to you from sisters around the world. They've learned the art of joy along the road of life's lessons. These ladies have wisdom for the heart and soul. |
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Mary
Puplava, Editor HANDMAIDEN.ORG
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Joy can be described as happiness, bliss, or delight. If you are feeling joyful you are not dwelling on any bad things, you are not fearful, you are not sad, and you are not mad. Wouldn't it be marvelous to feel joyful all the time? What I want to show you is that, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have joy in you ALL THE TIME! It is in you all the time and you have access to it at all times! Jesus was talking to His disciples about abiding in Him after He was gone back to Heaven. He said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (Jo 15:4-5) Once you are abiding you become a part of Jesus. You are part of the Body of Christ and He is the Head of that Body. Colossians 2:19 says, "And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." Jesus, being the Head of the Body, nourishes the Body. He and the Body are one. We are one in Christ. Can you cut your head off and still live? Uh, I don't think so!
The Holy Spirit is Jesus who is God. The Holy Spirit is in you. In order to begin comprehending what that means you have to let go of your "human" mentality. You have to allow God to give you understanding. OK, now, here is where the joy enters the picture. In John 17:11-13 Jesus is talking to God and says, "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." The joy is already in you because the Holy Spirit is in you. You have Jesus' joy already in you! You only have to tap into it. The reason you don't feel the joy all the time is because you are not tapping into it. You know what a tap is, don't you? A tap is what you poke into a keg that lets the contents out. Rather than use a keg of beer for an example, let's use a sack lunch. Let's say you have a sack lunch and it is lunchtime. You are hungry even though you have a sack lunch. Let's say dinner rolls around and you are even hungrier, even though you have an entire meal in that sack. You are hungry because you haven't tapped into the food that is in the bag! You have the food that will nourish you, but it won't nourish you unless you ON PURPOSE eat it!! It's the same thing with the joy that is already in you! You have to USE IT! Let's go even farther with this. If you have the Holy Spirit in you then you also have God's love. God is love, you know! If God is in you then love is in you. You also have peace in you. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." All those things are already within you! There is something hindering the joy (and the other things) from being accessible. It is you. It is your "self." You can choose whether to be joyful or to be sad. It sounds simple, but it usually isn't. Many people choose not to have joy. Perhaps they get more sympathy from others if they are sad. Perhaps they feel they have the right to be mad because they are wronged. There are many reasons why we allow ourselves to stifle the joy and peace that is already ours. We have to make a conscious effort to have joy or to not have joy. The joy is available and accessible and we have to realize that. Then we need to deal with the things in our life that hinder us from using the joy. Here is where you start. Think about this scripture in Ephesians 3:16-21, |
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"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened You can be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in your inner man. You can be filled with the fulness of God. The Holy Spirit is already in you. That is the power that works in you. Ask God to help you understand this. Ask Him to help you get rid of the things that hinder you from living in the Spirit; that hinder you from living in joy. This is what He wants for you. He has provided it and wants you using it. You can pray with certainty that you are praying in His will! |
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Have you read an article with misspelled words? It probably took you longer to read it as you shifted and made your own mental corrections. No doubt you may have struggled with its meaning and intent. If all of the words were spelled correctly, it would have been more enjoyable to read. The word JOY, if spelled correctly, promises to give us pleasure and fulfillment. Its correct spelling is simply:
When we spell JOY correctly, Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last; we then, experience joy as it was meant to be. If you consider the spelling of JOY from the chain-of-servitude concept, you will find true orderliness in your life. I need order in my life. When I don’t have it in one area, I find I have it in none. This normally happens when I misspell JOY. I’ve spelled JOY many different ways. For example, "YOJ" has been found in the dictionary of my life, which translates into "chaotically bizarre." Y - myself first, O - others second and J - Jesus last. When JOY is spelled as Y-O-J, you have an unorganized, chaotic, stressful, and unhappy life. "Lord, help me! This isn’t the abundant life that You promised!" Here’s the fix. 1) Allow Jesus to fulfill His promises for joyous living. Don’t deprive Him from pouring His Spirit of Joy into your life. Let Him do what He does best - fulfill His promises. Scripture tells us that His eyes search the earth to find ways to fulfill His promises. He is looking to bless you and to magnify your joy. 2) We serve a God of order who spells JOY correctly. Let us follow His example of orderliness and strive for the correct spelling of JOY in our lives. 3) First and foremost, allow Jesus to sit on the throne of your life. Yes, dethrone yourself and make room for Him - He deserves to sit there. After all, it is His loving, sacrificial death that gives Him kingship rights over our lives. Jesus is the King of Kings, The Lord of Lords! He is Majesty and Creator of all things. So, scoot over! 4) When Jesus sits on the throne of our lives, notice what automatically happens - we put Others next. We don’t need to strive to put others in second place, it just naturally happens. 5) Finally, the Y - the You quietly follows. J - O - Y. This is the order of spelling JOY correctly. Can you see that order is key in the way we live? Have you poured milk before getting a glass? This is out of order! And besides, it makes a mess! Have you put laundry in the dryer before washing it? You can save a lot of water this way, but it’s out of order! A cart goes absolutely no where, when it’s before the horse. Order counts! Put order in your life by spelling JOY correctly and let JOY embellish you and overflow to those around you! About the author: Carol Brooks received the Lord over 30 years ago. Life has held many challenges for her. She’s experienced a death of a child, being a mom of teenagers (4 at one time), a young mom with a new baby, an old mom with a new baby, a mom of a blended family, a mom of a runaway child, divorce, and much more. She has directed Women’s Ministry for nearly 10 years and has spoken to several women’s groups. Her new found love is writing. She is in the process of writing her first novel. Sara’s Notes of Joy MOSAIC OF JOY
What do you do when The Lord is rejoicing with gladness and singing over you? In the book of Zephaniah the prophet is describing the destruction of Judah, Philistine, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, and Assyria by the might nation of Babylon. Yet, Zephaniah was assuring these nations that not one nation of people was too far from God’s love, and not one nation was too small for His power! Then he closes this little book with powerful promises and encouraging the people to respond positively to God’s full circle of love. How? (Zephaniah 3:14) "Sing, shout and be glad and rejoice with all your heart. (Verse 15 Amplified) (For then it will be that) the Lord has taken away the judgments against you; He has cast out your enemy." Many times we find that we can sing, shout, clap and rejoice when we have our victories. When God has answered our prayers, or when we feel good for the day. The question to us is; are we able to sing, shout and rejoice in the midst of our troubles. In the middle of a busy day or in the emotional fear of the night? The prophet Habakkuk finds everything in his external world that can go wrong going wrong. And, he declares "yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Habakkuk goes on to tell us about his exuberance and his leaping for joy over his fellowship with Yahweh, his Lord. Music Notes when sung, shouted or danced in the midst of our troubles produces Joy. We must make the music notes live by responding to God ‘s singing and dancing over us.The Apostle Paul wrote a beautiful letter "chopped full" of Joy Notes to the Philippians. One of the many things we see Paul conveying in this letter is how we are to have a mind through which Christ can think. A heart through which Christ can love, a tongue through which Christ can speak and sing, a face through which Christ can smile and shine, hands through which Christ can work and exhibit joy, and feet through which Christ can leap and dance. This is saying we are to be a Mosaic of Joy. In (Philippians 4:9) Paul, says "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Be a Mosaic of Joy like Paul. He says my life ambition is to "Know Him." (Philippians 3:10) "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." (Psalm 30:5b) "Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning." Don’t wait for Joy to come to you but let us go to Joy. Arise to His Beauty and Joy will come in many forms. Joy will inspire your day, your work and your life.
Joy Instead Of Sorrow
God can use things that seem bad to make you glad. You many thing that you're doomed, but later find out that God had a good purpose in the situation. Think about how you feel when you, your spouse, friend or parent have a disagreement and then you finally straighten things out. Or when you're about to fail at something you really want to accomplish, you work really hard and pull it off. You feel relieved and happy when a bad situation comes to an end. Sometimes there are habits or friendships you have to let go of because you know that God doesn't approve. That can be taught. But there's satisfaction you get from obedience that replaces that sad feeling after awhile. God is on your side! He's for you! He wants to see you joyful, healthy and strong. He cares about you even more than you do! He is God, and He can do anything. He's especially good at turning your hardest times into your greatest blessings. Look at what He did for Joseph. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery and thought he'd probably live a miserably hard life. Instead, God made him a strong and successful leader. His brothers even bowed down to him. What they had meant for bad, God meant for good. Hard times will come. Hang in there with God and watch what He will do! I am so glad to know that God will turn all our sorrow into Joy, all we have to do is ask, and trust Him to do it for us. Aren't you glad that even though we let Him down and fail Him in many ways, that He is always faithful to us?
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Joy
is Yours
The Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit is Jesus. The Holy Spirit isn't just a small object that stays in your heart or your brain. The Holy Spirit is in every inch of your body. You know how everything is made up of molecules, atoms, and such? Well, your body is not a solid object. Imagine, if you will, that all the spaces around those molecules, neutrons, etc. that make up your body are filled with the Holy Spirit.
"HOW
CORRECT SPELLING AFFECTS OUR LIVES"
Then
shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the
young men and the old, together; for I will turn their mourning to joy, will comfort them, and make them
rejoice rather than sorrow (Jer. 31:13).
Joy
Is Like A Cart Without A Horse
I
was sitting on a park bench looking across the river to the hills.